Also this issue: The Vanishing Genius Where has Fassbinder been for the last 20 years? -Sam Adams Wide Open Spaces How Gus Van Sant rigged Gerry. -Sam Adams No Time to Cry Philip Seymour Hoffman on the tough task of playing a grieving man who won’t grieve. -Sam Adams Screen Picks -Sam Adams Continuing Repertory Film Showtimes

February 27-March 5, 2003

movie shorts

New

CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE

X gon' give it to ya. Deemed "The Next Tom Cruise" by GQ, the charismatic DMX continues to power his way into the movies. What with his star turns in Belly and Exit Wounds, and his recent announcement that he's quitting music (because the business is skewed to the detriment of the artists), his focus, if not his success per se, seems assured. In his third film with director Andrzej Bartkowiak, X is a super-excellent thief (teamed with Gabrielle Union, Drag-On and the irrepressible Anthony Anderson) who happens on a source of plutonium disguised as "black diamonds." He's also a dedicated dad, so when one of several bad guys (Mark Dacascos) kidnaps his daughter, the Dark Man goes into serious action. Joined by Taiwanese special agent Jet Li and (God help him) a fence played by Tom Arnold, he zooms around L.A. in various vehicles, visits cigar-smoking crime boss Chi McBride in prison and gets clocked by The Shield's Michael Jace in a black velvet jacket. Many explosions, kick-fights and shoot-outs later, X and Li save the girl and, oh yes, the planet. I'll say it again: he's a movie star, surviving even such silly dialogue as "Break out the heat." --Cindy Fuchs (AMC Orleans; Bridge; Roxy; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Main St.; UA Riverview; UA 69th St.)

GERRY

Whether it's Gus van Sant's ticket back from the wilderness or just a blip in his otherwise steady downward slide, Gerry is the first significant movie the once-promising auteur has made since My Own Private Idaho, and the first watchable one since Good Will Hunting. Heavily influenced by the works of Béla Tarr and Chantal Akerman, Gerry follows two callow young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) into the desert, where they promptly get lost. The film, co-written by van Sant and the actors, becomes increasingly absurd and bleak as the men's chances of finding their way back to civilization diminish; at first, they're wandering in what looks like New Mexico, but by the end, they're criss-crossing a salty plain and hiking through snow-crusted mountains. The movie opens with two shots, running perhaps 10 minutes between them, of the two men driving silently in their car, a warning to the audience to shift into low gear. What keeps Gerry from drowning in its own art-ness are Damon and Affleck's fratboy take on Vladimir and Estragon; rather than bemoaning their fate, they're more likely to boast of their video game accomplishments or get hopelessly marooned atop a high rock. You don't want to be in the position of lauding van Sant simply for making a movie many people won't like, but if you're open to its charms, Gerry is a thoroughly engaging experience.--Sam Adams See Sam Adams' interview with director Gus van Sant on p. 30. (Ritz East)

LOVE LIZA

It would be easy to peg Love Liza as the sort of self-conscious gloom fest that regularly wows 'em at Sundance and promptly stiffs everywhere else. The movie, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a man who huffs gasoline to insulate himself from the recent suicide of his wife, is nobody's idea of a feel-good hit. But there's plenty of humor to leaven the proceedings, most notably from Jack Kehler, who plays a doughy man-baby obsessed with model boats, and Hoffman's as-always unerring performance is a thing of beauty. The film, directed by Todd Louiso (the Belle and Sebastian-loving clerk from High Fidelity) moves at a lugubrious pace, but rushing things would only ruin its mordantly elegiac tone.--S.A. See Sam Adams' interview with actor Philip Seymour Hoffman on p. 32. (Ritz at the Bourse)