Film Archive 2001
| AIMEE & JAGUAR |
| 01.05.01: |
| In 1943, as World War II's Battle of Berlin rages, with air raids forcing families into their cellars for shelter and bombs exploding all over the city, Felice Schragenheim (Juliane Köhler) and Lilly Wust (Maria Schrader), fall in love. Director Max Färberböck's AIMEE & JAGUAR tells the true story of this passionate, forbidden love affair, adapted from the 1998 book of the same title by Erica Fischer. |
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| QUILLS |
| 01.12.01: |
| Academy Award winner GEOFFREY RUSH stars as the witty yet wicked Marquis De Sade, who is living in exile in his own posh suite at the Charenton Asylum. Here, he has befriended the progressive young asylum director Abbe Coulmier (JOAQUIN PHOENIX), a man ahead of his times, who believes in treating his patients humanely, providing means for creative expression. In this atmosphere, the Marquis has also found it easy to strike up a friendship with the comely young laundress Madeleine (KATE WINSLET), who helps him to smuggle out his prolific writings for publication and whose innocent affections are equally enjoyed by the conflicted Abbe. |
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| MEET THE PARENTS |
| 01.12.01: |
| Upon his arrival at the family's picturesque, Norman Rockwell-like home, Greg is greeted by what appears to be the picture-perfect family: a loving husband and wife with a doting son and two daughters and a beloved cat. But for a guy who usually resorts to dry wit in stressful situations, Greg is suddenly shooting blanks with Jack, a retired horticulturist…and rather imposing figure. No one is good enough for Jack's first-born daughter, and the fact that Greg is a cat-hating male nurse with a vulgar-sounding last name is not helping things at all. |
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| STATE AND MAIN |
| 01.12.01: |
| Having been cast out of his original New Hampshire location, director Walt Price (William H. Macy) is in trouble: his film is losing money by the minute and shooting is set to begin in a matter of days. He needs a new location, one that won't cost a lot of money and can reasonably pass for the 19th Century, when the film takes place. After a quick look around, Walt decides to move the production of their film to the sleepy little town of Waterford, Vermont. It seems perfect -- Waterford not only has a firehouse and supportive citizens eager to meet and mingle with Hollywood glitterati, it even has an old mill. At least, that's what it says on a brochure. |
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| UNBREAKABLE |
| 01.19.01: |
| UNBREAKABLE stars Bruce Willis as David Dunne, a Philadelphia security guard and the sole survivor of a disasterous train wreck. Not only is David still alive after the crash--he's completely unharmed. After this miraculous incident, he's contacted by the mysterious Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a dealer of comic book art who seems to have the opposite physicality--his bones tend to snap like twigs. As Elijah attempts to help the reluctant hero realize his superhuman potential, David tries to make amends with his estranged wife (Robin Wright Penn) and son (Spencer Treat Clark). |
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| CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON |
| 02.02.01: |
| Known for making films about familial relationships, director Ang Lee surprised everyone with his martial arts epic CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Based on a novel by Wang Du Lu, CROUCHING TIGER starts with the revenge plot common in the wuxia stories that Lee loved as a child, then adds a feminist twist. Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) is a legendary martial artist who has decided to pass on his sword, the Green Destiny, to a friend. Soon afterward, the sword is stolen by a masked female, setting in motion events that test the bonds of family, love, duty, and sisterhood. Chow appears with three generations of female stars: Cheng Pei Pei, a 1960s action heroine; Michelle Yeoh, the beauty queen turned 1980s action goddess; and newcomer Zhang Ziyi, who smolders as the princess who wants more than domestic tranquillity. Famed action choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping (THE MATRIX) stages jaw-dropping zero-G fights across rooftops, rivers, and bamboo trees, while Yo-Yo Ma punctuates the fisticuffs with dramatic cello solos. Described by Lee as "SENSE AND SENSIBILITY with martial arts," CROUCHING TIGER recalls the best wuxia films of the 1960s and pushes the genre in new directions. |
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| FAMILY MAN |
| 02.09.01: |
| Nicolas Cage stars as Jack Campbell, a career-driven workaholic who has everything: an exciting job, a Ferarri, a closetful of Zegna suits, and the attention of any woman he wants. His life changes when, after working a full day on Christmas Eve, he intervenes in a convenience store holdup. The apparent criminal, Cash (Cheadle), speaks to Jack in epigrams about his satisfaction with life. When Jack wakes up the next day, he's suddenly living in a New Jersey suburb, where he's married to his college sweetheart (Leoni) and is the father of two children. At first he is aghast, but Jack soon warms to his new life even though he knows that it cannot last. Unabashedly sentimental, the film is also a great comedy, as Cage gives a superb performance that makes the most of his character's obvious disgust with his suburban surroundings and even allows for a few moments of hysterics reminiscent of VAMPIRE'S KISS. Filled with great performances (notably Ms. Leoni's role as Jack's wife), inspired comedy, and a premise that suggests a slightly darker version of classics like A CHRISTMAS CAROL and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE FAMILY MAN is an affecting and entertaining holiday film. |
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| SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE |
| 02.23.01: |
| E. Elias Mehrige's SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE explores the fictional premise that the star of director F.W. Murnau's 1922 German expressionist horror film, NOSFERATU, was an actual vampire. When the dictatorial Murnau (John Malkovich) sets about filming his monster masterpiece, he makes a Faustian deal and enlists the grotesque, reclusive Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe) to play the rodentlike Count Orlok. Schreck proceeds to both horrify and fascinate the unwitting cast and crew---including producer Albin Grau (Udo Kier), actor Gustav von Wangenheim (Eddie Izzard), and actress Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack)--who, at first, believe Schreck is merely an eccentric actor. As the production continues, however, mysterious accidents and deaths begin to reveal why Schreck never gets any makeup. |
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| BEFORE NIGHT FALLS |
| 03.02.01 |
| The life of Reinaldo Arenas, an exiled Cuban homosexual writer, is chronicled in an adaptation of his memoir BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, directed by Julian Schnabel (BASQUIAT). Javier Bardem (in an Oscar-nominated performance) portrays Arenas as he journeys from poverty to university to the sexual revolution and homosexual subculture in Havana to persecution and imprisonment under the policies of Fidel Castro for being both gay and a writer. Despite the harsh conditions of prison, the courageous Arenas continued not only to write but also to publish his works abroad. Ultimately, he was allowed to leave Cuba for America, but there he faced new struggles as a man without a country battling AIDS. Schnabel's beautifully filmed sophomore directorial effort captures the essence of Cuba during the revolution. Johnny Depp is featured in the dual supporting roles of the cross-dressing prison inmate, Bon Bon, and the brutal officer, Lieutenant Victor. A well-disguised Sean Penn appears as Cuco Sanchez. Olivier Martinez as Lázaro Gómez Carillo and Andrea Di Stefano as Pepe Malas deliver standout performances. The film received accolades at the 2000 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. |
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| SNATCH |
| 030901 |
| A diamond heist gone helter-skelter, the rough and tumble world of bare knuckle boxing, a colorful Irish gypsy and...a dog. Writer-director Guy Ritchie’s highly anticipated Snatch is a rollicking ride through London’s gangster world, the bustling diamond district and a rowdy gypsy camp. |
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| POLLOCK |
| 031601 |
