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 Y Z
Fantasia (1940, 124 min, G) **** - Directors include James Algar and Samuel Armstrong, story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, Philadelphia Orchestra directed by Leopold Stokowski. A brilliant idea and a classic, groundbreaking animated film; self-contained and silent cartoons, some narrative and some free-form, are set to popular classical pieces. The music includes Bach’s “Toccata & Fugue in D Minor” and Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” while visuals include the rise and fall of the dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse getting in trouble with a magic hat.
Fantasia 2000 (1999, 75 min, G) ***1/2 – Directors include James Algar and Gaeten Brizzi. The premise is the same as the 1940 original: take popular classical pieces and set silent, self-contained cartoons to them, performed by a major symphony. This time around vignettes include Noah’s Ark set to Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance;” the roaring ‘20s set to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue;” a volcanic eruption set to Stravinsky’s “The Firebird;” flamingoes with yo-yos and flying whales; and a new print of Mickey Mouse and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Filmmaker Walt Disney’s idea, way back in 1940, was to release a new “Fantasia” every year or two; “2000” is weakened by the appearance of several celebrities (including Steve Martin and Angela Lansbury) who try to be cute but are just condescending.
Fargo (1996, 98 min, R) **** - Directed by Joel Coen, starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi. Chilling and surprisingly humorous story of a car salesman (Macy) who arranges to have his own wife kidnapped, and the police chief (McDormand) who heads up the investigation. The movie pits the forces of evil lurking beneath common, everyday people against the homespun goodness of hearth and home. Beautifully photographed in the snows of the American North. Oscars for Best Actress and Original Screenplay, nominations include Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor Macy.
The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat) (2001, 172 min, NR) **** - Directed by Zacharias Kunuk, starring Natar Ungalaaq and Sylvia Ivalu. The first film entirely in Inuit—and what a language—is half a documentary of a society without wood, metal, permanent homes, or much in the way of plant life, and half the primal tale of a man (Natar Ungalaaq) who wants too much and pays the price for it in a blood feud that crosses not only generations but the line between this world and the next. A long, mysterious journey, eerily captured in digital video, and is the kind of experience for which the best movies are made.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, 118 min, R) *** - Directed & co-written by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Frantic, rollercoaster adaptation of the book by counterculture icon Hunter Thompson follows a “Rolling Stone” journalist (Depp) and his mad lawyer (Del Toro) as they do drugs in Las Vegas. Ostensibly there to cover a motorcycle race, they have strange visions of American through a chemical haze. Funny and full of special effects, “Fear and Loathing” runs like an action movie, with paranoia and hallucinations in the place of the bad guys.
Fierce Creatures (1997, 94 min, PG13) *** - Directed by Robert Young and Fred Schepisi, starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. Gentle comedy about a power-hungry and flatulent media mogul (Kline) who sends his goofball son (Kline again), an uptight former soldier (Cleese), and a gold digging beauty (Curtis) to straighten out and sell off a little zoo. The zoo employees (including Palin) resort to desperate (and silly) measures to keep their beloved animals, and eventually sway the corporate types. A good-natured film that believes those who like animals are better than better who like money.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964, 99 min, NR) ***1/2 – Directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Vollone. The first of the “Man With No Name” trilogy is both a remake of Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo” and a warm-up for the trilogy’s final act, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” A nameless gunfighter (Eastwood) wanders into a border town run by two conflicting criminal families and plots to have them destroy each other. Spare and brutal in its depiction of the cruelty of which people are capable.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, 95 min, PG13) **** - Directed by Errol Morris, featuring interviews with Robert McNamara. The point isn’t whether you hate McNamara or love him, whether you think he’s telling the truth or lying, or whether you want him to apologize, or admit he was wrong or recant nothing, or if he’s just flat-out crazy. The greatness of Morris’ documentary is that it gives us the chance to hear a real-life power broker speak candidly and to take a glimpse, however skewed, into those smoke-filled backrooms where history is made. Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature.
Following (1999, B&W, 69 min, R) **** - Directed & written by by Chris Nolan, starring Jeremy Theobald and Alex Haw. Hypnotic and myopic film noir about a young man (Theobald) so devoid of personality that he begins following strangers, and the trouble it causes him when one of them (Haw) turns out to be a burglar. Writer-director Nolan (“Memento”) uses a maze of flashbacks and gorgeously grainy black-and-white to tell a classic, concise tale of doublecross, obsession, and untrustworthy dames.
For a Few Dollars More (1965, 130 min, NR) ***1/2 – Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Vollone, and Klaus Kinski. The second film in the “Man With No Name” trilogy finds two antagonistic bounty hunters (Eastwood and Van Cleef) following the same murderous prey (Vollone). The bounty hunters eventually join forces and seek to infiltrate their enemy’s bank-robbing gang (which includes a mad hunchback, played by Kinski), and doublecrosses and hidden motives ensue. A little more thickly plotted than absolutely necessary for a spaghetti Western, which rely on grand gestures more than narrative, “A Few Dollars More” takes the same delight as “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’s” in presenting a hyper-real, super-grimy, super-Darwinian Old West while still reveling in crazy clichés about manliness and shooting hats off people’s heads.
Formula 51 (2001, 92 min, R) ** - Directed by Ronny Yu, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle. Uninspired “Pulp Fiction”-crossed-with-“Trainspotting” farce about drug dealers, gangsters, dirty cops, torture, etc. Jackson and Carlyle play a white guy and a black guy who don’t get along. The movie is mostly just running around screaming from one shoot-out to another, dressed up like a music video. (’04)
Fresh (1994, 114 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed & written by Boaz Yakin, starring Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Samuel L. Jackson. Gritty, unsparing drama about a mild, intelligent inner-city boy (Nelson) who plays opposing crime factions against to get what he wants out of them. The boy betrays his drug-dealing surrogate father (Esposito) with the chess skills imparted to him by his real father (Jackson). From the detached style of director Yakin to the boy’s silent genius to the one-by-one appearance of buildings like pieces being set up, the film has the feel of a chess game.
From Justin to Kelly (2003, 90 min, PG) ** - Directed by Robert Iscove, starring Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson. Harmless, shallow, glossy, and woodenly-acted pop musical intended to cash in on the success of TV’s “American Idol.” A boy with a tainted reputation (Justin) falls for a good girl (Kelly) during spring break in Miami and has to prove he’s not what she thinks, mostly in song. Standing in his way is a minefield of contrivances and misunderstandings that Shakespeare could get away with but this movie can’t. Too innocent and campy to be as terrible as many people say it is.
The Fugitive (1993, 133 min, PG13) ***1/2 – Directed by Andrew Davis, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Superb thriller remake of the old TV show finds an innocent doctor (Ford) on the run for the murder of his wife, trying to solve the mystery while alternating outwitting and leaving clues for the US Marshal (Jones) on his trail. The chase is packed with sharply-drawn characters, some terrific (and vaguely plausible) stunt sequences, and Jones won an Oscar for his confident and slightly ironic hound of a cop.