archive1998

Film Archive 1998

010198

In hopes of raising a few quid after their steel factory shuts down, a desperate group of working-class blokes in Sheffield decide to form an exotic male dance troupe, a la Chippendales, with one difference--despite their, well, average-at-best physiques, they're going to go "the full monty," meaning they'll offer their audience total nudity. Surprisingly bittersweet moments and well-intentioned social commentary imbue this raucous, feel-good comedy from England. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. Academy Award: Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY

010298

Upon returning in glory to the college from which he was expelled, sexually voracious and dyspeptic writer Harry Block can find no companions for his trip--except, that is, for a hooker he's hired. The trouble with Harry, as it were, is that he's alienated everyone in his life, from a string of wives and psychotherapists to all his living relatives, by rehashing their dirty little secrets in his fatuous, mean-spirited writing. A new height of self-loathing for introspective auteur Allen, who meditates upon a self-reflection theme based on Bergman's WILD STRAWBERRIES.

THE JACKAL

010298

The United States is trying to help the New Soviet Union with their war against organized crime in their country. Presently, they are after Terek Murad, a deadly crime boss. When they raid one of his establishments, Murad's brother is killed. Murad seeks revenge against the ones who killed his brother, FBI agent Carter Preston and Russian Policewoman Valentina Koslova, but most of all, he wants to send a message to the Americans about interfering in matters that don't concern them, so he hires an international assassin to kill someone very important to the United States. When the assassin advises Murad to go into hiding until the job is done, he does. Preston curious as to what Murad is doing, allows the Russians to abduct Murad's errand boy and torture him to find out what Murad is up to, and he utters the word Jackal which Preston recognizes as the name of an international assassin. They have to find him but unfortunatly, there is noone who knows who he is except for one person, whom they have to find and the only person who knows where that person is, is Declan Mulqueen, an IRA man, who is in prison, they offer to reduce his sentence is he helps them but refuses because all he wants is to be freed, so they decide to leave but he tells them that he knows who the Jackal is. So they release him and together they try to find the Jackal before he makes his move which won't be easy because he is very wily.

MEN IN BLACK

010298 (LATENIGHT)

In the 1950s a super-secret government agency was formed to monitor and police the activities of extraterrestrial aliens on the planet Earth. Some 40 years later a founding father of the agency, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), finds himself with a new smart-mouthed partner fresh from the NYPD who is soon dubbed Agent Jay (Will Smith). Their first mission is to save the Earth from destruction by a giant insectlike alien (Vincent D’Onfrio) that, incidentally, drives an exterminator’s truck. Armed with their matching Ray-Bans, skinny ties, and space-age weapons that Jay barely understands--he calls the Neuralyzer the "flashy thing"--the new duo begin another average day of fighting intergalactic terrorists. An amazingly hip and terribly clever movie that riffs on everything from E.T.--THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL to CASABLANCA, this Barry Sonnenfeld film is based on the equally savvy comic book by Lowell Cunningham.

DEVIL'S ADVOCATE

010998 (LATENIGHT)

Promising young lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) has never lost a case--even when his client is guilty. When Kevin is seduced away from his sleepy hometown in Florida to work for a flashy, charming lawyer (Al Pacino, in a role he seems born to play), his mother (Judith Ivey) has reservations. But as he works his way up the corporate ladder, Kevin manages to put them aside, along with his wife's (Charlize Theron) needs and the stirrings of his conscience over knowingly defending the guilty. However, his vanity won't let him start losing now. As Kevin's career skyrockets, his neglected wife Mary Ann begins to see evil, violent visions. Hoping a visit from his mother will help, instead Kevin finds himself confronted with a secret his mother has never told him. As Mary Ann seemingly descends into madness, Kevin begins to suspect his boss may be much more than he seems, and he finds himself faced with a choice between saving his own life and saving his soul. Thought-provoking, inventive, and entertaining, director Taylor Hackford's film is reminiscent of psychological horror films like ROSEMARY'S BABY. Andrzej Bartkowiak's lush, innovative cinematography complements the smart script and dead-on acting.

SEVEN YEARS IN TEBET

010998

At the height of World War II, an emotionally remote Austrian mountain climber (Brad Pitt) journeys to the holy city of Lhasa, Tibet in search of peaks to tame and finds instead an unexpected friend in the form of the young Dalai Lama. Under the influence of the holy leader, the mountaineer--and, not coincidentally, Nazi Party member--begins a personal journey that leads to a greater self-awareness and inner wisdom. Adapted from the eponymous memoir by Heinrich Harrer.

KISS OR KILL

011698

A pair of sexy young grifters take to the vast, desolate Nullabor Plain of South Australia after a mark accidentally dies, and keep coming across dead people. This quick, hip road flick in the tradition of "Kalifornia" was nominated for Australian awards for best actress, best actor, and best artistic direction.

FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL

012398

This acclaimed documentary character study, from filmmaker Errol Morris (THE THIN BLUE LINE) focuses on the disparate lives of four nonconformists whose respective arts reflect their unique personalities: a lion tamer, a robotics engineer, a topiary gardener, and a biologist obsessed with perfectly recreating the habitat of the naked mole rat. A delightful and humorous portrait, utilizing a mixed bag of camera styles. Winner of an Independent Spirit award and Best Documentary awards from the National Board of Review and the Society of Texas Film Critics.

TIME BANDITS

012398 (LATENIGHT)

Plunging headfirst into history, director Terry Gilliam fearlessly brings the logic of children's fairy tales to bear as he navigates through myth and legend in a bizarre, ingenious retelling of THE WIZARD OF OZ. A boy and six good-natured little persons careen through time-twisting interactions with Napoleon, Robin Hood, and Agamemnon, among others, with a map the little people stole from their employer, the Supreme Being. But their intention is to rob their way through the past, which does not make their boss happy. Meanwhile, Evil is after the map in order to become the Supreme Being himself. The result is an extraordinarily visual extravaganza that overflows with Gilliam's ecstatic vision. The film is shot from a child's viewpoint, both through the character of Kevin and the placement of the camera. One of the morals of this thoroughly enjoyable, charming fantasy is that heroes aren't always all they're cracked up to be. Fun special effects and great supporting performances abound, including terrific turns by Ian Holm, John Cleese, Ralph Richardson, and especially David Warner as Evil.

GATTACA

013098

In the 21st century, genetic engineering makes possible the creation of biologically superior human specimens ("valids"), who then grow to positions of power and prestige. Would-be astronaut Vincent(Ethan Hawke) born the old-fashioned way, can only hope for a janitorial position at the elite Gattaca Corporation--until he buys the blood, urine, and identity of a perfect but paralyzed athlete. But a murder in the company's ranks attracts the attention of a detective who threatens to sniff Vincent out. A slick futuristic thriller. Academy Award Nominations--Best Art Direction.

SWEET HEREAFTER

013098

A small Canadian town is torn apart by the appearance of an ambulance-chasing lawyer after a tragic accident involving a school bus killed many of the town's children. One key witness, however, eludes the troubled attorney: a gifted young woman confined by the tragedy to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. A morality play without the sermon from "Exotica" auteur Egoyan, based on the acclaimed novel by Russell Banks. Winner of the Grand Jury award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Academy Award nominations: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay.

TANGO LESSON

020698

In this semi-autobiographical love story, an English director, Sally (Sally Potter), in Paris preparing to make a commercial film that her Hollywood producers have dubbed "Carnage on the Catwalk," wanders into a tango performance. Smitten with the dance, and the dancer, she asks Pablo (Pablo Veron) to give her a lesson. Returning to London to find her contractor (Heathcote Williams) tearing up her floor, she embarks on a pilgrimage to Buenos Ares to seriously learn the tango from two amiable teachers, Gustavo (Gustavo Naveira) and Fabian (Fabian Salas). With her London flat in worse shape than ever, she flees to Paris, reuniting with Pablo. Drawn together by their love of the tango and shared Jewish heritage, their romance blossoms and Sally abandons her film project. When Pablo asks her to be his dance partner in an upcoming concert, and she asks him to be in her next film--inspired by the tango--it puts their relationship to the test. Beautifully filmed in black and white with color sequences, THE TANGO LESSON is filled with inspired choreography and captivating dance sequences, including one in which Sally and Pablo are dancing along the Seine in Paris ala Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

020698 (LATENIGHT)

Petulant, rich honeypie Celine and scruffily adorable janitor Robert find themselves on the road to romance after he kidnaps her to avenge his termination at the hands of her callous father. But what they don't realize is that their love is celestially predetermined, as a pair of gun-toting angels gives chase to force the issue. A quixotic and inconsistent Hollywood debut from the production team of director Boyle, writer John Hodge, and producer Andrew MacDonald ("Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting").