| Ed Harris's POLLOCK is a moving portrait of artist Jackson Pollock, a leader of abstract expressionist painting whose work had major influence on the modern art movement. A serious alcoholic who was married to Lee Krasner, another prominent painter, the film illustrates Pollock's rise to art world fame in the last 15 years of his life, and his subsequent surrender to the bottle which brought his death in 1956. In its best moments, POLLOCK shows Krasner (a strong, dynamic, and fascinating Marcia Gay Harden) and Pollock (a stern Harris) conversing about the progression of the modern movement while criticizing each other's work from their adjoining studios in a tiny apartment in Manhattan's East Village. Other highlights of the film include a handful of high energy painting sequences that demonstrate Pollock's technique--the fluid straight-from-tube strokes of his earlier work and the more radical throwing, drizzling, and splattering of paint from the brush to the canvas in his later works; along with amusing depictions of the New York and Long Island art worlds with Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan), Clement Greenberg (Jeffrey Tambor), Willem de Kooning (Val Kilmer), and Howard Putzel (Bud Cort) in the major roles. Based on the biography JACKSON POLLOCK: AN AMERICAN SAGA by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, the film has an uplifting musical score and a soundtrack that includes some of Pollock's favorite jazz-blues tunes, both of which are welcome counterpoints to the movie's darker moments. |
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| YOU CAN COUNT ON ME |
| 033001 |
| Sammy (Laura Linney) and Terry Prescott (Mark Ruffalo) are sister and brother who were raised in Scottsville, a small, quiet town in upstate New York. Orphaned as children, Sammy and Terry have remained close, even as they have led very different and separate lives. Sammy is a churchgoing single mother working in the local Scottsville bank and devoted to her 8-year-old son Rudy (Rory Culkin). Terry is a drifter moving from state to state working odd jobs, getting into trouble and occasionally landing in jail. |
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| THE HOUSE OF MIRTH |
| 040601 |
| STerence Davies (DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES) triumphs with his sumptuous, painterly adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel, which is set amid the vicious moneyed classes of 1905 New York and features a heartrending, perfectly nuanced performance by Gillian Anderson as doomed heroine Lily Bart. Lily, though strikingly beautiful and socially prominent, remains unmarried at the late age of 29. She jokes that marriage is a woman's vocation, but she is conflicted between her desire to marry a wealthy man and her love for handsome, elegant Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz), who, unforgivably, must work for a living. Lily's options begin to narrow, however, when her backstabbing friend, Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney), informs potential suitors of her gambling debts. In a world where the slightest hint of impropriety equals social death, Lily's self-professed genius in doing the wrong thing at the right time leads to trouble. A potential solution to Lily's downward social spiral arrives when a useful secret falls into her lap. In order to save herself, Lily must struggle with her naïveté, pride, and ineptitude at playing the elite's deadly, coded game. Davies's beautifully composed, richly textured images and Anderson's skillful evocation of quiet desperation make for a visually stunning, emotionally resonant tale. |
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| BAMBOOZLED |
| 041301 |
| Spike Lee turns up the controversy notch once again with BAMBOOZLED, a sizzling satire on race and racism within the modern media world. Harvard-educated writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), the only black employee on the staff of a struggling television network, suggests the most absurd idea for a pilot that he can possibly imagine, hoping it will convince his tyrannical boss, Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), to terminate his contract and fire him. However, his plan backfires and his idea--MANTAN THE NEW MILLENNIUM MINSTREL SHOW--finds great success. The show is a stereotypical and racially charged depiction of the tap-dancing Mantan (Savion Glover) and Sleep 'n' Eat (Tommy Davidson), two lazy, homeless black men who spend their days in a watermelon patch. As the show becomes a national sensation, Delacroix, his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett), as well as her older brother, aspiring rapper Big Black Af' (Mos Def), begin to see the harm the show is causing the community, triggering outbursts with deadly consequences. Shot on digital video, Lee uses his basic premise to mock and accuse today's entertainers (including Chris Rock, Ving Rhames, gangsta rappers, and Lee himself) for being modern reincarnations of the stereotypical caricatures that were so offensive in the past. The result is a biting commentary that is at turns hysterical, absurd, and poignant. |
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| SAVE THE LAST DANCE |
| 041301 |
| Sara's life is devoted to dance -- she wants nothing more than to make it into New York's famous Julliard School. But when tragedy strikes and she loses her mom, her hopes are dashed and she buries her dreams of ever attending the country's best dance school. Without her Mom to support her, Sara moves to the tough streets of Chicago's South side to live with her Dad -- a down on his luck jazz musician who she barely knows. Her new school's a totally different world from the small town she grew up in, but Sara's quick comebacks and sassy attitude earn her the quick respect and friendship of straight-talking Chenille. But it's Chenille's brother, Derek, the cool and good-looking star of the school, who grabs Sara's attention. He plays it up tough, but he also has the smarts and a plan to go to medical school. When Chenille takes Sara to Steppes, the neighborhood hang, she gets her first taste of hip-hop -- and Derek's the one to show her the moves. When they discover they share a passion for dance, they discover that there's something deeper going on -- a passion for each other. But they soon find out the hard way that they must not only overcome their own differences, but the resentment and bad blood of their friends and family. As the school year goes on, the couple finds that their affection and devotion to each other could ultimately threaten Derek's hopes for a better life and Sara's rediscovery of her dance. |
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| IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE |
| 042001 |
| Hong Kong 1962, Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), a journalist, rents a room from Mr. Koo. He will live there with his wife, a hotel receptionist. It's sheer coincidence that he moves in the same day that Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk) moves in next door, at Mrs. Suen's place. Lizhen works as a secretary to Mr. Ho (Lai Chin), the boss of a shipping company. It's also a coincidence that both of them are moving in without help from their spouses. Chow's wife is working her shift at the hotel at the time of the move. Lizhen's husband, Mr Chan, is away on a business trip; he works for a Japanese company, and is often abroad. Despite having convivial and neighbourly landlords, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan often find themselves alone and lonely in their respective rooms. |
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| THE MEXICAN |
| 042001 |
| Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts have star power to burn in Gore Verbinski's offbeat THE MEXICAN, about the search for a cursed legendary gun. Pitt stars as Jerry Welbach, a small-time loser who is given no choice but to run an errand for a powerful boss (Bob Balaban) who will have him killed if he fails. But if he accepts the job to go to San Miguel to pick up the beautiful handcrafted gun known as the Mexican, his loud, demanding girlfriend, Samantha (Roberts), will leave him and move to Vegas. But through a course of bizarre events, his contact is shot in the top of his head, the gun is stolen, and Sam is kidnapped and held hostage by a hired killer (James Gandolfini) who is not all that he seems. |
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| DOWN TO EARTH |
| 042001 |
