Short Subjectives April 06 2005

Opening Friday

CHRYSTAL (R) Georgia-born actor Ray McKinnon wrote and directed this often grim tale of guilt and redemption in the Ozarks. Billy Bob Thornton's ex-con seeks forgiveness from his agonized wife, Chrystal (McKinnon's off-screen wife Lisa Blount), 16 years after a disastrous car accident. Heavy-handed symbolism and psychosexual baggage bog down the film's central relationship, but McKinnon reveals an eye for truthful, original and unexpectedly funny details about the modern-day South, from roots music to the backwoods drug trade (embodied by the director's scene-stealing performance as a hillbilly kingpin). - Curt Holman

EROS (R) See review.

FEVER PITCH (PG-13) Originally a humorous novel by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity) about soccer fans, this Americanized version switches the sport to baseball in depicting the romance between a businesswoman (Drew Barrymore) and a Boston Red Sox fanatic (Jimmy Fallon).

IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL (NR) This documentary about outsider artist Henry Darger perhaps makes him too much of a freakish "discovery" of the filmmaker, though the artist was long known in art world circles. Darger's bizarre, beautiful drawings, assembled in an epic 15,000 page tome, featured an army of plucky little girls fighting sadistic grown-ups in a fantastical world of the artist's creation. Those testaments to one man's obsessiveness and rich inner life were discovered by his landlords after the Chicago janitor's death in 1973. Perhaps Jessica Yu's film will bring a larger audience to Darger's fascinating artworks. - Felicia Feaster

MELINDA AND MELINDA (PG-13) See review.

SAHARA (PG-13) See review.

Opening wednesday

STATE PROPERTY 2: PHILLY STREETS (R) This hip-hop-laced crime drama set in the City of Brotherly Love follows the power struggle of three gangsters named Beans, Dame and Loco. With Beanie Sigel and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard.

Duly Noted

AMEN (NR) Costa-Gavras, renowned director of The Missing, presents this film based on the true story of reluctant SS officer Kurt Gerstein, who learned firsthand how the Vatican and other Western European powers remained silent while the Nazis implemented their policies of extermination. Tournees. Wed., April 13, 7 p.m., Georgia Tech's Global Learning Center, Technology Square, Room 236, 85 5th St. Free. www.gatech.edu/technology-square/map.php.

THE ANIMATION SHOW 2005 (NR) This fascinating assortment of cartoon shorts offers flashes of delight while confirming that life is nasty, brutish and short. Highlights include the melancholy "When the Day Breaks," in which animal-headed ordinary people weigh their daily routines against thoughts of mortality, and Poland's "Fallen Art," in which military leaders sacrifice soldiers to literally create works of art. The stop-motion "Ward 13" and the computer-animated "Rockfish" prove entertainingly fluent in the vocabulary of action films, but aim for our adrenal glands, not our hearts. Thurs., April 7. Cinefest, GSU University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. - CH

CIRCLE OF DECEIT (1981) (NR) Volker Schlöndorff, director of The Tin Drum, presents this drama about a jaded West German journalist (Bruno Ganz) sent to cover the civil war in Lebanon. Filmed on location (at times not far from actual fighting). The Many Faces of Bruno Ganz. April 13, 7 p.m. Goethe Institute Inter Nationes, 1197 Peachtree St., Colony Square. $4. 404-892-2388.

LE PETITE LILI (2003) (NR) French hottie Ludivine Sagnier (The Deep End) plays the title role in Claude Miller's droll contemporary drama set at a lake house in southern Brittany and inspired by Chekhov's The Seagull. French Film Yesterday and Today. Sat., April 9, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium, 1280 Peachtree St. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the musical horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag-queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. It's all fun and games until Meat Loaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

SHOWGIRLS (1995) (NC-17) Currently repackaged as a modern-day camp classic, this self-important lap dance drama from Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas (the director and writer, respectively, of Basic Instinct) proves to be almost no fun at all, despite copious nudity and a sly performance from Gina Gershon. Elizabeth Berkley plays a grasping stripper willing to do anything - and anyone - to fulfill her ambitions. Fri.-Sat., April 8-9, midnight. Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive. - CH

TO BE AND TO HAVE (2002)

