|
MARCH 2005
 BE
COOL: John Travolta, Uma Thurman,
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Vince Vaughn, Christina Milian,
James Gandolfini, Danny DeVito, Harvey Keitel, Cedric the Entertainer,
Debi Mazar, Robert Pastorelli, Steven Tyler (Directed by F. Gary
Gray; Written by Peter Steinfeld; MGM) There's reason for hope here,
since the plot of this hardboiled comic-thriller is based on a novel
by Elmore Leonard, author of "Get Shorty," Travolta's
last first-rate movie. Actually, "Be Cool" is a sequel
to "Get Shorty." This time, our loan shark-turned-movie-mogul
hero is trying to gobble a slice of the music-industry pie. On his
mission, he comes into close contact with mobsters, murderers and
a gay bodyguard (The Rock) who wants in the worst way to be a songbird.
To read Guy Flatley's 1976 interview with
John Travolta, click
here; for Guy's 1998 interview with Vince
Vaughn, click here.
For the Variety review of "Be Cool,"
click here. Now
Playing
DEAR
FRANKIE: Emily Mortimer, Jake McElhone, Gerard Butler,
Sharon Small, Mary Riggans, Jayd Johnson, Sean Brown, Anne Marie
Timoney, Cal Macaninch (Directed by Shona Auerbach; Written by Andrea
Gibb; Miramax) Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) has a truly lousy husband,
but she manages to dodge his abuse by constantly moving from one
dismal dwelling in Glasgow to another, all the while fibbing to
Frankie (Jake McElhone), her 9-year-old deaf son, about what a jolly,
wonderful person his seafaring dad is. Reality creeps in, however,
when a bratty schoolmate begins to suspect that there’s no
such person as Frankie’s alleged pa. That’s when Lizzie
hires a handsome dude (Gerard Butler) to play the part. Naturally,
he wants to play husband every bit as much as he wants to play father.
Now Playing
EMILE:
Ian McKellen, Deborah Kara Unger, Theo Crane, Chris William Martin,
Tygh Runyan, Ian Tracey, Janet Wright, Nancy Sivak, Frank Borg (Written
and directed by Carl Bessai; Castle Hill Productions) When an esteemed
British scientist (Ian McKellen) returns to his native Canada to
receive an honorary degree, his niece (Deborah Kara Unger) offers
to put him up in the house she shares with her precocious young
daughter (Theo Crane). The visit proves stressful, however, mostly
because of long-buried memories that persist in popping to the surface.
Now Playing
GUNNER PALACE:
Members of the 2-3 Field Artillery
(Directed by Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein; Palm Pictures)
There’s already 2005 Oscar buzz for this filmed-in-Iraq documentary
which strongly impressed hawks and doves alike at the Telluride
and Toronto festivals. Embedded journalist Michael Tucker presents
an intimate, politically non-partisan picture of the day-to-day
life of U.S. soldiers billeted in a once lavish dwelling that a
son of Saddam Hussein used to call home. To
read Frank Rich's New York Times article about "Gunner Palace,"
click here.
