James and Andy of V/Vm
wake up one morning to find a lifetime supply of pudding in their
cabinets, Andy's car is missing and neither can remember what happened
last night. An answering machine message is left by their girlfriends,
the twins, played by Mira Calix and Andrea Parker, bitching them out
for the mess they made last night and how they forgot it was their
anniversary. Now the two are screwed because they can't find their car
with the anniversary gifts they bought for the girls. On their journey
into the town Wendy Carlos tries to run over Andy, Colin Newman and
Malka Spiegel try to run over James. They meet up with their old friend
who's played by Andrew Mackenzie. From there, the three drive to get
some Chinese food, where Takako Minekawa gives them hell on the
drive-through intercom. After a small incident, Mackenzie takes off and
leaves the two to try to piece everything together. A hot girl from
school, played by Bettina Richards sees the two on the street, flirts
with Andy as her boyfriend and some other thugs (played by the Isotope
fellas) show up and threaten to beat our two heroes up. A run in with a
transgendered girl played by Riz Malsen (Neotropic) at a strip club
adds another twisted piece to the ever-growing puzzle, while an Asian
tailor, played by Masami Akita hooks them up with hip Addidas outfits
with magical pockets.
Upon leaving the shop, the two are abducted by the Add N to (X) folks
who play a gang of underground nerds trying to communicate with space.
This is where it gets weird: the Add N to (X) crew (who later torture
the main characters by playing some of their music) inform them that
they need the Continuum Transducer to save the universe. Once our
heroes break free from the nerds, Chicks on Speed show up also wanting
the treasured Continuum Transducer. But it gets even more bizarre:
Stefan Betke and Florian Hecker also appear in the film, claiming to be
the keepers of the Continuum Transducer and well, the rest of the story
has young James and Andy running around, trying to get the car and save
the universe and figure out what happened last night. Honest!
Following last year's 'O' Brother Where Art Thou', the Coen brothers
deliver another remarkable story about unremarkable people. The film
takes place in the late 1940's, shortly after World War 2, shot in
black and white with wonderful cinematography by Oscar-nominee Roger
Deakins. Witty and intellegent dialog are the strongest parts about
this film, however. Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thorton) is a quiet low-key
barber whose wife Doris (Frances McDormand) is cheating on him with her
boss (played by James Gandolfini). Aware of this, Ed finds a way to
blackmail her boss for $10,000. Ed is a simple man but from that moment
on his life is forever changed. There are many surprises in the film,
not including a crazy invention called "dry cleaning" (which is why Ed
needs the $10,000). 'The Man,...' earned Joel Coen a Best Director
award at the Cannes Film Festival beside David Lynch for 'Mulholland
Drive'. Expect to see another Academy Award nomination for Best
Screenplay.
The mark of an exceptionally visual film director is that every frame
could stand alone as a great photograph, poster or post card. With the
exception of 'Lost Highway', David Lynch has seemingly held on to this
skill. In the style of his most popular films, he sets up this story as
a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma. Set in the Hollywood Hills, a
woman is the only survivor of a car accident but is left wandering with
amnesia. By chance she happens upon a vacant apartment (as the renter
is vacating) and hides out until she's discovered by a wholesome
passenger who gets sucked into the rollercoaster ride. Lynch has an
undeniable mastery of all elements as the score, sound effects,
characters and camera shots all play into a twisted story of the
hyperphysical underground of a shallow business: filmmaking! Popular
Lynch elements also come into play: the use of coffee, unexplained
objects, the name Diane, red stage curtains, death and light, invented
(as opposed to strategically placed for advertisement purposes)
products, off-camera people answering on-camera phones knowing who the
other caller is when they pick up, and of course Roy Orbison. (Rebekah
Del Rio's a'capella Spanish rendition of "Crying" has got to be one of
the most captivating moments of the film.) Betty and Rita are the
innocents playing detective, selflessly trying to help each other out
and uncover the mystery, yet Diane and Camilla are the alter-egos,
guilty as sin and driven by selfish desires. As complex as the plot
seems, this film is basically about deceit, but on many levels however.
Not only are the characters deceiving each other, they are deceiving
themselves while David Lynch is completely deceiving the audience into
believing which part of this film is reality and which part is fantasy.
