REVIEWS IN A HURRY for 2004 - A Alphabetical Index for 2004 A  B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X-Z Too busy for wasted prose?  Then let the F&SN Critic, in a matter of sentences, completely and irreversibly convince you whether or not you should see a movie. More Review in a Hurry for 2004 - A               Reviews in a Hurry for March 2005
	Adaptation (2002, 114 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Spike Jonze, starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper.  The creators of “Being John Malkovich” once again combine reality and fiction in this tale of a screenwriter (Cage) obsessed with the author (Streep) of the novel he’s trying to adapt, who is herself obsessed with the real-life protagonist (Cooper) of her novel.  To make matters worse, the screenwriter is plagued by his twin brother (Cage again), who succeeds so quickly where he struggles to only fail.  Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Chris Cooper. The Affair of the Necklace (2001, 107 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Charles Shyer, starring Hilary Swank, Jonathan Pryce, and Joely Richardson.  All the elements are in place for a juicy melodrama about bad people behaving badly in powdered wigs, but for some reason, perhaps lack of temerity, “The Affair of the Necklace” wants us to see its scheming intrigue-maker as heroic.  Actress Swank never seems able to reconcile her character’s apparent selfishness with the movie’s sunny view of her; it’s telling that, for all its fabulous production design, the movie doesn’t portray late 18th century nobles as caked in white powder and perfume to hide how badly they stink from not bathing.  As a wronged noblewoman out to reclaim her land and her title on the eve of the French Revolution, she connives, deceives, and swindles her way through a web of intrigue involving Marie Antoinette (Richardson), a French cardinal (Pryce), and the gaudy bauble of the title.  The movie never seems to recognize that a princess defending hereditary privilege might not be the best hero in the French Revolution.  The rest of the cast knows the score:  Simon Baker is appropriately ironic and wounded as the court gigolo who agrees to help Swank; Pryce gives us another debauched and hypocritical churchman; Adrien Brody is terrifically vile as Swank’s husband of convenience; and Christopher Walken has a small bit of delightful scenery-chewing as a “foreign” fortune-teller.  “The Affair of the Necklace” is also a nearly miraculous piece of production design, glittering with color, costumes, makeup, authentic locations, and rich cinematography.  The credits of those responsible for the look include “Fight Club,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Minority Report,” “The Shining,” and, perhaps the best of all powdered wig films, “Barry Lyndon.” Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1977, 100 min, PG) **** - Directed & co-written by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski and Del Negro.  A doomed expedition of Spanish explorers falls under the control of a mad conquistador named Aguirre (Kinski, in a terrifyingly intense, yet strangely amusing performance).  As the expedition travels “Heart of Darkness”-style deeper into the jungle and begins to loose its mind, the film becomes a metaphor for not just colonialism, but the folly of all human ambition.  Herzog’s stark and minimalist direction combines with eerie electronic music for a truly creepy experience.
			Alfie (1966, 113 min, PG) *** - Directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Michael Caine and Shelley Winters.  This Don Juan morality tale from swinging ‘60s London first lures us in with promises of boyish womanizing, then reveals the unsatisfying hollowness of such a lifestyle.  There’s a scene in the middle that you might first dismiss as a comic aside:  a giant fistfight erupts in a working class London pub, seemingly out of nothing.  All these men must have been standing around, brooding and angry over something, just waiting for an excuse to erupt.  For our bird-chasing hero Alfie (Caine), working class disenfranchisement takes shape in his inability to believe that his actions can effect those around him; it’s not that he thinks of himself as superior, but rather supremely inferior, like a ghost.  He can’t imagine he has the power to break a girl’s heart, or any of the other callous soul-crushings he casually distributes.  Caine is as effortlessly brilliant as ever, in a performance that bridges “The Italian Job” with “Sleuth,” and director Gilbert wisely lets the girls swim in and out of view plotlessly.  Try not to listen to the song over the end credits though. Alien (1979, 116 min, R) **** - Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto.  Watershed horror film about a deep space freighter plagued by a hostile extraterrestrial.  Wonderfully atmospheric, both futuristic and gothic, and, like “Jaws” before it, we seldom get a clear look at the beast, making it all the more terrifying.  Features a great, restrained cast of actors in 1970s, “Five Easy Pieces” mode. Aliens (1986, 137 min theatrical release, 154 min director’s cut, R) **** - Directed & co-written by James Cameron, starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, and Michael Biehn.  Relentless, ferocious, and almost too-intense to be entertaining battle between man and beast on a far-off world in the future.  Space marines and a survivor from 1979’s “Alien” face a swarm of acid-dripping man-eaters at an abandoned outpost where most of the lights don’t work.  Flawless technical credits include a dismal futuristic dungeon, high-tech machines and body armor, and, of course, the monsters themselves. All or Nothing (2002, 128 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Mike Leigh, starring Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville.  Fresh from the 1890s London of “Topsy-Turvy,” writer-director Leigh returns to the working class London of the present for another story of families trying to find hope amidst poverty and mistakes.  Occupations like cab driver and grocer store sacker leave little opportunity for self-worth. All Quiet on the Western Front (B&W, 1930, 131 min, NR) **** - Directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres.  Powerful tale of young men dying by the millions in the trenches of World War I, this is an early talkie that should have been silent.  Disturbing images of severed hands still gripping barbed wire and of a fatal reach for a butterfly have not dated or lost their potency.  The movie slips a little when it steps into the virgin territory of movie dialogue, but it is still an awesome experience.  Oscar Winner for Best Picture.