Roberto Benigni has created a contemporary classic with Life is Beautiful. Co-written and directed by Benigni he also stars in a funny and heart-warming fable of love and imagination conquering all. It is Italy, during WW II and the reign of Mussolini, and Benigni plays Guido an incurable romantic and gentle-hearted soul. He falls for Dora, Nicoletta Braschi, a local school teacher. He tries to get her attention through comic ploys including impersonating a government inspector touring the school districts to make sure all of Il Duce's policies are being implemented. Dora is engaged to someone else and the situation seems hopeless. Yet Benigni succeeds in winning her heart and they are married. Five years later the Nazis occupy the town and, being Jewish, Guido, along with his son, is slated for a concentration camp. Dora volunteers for the same fate to be with her family. Once at the camp Dora is separated from Guido and her boy. Guido learns that the children are of no use to the labor pool and are executed. He hides his son and makes survival a game in which the grand prize is a real army tank. Through a series of quick-witted and imaginative ploys Benigni keeps his son out of harm's way all the while shielding him from the grim realities of their situation. Life Is Beautiful is a parable rooted in the most desperate of times dealing with the most powerful of all emotions, love. Do not miss Life Is Beautiful, for you will be passing up a cinematic gem. Life Is Beautiful is rated PG-13 for holocaust-related themes.
Just in time for Halloween comes John Carpenter's Vampires. Carpenter has given us some great screen moments: Prince of Darkness, The Thing, Escape From New York and Christine are some examples. Now with John Carpenter's Vampires he returns to the horror genre that he rejuvenated in 1978 with Halloween. James Woods is Jack Crow, a vampire slayer trained by the Vatican to hunt down and destroy nests of the blood-sucking undead. Along with his band of mercenaries and a priest Woods has been kicking butt for years. After destroying a nest in New Mexico Wood's team is destroyed while celebrating their victory. The only survivors are Woods and his right-hand man, Daniel Baldwin, who take along Sheryl Lee after she was bitten by Valek. Valek is the original vampire, created by the Catholic Church during a botched exorcism, and for 600 hundred years has been searching for Berziers Cross. This cross will give Valek and all of his successors the ability to walk in the daylight, making them virtually unstoppable. John Carpenter takes the vampire myths and legends and gives them a new foundation and direction with this film. His irreverence toward the Vatican and its priests provides James Woods with some very funny lines and some unsettling scenes. The production values and gore factor are high and Carpenter never flinches or cops out. John Carpenter's Vampires is a gothic-modern tale that flies in the face of tradition giving us one hum-dinger of a movie. John Carpenter's Vampires is rated R for strong violence, gore, language and sexuality.
Todd Solondz won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival wiht his film Welcome To The Dollhouse. He's back with another dark and sometimes humorous look as suburbia in his new film, Happiness. Take a melange of losers, misfits, perverts and poseurs looking for happiness, intertwine their lives, and let them loose on the world and each other. The results can be funny, painful and downright disgusting. Joy, Jane Adams, is 30 and still lives with her parents. One sister, Lara Flynn Boyle, is a successful, yet shallow and vacuous, author. The other, Cynthia Stevenson, is a wife and mother, married to a therapist and enjoying the bounty of American suburbia. The therapist, Dylan Baker, is a child molester who goes after his son's classmates. Joy dumps Jon Lovitz who then commits suicide. She quits her job and begins teaching adult education classes for immigrants where she has an affair with one of her Russian students. Joy's parents, Ben Gazarra and Louise Lasser are on the verge of splitting up. Now, admittedly, there are some funny scenes in Happiness but there is nothing humorous about a sexual preditor and pederast. The only saving grace of this element in the film is a brutally honest and powerful scene of Dylan Baker as he is questioned by his son, Rufus Read. There is expectoration, regurgitation and ejaculation in Happiness. The people in this story are such losers that you really don't care about them and that makes it seem twice as long as its 134 minutes. Happiness is not recommended for youths under 16.
Screenwriter Gary Ross makes his producing and directorial debut with Pleasantville, an entertaining and subtly subversive film. Pleasantville is the story of siblings Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. He's a geek obsessed with a black and white 50's sitcom called Pleasantville. She's a 90's gal obsessed with high school popularity to the point where she is becoming the school slut. While fighting over the TV remote they are zapped into TV-land and become part of the Pleasantville show where there are no arguments, no strife, no sex, no hatred and the sun shines brightly all day long. Forced to play out their roles as the kids of William H. Macy and Joan Allen, Maguire and Witherspoon bring a 90's awareness to the town's esidents. Witherspoon teaches her boyfriend about sex and Maguire gives Jeff Daniels a book of fine art reproductions to spur his dreams of being an artist. In a hilarious scene of self-discovery Joan Allen experiences her first orgasm. As more of the townspeople become aware of choices heretofore unknown to them, color begins to creep into this drab monochromatic world. And this is where Gary Ross' subtly subversive messages begin to sneak up on us. Bigotry and prejudice, spurred by fear, divide Pleasantville. Don Knotts, a TV icon himself, has a key role in the film. Randy Newman uses period music to great effect, emphasizing changes and developments in the story. Pleasantville is a film that will take your world and turn it 180 degrees to give you a fresh, innovative and, well, just a gosh-darn wonderful look at life. Pleasantville is rated PG-13 for sexuality and language.
