Grab Bag

A little of this and that arrives in area movie theaters this season.

by Sam Adams

Y2K has come and gone without a single appearance by the flesh-eating mutants (I, for one, confess to some slight apprehension) and what better way to celebrate than with a trip to the cinemah? It’s definitely one of those "mixed-bag" seasons, so without trying to hang a theme on it, let’s get down to what’s coming up in the months ahead.

It’s been almost a decade since Woody Allen tried anything significant, and Sweet and Lowdown (Jan. 21) won’t break the streak, but since actors still consider it a privilege to work with him, the cast is, as usual, unbeatable: Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Anthony LaPaglia and John Waters, as well as Uma Thurman and Gretchen Mol, because every window needs a little dressing. Also due this spring: Allen’sSmall Time Crooks, which with an ensemble including Jon Lovitz and Tracy Ullman doesn’t look set to break any records either.

Scream 2’s jokes about how lame sequels are would have been a lot funnier if it hadn’t been such a lame sequel. Hopefully Scream 3 won’t be the Return of the Jedi of the series. Writer Kevin Williamson, who’s been busy stinking up the big and small screens, chose to sit this one out, but director Wes Craven is back, along with Neve Campbell and the Arquettes. This is the movie that finally answers the question: Whatever happened to Patrick Dempsey?

Speaking of morbid, Errol Morris returns with Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (Feb. 4) The nonfiction film (don’t call it a documentary) focuses on another one of Morris’ characteristically wacked-out protagonists, an execution expert and Holocaust denier whose biggest quarrel with the Nazis is professional jealousy.

Couple number two: Neve and Dave Scream once more.

Somewhere between Trainspotting and Titanic lies The Beach (Feb. 11), which pairs director/writer team Danny Boyle and John Hodge with Leonardo DiCaprio. So far the movie’s drawn the most attention for the fact that, after promising the Thai government that they absolutely, 100 percent wouldn’t wreck the strip of fragile land they were filming on, the production ended up, er, wrecking it. Rejected tagline: The movie that destroyed an ecosystem!

Jim Jarmusch returns with Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Mar.), which apparently has something to do with Japanese mythology, the Mafia and hip-hop. Guess we’ll just have to wait until March to find out what that means.

Of course I remember how bad Snake Eyes was, but I still can’t help anticipating Brian DePalma’s Mission to Mars (March 10), if only because disappointment is so exhilarating, and even DePalma’s worst movies have at least one moment that’s worth savoring. Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Jerry O’Connell, Connie Neilsen and Kim Delaney take a trip to what I’d call the Red Planet if that weren’t the title of the year’s other Mars movie.

After furrowing brows with The Limey, Steve Soderbergh about-faces with Erin Brockovich (March 17), a Julia Roberts-starring courtroom drama about a lowly research assistant who helps an attorney (Albert Finney) take on a major utility company. That would ordinarily be enough to put you to sleep right there, but remember, this is the director who got a great performance out of George Clooney.

With Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp, the skeeve factor on the supernatural thriller The Ninth Gate (March 25) is unusually high, but Polanski is one of the strongest influences on young directors like Pi’s Darren Aronofsky and the Blair Witch gang, so maybe it’s his turn to reap the benefits of Artisan’s marketing machine.

On a last film-related note: If you like movies but don’t like yahoos yapping in your ear, mark your calendar for April 18, which is when the Rosenbach museum will be presenting selections from a treasure trove of letters to and from Greta Garbo. Bequeathed to the museum by Garbo’s lover Mercedes De Acosta, the letters haven’t been looked at since they were authenticated four decades ago. On April 15, 10 years after Garbo’s death, the Rosenbach’s staff will open the letters and quickly pick out a selection for the opening three days later.