27 October 2000

A film of Margaret Cho’s stand-up routine lacks the audience interaction that enlivened The Original Kings of Comedy. I kept waiting for even one reaction shot of her parents (depicted as arriving at the theater at the beginning) to the sections where Cho imitates her mother leaving a message on the answering machine. Her experiences during and after the production of the ABC television series All-American Girl sound awful, but it was 6 years ago. Even Cho is unwilling to express the thoroughly American silliness of casting a show about Korean-Americans with Japanese and Chinese performers.

97 minutes.

The theater was persuaded that the title of this movie included an indefinite article. For that to be true, surely it would have to have been entitled la fille sur une pont! This oddity from France treats knife-throwing seriously, accepting that the knife travels from the performer to the target. A performer in need of a new target finds Adele (Vanessa Paradis) looking to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. She accepts his job offer and they travel through southern Europe performing, and doing a bit of gambling by telepathy to pay the hotel bills. The film is black and white and begins on the testimony of a bedraggled Adele responding to the questions of an unseen interrogator. It reminded me of nothing less than the briefing room in the original pilot of Star Trek which for many years was only seen in black and white. Maybe it was the Paramount Classics logo that set the mood. There is no nudity, and the eroticism derives solely from one scene where Paradis writhes in ecstasy as the knives land around her.

90 minutes.

20 October 2000

A slight comedy that relies on Brendan Fraser’s willingness to be goofy and Elizabeth Hurley’s waning powers of slinkiness. Hurley, better known right now for filming a commercial for Estée Lauder in violation of the SAG strike, plays the Devil with a capital D. She is offering seven wishes to those willing to give up their souls. The screenplay wants to make sure everybody gets every joke, which rather spoils the business with the Lamborghini for me. On the other hand, a Devil that flashes her panties and arouses carnal desires is a smidgeon more palatable than that scene in Meet Joe Black where the lady doctor wanted to make love with Death.

93 minutes.

13 October 2000

The Vice-President has died and must be replaced in a Democratic administration in a country not unlike our own— there are still fifty stars in the flag, people still drive Volvos and Mercurys, and William Jefferson Clinton is still a recent memory. There is a fine line between delaying this movie long enough so that it remains in the memory of Academy voters for the Oscar for consideration of Joan Allen (and of Gary Oldman, too)— and not so long that the results of November 7th might make it ridiculous. A film oriented more towards adults has plenty of that cursing and swearing that they like so much. It bothered me that the only time the Secret Service was alluded to, it was to make buffoons out of them. The final speech of the President (Jeff Bridges) must have been filmed in a legislative chamber in Richmond, which explains why the room seems small to depict the House of Representatives but does not explain how the speech is delivered without the use of even one TelePrompTer. Saul Rubinek, playing a political aide to the President, is already familiar with sets of the White House from his performance as Henry Kissinger in Dick.

126 minutes.

08 October 2000

This is a purpotedly true-ish story set in Berlin. It is December of 1943 and Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), a young woman who does not wear her star, works under an assumed name at a party newspaper, does some trafficking in photographs and documents, and otherwise has fun with her circle of lesbian pals. Lilly Wust (Juliane Kohler) is the wife of a soldier who is at the eastern front often enough that a string of army officers visit during the day while the children are sent to the zoo. With one of her pals the domestic in the Wust household, Felice sees an opportunity to connect. Their eventual love takes an arc which will be sufficiently familiar to those who have seen Desert Hearts. It leads to Lilly’s divorce from her husband, the loss of her children, and a lonely life once Felice is caught and sent to a concentration camp. Although Lilly does not lose her large apartment, in the center of Berlin, we are pointedly told, as we see her eviction in the present day at the start of the film. This film suffers a bit from the trick used in A League of Their Own, the hiring of older actresses to play the characters in the present day. The actress who plays Lilly in 1999 cannot deliver quite the same sense of lust that Ian McKellen did in Gods and Monsters. A special note is due the costume design. There is nothing dull or impoverished about the sweaters, blouses, and dresses chosen or, more likely, prepared for this production. The evocation of nighttime bombing is less convincing, and may even use footage from other films. There is a gap between New Year’s Day of 1944 and the invasion of our western shore (as reported on the radio) in June and the eventual procurement of false passports for Felice’s pals that does not support the passion of the relationship and undermines the urgency of their leaving the Reich.

126 minutes.

07 October 2000

An understated look at one young woman’s desire to learn to box as a way of dealing with her anger. The particular exhibitor I went to is one of those that sought bankruptcy protection this summer. There needs to be a technological solution to the question of framing, because the employees retained by these ailing firms lack the aesthetic sensibility to know when a print is properly framed. At least they moved the line between frames up and out of sight when I asked for Framing in house 3, please! The lead actress (Michelle Rodriguez) is convincing in the role. There are some blurry, hazy looks at New York.

111 minutes.

06 October 2000

I really wanted to skip this, as the trailer did not promise much. But the local newspaper’s multiple reviewers thought it was funny, so I gave it a try. I’m not a big fan of Ben Stiller, though I did like Flirting with Disaster. That may have had more to do with Téa Leoni. Anyway, this comedy of a Jewish nurse (Stiller) who spends the weekend with the parents of his old-money fiancée has its moments. Unfortunately, they have to do with a cat pawing through the ashes of a loved one, or with a brutally misplaced spike in water volleyball.

107 minutes.