"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine"
Subscribe To Weekly Newsletter!

1/2 (R) In the turgid melodrama "Blue Car," Agnes Bruckner stars as an adolescent girl with a turbulent home life - absent father, distant mother (Margaret Colin) and a seriously disturbed younger sister(Reagan Arnold) - who only finds solace in the poetry that she writes for her self. She strikes up a friendship with her English teacher (David Strathairn), who mentors her and encourages her to enter a nationwide poetry contest but it eventually becomes clear that his influences are less Robert Frost and more R. Kelly. Writer-director Karen Moncrieff’s debut film is just as grim and depressing as it sounds and it lays the melodrama on so thick - this is the kind of movie where a girl not only ritualistically cuts her own legs with a razor, she then pours salt on the wound to increase the pain-that after a while, it eventually becomes laughable (especially in the awful final section, featuring a dreadful appearance by Frances Fisher as Strathairn’s weirdo wife) and, to be honest, even the poetry stinks (on an artistic scale, it ranks just below the gibberish we heard in "Stealing Beauty"). The only worthwhile aspect of the film is the moving and subtle (especially in the face of the soap-opera material) performance of Bruckner (previously seen as the girl caught in the middle of the psycho boys in "Murder by Numbers"); her work is as natural and unaffected as the film is forced and marks her as an actress to watch.

CREDITS: Written and directed by Karen Moncrieff. Starring Agnes Bruckner, David Starthairn and Margaret Colin. Rated R. 96 minutes. A Miramax Pictures release

THE DANCER UPSTAIRS

1/2 (R) In the past, John Malkovich has demonstrated a fascination with stories of violent political and social upheaval that focus less on the actual acts and more on the people behind them (for example, he presented the fascinating Iranian film "The Terrorist"-about a young girl/suicide bomber who is slowly making her way to her target-and on stage, he adapted Don DeLilo’s Lee Harvey Oswald examination "Libra") so to learn that he has chosen "The Dancer Upstairs," based on the Nicholas Shakespeare novel about a earnest police inspector (Javier Bardem) trying to find the unknown leader of a terrorist organization wreaking havoc in an unnamed Latin American country (the book and film are based on real events in Peru in the early 1980’s), as his cinematic directorial debut is not as strange as it may initially look. However, the end result is pretty odd-an uncomfortable mixture of political thriller (heavily influenced by Costa-Garvas, who is specifically referenced at one point with a clip from his "State of Siege"), human drama (as the married inspector begins to fall for his daughters dance instructor, played by Laura Morante, even as he discovers that she may have some involvement with the organization) and surreal violence (one killing is literally theatrical in nature and another involves a schoolgirl hit-squad straight out of "Battle Royale")-and Malkovich tells his story in such a detached and reserved style that the final scenes simply lack the emotionally impact they are clearly designed to have. Still, there are some arresting moments and good performances (especially by Bardem in his first big role since "Before Night Falls") and I will admit that it worked better when I saw it a second time. I can’t quite recommend it fully but for those inclined to see something along these lines, it could prove to be fascinating.

CREDITS: Written by Nicholas Shakespeare. Directed by John Malkovich. Starring Javier Bardem and Laura Morante. Rated R 124 minutes. A Fox Searchlight release

1/2 (R) "Onmyoji" is an exciting, visually spectacular epic import from Japan (where it quickly became the second-most-popular film in that country’s history after "Spirited Away") that isn’t harmed at all by the fact that it is all but incomprehensible to Western audiences. From what I can determine, it deals with an ancient curse that is set to destroy the Heian Emperor upon the birth of his heir and which can only be stopped by the imperial order of the Onmyoji, a group that uses the powers of the occult to protect the Emperor and his family from such things. However, you don’t need to be a scholar of the novels of Baku Yumemakura (whose stories inspired the film) to enjoy the film-you merely have to have a taste for the kind of flamboyant fantasy where anything is possible-a world where demons can emerge from stone pillars and an arrow to the head can be removed in the most unexpected way possible. Look, I see plenty of movie where the story is completely comprehensible but where the filmmakers haven’t given viewers anything interesting to look at and, given a choice, I would prefer to see a film that doesn’t make much sense on a narrative level but which features a moment in which a warrior is ordered to "Kill that butterfly-without touching it!" and then proceeds to do just that. Probably not for everyone but fans of martial arts and anime (though the film is in live-action) should make every effort to see this weird near-masterpiece in its big-screen glory while they have the chance.

CREDITS: Written by Baku Yumemakura. Directed by Yojiro Takita. Starring Mansai Nomura and Hideaki Ito. Rated R. 112 minutes. A Pioneer Entertainment release.

WINGED MIGRATION

1/2 (unrated) The makers of "Microcosmos", that fascinating documentary in which special cameras were developed to give viewers a startling look at the insect world lying literally at their feet, have returned with "Winged Migration" but this time, the results are less impressive than their previous effort. I think the problem is that birds are so inherently familiar that to see them up close lacks the impact that the earlier film had when it showed us these strange, beautiful bugs blown up to big-screen dimensions (and frankly, the deeply pretentious narration meant to wax profound on the nature of birds veers between the ineffective and the laughable). By the end of the film, all that we are left with are simply a bunch of pretty pictures (and the photography is spectacular) and not much else; it is like paying $9 bucks to watch an endless loop of the last 10 minutes of "CBS Sunday Morning."

CREDITS: Directed by Jacques Ouzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perin. Starring a lot of birds. Rated G. 98 minutes. A Sony Pictures Classics release.


-- Capsule Reviews by Peter Sobczynski

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
All rights reserved.
Used with permission
Peter's Archives

While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.