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SPIDER: Directed by David Cronenberg. Written by Patrick McGrath, based on his novel. Produced by Cronenberg, Samuel Hadida and Catherine Bailey. Executive producers, Luc Roeg, Charles Finch, Martin Katz, Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Hannah Leader, Zygi Kamasa, Simon Franks, Victor Hadida. Cinematographer, Peter Suschitzky. Production design, Andrew Sanders. Editor, Ronald Sanders. Music, Howard Shore. Costumes, Denise Cronenberg. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson and Gabriel Byrne, with Lynn Redgrave, John Neville and Bradley Hall. Sony Pictures Classics, 2002. R. 98 minutes. A train pulls into the station, a shiny black and red train. It stops, people get off and walk toward us, then out of the frame. Eventually, a stooped man in a large raincoat carrying a valise disembarks and the camera moves toward him. The man is a cipher, a disoriented nonentity. He mutters in a stunted, almost unrecognizable language.
He walks a long time through an industrial area of a city, which looks empty, abandoned. No cars on the street. No other people. Occasionally, he looks hard at a scrap of paper and sputters to himself. Bright red lintels mark the doorways on a cream-colored wall. The man stops, checks the number above a door and raps loudly with the knocker. The woman who answers the door says, "We've been expecting you." He recoils as if struck but follows her inside. This is the place where Dennis "Spider" Cleg (Ralph Fiennes) will live, and she is the landlady, Mrs. Wilkenson (Lynn Redgrave). Benign neglect is the most generous way to describe how she relates to those boarders recently released from mental institutions, but from their points of view Mrs. Wilkenson is a powerful figure with nearly unlimited control over them. Terrance (John Neville), an older man who lives there, sees her as a Nurse Ratched determined to make their lives unbearable. But Terrance is kind to Spider. Spider scuttles around his room, hiding a small notebook various places — under a rug, in a drawer. His suitcase contains bits of string and little else. He is frightened by shadows, and the pipes in the nearly bare room scare him. He is uneasy with himself, and we are uneasy with him. Sometimes he writes in his book, feverishly. But his markings are unintelligible as far as we can tell, although emotionally they contain all his secrets. Spider knows London's East End very well. The neighborhood where he grew up is nearby, and he finds it again. He wanders the alleyways, drinks in the pubs, has coffee in a bleak cafe. And he finds the house where he lived with his mother (Miranda Richardson) and father, Bill Cleg (Gabriel Byrne). As Spider seeks the truth of what happened to him when he was a child, we see it unfolding through his eyes. Like him, we cannot tell apart reality, memory and fantasy. The moments when Spider stands unseen in a room with his mother, father or both, perspective shifts. Sounds and sights take on an inflamed, hallucinatory edge, and we are as lost to truth as he. The brilliant Canadian director of the macabre, David Cronenberg, here forgoes special effects and relies on ordinary reality skewed through the mind of a schizophrenic to affect viewers. This masterful, disturbing film journeys into the labyrinthine corridors of Spider's warped memories with admirable restraint. Caught in a classic Freudian dilemma, Spider sets about to prove to himself that when he was 10 years old his father killed his mother and installed a prostitute in her place in their home. And rather than use a voice-over narrator, Cronenberg tells Spider's story cinematically. And what that means is that Miranda Richardson, who plays the disturbed boy's mother, also plays several other characters as well, although not all the time. OK, so you have to see the movie for that sentence to make sense, but trust me, it's true. While Fiennes's performance is compelling because it is so deeply internalized, Richardson's accomplishment is to fashion totally separate personalities for each of the women she portrays. Both are phenomenal. Spider opens Friday, April 18 at the Bijou. Cronenberg, Fiennes and Richardson — brilliant! Highest recommendations.
Ring!