If you are not familiar with poetry "slams" the movie Slam will be informative. Slam is the story of Ray Joshua, a rapper with the soul of a slam poet. Living in a housing project nicknamed Dodge City because of the shootings, Ray is busted for possession of pot as a result of his friend being shot on the street. While awaiting trial Ray becomes the target of inmates who think he was responsible for the shooting of his friend. As the situation reaches boiling point Ray is not sure what to do. On the day of confrontation he delivers a poem of such passion and ferocity in the exercise yard that it leaves everyone stunned and diffuses a potentially fatal situation. The event is witnessed by Lauren Bell who is teaching a writing course for the prisoners. She encourages Ray to take the lass. When Ray makes bail and is out on the street he remembers what he saw and learned while in stir. He tries to make the neighborhood toughs understand that violence against each other leaves no winners. He also pursues his poetry. Looking up Lauren, Ray is taken to a meeting of slam poets and introduced to the art form. Poetry "slams" are intensely visceral and emotional experiences where the poets go head-to-head in competition using only their words and presentations. Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn are believable and powerful as the lead characters and her revelatory scene behind her apartment building is so real you can feel her pain and anger coming off her in waves. Slam is a gut-wrenching and intensely real story that should not be missed. Slam is rated R for language, a sex scene and brief violence.
Remember Flesh Gordon, the X-rated satire of the Flash Gordon serials with some really great special effects? Well, Ograzmo is no Flesh Gordon, and, in all fairness, it was never intended to be. Orgazmo is the story of Joe Young, Trey Parker, a Mormon doing door-to-door ministry in L.A. He is lured into playing Orgazmo, a porn-movie super-hero, because of the money he needs for his upcoming wedding. Reassured that the hard-core sex scenes would be handled by a stand-in, Parker does his best and Orgazmo becomes an overnight, mainstream success. Tempted with more money to do a sequel, Parker is found out by his fiancee who comes to visit. Parker's boss, Michael Dean Jacobs, is also strong-arming a sushi bar owner to sell his place so his club next door can expand. Trey Parker wrote and directed Orgazmo and his South Park humor turns to the porno industry; that alone is a fertile field for satire. Having porn stars Ron Jeremy, Chasey Lain and Jacklyn Lick in the cast lampooning themselves and the industry that made them famous is right on the mark but the humor is akin to nine-year-olds telling potty jokes. Orgazmo had the potential to be brilliant but Parker went for the "easy laugh" instead of the more demanding "set-'em-up and bowl-'em-over" brand of comedy. I guess that's why after a while Orgazmo drags and eventually lies there as limp as a you-know-what! South Park and Trey Parker fans will have a ball, no pun intended. Others will shake their heads and ask "why?". Orgazmo is rated NC-17 for obvious reasons.
After ten years of trying to find the right director to bring Toni Morrison's novel to the big screen, Beloved is a reality. Oprah Winfrey optioned the screen rights to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel a decade ago. Since then she has been looking for the right combination of talent to translate the dense and metaphysical story into a workable script and eventually a film. Beloved is the story of Sethe, Oprah Winfrey, a slave who escapes Kentucky for the freedom of Ohio. There she is reunited with her children who were sent on ahead of her. Danny Glover is Paul D, a former slave on the same plantation as Sethe. He visits Sethe and her daughter Denver and sees evidence of the house being inhabited by a malevolent spirit; the spirit of Sethe's dead daughter. One day a stranger calling herself Beloved appears at Sethe's door. She can barely speak or walk. Beloved is taken in and cared for by Sethe and Denver. Thandie Newton plays Beloved who is the physical manifestation of Sethe's guilt over her daughter's death. Wrestling Toni Morrison's novel into a manageable script was a prodigious undertaking. Even so, the film runs almost three hours. But Beloved has a lot to say. It affords us a look at slavery from the inside. Inside a person's mind. Inside a person's heart. Inside a person's soul. Beloved will make you think, and that may make some viewers uncomfortable. Beloved is rated R for violent images, nudity and sexuality.
