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Tokyo
by Night LOST IN TRANSLATION: Written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Produced by Sofia Coppola. Ross Katz. Executive producers, Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos. Cinematography, Lance Acord. Edited by Sarah Flack. Original music, Kevin Shields. Music producer, Brian Reitzell. Costumes, Nancy Steiner. Sound designer, Richard Beggs. Production design, Anne Ross, K.K. Barrett. Starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, with Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Catherine Lambert. Focus Features, 2003. R. 102 minutes.
Sofia Coppola's second feature film (The Virgin Suicides) is a minimalist joy. When she was getting others interested in the work, she showed them a story she'd written, not a screenplay. Even in the finished piece, there's really no plot. But the story is about two lonely, American strangers temporarily stranded in a high-rise Tokyo hotel (the Park Hyatt), who become friends. Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, a film star revered by the Japanese for comedic roles from earlier in his faltering career. Scarlett Johansson plays Charlotte, a philosophy graduate now married to a photographer who's off shooting music videos. Both give performances that are true and heartbreaking. While the film has little dialogue, the subtle sounds of hotel life as well as the more complicated rhythms and melodies of Tokyo street life animate the non-talking scenes. Everything that's going to happen between Bob and Charlotte takes place in a compressed time-frame, but the pace of the picture only feels hurried in its final minutes. Longing is one of the more difficult screen passions to portray, but Murray and Johansson reveal new ways to express its complexity. An inability to sleep first connects them. The film opens with a scene of Charlotte seen from the back, in discreet see-through pink underwear and a camisole, lying on a tousled bed. Charlotte observes her husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi), hastily packing his camera bag, off for the day's shoot. He's gone in a flash, and the young woman has a whole day and night to fill on her own. Bob is sleepy when he first arrives at the airport, greeted by a number of people from the company that's brought him to Japan, Suntory. But by the time he actually gets to his hotel room and his bed, Bob is wide awake, staring starkly at the walls. He heads for the hotel bar for a nightcap. These patterns are established over a few days, with only slight variations. But the scenes of Bob shooting the Suntory whiskey advertisement stand alone. Bob sits in a sleep-deprived stupor while a Japanese director half his age hurls loud, staccato instructions at him. "More intensity" is desired. Bob struggles to deliver an invitation to relax with a whiskey the way the director wants. It takes an old pro like Murray to pull off a scene like this, and he's terrific. Meanwhile, Charlotte fills her days with sightseeing, shopping or learning the art of ikebana (flower arrangement) in the hotel, but she still sits alone in her room much of the time, wistfully missing her husband and confused about why she came on the trip at all. Between them, Bob and Charlotte show dislocation and loneliness to be demanding states of melancholy. Then they begin to catch sight of one another in the elevator, or in the bar in the middle of the night. Soon enough they are compatriots on the town, looking for some action through the long nights and days. They hail taxis and run down the street, hand-in-hand. The intimacy between them grows. This is a movie for grown-ups who can sit through a character-driven, moody film. It is a film to be seen more than once, to be savored and thought about. Coppola shows a sure hand in achieving a subtle picture of strangers who discover the quiet pleasures of friendship. Murray brings exhaustion to a lyrical pinnacle. The film receives my very highest recommendations. Now playing at Cinema World and Cinemark.
Dazed
and Confused MASKED AND ANONYMOUS: Directed by Larry Charles. Written by Rene Fontaine, Sergei Petrov. Original music by Bob Dylan. Produced by Nigel Sinclair, Jeff Rosen. Executive produced by Anatoly Fradis, Joseph Cohen, Vladimir Dostal, David M. Thompson, Guy East, Marie Cantin, Pietro Scalia. Cinematography by Rogier Stoffers. Editors, Luis Alvarez y Alvarez, Pietro Scalia. Production design, Bob Ziembicki. Costumes, Abigail Murray. Starring Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Jessica Lange and Luke Wilson. With Angela Bassett, Val Kilmer, Giovanni Ribisi and many others. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003. PG-13. 107 minutes.