Ring! PHONE BOOTH: Directed by Joel Schumacher. Written by Larry Cohen. Produced by Gil Netter, David Zucker. Executive producer, Ted Kurdyla. Cinematography, Matthew Libatique. Production design, Andrew Laws. Film Editor, Mark Stevens. Costumes, Daniel Orlandi. Music, Harry Gregson-Williams. Starring Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland and Forest Whitaker, with Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes., Paula Jai Parker and John Enos. 20th Century Fox, 2003. 81 minutes. R. A freaky, one-act sideshow takes place in a mid-Manhattan phone booth, surrounded by pimps, prostitutes, passersby and police. Joel Schumacher directs this quickie, shot in fewer than 12 days with a scrimpy budget and currently hot Irish actor Colin Farrell in nearly every scene. But the story is the brainchild of pulp writer Larry Cohen, whose cheap horror flicks include Invasion of Privacy (1996) and Misbegotten (1997), for which the website Rotten Tomatoes fails to find even foreign reviews. The premise is so simple that if you've seen the trailer (and who hasn't?), you've seen the movie. Stu Shepard (Farrell) is a ruthless, inflated New York publicist, who dresses in spendy Italian suits and shoots the breeze with gossip columnists and pimp rock stars. Stu conducts his business via cell phone and his monkey business from the phone booth. Same time, every day. One afternoon he calls his side dish, Pamela (Katie Holmes), but before he gets out of the booth, the phone rings, and he picks up. A man's voice on the other end (Kiefer Sutherland) flays him for being a sorry sleaze who cheats on his wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell). He proposes that Stu tell Kelly the whole truth about his relationship with Pamela, because right now the caller's looking at Stu through the sights of his rifle. So if Stu hangs up or leaves the phone booth, he's toast. From this point on, a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues between these men, both of whom come off as arrogant, know-everything jerks. If that's appealing, you're going to like this movie a lot. If it's not, you're going to be bored out of your mind in about another 10, 15 minutes. That's when the police arrive, and Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker) begins to reason with Stu to come out with his hands up.
Now by himself Ramey might have served as an adequate foil for the deadly competition going on within the closed-circuit phone talk, but instead he is hassled by a loud-mouthed, know-it-all police interrogator, a dude who galls this viewer more than either Stu the asshole or the warped caller. So now we have three out-of-control, rival egos scrambling for dominance, and none of them worth spending two minutes with. Boring. Part of my phonic dis-connect from the ongoing melodrama is Sutherland's voice. Because I watch "24," I kept hearing the authoritative dulcet tones of intelligence agent Jack Bauer of CTU, the Counter-Terrorist Unit, and wondering why Jack would be killing or threatening to kill people for moral ineptitude. Granted, such ethical lack is to be found at self-important levels of show biz, but why target this pip-squeak womanizer? He's whiney and pathetic but not dangerous. Then I'd remember I wasn't watching TV; this was a movie that I'd paid $4.75 to watch. Then I was pissed. The movie has a few thrilling moments when it seems that a pimp with a grudge (John Enos) will actually break into the phone booth with a baseball bat and dispatch Stu himself. Earlier Stu had blown off an edgy prostitute (Paula Jai Parker), who wanted the phone to call clients, and now this flashy muscle-man has come to protect her good name. The pimp gets his comeuppance when the sniper takes him out, but his girls wail that Stu killed him. That's the situation when the police arrive, the conundrum Stu and the captain must sort out before Stu gets himself shot by the NYPD. The best thing about this movie is that it only lasts 81 minutes. Other than that and Forest Whitaker, I can't think of a strong reason to recommend it. Now playing at Cinema World and Cinemark.
