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Also this issue: Deadly Passions Bad Faith Under Arrest Screen Picks |
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June 12-18, 2003
movie shorts
DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD
(Not reviewed.) A haiku:
Buck-toothed pair regress
to pre-stardom selves. Jim, Jeff
"unavailable."
(UA 69th St.; UA Riverview)
THE GIRL FROM PARIS
Are we still in the French-hating racket? It seems only juste that we continue to at least annoy them a little by making the English titles of their movie exports utterly dull. I don’t know what most of it means, but the original name of this one sounds lovely: Une hirondelle a fait le printemps. I’m pretty sure printemps is "spring," and since this film is about a young farmer and her codger foil, maybe the rest of the title means "Manon of the." We’ll never know for sure. Sandrine (Mathilde Seigner) gives up her life as a Parisian computer instructor to follow her dream of owning an alpine goat ranch. She buys out crusty old-timer Adrien (the wonderful Michel Serrault), who lives on at the adjacent farmhouse, keeping a disapproving eye on Sandrine’s ag-school innovations as well as her naïveté as she discovers the inextricability of farm life and farm death. Yes, this has all the makings of an inter-generational bonding story, wherein two loners grudgingly learn to depend on and even love each other. And yes, we’ve seen this chevre get milked before, but this time the milk’s not bad: warm, not pasteurized, not too sweet.--Ryan Godfrey (Ritz East; Ritz 16)
RUGRATS GO WILD!
(Not reviewed.) A haiku:
Together again:
Bruce Willis and Aerosmith.
It's Armageddon.
(UA 69th St; UA Cheltenham; UA Riverview)
SWEET SIXTEEN
Though it wouldn’t be entirely fair, you could with some justification accuse Ken Loach of making the same movie over and over again. But even if that’s so, sometimes he makes it better than others, and Sweet Sixteen is one of his recent best. The film opens with Liam (Martin Compston) and his friends conspiring to steal a policeman’s helmet, but the antic depiction of juvenile crime is just the bait on Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty’s hook. Rather than fun or flash, what Liam’s after is stability: He doesn’t want a car or clothes, just a teeny camper where he and his mother can stay after she’s released from prison. After ripping off his mother’s boyfriend, a seedy drug dealer who let her take rap for him, Liam starts selling heroin to put a down payment on the camper, and instead of taking offense, the local drug lord respects his initiative and hires him on. Just like that, basic needs and a soft heart lead to crimes that few would forgive, all in the name of domestic tranquility. The performances Loach gets from his young cast are consistently impressive, and Laverty’s screenplay (which won at Cannes) applies the sentiment with a deft brush. One complaint: It would be nice if distributors would trust audiences to find their way into the thick accents of Loach’s characters, rather than unnecessarily distancing them with subtitles (not to mention retranslating slang into conventional English, which robs the film of vernacular power). After a few minutes, even the thickest brogue becomes penetrable, and it would be worth the effort to see the film as it’s meant to be seen. --Sam Adams (Ritz at the Bourse; Ritz 16)
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
Digital video can blur a story, or throw its failings into stark relief, but in the case of Alfredo de Villa’s debut feature, the medium lends an immediate, you-are-there feel to what might otherwise be a fairly rote tale. We have, for sure, seen these elements before: Carlos (Manny Perez), the artist who dreams of getting out of his working-class Dominican neighborhood, but can’t seem to grow up (his preferred medium is comic books about alien invaders); his father, who runs the corner bodega and can’t understand why his son won’t follow in his footsteps; Carlos’ affable but none-too-bright friend, Mickey (Danny Hoch), whose irresponsible behavior promises a confrontation down the line. One minor character even sports a Mean Streets T-shirt, as if to say, "Yeah, yeah, I know. What can you do?" Exactly why Washington Heights works when so many movies like it fail is tough to pinpoint, though fine acting and a flair for well-drawn characters combat the all-too-familiar plot points. In a way, it’s harder to figure out movies like this than bona fide masterpieces, but perhaps it’s enough just to enjoy. --S.A. (Ritz Five)
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