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SHREK: Directed by Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson. Produced by Aron Warner, John H. Williams, Jeffrey Katzenberg. Written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman, based on the book by William Steig. Original Score, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell. Editor, Sim Evan-Jones. Production design, James Hegedus. Visual Effects Supervisor, Ken Bielenberg. Supervising Animator, Raman Hui. Starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, with John Lithgow and Vincent Cassel. Dreamworks Pictures, 2001. PG. 89 minutes.
The Donkey (Eddie Murphy) steals the show. A motor-mouth with basic insecurities, he figures out early on to attach himself to the one person who isn't afraid of the despotic dwarf who runs the country, Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow). That would be Shrek, of course, an irreverent fellow who takes on saving the beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a crafty, fire-breathing dragon so she can become the evil Lord's bride. But Shrek always pushes Donkey away. They're sidekicks on a roadtrip but never exactly friends. The best moments are throw-aways -- Shrek referring to Snow White as a "dead broad;" the venality of the people who are turning in fairy tale characters to be "resettled;" Pinocchio's nose growing apace while he tries to wiggle out of capture; the coy looks Donkey and dragon exchange; and the Princess' secret, safely kept until late in the movie. Fiona's spunky; she makes a mean insect and rat stew and troops along with Shrek and Donkey without complaining. But for all its vaunted originality, much about Shrek is second-hand. Being one of the guys is the tomboy movie-type Diaz plays, just as the wisecracker is Murphy's. And with Shrek's mangled Scottish brogue, Myer revisits one of his characters from Austin Powers. So while we feel all warm realizing the secret to being happy is to be yourself, the "selves" we're getting here are fabricated in the same Hollywood dream factory that created the earlier characters and stars they're modeled on. Surely product spin-offs for Shrek and the gang are in the works. Not to minimize the movie's appeal. It flies by, entertaining all the while. Shrek grows from a vulgar, eager-to-offend ogre to a vulnerable fellow. Donkey becomes the most grown-up -- sure of himself, his place, his goals and tuned in to other's needs. Colorful, short and visually delightful animation may be pitched to kids, but this one is sophisticated enough to please some adults. Great work by PDI, the computer animation division of DreamWorks. Shrek is now playing at Cinemark and Cinema World. Highly recommended.
THE CENTER OF THE WORLD: Directed by Wayne Wang. Produced by Wang and Peter Newman. Story by Wang, Miranda July, Paul Auster, Siri Hutvedt. Screenplay by Ellen Benjamin Wong. Cinematography, Mauro Fiore. Editor, Lee Percy. Production design, Donald Graham Bent. Art direction, Diana Kunce. Costumes, Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell. Music, Deva Anderson. Starring Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker, with Carla Gugino. Artisan Entertainment, 2001. NR. 86 minutes.
The Center of the World has been wrongly compared to Bernardo Bertolucci's brilliant Last Tango in Paris (1973), a far more layered, nuanced film. Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider play strangers whose unplanned sexual encounter ignites the screen. Not a prostitute, Schneider's character explores her own sexuality but demands complete anonymity. Brando plays a man of the world, as unlike Sarsgaard's poor Richard as imaginable. Why is it that films about prostitutes sentimentalize the vocation and imagine that the women involved enjoy the sex? It's more than an educated guess that women in this service industry are in it for the money, but you'd never guess it from the movies. Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967) made a cover girl and movie star of Catherine Deneuve as a cold, newly married woman who takes up part-time prostitution for erotic thrills. On the other hand, Marleen Gorris' 1985 disturbing Broken Mirrors takes us inside a brothel where prostitutes go about their business even while stalked by a serial killer. The main character is a married woman who works there part time for the money -- an unabashed feminist approach that's an exception in the genre. Among American films, Alan J. Pakula's 1971 erotic thriller starring Jane Fonda, Klute, is so rich in cultural context as to stand alone -- a thinking person's film that wears its age well. L.A. Weekly film critic Manhola Dargis writes eloquently about Fonda's portrayal: "a woman in whom the contradictions of the era restlessly, relentlessly collide. Good woman, bad woman, lost soul, right-on hippie chick .... all of Bree's identities were true and false at once." Garry Marshall's 1990 Julia Roberts' star vehicle, Pretty Woman, glamorizes the profession and fantasizes an ideal love relationship. Dargis writes, "Fast-forward two decades to 1990 and [Klute's] contradictions are replaced by Pretty Woman. An entire history of American film could be written pegged to just Klute and Pretty Woman." If you wondered why Roberts took control of the Academy Award ceremony when she won for Erin Brockovich, just remember how she got there. Most if not all women aspiring to stardom will make a movie sometime in which they play a woman who takes money for sex. It's almost a rite of passage. Look at it this way: Their bosses -- male producers, directors, writers and co-stars -- are their pimps, and we're their paying customers. It doesn't matter if I find The Center of the World heartless or not, because people who want to see it for the sex will go, as they should. Opens at the Bijou on Friday, May 25.