THE APOSTLE

021398

After being squeezed out of his church by his ex-wife, a Texas fundamentalist preacher's alcohol-fueled rage sends him off the deep end. After beating her new beau into a coma, he flees to Louisiana and seizes the chance to reinvent himself as a devout "Apostle," founding a new church and captivating the citizenry while keeping his sins buried. Duvall, who also wrote and produced, is riveting in the title role. Academy Award Nominations: 1--Best Actor (Duvall).

BOOGIE NIGHTS

022098 (LATENIGHT)

It’s Los Angeles, 1977, and adult film director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) meets Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a well-endowed dishwasher in a nightclub. Jack recruits Eddie to be his newest star and Eddie, hungry for fame, quickly agrees, changing his name to Dirk Diggler. Soon Dirk is the hottest star in the porn industry, alongside Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a high school dropout who never removes her roller skates, and Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), the veteran star who pines for the son she's not allowed to visit. On the fringes, Little Bill (William H. Macy) fumes while his wife cheats on him in public, and Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) tries to escape the stigma of being a porn actor. The good times roll, but before long Dirk falls victim to the pressures of stardom and a drug habit that ruins his career while Jack struggles with porn’s conversion from film to cheaper videotapes. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough film is an exhilarating ride along the underbelly of the 1970s inspired by the films of Altman and Scorsese, featuring colorful camera work, a dynamic soundtrack, and excellent performances from the entire cast, most notably Reynolds in an Oscar-nominated comeback role.

EVE'S BAYOU

022098

The story is set in 1962 Louisiana. The big Batiste family is headed by charming doctor Louis. Though he is married to beautiful Roz, he has a weakness for attractive women patients. One day Louis is flirting with married and sexy Metty Mereaux, not knowing that he is observed by his youngest idealistic daughter Eve, who is there by accident. Eve can not forget the incident which is traumatic for her naivete and shares a secret with older sister Cisely. Lies start to roll...

HAROLD AND MAUDE

022098

In the long ago days before video, when access to anything but first-run Hollywood movies was limited to repertory houses and college film societies, Hal Ashby’s HAROLD AND MAUDE, while not what one would call an underground film, achieved cult status and became one of the most popular American films of its time. It is, interestingly, a very simple story. He’s shy and morose; she’s spunky and full of life. The film is a clichéd love story about how opposites attract, except that he’s 19 and she’s 79. Harold, played with deadpan humor by Bud Cort, is under extreme pressure from his overbearing mother, Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles, in a performance that is a sheer delight) to enter the dating world in hopes of marriage, but he would rather spend his time going to funerals, which is where he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon). She feels he needs to come out of his shell and enjoy life, so she includes him in hers, which is one long, unending series of lunatic adventures ranging from saving trees, to grand theft auto. Their love affair celebrated the spirit of an experimental generation guided by the mantra "If it feels good, do it." The soundtrack, with songs and lyrics by Cat Stevens, provides an effective thematic bridge as Harold crosses from extended adolescence to manhood.

AFTERGLOW

022798

Director-screenwriter Alan Rudolph once again teams with producer Robert Altman (THE PLAYER) for this haunting, funny film starring Nick Nolte and Julie Christie as a married American couple living in Montreal haunted by the memory of their runaway daughter. Plumber Lucky (Nolte) starts an affair with beautiful young client Marianne (Lara Flynn Boyle), who's desperate to have a baby and stifled by her marriage to her narcissistic husband, Jeffrey (Jonny Lee Miller). Meanwhile, Lucky’s wife, former B-movie actress Phyllis (Christie), spends her time looking for their daughter on the streets of Montreal and watching videotapes of her old movies. When she inadvertently finds herself meeting Jeffrey and agreeing to spend the weekend with him, the stage is set for an inevitable showdown among all concerned.

WELCOME TO SARAJEVO

031398

Michael Winterbottom's ingenious drama, adapted by journalist Michael Nicholson from his memoir NATASHA’S STORY, concerns the horrific bloodshed that broke out in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Most specifically, the film focuses its attention on Bosnia, the capital of Sarajevo, when the violence was its most intense and unpredictable. The story follows a group of journalists who spend their days braving the front lines, searching for footage that will guarantee them a prime slot on their local newscast. Stephen Dillane plays Michael Henderson, a disillusioned English war reporter working alongside cameraman Gregg (James Nesbitt) and producer Jane (Kerry Fox). The trio immediately befriends their new driver, Risto (Goran Visnjic), while contending with Flynn (Woody Harrelson), a hotshot American who is more interested in individual glory than the war itself. When Nina (Marisa Tomei), a relief worker, arrives to shuttle a busload of children out of the country, Henderson takes it upon himself to smuggle out Emira (Emira Nusevic), an apparent orphan, risking his life in the process. With WELCOME TO SARAJEVO, Winterbottom cleverly combines documentary footage of the horrific acts of "ethnic cleansing" with a more traditional story, resulting in a highly original motion picture that aims to shed light on the tragic civil war that ravaged Yugoslavia.

SHAFT

031398(LATENIGHT)

Cool and deadly NYPD detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade, Jr. in a racially-motivated slaying. The eye witness disappears, Wade jumps bail for Switzerland, and Shaft is livid. Two years later, Wade returns to face trial, confident his father's money and influence (and racial politics) guarantee an innocent verdict. Shaft looks hard for the witness, so Wade wants someone to kill her. He turns to a ghetto drug king, Peoples Hernandez, who's willing to kill for money, use Wade as a route to rich drug customers, and shaft Shaft. Can Shaft find the witness, convince her to testify, and shepherd her through the hail of bullets that Peoples is sure to let fly?

PINK FLOYD: THE WALL

032098(LATENIGHT)

Loosely based on the life story of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s original front man (who was kicked out of the band for his bizarre and disturbing behavior only to go insane shortly thereafter), PINK FLOYD: THE WALL stars Bob Geldof as Pink, a mentally damaged man who has gone from a hopeful child artist to a burned-out rock star drifting away from reality. As Pink festers in his hotel room, elements of his abusive childhood come back to haunt him until he begins to descend into absolute madness.

MA VIE EN ROSE

032098

Ludovic is a young boy who can't wait to grow up to be a woman. When his family discovers the little girl blossoming in him they are forced to contend with their own discomfort and the lack of understanding from their new neighbors. Their anger and impatience cave and Ludovic is sent to see a psychiatrist in the hopes of fixing whatever is wrong with him. A movie that addresses trans-gender and gender issues in general through the eyes of a child.

NIL BY MOUTH

032798

The family of Raymond, his wife Val and her brother Billy live in working-class London district. Also in their family is Val and Billy's mother Janet and grandmother Kath. Billy is a drug addict and Raymond kicks him out of the house, making him live on his own. Raymond is generally a rough and even violent person, and that leads to problems in the life of the family.

OSCAR AND LUCINDA

040398

In mid-1800's England, Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) is a young Anglican priest, a misfit and an outcast, but with the soul of an angel. As a boy, even though from a strict Pentecostal family, he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England. Lucinda (Cate Blanchett) is a teenaged Australian heiress who has an almost desperate desire to liberate her sex from the confines of the male-dominated culture of the Australia of that time. She buys a glass factory and has a dream of building a church made almost entirely of glass, and then transporting it to the Australian Outback. Oscar and Lucinda meet on a ship going to Australia; once there, they are for different reasons ostracized from society, and as a result "join forces" together. Oscar and Lucinda are both passionate gamblers, and Lucinda bets Oscar her entire inheritance that he cannot transport the glass church to the Outback safely. Oscar accepts her wager, and this leads to the events that will change both their lives forever.

HALF BAKED

040398 LATENIGHT

After Kenny accidentaly kills a cop's diabetic horse by feeding it the food he purchased from a munchie run, he is put in jail and is given a 1 million dollar bail. The rest of the group must bail Kenny out before Nasty Nate gets to him. The group decides to sell marijuana that Thurgood gets through his job as a janitor at a pharmaceutical lab. They become pals with rap star Sir Smoke-A-Lot and the rivals of dealer Samson Simpson. On the side, Thurgood seeks the love of Mary Jane, an anti-pot daughter of a dealer. What follows is typical pothead behaviour with a ton of cameos. Look carefully.

