Next (2004 - D)
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City Lights (1931, 87 min, B&W, NR) **** - Directed, written by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. Touching silent classic about a penniless tramp (Chaplin) who falls in love with a blind flower girl who mistakes him for a millionaire. The Tramp’s quest to restore her vision is single-minded and selfless, and he is even willing to never see her again if she can be cured. The film’s somewhat primitive technique is more than made up for by our immediate, almost emotional connection with its characters and situations.
Cliffhanger (1993, 118 min, R) *** - Directed by Renny Harlin, starring Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, and Janine Turner. Beautifully-shot “Die Hard” knock-off about a group of park rangers (led by Stallone) pitted against scenery-chewing Eurotrash thugs (led by Lithgow) who are looking for stolen loot in the mountains. The movie won’t change your view of the world, but it delivers what an adventure needs: well-choreographed stunt sequences, a thrill-a-minute, likeable good guys, and villains who are practically as evil as Nazis. Also rare for an action movie, not every problem is solved by fistfights and shoot-outs, and Finnish director Harlin has gotten some of the finest (and scariest) snowy mountain footage this side of “Touching the Void.”
Clockers (1995, 128 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Spike Lee, starring Harvey Keitel, Delroy Lindo, and Mekhi Phifer. Director Lee combines social commentary, character study, and the police procedural in his film about a bottom-rung drug-dealer (Phifer) caught between a detective (Keitel) accusing him of murder and a gangster (Lindo) who is both a father figure and hardened killer. Often accused of being only political, Lee’s daring as a filmmaker should not be ignored, and is exemplified by the fantasy sequence brought on by Keitel’s detective explanation of the events and motives of a ghetto boy’s life.
Copycat (1995, 123 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Jon Amiel, starring Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, and Harry Connick Jr. Doesn’t it sometimes seem like serial killers in movies only kill to make really convoluted puzzles for detectives to solve? A shrink (Weaver) and a detective (Hunter) join forces to track a maniac copying the murders commited by a man (Connick) that Weaver helped incarcerate. The movie gets the job done but is otherwise unremarkable. Little known fact: the father of singer-songwriter Connick is indeed the very same “pro-death penalty Catholic district attorney Harry Connick Sr.” mentioned in Sister Helen Prejean’s “Dead Man Walking.”
Creature Comforts (1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 35 min, NR) ***1/2 – Four delightful and whimsical animated short films, mostly using stop-motion clay figurines, from the makers of “Wallace & Gromit.” Topics covered include animals chatting in the zoo, deals with the devil over household appliances, class warfare between two medieval brothers separated at birth, and man’s relationship to God in pantomime. One Oscar winner for Best Animated Short and one nominee.
Cries and Whispers (1973, 106 min, R) **** - Directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Harriet Andersson and Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. Potent and unflinching look at the last days of an ill woman, her two sisters, who are terrified to go near her, and the faithful maid who protects her to the very end. Bergman uses stark, cold images and flashbacks to tell the story of the family, but in the end nothing can keep us from death. Oscar nominee for Best Director.
The Crow (1994, 102 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Alex Proyas, starring Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, and Michael Wincott. Electrifying, evocative, and gorgeously-realized comic book fantasy about a murdered rock musician (Lee) back from the dead to obliterate the crooks who killed him and his girlfriend. Lee, in the role that claimed his life, threw himself completely into the film. Director Proyas handles the story with the inevitable feel of a fable and creates one of the most hauntingly wet, rainy, blackened, dirty, and dismal urban environments in the movies, complete with a Gothic cathedral and graveyard. Full of potent and fearless imagery, moody music by The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, and Graeme Revell, and a treat for any Halloween.
Changing Lanes (2002, 99 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Roger Michell, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Affleck, William Hurt, and Sydney Pollack. A fender-bender between an upstart lawyer and an alcoholic insurance agent leads to a day-long feud that causes them to re-examine their entire lives. As a man unable to keep all the plates spinning, Jackson is as reliable as ever, and Affleck gives his best performance to date, while director Michell strengthens his fable by avoiding a heavy hand. Not a perfect movie, but an admirably ambitious one.
Chasing Amy (1997, 111 min, R) *** - Directed & written by Kevin Smith, starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jason Lee. A self-centered comic book writer (Affleck) falls in love with a cute lesbian (Adams), regardless of the protestations of his best friend and comic book artist (Lee). Despite the potential sensationalism of its subject matter, “Chasing Amy” works because it is populated by clearly defined individuals, not archetypes, and writer-director Smith lets them go where they will go, free of simplistic screenplay clichés.
Chicago (2002, PG13, 113 min) ***1/2 – Directed by Rob Marshall, starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. Big-screen version of Bob Fosse’s Broadway musical about a singing murderess (Zellweger) whose trial makes her the darling of the media. Gere is her lawyer, John C. Reilly is her jilted husband, and Zeta-Jones is another murderess vying for the spotlight. Everyone in the movie is unapologetically self-centered, and hilariously so, and the entire contraption has more than a little to say about fame. 6 Oscars, including Best Picture and Supporting Actress Zeta-Jones.
Children of Paradise (1945, 190 min, B&W, NR) **** - Directed by Marcel Carne. Starring Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, and Pierre Renoir. The heightened world of the 19th century Parisian theatre is the setting for the tale of a jaded, worldly courtesan (Arletty) adored by four different men. The nobleman wants to own her; the dashing anarchist (Renoir) is too preoccupied with revolution; and the lusty, spendthrift stage actor (Brasseur) knows she’s not the kind of girl you marry. But she is meant for a naïve pantomime (Barrault), a 19th century Charlie Chaplin, whom she fails to believe is as honest and trusting as he really is. The movie is both a romantic melodrama and an examination of the flaws and strengths of these five approaches to life. Paris is large and rambling, the cast is Dickensian in scope and characterization, the film’s runtime allows for full development of all the leads and tangents into the theatre, and director Carne keeps things moving with a burlesque French agility.
Chocolat (2000, 121 min, PG13) **1/2 – Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, starring Juliet Binoche, Alfred Molina, and Johnny Depp. An unmarried mother who doesn’t go to church stirs things up in a small 1950s French town. I like a good fight, but this movie is just a beating: the “free spirits” are all happy while the Catholics are all repressed and gloomy. A heavy-handed, preachy film disguised as a comedy and a missed opportunity for a genuine confrontation and comparison of ideologies. Nominated for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture.
Citizen Kane (1941, B&W, 119 min, PG) **** – Directed & co-written by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton. The life of a mysterious and self-contradicting media mogul named Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles, who aggressively directs the movie as a patchwork of overlapping flashbacks) is examined after his death, including his childhood poverty, his rabble-rousing first newspaper, his gubernatorial bid, his failed marriages, and his eventual reclusion. Routinely called the best movie ever made, “Citizen Kane” is at once a high-speed history lesson of America between 1880 and 1940, an omen of the age of mass media, and the very personal story of how every man is an unreachable island all to himself. The American Film Institute’s pick for Best American Movie of All Time, “Sight and Sound’s” Best Film of All-Time 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2002, and Oscars for Screenplay and Screen Story.
City of God (2002, 130 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Fernando Meirelles, starring Alexandre Rodrigues and Leandro Firmino. A beautifully shot, towering, aggressive tale of crime in a Brazilian ghetto, spanning nearly thirty years and dozens of characters, told with frantic editing, overlapping flashbacks, and no end of tangents. The film’s theme of there being no easy answers to the entwined dilemmas of poverty and crime is perfectly embodied by its sheer size and sprawl. Multiple Oscar nominations (in 2003, a year after its official release!), including Best Director, Film Editing, and Cinematography.