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| GOD SPOKE: Al Franken crashes the Republican Convention. |
*NEW* Al Franken: God Spoke
A rather disappointing documentary following comedian, author and political commentator Al Franken as he attempts to get a fledgling talk-radio program off the ground in the face of antagonism from right-wing pundits. Some of the improv is hilarious, but the fact that Franken loses as many of his verbal battles as he wins takes the steam out of the production and leaves it a flat, overlong and somewhat embarrassing film for audience members on either end of the political spectrum. JAMES WALLING. Cinema 21.
*NEW* Babel
I have a terrible crime to confess: I walked out of Babel approximately 30 minutes from the end. I've never done this before, and I hope never to do it again, but after two hours of cringe-inducing, gratuitous violence, punctuated with child pornography and blatant nihilism, I threw all professional considerations and respect for decorum aside in a mad dash for the exit sign. Writer Guillermo Arriaga's (21 Grams, Amores Perros) absurdly contrived script concerns the interlocking fates of a deaf Japanese teenager; an American tourist couple (Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt), one of whom is semi-accidentally shot by Moroccan goat herders (who get the gun after the Japanese girl's father passes through on safari); and the above-mentioned tourists' children, who accompany their Mexican nanny to a wedding south of the border while their mother struggles to survive. Such coincidences are standard fare for movies like this (think last year's Crash), and if there hadn't been such an abundance of meaningless violence I might have described the film more kindly as a pretty and somewhat pointless movie. As it is, however, Babel made me mad enough to spit. But you have to take my thoughts with a grain of salt. It's possible that the final half-hour or so is so spectacular that the first two hours are redeemed...just as it's possible that you'll be struck by lightning (twice!) before finishing this review. JAMES WALLING. Fox Tower, Eastport, City Center, Cedar Hills, Cinetopia.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Borat has been referred to as a mockumentary because the title character is a fake journalist, supposedly gathering information for his supposed homeland ("the glorious nation of Kazakhstan"). The film follows him from New York to California as he interviews, offends and woos American archetypal characters along the way, both real and fictional. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who developed the character on Da Ali G Show, so seamlessly assumes his lighthearted, naive, anti-Semitic and homophobic Borat persona that he actually does produce a sort of journalism: one based on the limits of gullibility. Borat seems so ignorant, ridiculous and childlike that the people he meets feel comfortable abandoning any inhibitions they might normally have about their own quirks and prejudices. The comedic height of the movie is an extended nude wrestling scene between Borat and the obese Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian). For me, though, the high point comes as our hero boards a Winnebago full of frat boys who counsel Borat, like of a pack of moronic fathers, against his quest to win the heart of Pamela Anderson. This window into the beer-bong-fueled world of frat life, peppered with clichÉs, inconsistencies and relatively offensive remarks, is priceless. JASON SIMMS. Pioneer Place, Eastport, Division, Tigard Cinemas, City Center, Vancouver Plaza, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Cinema 99, Academy, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Sherwood, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub, Oak Grove, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy, Cinetopia.
*NEW* Cocaine Cowboys
An inexcusably long recounting of the explosion of the cocaine trade in southern Florida in the '80s. The film documents the violence that followed as Colombian gangsters waged a bloody war for control of the lucrative industry. Featuring the firsthand accounts of criminals and police who were involved at the time, Cocaine Cowboys could have been the documentary version of Scarface, but is instead bogged down with too much information and repetition to hold much interest. JAMES WALLING. Fox Tower.