| Comedian Chris Rock updates 1978's HEAVEN CAN WAIT with a decidedly modern flair in this romantic comedy. Lance Barton (Rock) is a struggling comedian whose dream is to perform at New York City's legendary Apollo Theater before it closes its doors forever. One night, while riding his bike, Lance is crushed by an enormous truck. Before he can come to terms with what has happened, he is strolling through Heaven, talking to the smooth Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri) and the bumbling Keyes (Eugene Levy), the angel who prematurely snatched Lance away from Earth. Mr. King agrees to make up for this mistake by returning Lance to New York, only instead of being a black bike messenger, Lance is now Mr. Wellington, a powerful white businessman who just so happens to be the enemy of Sontee (Regina King), the woman he has become infatuated with. Wooing Sontee with a new commitment to using Mr. Wellington's money philanthropically, Lance embarks on a mission to perform at the Apollo, even if he doesn’t seem to fit the mold. But just when everything begins to fall into place, Mr. King returns to throw another glitch into Lance's plans. Coasting along on the charm of Rock and King, DOWN TO EARTH is a charming story about the power of fate, set to a bouncing hip-hop soundtrack. |
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| MEMENTO |
| 042701 |
| Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) wears expensive, European tailored suits, drives a late model Jaguar sedan, but lives in cheap, anonymous motels, paying his way with thick wads of cash. Although he looks like a successful businessman, his only work is the pursuit of vengeance: tracking and punishing the man who raped and murdered his wife. His suspicions dismissed by the police, Leonard's life has become an all-consuming quest for justice. The difficulty, however, of locating his wife's killer is compounded by the fact that Leonard suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his "accident", Leonard can't remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he is, where he's going or why. |
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| CHUNHYANG |
| 050401 |
| Director Im Kwon Taek's 97th film, CHUNHYANG, is an adaptation of a popular Korean folk tale. The movie takes place in 18th century Korea, where Mongryong, the son of the Governor of Namwon, is studying before he goes to school in Seoul, where he will study to become a royal official. During the summer before he leaves, he meets and falls in love with Chunhyang, the beautiful daughter of a local courtesan. Mongryong proposes to her and weds her in secret, but is soon called to Seoul for his schooling. While he is away, a new governor is appointed to the province, and he demands that Chunhyang become his courtesan. When she refuses, he sentences her to death. Visually stunning and formally daring, CHUNHYANG uses the ancient operatic tradition of pansori, a narrative art that uses dance and song, to heighten the film's drama and to provide an additional layer of depth to the already powerful folk tale. Using overlapping sound and intercutting scenes of a pansori artist performing the film's narrative and the film itself, Mr. Taek fuses song and image as he melds Korea's past with the modern art of film. |
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| ME YOU THEM |
| 050401 |
| ME YOU THEM tells the true story of Darlene Linhares (Regina Casé), a woman with a huge heart and the practicality to deal with it; she has three husbands, each of whom satisfies her desires in his own way. Osias (Lima Duarte) is her rogue of a husband, the owner of a goat farm. The affectionate Zezinho (Sténio Garcia) joins the family when his mother dies; he performs domestic duties. And Ciro (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos), the sexy hunk Darlene finds at work, is simply hot. Directed by Andrucha Waddington, this film is a provocative work that explores the fantasies a woman has during her marriage. |
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| SHADOW MAGIC |
| 051101 |
| Peking, 1902. The Feng Tai Photo Shop is in a frenzy of preparation for the arrival of Peking's most important opera star, Lord Tan. Liu Jinglun (Xia Yu), the chief photographer, is oblivious to the chaos as he tinkers with a broken Victrola he has found in a junk pile on his way to work. His boss, Master Ren (Liu Peiqi), chides Liu for his incessant fascination with Western novelties, which he feels have no place in traditional Chinese society. In the flurry of activity surrounding Lord Tan's photo session, a foreigner, Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris), arrives. Raymond has come to introduce "Shadow Magic," the first silent movies, to Imperial Peking. From their first flicker, Liu is captured by the magic of the moving images. |
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| WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE |
| 051801 |
| This dark drama explores a true tale set in 1850
on the isolated French-Canadian island of St. Pierre. Yugoslav director
Emir Kustirica makes a fabulous acting debut as Neele August, an illiterate
fisherman who brutally murders his ex-fishing captain in a night of
drunken revelry. Sentenced to death, August cannot be killed until
the remote island Governor imports a used guillotine from the French
government. While awaiting the arrival of the "widow," August
is placed under the care of the reticent, iconoclastic Captain Jean
(Daniel Auteuil) and his freethinking wife Pauline (Juliette Binoche).
Under Pauline's direction, August becomes a devoted social servant
whose heroic deeds place the island's female population solidly against
his death sentence. The film's costuming and art direction are accomplished, setting the stage for Eduardo Serra's gorgeous landscape cinematography, at its best amongst the dreary seasonal changes of the remote island. Low angles, hand-held camerawork, and consistently foggy skies create a seasick feeling as director Patrice Leconte's pained attention to Jean's horse and the society surrounding the main characters elevates the film from a tidy chamber drama into a visually engaging philosophical discourse. |
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| AMORES PERROS |
| 051801 |
| AMORES PERROS is a bold, intensely emotional, and ambitious story of lives that collide in a Mexico City car crash. Inventively structured as a triptych of overlapping and intersecting narratives, AMORES PERROS explores the lives of disparate characters who are catapulted into unforeseen dramatic situations instigated by the seemingly inconsequential destiny of a dog named Cofi. |
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| CENTER OF THE WORLD |
| 052501 |
| Wayne Wang, although known for his personal drama about Chinese-American life, EAT A BOWL OF TEA, and the Hollywood equivalent, THE JOY LUCK CLUB, has always harbored a fascination with the depiction of sex in the movies. The director remarked, "In college I loved movies like LAST TANGO IN PARIS." Here, in his first digital video feature, he provides, like Bertolucci, a raw and unflinching look at love, sex and money. Working with a script he developed with Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster, he tells the story of Richard (Peter Sarsgaard), a wealthy dot-com computer engineer who hires Florence (Molly Parker), a dancer at a strip club, to spend three days with him in Las Vegas. She provides a contract limiting her duties to a nightly erotic show, but with no actual sex. But as they develop real feelings for each other both of them are confused about the meaning that sex would have. Richard thinks it will make her his girlfriend, Florence thinks it will make her a prostitute. While this story line may seem borrowed from the comedy PRETTY WOMAN, this is a serious, intelligent film. It's intriguing script is enhanced by the visceral immediacy of the digital video photography. Overall, CENTER OF THE WORLD is an exploration of the politics and emotions that are tied to the struggle between men, women, sex, and money. The script was written by Wang, Auster, and Hustvedt but it is credited to Ellen Wong, a pseudonym that encompasses their collective work. |
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| THE DISH |
| 060101 |
| In July 1969, the eyes of the world were on the Apollo 11 moon landing--but the world would have watched blank television screens if not for the hard work of a group of Australians manning the Parkes Radio Telescope, one of the largest dishes in the world. In THE DISH, a dramatization of the events surrounding the telecast or the space mission, Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) and Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton) try to hold their crew together through calamities and crises ranging from dangerously high winds to a sudden power failure that cuts off contact with the distant astronauts, forcing the team to impersonate Neil Armstrong for the benefit of the visiting American ambassador. While the crew frantically prepares for the big moment, relaying the footage to televisions across the world, the people of Parkes celebrate their part in this momentous historical event. One of the most critically and commercially successful films ever to come out of Australia, THE DISH is a rousing, feel-good movie that succeeds both because of its perfectly formed characters and because of a heartwarming tone that illustrates that working for a common goal is the highest calling in life. |