With a cast like this, how could you go wrong? Easily, is the answer, especially if you're a director new to the medium. The stars here are Big Stars. By nature, they need special treatment. Their egos are strong enough to take over the movie and skew the whole shebang their way if they aren't controlled by a dictator. That's not Larry Charles. He directed multiple episodes of Larry David's HBO series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but it doesn't look like that's enough training to take on this many high-profile actors. Whatever else may be Charles's problem, he doesn't get bupkis from his stars. No, that's not quite true. You can't keep Bridges down. Even in a role this ill-conceived, he will act. Goodman always brazens his way through the show, but this character is so shallow and bellowing you don't know whether to hate him or not. Go ahead and hate him, I say. Bassett projects warmth and respect, as usual, while Kilmer gets up a head of steam to give a good, mad rant. I like him a lot as a loonie. Remember Kilmer's great imitation of the Brando character in The Island of Dr. Moreau? Or maybe not. Not everyone sits through as many exquisitely bad movies as I do. Writers Rene Fontaine and Sergei Petrov are excluded from the film's production notes, which I first took to be a bad sign. Then I was enlightened by the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) that Fontaine is Dylan's nom de plume, and Petrov is director Charles's. I can see why they didn't want to claim this sorry mess up-front. The only way I can make sense out of the 107 minutes I spent watching Masked and Anonymous is that it's like observing a train wreck: You don't want it to happen, but it's inevitable. And as long as the train's going to jump the rails and hurl itself spectacularly into the abyss, you don't want to miss a minute of it. Besides waiting for the train wreck, another reason to see it is to determine if the movie's about Dylan's fame. It's as if someone asked: How bad can we make this thing and still trick people into coming to the theater? Answer: Lace it with a lot of Dylan songs. Some he sings, some are sung by others, the best's a young girl's rendition of a Dylan anthem from yesteryear. I love Dylan's music a lot, and I've seen him perform numerous times. I don't mind his mumbles, his taciturn manner, his occasional hostility to the audience. Frankly, I can't imagine what being famous for 40 years would do to the delicate balance between your inner self and your persona. Dylan clings to his persona like a drowning man, and the mystical aura that's surrounded him looks worn and bitter in this silly movie. The names of the characters are worth recalling: Jack Fate (Dylan); journalist Tom Friend (Jeff Bridges); Pagan Lace (Penelope Cruz, who plays Friend's friend); the entrepreneur Uncle Sweetheart (John Goodman); resident bitch Nina Veronica (Jessica Lange, still crazy after all these years); Fate's friend, Bobby Cupid (Luke Wilson); Mistress (Angela Bassett); Animal Wrangler (Val Kilmer); Soldier (Giovanni Ribisi). And lots more. See it if you must. And if you must, see it early in its run. Opens at the Bijou Friday Oct. 10. Consumer
Confidence SURPLUS: TERRORIZED INTO BEING CONSUMERS: Produced and directed by Erik Gandini. Edited by Johan Soderberg. Music by David Osterberg, Johan Soderberg. Photographers, Cal Nilsson, Lukas Eisenhauer. Mix and sound design, David Osterberg. Participants, George W. Bush, Fidel Castro, John Zerzan, Kalle Lasn, Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Tania, Svante Tidholm. Shot in Genova, Shanghai, Alang India, U.S., Cuba, Budapest and Stockholm. Atmo, 2002.
Eric Gandini, who takes credit and blame for this 52-minute experimental film, has a vision, a message to put across, and he isn't shy about manipulating images, sounds and sound-bites to convey that message. (I'm unclear about when to refer to such manipulation as propaganda. Maybe that's only when you don't like the message.) Gandini's very careful to make sure hypnotic, youth-beat, electronic music underlies every color-blasted image. That way you can kind-of move with the beat, which gets you in a groove and does not require any critical thinking. The film repeats some images and spoken words many times, to ensure that the audience gets the message. Get it? By no stretch is this a documentary film, but it does use the technique of borrowing clips from previous media and manipulating them to its own ends, like Michael Moore's documentaries, only smarter. The original footage includes an interview with Eugene anarchist John Zerzan as well as clips of a Cuban woman who had come to the U.S. and was awed by the choices available in the stores here. The most repeated clip from Zerzan is what the film's publicist refers to as his "call for PROPERTY DAMAGE [that] has inspired many to take to the streets." Surplus plays at noon on Satruday, Oct. 11 at the Bijou Theater. Sliding scale: $5-$10. Benefit for Green Anarchy, a locally produced quarterly, eco-anarchist publication.