THE FULL MONTY

040398

BOXER

040398 LATENIGHT

Daniel Day-Lewis stars in this searing portrait of 1990s Belfast ripped apart by 20 years of religious conflict and IRA violence. Danny Flynn (Day-Lewis), a repentant IRA operative seasoned by a 14-year prison term, returns to the neighborhood of his childhood to try to rebuild his life. A prizefighter in his youth, he teams up with his old trainer (Ken Stott) to reopen a nonsectarian boxing gym in a bombed-out community center. Meanwhile, Danny finds himself undeniably drawn to his old girlfriend Maggie (Emily Watson), who is now married to his former best friend, an imprisoned IRA member. Maggie's father, Joe Hamil (Brian Cox), the head of the local IRA chapter, is attempting to negotiate an IRA cease-fire, causing extreme tension between IRA factions with opposing views. Danny and Maggie's rekindled love, which defies the IRA rule promising death for anyone having an affair with an imprisoned operative's wife, thrusts Danny straight into the center of the erupting tensions. Irish director Jim Sheridan and British actor Daniel Day-Lewis (who worked together on IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and MY LEFT FOOT) once again team up with wondrous results, creating a vivid and captivating portrait of an Ireland intimately torn by ancient religious strife.

DARK CITY

041098 LATENIGHT

Upon awakening with a start in an icy bathtub in a strange room--with a woman's dead body inconveniently nearby--John Murdoch can't remember how he got there. With a police detective hot on his trail and a psychiatrist skulking around, Murdoch discovers that the key to his mystery is the presence of strange extraterrestrial creatures, the Strangers, who are experimenting with the memories of the humans in his city--from which there may be no escape. Ambitious sci-fi noir, with rich production design and a dense, Kafkaesque concept.

LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND

041098

British novelist Giles De'Ath, a stuffy man who is completely oblivious to modern life and technologies, gets locked out of his house and settles for a visit to the cinema. Instead of the E.M. Forster adaptation that he intended to view, he is shocked to discover that he accidentally purchased a ticket to "Hotpants College 2." But before he can flee the theatre, he becomes mesmerized by the appearance of teen idol Ronny Bostock. Unable to shake or quench his thirst for the actor, he eventually travels to Long Island with the intentions of meeting him face to face. What begins as an awkward, distant relationship slowly becomes a mutual friendship that eventually concludes when the truth comes out. A funny and touching film based on the novel by Gilbert Adair.

LIVE FLESH

041798

A shooting in the Madrid apartment of Elena (Francesca Neri), an Italian dope addict, leaves policeman David (Javier Bardem) a paraplegic and Victor (Liberto Rabal), her would-be date, in prison. Years later, Victor gets out of jail but is obsessed with Elena, now clean, sober, and married to David, who has transcended his handicap by becoming a wheelchair basketball champion. The brooding, resentful Victor starts sleeping with their friend Clara (Ángela Molina), the sexually restless wife of David's jealous, alcoholic former cop partner, and finds out some harsh truths about what really happened that fateful night. Eventually love, desire, obsession, and betrayal all whirlwind into confrontations both deadly and intensely sexual.

SUPERFLY

041798 LATENIGHT

Super Fly is a cocaine dealer who begins to realize that his life will soon end with either prison or his death. He decides to build an escape from the life by making his biggest deal yet, converting the coke to cash and running off to start a new life. The problem is that the Mob does not have a retirement plan and will give him a choice of staying and selling for them or dying if they find out his intentions.

KURT AND COURTNEY

042498

A controversial documentary on acclaimed musician Kurt Cobain, one of 1990's most important rock-and-roll figures. Director Broomfield questions his "suicide" and paints a brutal, cold portrait of his wife, Courtney Love, going as far as to pose the scenario that she had him murdered. Love obviously did everything in her power to get this film banned, but it didn't work. Decide for yourself: vicious slander or intriguing enlightenment?

MAN IN THE IRON MASK

042498 LATENIGHT

With a cry of "All for one and one for all!" the Musketeers return to correct the injustices perpetrated by spoiled monarch Louis XIV, whose misdeeds include imprisoning his twin brother on an island and encasing his visage in the titular mask. Teen idol Di Caprio assays the dual title role, while writer-director Wallace goes for the jugular with plenty of pomp and pageantry.

REPLACEMENT KILLERS

042498 LATENIGHT

Versatile Hong Kong box office giant Chow Yun-Fat makes a Hollywood splash as a John Lee, Chinese hitman beholden to drug kingpin Mr. Wei (Hong Kong stalwart Ken Tsang, in an interesting reversal of his "crusty cop" persona). The good news is that Lee's free after one hit; the bad news is that Wei wants revenge on a cop who killed his son--by killing the cop's son. Lee decides to run rather than kill the boy, and Wei doesn't take kindly to the betrayal. Tough-talking passport forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) creates a new identity for Lee, but that's of little help when they must face Wei's army of "replacement killers." First-timer Fuqua provides eye-candy visuals and plenty of action set pieces. John Woo executive produced.

MEN WITH GUNS

050198

Taking a vacation from his profitable private practice, a distinguished Latin American doctor (Federico Luppi) sets off on a quest to locate his former students, whom he trained and deployed throughout the disease-ridden rural regions of their unnamed country. Once he steps outside his comfortable milieu, he realizes the depths of despair rural villagers live in, as power-mad, gun-toting soldiers and guerrillas vie for control of the countryside. Gradually stripped of his former idealism, he collects a motley group of pilgrims in search of a legendary village untouched by men with guns.

FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

050198 LATENIGHT

Ferris is a street-wise kid who knows all the tricks. Today he decides to take the day off school. When Ferris takes the day off, so must his best friends, Cameron and Sloane. Cameron is reluctantly persuaded to borrow his father's Ferrari, and together they hatch a plan to get Sloane out of class. Suspicious dean of students Ed Rooney knows all about Ferris, but can never catch him. Ferris' sister Jeanie is also frustrated that Ferris always gets away with his tricks and she doesn't. Furthermore, Ferris is an 'angel' in his parents eyes. It's Ferris' day off, he's out to enjoy himself, and he does!.

MRS. DALLOWAY

050198

Critically-acclaimed adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name. It's a lovely summer day and Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for an elaborate party. During the day of her party, she remembers another summer in the past, when she was a beautiful, vivacious and much-courted young woman. Her preparations are interrupted however, by the unexpected arrival of a former suitor from that long-ago summer - a once-dashing man she thought she would marry but ultimately rejected. As the day of the party unfolds, Mrs. Dalloway's life also becomes strangely intertwined with a young man she never meets, but whose tragic fate strikes a chord of truth, deep in her soul, that she cannot deny.

PALMETTO

050898

Upon returning to his fetid Florida hometown after a bum-rap prison stint, grizzled and jaded ex-muckraker Harry Barber gets a curious proposal from the bored young wife of a decrepit millionaire: kidnap her stepdaughter and split the hefty ransom. But before you can say "plan gone awry," the plan's gone awry--and Harry's the convenient fall guy. Revisionist noir, based on "Just Another Sucker" by James Hadley Chase.

THE BIG ONE

051598

Another of Moore's subversive journeys in search of an answer to this question: at a time when corporations are posting record profits, why are so many Americans still in danger of losing their jobs? Searching America's heartland, armed only with a camera, a biting sense of humor and sympathy for the American worker, Moore embarks on a one-man campaign to persuade Fortune 500 companies to consider their downsizing decisions. At last, Moore comes upon one high-profile CEO willing to talk...but the meeting doesn't go exactly the way either had planned.

SPANISH PRISONER

051598

Joe Ross is a rising star. He's designed a process that will make his company millions. He wants a bonus for this work, but fears his boss will stiff him. He meets a wealthy stranger, Jimmy Dell, and they strike up an off-kilter friendship. When the boss seems to set Ross up to get nothing, he seeks Dell's help. Then he learns Dell is not what he seems, so he contacts an FBI agent through his tightly-wound assistant, Susan Ricci. The FBI asks him to help entrap Dell. He accepts, a sting is arranged, but suddenly it's he who's been conned out of the process and framed for murder. Bewildered and desperate, he enlists Susan's aid to prove his innocence.