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| ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL'S |
| 060801 |
| The title refers to the night when three men, Randy (Matt Dillon), his cousin Carl (Paul Reiser) and Detective Dehling (John Goodman), all meet Jewel Valentine (Liv Tyler) at a bar called McCool's. Actually, they don't so much meet her as fall under her spell when they first lay eyes on her. In her clinging red dress she looks like a cross between a beautiful damsel in distress and the Lady In Red looking for John Dillinger. The story begins with Randy, desperate to be rid of Jewel, hiring a sleazy hitman, played by Michael Douglas in an outré toupee. His story of how Jewel lead him to ruin, filmed in a stylized flashback bathed in blue, is mirrored by Carl talking to his therapist--played with a delicious verve by Reba McEntire, and Detective Dehling talking with a priest; each telling their own stories of obsession with Jewel. Tyler is clearly beautiful, but it's the evil, scheming side of her character--delivered with voluptuous softness and irresistible badness--that makes the men's actions, however ridiculous they become, feel completely believable. Dillon, Goodman, and Reiser are all type cast in their familiar personas, but the story moves quickly, the dialogue doesn't have that forced sitcom feel, and a running gag involving a wooden Indian builds to an amusing pay-off. |
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| NICO AND DANI |
| 061501 |
| NICO AND DANI is a summer coming-of-age flick set in a small beach town near Barcelona. Two teenage boys--Dani (Fernando Ramallo) and Nico (Jordi Vilches)--spend a couple weeks alone at Dani's beach house when his parents leave town. They have always been best friends and have always shared everything. Suddenly they find themselves drifting apart when they meet Elena (Marieta Orozco) and Berta (Esther Nubiola) two cute local nubiles who help them discover love and sex and all of the physical and emotional pain and joy that comes with it. |
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| THE LUZHIN DEFENCE |
| 062201 |
| Based on the novel THE DEFENSE by Vladimir Nabokov, director Marleen Gorris's THE LUZHIN DEFENCE is set in Italy in the 1920s as the world reknowned chess master Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) from St. Petersburg, Russia, arrives for a match with his only known rival. Almost immediately after he arrives, Luzhin meets a glowing, graceful aristocratic woman, Natalia (Emily Watson), who is attending the match with her mother. Surrounded by potential suitors, Natalia is busy behaving like a lady and presenting various young men to her mother for approval. However, she is curious about the slovenly, unconventional, quirky Luzhin from their first meeting, and she sees past his social ineptitude, believing him to be a true genius. Luzhin is utterly smitten, and practically forgets his determination to win the match when he proposes marriage to Natalia. From there, THE LUZHIN DEFENCE spirals downward as Natalia becomes a maternal figure to Luzhin, who is haunted by ghosts from his past and is nearly driven insane by the nagging, torturous pressure to figure out the one move (a flawless defense) that will allow him to win the chess match. |
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| HIMALAYA |
| 062901 |
| It is caravan time in Dolpo, high in the Himalayas of Nepal. The villagers must trek for days across the mountains with laden yaks to trade their salt for grain. But when Karma (Gurgon Kyap) returns to the village with the body of Lhakpa, leader of the caravan and son of the old chief Tinle (Thinlen Lhondup), the new chief blames Karma for the death, and will not allow him to lead in Lhakpa's place. Though Tinle's grandson, Tserin (Karma Wangiel), is far too young to lead the tribe, Tinle simply renames him Passang--a chief's name--and prepares him to lead the caravan. Karma challenges Tinle, threatening to take away the yaks, Lhakpa's widow Pema (Lhapka Tsamchoe), and Passang before the day that the caravan begins. Old Tinle in turn visits the monastery to gather his son, Norbou (Karma Tenzing Nyima Lama), a frescoe-painting monk, to join him on the caravan. But Norbou refuses to join his father, and Tinle returns to the village to discover that Karma has left early, taking most of the caravaneers with him. Tinle, Pema, Passang, the late-arriving Norbou, and the old men of the village leave on the scheduled day, and leading their own caravan in an effort to end the rivalry that threatens every resident of Dolpo. |
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| CHOPPER |
| 062901 |
| Australian comedian Eric Bana is Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his best-selling autobiography, FROM THE INSIDE, while serving a murder sentence in prison. Beginning in the blue-washed light of a maximum security Melbourne prison, Chopper establishes his dominance with the impulsive knifing of a fellow prisoner. Vaccillating between violence and regret, Chopper apologizes to his victim, but his good mate Jimmy (Simon Lyndon) later retaliates against Chopper in an excruciating contract stabbing, rife with sexual tension. Finally released from prison, the heavily-tattooed Chopper has lost the better part of both of his ears, as well as the ability to make any distinction between his own made-up stories and reality. At a nightclub with his prostitute girlfriend, Tanya (Kate Beahan), he runs into Neville (Vince Colosimo), an old victim who limps from the attack but glitters in drug-funded gold. In his paranoia, Chopper connects rumors of a new contract on his life to Neville, Tanya, and his old mate Jimmy, to whom he pays a visit and discovers a man rotting from drug abuse. Alternately wickedly funny and grotesque, CHOPPER gives no easy answer to the question of Chopper Read's motives, but his method is clear, "Ya bash people for no reason, just to get a name for yourself." |
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| END OF THE ROAD |
| 070601 |
| grateful dead documentary. |
| WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY |
| 070601 |
| In the frenzied heat of midsummer, a family--Michel (Laurent Lucas) and Claire (Mathilde Seigner) and their three small daughters--are taking their summer vacation. Michel teaches French and Japanese in Paris, while Claire is overworked with the responsibility of raising the three little girls. Much in need of a some relaxing time off, the family retreats to the secluded stone country house they bought a few years back. Though they have been working hard to restore the place, it has a few minor hazards that need fixing--such the deep, empty well hidden in the back yard. However, before the family even arrives at the house, they encounter Harry Ballestero (Sergi Lopez), an acquaintance of Michel's, at a rest stop off of the auto route. Harry and Michel were both at the same school, in Berthollet, in 1979. Though Michel doesn't quite remember Harry, Harry remembers Michel with intense clarity. Harry can recite from memory the poetry Michel wrote for the school journal, and treats Michel like a brother. So begins the family's odd relationship with the smilingly intense Harry and his flaky girlfriend, Plum (Sophie Guillemin), who impose themselves on the family with suffocating congeniality. |
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| MOULIN ROUGE |
| 072001 |
| Cross LA BOHÈME with CABARET, throw in a little bit of RENT, and you might almost begin to describe Baz Luhrmann's visually opulent, fast-paced, funny, heartrending MOULIN ROUGE. The film, which premiered as the opener to the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, is a musical set in 1899 Paris at the notorious Montmartre cabaret club, the Moulin Rouge. Directed by Luhrmann (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, STRICTLY BALLROOM), the movie stars Nicole Kidman as the high-kicking courtesan, Satine; Ewan McGregor as the sensitive poet, Christian; and John Leguizamo as the flamboyant artist and matchmaker, Toulouse-Lautrec. Luhrmann's use of eclectic lighting and saturated color, the fast zooms and quick cuts of his camera, and his magnificent costumes and sets perfectly capture the excess and freneticism for which the Moulin Rouge was famous. Beautifully led by McGregor and Kidman, the flawless supporting cast brings to life the culture of belle époque Paris with magical realism. Above all, the anachronistic, energetic contemporary soundtrack is what drives MOULIN ROUGE, with popular songs by L'il Kim, Christina Aguilera, David Bowie, and Beck--as well as Kidman and McGregor adding their own superb vocals. |