Now Playing
THE JACKET:
Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason
Leigh, Daniel Craig, Brad Renfro, Kelly Lynch, Mackenzie Phillips,
Steven Mackintosh (Directed by John Maybury; Written by Massy Tadjedin;
Warner Independent Films) A member of the military who has been
convicted of murder is serving his time in a psychiatric ward. Far
from considering himself a dangerous killer, however, he’s
dead certain that he is an innocent traveler in time who’s
destined to meet the girl from his past he intends to make the lady
of his future. For Diane Baroni’s 1998
interview with Kris Kristofferson, click
here. Now Playing
THE PACIFIER:
Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham, Faith Ford, Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot,
Chris Potter, Carol Kane, Brad Garrett, Morgan York, Keegan Hoover,
Logan Hoover, Bo Vink, Luke Vink, Tate Donovan (Directed by Adam
Shankman; Written by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant; Disney/Buena
Vista) Five cuter-than-cute tykes are without a father, thanks partly
to the ineptitude of Shane Wolf (Vin Diesel), the undercover agent
assigned to protect a master scientist
from lethal baddies. Now those very same evildoers are bent on finding
the assassinated genius’s secret formula, which is presumably
hidden in the house where his kids still reside. So who is chosen
to keep them out of harm’s way? That’s right--the lone
Wolf himself. And you thought Hollywood screenwriters were running
low on imagination? Now Playing
THE BOYS
& GIRL FROM COUNTY CLARE: Colm Meaney, Bernard
Hill, Andrea Corr, Philip Barantini, Charlotte Bradley, Shaun Evans,
Patrick Bergin (Directed by John Irvin; Written by Nicholas Adams;
Overseas FilmGroup) Jimmy (Colm Meaney), a prosperous businessman
in 1960’s Liverpool, returns to his native Ireland for the
first time in more than 20 years to participate in a music competition.
His main rival? His older--and much alienated--brother, John Joe
(Bernard Hill). Further complicating matters is the fact that the
pianist in John Joe’s band is Maisie (Charlotte Bradley),
the girl from County Clare who was once engaged to John Joe but
managed to get pregnant by Jimmy just before he cut out for Liverpool.
Wonder which music man wins the competition. Now
Playing
 DON’T
MOVE: Penelope Cruz, Sergio Castellitto, Claudia Gerini,
Angela Finocchiaro, Marco Giallini, Pietro De Silva, Elena Perino
(Directed by Sergio Castellitto; Written by Sergio Castellitto and
Margaret Mazzantini; Unified Pictures) In a state of shock, a surgeon
peers out of a hospital window while, in a nearby room, another
doctor performs brain surgery on his gravely injured daughter. As
he waits, the father is troubled by painful memories, especially
those involving a homely peasant girl he raped and eventually took
as a mistress, despite the fact that he was already married. Sergio
Castellitto, who plays the tormented doctor, directed and co-wrote
“Don’t Move” with Margaret Mazzantini, author
of the novel upon which the film is based (in real life, Mazzantini
is Mrs. Castellitto). As for Penelope Cruz, she is said to
have been as de-glamorized as Charlize Theron in “Monster”
and reportedly gives an Oscar-caliber performance as the peasant
in distress. Now Playing
 DOT
THE I: Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Verbeke, James
D’Arcy, Tom Hardy, Charlie Cox (Written and directed by Matthew
Parkhill; Artisan Enertainment) At a bachelorette bash prior to
her marriage to a British bore, a jaded flamenco dancer (Natalia
Verbeke) participates in the quaint ritual of picking out a stranger
in the crowd and giving him a big-time kiss. The kiss--with a hot-to-smooch
Brazilian (Gael Garcia Bernal)--turns out to be bigger than expected,
so naturally an encore is performed in
the dancer’s bedroom. Does she go through with the marriage?
Of course she does. Does the groom (James D’Arcy) discover
the infidelity? Of course he does. Is that the end of the story?
Of course not; it’s only the beginning. Now
Playing
 HOSTAGE:
Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollack, Jonathan Tucker, Ben Foster, Jimmy
Bennett, Michelle Horn, Serena Scott Thomas, Jim Coates, Rumer Willis,
Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak, Marshall Allman, Hector Luis Bustamante,
Kim Coates (Directed by Florent Emilio Siri; Written by Doug Richardson;
Miramax) If you were being held hostage, you wouldn’t want
some wimpy fed negotiating for your release, would you? Of course
not. You’d want a two-fisted, kick-ass operator like Bruce
Willis. Well, lean and mean as he may be, Bruce--or, rather, Jeff
Talley, the LAPD negotiator he plays in this action flick based
on the novel by Robert Crais--is caught drastically off-guard and,
as a result, a woman and her young child lose their lives. Naturally,
grief-crippled Bruce/Jeff moves to a small, low-crime burb, leaving
his own family behind to fend for themselves in the City of Angels.