Conversations with God
Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God books are thoughtful, non-preachy and simple. For the film version, we get a Hallmark cheesefest that follows Walsch on a promotional book tour, during which he is confronted by readers and performs inexplicable miracles. At each tour stop, the fictional Neale (Henry Czerny) flashes back to hitting rock bottom, complete with tearful montage. He breaks his neck in Portland before becoming a bum in Ashland (all filmed locally), weathering a series of crises until—more than an hour into the film—the Almighty answers his questions, and he pimps the message by writing a book. Framing a film around Walsch's book tour is product-whoring at its worst, and the scenes of Walsch talking to audiences teem with infomercial tackiness. The film strays so far from its source and into overt marketing that even die-hard Conversations readers will probably feel insulted. PG. AP KRYZA. Fox Tower.Death of a PresidentThis unique and well-crafted pseudo-documentary, directed and co-written by Gabriel Range, posits the assassination of President Bush a year into the future and explores its aftermath. The level of verisimilitude achieved by the flawless fusion of real footage, digital manipulation and uncannily convincing interviews is so great that if you stumble into the theater unawares, you may well believe you are watching a real documentary, at least up until the shots are fired. The film has been denounced by some Bush supporters—and Hillary Clinton—as exploitative trash, and major theater chains like Regal and Cinemark have refused to carry it, but the film actually steers clear of any overt agenda, presenting protesters and all the president's men evenhandedly. Far from being a death threat to Bush, the film implies that such an action would only lead to greater evil—the ascension of Dick Cheney to the presidency, for instance. If for no other reason, the sheer originality and experimental nature of this film make it worth seeing. R. TONY LE TIGRE. Hollywood Theatre.
The Departed
Some films can be watched dozens of times, over and over again. These are the movies that never get old. And every time you watch one of them you discover something new, because the work is so amazing, and the production so deft, that it can never all be taken in with one viewing. Such films are masterpieces. And though it has been a long and sometimes rocky road since his last masterpiece—1990's GoodFellas—director Martin Scorsese has returned to form with his brilliant remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs. Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio respectively co-star as a corrupt cop feeding information to criminals and an undercover cop trying to bring down a crime organization from the inside. Both work for a ruthless mobster (Jack Nicholson), and both spend most of their time looking over their shoulders, trying to avoid detection. But as the cops become aware of a rat in their midst and the gangsters realize they're dealing with an informant, things begin to spiral into a volatile tempest of destruction. Scorsese's masterful direction paired with William Monahan's lyrical script creates a marriage of such cinematic grace that it affords the entire cast the occasion of delivering the best performances any of them have given in years. Quite simply, this is one of the best films of the year. R. DAVID WALKER. Pioneer Place, Eastport, Evergreen, Movies on TV, Bridgeport, Division, Moreland, Oak Grove, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Hilltop, Sandy, Sherwood, Tigard Cinemas, Cinema 99, City Center, Vancouver Plaza, Academy, Cinetopia.
Dreaming Lhasa
The final installment of the Northwest Film Center's Human Rights on Film series, Dreaming Lhasa is the fictional tale of Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York City. Karma travels to Tibet on the pretext of making a documentary film in order to fulfill his mother's dying wish to return a charm box to a former resistance fighter. Containing all the turgidness of Kundun (1997) and none of the delightful cinematography, this film buckles under the weight of its own pretensions. Writer Tenzing Sonam belabors his themes of self-discovery and reconciling tradition into oblivion while neglecting to bother with any activity more interesting than navel-gazing. JAMES WALLING. Northwest Film Center at Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Avenue, 221-1156. 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 9. $4-$7.
Flags of our Fathers
According to the opening voice-over of Flags of Our Fathers, the American people require "easy-to-understand truths and damn few words" in order to make sense of war. Even at this early stage, this much is clear: Flags may look like an epic war film, but it's really just a grisly, clichÉd, exhausting lecture. Eastwood should have followed the advice of his movie's central theme and allowed the events and images to speak for themselves. Instead, didacticism drags down a potentially fascinating and tragic historical drama. Even the images themselves are problematic; footage that should have been stunning—such as an aerial view of the massive U.S. Navy buildup around the southern beach of Iwo Jima—is, through Eastwood's lens, flat and melodramatic. Flags is the first installment of Eastwood's ambitious pair of films about the Battle of Iwo Jima. Here's hoping that the second installment, Letters from Iwo Jima, which will endeavor to tell the story from the Japanese perspective, blows its predecessor away. R. KATE LEBO. Lloyd Mall, Eastport, Division, Oak Grove, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy, Sherwood, City Center, Bridgeport, Vancouver Plaza, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Academy.