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| BRIDE OF THE WIND |
| 072001 |
| In this semi-biographical tale of Alma Schindler (Sarah Wynter), who became Alma Mahler when she married the famous composer Gustav Mahler (Jonathan Pryce), director Bruce Beresford transports audiences to Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. The film explores Alma's relationships not only with Mahler, her first husband, but also with architect Walter Gropius (Simon Verhoeven), artist Oskar Kokoschka (Vincent Perez), and the man with whom she remarried, author Franz Werfel. With excellent casting, these intriguing historical figures are brought back to life through actors that bear impressive physical resemblance to them. The joyous but loveless Gustav Mahler is expertly played by Jonathan Pryce, and maintains a significant role in the film even after his death, through both his music and a lifelike bronze bust that Alma displays prominently in her home. The rest of the story plays up Alma's beauty and her clever pickup lines, colorfully illustrating each move she makes as she learns to attract, charm, and enrapture the men she seduces, ultimately serving as their muse. However, throughout her love affairs, Alma maintains her individuality and her interest in her own musical compositions, which she victoriously produces for a grand performance near the end of the film. Thus, BRIDE OF THE WIND frees itself from its quaint biopic packaging, positioning Alma as a harbinger of women's convictions, rights, and creative talents. |
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| THE ROAD HOME |
| 072701 |
| City businessman Luo Yusheng returns to his home village in North China for the funeral of his father, the village teacher. He finds his elderly mother insisting that all traditional burial customs be observed, despite that fact that times have changed so much. Observing his mother’s intransigence, Yusheng thinks back over the stories he heard as a boy about his parents’ courtship. His father, Luo Changyu, came to the village as the new teacher and soon fell in love with Zhao Di, considered the prettiest of local girls. But their developing romance was curtailed when Changyu was ordered back to the city for obscure political "mistakes", and the would-be lovers were kept apart for more than two years. When finally reunited, they married and never separated again. Yusheng realizes that his mother’s wishes for the funeral must be respected, and so he provides money to hire men to carry his father’s coffin the many miles from the hospital to its final resting place in the village. On the day of the funeral, though, more than one hundred of Changyu’s former pupils turn up to carry the coffin -- and none of them will accept payment. Before returning to the city, Yusheng symbolically honors his father’s dearest wish: he spends one day teaching in the village school. -- © 2000 Sony Pictures Classics |
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| SEXY BEAST |
| 080301 |
| Jonathan Glazer, the award-winning director of advertisements and music videos, presents his feature film debut with this lushly photographed, expertly written, and brilliantly performed convention-defying British gangster film. SEXY BEAST jettisons the slickness of the LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS school in favor of intricate character development. In its opening shot, Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone)--a big-bellied ex-gangster with a cockney accent--is sunning himself pool side at his luxe villa on Spain's Costa Del Sol when a gigantic boulder hurtles down a hillside, almost killing him. This near miss serves as a troublesome portent, but it hardly affects Gal, who is immersed in his tranquil life with wife Deedee (Amanda Redman), who he adores with earnest fervor. However, Gal's peace is soon shattered by the arrival of Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, using his shaved skull, spare frame, and ramrod posture to pose as an anti-Gandhi), a brutal former accomplice looking to recruit Gal for a heist. A battle of wills ensues when Gal refuses to leave retirement, and the frighteningly intense Don refuses to take no for an answer. Glazer expertly heightens the film's tension using shifts in the pacing and flashbacks, while Kingsley and Winstone imbue their characters with gorgeous life. |
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| THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR |
| 081001 |
| From German director Tom Tykwer, whose energetic RUN LOLA RUN wowed audiences in 1998, comes this ethereal modern-day fairy tale. Hypnotizing German actress Franka Potente (RUN LOLA RUN, BLOW) stars opposite deft, volatile newcomer Benno Furmann. Using beautiful visuals involving ice cubes, underwater bubbles, rain, and the well-worn buildings of Wuppertal, Tykwer implements his signature filming style--a roving, curious, rapid camera that examines its subjects in extreme close up, follows letters into mailboxes, and soars over the nighttime city like a bird. The musical score and the impeccable use of sound complete the film's sensory excellence. |
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| SHREK |
| 081701 |
| Set in a strange, colorful land populated by fairy tale characters, SHREK is a hilarious comedy that will win over audiences of children and adults alike. Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) is a fearsome green ogre living in isolation in his own cozy little swamp. He is not receptive to visitors, and fends off the occasional party of torch-wielding villagers with ease. But when the power-hungry Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) turns Shrek's swamp into a relocation camp for dozens of banished fairy-tale characters (including some pesky dwarves, wolves, and fairies) Shrek's quiet, introverted life is ruined. Joined by the talkative Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Shrek makes his way to Farquaad's realm of Duloc, where the Lord promises makes Shrek and offer: He will rid Shrek's land of the unwanted visitors if Shrek will go on a simple quest to free Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from her remote, dragon-guarded castle and convince her to marry Farquaad. On their quest, Shrek and Donkey run into a number of bizarre situations, and Shrek finds himself realizing that he isn't quite the fearsome monster he has always made himself out to be. Reinventing the traditional fairy tale adventure, SHREK features gorgeous computer animation, a unique sense of humor, and compelling characters--especially Eddie Murphy's lovable Donkey. |
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| THE GOLDEN BOWL |
| 081701 |
| Set in the rarified world of affluent American expatriate England and Italy between 1903 and 1909, THE GOLDEN BOWL tells the story of an extravagantly rich American widower and his sheltered daughter, both of whom marry only to discover that their respective mates are romantically entangled with one another. ADAM VERVER (Nick Nolte), America's first billionaire, and his daughter MAGGIE (Kate Beckinsale) live a privileged life in Europe, surrounding themselves with beautiful objects and amassing one of the world's greatest art collections. Their intimate family circle expands when Maggie decides to marry PRINCE AMERIGO (Jeremy Northam), an impoverished (but authentically aristocratic) descendent of a long line of Italian princes, and invites her beautiful, but impecunious school friend CHARLOTTE STANT (Uma Thurman) to attend their wedding. |
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| SONG CATCHER |
| 082701 |
| LOST AND DELIRIOUS |
| 083101 |
| A hauntingly evoked tale of three adolescent girls' first loves, discovery of sexual passion, and search for identity, Lost and Delirious is the first work filmed in English by acclaimed Quebecois director Lea Pool (Emporte-moi). From a brilliant adaptation of Susan Swan's novel, The Wives of Bath, by Toronto screenwriter Judith Thompson, the film features a knockout cast with Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) as Paula, Jessica Paré (Stardom) as Tori, and Misha Barton (The Sixth Sense) as Mary, who goes by "Mouse." All in their teens or early twenties, the actors give powerful, improvisatory, emotionally sensitive performances. Set in a posh, private boarding school surrounded by luxuriant, green forest, Lost and Delirious moves swiftly from academic routine, homesickness, and girlish silliness to the darker regions of lovers' intrigue: Paula and Tori are discovered; Mouse becomes their confessor and accomplice and the unstoppable emotions of adolescence collide with the immovable conventions of society as she is torn between loyalty to her two friends. In Lost and Delirious, the theatricality of overwrought teenage emotion finds its counterpart in the artful use of Shakespearean drama, from poetic declaration of love, loss, and defiance, to symbols of falconry and fencing. This Gothic tale of love's blooming, its innocent ecstasy, and ultimate obsessions is a tour de force. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Films |