And--we kid you not--he is soon in the middle of a more horrific
hostage misfire than he could ever have imagined. Now
Playing
 IN
MY COUNTRY: Samuel L. Jackson,
Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi Ngubane, Nick Boraine,
Lionel Newton, Sam Ngakane (Directed by John Boorman; Written by
Ann Peacock; Sony Pictures Classics) Racist brutality reigned in
South Africa during the age of apartheid, acts of barbarism later
recalled with pain and rage at the Truth & Reconciliation Commission
hearings. Now those atrocities, vividly described by South African
journalist Antjie Krog in her acclaimed book, "Country of My
Skull," have been captured on celluloid by John Boorman, the
director whose portraits of cruel reality include "Point Blank,"
"Hell in the Pacific," "Deliverance," "Hope and Glory," "The General"
and "The Tailor of Panama." Now Playing
MILLIONS:
Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Kolade
Agboke, Alun Armstrong, Enzo Cilenti, Jane hogarth, Cornelius Macarthy,
Harry Kirkham, Christopher Fulford, Kathryn Pogson (Directed by
Danny Boyle; Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce; Fox Searchlight) Two
boys--one 9, the other 7--move to a new home on the outskirts of
Liverpool with their dad after the tragic death of their mom. They
try their best to be positive, productive little citizens, but sad
is mainly what they are. Then, one seemingly miraculous day, they
happen upon a bundle of money, an event
which brings about substantial changes in their life, many
of them not for the good. Sound schmaltzy? It’s probably not,
since it was directed by Danny Boyle, who strongly suggested in
movies ranging from “A Shallow Grave” to “Trainspotting”
to “28 Days” that he does not view our planet as a place
where happy endings are the rule. The advance word is that 7-year-old
Alex Etel gives a phenomenal performance. Now
Playing
ROBOTS:
The voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Mel Brooks, Dianne Wiest,
Jim Broadbent, Stanley Tucci, Paul Giamatti, Greg Kinnear, Robin
Williams (Directed by Chris Wedge; Co-directed by Carlos Saldanha;
Written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; Fox) Rodney (the voice
of Ewan McGregor) is an imaginative, attractive robot with tons
of personality and a head-full of dreams that just won’t stop.
One dream is to go to the nearest teeming metropolis and join forces
with high powered inventor Big Weld
(the voice of Mel Brooks); the other dream is to get as close as
robotly possible to a glamour-puss named Cappy (the voice of Halle
Berry). Now Playing
THE UPSIDE
OF ANGER: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen,
Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, Mike Binder, Tom Harper,
Dane Christensen (Written and directed by Mike Binder; New Line)
A husband runs off with another woman, and his wife and four
daughters need help in coping without a husband and father
in the house. Comfort comes in the form of an old friend of the
family, an over-the-hill baseball player. Kevin Costner, Hollywood’s
man for all sports, plays the good-deeder, and Joan Allen, Hollywood’s
favorite pillar of strength, is the fan with whom he finally hits
a homer. Now Playing
ICE PRINCESS:
Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Hayden Panettiere,
Trevor Blumas, Tom Barnett, Michelle Kwan, Juliana Cannarozzo, Paul
Sun-Hyung Lee, Kirsten Olson (Directed by Tim Fywell; Written by
Hadley Davis; Disney) All Casey (Michelle Trachtenberg) really wants
to do is figure-skate her way to fame, but her mom (Joan Cusack)
dreams a different dream. She envisions
her daughter gliding a straight-and-narrow
trail to an Ivy League degree. So will the kid end up cramming for
her finals at Harvard or competing on the US National circuit against
super prodigy Gen (Hayden Panettiere), whose icily aggressive
mother (Kim Cattrall) is a former champ with a severely slushed
reputation? Now
Playing
 MELINDA