The Mighty is the story of two outcasts, Max, Eldon Henson, and Kevin, Kieran Culkin. Max is a big powerful hulk who has failed the seventh grade twice and lives with his grandparents. Kevin is an intelligent and precocious individual with a spinal deformity and leg braces. One needs a brain and the other needs legs. Together they become an oddity: Kevin sitting atop Max's broad shoulders as the two go on mythical quests sparked by Kevin's imagination and love of stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Max's grandparents, Gena Rowlands and Harry Dean Stanton, have raised him ever since his father went to prison for killing his mom. Kevin's mom, Sharon Stone, was left by his father when he was born with the birth defects. The pair form a bond based on pain and need and their friendship grows with each victory over prejudice and violence. Max and Kevin encounter Gillian Anderson and Meatloaf, some friends of Kevin's father, while performing a noble deed; and Anderson figures prominently in a climactic scene. Kevin teaches Max about realizing his potential as a human being while Max gives Kevin a view of the world previously unavailable to him. The Mighty is a story that delivers important messages about self-esteem, dignity and courage for young people while giving adults a film that is touching and entertaining. The Mighty is rated PG-13 for scenes of violence and peril.
In an age of tele-evangelism, home shopping networks, self-actualization and psychobabble Holy Man takes them all on. It's an ambitious goal that could have paid big satiric dividends. Instead Holy Man has a few inspired moments and an hour of false starts and near-misses. Jeff Goldblum is a flack for the Good Buy Shopping Network whose performance is abominable. His boss, Robert Loggia, has given him two weeks to increase sales or he's toast. On the way to a meeting, Goldblum and marketing expert Kelly Preston meet Eddie Murphy who calls himself "G"; draw your own conclusions. "G" is a guru who ends up on the GBSN hawking their wares along with inspirational messages of his own design. Murphy has some great scenes and his sincerity and compassion as "G" are some of the film's best moments. Jeff Goldblum is a durable actor who can turn in a good performance almost every time, but here the material fails him. Robert Loggia has made a career of playing grizzled, grumpy guys or hard-nosed honchos with a heart like diamond. In Holy Man he rants, raves and carries on as only he can. Although Holy Man's message of anti-materialism is well-intentioned the script is muddled and slow in taking off. The film's first twenty minutes drag and Kelly Preston is no help at all. Tight sweaters and snug skirts are her best acting qualities. Holy Man has no soul. Holy Man is rated PG.
Practical Magic deals with a centuries-old curse on the women of the Owens family. Any Owens woman who falls in love will eventually have the object of her affections die prematurely. Oh yeah, the Owens women are witches. Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing are the maiden aunts who raise Sandra Bulllock and Nicole Kidman, passing on the family secrets, chants and incantations. Once grown, Kidman leaves home to pursue a hedonistic lifestyle until a lover physically abuses her. A plaintive call brings Bullock and together they head back home. Unfortunately the bad boyfriend goes along and terrorizes them until he meets a deserved end. A few days later Aidan Quinn shows up on the sisters' doorstep checking on the whereabouts of Mr. Dead Boyfriend. Bullock and Quinn are smitten with each other, but Bullock is widowed with two daughters as a result of falling in love once before. When the dead boyfriend returns, Bullock and Kidman have their hands full. Practical Magic has some nice surprises and good acting all 'round. Aidan Quinn always puts in a good performance and the chemistry between him and Bullock is exceptional and touching. Their scenes ground this fantasy film to reality and make it work. Practical Magic is a lot of fun and comes just in time for Halloween. Practical Magic is rated PG-13 due to violence and sensuality. It may be too intense for younger viewers.
Stanley Tucci scored big with his directorial debut in Big Night. Now he's back as Actor/Dirctor/ Writer and Co-Producer of The Impostors. Tucci and Oliver Platt are would-be actors doing street theatre and hustling for meals when they run afoul of Alfred Molina, an actor whose ego is bigger than his talent. The two find themselves as stowaways on a luxury liner populated by Steve Buscemi as a depressed and depressing Happy Franks, singer with the ship's band, a German head steward complete with monocle and dueling scar, and an anarchist with a bomb set to blow the sip to kingdom come. The Impostors is Tucci's homage to the madcap comedies of the 1930's. There are touches of W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers and Preston Sturges throughout the film. The ensemble cast includes Isabella Rossellini, Tony Shalhoub, Billy Connolly, Lili Taylor and Dana Ivey. Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci impersonate ship stewards trying to avoid detection while dodging Alfred Molina, the cause of their present situation, who is also aboard for the cruise. There are close calls, frantic chases down ship's passageways and quick dodges into passenger's cabins to keep out of sight. Tucci has crafted a story with multiple plotlines converging in a hilarious climax and juggles them all with a deft directorial hand. Stuff this good hasn't been seen since MONKEY BUSINESS and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. Go see The Impostors and relive a time when comedy wasn't all toilet jokes and sexually explicit scenes.
