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 BOOGIE NIGHTS. This film about porno actors in the 1970s
is nice 'n' sleazy, but in a good way. Boogie Nights tracks
the career of Eddie Adams (porno name: Dirk Diggler), a sweet
kid from The Valley who's not really all that bright. But, as
he says, "everyone is blessed with one special thing,"
and his is located in his pants. The best and worst of '70s cultural
detritus forms the perfect backdrop for the story of Dirk, who
believes fervently, despite all evidence to the contrary, that
adult movies are a force for good. There's dissolution, loss of
innocence, and a strange, fragile sense of triumph in this movie
that is, at the core, about a bunch of untalented people struggling
to make art. --Richter
EVE'S BAYOU. A movie that begins with the line, "The
summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old," Eve's
Bayou is a sluggishly paced family drama that, at the least,
always gives you something to look forward to. But this isn't
primarily a murder story, and Eve's not really a murderess. Instead,
the confused, curious title character is the starting point for
several threads relating to women's feelings about men. When Eve
(played by the thoroughly watchable Jurnee Smollett) isn't competing
against big sis for the affections of her charismatic father (Samuel
L. Jackson), she's watching her mother's emotions wither away
due to daddy's small-town philandering. Then there's daddy's psychic
sister, a three-time widow who's convinced she's cursed. Add a
pinch of witchcraft here, a dollop of female bonding there, lace
in some strong performances by an all-black cast, serve it up
with lovely images from a mossy Louisiana backwater--and oh yeah,
don't forget that murder--and you've got a Southern gothic that'd
probably be affecting if the direction were sharper. Unfortunately,
it isn't, and Eve's Bayou gets stuck in a murky quagmire
somewhere between compelling and boring. --Woodruff
THE ICE STORM. The '70s seem to be the hot decade in the
movies right now, and The Ice Storm is one of the few films
that treats that era as something other than camp. Based upon
the novel by Rick Moody, this quiet, intelligent story of a family
lurching through the chaos and disillusionment of the sexual revolution
and Watergate treats the decade as a time of lost innocence, dirty
secrets, and ungraceful quests for meaning. Kevin Kline and Joan
Allen play Ben and Elena Hood, a WASPy Connecticut couple whose
only fight has been over whether to quit "couples therapy."
We soon learn that this isn't due to a harmonious marriage; rather,
they're simply too dedicated to disguising their emotions to consider
fighting. Their teenage kids, Wendy (a terrific performance by
Christina Ricci) and Paul (Tobey Maguire) have absorbed this lesson
well and are already nurturing their own secret lives. Though
all four seem to long for closeness, all they can manage is to
edge farther apart, as the worst storm of the decade glazes the
trees and roads of their Connecticut town in a beautiful, treacherous
layer of ice. Director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, Eat
Drink Man Woman) continues to do what he does best--chronicle
complicated family relationships with sensitivity and compassion.
--Richter
THE JACKAL. An assassination plot is about to be carried
out by a ruthless hitman who's a master of disguise, and the only
man who can stop him must be released from prison in order to
do so. Now that's originality! For all who haven't seen The
Rock, In the Line of Fire, The Professional, The Day of the Jackal,
or about 17 dozen other films about über-assassins and experts
let out of jail so they can stop them, this is the most daring,
innovative movie since Godard's Breathless. For the rest
of us, it's an expensive-looking but constipated series of preparation
scenes, as cold-hearted meanie Bruce Willis checks into airports
wearing various frizzy wigs, while former IRA sniper Richard Gere
anticipates where that rascally Jackal will strike next. Willis
has hardly any lines, Gere has too many (at least with that Irish
accent, it's too many), and good-guy FBI agent Sidney Poitier
basically stands around and watches. There's some nasty business
where Willis seduces a gay man to gain security clearance, and
also shoots somebody's arm off with a big gun. Director Michael
Caton-Jones approaches this smirking sadism in much the same way
he did for Tim Roth's character in Rob Roy: He lets the
evil permeate the entire picture, hoping we'll be relieved when
the accented hero finally saves the day. Aye, isn't it time for
a new approach, laddie? --Woodruff
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY. The third film from the team that
brought us Trainspotting and Shallow Grave has the
same startling sense of composition and color as these previous
efforts, but none of the wit. Ewan McGregor plays a poor janitor
who falls in love with a beautiful rich girl (Cameron Diaz) due
to the influence of some bizarre angel-creature-things. The film
lurches from fantasy to romance to road movie without rhyme or
reason; even worse, the Boy and Girl don't even seem to like each
other, much less light up each other's lives. If you crossed the
1932 Hollywood romance It Happened One Night with Touched
by an Angel and stirred in a little bit of Tommy
and then doubled your dose of Prozac, then you'd be watching A
Life Less Ordinary. The question is, why would anyone want
to do this? --Richter
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE. Okay, so this movie only has
one joke. And so its one joke could have been much better exploited,
with genuinely hilarious results instead of merely amusing ones.