AND MELINDA: Radha Mitchell, Will
Ferrell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe
Sevigny, Josh Brolin, Wallace Shawn, Gene Saks, Brooke Smith, Vinessa
Shaw, Andy Borowitz, David Aaron Baker (Written and directed by
Woody Allen; Fox Searchlight) Remember, around the time of “Interiors,”
how shocked we were to realize that Woody Allen was bent on making
deadly serious—even tragic—movies? We got used to the
idea, thanks to heavy stuff like “Crimes and Misdemeanors,”
“Shadows and Fog” and “Husbands and Wives,”
but lately Woody has stuck to comedy. Until now—sort of. In
"Melinda and Melinda,” he manages
to have it both ways. How so? Two writers, played by Wallace
Shawn and Gene Saks, tell the tale of lovely but troubled Melinda
(Radha Mitchell). One tells it as a
comedy, with Ferrell as Mitchell’s leading man; the other
tells it as pure drama, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, the magnetic star
of “Dirty Pretty Things,” as the male lead. Let
us hope Woody makes us laugh until we cry. To
read Guy Flatley's 1978 interview with The Woodman,
click here, and
for Guy's 2000 interview with
Amanda Peet, click here.
To read Variety's review of "Melinda
and Melinda," click
here. Now
Playing
 THE
RING 2: Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, David Dorfman, Emily
VanCamp, Sissy Spacek, Elizabeth Perkins, Meagen Fay, Mary Elizabeth
Winstead, Gary Cole (Directed by Hideo Nakata; Written by Ehren
Kruger; DreamWorks) You come across an unlabeled disk, play the
weird thing on your VCR, and when it’s over the phone rings
and someone on the other end tells you how many days you have left
before meeting your maker. But you already know about all of this
if you saw investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) try
to make sense of her niece’s grotesque demise in the first
installment of a spin-off of the popular Japanese “Ring”
cycle. Now Rachel and her notably vulnerable son (David Dorfman)
are back, and they just can’t seem to keep
their hands off the VCR. Now Playing
STEAMBOY:
The voices of Alfred Molina, Anna Paquin,
Patrick Stewart (Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo; Written by
Sadayuki Murai; Sony Pictures) Rei, one of the most promising young
men of science in 19th-century England, receives a mysterious present
from his grandfather Roid, a resident of the United States. It’s
a new-fangled invention called The Steam Ball, and the thing Rei
doesn’t know is that it contains a secret component
that could spell doom for mankind. Another thing Rei doesn’t
know: the sinister Ohara Foundation has plans to swipe The Steam
Ball out from under him. Now Playing
 MISS
CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS: Sandra Bullock,
Regina King, Enrique Murciano, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson, Diedrich
Bader, Heather Burns, Treat Williams (Directed by John Pasquin;
Written by Marc Lawrence; Warner Bros.) Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock),
perhaps the FBI’s most triumphantly clueless agent, has become
a high-profile celeb, thanks to her success in torpedoing spoilsports
who planned to blow up the Miss United States Pageant. Now the former
winner of the pageant--plus the event’s exuberant emcee--have
been kidnapped deep in the plastic-and-tinsel heart of Las Vegas.
And do you know what? There are FBI cynics who feel that fame has
gone to Gracie Hart’s airhead and that she’s shed the
smarts that served her--and the pageant participants--so well in
the first “Miss Congeniality” flick. Well, we’ll
just see about that. Now Playing
 THE
BALLAD OF JACK & ROSE: Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine
Keener, Camilla Belle, Beau Bridges, Paul Dano, Ryan McDonald, Jena
Malone, Jason Lee, Anna Mae Clinton, Susanna Thompson (Written and
directed by Rebecca Miller; IFC Films) So what does a director have
to do to nail down Daniel Day-Lewis for a movie? Marry him, I guess.