Flicka
Director Michael Mayer and screenwriters Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner reduce Mary O'Hara's classic coming-of-age story My Friend Flicka to a mess of stereotypes and melodrama better suited to the Hallmark Channel than the big screen. Flicka tells the story of headstrong Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman), who adopts and tames a wild mustang against the wishes of her stern and overprotective father (Tim McGraw), causing a rift between them. Katy eventually wins Flicka's trust, and the mustang is ultimately the catalyst for father-daughter reconciliation, as well as the resolution of various other ancillary (and uninteresting) family dysfunctions. While Mayer's direction seems sincere—there are fleeting moments that tug at the heartstrings—the overall result is a one-dimensional production that scratches the surface of emotion but never really engages it. McGraw is especially guilty of this, conveying all the fatherly sentiment of a wet bale of hay. Only Lohman and Maria Bello (as Katy's mother) manage to rise above the trite script and slipshod direction, but their efforts aren't enough to salvage the film. Little girls who daydream of riding bareback through wildflower meadows may enjoy this film (I know I would have), but it's hardly enough for a wider audience. PG. MELISSA WOLF. Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Sandy, Sherwood, Tigard Cinemas, Tigard-Joy, Cinema 99, Vancouver Plaza.
*NEW* Flushed Away
Okay, so Dreamworks coulda come up with a better title. But nevertheless, in a movie theater filled with children under the age of 10 and with a story line that melds Toy Story (pet mouse Roddy is left home alone by his British family while they go away on vacation, at which point the house comes "alive") and Finding Nemo (Roddy gets flushed down the toilet and ends up in a foreign world of sewer rats), Flushed Away manages to keep its head just above water. British wit and charming humor, coupled with thrilling adventure sequences will tickle the open minded. While the actors (an impressive cast, headed by Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman and Bill Nighy) deliver winning performances, the true crowd-pleasers come in the form of a clan of delightfully harmonic sewer slugs. ELIANNA BAR-El. Pioneer Place, Lloyd Mall, Eastport, Tigard Cinemas, Cedar Hills, Division, Bridgeport, City Center, Evergreen, Vancouver Plaza, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Academy, Sherwood, Roseway, Oak Grove, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Sandy, Cinetopia
49 Up
In 1964, the British television series World in Action aired a special called Seven Up! The premise was simple: The program showcased a dozen or so 7-year-olds from various backgrounds. Every seven years director Michael Apted has revisited most of the subjects (some stopped wanting to be profiled after they turned 21), and now, with the remaining participants all pushing 50, the Up series has finally arrived at its intended destination. 49 Up works, as do the rest of the films in the series, in part because it feeds into the sense of voyeurism so many of us have. At the same time, the series does have a sense of honesty and reality. None of these people is vying for a cash prize, and, after so many years of participating, most are very vocal about how much they don't really want to do it. In its own way, 49 Up is perhaps the most compelling since 21 Up, the first film in which the participants were no longer children. Most of the first six films were spent looking ahead to the future, but, with 49 Up, the children that we have come to know so well have finally grown up. DAVID WALKER. Hollywood Theatre.
*NEW* A Good Year
Director Ridley Scott has covered a lot of ground in the past 30 years, from horror (Alien) to epics (Gladiator), from brilliance (Blade Runner) to drivel (Legend). With A Good Year he tries something different—subtlety. While the film is standard prick-finds-redemption-in-country-life fare, Scott has crafted a warmhearted comedy that, despite abounding in clichÉs, manages to entertain without descending into cheese. Russell Crowe, in an uncharacteristically cheeky turn, is a shrewd stock trader who inherits a dilapidated French chateau and vineyard from his estranged uncle (a prophetic Albert Finney). Initially he plans to sell it for millions, but over time—and through a series of childhood flashbacks—he begins to ditch the asshole routine and return to his roots. He battles with the resident winemaker (Didier Bourdon), gets hot and bothered by his illegitimate first cousin (Abbie Cornish) and romances a vengeful local vixen (a knockout Marion Cotillard). It's a laid-back romantic comedy without romantic overkill, one that manages to avoid pretentiousness. Scott captures the beauty of the French countryside, and the minimal cast, especially Crowe and Bourdon, keep it charming. While it's fairly forgettable, A Good Year does manage a certain charm. It's a satisfying, quietly funny film that goes down easy. AP KRYZA. Eastport, Cedar Hills, Tigard Cinemas, Division, Bridgeport, Oak Grove, Cornelius, Sandy, Cinetopia.