Hearts and Mind (1971): Peter Davis' Academy Award winning documentary about how the Vietnam War affected the people who lived there. Just scenes of the ravaged countryside and interviews; no narrator. Profound. R. At 7 pm on 5/30 in 180 PLC. Free. Men with Guns: John Sayles' 1998 political drama is set in an unnamed country (but shot in Mexico). A city doctor (Federico Jose Luppi) in denial goes into the war-ravaged countryside looking for his medical missionary students. Not rated. At 7 pm on 5/29 in 122 Pacific Hall. Free. Pearl Harbor: Director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer's $135 million WWII epic stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale and Cuba Gooding Jr., with Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore, Dan Aykroyd and Alec Baldwin. B & B made Armageddon and The Rock, and now they'll blow up lots of vintage battleships and aircraft and strike a blow for patriotism. Cinemark 17. Cinema World. Pokemon 3: 'Nuf said. G. Movies 12. Recess: School's Out: Animated Disney film's about a plot to create permanent winter, thus doing away with summer vacation! G. Save the Last Dance for Me: Talented white girl from small town (Julia Stiles) enrolls in an inner city high school in New York where she falls for a popularAfrican American boy (Sean Patrick Thomas) who also loves to dance. PG-13.
Angel Eyes: Luis Mandoki's romance between a cop (Jennifer Lopez) and a mysterious man (Jim Caviezel) also stars Sonia Braga. R. Cinema World. Cinemark. Blow: Ted Demme directs Johnny Depp as George Jung, now in prison, but in the 1970s the first American to import cocaine from Carlos Escobar's Colombian cartel to the U.S. Based on book by Bruce Porter, movie also stars Penelope Cruz, Ray Liotta, Rachel Griffiths and Paul Reubens. R. Movies 12. Bridget Jones' Diary: Renée Zellwegger plays the neurotic but witty Londoner on the prowl for a man. Hugh Grant's her boss, and Colin Firth is an old friend. Sharon Maguire's directorial debut. Script by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis. Fun movie, highly recommended. R. Cinemark. Cinema World. See review. Cast Away: Tom Hanks learns to survive when his plane crashes and he washes up on a remote tropical island. Helen Hunt is the girlfriend he left behind. Intimate direction by Robert Zemeckis, a lean script by William Broyles Jr., and an edgy performance by Hanks. Highly recommended. PG-13. Movies 12. See review. Crocodile Dundee in L.A.: Simon Wencer directs the return of the old Aussie fave played by Paul Hogan, with Linda Kozlowski as the love interest. PG. Cinema World. Double Take: It's Trading Places for the new century as NY investment banker (Orlando Jones) switches identities with a petty thief (Eddie Griffin). George Gallow directs. PG-13. Movies 12. Driven: Sylvester Stallone in a racetrack action picture directed by Renny Harlin. PG-13. Cinemark. Exit Wounds: Steven Seagal, DMX and Tom Arnold mix it up in this action flick about rogue cops directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. R. Movies 12. Hannibal: Ridley Scott chronicles Hannibal Lector's inevitable return in this gruesome sequel starring Julianne Moore and Anthony Hopkins. Script by David Mamet, Steven Zaillian. Bloodsoaked, creepy movie earns its rating. R. Movies 12. See review. Heartbreakers: Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play mother/daughter con artists. Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman are marked men. David Mirkin directs. PG-13. Movies 12. See review. Josie and the Pussycats: Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson, life-long friends from the 'burbs, put their garage band on the road to success until they run into a nefarious pair of schemers. PG-13. Movies 12. Knight's Tale, A: Aimed at 12-year-olds, this medieval adventure fantasy stars Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell. Directed by Brian Helgeland, co-writer of L.A. Confidential. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark 17. Memento: Written, directed by Christopher Nolan, based on his brother Jonathan's story. Stars Guy Pearce as a man whose memory loss following a crime in which his wife was raped and killed propels him toward vengeance. With Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano. Question the film's skewed reality at every opportunity. R. Bijou. See review. Mexican, The: Comic road movie stars Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini in a mobbed-up escapade south of the border. Has its moment, but murder isn't really all that funny. R. Movies 12. See review. Mummy Returns, The: Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz star in this thriller directed by Stephen Sommers. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Ethan and Joel Coen's feel-good Depression-era comedy and homage to old timey music is their best ever. Stars George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, with Holly Hunter, Charles Durning, John Goodman. Highest recommendation. Fabulous screenplay, cinematography and CD. PG-13. Cinema World. See review. Shrek: Computer-animated fairy tale (by DreamWorks' Pacific Data Images, makers of Antz) stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow. Entertaining and funny for kids and grown-ups. PG. Cinema World. Cinemark. See review. Spy Kids: Robert Rodriguez directs this youth-oriented tale about superspies (Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino) who leave the life to marry and have kids. When they're kidnapped, only their kids can save them. PG. Cinemark. Tailor of Panama, The: John Boorman's film, based on a John le Carré novel, stars Pierce Brosnan as a bored British agent who puts the moves on Cathrine McCormack while tying his fate to a British ex-con (Geoffrey Rush) married to Jamie Lee Curtis. Surprisingly well-done, it's highly recommended. R. Cinemark 17. Traffic: Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed film stars Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Erica Christensen. Academy Awards for Soderbergh's direction, Del Toro's acting, Gaghan's screenplay and Mirrione's film editing. Best film of 2000. R. Movies 12. See review. What Women Want: Mel Gibson as an accident victim who can suddenly hear the private thoughts of women -- Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei and Lauren Holly. PG-13. Movies 12. Widow of Saint-Pierre, The: Patrice Leconte directs Daniel Auteuil, Juliette
Binoche and Emir Kustirica in a passionate love story wrapped around the tale of
a condemned man on a French-run island in the 19th century who must wait for a guillotine
to arrive that will kill him. R. Bijou. See
Review. Bijou
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Shadow of the Vampire: John Malkevich plays silent film director F.W. Murnau, and Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe is his bloodthirsty star, Max Schreck. It's about the making of Murnau's masterpiece, the 1922 Nosferatu, and is directed by E. Elias Merhige and written by Steven Katz and is either an homage or an extended riff on the similarities between vampirism and filmmaking or both. Eccentric and spooky with a touch of magic.. Highly recommended. R. See review. Traffic: Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed film takes a hard look at the complexities of federal drug interdiction programs and jail instead of treatment for drug addicts. All-star ensemble class includes Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Erica Christensen. Academy Awards for Soderbergh's direction, Del Toro's acting, Gaghan's screenplay and Mirrione's film editing. Brilliant; the best film of 2000. R. See review. Next week: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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