That’s what Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur
Miller and director of such highly regarded indies as “Angela”
and “Personal Velocity: Three Portraits,” did. And now
she’s guiding her stupendously talented spouse through his
paces in her drama about an intense environmentalist who’s
encountering thorny problems. What problems? The loveliness of his
remote island home is being threatened by an insensitive land developer
(Beau Bridges) who’s intent on building a housing tract practically
on his doorstep. Plus his teenage daughter (Camilla Belle) is getting
something akin to island fever and longs for male companionship
unlike that offered by her father. How does the idealistic nature-lover
cope with all this unnatural stress? He invites his girlfriend (Catherine
Keener) and her two kids to come join the fun household. Why do
I sense there’s trouble ahead? Now Playing
 D.E.B.S.:
Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie, Meagan
Good, Michael Clarke Duncan, Holland Taylor, Geff Stults, Jimmi
Simpson, Jessica Cauffiel (Directed by Angela Robinson; Screen Gems/Sony)
Screenwriter/director Angela Robinson's story centers on four bright,
sexy students who take an intelligence exam that in fact measures
their potential for chicanery and violence. If they score high,
they get to join a paramilitary group and do lots of spying, maiming
and killing. Bring ’em on! To
read Diane Baroni's 2004 interview with Sara Foster, click
here. Now Playing
 GUESS
WHO: Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, Jessica
Cauffiel, Judith Scott, Sherri Shepherd, RonReaco Lee, Jill Wagner,
Kellee Stewart (Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan; Written by David
Ronn, Jay Scherick, Peter Tolan; Sony/Columbia Pictures) In 1967,
many in the audience of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
gasped when Sidney Poitier kissed Katharine Houghton, the young
woman who was taking him home to meet her parents, played by Spencer
Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. True, the kiss was brief, and glimpsed
only in the rear-view mirror of a taxi. Still, sixties moviegoers
were not accustomed to seeing a black man snuggle with a white woman.
That, as they say, was then and this is now. So the shock, if there
is one, is sure to be minimal when Ashton Kutcher gives Zoe Saldana
a peck in the remake of the Stanley Kramer comedy-drama. One obvious
change has been made, however--this time, it’s the man who
is white, which means that Bernie Mac, as the bride-to-be’s
cranky, conflicted but lovable father, will be inviting comparisons
with Spencer Tracy. We think Bernie is more than up to the challenge.
Now Playing
NINA'S
TRAGEDIES: Aviv Elkabets, Ayelet July Zurer, Anat
Waxman (Written and directed by Savi Gabizon; Wellspring) Adolescence
is rarely a breeze, and it’s definitely a complicated time
for Nadav, an Israeli teenager whose flighty mother has decided
he should leave home. How come? It’s not because of bad behavior
on Nadav’s part--it’s just that his uncle has been killed
in a terrorist and his mom thinks he would make a comforting companion
for the grieving widow. Which suits Nadav fine, since he considers
his aunt one hot babe. But she sorely disappoints him by flipping
for an oddball photographer. This comedy-drama won 11 Israeli Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and
Best Screenplay. Now Playing
BEAUTY
SHOP: Queen Latifah, Djimon Hounsou, Kevin Bacon,
Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard,
Bryce Wilson, Lil JJ, Della Reese, Garrett Morris (Directed by Bille
Woodruff; Written by Kate Lanier and Norman Vance Jr.; MGM) Hairstylist
hottie Gina Norris (Queen Latifah) splits from Chicago, where we
last saw her in “Barbershop 2,” and before long she's
attracting hordes to a swell salon in Atlanta. Alas, swell turns
sour for Gina when her slimy boss (Kevin Bacon) refuses to give
her the credit she deserves. So does Gina retreat to the Windy City?
No way. She has a better idea--she talks the adorable shampoo girl
(Alicia Silverstone) into saying bye-bye to Bacon and soon the two
are running the best little hair-house in Atlanta. Opens
3/30
|