Aimee & Jaguar: German director Max Färberböck's tender love story based on true story of two women who fall in love as Berlin burns during WWII. One is a housewife with four little boys and a Nazi soldier husband. The other is an educated, stylish German Jew who hides in plain sight while working for the resistance. Highly recommended. NR. At 7:30 pm on 4/22 in 115 Pacific. Free. Online archives. Bonnie and Clyde (US, 1967): Arthur Penn's violent, beautiful film about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Depression bank robbers. Stars Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, with Estelle Parsons and Gene Hackman. At 7 pm on 4/23 in 180 PLC. Free. Bullet-Proof Monk: Chow Yun-Fat is a Zen-calm martial arts master who must find a successor to guard a sacred scroll. Seann William Scott is the unlikely choice. PG-13. Cinemark. El Mariachi (1993) Robert Rodriguez's violent action film about a Mariachi musician who becomes embroiled in a Mexican border town gang war is brilliant, low-budget filmmaking. Carlos Gallardo and Consuelo Gomez star. R. At 7 pm on 4/25 in the International Resource Center, UO. Free. French Film Festival: At 7 and 9 pm on 4/18: Under the Sand: (François Ozon's exquisite study of grief stars Charlotte Rampling as a woman who cannot accept her husband's mysterious disappearance and probable death at their beach house. NR. Online archives.) and Murderous Maids (Jean-Pierre Denis' 2001 film based on the actual, notorious 1993 murder of a woman and her daughter by two domestic servants, sisters with a complicated relationship. NR.) At 7 and 9 pm on 4/19: Fat Girl (Anaïs Reboux stars as an intelligent, overweight 12-year old spending the summer at the beach with her parents and sister. Directed by Catherine Breillat, this sexual essay has suspense and a whopper of an ending, critics say. NR.) and The Piano Teacher: (Michael Haneke's film stars Isabelle Huppert as a sexually repressed piano teacher who repulses the ardor of a student with her demand for kinky sex. A hateful film about an enraged woman and her debasement. NR. Online archives.) At 7 and 9 pm on 4/20.: Happenstance: (Audrey Tatou stars in Laurent Firode's whimsical 2001 tale of contemporary Paris, which is itself a pleasing surprise. R.) and Amelie: (Jean Pierre Jeunet's popular hit film about loneliness in the city stars Audrey Tautou as a shy French pixie who meddles in the lives of her Paris co-workers, family and neighbors. R. Online archives.) All films shown in 100 Willamette, UO campus. $3 student/$4 general. Gods and Generals: Jeff Shaara's epic novel about the Civil War, adapted by director Ronald F. Maxwell, stars Jeff Daniels, Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang and Mira Sorvino. Nearly four hours long, with intermission. Roundly trounced by critics. PG-13. Movies 12. Ghost World: Terry Zwigoff's highly acclaimed film, adapted by Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes from Clowes' comic book. Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson play disaffected teens, Steve Buscemi is the bitter adult who befriends them. Buscemi is great. One of 2001's best movies. R. LateNite Bijou. Online archives. Holes: Adventures digging holes at Camp Green Lake for Stanley, who comes from a strange family that's been cursed for generations. Embarrassingly, Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver and Tim Blake Nelson co-star. PG. Cinema World. Cinemark. KT: At 7 pm on 4/25 in 207 Chapman, UO. Free. Malibu's Most Wanted: Jamie Kennedy, Taye Diggs and Anthony Anderson in an urban comedy about hip-hop culture. PG-13. Cinemark. Cinema World. Middle East Film Festival: At noon on 4/19 at the Bijou, Promises: (Documentary by Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg follows seven Palestinian and Jewish Israeli children ages 9-13 from 1995-1998. An inside look at how open, good kids cannot but be changed by the violence all around them. Heartbreaking.) At 7 pm on 4/24 in 100 Willamette, UO campus, Frontiers of Dreams and Fears: (Mai Masri's documentary about the friendship between two Palestinian girls, one who lives in Beirut, the other in Bethlehem.) Sliding scale $5-$15 goes to support Grassroots International's peace work in Israel and Palestine. Moscow Parade (Russia, 1992): Just before the Nazi invasion, a cabaret singer gets caught up in the shifting alliances of WWII. Directed by Ivan Dykhovichny. Subtitles. At 7:15 pm on 4/23 in 115 Pacific, UO. Free. National Security: Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn star as LAPD wannabes who end up as security guards, yet still manage somehow to nab the bad guys. PG 13. Movies 12. R.M., The: Mormon-themed comic tale of a young missionary, who returns home only to find his large family has forgotten he's coming, his girlfriend has found someone else, and his best friend has charted his own path. PG. Cinema World. Recruit, The: Al Pacino and Colm Ferrell star in this story about the inner workings of the CIA. Also with Bridget Moynahan, and directed by Roger Donaldson. PG 13. Movies 12. Sonatine (Japan, 1996): Yakuza action film from writer, director Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, who also stars. He gives an acclaimed performance and creates an understated gangster film that doesn't glorify the profession. R. At 7 pm on 4/18 in International Resource Center, UO. Free. Spider: David Cronenberg's story of a schizophrenic man, played by Ralph Fiennes, who cannot tell apart reality, memory and fantasy from one another. Neither can the viewers, and it makes for a compelling film experience. Great multi-role performance by Miranda Richardson. With Gabriel Byrnes and Lynn Redgrave. Highest recommendations. R. Bijou. See review this issue.