SID AND NANCY

051598 LATENIGHT

Alex Cox's riveting biopic tells the bleak, heroin-drenched story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his disturbed American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Gary Oldman delivers a bravura performance as Sid, matched by Chloe Webb’s grating, clearly unhinged Nancy. The two lovers’ childlike tenderness with each other contrasts sharply with their bleak, violent nihilism, and while the script implies that Nancy's death was accidental, the line between intention and accident is deliberately blurred. By turns romantic and horrific, SID & NANCY is often grueling to watch, but always compelling.

MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN

052298

Monty Python delivers a scathing, anarchic satire of both religion and Hollywood's depiction of all things biblical with their second--and tightest--full-length film. The setting is the Holy Land in 33 A.D., a time of poverty and chaos, with no shortage of messiahs, followers willing to believe in them, and exasperated Romans trying to impose some order. At the center of it all is Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a reluctant would-be messiah who rises to prominence as a result of a series of absurd and truly hilarious circumstances that parallel the life of Christ--providing ample opportunity for the entire ensemble (John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Chapman) to shine in multiple roles as they blaspheme and mock everyone and everything from ex-lepers, Pontius Pilate, and the art of haggling to crazy prophets, Roman centurions, and crucifixion.

THE WEDDING SINGER

052298 LATENIGHT

New Jersey wedding chanteur Robbie Hart loses all hope after being abandoned at the altar by his fiancee Linda. Enter Julia, an effervescent ray of light in the shape of a catering-service waitress, who enlists Robbie's help in planning her own wedding--to a sleazy, DeLorean-driving junk bond salesman who tomcats around and treats women like unfeeling slabs of meat. Can our hero win Julia over before she elopes to Las Vegas? Will Billy Idol save the day? And, most importantly, will the fluffy romantic storyline be completely overpowered by the weighty mid-1980s cultural references? Cheesy fun for the nostalgically inclined. Steve Buscemi tries to steal the film in an uncredited role as a drunk best man, but that honor actually goes to Alexis Arquette, as "George."

CHARACTER

052998

Based on the popular classic 1938 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk, a drama about a timeless struggle between father and son - a struggle even the father knows the son is destined to win. Dreverhaven, the city's most feared bailiff, is dead, discovered with a knife through his heart. A self-taught lawyer who just passes his exams was the last person to see Dreverhaven alive. Now, the police want to know why he visited the old man, and the young barrister is ready to tell the story of a lifetime. Winner of the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

SPICE WORLD

052998 LATENIGHT

Big-screen shenanigans from the Spice Girls, who cavort harmlessly in backstage vignettes whilst changing costumes, mugging in the kitschy environs of their Union Jack tour bus (piloted by no less significant a personage than Meat Loaf), and evading a bothersome paparazzo. Trashy, guilty fun, littered with celebrity cameos.

WILD THINGS

060598 LATENIGHT

A seemingly virtuous high school guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon), is accused of raping students Kelly (Denise Richards) and Suzie (Neve Campbell). Ken Bowden (Bill Murray), an oddball attorney, and Detective Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) come to Lombardo’s aid, unraveling a much larger blackmail scheme involving some of the town's least suspicious residents.

24/7

060598

info soon.

FRIEND OF THE DECEASED

061298

Tolla is an unemployed translator whose wife is leaving him. Despondent and weak, he submits to the suggestion of an acquantance to have a contract placed on the man that his wife is seeing. Instead, however, he arranges for the hit to be placed on himself. Before the contract is executed, he develops a relationship with a prostitute, and then changes his mind. In order to survive he takes the obvious course of action, which turns out to have possibly been unnecessary, and then he must deal with the guilt.

JACKIE BROWN

061298 LATENIGHT

Jackie Brown is the name of a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss' gun money on the airline she works for. Luckily for her, the Fed Ray Nicolet and the LA Cop Mark Dargus decide to team up in order to arrest the arms dealer she works for, whose name they don't even know. Here's when she has to choose one way: tell Nicolet and Dargus about Ordell Robbie (the arms dealer) and get her freedom -except that if Ordell suspects you're talking about him, you're dead- or keep her mouth shut and do some time. That's when she meets Max Cherry -her bail bondsman-, a late fifties, recently separated, burnt-out man, who falls in love with her. Then Jackie comes up with a plan to play the Feds off against Ordell and the guys he works with -Louis Gara and Melanie Ralston, among others- and walk off with their money. But she needs Max's help. No one is going to stand in the way of his million dollar payoff...

PRICE ABOVE RUBIES

061298

Free spirit Sonia longs to escape the restrictions of the community into which she was born--the tiny, hermetic cultural circle of the Brooklyn Hasidim--and rebels against her erudite but emotionally cold arranged husband by initiating two affairs: one with his jeweler brother, and one with a Puerto Rican outsider whose experience of life is miles apart from hers. Less an exploration of the conflicts between Hasidic tradition and modernity than a standard story of self-realization.

GOOD WILL HUNTING

061298 LATENIGHT

A South Boston whiz kid elects to clean the halls of learning rather than enter them, slumming his way through life as a janitor at MIT. But his natural ability to unravel complex equations attracts the attention of a professor who won't let him quit, a beautiful Harvard student who wants to save him, a sympathetic buddy who wants him to escape South Boston, and a counselor who encourages him. A soundly acclaimed, homegrown effort from lifelong Boston buddies Damon and Affleck, who pushed their script through development by disguising it as a suspense thriller.

CHINESE BOX

061998

Hong Kong-born American director Wayne Wang returned to the city in 1990 to make the gritty street-level thriller LIFE IS CHEAP...BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE. In 1997, with the city on the verge of the British handing the colony back to the Chinese, he returned for a different look. In CHINESE BOX, Jeremy Irons plays John, an English journalist moving among the Chinese business elite and British officials at expensive nightclubs. However, the politics of transition are seen through the prism of his personal relationships. He is in love with Vivian (Gong Li), a woman he meets in Beijing who?s now working at a club owned by Chang (Michael Hui), the man she wants to marry. But Chang wants to become respectable and won?t marry her because of her checkered past. After a personal crisis, John goes out with a camcorder to capture images of the last days of British rule. He becomes fascinated by Jean, a mysterious woman who hides half her face behind a scarf as she darts through the streets aggressively selling strange items. Played with a manic verve by martial arts star Maggie Cheung, Jean comes to represent everything that is strange and enigmatic about Hong Kong. Taken from a story by Paul Theroux and written by Jean-Claude Carri?re, a frequent collaborator with Luis Bu?uel, CHINESE BOX is a thoughtful, realistic blend of individual lives set against a large historical backdrop.

GINGERBREAD MAN

062698

Robert Altman throws his chips into the film noir ring with this stylish, moody thriller that features a spot-on performance by Kenneth Branagh as Rick Magruder, a successful Savannah, Georgia lawyer. After a party celebrating a major victory, he offers Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz), a shy waitress whose car has been stolen, a lift home. Their relationship develops quickly and it isn’t long before he sleeps with her. Soon after, however, Rick learns that Mallory's cat has been killed, which she attributes to her religious fanatic father, Dixon Doss (Robert Duvall). As Rick attempts to track Dixon down and protect Mallory from him, a new chain of events is unleashed which threatens to ruin his career and endanger the lives of his two children. Meanwhile, a hurricane looms in the distance, adding even greater tension to Rick’s quickly deteriorating situation. As is typical with all of Altman’s films, a high-profile cast converges to deliver solid individual performances. Standouts include--in addition to Branagh’s hedonistic lawyer--Duvall, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, and Davidtz. The first John Grisham-inspired film that wasn’t adapted from one of the author's novels, THE GINGERBREAD MAN is more film noir than courtroom drama and is rendered suspensefully by maverick director Altman.

HE GOT GAME

062698 LATENIGHT

Spike Lee turns his attention to the high-stakes world of basketball with this charged drama. Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) is serving 15 years for playing a role in the death of his wife. His son, Jesus (Ray Allen), is the best high school basketball player in the country. One week before Jesus must sign a letter of intent to the college of his choice, Jake is granted a temporary reprieve. The catch is that the state's governor wants the prodigy to go to his alma mater and is willing to consider commuting Jake's sentence if he can persuade Jesus to go there. When the time comes for Jesus to make a decision, both father and son are forced to confront their past and present actions--as a role reversal has taken place during Jake's time in prison that sparks a heated confrontation on the basketball court. Lee’s unusual choice to use the music of Aaron Copland, an American classical composer, for the soundtrack and his concept of pairing it with the national sport of basketball is a contrast that is made even more striking by the other contributing artists, notably the insistent urban sound provided by Public Enemy.