(NR) In this unforgettable documentary with the poetic, serene exposition and craftsmanship of a fiction film, director Nicolas Philibert (In the Land of the Deaf) tells the simple but profound story of a rural farm community teacher and his relationship with the young children he patiently instructs. Perhaps the most beautiful and philosophical film ever made about the nobility of teaching. Tournees. Mon., April 11, 7 p.m., Georgia Tech's Global Learning Center, Technology Square, Room 236, 85 5th St. Free. www.gatech.edu/technology-square/map.php. - FF

Continuing

THE AVIATOR (PG-13) It's not perfect, but Martin Scorsese's biopic of ingenious, mentally unbalanced billionaire, aviator and film director Howard Hughes is as entertaining as all get-out, capturing both his nearly supernatural creativity and his debilitating, obsessive manias. DiCaprio proves up to the task of embodying this wildly contradictory man, adding both pathos and perversity to Scorsese's portrait of a deeply flawed but iconoclastic American. This meaty epic provides the added bonus, for Scorsese fans, of shedding light on his career-long propensity for obsessive, charismatic film anti-heroes, and for illuminating the many connections the director undoubtedly sees between Hughes and his own creative pursuits always endangered by human fallibility and even madness. - FF

THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE (R) See review above.

BE COOL (PG-13) John Travolta resurrected from the hack shoals of Look Who's Talking to play self-referential cool in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction was a gas. Director F. Gary Gray assumes that cool is a bottomless resource that anyone can tap. But more than anything, Be Cool may prove that Travolta's second generation hip has finally run its course. This sequel to Get Shorty finds Elmore Leonard's loan shark hero Chili Palmer (Travolta) again confronting L.A. malfeasance in the form of an outsize music industry filled with gun-toting gangsters and sleazy pimp wannabes who keep their acts locked in artistic slavery. There are funny bits from Vince Vaughn and Andr&233; 3000, drawing laughs from goofy characters dying to play the thug's game, but for the most part, Be Cool is just lame, shameless retread of Tarantino's greatest moments. - FF

BEAUTY SHOP (PG-13) Barbershop it ain't, though it recycles almost every plot point from that Ice Cube comedy. But Beauty Shop has its own frothy appeal held together by the warm, charismatic presence of Queen Latifah as a hair entrepreneur who quits a chic salon to open her own beauty shop in the ­hood. The scenes where her diverse staff gleefully riff, vamp and insult over the hot rollers offer something to hold onto amidst an uninspiring plot involving Latifah's efforts to hold onto the salon when the Man comes calling. It's all lighter-than-air, but it's hard not to be momentarily charmed by all the assembled intergenerational girl power and fizzy energy. - FF

BORN INTO BROTHELS (R) In Calcutta's red light district hundreds of children grow up in a shadowy labyrinthine world of prostitution, drug abuse and hopelessness. Photographer Zana Briski uses photography to offer these children of prostitutes a window out of the city's rank brothels. The results can be poignant, with the children offering - considering their age - shockingly perceptive, eloquent insight into their situations, and some exquisite photographs to boot. But perhaps due to Briski's unflappable British reserve, the film is a surprisingly emotionless, distanced view of these children's lives, which is not always a good thing. The camera allows them to establish their personhood, but it's also a camera that separates us from them. - FF

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (PG-13) Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha switches from phys ed to Eng lit to offer a Bollywood musical-style version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, transplanted to contemporary India, England and America.

CONSTANTINE (R) Chain-smoking, foul-mouthed exorcist John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) matches wits with demons and angels to help a Los Angeles cop (Rachel Weisz) investigate her twin sister's death. This loose, flashy adaptation of DC Comics' Hellblazer Americanizes the character nearly out of existence, and Reeves lacks the presence to credibly play a ghostbusting Dirty Harry. The film provides some exciting visual flourishes and fresh perspectives on redemption and damnation, but mostly Constantine lacks soul. - CH

DEAR FRANKIE (PG-13) Emily Mortimer plays a Scottish single mom who enlists a likable stranger to pretend to be the father her young, hearing-impaired son (Jack McElhone) has never met in this critically acclaimed sentimental drama.