The Guardian
If Ashton Kutcher is what passes for a movie star these days, the cinema is in serious trouble. The vapid young actor seems to be lacking a certain light behind the eyes—you might call it anima—and his performance in this formulaic Coast Guard recruitment commercial starring Kevin Costner is so flaccid that one wonders what Demi Moore sees in the lad. Fortunately for Kutcher, he doesn't appear onscreen until the second act, so the blame for this leaden picture can hardly be laid at his doorstep alone. The derivative script is pieced together with recycled bits from Top Gun and An Officer and a Gentleman, and some mention must be made of the extraordinarily poor special effects employed to simulate storm conditions at sea. It has long been fashionable to trash Costner, but he alone manages to deliver an affecting moment or two in what proves to be an irredeemable movie. PG-13. JAMES WALLING. Tigard Cinemas.
Here and Elsewhere
An overtly propagandist political film with strikingly low production values by French New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard. With footage originally shot as part of an aborted project intended to champion the Palestinian side of the Six-Day War, this screening of the filmmaker's later collaboration with Anne-Marie MiÉville is a rare opportunity for the advanced cinephile to view a screening of what the Cinema Project claims is the sole remaining print of this obscure film anywhere in the world. JAMES WALLING. New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny St., 232-8269. 7:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 8. $3-$6.
Hollywoodland
It is seldom talked about as anything more than a bit of Hollywood folklore—and certainly not as significant as Pearl Harbor or the assassination of JFK—but the fact remains that the 1959 death of actor George Reeves is one of those defining moments of 20th-century American history. Affleck gives perhaps the best performance of his career, bringing an emotional depth and complexity to Reeves that allow the actor to become something more than television's Superman or the victim of a mysterious death. R. DAVID WALKER. Mission, Academy, Valley Cinema-Pub.
The Illusionist
You have to like two things in order to enjoy this movie. One is Ed Norton. But who doesn't like Ed Norton? The other thing you have to like is the kind of detective story where the detective is the only guy who doesn't know what's going on. Ed Norton stars as Eisenheim, a 19th-century magician with the most patience in the world. As a young peasant lad, he falls for a duchess (Jessica Biel) and then has to wait 15 years to win her, meanwhile gathering skills and crafting elaborate props with which to astound and amaze the Viennese aristocrats. Rufus Sewell is the evil crown prince whose girlfriend the duchess has become. There's a murder (or is there?) and a lot of trickery and corruption, but it's all good fun (with mustaches). PG-13. BECKY OHLSEN. Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Academy, Valley Cinema-Pub.
An Inconvenient Truth
Former Vice President Al Gore spells out the clear and present danger of global warming, which, according to George W. Bush, is a myth—sorta like his winning the 2000 election. PG. Laurelhurst, Valley Cinema-Pub.
Jackass: Number Two
There are two types of people in the world: those who laugh at a man being bitten on the penis by a snake, and those who don't. The latter should know better than to venture into Jackass: Number Two, and the former will piss their pants laughing. AP KRYZA. St. Johns Dome, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Academy, Avalon, Bagdad, Milwaukie, Edgefield, Valley Cinema-Pub.
