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• The Dining Room. A play by A. R. Gurney. Good example of why excellent performances, good production values, and care in preparation cannot save a work that is essentially flawed. See What Works and What Doesn't.
• Sorcerer. Available on video; released 1977. A remake of the French classic The Wages of Fear (1952). Great example of how Hollywood finds it necessary to turn everything into a morality play. Each of the characters in this version is given an extensive background that makes their fate a necessity of morality rather than a manifestation of an uncaring universe. Good, but not nearly the impact of the original. On the other hand, part of the story concerns a Palestinian terrorist as well as additional terrorist activities elsewhere. A stark reminder of how little things have changed -- and of the schizophrenic love/hate relationship that terrorists have with the America.
• Spy Kids. Only for families that don't object to mindless entertainment. Even the superficial feel-good message about "teaching people to be good rather than bad" lacks plausibility because good is not sufficiently distinguished from evil. Clown-like characters fail to convince. See What Works and What Doesn't.
• Shadow of the Vampire. Available on video; released in 2000. Curiosity film. Good but often slow and awkward. Very nice, however, as a film-school study piece about the gradual erosion of the difference between reality and the made-for-media recreation of reality. Takes the concepts of reality TV and the Stanislovskian method to a whole new level -- with a chilling moral. The need for 15 minutes of fame is so powerful that even Dracula succumbs.
• Planet of the Apes. No. Do not see this film.
• Jurassic Park III. An good example of how Aristotle's criteria can be applied. Spectacle can be used as an effective element in drama, but if the plot (the most important consideration) is lacking in logic, the drama cannot make up for it simply by increasing spectacle. Among the plot flaws are unresolved questions: Is there one island or two? Why are the puzzles of the opening scene are never resolved? And the final scene is equally problematic: why should anyone be happy that dinosaurs will be free to roam the earth?
• AI. A beautiful, sensitive, intimate, and thought provoking film. See it. Themes: love, death, resurrection, and the nature of individuality. One thematic thread has its roots in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: if man has the power to create beings similar to himself, can he also love these beings? (If man loves God, does God love man?) Or will man shrink away in horror at his own creation? Another thread contrasts the Christian view of human individuality and the possibility of resurrection against the Jewish view ("Albert Einstein" has an amusing, but crucial cameo role in which religion is found to be both literally and symbolically half-way between fact and fairy-tale). (May be emotionally too much to handle for someone who has lost a child or parent. Not a good film for children who do not have a secure relationship with parents, especially mother.) For a negative review and a link to the original story that inspired the film, see the Wired article.

Less Recently Seen:

