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If the students of Jack Black in his new movie were the eager young freshmen in the School of Rock, then Jacki, the character played by Gina Gershon in "Prey For Rock and Roll" (2 STARS Rated R), is closer to being the kind of embittered graduate student who continually puts off turning in that thesis paper so as to avoid having to make any serious life decisions. In the film, based on the off-Broadway musical by rock singer Cheri Lovedog, Jacki has just turned 40, is still scraping out a meager living with her band (which also feature druggy rich girl Drea De Matteo, idealist Lori Petty and innocent-turned-victim Shelly Cole) and needs to decide whether to press on with her dreams of rock stardom or to throw in the towel. Although director Alex Steyemark manages to capture some of the atmosphere of grungy rock clubs, he is not able to overcome a fairly dreadful script in which every single female is a victim of abuse (at one point, this tendency leads to an ugly rape/revenge subplot that feels like "I Spit on Your Grave" as reenacted by Josie and the Pussycats), every male is a violent monster (even Marc Blucas’ token nice guy has done prison time) and the symbolism is slapped on pretty thick. (In a film like this, if a character is named Faith (or Grace), her chances of surviving to the final reel or about as good as that of a black guy in a horror film.) What does work is the turn by Gina Gershon (whose photogenic sneer has enlivened such films as "Bound" and the immortal "Showgirls"). From the opening shots (where we see her preparing for a concert with the intensity of a prizefighter), she goes all out with a fierce, full-bodied performance that perfectly captures the look, sound and attitude of a world-weary person whose faith (if not her Faith) in everything is temporarily restored every time the music starts.

1/2 In "Pieces of April" (2 1/2 STARS Rated R), Katie Holmes stars as April, a young malcontent New Yorker who invites her estranged family-including a mom (Patricia Clarkson) who isn’t letting her terminal cancer get in the way of her terminal bitchiness, a beleaguered father (Oliver Platt), a weird brother and a snotty sister-to her run-down apartment for a fence-mending Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, her oven is on the fritz and she finds herself running up and down her building begging neighbors to let her borrow their kitchens. Cross-cutting between her misadventures and the family car trip, writer-director Peter Hedges (his first film in the latter position) has essentially created two ensemble films and for a film that runs only 80 minutes, that may have been a little too ambitious as he only has times to sketch his characters in with the broadest of strokes. There are some very good performances here (especially by Holmes and Clarkson) but not much else to walk away with. Earlier this year, though, this proved to be one of the most popular entries in last Sundance Film Festival; frankly, the acclaim it received says less about the film and more about how the standards of Sundance have slipped over the years.

1/2 On June 12, 2000, a commuter bus in the heart of Rio de Janerio was hijacked and the passengers taken hostage by Sandro do Nascimento, a young man whose life was marked by crime, poverty and violence (as a child, he witnessed his mother’s murder and later, as a street kid, he was caught in a massacre in which several kids were ambushed and killed by cops in an ill-fated attempt to rid the streets of such people). The five-hour ordeal became a media event and the entire conflict and resolution was broadcast on television throughout Brazil. Using footage from those broadcast, as well as contemporary interviews from police, family members and the hostage themselves, director Jose Padilha has crafted "Bus 174" (3 1/2 STARS Unrated), a spellbinding documentary that chronicles the entire affair. To say what happens would spoil things (since the case is relatively unfamiliar in America, it winds up being as gripping for audiences as a fictional thriller) but I will mention that Padilha has created a truly memorable film that never tries to apologize for Nascimento’s actions but which also chillingly suggests the ways in which both the police and media took an already tense situation and simply made things worse.

If you are one of those people who have been hoping against hope that Hollywood would one day crank out a film combining "Rudy" and "I Am Sam", then rejoice as "Radio" (2 STARS Rated PG) should more than adequately slake that sad, strange desire. Based on a "Sports Illustrated" article that was no doubt published during one of those lean times of the year where professional sports are at an ebb-or "hockey season", as the kids call it-the film stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as an amiably mentally handicapped guy who lives with his mother and who hangs around the high school watching football practice. Instead of being creeped out, the coach (Ed Harris) takes him under his wing and allows the guy (known as Radio because of his fascination with such machines) to become a combination mascot/assistant coach for the team until the local meanie (you can tell he is evil because he works in a bank and looks vaguely like Glenn Frey) tries to run the poor dope out of town until the inevitable heartwarming conclusion. (One wonders why the guy would object because whenever Radio is around, the team wins but when he is absent, they go down in defeat.)

Clearly attracted to the project on the idea that playing a mentally handicapped person equals critical acclaim, Gooding turns in a performance that is deeply embarrassing to watch-it never works for a second as a genuine performance and it isn’t even worth watching as a camp artifact. Ed Harris, on the other hand, is a little better than he has been in recent years; although playing a small-town football coach would seem to invite it, his work is far more restrained than might be expected (although the screenplay does him no favors when it forces him to say lines like "We didn’t teach Radio anything! The fact is-he is the one who taught us!"). The most mystifying thing about "Radio" is the fact that the invaluable Debra Winger, long absent from movie screens (save for an appearance in last year’s little-seen "Big Bad Love"), makes an appearance in the nothing role of Harris’s long-suffering wife. After having turned her back on Hollywood for so long, what possible reason could Winger have had to make her big return in a nothing role in a nothing movie?

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
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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.