At the end it's up to you to decide which is which.
Thora Birch, Scarlett Johanassen, Steve Buscemi, and Illeana Douglas star in
this indie comic turned indie film. Ghost World follows a recent
high-school graduate Enid (Birch) and the strange things she does to pass
the time including: taking a summer-school art class, harassing people from
Personals Ads in the newspaper, harassing the employee of a convenience
store, and tracking Satanists. Writer Daniel Clowes and director Terry
Zwigoff have managed to craft the most genuine and touching film I have seen
this year. The wonderfully honest performances from the stars combine with
the creators' skills to present the sort of character and story a viewer
could easily identify with. The realistic (and sometimes depressing) sets
and costumes create a strong sense of reality while making the film's
satiric qualities all the more humorous. The talented cast sometimes
accurately depicts everyday people and sometimes hacks them apart with the
ugly and oftentimes funny truths of humanity. Sarcasm and satire usually
numb an audience, distance them from the film, and therefore prevent them
from taking the story seriously. Ghost World expertly avoids this with
sporadic displays of genuine warmth and emotion. Buscemi, Birch, and
Douglas have never been funnier, and the dryness of Johanassen definitely
has its moments. Over time, I can definitely see Ghost World becoming a
cult favorite as the coming of age film for people who would roll their eyes
at the term "coming of age film."
The Zucker Brothers have some of the funniest comedies of the last 20
years, including the Airplane movies, Top Secret and the Naked Gun
trilogy. Although the story of Rat Race has been done before, It's a
Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the overall idea is fresh and new. The story
involves 7 strangers who receive these mysterious coins while gambling
at this casino in Las Vegas. The coins read that they are winners and
are instructed to go to this conference room. There the owner of the
hotel, John Cleese, one of the richest men in the world, tells them of
a game that he made. It's a simple game, there are $2 million in a
train station locker in Silver City, New Mexico, and the first person
there wins. It seems that those who receive this coins are the oddest
people in Vegas that day. The cast is superb, Seth Green, Cuba Gooding,
Whoopi Goldberg and the scene stealing Rowan Atkinson and Jon Lovitz.
This is the funniest film i've seen in a long time. Nothing but
slapstick physical comedy. Everyone in the theatre was laughing
throughout the whole film. At first i thought this would be one of
those films where the funniest parts are in the trailers, but i had no
idea that it could ever be this funny. As of now, this gets my pick as
the best film of the year. Even if it is just a stupid comedy.
The first 20 minutes you are just staring, without a clue of what's
going on in these simultaneously projected movies which fit to
four parts of the screen. The director switches the viewer's attention
in various combinations (of 4) making it more sharp. So that at one
moment you are realizing that the puzzle is partly solved and that
your perception has just been rebuilt to suit the movie's unusual stream:
it was shot without montage in real time with four cameras.
Two years in production,
with 30 pimps interviewed in 15 cities has come together in one of the
most bold, entertaining and insightful documentaries in the last few
years. Questions like "Why does a ho need a pimp?," "What does a pimp
do?," as well as definitions like Mack, Player, and Knockoff are all
covered in the words of active and retired pimps and hos. From the
ruthless player types to the seasoned professional, from the nation's
capital to Hawaii, the characters are genuine and enlightening.
'American Pimp' documents what is generally believed to be the origin
of the pimp, through the uprise in popular culture to the present day,
where many of the film's stars have retired and moved on. The truth can
be glamorous yet unsettling, with the perpetually looming dangers of
drugs, jail and death. The lyrical mastery and swave debonair of
real-life players Fillmore Slim, Payroll and Gorgeous Dre are
alarmingly more animated, intelligent and lovable than much of the
fictitious characters often portrayed on the screen. An undertaking
like this is a triumph for the Hughes Brothers, as the subject matter
must make it difficult to seek out the stars and capture them in their
own words. Seek it out.