CONTINUING: Agent Cody Banks: Teen action adventure stars Frankie Muniz as an undercover CIA operative, Angie Harmon as his boss, and Hilary Duff as girlfriend. PG. Movies 12. Anger Management: Adam Sandler plays a man who must undergo anger management. His shrink, played by Jack Nicholson, moves in with him. Also stars Marisa Tomei. PG-13. Cinemark. Cinema World. Bend It Like Beckham: Soccer-crazy girls in London suburb drive their respective families crazy because they'd rather play soccer than think about marriage and shopping. Warm-hearted, generous film is likely to be a big hit. Get onboard early and enjoy!. Highly recommended. PG-13. Bijou. Online archives. Bringing Down the House: Domestic comedy starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah is directed by Adam Shankman. PG-13. Cinemark. Catch Me If You Can: Steven Spielberg directs Leonardo DiCaprio in tale of Frank Abagnale Jr., an actual '60s con man who passed himself off as a pilot, a doctor and a college professor and forged millions in checks before he was 21. Christopher Walken plays his father, and Tom Hanks is an F.B.I. agent. 2002 Academy Award noms for John Williams' music, Walken. Highly recommended. PG-13. Movies 12. Online archives. Chicago: Broadway spectacular directed by Rob Marshall stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones as killer dames behind bars who compete for tabloid coverage. With Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly and Richard Gere. 2002 Academy Awards for best picture, supporting actress Zeta-Jones, art direction, sound, editing and costumes. PG 13. Cinemark. Cinema World. Online archives. City of God: Rio de Janeiros is home to one of the most notorious slums in the world, called City of God. Based on true stories from the 'hood in Paulo Lins' novel. Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund direct this acclaimed, unflinching film that stars primarily unknown first-time actors. Highly recommended if you can handle violence. R. Bijou. Online archives. Core, The: Jon Amiel directs this adventure to the center of the earth. Scientists played by Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank and Bruce Greenwood journey deep into the earth to detonate a device to reactivate the planet's core. An unintentional comedy, it's a great break from reality. PG-13. Cinemark. Online archives. Daredevil: Marvel Comic's Man Without Fear is directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Stars Ben Affleck as the masked vigilante, Jennifer Graner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Joe Pantolliano, Jon Favreau and David Keith. PG-13. Movies 12. Darkness Falls: This horror thriller directed by Jonathan Liebesman is about the Tooth Fairy's revenge. One viewer wrote on the IMDB: "God, talk about wretched and boring..." PG-13. Movies 12. Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets: Again directed by Chris Columbus, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) try to uncover a dark force terrorizing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. G. Movies 12. Online archives. Head of State: Chris Rock directs, co-writes and stars in this tale of a D.C. alderman who runs for the presidency. Also stars Bernie Mac, Dylan Baker, Robin Givens, James Rebhorn. PG-13. Cinemark. House of a 1000 Corpses: Think this might be a horror film? R. Cinemark. Jungle Book 2: Same song, second verse from Disney. Mowgli now lives in the man village, but he misses his friends and runs away to the jungle to find them. But he may be found first: by Shere Khan the tiger, his old jungle pals, or his new family. Voices include John Goodman, Haley Joel Osment and Phil Collins. G. Movies 12. Kangaroo Jack: Taking mob money to Australia, two New York doofuses loose it to a kangaroo. Stars Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken and Dyan Cannon. David McNally directs. PG. Movies 12. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Directed and re-imagined by Peter Jackson, part two of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy continues. New characters, a surprise return and great battles. Director Peter Jackson's second masterpiece. Very highest recommendations. 