WILDE

062698

Based on the best-selling biography by Richard Ellman, this unconventional biopic traces the brilliant, witty, and tragic life of Oscar Wilde from his rise to fame as a much-in-demand author and public speaker to his downfall and ultimate imprisonment for homosexuality. Irish-born and homosexual, Wilde (Stephen Fry, in a critically lauded performance) nevertheless takes a loving wife (Jennifer Ehle), with whom he has children. While married, he becomes aware of his true sexual identity after a chance encounter with an aggressive house guest. This leads to a very public affair with vain, rebellious young Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), the son of the Marquess of Queensbury (Tom Wilkinson, IN THE BEDROOM). Despite an astoundingly successful writing career, Wilde's private life lands him in prison for "gross indecency," a synonym for homosexual behavior, which was illegal in England at the time.

DON'T LOOK BACK

062698 LATENIGHT

A raucous and intimate road movie of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, BOB DYLAN - DON'T LOOK BACK may be perhaps the most influential rock star documentary of all time. D.A. Pennebaker's trademark cinema verité approach, with its comprehensive perspective, captures the paradoxical Dylan in alternating moments of confrontational belligerence and contemplative repose, all within the framework of the pop culture hurricane of one of the most publicized concert tours of the mid-1960s. Mobbed by frenzied fans and stalked by confounded journalists and music critics unable to penetrate his carefully evasive yet antagonistic persona, Dylan takes refuge with Joan Baez, his folk contemporary, and Albert Grossman, his juggernaut manager. As the tour progresses, a pattern emerges from Dylan's modes of expression, offering a glimpse of what would come to be a constant in his career: his perpetual redefinition of himself. Displaying the enigmatic performer's roles as both folk artist heir apparent to the Woody Guthrie throne and electric guitar rock pioneer who turned the Beatles on to pot, DON'T LOOK BACK preserves not only Dylan's musical genius but his inimitable, vital, and profound defiance of definition.

THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO

070398

Last Days of Disco loosely depicts the "last days" at a disco palace, where drugs, sex and weirdness ran rampant. The story centers around a group of friends who frequent the disco and each other. All the characters are searching for something to make their lives more fulfilling. Some are searching for everlasting love and some are just wanting something different. As the disco is closed, they all wonder can disco ever really be dead?

U.S. MARSHALS

070398 LATENIGHT

Jones reprises his Oscar-nominated role as no-bull lawman Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive"; this time, his lamster is a former Secret Service agent accused--perhaps wrongfully--of the cold-blooded murder of two of his unit members. As the chase unfolds, Gerard becomes more and more fascinated by his highly trained and intelligent quarry--and more convinced of his innocence.

CITY OF ANGELS

070398 LATENIGHT

Based in part on Wim Wenders' 1988 film Wings of Desire, this is the story of Seth (Cage), an angel who wanders the Los Angeles area invisible to humans. As the demise of an individual approaches he spends time near them and becomes visible while acting as their traveling companion during their trip to the great hereafter. His discovery of distraught heart surgeon Maggie (Ryan) inspires him to forego his immortality and exist on earth with her as a feeling and mortal entity.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

071098 LATENIGHT

The Coen brothers have done it again. Mixing in Leninist philosophy, mistaken identity, crazy characters, a kidnapping plot, and a deep love of bowling, they have unleashed upon an unsuspecting world the many glories of THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Jeff Bridges plays Jeff Lebowski, known as the Dude, a laid-back, easygoing burnout who happens to have the same name as a millionaire whose wife owes a lot of dangerous people a whole bunch of money--resulting in the Dude having his rug soiled, sending him spiraling into the Los Angeles underworld.

MEAN STREETS

071098

Martin Scorsese's electrifying drama tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a charming 27-year-old who is supported by his devoutly Catholic mother. He spends his days wandering the streets of New York City and nights hanging out drinking with his good friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), a loose cannon who can’t seem to crawl out of debt. Charlie’s extreme affability makes him the middle man between his mob-tied uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova) and various clients, as well as between Johnny Boy and Michael (Richard Romanus), a bookie who has become fed up with Johnny Boy’s constant dodging. As the city’s San Gennaro Festival takes over the streets of Little Italy, Michael seeks revenge on Johnny Boy once and for all.

SLIDING DOORS

071098 LATENIGHT

A beautiful young English woman learns that she has been fired from her PR job. On the way home, the doors of a tube car close on her, opening the "what if" floodgates. She begins to live out two lives: if she had made the train, and if she hadn't. An intriguing concept about fate and how simple moments have the ability to change our lives.

THE OPPOSITE OF SEX

071798

Sixteen-year-old Deedee runs away from Louisiana to live with her half-brother Bill, an English teacher who happens to be gay. Lucia, Bill's sexually-repressed best friend, distrusts her. These suspicions are confirmed when Deedee lures Bill's boyfriend into bed and talks him into stealing $10,000 from Bill and running away with her to Los Angeles. To make matters worse for Bill, his bitter ex-lover frames him for sexual harassment, causing a scandal in their quiet town. This forces him and Lucia to go on a wild chase in search of Matt and Deedee in order to clear his name. They are joined by Sheriff Carl Tippett, a friend, who begins to fall in love with Lucia. A black comedy about what people must go through in order to find "the opposite of sex" - lasting, committed, and loving relationships.

HIGH ART

071798

Ally Sheedy stars as Lucy Berliner, a once-famous photographer, whose career has been revitalized when she meets Syd (Radha Mitchell), a beautiful young assistant editor for a prestigious photography magazine. Withdrawn from the art world, Lucy is reawakened by Syd who offers her the hope of escaping her drug-filled world. Before Syd realizees it, she is drawn into Lucy's seductive and dangerous mix while forced to make choices she never imagined. A challenging film that raises interesting questions as to how objective a person can be about art, especially when they are involved in the creative process.

THE BIG HIT

072498 LATENIGHT

Mel (Mark Wahlberg) is a neurotic, overworked hit man working for two crime bosses--Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Paris (Avery Brooks). He has a demanding fiance (Christina Applegate) with parents he's trying to impress and a gold-digging mistress (Lela Rochon) to occupy his scarce free time. Cisco proposes that stressed-out Mel kidnap Keiko (China Chow), the young daughter of Jiro Nishi, a wealthy Japanese industrialist. Mel captures her, but unfortunately Cisco is unaware that she is the goddaughter of Paris, who promptly puts a separate crew out to find and destroy Keiko's captors---and Paris is unaware that Mel is the man they are looking for. This unique and violent blend of action and comedy was executive produced by John Woo

THE BUTCHER BOY

072498

Director Neil Jordan expertly blends fantasy and reality in the saga of Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens), an energetic and imaginative boy whose bleak existence in a small 1960s Ireland town eventually drives him to drastic measures. With his friend Joe (Alan Boyle), Francie escapes into a world of comic books, television, and science fiction films to cope with his mentally ill mom (Aisling O'Sullivan) and alcoholic father (Stephen Rea, who also plays the adult Francie). Tragic circumstances mount, and the chasm between Francie’s imaginary life and the drab reality of rural Ireland grows too great, leading to bloody consequences.

CAN'T HARDLY WAIT

072498

It's graduation day at Huntington Hills High, and you know what that means - time to party. And not just any party, either. This one will be a night to remember, as the nerds become studs, the jocks are humiliated, and freshman crushes blossom into grown-up romance. Will Preston (Ethan Embry) finally talk to teen queen Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt)? Will whiteboy rapper Special K (Seth Green) hook up? Writing/directing team Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS) pay loving tribute to the 1980's teen films they obviously adore, updating the genre for a new generation of young people.

MISTER NICE GUY

073198 LATENIGHT

In Sammo Hung's MR. NICE GUY, Jackie Chan plays a popular TV chef (also named Jackie) who accidentally saves a reporter pursued by two warring gangs--one that looks like the standard Cosa Nostra types, the other a group of upstarts who could have been cast in THE WARRIORS. After the two gangs decide to come after Jackie, he drops his nice guy image and fights back.