*NEW* Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
A disturbing and enlightening look at the events culminating in the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan and four others, and the mass suicide of over 900 followers of the charismatic religious leader Jim Jones in Guyana in 1978. This engrossing film is less an indictment of Jones than a careful study of the factors that enabled seemingly sensible people do something as crazy as feeding poisoned Kool-Aid to their children and loved ones. Director Stanley Nelson features astonishing archival materials and extensive, probing interviews with former Peoples Temple members in this largely successful attempt to get at the phenomenology behind this terrible disaster. JAMES WALLING. Hollywood Theatre.
Little Miss Sunshine
There are laughs aplenty in Little Miss Sunshine, though they're not the kind that make a movie a classic. Like hundreds of indie films before it, it's about a dysfunctional family in which everyone is screwed up in some particular way. It's a comedy of angst, with bitter, dark laughs that belie its eventual "families gotta stick together" message, and while some elements are derivative—the extended corpse-stealing sequence is a bit too National Lampoon's Vacation—the sharp comic performances from Kinnear and Carell help you overlook that. R. ERIC D. SNIDER. Cinemagic, Tigard Cinemas.
Man of the Year
What if Jon Stewart ran for president on a lark and ended up winning? That's the setup for Man of the Year, a patchwork comedy starring Robin Williams as a political comedian who wins the presidency due to a glitch in a new computer voting system. Director Barry Levinson has a knack for political comedy (Good Morning Vietnam, Wag the Dog). At first, Man of the Year seems poised to strike some of the same sly, satirical chords that made Wag the Dog so devilishly clever, but it soon becomes a thrill-free thriller that manages to kill the fun of watching Williams take on Washington. PG. AP KRYZA. Movies on TV, Vancouver Plaza, Cornelius.
Marie Antoinette
Nobody expects edge-of-your-seat filmmaking from Sofia Coppola, but Marie Antoinette makes Lost in Translation look like Die Hard. Coppola's contemporary take on the doomed queen is extravagantly shot, but, like its cast of stoic French dandies, it's a dud. The Austrian bombshell Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is married off to ultra-drippy king-to-be Louis XVI (an amusingly lifeless Jason Schwartzman), whose obsession with making keys keeps him from consummating his marriage. With the countryside in turmoil and war abroad, Antoinette spends her days dancing to '80s new wave music, being pampered and eating her weight in cake. The majority of the film is spent in montage, as the queen and her douchebag cohorts eat, drink, smoke dope and mindlessly yap over and over and over again (the repetition is painful). The 18th-century sets and costumes are a wonder, but Coppola's threadbare script offers no insight into the period, very little dialogue and zero character development. Coppola's Antoinette is a bubbleheaded modern party girl—Dunst looks great but is given little to do except be cute. It's Clueless in Versailles, sans charm or humor. Not surprisingly, a film about pretentious, self-indulgent assholes is itself excruciatingly pretentious and self-indulgent. AP KRYZA. Pioneer Place, Lloyd Mall, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Cedar Hills.
Military Families Speak Out: Oregon
An absolutely heartbreaking documentary featuring the pain and grief of a handful of Oregon military families who have lost loved ones in Iraq. Much of the film is taken up with candid accounts of the needless waste of human life and the anger of those who feel that their patriotism has been abused. This film is the perfect antidote to the "support our troops" mentality that equates support for our people in uniform with support for our government's foreign-policy decisions. JAMES WALLING. Hollywood Theatre. 1 pm Saturday, Nov. 11.
Open Season
Despite the combined talents of Martin Lawrence, Gary Sinise and Billy Connolly, Sony Pictures' latest animated feature completely misses its mark. Boog (Lawrence), a cracker-munching, unicycle-riding grizzly bear, lives in town with cute, slender Ranger Beth (Debra Messing). Unfortunately, Boog misbehaves and finds himself back in the forest just in time for the opening of hunting season. The villain is the Neanderthaloid hunter Shaw (Sinise), who sports a mullet, plays air guitar on his rifle and even steals Boog's teddy bear. Unfortunately, Open Season's creators ignore the cardinal rule of animated films: They must appeal to adults as well as the kids. This movie is just plain unfunny, relying on poop jokes and lame insults ("You're a loser, and you're a loserer!") to get a laugh from its young audience. If you're looking for a fun flick to take the kids to this weekend, keep hunting. PG. EMILY COOPER. Oak Grove, Cornelius, Sandy, Movies on TV, Vancouver Plaza.