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| STARTUP.COM |
| 083101 |
| As an ailing economy reduces high-flying Internet companies around the country to bankruptcy, acclaimed documentary team Chris Hegedus, D A Pennebaker and newcomer Jehane Noujaim take a behind-the-scenes look at the volatile start-up phenomenon, chronicling the turbulent development of govWorks.com, an award-winning Internet site that facilitates interaction between local government, citizens and businesses. Turning a familiar headline story into a high-pressure personal odyssey, Startup.com follows the trials of partners Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, best friends since childhood, as they progress from being rookies with only a business plan to assuming the leadership of a nationally recognized Internet company struggling to survive an inhospitable economy. |
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| DIVIDED WE FALL |
| 090701 |
| This dramatic story of a hero against his will is set in a small Czech town occupied by German forces during the last years of the Second World War. Josef and Marie Cizek are a childless couple. She yearns for a baby, but unfortunately her husband is sterile. By chance one day they come across a young Jewish man named David, and they offer him refuge in their home. From that moment they begin a dramatic fight for survival. |
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| AMERICAN RHAPSODY |
| 090701 |
| This autobiographical coming of age tale from writer-director Eva Gardos begins in 1950s Hungary as Communist oppression forces a pair of aristocratic parents (Nastassja Kinski and Tony Goldwyn) to sneak across the border to freedom and find a new life in America. Circumstances result in their infant daughter, Zsuza, being left behind to spend her formative years in the care of loving Hungarian peasants. When, at age six, she finally comes to the U.S., the cross-curtain culture shock makes for an extra-stormy adolescence, especially when her guilt-ridden mother becomes over-protective to the point of keeping Zsuza locked in her room. |
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| BROTHER |
| 090701 |
| Abandoned by the brotherhood of his yakuza clan, tough guy Yamamoto (Beat Takeshi) is forced to leave Tokyo. He goes to Los Angeles in search of Ken (Claude Maki), his younger half-brother. Alone and with a new identity, Yamamoto finds himself frustrated by foreign surroundings, especially since he doesn't speak the language. Yamamoto eventually tracks down Ken, who turns out to be a likable small-time drug dealer. When Ken introduces his older "aniki" to his home boys, Yamamoto is surprised to find that one of them is Denny (Omar Epps), an African-American guy with whom he had a violent run-in on his first day in Los Angeles. Despite initial suspicions and hostilities, an unexpected bond begins to develop between Denny and Yamamoto. |
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| THE DEEP END |
| 091401 |
| Tilda Swinton is riveting as Margaret Hall, a conscientious mom raising a family in Lake Tahoe who is entangled in a web of blackmail. While she frets over transporting her kids to ballet and baseball practice, she worries that her teenage son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker), is involved in a sleazy nightclub life in nearby Nevada. Margaret's husband is a Naval officer who is often away at sea, so she is alone in rearing her family. When Beau gets into a car accident with his gay lover, Darby (Joshua Lucas), after a night of partying in Reno, Margaret takes matters into her own hands and tells Darby to stay away from her son. A few days later Darby shockingly turns up dead next to her boathouse. Shortly thereafter, mysterious Alek (Goran Visnjic of the television series ER) comes to Margaret's door armed with an incriminating video of her son and Darby and threatens to go to the police if she doesn't pay him $50,000. The film's mystery and tension mount as the plot twists and turns--in one scene Tilda Swinton's captivating eyes frantically look on as the strangely tormented Goran Visnjic performs CPR in an emergency worthy of ER. |
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| THE CLOSET |
| 092101 |
| Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil, The Widow of Saint-Pierre) leads an uncomplicated, complacent and quiet existence. Due to his severe case of "boring," his wife leaves him and his seventeen-year-old son abandons him. Pignon has little left to sustain himself except his accounting job at a condom factory. Until one day he accidentally discovers he is going to be fired, because his employers have grown tired of him as well. |
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| JACKPOT |
| 092801 |
| Jackpot, Nevada is a town one hundred miles south of Twin Falls, Idaho. But “Jackpot” also means the payout of a slot machine – wealth without effort. For Sunny Holiday (Jon Gries), the pathway to success is to become a country-western singer. Abandoning his beautiful wife Bobbi (Daryl Hannah) and their young baby, he sets off with his manager Lester “Les” Irving (Garrett Morris) on a nine-month, forty-three-city tour through a series of bleak western towns. The two hit the road in a 1983 pink Chrysler in search of their Anerican dream, with the rhythn of George Jones’ “Grand Tour” perpetually leading them on. They hit one bar after another in one city after another, living on the big payday at the end of each night. They are scraping by (some clubs only pay them with home appliances), but that doesn’t stop Sunny from sending Bobbi lottery tickets every so often -- the ultimate jackpot if one ticket hits, but the most desperate form of child support when they don’t. |
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| MONTY PYTHON'S HOLY GRAIL |
| 100501 |
| This classic Monty Python comedy, directed by Pythons Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, is a hilarious send-up of the grim circumstances of the Middle Ages as told through the story of King Arthur and framed by a modern-day murder investigation. When the mythical king of the Britons leads his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, they face a wide array of horrors, including a persistent Black Knight, a three-headed giant, a cadre of shrubbery-challenged knights, the perilous Castle Anthrax, a killer rabbit, a house of virgins, and a handful of rude Frenchmen. |
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| MADE |
| 100501 |
| Following their success five years before with SWINGERS, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn team up again in MADE, a comedy about two very different down-on-their-luck L.A. friends who get caught up in a dangerous deal in New York City. Favreau stars as Bobby, a hardworking, very serious construction worker who dreams of becoming a boxer and settling down with his stripper girlfriend (Famke Janssen) and her young daughter. Vaughn plays Ricky, an obnoxious ne'er-do-well who thinks that pulling off a big job for boss Max (Peter Falk) will be their ticket to the big time. The duo is sent off to New York to take part in a deal they know nothing about; while Bobby waits calmly for them to be discreetly contacted, Ricky never shuts his mouth, barking orders at random people, flashing his green and his wry smile all over town, annoying the heck out of everyone he meets, especially Ruiz (Sean "P-Diddy" Combs), who is their connection. The film is beautifully shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who recently filmed Wong Kar-Wai's stunning IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Bobby and Ricky make the perfect pair; Favreau is often silent in scenes, watching deadpan as Vaughn steals the show as the brazen, overbearing, but lovable Ricky. To lend authenticity to the film, Favreau shot it in such landmarks as Hollywood High, Tavern on the Green, and the Central Park Zoo, and he hired SOPRANOS stars Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy), Federico Castelluccio (Furio), and Drea de Matteo (Adriana) to further the mob connection. The film was coproduced by Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in 1983's beloved A CHRISTMAS STORY. |
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| DEAD MAN WALKING |
| 100501 |