D.E.B.S. (PG-13) This low budget action spoof depicts four foxy crime-fighters attending "spy college" and find their world-saving exploits when one of their number discovers lesbian feelings for their arch-nemesis. This spy flick is campy enough to be bad, but it's not bad enough to be campy. - Heather Kuldell

DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN

(PG-13) This adaptation of Tyler Perry's successful play is set (and shot) in an Atlanta defined by economic and moral extremes. On one hand is the moneyed high life represented by Steve Harris' attorney. On the other is the "ghetto" warmth and family togetherness of matriarch Madea's (Tyler Perry) world, where the attorney's wife (Kimberly Elise) escapes when her husband turns her out of their McMansion. Perry and first time director Darren Grant manage some genuinely funny moments and even some tender ones, but for the most part, Diary's combination of raunchy comedy, syrupy romance and God-talk just feels ADD, as the film tries desperately - and futilely - to be all things to all people. - FF

DOWNFALL (R) The surreal horrors of war alternate with intimate, documentary-style close-ups of the final days of the Third Reich's high command in Oliver Hirschbiegel's powerful film. Bruno Ganz provides a terrifying yet humanizing portrayal of an aging Hitler, capable of both monstrous cruelty and unexpected tenderness. The scrupulously researched film offers eyewitness accounts of the chaotic collapse of Berlin's defenses and, within Hitler's bunker, the destruction of Nazi illusions of greatness. - CH

HITCH (PG-13) It's a rare director and actor who can handle the contrapuntal demands of romantic comedy. As inoffensively lovable as Will Smith is, he makes a far better class clown than a love-burned romantic lead. "Hitch" is a Manhattan matchmaker schooling nerdy guys to romance their dream girls who must learn to love again from a newspaper gossip columnist (a brittle Eva Mendes). When Hitch coasts on factory-assembled comic convention (black guy teaches white guy how to play it coooool) the film is on firm ground. When it asks Mendes and Smith to summon up some chemistry, and heads toward a canned matrimonial denouement, the fun turns into grueling ordeal. - FF

HOSTAGE (R) Hostage negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) experiences a work-related tragedy, and packs up his family to take a low-profile job in a low-crime county. Despite the sleepy town, Talley finds himself in an escalating hostage situation that endangers both his professional and personal life. So it's kinda like Die Hard.

HOTEL RWANDA (PG-13) Don Cheadle superbly portrays a middle-class Rwandan hotel manager who rescues hundreds of Tutsis during the country's 1994 genocide. Irish filmmaker Terry George uses suspense film techniques to seize our attention for the film's angry themes, holding the nations of the West directly responsible for their inaction during the massacres. Hotel Rwanda combines a compelling narrative with moral clarity better than any political film of the past year. - CH

ICE PRINCESS (G) A high school bookworm ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" Michelle Trachtenberg) defies her Ivy League-obsessed mother (Joan Cusack) to pursue her dream of becoming a competitive figure skater. Kim Cattrall plays her coach.

IMAX THEATER: Bugs! (NR) A praying mantis and a butterfly "star" in this documentary about the insects of the Borneo rainforest - some of whom will be magnified 250,000 times their normal size on the IMAX screen. Africa: The Serengeti (NR) An East African safari captures "the Great Migration" of more than two million wildebeests, zebras and antelope over 500 miles across the Serengeti plains, with such predators as lions and cheetahs in hot pursuit. The Greatest Places (NR) It's location, location, location in this de facto "Best of IMAX" overview of the world's most spectacular places. Fridays at 10 p.m. (CH) Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

MILLION DOLLAR BABY (PG-13) While America's critics are busy hurting themselves trying to come up with more accolades for this "masterpiece" by American film "genius" Clint Eastwood, the rest of us scratch our heads in utter disbelief, wondering what all the fuss is about. This clich&233;-addicted boxing drama, lacquered with a feigned working class melancholy cribbed from previous pugilist pictures, depicts a spunky blue collar boxer (Hilary Swank) who lives out her daddy fantasies when a grizzled boxing trainer (Eastwood) overcomes his aversion to girl fighters and coaches her to victory. - FF

MILLIONS (PG) Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) applies his special effect-heavy hand to the story of 7-year-old Damian (a routinely adorable and freckled Alex Etel) whose imaginary friends are Catholic saints. When a bag stuffed with money falls from a passing train, Damian wants to give the windfall to charity and his older brother wants to invest it in real estate. But the saints and the spiritual dilemma of how to spend that money are just two of Boyle's many passing fancies. He is far more interested in doing visual loop-de-loops and imagining that childhood wonder is best evoked with gee-whiz effects. - FF

MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS (PG-13) Sandra Bullock reprises her role as once-butch, now-fabulous FBI agent Gracie Hart. With her cover blown after saving the Miss United States Pageant, the bureau reassigns Hart to a PR campaign and partners her with tough, young agent Sam Fuller (Regina King).