The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren inhabits the intimidating persona of Queen Elizabeth II in this dramatization of the private lives of Britain's leaders in the days immediately following Princess Diana's 1997 death. Director Stephen Frears (Mrs. Henderson Presents, High Fidelity, The Grifters) keeps the kid gloves on in his treatment of the Royal Family and the Blairs, presenting what amounts to an apology for the missteps and insensitivity of the crown in the wake of national mourning for the ill-fated Diana. Frears' uneven yet artful directing marks the continued development of a talented filmmaker. His able use of montage to weave together gripping news footage with staged dramatics is unparalleled—even in a period marked by big-budget attempts at docudrama and dramatization (United 93, World Trade Center)—and the effect of Frears' having fused these two elements together lingers long after the credits roll. That said, Frears' depiction of Blair as the unwitting beneficiary of glowing public opinion after Diana's death is difficult to swallow. One understands giving Queen Elizabeth the benefit of the doubt regarding her personal motives during those difficult times, but to imply that Blair was either selfless or politically naive is ridiculous. PG-13. JAMES WALLING. Fox Tower, Eastport, Bridgeport.
Running with Scissors
In a family where Valium is a revelation and the paterfamilias is a psychiatrist who is as delusional as his patients, it is perhaps inevitable that at least one unfortunate child should turn out to be a writer. Augusten Burroughs is that writer, and Running with Scissors is the story of his psychotic childhood. He's known for embellishing the truth with David Sedaris-like aplomb, so the film's excellent cast and beautiful cinematography embroider a story that is already larger than life. Annette Bening stars as Deirdre Burroughs, Augusten's train wreck of a mother, whose self-obsession and painfully misguided literary aspirations inspire her to give her son away to her eccentric shrink. The film encompasses the sheer madness of Mommie Dearest and the charming lunacy of The Royal Tenenbaums to mostly excellent effect. R. KATE LEBO. Fox Tower, Eastport, Bridgeport, Division, City Center, St. Johns Cinema-Pub, Lake Twin, Tigard-Joy.
The Science of Sleep
Director Michel Gondry's 2004 collaboration with writer Charlie Kaufman resulted in the supremely brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. For his latest foray, Gondry, working without Kaufman, has crafted a film of visual grace and poetic wonder, but his abilities as a writer are not quite up to speed with his cinematic eye. There's no denying the stylish wonder of The Science of Sleep, and Gael GarcÍa Bernal's performance as a social misfit is both endearing and heartbreaking. The film's biggest flaw is Gondry's script, which is a bit too off-the-wall for its own good and gives the impression at times that he was as confused making the movie as the audience is watching it. But because it is so far removed from all the predictable, mediocre stuff out there, the film is a refreshing diversion. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower.
Shortbus
Director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) is our generation's Bob Fosse (Cabaret, All That Jazz). As invasive as both Cabaret and Shortbus are, they both provide peeks into "sordid" subcultures, and more than anything else they're social commentaries on the times in which their characters live. For Cabaret, it's Nazi Germany. For Shortbus, it's post-9/11 New York. Instead of Hitler, jazz hands and Liza singing show tunes, you get the "Mayor of New York," cocksuckers and men singing the national anthem into each other's asses. Whereas Fosse used metaphors for sex, Mitchell uses sex as his metaphor. "It's not about sex," said JCM when I spoke with him recently, "it's what sex is about." It's the absurdity of sex—and life—that makes this film sing, alongside cool songs from rocker friends like Yo La Tengo and Kiki & Herb's Justin Bond. BYRON BECK. Hollywood Theatre.