| This fascinating and powerful drama explores the relationship between a condemned young convict and the nun who counsels him in the days leading up to his execution. Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) is on death row after being convicted of raping and brutally murdering a young couple. He writes to Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) for help, asking her to visit him in prison. She agrees to act as his spiritual adviser and begins to spend time each day with him. Prejean, who strongly opposes capital punishment, attempts to get Poncelet's death sentence rescinded. First, however, she tries to save Poncelet's soul by getting him to face up to his guilt and ask forgiveness for his actions. |
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| THE THIN BLUE LINE |
| 100501 |
| Through the use of reenactments of the crime, photo montages, film clips and interviews, this is a reconstruction and investigation of the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman and the subsequent arrest and sentencing to death of a man who claims to be innocent. |
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| THE VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN |
| 101201 |
| Set in Hanoi, Vietnam, THE VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN is a rich visual banquet overflowing with lush, artful images that unfold with the same languorous slowness with which the the film's enigmatic characters and relationships develop. Three sisters, Lien (Tran Nu Yen-Khe), Khanh (Le Khanh), and Suong (Nguyen Nhu Quynh), and their brother, Hai (Ngo Quang Hai), come together to prepare a feast in remembrance of their deceased parents. They end up discovering that they each harbor important secrets. |
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| MULHOLLAND DRIVE |
| 101901 |
| David Lynch strikes again with this literal nightmare of a motion picture--a brilliant, scathing, hysterical, and haunting ode to Hollywood. In the film, a mysterious dark-haired woman (Laura Elena Harring) emerges from an accident with a purse full of cash and a head full of amnesia. Meanwhile, Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), a wide-eyed gal from Deep River, Ontario, has just landed in Los Angeles with dreams of movie super stardom. When Betty finds the nameless beauty in her aunt's apartment, she is deeply intrigued by the situation and offers to help her. This sends the two women on a bizarre search for the truth through the macabre, sun-soaked streets of the City of Angels, where the mob, a young film director (Justin Theroux), a studio executive with a tiny head, and an enigmatic figure named the Cowboy all float into the picture, then out again, until there is no longer any distinction between what is dream and what is reality. |
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| HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH |
| 101901 |
| John Cameron Mitchell is the creator of the off-Broadway hit HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, which he and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask have transformed into a funny, dramatic, and curiously poignant self-described "post-punk neo-glam musical" film, with extra songs and a new instrumental score. Hedwig (played by Mitchell) was born as Hansel in East Berlin. In his twenties, Hansel agrees to undergo a sex change in order to marry a U.S. soldier (Maurice Dean Wint) and escape to America. Unfortunately, the procedure fails, and Hedwig is left with nothing but a sexless "angry inch" between her legs. After being abandoned in a Kansas trailer park by her husband, Hedwig decides to make the most of her situation: She develops a taste for outrageous wigs and costumes, forms a band, and becomes a singer. Hedwig soon meets and falls in love with 17-year-old Tommy (Michael Pitt), who also harbors rock star aspirations, and makes him her musical protégé. But Tommy is the one who ends up stealing the superstardom that Hedwig worked for, after stealing Hedwig's songs and claiming them as his own. In order to expose him as a fraud, she embarks on a tour of strip mall restaurants, telling her story to the audience while trailing Tommy on his own tour across America. |
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| GHOST WORLD |
| 110201 |
| Terry Zwigoff finally follows up his 1994 breakout success, CRUMB, with this infectious, insightful, and ultimately sad look at teenage angst and boredom in suburbia that recalls such films as WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE and RUSHMORE as well as MTV's excellent DARIA series. The screenplay, written by Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes, is based on Clowes's underground comic book, GHOST WORLD. Best friends Enid and Rebecca have graduated from high school, and now they need to figure out what comes next. Rebecca gets a menial job at a coffee shop and starts looking for an apartment, while Enid wallows in her miserable (Daria-like) worldview, in which all jobs are sellouts and nearly all people are creeps, geeks, and losers. But when she plays a practical joke on the biggest dud of them all, Seymour, a lonely man who lives only for his collection of classic 78s, her life gets turned upside as she finds herself needing him in ways she never thought possible. Thora Birch (Enid) and Steve Buscemi (Seymour) are nothing short of marvelous in their complex roles, and they receive ample support from Scarlet Johansson, Bob Balaban, Teri Garr, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, and the great David Cross. The excellent soundtrack includes songs by Skip James, Blueshammer, the Buzzcocks, Lionel Belasco, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, and Mohammed Rafi, among others. Note to Buscemi fans: There's a small bit at the end of the credits, so stick around. |
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| L.I.E. |
| 110901 |
| The Long Island Expressway, the highway that traverses suburban Long Island with its "lanes moving east, lanes moving west, and lanes that go straight to hell" serves as the central metaphor in this disturbing meditation on coming of age and teenage vulnerability. Howie Blitzer (Paul Franklin Dano) is a sensitive fifteen-year-old who runs with a rough crowd. The recent death of his mother (in a car accident on exit 52 of the L.I.E.) and his father's indifference to it, have left him floating in a world bubbling over with sex, violence, and danger. When his best friend Gary convinces Howie to burglarize the house of their neighbor, 60-year-old Big John (Brian Cox), the tenuous balance of their teenage existence is entirely thrown off. To make matters even worse, Howie's father is arrested over a bad business deal. Howie is left dangling, and only Big John seems to care. A harrowing mixture of tenderness and perversion electrifies the father-son relationship that forms between Howie and Big John. Director Michael Cuesta's touching vision of domestic life in modern-day suburbia is at once humorous and unnerving as it boldly charts one boy's convoluded path through adolescence. |
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| MY FIRST MISTER |
| 111601 |
| A rebellious teenage girl (Leilee Sobieski) who dresses in gothic garb and wears harsh metal jewelry in the piercings that cover her face, finds a friend in a conservative middle-aged man (Albert Brooks) working in a men's clothing store. While the pair initially seem like total opposites, they soon learn that have a lot in common and can really relate to each other. Using a first-person narrative that is reminiscent of Wynona Ryder's unhappy teenagers in HEATHERS and GIRL INTERRUPTED, this film gives its full, uninterrupted attention to the cryptic mutterings of its protagonist, Jennifer (Sobieski). She has a vivid imagination and the ability to see the worst in everything. Her English teacher is evil and has fangs, her classmates are buxom bimbos who have recently undergone nose jobs, and her wierd mother (when not talking about the benefits of women eating blood in the form of brisket for dinner) has friends that are fatter than elephants. Jennifer's visions are illustrated by distorted camera angles that make comedy of her exaggerations. But when Jennifer meets Randall (Brooks), a boring and equally pessimistic guy, her perspective changes. She wants him to accept her. And when he reaches out to her, she accepts him. MY FIRST MISTER therefore becomes a sweet story about friendship, self-motivation, and changing your life for the better. |
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| GRATEFUL DAWG |
| 111601 |