SMOKE SIGNALS

073198

Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-A-Fire are brought together by Victor's father who saves Thomas from a fire that destroys his house and kills his parents. In close proximity all their lives on the Coeur D'Alene Indian reservation in Idaho, the boys could not be more different. Victor is the extrovert who excels at basketball and Thomas is the savant who lives with his grandmother after the death of his parents. The journey the two young men take to the home of Victor's estranged father in far off Arizona brings out of the past the remarkable events that brought them together.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

080798 LATENIGHT

Action-packed and adventure-filled, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is director Steven Spielberg's loving homage to the Saturday matinee cliffhanger serials of his childhood. When the Allies discover the Nazis are planning to use the Lost Ark of the Covenant as a weapon, the U.S. government enlists archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) to locate the biblical treasure chest where the remains of the broken tablets of the Ten Commandments were placed. En route, Jones and his feisty ex-girlfriend, Marion (Karen Allen), must escape the clutches of evil Nazis, duplicitous "natives," and a nest of venomous snakes--not to mention the wrath of God. The groundbreaking special effects and furious, never-ending pace make for a stylish whirlwind of a movie, topped off with a fabulous sense of humor. This bare-knuckled, barnstorming, pot-boiling, eye-popping bucket of Technicolor popcorn became Paramount Pictures’ highest-grossing film, and deservedly so--RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is quite simple one of the most enjoyable movies ever made.

BULWORTH

080798 LATENIGHT

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A surprisingly entertaining political comedy that features a funny and magnetic Beatty as the discouraged politician Bulworth, who has organized his own assassination but, after a three day bender of not sleeping, decides that he wants to live after all. He begins to tell the complete truth at all times, not caring about the potential repercussions of his offensive, yet honest, remarks. Oh yes, of course, and he starts rapping. It's a credit to Beatty that his change of heart seems so believable, and it is this performance that drives the film. All of the supporting players are solid as well, including Berry as a potential love interest who may have ulterior motives, and Platt, who is hysterical as a stressed-out, coked-up campaign aide. The film is an entertaining, well-paced romp that solidifies Beatty's presence as one of Hollywood's most vital and necessary voices.

HENRY FOOL

082198

Hartley has crafted here what many consider to be his crowning achievement: a sprawling epic of a story that tackles any and everything he decides to mock, satirize, or challenge. Simon is a factory worker who lives with his nymphomaniac sister and manic depressive mother. Along comes Henry Fool, a convicted sexual offender who moves into Simon's basement. Henry sparks Simon's mind and challenges him to write "the great American poem." To everyone's dismay, he does just that. From there, events spiral even further, until Simon must eventually make an important decision: remain loyal to his friend and help him flee the country, or turn his back on what they shared together in the past. Funny, shocking, and impressively grand in its ambitions, Hartley's script takes turns that most writers would never consider actually writing down. This is an original work that will stand as one of 1998's most exhilarating motion picture experiences.

PERFECT MURDER

082898 LATENIGHT

Emily Bradford (Paltrow) is a society daughter married to the successful Steven Taylor (Douglas). Heiress to a huge family fortune, Emily is due to inherit a one hundred million dollar trust fund much to the delight of her conniving husband. An adulterous transgression by Emily with the even more devious David (Mortenson) gives Steven a chance to try and outwit them both for the big prize. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film "Dial M for Murder."

DIRTY WORK

082898

MacDonald stars as Mitch Weaver, a down on his luck guy who has been annoying to most everyone who has crossed him. In an effort to raise money for one of his pals, Mitch embarks on a freelance revenge scheme.

THE TRUMAN SHOW

090498 LATENIGHT

Truman Burbank is a normal man, living in a normal town. He grew up to be a desk clerk for a insurance company, living an ordinary life, having an ordinary wife, an ordinary neighbour and an ordinary bud, who pops in from time to time with a sixpack. But Truman is not happy with his life. He wants to see the world. He wants to get away from his happy-happy, ever tidy, nice'n'shiny little island town at the seaside. In reality, Truman was an unwanted pregnancy. His "father", Christof, a reckless TV-Producer whom he never met, made up the Truman Show - the greatest show on earth - a show in which life is live. So, everyone around poor Truman is an actor with a little headphone in the ear. One day, Truman accidentally bumps into a catering area backstage and gets pretty suspicious. His plan now is: Pretend to be sleeping and steal away...

MARIE BAIE DES ANGES

090498

On the French Rivera, Marie, a beautiful fifteen year-old, exists without any identifiable past. There she lives with other youngsters without families, sunbathing and picking up strangers. When she meets Orso, a sullen young stranger, they frolic together in a carefree manner until they begin scheming creative uses for the handgun they have acquired. Pradal's unusual narrative structure is notable.

OUT OF SIGHT

090498 LATENIGHT

Based on Elmore Leonard’s famous crime novel, OUT OF SIGHT finds director Steven Soderbergh back in Hollywood after a brief return to the independent world with SCHIZOPOLIS and GRAY’S ANATOMY. A funny, hip, and vibrant action-drama, OUT OF SIGHT tells the story of the unlikely relationship that forms between an FBI agent and a career criminal. After Jack Foley (George Clooney) escapes from jail with the help of his partner, Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames), he takes Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a sexy federal agent, hostage. Immediately sparks fly between the two. Eventually they let her go and leave Miami behind, heading directly for Detroit, where they plan to rob a former cellmate of theirs, a wealthy, white-collar criminal (Albert Brooks). When Karen finally locates Foley, a passionate encounter unfurls (edited ingeniously by Anne V. Coates, recalling Nicolas Roeg’s classic DON’T LOOK NOW). As Foley zeroes in on his target, Karen must decide which side she’s on. Soderbergh’s film is a raucous ride through the criminal underworld, featuring spot-on performances by Clooney and Lopez. It's the supporting cast that makes OUT OF SIGHT so unforgettable, however; Rhames, Steve Zahn, Luis Guzman, and especially Don Cheadle deliver hysterical turns that keep the laughs coming as the tension continues to mount.

SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS

091198

This is a coming-of-age story about a young girl in 1970's Beverly Hills who must come to terms with her family's constantly changing residences as well as trying to control her budding sexuality. Marisa Tomei is a cousin who comes to visit, adding even more mayhem to the proceedings. Jenkins' debut obviously strikes a few personal chords, which elevates this above the usual indie-fare.

NEGOTIATOR

091198 LATENIGHT

Jackson plays Danny Roman, a cop who, anxious to clear himself of false accusations, takes a group of people hostage and requests the presence of a fellow officer from another precinct. Spacey plays Chris Sabian, a hostage specialist, the Negotiator, who comes in to try and defuse the situation and bring Roman in. He is not prepared for what he hears and the city isn't ready for what they do.

X-FILES

091898 LATENIGHT

"The X-Files" stars Mulder and Scully make it to the big screen in this long-awaited extension of the hit television series. True to the premise of the show, the movie opens with the discovery of a mysterious black substance which is predictably covered up by an unnamed, seemingly official group of men. Evading various perils, Mulder and Scully scramble through a series of spectacularly shot scenes not possible in the television productions.

GOVERNESS

091898

In 1840s London, Rosina's beloved father is killed, so she must take a job in order to keep her deeply religious Jewish family afloat. Choosing the new name of Mary Blackchurch, she accepts a job as a governess to a wealthy gentile family in Scotland. Her responsibility is to be the friend and teacher of the Cavendishes' young daughter, Clementina, a mean-spirited, spoiled child. Mary is much more interested in the work being done by Mr. Cavendish as he attempts to perfect an early form of photography. But working closely in the laboratory soon releases feelings that change their very different worlds.

MAFIA

091898 LATENIGHT

Young Vincenzo Cortino, son of a Sicilian postman, delivers a package for his father and accidentally sees something he should not see. In a donkey's, well, he is smuggled out of town, where he tries to reach a ship headed for America. There, Vincenzo works his way up to the top of the Mafia. One day, his youngest son makes a mistake and has to leave town. A little later, he ends up as a casino boss in Las Vegas. But the heads of the other families want old Don Cortino out of the way. So, they shoot him 47 times and send a *very* attractive woman to distract his son from his casino work. Will he fall for her or will he return to Diane, who, by the way, had run for President successfully in the meantime?