*NEW* Stranger than Fiction
An offbeat dramatic comedy tracing the life of a lonely nobody (Will Ferrell) who suddenly realizes that his days are being narrated and critiqued by a disembodied voice (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Look for a review next week. ELIANNA BAR-EL. Pioneer Place, Cedar Hills, City Center, Evergreen, Tigard Cinemas, Eastport, Movies on TV, Vancouver Plaza, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Division, Sherwood, Oak Grove, Cornelius, Sandy, Cinetopia.
Tales of the Rat Fink
Director Ron Mann's documentary about custom-car legend Ed "Big Daddy" Roth features music by The Sadies and fun animation by Mike Roberts. Roth became famous for his use of fiberglass in custom cars as well as for energetically mass-marketing his anti-Mickey Mouse character, Rat Fink. The film features great home-movie footage from the '50s and early '60s, and is at times an intriguing look at hot-rod culture. Although the story itself is fascinating, the film is nearly sunk by Mann's decision to use talking cars with blinking headlights to narrate part of the story. Despite the voice talents of celebrities such as Ann-Margret, Brian Wilson, the Smothers Brothers, Steve Austin, Matt Groening and Jay Leno, the device falls flat. Mann's decision to use the voice of the otherwise talented John Goodman in place of Roth further detracts from the experience. Roth is an interesting figure, and this hokey tribute does not do him justice. CHRISTOPHER LUNA. Clinton Street Theater, Wednesday-Thursday.
13 (Tzameti)
Tzameti is the French/Georgian neo-noir tale of a young Georgian immigrant's unwitting involvement in a high-stakes game of Russian roulette. The trouble begins when a young man (George Babluani) hired as a roofer overhears his employer speaking of an upcoming opportunity to strike it rich. When the man dies of a heroin overdose, our protagonist follows cryptic directions to a country estate, where he is ensnared in the forthcoming game of death. Filmed in a black-and-white, Tzameti takes an inordinate amount of time setting up for the climactic scenes. In fact, I doubt I could have sat through such an arduous introduction without having already been primed with a trailer. Once Tzameti reaches the meat of the story, it manages a nail-biting tension, despite being dulled by how easy it is to predict what comes next. In addition to the tedious intro, a surprise ending could leave audiences feeling somewhat swindled. STEVEN WALLING. Clinton Street Theater.
Time to Leave
A strange meditation on mortality, Time to Leave is alternately arresting and laughable. Luckily, the actors (especially Melvil Poupaud in the lead) rise above the tendency of writer-director FranÇois Ozon (The Swimming Pool) to dwell on tight close-ups, slow tracking shots and pretentious bits of dialogue. The story revolves around the navel-gazing of a French photographer who mistreats his lover and family members as he struggles to come to grips with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. As he slowly withers away, his superficiality recedes and a kind of quiet meaningfulness takes its place. Despite its flaws, Time to Leave is greater than the sum of its parts, and by the time the credits roll one is left reflective and even a little moved. A warning to the homophobic: Certain graphic sex scenes make Brokeback Mountain look like Harold and Maude. JAMES WALLING. Hollywood Theatre.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Faced with the lunacy of the Vietnam War—a conflict portrayed in this documentary film as bearing striking similarities to the war in Iraq—Lennon and Yoko Ono waged a public-relations campaign of civil disobedience and performance art in an effort to popularize nonviolence and personal accountability. By 1972, Lennon and Ono were perceived as a serious enough threat to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign that a decision was made to have them silenced. Proceedings were instituted to have the couple deported, and a long and excruciating legal battle ensued. By the end of it, Lennon and Ono remained in their beloved New York City and Nixon had left the White House in shame, but the result was less an outright victory than a successful war of attrition. The U.S. vs. John Lennon's thesis is clearly articulated by Gore Vidal near the conclusion of the film: "Lennon represented life, and Mr. Nixon, and Mr. Bush, represent death." Both Vidal and the filmmakers seem to imply that the struggle between life and death is ongoing and unending, a fact that must be faced honestly for any idealism to be maintained over the long haul. The filmmakers ultimately manage to render what might otherwise have been dated subject matter in a manner that is extremely relevant and affecting. JAMES WALLING. Laurelhurst, Academy.