THE PACIFIER (PG) Navy SEAL Lt. Shane Wolfe (Vin Diesel) is assigned to take care of the five out-of-control children of a missing scientist whose wife is sent on a secret mission. Every predictable single-guy-versus-child joke occurs - like changing a diaper with pliers - plus, a few twists that are just bizarre. As we learned in Kindergarten Cop, a tough guy is no match for unruly kids and unruly kids are not match for a tough guy's discipline. - HK

THE PASSION RECUT (NR) In hopes of reaching a broader market for Easter, Mel Gibson and company have re-edited The Passion of the Christ trying to tone down some of the more extreme moments to get a PG-13 rating. The MPAA still considers the film too intense, however, so this version is unrated, which means the floggings may still be too much to comfortably consume with Cadbury Creme Eggs.

THE RING 2 (R) Naomi Watts faces more spooky goings-on surrounding a supernatural videotape with lethal ramifications to anyone who watches it. With Blockbuster no longer imposing late fees, who knows what horrors will be unleashed?

ROBOTS (PG) Robots is like the engine of a Honda Civic under the hood of a Cadillac Escalade. It offers a reliable ride in an otherwise fantastic physical world. Young Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) is a poor, small-town robot made of hand-me-down parts who dreams of becoming an inventor in the big city. The bland plot is propped up with relatively amusing pop-culture reference, but not as seamlessly as Pixar's productions. - HK

SCHULTZE GETS THE BLUES (PG) In this gentle German comedy likened to About Schmidt, a restless, retired mine worker pursues his rekindled love of accordion music to American zydeco country. With subtitles.

SIDEWAYS (R) A failed novelist (Paul Giamatti) takes his oldest friend, a has-been actor (Thomas Haden Church) for a pre-wedding trip through California wine country in the latest examination of American mediocrity from About Schmidt director Alexander Payne. The most highly praised film of 2004, Sideways expounds a surprisingly sincere belief in wine as a metaphor for life, and for a while unfolds as a mellow, impeccably acted idyll (with terrific supporting turns from Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh). Payne eventually sheds his merciless insights on his self-absorbed male characters, but like a fine wine, his harsh sensibilities have mellowed with age. - CH

SIN CITY (R) Based on Frank Miller's hard-boiled cult comic books of the same name, Sin City wallows unapologetically in violence, T&A and other preoccupations of adolescent boys of all ages. Co-directors Miller and Robert Rodriguez leer over interlocking tales of chivalrous antiheroes (led by a hulkingly charismatic Mickey Rourke) who take on a corrupt city's sadistic power brokers. Though the film's black-and-white images can sear your retinas, its repetitive plots, grisly slapstick and predictable misogyny can leave you embarrassed to be a geek. - CH

STEAMBOY (PG-13) Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the groundbreaking anime Akira, helms this animated visual feast of Jules Verne-esque flying machines and other gizmos during a power struggle in Victorian London.

TURTLES CAN FLY (NR) The director of A Time for Drunken Horses presents a haunting, Horatio Alger-style tale of a resourceful kid living in a makeshift Kurdish community along the Turkey/Iraq border. But will we believe that turtles can actually fly? With subtitles.

UP AND DOWN (R) The one thing you can count on from the former Soviet Bloc is a ruthlessly honest approach to life. That is certainly the case in Czech Republic director Jan Hrebejk's morally complicated tale of an orphaned Indian baby who touches the lives of three Czech families. In contemporary Prague, infants are sold to childless couples, smuggling immigrants are smuggled across the border, racism is prevalent, families are broken apart by emigration and life has a bittersweet quality that seems to define the region. Capitalism may have replaced Communism, but this provocative film suggests that the problems and the soul-searching linger. - FF

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER (R) A suburban mother of four (Joan Allen) has anger management issues after her husband's disappearance. This dreary dramedy from writer-director Mike Binder (HBO's "The Mind of the Married Man") never lets her anger reverberate thematically through the film, and proves a tepid romance like an imitation Terms of Endearment. As a former major league baseball player, Kevin Costner steals the show by displaying the comfy charisma that made him a star in the first place. - CH

WALK ON WATER (NR) While on assignment in Berlin, a ruthless, homophobic Israeli intelligence agent befriends the gay grandson of his target, a Nazi war criminal. With subtitles.??