THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2003
MOVIES AROUND TOWN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 13
About Schmidt GRADE: B+
A sort of Straight Story gone cynical. Alexander Payne's acclaimed comedydrama is a probing examination of corporate misgivings and midwestern complacency. Jack Nicholson, certain to win the Oscar next month, plays Warren Schmidt, a Willy Lomanesque salesman who's spent his entire life being polite and reticent when what he really wants to do is give everybody he knows, from his doting wife to his redneck future son-in-law, a good slap in the face. Warren's hysterically confessional letters to a South African child named Ndugu provide a surprisingly emotional payoff to the film, which usually feels more literary than it should. Nicholson's performance, one of his all-time best, says what most people can't about the fear of merely taking up space.
Bowling for Columbine GRADE: A-
Most people think Bowling for Columbine is a movie about gun control, but that's really only a side topic in Michael Moore's fascinating new documentary. Searching for answers to why we blow each other away in record numbers, Moore finds the seeds of American violence sown in every bank, barbershop and nuclear weapons factory in the country.
The unilateral appeal of violence reaches everyone because everyone listens to the media, which scares its viewers into shopping away obscure, invisible threats. You might think the filmmaker is rambling a bit as he jumps from the Columbine High School massacre to Sept 11 to racist welfare programs, but if anything Moore's film proves that the problem of violence in America really is as all encompassing as he presents it. Bowling for Columbine is a wake-up call to the world that also happens to be the most energetic nonfiction film since Hoop Dreams.
Catch Me If You Can GRADE: B+
Leonardo DiCaprio is all boyish charm as Frank Abagnale Jr., the real-life con artist who swindled millions of dollars as a fake Pan American Airline pilot back when he was a teenager in the '60s. The movie, directed by that unparalleled magician Steven Spielberg, is the breeziest caper in memory. Tom Hanks amuses as Frank's clumsy FBI pursuer, and Christopher Walken brings empathy and pathos to the part of Frank's scheming fail
ure of a father. Besides Hanks' other 2002 release, the underrated Road to Perdition, no other movie last year combined its cinematography, scoring and set design with this level of gloss. If only Spielberg could find a way to make a move that runs less than 140 minutes.
Chicago
GRADE: B-
Everybody sings and dances just swell in Rob Marshall's take on the Bob Fosse Broadway hit, but after Chicago is over you may wonder what all the fuss was about. Renee Zellweger stars as Roxie Hart, a nobody who wants to be a somebody who becomes famous the American way: She shoots her lover dead. Catherine Zeta-Jones seethes with sexuality as the cool-hearted Velma Kelly, and Richard Gere, who for once deserved the Academy Award nomination he was snubbed for, channels James Cagney in a rare magnetic performance. Marshall's carboncopy theatricality ensures you'll have a good time, but for less style over substance, see Bjork in the daring Dancer in the Dark.
pathos to the part of Frank's scheming fail
Steven Bea/KRTCampus
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind GRADE:B
George Clooney's brilliant adaptation of Chuck Barris' loony-tunes autobiography is long on thematic heftiness but short on character development. Sam Rockwell gives an exhaustive portrayal of Barris, the much-maligned creator of The Dating Game and The Gong Shock who claimed to be a CIA assassin who wiped out Reds for the government. Clooney is an inventive visual stylist, but casting Julia Roberts as a professional killer was a serious artistic mistake. We get a sense of many things while watching Confessions of a Dangerous Mind-of cheap fame and American Idol excess-but never a sense of the man behind the mask. Layered enough to suggest repeat viewings might enhance it but ultimately a contradiction to the function of biography.
— Stephen Shupe
Darkness Falls GRADE:D
A silly and mostly unsuccessful ghost story about a demonic tooth fairy (really!) plaguing some none-too-bright townsfolk and a guy on heavy dosages of anti-psychotics. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Emma Caulfield co-stars. It's more like "Darkness Kerplunks."
Final Destination 2
GRADE: B+
This gory sequel can't wait for its stupidly defensive cast of forgettable characters to die spectacularly horrible deaths. Despite the ambiguous previews, the film picks up where its superb predecessor left off. Nearly all of the survivors of the Flight 180 tragedy have been tracked down by Death. After a premonition dream sequence that arguably tops the terrifying plane explosion in the original, a new tragedy occurs, this one an expertly staged pile-up on the highway. Nothing new here, just the same scary logic to the details of accidental death that made the first film such a surprise hit. A criminally fast-paced and laughably shocking ride that's not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
The Hours
GRADE: A
Most people see movies to escape "the hours," the moments of the day when there's more to be endured than desired. So why see Stephen Daldry's stunning adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer prizewinner? First and foremost is the film's brutal approach to depression; this is the kind of honesty rarely seen in commercial or even independent film. Coming in at a close second are the positively amazing performances by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris. The film's various timelines seem at first disconnected but eventually cohere, in a triumphantly cinematic way, into a powerful inseparability. It's easy to follow but don't even think of showing up late or you'll be totally lost. I want Scorsese to win the Oscar for Best Director, but I hope this beats 'Chicago' for Best Picture - it's a lyrical film that wants you to rage against the dying of the light.
— Stephen Shupe
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days GRADE:D
Despite a few clever insights and twists, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is neither good nor distinctive enough to rise above the level of generic romantic comedy. This, despite appealing performances by Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.
—Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers
GRADE: A
The fellowship might be broken, but everything else in Peter Jackson's massive follow up to The Fellowship of the
Ring feels perfectly in place. The surprise is what an altogether different experience The Two Towers is from its predecessor. It falls more directly into the category of fantasy and its stirring climactic grandeur hasn't been matched in the last thirty years of epic Hollywood filmmaking. Much has been said of the twisted fun of Gollum, but I think more praise should be given to Elijah Wood, whose frighteningly vulnerable facial expressions obviously provided inspiration for his computer-generated companion. I'm guessing you've already seen this, so let me take this opportunity to recommend one of my favorite films, Jackson's sublime Heavenly Creatures, which was recently released on an excellent DVD.
— Stephen Shupe
The Pianist GRADE: C+
Inspired by musician Wladyslaw Szpilman's account of how he eluded the concentration camps and stayed alive for six years in Nazi-occupied Poland, Roman Polanski has made a potent film about how survival bears only the most casual relation to life. An extraordinary film with an extraordinary performance by Adrien Brody as Szpilman.
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Grade: C+
The remarkable true story of three aboriginal "half-caste" girls who escape a government camp in western Australia and travel 1,500 miles across daunting terrain to get back to their families. Directed by Phillip Noyce with passion and smarts, this is a quest of incredible scope, beauty and emotion.
— Steven Rea/KRT Campus
The Recruit GRADE: C
Taut, enjoyable thriller with Al Pacino as a CIA scout who taps Colin Powell as an agent-in-training. Are the head games they play training day or the real deal?
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
Shanghai Knights
GRADE: C
Once again Jackie Chan and his nimble limbs join forces with Owen Wilson and his loose lips, this time to rid 1887 Peking of British imperialists and London of Chinese assassins out to kill Queen Vicky. And once again is not enough. Again and again, please.
Carpin Rickey/KRT Campus