Baltic Deputy (1936): Directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi, it's the story of the great scientist Klement Timiriazev, supporter of the revolution and Soviet delegate from the Baltic fleet. At 9:15 in 115 Pacific Hall, UO campus. In Russian, with English subtitles. Free. Bringing Up Baby (1938): Hilarious screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in a case of mistaken identity involving a tame leopard named Baby. Directed by Howard Hawks, this is not to be missed. At 6 pm on 10/11 at the Lorane Grange Hall, all ages welcome. Suggested donation $7. (942-2219). Good Boy: Doggie sci-fi comedy stars Liam Aiken as a dog walker who finally gets a dog of his own, Hubble (voice by Matthew Broderick), only to discover he's really an alien agent from the Dog Star Sirius. PG. Cinema World. Cinemark. House of the Dead: Based on a video game, horror flick's about teens who go to a deserted island to hold a rave only to learn it's inhabited by zombies. R. Cinemark. Intolerable Cruelty: The Coen brothers comedy about L.A. divorce attorney Miles Massey (George Clooney), who falls for gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Also stars Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, Billy Bob Thornton, Edward Herrmann and Richard Jenkins. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. Kill Bill 1: Quentin Tarantino's first of two films stars Uma Thurman as a woman with a mission: Kill Bill (David Carradine), the former boss who betrayed her. With Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, LaTanya Richardson, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Samuel L. Jackson. R. Cinemark. Cinema World. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life: Angelina Jolie stars as action heroine Lara Croft who saves the world, again, from unspeakable evil. Directed by Jan De Bont, also stars Gerard Butler and Noah Taylor. PG-13. Movies 12. Life and Times of Wu Zhong Xian, The: Filmmaker Evans Chan will be present. Plays at 7 pm on 10/15 in 110 Willamette Hall, UO campus. Free. Masked and Anonymous: Bob Dylan returns to the screen after 15 years, but he should have waited longer. All-star cast with nothing to do except look silly. R. Bijou. See review this issue. Surplus: Swedish film director Eric Gandini directs anti-globalization experimental film, with Eugene anarchist John Zerzan in major role. Plays at noon on 10/11 at the Bijou. Benefit for Green Anarchy. See review this issue. S.W.A.T. Police Special Weapons and Tactics unit buddies Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell star in this action-thriller based on the 1970s TV series. Also with Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J. PG-13. Movies 12.
CONTINUING: American Wedding: Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are getting married. Now if their friends and family will just stay on their best behavior. Right. American Pie's crude humor lives on. Also stars January Jones, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Seann William Scott and Eddie Kaye Thomas. R. Movies 12. Bad Boys II: Martin Lawrence and Will Smith reunite with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay. Smith and Lawrence play Miami narcotics detectives assigned to stem the flood of designer ecstasy into Miami. R. Movies 12. Bruce Almighty: Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston star in this tale of a at TV reporter, who has a really bad day, rages against God and receives more than he expected. PG-13. Movies 12. Duplex: Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller find their Manhattan dream flat but inherit a batty old woman who lives upstairs and drives them nuts. Directed by Danny DeVito, cast also includes Swoosie Kurtz and Harvey Fierstein. PG-13. Cinemark. Finding Nemo: Pixar's computer-animated fantasy of two Clownfish, Marlin and his son Nemo, who get separated in the Great Barrier Reef. Written and directed by Andrew Stanton (A Bug's Life), with voices by Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush, Allison Janney. Very highly recommended. G. Movies 12.. Online archives. Italian Job, The: Back in town again. Mark Wahlberg leads a heist that's double-crossed by one of his crew. Charlize Theron plays a safecracker in this cool revenge movie. Also stars Edward Norton, Mos Def and Donald Sutherland. Highly recommended for its pure entertainment value. PG-13. Movies 12. Online archives. Lost in Translation: Directed by Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), this highly acclaimed film was shot entirely on location in Japan. It stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lonely Americans in a Tokyo hotel who become friends. With Giovanni Ribisi. Very highest recommendations. R. Cinema World. Cinemark. See review this issue. Luther: TV-movie director Eric Till brings Martin Luther to the screen. with Joseph Fiennes as Luther. Supporting cast: Alfred Molina, Jonathan Firth, Claire Cox, Bruno Ganz and Peter Ustinov. PG-13. Cinema World. Magdalene Sisters, The: Four young Irish women are sent to the Magdalene Laundries and Asylums for "moral crimes" such as a pregnancy outside of marriage, reporting a rape or just being too pretty. Actual institution operated the whole of the 20th century, in the open, with the full authority and blessing of the church. A must-see film with amazing performances. Courageous direction by Peter Mullan. NR. Bijou. Online archives. Matchstick Men: Ridley Scott directs this tale of a couple of grifters working small-time cons, until personal issues arise. Stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, with Alison Lohman and Bruce McGill. PG-13. Cinemark. Cinema World. Online archives. Matrix Reloaded: Second chapter brings Neo (Keanu Reeve), Trinity (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) closer to solving the enigma but also puts them in greater danger. Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, it also stars Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith and Gloria Foster. R. Movies 12. Online archives. Medallion: Jackie Chan action comedy co-stars Lee Evans and Claire Forlani. A mysterious medallion turns police detective Chan into a superhero, but the bad guys want it back. Gordon Chan directs. PG-13. Movies 12. Out of Time: Directed by Carl Franklin, stars Denzel Washington as a Florida small-town police chief where a double-homicide is discovered. He must solve the killings before he is suspected of the crimes himself. Also stars Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan and Dean Cain. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. Pirates of the Caribbean: Non-stop adventure directed by Gore Verbinski stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. Depp sashays, Rush dissembles, Bloom fences and Knightley swashbuckles. Depp and Rush's over the top performances are great. Recommended. PG-13. Cinemark. Online archives. Rundown, The: Peter Berg directs Seann William Scott, The Rock, Rosario Dawson and Christopher Walken in this adventure about a kingpin's son who disappears in the Amazon in search of a valuable artifact. PG-13. Cinemark. School of Rock: Faking it as a substitute teacher, wild guitarist Jack Black turns elementary musical prodigies into a high-voltage rock band. Directed by Richard Linklater, it also stars Joan Cusack, Mike White and Sarah Silverman. PG-13. Cinemark. Cinema World. Seabiscuit: A has-been racehorse becomes America's Depression-era success story, along with jockey Tobey Maguire, trainer Chris Cooper, and owner Jeff Bridges. Written, directed by Gary Ross based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling non-fiction book, also stars Elizabeth Banks, William H. Macy. Highest recommendations. PG-13. Movies 12. Online archives. Secondhand Lions: Haley Joe Osment is sent to his great uncles' rural Texas farm, where the city boy has much to learn. Robert Duvall and Michael Caine may have been bank robbers. Written and directed by Tim McCanlies (writer, The Iron Giant). PG. Cinemark. Cinema World. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: DreamWorks animated pirate adventure tale stars the voice of Brad Pitt as Sinbad, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Marina, and Michelle Pfieffer as the goddess of chaos. Joe Fiennes plays Proteus, a rival pirate. Directed by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore. PG. Movies 12. Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines: Jonathan Mostow directs, and Arnold Schwarzenegger comes back to save the world from annihilation once again. John Connor (Nick Stahl), is 18 now, and he's fighting off a female killer cyborg from the future, (Kristanna Loken). R. Cinemark. Online archives. Thirteen: Two 7th grade girls, played by Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed, become entangled in a fast world where media images dominate dress, behavior, values and attitude. Holly Hunter plays the mom who tries to save them. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Searing, honest representation of what it's like to be a teenager today. Highly recommended. R. Bijou. Online archives. Under the Tuscan Sun: Diane Lane plays writer Frances Mayes in this screen adaptation of her best selling book about buying a run-down villa in Italy and creating a new life. Escape from real life — beautiful people, gorgeous scenery, everybody's got money. PG-13. Cinemark. Online archives. Underworld: Set in a world where vampires are a clan of aristocratic moderns, and lycans (werewolves) are a gang of street thugs, Len Wiseman's film stars Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman. When they fall in love, they trigger an ancient feud. R. Cinemark. Uptown Girls: Brittany Murphy stars as the freewheeling daughter of a late rock legend, but when her inheritance is stolen, she's forced to get a job as a nanny to precocious Ray Schleine (Dakota Fanning), an "eight-year-old going on forty." In a comedic battle of wills, each discovers in the other a true friend. Directed by Boas Yakin. Also stars Heather Locklear. PG-13. Movies 12.
MOVIE
THEATERS Bijou
Art Cinemas Regal
Cinemas Cinemark
Theaters
NEW
RELEASES ON VIDEO Releases subject to change. Available the Tuesday following date of EW publication, sometimes sooner. See archived movie reviews at www.eugeneweekly.com Black Sunday (1977): Terrorists plan to steal Goodyear Blimp and blow it up over the Super Bowl game in Miami. Based on Thomas Harris novel, movie stars Bruce Dern and is directed by John Frankenheimer. R. Browning Version, The (1994): Remake of Terrence Ratigan play stars Albert Finney, Greta Scacchi, Matthew Modine. Directed by Mike Figgis. R. Christmas with the Simpsons: The bargain of the season: All five Simpsons Christmas episode on one disc. Cracker: First season, 3-disc set. HBO. Matrix Reloaded: Second chapter brings Neo (Keanu Reeve), Trinity (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) closer to solving the enigma but also puts them in greater danger. Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, it also stars Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith and Gloria Foster. R. Online archives. Owning Mahowny: Richard Kwietniowski directs Philip Seymour Hoffman as real-life Canadian Dan Mahowny whose public banker life collides with his obsessive-compulsive behavior and gambling addiction. With Minnie Driver, John Hurt. R. Schizopolis (1997): Steven Soderbergh's experimental satire on modern spirituality and communication. Not a success with public or critic, but even Soderbergh's failures are interesting. Tokyo Story (1953): Yasujiro Ozu's poignant tale of older Japanese couple who come to Tokyo, where their grown children do not respect or have time for them. Brilliant work.
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