• Pearl Harbor. Your money might be better spent on other films that are still in release. An odd film in many ways and there is a great deal that could be said about it, but probably the most important single fact is that it is yet another example of the blurring between fact and fiction that has become a pillar of popular culture. The first half hour contains a Feminist Fantasy in which sadism is rewarded by sexual pursuit. The second half of the film is almost entirely factual. The bombing of Pearl is historically accurate, and emotionally compelling, although it was "cleaned up" to eliminate gore and bloodshed. And the subsequent story, again most of it accurate (including using broom handles to replace guns!), is based on Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, one of the most stunning events in WWII. Should be seen on big the screen, not video. Best to read up on Doolittle's raid before seeing. Also see Charles Krauthammer's comments on FDR.
• Atlanta Film Festival: Remote Control. Excellent Short. What has happened to Serbia? Answer: a century of psychological and physical terrorism has transformed some ordinary people into monsters capable incalculable brutality. Based on a true story of three soldiers in the Croatian conflict of 1992 who find a TV, but need the remote control to make it work, this 24-minute tale speaks volumes about how the absence of Christian forgiveness and the absurdity of postmodern detachment can become engines of destruction. Star: "the Baba," whose wordless performance serves as a symbol for all that was respected in traditional cultures of the region. Directed by Ivan Ziukovic using locations in California.
• Atlanta Film Festival: Gina an Actress, Age 29. According to the postmodern perspective, it is a fact, for better or for worse, that no one alive to pulse of the contemporary Western mind can uncritically accept the concepts of "original," "true," or "real." One must always ask, "original, true, or real according to what standard and from which culture?" Consequently, again for better or for worse, there is a contemporary frame of mind that accepts an image, a token, or a semblance of reality as equivalent to the "real thing" itself (since there was not a "real thing" to begin with). Advertisers, for example, take advantage of this frame of mind. One can advertise, quite openly, not that a drug or a car will actually provide health or personal freedom, but that these products will only provide the simulacra of these goods. Advertisers list the side effects drugs as if they were not actually worse than the conditions the drugs supposedly "cure." Advertisers show luxurious cars speeding along scenic, abandoned highways -- not to present real driving experiences, but to openly present dream-like images from driving fantasies, unconnected with the realities of commuting. Many aspects of this conscious substitution of fake for real come together in "reality" TV, in which everything is fake: fake conflicts, fake emotions, fake danger, and fake "real" people, who are good enough actors to almost fool themselves. But what happens when our willingness to accept the false comes head to head with and intractable, "true," moral dilemma? This is Gina's problem. She needs works and she takes a job that requires her to fool people into thinking she is not an actress, but a "real" person with a "real" political and moral perspective. An excellent short film (about 20 minutes). Excellent production values, convincing (!) acting, and a great script that reflects the postmodern condition.
• Shrek. Very funny, but not for children. Too many off-color jokes.
• Atlanta Film Festival: Freez'er. The title almost gives away the plot -- a plot that is almost too gruesome to be repeated in print, but here it is: A man kills his wife in a fit of rage (she has been cheating on him), but can't bring himself to either confess his crime or dispose of the body. Seeking to retain the body as a symbol of his lost love, he takes it to a secluded farm, where a convenient abandoned freezer is discovered in the barn. Others become aware of his crime and the rest follows inevitably, as one crime leads to another and more bodies begin to pile up. (One is reminded of A Simple Plan, which has a similar plot form.). Inspired by Hitchcock and very well executed. Made to be marketed to TV. Expect to see it on cable.
• George Lucas in Love. If you've seen Star Wars, see this. It's only 7 minutes but it's you'll want to watch it at least twice! One of the best things you can get from a video store these days.
• Faith and Asphalt. Religious satire meets The Blair Witch Project. Released by a small production company, New Planet Pictures (world premier screened in Chattanooga, TN on Sunday May 27, 2001), the film is described as a pseudo-documentary of street preachers in Chattanooga. A series of vignettes depicting various combinations of simple-minded faith, psycho-pathology, and duplicity, each with its own humorous coda. The pseudo-documentary style, replete with intentional (?) movement of the microphone into the camera frame, interferes, I think, with some rather more serious points that might have been made. After all, the genius of the Witch Project is that it presents itself not as a clever contrivance, but as an actual documentary. The same thing might have been done here, since many of the actors were very convincing. Has some very fine moments, particularly a new version of the 10 commandments, embroidered on two pillows. See it if you want to feel the currents of new directions in film.
• The Claim. Sin, guilt, and redemption. Thomas Hardy's operatic style is mirrored here in a film notable for its vast silences with corresponding imagery to reflect various stages of inner torment. Grey pallet and play of light and darkness across faces is sometimes reminiscent of best of cinema's golden black and white era. Final lesson, from an era where the necessity of cosmic justice was a given, is poignantly symbolized as two lovers walk down the road of life. Set in the times of the Gold Rush -- one might find parallels to the contemporary dot com rush -- but best not to know too much of the plot in advance.
• Kafka. If you want to make a study of either film adaptations of Kafka's works or films that Steven Soderbergh has directed (Sex, Lies, and Videotape), then see this film. Another reason might be as a study of films made under or immediately after Communism. (This film was made in 1991, in Prague. It probably belongs in my Films and Communism category, below.) While this film is not necessarily one to avoid, it is not one to choose over other possibilities. For example, it is not at all in the same league as Orson Welles's The Trial. Lem Dobbs (a.k.a. Lem Kitaj), who wrote the screenplay, also shares some writing credit for Dark City, a much better, thematically similar, film. Kafka does have its moments, however. Jeremy Irons is excellent throughout, and the dark vision of life in Prauge's is chilling.
• The Mummy Returns. Went to see it for fun, and it is -- if you like the absolutely mindless. Turns out also to be an education in what Hollywood apparently thinks is effective narration: drown out dialogue in overblown music, eliminate logical links needed to explain character motivation for the sake of action scenes. Who will rule the earth and precisely how will they do it? The Mummy, by his own power; the evil director of the British Museum, by getting The Mummy to kill the Scorpion King, and then killing The Mummy (how?); or the Scorpion King, by his own power? There is no clear sense of which answer, if any, is right. And since everything in a good adventure story depends on there being a clearly defined quest, the story completely fails. The film is more akin to channel flipping than watching a continuous story. A bad sign that the experiential style of the Sesame Street generation (learning one letter at time, limited attention span, everything is "fun" or "interesting" and nothing is critically analyzed) has finally become mainstream. Visually, however, the are a few seconds worth of examples of what Hollywood could do with computer-aided graphics to recreate the ambiance of lost civilizations. Do not spend hard-earned cash to see this film.
• Momento. See it. One of most unusual films ever made. Starts and the end and works backwards in time to the beginning. Basic idea, has, of course, been done many times: film opens with funeral; rest of film is about events leading up to funeral. This one is the same, but with one added trick: we experience almost all events from the perspective of a person who has a real, but extremely rare, form of brain damage that makes it impossible to retain memories of his previous actions for more than a few minutes at a time. Solution: tattoo clues all over his body that provide a continuous thread of his progress in his quest. (See above comments for The Mummy on need for quest). Problem: what if memory (or something else) goes wrong when the tattoo is made? Postmodern Edge: the narrative is from the author, but the author does not "exist" -- he has no metaphysical anchor point from which to obtain a universal perspective, except the belief in The Narrative itself. At issue: Is there a truth or master narrative? Need there be? (There are forums and discussion groups all over the internet on this film. If you have already seen the film, click HERE for a possible answer to the riddle.) David Hume would love this film. An essay on the fragility of reality, the nature of personal identity, and the quest for truth.
• Rififi. One of the best in the 1950's film noir category. Riveting. Beautifully filmed. Four thieves plot a jewel heist -- and they would have gotten away with it too -- except... well, you have to see it. Directed by Jules Dassin, an American working in France. Dassin was blacklisted in the U.S. for his supposed communist sympathies during the red scare trials of the 50's. They needn't have worried; the film upholds American values. A great morality play. Best line is spoken by the wife of one of the thieves: "The real heroes are....." The film does contain some moments of unintentional humor (how closely can you follow somebody without them realizing it?), so you can laugh at these now "quaint" conventions of film, but the overall effect is powerful. Interesting facts: banned in Finland from 1956-1959; violates one of the principles of the Motion Picture Production Code (see links on this page). Very rarely shown. Best seen in a theater with a new print.

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