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 DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN. This mockumentary tells of what
happens when all of California's Hispanics vanish at once. People
wake up to find that their husbands, gardeners, baby sitters,
stevedores, mechanics, doctors and business partners have disappeared
without trace. Interviews and newscasts follow the story, from
the man who learns that only Mexican mechanics know how to fix
Japanese cars, to the woman who winds up paying $100 for a head
of lettuce on the black market, to the Egyptian man who is hounded
by people asking if he is Mexican. With the Internet blacked out
by the loss of communications workers, one nerd notes that we
have "underestimated the relation between Mexicans and downloading."
By interpolating comedy with actual statistics about the importance
of the Hispanic population to the economy and culture of California,
Day without a Mexican educates without being didactic.
It's part of the Arizona Film Festival, now playing at The Screening
Room. --DiGiovanna
GO. Go see Go. No, really. I expected this sophomore
effort from Swingers director Doug Liman to suck, what
with its MTV-ready cast and trendy feel. But guess what? It completely
fails to suck. (I hope that gets quoted on an advertisement.)
The film tells the same story from three perspectives, repeatedly
going back to the same event to restart itself, and each version
is very successful. The first tells of a drug deal gone wrong
(just once I'd like to see a movie with a drug deal gone right...I've
known of quite a few real drug deals, and most of them worked
out A-okay); the second is a crime farce set in Las Vegas, and
the third and best is the story of two male lovers who star in
a TV cop show, and wind up involved with a creepy Amway-dealing
police officer and his libidinous wife (played by Ally McBeal's
Jane Krakowski). The three stories intersect and the film is tied
up as neatly as a Japanese bow. Featuring hot young things Sarah
Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf. --DiGiovanna
THE LAST DAYS. When I saw the publicity on this film, I
wondered why it'd been made. There have been more than 100 films
about the Holocaust, so making another one, even a documentary,
seems a questionable endeavor. Then I read the letter from Bruce
A. Friedemann (Tucson Weekly, March 11, 1999) and I realized
that there were morons out there who doubted the whole thing.
Maybe this painfully affecting movie will help. It follows the
stories of several Holocaust survivors, including some chilling
interviews with a Nazi doctor who worked at Dachau, and provides
enough incontrovertible evidence (and harrowing, effective drama)
to turn a few heads. Of course, Holocaust deniers don't operate
on standard rules of evidence, so this is probably not for them;
but it would be effective both in educating and enlightening those
whose hearts and brains are still working.
--DiGiovanna
THE MATRIX. While watching this I turned to my pal and
fellow ex-childhood comic geek Petix and said, "This is the
movie we dreamed of when we were young." He nodded rabidly
before returning his rapt and drooling visage to the screen. Remember
when the original Superman movie came out, and the tag
line was You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!? That was a load
of crap...anyone could see Superman was supported by strings,
and the rest of his superpowers were equally fakey. Well, not
here: Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne and some B-listers discover
that the world is a computer simulation and that they can reprogram
themselves with abilities beyond the ken of normal folk. They
dodge bullets, leap across tall buildings and fly through the
air and the whole thing looks so cool you'll forget about the
plot holes and story-flow problems and just have an eye-candy
good time.
--DiGiovanna
MOD SQUAD. Claire Danes has the coolest nose. Like, she
has this sculpted, fashion-model face, but her nose has this wildly
bulbous ending. I pray to God she never gets a nose job, as watching
her enrapturing proboscis is what made this movie bearable. It's
a remake of the '70s TV series about three teenagers who work
as undercover cops. In this version, their mentor is killed and
they must avenge his death. Things are enlivened by some really
trite dialogue and surprisingly good performances by Danes, Giovanni
Ribisi and Omar Epps as fellow Squad members, and a groan-inducingly
bad performance by Dennis Farina as their chief.
--DiGiovanna
NEVER BEEN KISSED. What an unexpected Beverly Hills,
90210 reunion! David Arquette (remember Diesel, the girlfriend-beating
keyboard player?), Cress Williams (a.k.a. D'Shawn Hardell, token
minority/basketball player/fan of Donna Martin), and Jeremy Jordan
(teen Vanilla Ice, on the 90210 soundtrack album) team
up for Never Been Kissed, 60610: the Chicago years! In
the midst of all this fun is the woman once rumored to be Shannen
Doherty's replacement, Drew Barrymore. This week's topic has to
do with self-love. Poor awkward Josi (Barrymore), a mid-20s copy
editor for the Chicago Tribune, gets a writing assignment
to go undercover as a high-school senior and find the real scoop
on teens. Josi is unable to approach the story objectively because
she was tormented throughout her secondary education as the class
geek, and she has frequent flashbacks that make her vomit. She
confronts her demons with the help of her brother Rob (Arquette),
and finally finds self-confidence through the acceptance of the
popular kids, including the dreamy Guy (Jordan). --Higgins
THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS. In the half-full auditorium where I
watched this dismal comedy, only one viewer really seemed to be
enjoying herself. If you're undaunted by those odds, read on.
Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn play the Clarks, a middle-aged couple
from Ohio who travel to New York City for a job interview. They
encounter one problem after another during the course of the wackiest
24 hours of their poorly sketched-out lives; they get mugged on
the mean streets, unintentionally solicit an audience while having
sex in Central Park (yuck, Steve, close your mouth!) and
accidentally take hallucinogenic drugs. Both roles are thinly
written, yet narrative interest relies upon spectators actually
caring about what happens to them. Like I said, one was the lucky
number at my screening. I myself had better things to think about,
like how far the walk is to the bathroom at those darn monster-plexes.
--Higgins
SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY. As an Italian, I'm always glad to see
a gangster movie where the mobsters don't hail from my homeland.
Thus, I was doubly pleased with 6 Ways To Sunday, the tale
of a brutal momma's boy who rises to the top of the Youngstown,
Ohio, Mafia, where gefilte fish substitutes for lasagna and the
thugs say things like "having money and not flashing it is
for gentiles." Norman Reedus turns in a truly weird and yet
very natural performance as Harry Odum, who comes of age through
killings and shakedowns. Deborah Harry is also boffo as his mom,
who bathes him, cooks for him, and controls the night light in
his bedroom. Some chillingly sexual mother-son sequences reminiscent
of Todd Solondz's Happiness make this not your average
gangster film. Also featuring scene-stealing performances by Elina
Lowensöhn (best known for her work in Hal Hartley's films)
and Isaac Hayes (who, beyond all reason, is now best known as
the voice of "Chef" on South Park). --DiGiovanna
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU. There are seven Shakespeare
adaptations due to hit the screen this year, three of them starring
Julia Stiles. She'll play Ophelia in Hamlet; Desdemona
in O (a teen-film reworking of Othello); and Katarina
in 10 Things I Hate About You, a high-school romance version
of Taming of the Shrew. Ten Things successfully makes a
feminist flick out of the Bard's most sexist comedy, and does
it while achieving that holy grail of teen movies, intentional
humor. While not the best film of the year, 10 Things is
amusing and distracting, which is more than you get from most
movies. And, of course, no Australians were harmed in the making
of this film. --DiGiovanna
TRUE CRIME. Dear Mr. Clint Eastwood: You do not look sexy
lounging around half-naked while making bedroom eyes at women
young enough to be your granddaughters. Please, please stop it
this instant. And this story you directed, where a reporter takes
one day to solve a crime that legions of lawyers and police officers
have been working on for 20 years, is not only trite but unbelievable.
And your turn as the drunken, womanizing reporter whose heart
is in the right place has been done before, and better, by William
Holden, Kirk Douglas, and about a dozen other actors from the
'50s. Only they weren't so cocky as to think that audiences would
believe that they were getting in bed with 20-year-olds when they
were in their 70s. So just stop before anyone has to see your
flabby nipples again. --DiGiovanna
TWIN DRAGONS. Boy, that Jackie Chan just seems to keep
getting younger, doesn't he? Oops--turns out his latest film,
which ads allow you to believe is "new," was originally
released in Hong Kong in 1992. Fresh (but still bad) dubbing and
a slicker soundtrack can't hide the inherent sloppiness of this
kooky twins-separated-at-birth story. There's a Freaky Friday
zaniness to the proceedings, which play off of the psychic connection
Jackie the ass-whupping mechanic has with Jackie the wimpy concert
pianist. (The mechanic's fingers start to wiggle while the musician
is performing; the musician lurches uncontrollably while the mechanic
goes on a high-speed boat chase, etc.) The obligatory switcheroo
scenes, despite involving two extremely beautiful Asian women,
are done so poorly that at times they make Dead Ringers
seem like a laff riot by comparison. But the real reason for any
Jackie Chan movie is the acrobatic fighting, which continues to
amaze--this time, the final showdown takes place in a crash-test
lab. If we're lucky, someday someone will figure out how to integrate
Chan's talents into a story in ways that are more satisfying than
they are erratic. --Topo Gigio
WALK ON THE MOON. I just love New York Jewish culture,
and nothing is more N.Y. Jewish than a summer in the Catskills,
the low-rent vacation area in upstate New York that brought us
"Borsht Belt" humor and tiny lakes with paddle boats
for rent. I also love period pieces, if they get the clothes and
hair exactly right. And I love actors Liev Shrieber, Viggo Mortensen
and Diane Lane. So I couldn't help but love this story about a
family whose vacation in the Catskills in the summer of 1969 brings
their conservative, working-class lifestyle into contact with
the Woodstock music festival. Every element is perfectly 1969,
from the over-sprayed coifs to the stiff, brightly colored blouses
and the free-flowing and dirty style of the neighboring hippies.
And the acting is, of course, spot-on. And there's a charming
and heartbreaking love story. And pretty people getting naked
in the woods. And latkes and matzoh and schmaltz. Oh my. --DiGiovanna
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