2002 Academy Awards for sound editing, visual effects. PG-13. Cinemark. Online archives. Man Apart, A: If you've seen the trailer, you know that Vin Diesel is an undercover cop you don't want to mess with, especially after some sorry drug dealer scum breaks into his home. Violent revenge flick. R. Cinemark. Cinema World. Other Network, The: Unaired and previously unseen pilots of four short works. Heat-Vision & Jack is directed by Ben Stiller and stars Jack Black and the voice of Owen Wilson as his sidekick, a talking motorcycle. The Lewis Lectures is a animated film about a woman and her dogs. North Hollywood follows several wannabes living on the fringe of H'wood. Saturday TV Funhouse "is a darkly demented kids sketch show " that's definitely not for kids. LateNite Bijou. Phone Booth: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes and Radha Mitchell star in Joel Schumacher's thriller. R. Cinema World. Cinemark. See review this issue. Pianist, The: Winner of the Cannes Best Picture award, this critically acclaimed film is based on the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, composer and pianist. When the Nazis invade, he finds salvation in his art. Directed, produced by Roman Polanski, it stars Adrien Brody as Szpilman. Highest recommendations. 2002 Academy Awards to Polanski, Brody and Ronald Harwood's adapted screenplay. R. Cinemark. Online archives. Piglet's Big Movie: Disney animated film features the whole Winnie-the-Pooh gang looking for Piglet, who has disappeared. Songs by Carly Simon. G. Cinemark. Spirited Away: Re-issue of 2002 Academy Award-winner for best animated feature. Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke) follows adventures of 10-year old girl, Chihiro, who discovers a secret world and learns to take care of herself after her parents mysteriously change. Not just for kids, and too scary for preschoolers. Very highest recommendations. PG. Cinema World. Movies 12. Online archives. Twenty-fifth Hour: Spike Lee's film tracks the regrets of a mid-level heroin dealer on his last day of freedom and explores the limits of friendship. Edward Norton has only 24 hours before he's due in prison for the next seven years. Also stars Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Anna Paquin and Brian Cox. Highly recommended for its realistic depiction of regret, which suffuses the film and raises it to a higher level. R. Movies 12. Online archives. Two Weeks Notice: Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock star as a very, very rich man and his lawyer. When she quits, and he replaces her with Alicia Witt, she reconsiders. Written and directed by Marc Lawrence (The Out-of-Towners). PG-13. Movies 12. What a Girl Wants: Teen Amanda Byrnes is "trying to fit in, born to stand out." She wants a fairy tale relationship with her absent dad and is tired of living with her unconventional mom, played by Colin Firth and Kelly Preston. Oliver James plays her love interest. PG. Cinema World. Cinemark.
MOVIE
THEATERS Bijou
Art Cinemas Regal
Cinemas Cinemark
Theaters
NEW
RELEASES ON VIDEO Bloody Sunday: Fictional re-enactment of the 1972 march in Derry, Northern Ireland, in which peaceful marchers for civil rights were fired on by British soldiers. Paul Greengrass's riveting cinema-verité style film stars James Nesbitt as a member of Parliament who does his best but fails to keep the march peaceful. Very highly recommended. R. Online archives. Cockettes, The: Documentary of a drag performers' collective in San Francisco, late 1960s. David Weissman and Bill Weber find actor George Harris, stage name Hibiscus, who helped inspire the tribe. Positive review by The New York Times' A.O. Scott. Dark Side of the Heart, The: Great Argentine director Eliseo Subiela (Man Facing Southwest) tells story of a self-absorbed poet looking for the perfect woman. Played by Dario Grandinetti (Marco in Talk to Her), he finds a woman who is perfect, but he cannot have her. I saw this 1992 film at the Portland International Film Festival some years ago and loved it. Highest recommendations. DVD from Cinemateca, Facets Video. El Gallo de Oro (The Golden Cockerel): Re-mastered 1964 Mexican classic written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes explores the countryside and the Revolution through the tale of a poor man and a fighting rooster who hook up with a wealthy gambler and a singer. DVD from Cinemateca, Facets Video. Next week: Amos Gital: Exile, Little Big Man (1970), Lockdown, A Man Called Horse (1970), Rio Lobo (1970), The Swimmer (1969), Treasure Planet and You Laugh.
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