I can truly say I agree
with Tom the Fish on a movie. Although the bastard was too lazy to
write about it, I thought I'd give it a shot. This Chinese film centers
around a restless, disrepsectful and arrogant aristocratic young girl,
Jen (played by Ziyi Zhang) who is facing an arranged marriage she
doesn't want to go through with. Chow Yun Fat plays a legendary warrior
who is tired of the warrior life and is trying to retire a 400-year old
magical sword, the Green Destiny. The love of his life is a female
warrior, Shu Lien, who is played by Michelle Yeoh. From early on, young
Jen expresses to Shu Lien that she too wants to be a warrior and leave
the aristocratic life. Little did everybody know from early on that Jen
is indeed the hidden dragon: powerful yet stupid. Chow Yun Fat might be
the most Amercan known actor in the film but the ladies take center
stage in this film, all of whom kick some serious ass. The fighting
scenes are stunningly choreographed, meshing martial arts, ballet and
inventive camera angles and effects. The scenery is breathtaking on the
large screen and the interplay between Jen and her true love, Lo are
amusing and entertaining as well. Throughout the course of the film, an
alarming number of people take an interest in leading young Jen down a
path they all feel is right for her. I'm not going to give the ending
away, but I will say the three of us who saw this film on Christmas Day
all had a different take on what actually happened in the end. It all
depends on how pure you, the viewer, believe her heart actually is.
This movie has definitely become one of my top choices for best film of
2000.
It's a good thing that I
haven't filled out the survey for the best stuff of the year yet,
because now I can honestly say I can add this film to it. I must admit
I was worried that this film would be too MTV-generation, but the quick
camera shots, center stage sound fx / score, and creative photography
made this film all the bit more intense and entertaining. Ellen
Burnstyn's role of the television slaved mother turned speed addict was
a performance actors dreams are made of. Her character's physical and
emotional transformation from start to finish of the film was
absolutely intense. Jared Leto's role as her son was excellent as well,
along with his strung out girlfriend and best friend, played by
Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans, respectively. The film was bold in
its portrayal of these four main characters and how their lives were
ruined over the course of three seasons by compulsion and drugs. It was
unsettling, uneasy, yet I couldn't remove my eyes from the screen. It
was impossible as every single second, every image on the screen would
make for a perfect picture. In no way is there a happy ending,
everything is destroyed, everybody loses. It's most definitely more of
an anti-drug propaganda film than Trainspotting. A requiem is more or
less a song for a funeral, and "Requiem for a Dream" was truly a
thrilling modern nightmare. 
How's this for Hollywood trash? Sure, it's a movie about the insane asylum days of the Marquis de Sade (from which Sadism was coined for all you newbie gawths), but it's very VERY loosely based on historical events. Keep in mind if you see this that the film is in fact based on the play, and should be viewed for entertainment purposes ONLY. Aside from that the performance by Geoffrey Rush was incredible as Sade, the elegant and innovative use of sound was a pleasant unexpected surprise, and the supporting cast of imbeciles was exciting to watch. However, I can't get past a few grave inaccuracies and personal issues.
Do you like to indulge in
Bjork-ness for long periods of time? Do you love to watch people do
things on screen that you'd never do in their situation? Do you want to
feel nauseous for 2 hours of unsteady camera shots? If you answered yes
to any one of those questions, then this movie's most certainly for
you. I'll admit: it was well-done, it was effective and emotional, I
was in tears at the end, but I didn't need to see this movie. Like
Bjork's character, I too can relate to daydreaming as well as listening
to sounds and rhythms that exist in life, imagining songs to go along
with them. Don't let anybody tell you this is a "musical." In a
musical, there are happy endings and more than one character has songs.
["West Side Story" is considered more of a Modern Opera than a Musical.]
Since Bjork is the lead singer in every song in this film, 'Dancer' is
better classified as an extended music video. If you love Bjork and
don't mind watching something completely self-indulgent then it won't
be as stomach-turning as it was for me. After watching this film, I
honestly wouldn't care if I never saw her face or heard her voice ever
again. She's got two emotions: one is of deep melodramatic sadness and
the other one is of that little girl looking at the big world through
bright star-filled eyes. That's IT! There's nothing more to her
character. Catherine Deneuve's extensive career has a long line of
wonderful performances, showcasing many abilities - here however her
role completely puts the esteemed actress to waste. I've never walked
out of a film and I was seriously considering leaving after about an
hour. By the time she shot and killed her neighbor, Bill, I knew I made
the wrong decision in staying. I recommend this film for all Bjork fans
because something about her aura just drives people to go insane and
kill themselves. Cheers!