| GRATEFUL DAWG is an illuminating documentary that shows an entirely different side to Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia. In the early 1960s, Garcia met bluegrass mandolin musician David Grisman, and their mutual love of Bill Monroe's music led them to form Old & In the Way, which released its first album in 1973. Their collaboration loosened up Grisman and tightened up Garcia, resulting in excellent records and a lasting friendship that is revealed here in fascinating detail. (They even end up looking somewhat alike.) After spending thirteen years doing other projects, they reunited and eventually played a Christmas concert at Sweetwater on December 18, 1990. They also played together a year later, at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on December 17. Never-before-seen footage from these two shows dominates the film, and includes full-length versions of the Jimmy Cliff song "Sittin' in Limbo," the sea shanty "Off to Sea Once More," their own "Dawg's Waltz," the Dead's "Friend of the Devil," and the classic seventeen-minute jam "Arabia." There is also footage of them in the studio recording the playful old children's ditty "Jenny Jenkins" for the NOT FOR KIDS ONLY album. But the true star of this documentary is the unseen Gillian Grisman, David's daughter, who set up a camera whenever Jerry would visit, capturing David and Jerry's wonderful interplay in the living room or in the studio, a relaxed and happy Jerry just enjoying himself, with none of the pressures of having to live up to being the much-worshiped Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. At the end of the film, when David, his family, and the other members of the band talk about Jerry's death, it is hard not to get choked up. |
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| APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX |
| 112301 |
| Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic, loosely based on HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, tells the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), a special agent sent into Cambodia to assassinate an errant American colonel (Marlon Brando). Willard is assigned to a navy patrol boat operated by Chief (Albert Hall) and three hapless soldiers (Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, and Larry Fishburne). They are escorted on part of their journey by an air cavalry unit led by Lt. Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a gung-ho commander with a love of Wagner, surfing, and napalm. After witnessing a surreal USO show featuring Playboy playmates, and an anarchic battle with the Viet Cong, Willard reaches Colonel Kurtz's compound. A crazed photo journalist and Kurtz groupie (Dennis Hopper) welcomes the crew, and Willard begins to question his orders to "terminate the colonel's command." Considered to be one of the best war movies of all time, APOCALYPSE NOW features incredible performances and beautifully chaotic visuals that make it a powerful, unforgettable work. |
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| SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK |
| 113001 |
| An intricate web of relationships is examined by Ed Burns (THE BROTHERS McMULLEN, SHE'S THE ONE) in SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK. Burns, who also wrote and produced the film, stars as Tommy Reilly, a boy from Queens turned successful Manhattanite. After being kicked out of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, he is back in the dating scene. When he meets a divorced schoolteacher (Rosario Dawson), the connections between the additional main characters in the ensemble--played by Stanley Tucci, Heather Graham, Brittany Murphy, and David Krumholz--are identified slowly but surely: a divorced couple, an adulterous married man and his mistress, and a doubting wife. Burns' look at relationships leaves no stone unturned as the main characters and their friends discuss their love lives. Filmed throughout New York City, the characters' stories are spliced together by their own personal monologues in documentary-style scenes. Well-delivered, witty, and humorous banter that is reminiscent of the works of Woody Allen keeps the story moving, as does the shooting technique of following behind the characters with the camera. Tucci, in particular, delivers a standout performance as a two-timing, lecherous dentist. |
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| THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE |
| 113001 |
| The Coen brothers' THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE is a brilliantly photographed black-and-white absurdist noir set in Santa Rosa, California, in 1949. Ed Crane (the outstanding Billy Bob Thornton) is a slow-moving, barely talking barber who doesn't seem to want much out of life. He has virtually no relationship with his wife, Doris (Frances McDormand), who has more fun with her boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini). But when a strange character (Jon Polito) lets it be known that he's looking for a silent partner to finance his dream business (something he calls dry cleaning), Ed sees a possible way out of his doldrums. Just like any good James M. Cain novel (which the Coens cited as a major influence on the story), blackmail, deceit, violence, murder, and double crossing ensue, all with the magic Coen twists and turns. |
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| JIN ROH |
| 120701 |
| A retelling of the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood, Hiroyuki Okiura's debut feature, the Animé film JIN-ROH, is a tale of personal crisis amid intra-bureaucratic skulduggery. The film is set in an alternate reality in which Japan has emerged from World War II as a totalitarian society. The population riots, a group called the Sect creates havoc, and the armored Special Unit of the Capitol Police Organization (CAPO) plots to acquire more power. A soldier named Fuse, who was once one of the most formidable men in the Special Unit, agonizes over the death of a young girl who worked for the Sect and in doing so he becomes a neurotic mess intent on befriending the dead girl's sister. |
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| BREAD AND TULIPS |
| 121401 |
| Winner of nine David di Donatello Awards among numerous other international prizes, BREAD AND TULIPS is a charming romantic comedy from director Silvio Soldini. Licia Maglietta is simply magnificent as Rosalba, a fortyish married woman who is abandoned at a rest stop during a family bus trip. Suddenly feeling that something is missing from her life, she hitches her way toward Venice, calling her husband--bathroom fixture salesman, Mimmo--only occasionally to tell him that she is taking her own short vacation and that he will have to take care of the house and their two teenage sons. But a day or so stretches into a longer period of time as Rosalba finds herself making a new group of friends, getting a job, and beginning to care for an oddly appealing--and suicidal--waiter. The great Bruno Ganz is terrific as the fatalistic Icelandic waiter who speaks softly and carefully, stringing together multisyllabic, unusual words that often leave other characters scratching their heads while the audience laughs. The film features an outstanding supporting cast, including Felice Andreasi as an aging anarchist florist who likes to yell at customers, Giuseppe Battiston as a detective-story-reading plumber, Marina Massironi as a flippy holistic beautician masseuse, and Daniela Piperno as a wacky free spirit who changes Rosalba's life. |
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| OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS |
| 121401 |
| The writer Fernando Vallejo returns to Medellin, the city of his childhood, after an absence of over thirty years. Fernando meets Alexis, 16 years old, in a boys' brothel. Alexis comes from the slums. He has been drawn into a world of killing. |
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| AMELIE |
| 122101 |
| Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who glides through the streets of Paris as quietly as a mouse. With wide eyes and a tiny grin, she sees the world in a magical light, discovering minor miracles every day. A shy and reserved person whose favorite moments are spent alone skimming stones into the water, Amélie was raised by a pair of eccentrics who falsely diagnosed her with a heart problem at the age of six and so limited her exposure to the outside world. Now a free and independent woman, Amélie wears a bob that curls in every direction and dresses in red. With a job in a café and an aptitude for spying on her neighbors, Amélie entertains herself by enacting a series of homemade, kindhearted practical jokes. She returns a long-forgotten box of childhood knickknacks to its proper owner, she sends her father's garden troll on a trip around the world, and she creates a love connection at the café between the hypochondriac druggist and a beer-drinking old grouch. But when the day is done, Amélie finds one stone unturned, and decides to work her magic on the quirky object of her affections, Nino Quincampoix (Matthieu Kassovitz), whom she has never met. |
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