Still, I had a fun time watching Bill Murray good-naturedly goof
his way around London, and even at its worst the movie deserves
tolerance. Murray plays a Des Moinesian dimwit who, on holiday
for his birthday, signs up for "The Theatre of Life,"
an audience-participation program where actors help you act out
an heroic mini-adventure in real-world settings. Somehow Murray
stumbles upon an actual espionage scheme (can you spell "contrivance"?)
and, the big silly, he thinks it's all part of the game. Murray
spends the rest of the movie blithely "acting" while
real hit-men and other shady characters come at him from all directions.
Idiot luck and conversations full of double-meanings ensue. If
this had been any other comic (say, Jim Carrey), the film would
probably be unwatchable; but Murray's easy-going yet well-tempered
mania saves the day. The gimmicky material is putty in Murray's
hands: he plays with it, rolls his eyes, winks, shrugs, dances
around a bit, and the show's over. Also starring the attractive
Peter Gallagher and Joanne Whalley as foils. --Woodruff
THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS. I must confess I have absolutely
no idea what the title means. Which is par for the course since
the movie, about a dysfunctional family which reunites for Thanksgiving,
left me equally confounded. Two brothers (Noah Wyle, Michael Vartan)
and two sisters (Julianne Moore, Laurel Holloman) come home to
find dad (Roy Schieder) as aloof and cranky as ever, while mom
(Blythe Danner) remains blissfully co-dependent. The story has
something to say about how the parents' warped psyches and repressions
trickle down to all the children, infecting their relationships
in ways they recognize yet can't control. But the characters are
sketchy and the scenes just don't seem to fit together. Whether
the effect of a bad screenplay or an overzealous editor, I'm not
sure, but the result is that The Myth of Fingerprints comes
across like a moody TV melodrama with Chekovian pretensions.
--Woodruff
STARSHIP TROOPERS. Johnny and Carmen are sweethearts, but
Carmen loves Zander, because he looks so good in uniform. So she
joins the army to be near him. So Johnny joins to be near Carmen.
So Dizzy, who loves Johnny, joins to be near him. Oddly, even
though they're from Buenos Aires, they all speak English with
perfect Southern California accents, and are the most white-bread
people in the armed forces. Anyway, Carmen sends a "Dear
Johnny" letter, and Johnny has a night of passion with Dizzy,
so giant space insects kill Dizzy. If the giant space insects
kill Zander, then perhaps Johnny and Carmen can finally be together.
Meanwhile, Doogie Howser MD has psychic congress with the bugs,
even though he really loved Dizzy all along. An unprecedented
number of things, people, and insects get blown up or chewed up,
and some brains are eaten, but this provides the hope for salvation.
Sadly, we have to wait for the sequel to see if the bugs are defeated,
Johnny gets to have love with Carmen, and Doogie Howser learns
how to say his lines without making the audience guffaw. Rated
"R" for completely gratuitous nudity and lots of little
pieces of human bodies flying all over the place. --DiGiovanna
SWITCHBACK. Jeb Stuart, the scribe behind such moneymakers
as Die Hard and The Fugitive, directed this low-key
but reasonably good thriller based on one of his early screenplays.
The plot, which leads from Texas to the beautiful, snow-clogged
Rocky Mountains, has an FBI agent (Dennis Quaid, sad-eyed and
brooding) tracking the serial killer who kidnapped Quaid's son.
Action-movie clichés abound, but Switchback has
a surprisingly honorable feel to it; all the main characters,
even (inexplicably) the villain, are granted heavy doses of sympathy
and integrity. Danny Glover and Jared Leto are interesting as
an unlikely pair of travelers (one of whom may be the killer);
but the best is R. Lee Ermey as a scrupulous sheriff. Ermey, best
known as the sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, has been cool
in nearly everything he's done. --Woodruff
TEMPTRESS MOON. The cinematography and sets are beautiful,
and the portrayal of the changing social rules of China in the
1920s fascinating in this period film about a handsome seducer
who victimizes the rich women of Shanghai. Leslie Cheung plays
Zhongliang, an intense gangster with a flair for melting the ladies'
hearts. He visits the traditional estate of the Pang clan, hoping
to squeeze the beautiful opium smoker Ruyi (Gong Li) for her fortune.
The plan, of course, goes horribly awry, and everybody ends up
falling in love with the wrong person. The plot tends to get melodramatic;
best to just relax and look at the pretty pictures assembled by
Chinese director Kaige Chen. --Richter
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