BUFFALO 66

092598

An electric directorial debut (seven years in the making) by New York artist/musician/model/actor Vincent Gallo, BUFFALO '66 combines the experimental techniques of the French New Wave and the realistic grit of seventies filmmakers such as John Cassavetes, resulting in something inventive and original. Gallo portrays Billy Brown, who has just been let out of jail. Before returning home to visit his parents and murder the kicker who missed the field goal that sent him there in the first place (in order to repay a debt that he didn't have the money to extinguish), he kidnaps a bored ballerina (Christina Ricci) and makes her pretend that she is his wife. Though she doesn't seem to object to the abduction, Billy is emotional, angry, and sensitive. As the trip progresses--including an explosive visit to his childhood home, where his indifferent parents still reside--the two continue bicker back and forth, but begin to form a real bond.

BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS

100298

Billy, a struggling young gay photographer (who likes Polaroids), tired of being the "other man", falls in love with Gabriel, a waiter and aspiring musician who is probably straight but possibly gay or at least curious. Billy tries to get Gabriel to model for his latest project, a series of remakes of famous Hollywood screen kisses, featuring male couples, while also trying to win his affections.

SNAKE EYES

100298 LATENIGHT

From its incredible opening tracking shot to its suspenseful finale, this Brian De Palma thriller maintains a giddy, fever pitch of cinematic style and excitement. Nicolas Cage stars as Atlantic City detective Ritchie Santoro (his explosive energy and flashy clothes mirror the tone of the film), who finds himself heading a high-level investigation after the U.S. secretary of defense is assassinated at the championship fight he’s attending. Ritchie's old pal Naval Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise) was assigned to guard the secretary and now fears for his career. A mysterious beautiful woman in white (Carla Gugino) has something to do with the case but is lost amid the 14,000 spectators trapped in the sealed-off arena crime scene. Meanwhile, a raging hurricane is tearing up the boardwalk outside, and as Ritchie begins to unravel the mystery through the casino's massive camera security system, he discovers truths he'd just as soon not have known about. Taking place almost entirely within the confines of the arena and casino on a single dark and stormy night, SNAKE EYES zips along merrily, delivering loads of glitzy atmosphere and fun, Hichcock-style suspense. The appropriately Bernard Herrmann-esque music score is by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

THE BEYOND

100298 LATENIGHT

A young woman from New York named Liza (Katherine MacColl) inherits a Louisiana motel that has been unoccupied for nearly 60 years. While restoring the old building, many of the workers meet mysterious and untimely deaths, each more ill-fated than the next. Furthermore, Liza is visited by a blind specter named Emily (Sarah Keller) who lectures from a 4,000-year-old book of collected prophecies that explains the motel is situated above one of seven portals to hell. As her sanity dwindles, Liza finds some much-needed stability in a local doctor named John McCabe (David Warbeck), who is determined to find a rational explanation for the recent state of affairs. Nevertheless, the protagonists are led through a maze of bizarre confrontations with beings beyond the realm of the living, and into an apocalyptic world of unknown horrors.

YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS

100998

Neil LaBute's second film, YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS, is a dark comedy of manners that follows two unhappy couples and their single friends through a series of emotional and physical entanglements. Barry (Aaron Eckhart) and Mary (Amy Brenneman) are a married couple plagued by sexual frustration. Their friend Jerry (Ben Stiller), a theater professor, lives with his girlfriend, Terri (Catherine Keener), who's sick of his endless bedroom banter. Added to the fold are Cary (Jason Patric), a narcissistic, womanizing doctor, and Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), a free-spirited gallery assistant. While Jerry hopes to have an affair with Mary, Terri strikes up a relationship with Cheri, leading to a host of humorously painful conflicts.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

100998

Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) heads to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, bringing along his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro), in this furious adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. It is 1971, and Duke and Gonzo are on their way to Sin City with a frightened hitchhiker (a nearly unrecognizable Tobey Maguire) and a trunkful of drugs, which they ingest nonstop. Depp is terrific as Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and Del Toro is a riot as the crazy lawyer. To perfect his Thompsonian performance, Depp spent a lot of time with the good doctor, and it paid off in a film that captures the frenetic pace of the counterculture novel. Director Terry Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, has a field day interpreting the drug-hazed world that Duke and Gonzo reside in. An all-star cast chimes in with wonderfully offbeat bit parts, including Harry Dean Stanton, Gilliam regular Katherine Helmond, Flea, Cameron Diaz, Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Lyle Lovett, and others. FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS is a whirlwind of a movie, a wacky, drug-laden story backed by a fist-pumping rock & roll soundtrack featuring everything from Wayne Newton and Tom Jones to Combustible Edison and Dead Kennedys.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

101698

In Tim Burton's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, a suburban fairy tale with incredibly imaginative sets, an Avon lady, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), discovers the half-finished experiment--a man/monster named Edward (Johnny Depp)--of a mad scientist (played magically by Vincent Price) living in the neighborhood's old abandoned castle. The scientist died before replacing the shy man's large shears with real hands. When Peg attempts to bring Edward into her suburban world, to live among her skeptical family (husband Alan Arkin and daughter Winona Ryder) and gossipy neighbors, his hands--dangerous yet capable of creating things of great beauty--make for some awkward, funny, and poignant situations: Edward as a topiary gardener, Edward as a cutting-edge hair stylist. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is a story about tolerance, difference, and creativity as much as it is a story of a young man's coming of age (the young man in question is, of course, a monster). In the ironically surreal world of Edward's suburban community, he must try to find his place in it, and in the world at large.

SPIKE AND MIKE'S SICK AND TWISTED

101698

Spike and Mike, noted collectors of occasionally offensive, often disturbing, and frequently downright hilarious animated shorts present a gathering of 35 of their grossest favorites, including "Dog Pile," "Finger Food," "Chainsaw Bob," "No Neck Joe," "Lloyd's Lunchbox" and more.

102398

In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he's had terrible headaches; plus, he can't abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he's obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen. Does nature offer any solutions? Can Max find them?

CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC

102398

Horty, a French foundry worker, wins a contest to go see the sailing of the Titanic and ends up sharing a room for an evening with a woman who claims to be a chambermaid on the Titanic, but can not get a room there. They share the room chastely, but when when Horty goes home and suspects his wife is having an affair, he begins to tell erotic tales about his encounter with a chambermaid on the Titanic.

PECKER

103098

The winning 10th feature from John Waters straddles a fine line between the eager vulgarity of his earlier works and the sloppy sweetness of HAIRSPRAY and CRY-BABY. Set, as usual, in Baltimore, the film stars Edward Furlong as Pecker, a sweet-natured young fellow who happily passes the days photographing his surroundings with a cheap secondhand camera. Egging him on are his Virgin Mary-obsessed grandmother (Jean Schertler), his sugar-addicted younger sister (Lauren Hulsey), his kleptomaniac best friend (Brendan Sexton III), and his girlfriend (Christina Ricci), who runs a Laundromat with an iron fist. When Pecker’s works are "discovered" by a slumming NYC art dealer (Lili Taylor), his simple life is turned upside down, and he quickly realizes that he was happier as an unknown.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

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An affectionate parody that pays homage to the FRANKENSTEIN films (from the novel FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley) directed by James Whale in the 1930s, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is both a zany comedy and cinematic tour de force. Written by director Mel Brooks and the star of the film, Gene Wilder, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN has all the usual--and in this case slightly unusual--suspects: the reluctant scientist Frederick Frankenstein, who is actually the grandson of the infamous creature-creator (pronounced Fronken-steen and played by Wilder), his spoiled fiancée (Madeline Kahn), Igor the pop-eyed hunchback (Marty Feldman), his dizzy assistant (Teri Garr), the castle's hideous head housekeeper (Cloris Leachman), and, of course, the Monster (Peter Boyle). And then there are the sets--the original ones used in the Whale films--the beautiful black-and-white cinematography, and the fine screenplay. Combining noirish elegance with uproarious sight gags and double entendres is a feat Brooks pulls off fabulously, directing the wonderful ensemble to act with sensitivity and humanistic feelings as well as with lunatic abandon. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is a treat from beginning to end.

SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES

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James Ivory directed this moving, well-acted coming-of-age drama about a famous writer and expatriate, Bill Willis (Kris Kristofferson), and his family, who live in France after World War II. Bill and his wife, Marcella (Barbara Hershey), raise their daughter, Channe (Leelee Sobieski), and adopted son, Billy (Jesse Bradford), with a great deal of freedom and love. But when Bill decides to move the family back to the United States for medical reasons, the kids have trouble adapting to American life. The film is based on the autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, daughter of writer James Jones (FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, THE THIN RED LINE).

EVER AFTER

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Danielle, orphaned by her father's death, is raised by a wicked and snotty stepmother and her two daughters. When she accidentally stumbles onto Prince Henry, the future King of France, the two inspire one another to resolve their respective troubles at home in this romantic fable.

HALLOWEEN H2O

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This two DVD set features two thrillers starring Jamie Lee Curtis, the prototypical scream queen: HALLOWEEN H20 and MOTHER'S BOYS. See individual titles for details.

ORGAZMO

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SOUTH PARK creator Parker stars as Joe Young, a Mormon missionary in Los Angeles who stumbles into the porn industry, where he's offered the part of sexual superhero Orgazmo. Joe stays so that he can raise enough money to marry his sweetheart, Lisa, but complications ensue when Orgazmo turns out to be a hit and Lisa discovers the hidden truth. A wacky farce for juvenile adults.

A TOUCH OF EVIL

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Orson Welles's TOUCH OF EVIL is nothing short of a masterpiece. Beginning with a three-minute-plus tracking crane shot, the film explodes onto the screen, literally--the marvelously expressive opening shot ends with a car blowing up, and that detonation sets into motion a classic noir tale of betrayal and murder. In a complex exploration of character and morality, Welles plays the racist Captain Hank Quinlan, a grotesque, troubled, and powerful figure who runs his small U.S. border town according to his own version of the law. Quinlan's brutishness and vulgarity contrast starkly with the idealism and playboy good looks of Charlton Heston as Mike Vargas, a Mexican detective trying to put away the leader of a dangerous family of drug dealers--the Grandis. In the U.S. with his new bride, Susie (Janet Leigh), Vargas becomes consumed with exposing Quinlan and his highly questionable methods--too busy to see that his own beautiful blonde bride is in serious danger from both Quinlan and the Grandis.

ROUNDERS

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Set against the backdrop of New York's high-stakes underground poker world, Roundersis the tale of Mike McDermott, a master card player who trades the poker-playing rounds for law school and a shot at a new life with his girlfriend Jo. For Mike, the new life he's staking out seems like a legitimate road to success, but it's short on the thrills and excitement of back room poker games. But when Mike's longtime friend Worm is released from prison, Mike is faced with the high-stakes dilemma of his life: to keep on the straight and narrow, or deal himself back into the world of the Rounders.

HAPPINESS

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Building on the darkly comic angst of WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, Todd Solondz's HAPPINESS conveys suburban desperation and frustration on a larger scale than his previous film. The ensemble cast of characters centers around the lives of three sisters: Joy (Jane Adams), an awkward, naive, and unlucky musician; Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), a beautiful, self-obsessed writer; and Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), a conservative housewife who is married to Bill (Dylan Baker), a psychiatrist harboring an unhealthy fascination for young boys. Other dysfunctional characters include the sisters' unhappy parents, Lenny and Mona Jordan (Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser), and the lonely, sex-obsessed Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who lives next to Helen and goes to Bill for therapy.

ELIZABETH

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The story of Queen Elizabeth I, from her days as an innocent young woman to her coronation, up to the formation of her reputation as England's stern "Virgin Queen". A lush portrait of history, full of pomp, intrigue, and romance and anchored by Blanchett's award-winning performance and colorful direction from Indian newcomer Kapur. Academy Award winner for Best Makeup, Nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction/Set Direction, Costume Design, Dramatic Score.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

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No-holds-barred comedy tour de force in which 30-something Stiller locates and courts his high school dreamgirl (Cameron Diaz), unwittingly enlisting the help of some of her more hilariously psychotic suitors. In-your-face sight gags and unapologetic raunchiness disguise a riotously funny love story that is actually very sweet. Be amazed at the impeccable casting and stellar performances of the supporting players.

RUSH HOUR

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A box office smash, this film combines the comic stylings of funny-man Chris Tucker with the explosive action of superstar Jackie Chan. The two team up to battle the bad guys and, along the way, meet their fair share of dangerous situations.

THE CELEBRATION

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Thomas Vinterberg's contribution to the Dogma 95 collective is an electrifying achievement, driven by powerhouse acting and hand-held digital camera work so realistic that one might forget they're watching a feature film. Friends and family gather to pay tribute to Helge on his sixtieth birthday, but when it's time for the eldest son, Christian, to give the opening toast, the fireworks begin. At times hysterical, at times tragic and heartbreaking, this is a film that has the ability to single-handedly reaffirm one's faith in cinema. Inspiring and brilliant. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

VELVET GOLDMINE

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Loosely based on the experiences and personalities of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, VELVET GOLDMINE is a wild, glitter-laced trip through the 1970s era of glam rock. Fictional characters Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) are personifications of glam rock's ideals, with the mysterious and androgynous Slade balanced by the intense, raucous Wild. When Slade disappears, the era itself seems to melt away, swallowed up by the slick 1980s. But Slade's story, and the story of glam rock, is retold when journalist Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) is assigned to discover what really happened to Slade. Through his own memories of this time, Arthur faces his childhood fears and fantasies. With a nod to Oscar Wilde, a CITIZEN KANE-like structure, and an overall sumptuous atmosphere, VELVET GOLDMINE is director Todd Haynes's unique look at homosexuality, indulgence, and, most importantly, rock 'n' roll.

URBAN LEGEND

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Everybody's heard them ... yet they have no traceable source. There's no proof they really happened ... yet they can't necessarily be proven false. They're urban legends, contemporary tall tales and bits of macabre mythology that emerge from the underground and take on colorful lives of their own. Like a virus they spread quickly, develop a stubborn staying power as they are passed by whisper from person to person, then come to rest firmly wedged in our collective consciousness. Did Mikey from the Life cereal commercials really die of a lethal combination of Pop Rocks and Pepsi? Are there really mutant alligators living in the sewers of New York City? And everyone knows about the babysitter who received crank calls threatening the children under her care who then traced the calls to the upstairs bedroom. They range from the silly to the sickening - now, in TriStar Pictures' Urban Legend, a group of students is about to find out that urban legends can be fatal.

LOLITA

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Lyne (FATAL ATTRACTION) tries his hand at a more faithful adaptation of Nabokov's novel than Kubrick was allowed to attempt in 1962. In the process, Irons gives an amazing, tortured performance as Humbert Humbert, the professor who can not control his physical desires for 12 year-old Dolores Haze (Swain). Swain also turns in an exceptional performance as the title character. Controversy surrounded the production to the point where it languished, completed, on the shelf, for almost 2 years looking for an American distributor. The film had a successful European run before making its American debut on the Showtime cable network, and finally, to a limited art house run.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

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Conjuring keys and hats out of thin air, Guido (Roberto Benigni), a clever Jewish-Italian waiter, successfully courts Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a beautiful local woman, in Fascist pre-WWII Italy. His life, however, is turned upside down a few years later when he, Dora, and their young son, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), are sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to give up hope, Guido tries to protect his son's innocence by pretending that their imprisonment is just an elaborate game, with the grand prize being a tank.

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

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Four years after the tragic death of their children in a car accident, Dr. Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) is estranged from his wife, Annie (Annabella Sciora), a painter who finds solace in deep and mystical expressionist landscapes. When flustered Annie calls him for support, he rushes out to help and is killed in a road accident. His ghost is greeted by an old mentor, Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who leads him in Ghost-of-Christmas-Past-style to Annie's side. But when Chris realizes that his adherence to the corporeal world is torture to himself and the living Annie, he breaks free of his Earthly bonds and dives into the visual smorgasbord that is the afterlife. There he splashes though clouds and gobs of technicolor paint in breathtaking landscapes suggested to him by Annie's paintings. From there, to grandiose Romanesque cities of flying children, Chris and his old dog are met by a gorgeous stewardess, who reveals herself as a nearly forgotten face from his past. As Chris reconciles with his children in a world where imagination is his palette, in the real world Annie becomes sicker and sicker, and finally enters the afterlife herself. Due to the myriad rules of the Other Side, she is unable to join Chris or her children, and Chris begins a fight for his future with his soul mate.