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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2000)
MOVIES After the monthlong production wrapped, Rodriguez then faced a final challenge: playing artiste at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Having never done the “scene” before, she conducted advance research on the Internet, look ing for advice. “It was talking about how [Sundance] is all about the art of making films, unlike Hollywood. It isn’t just about making money and fashion and all this, Rodriguez says. “But...when I got there, it was like middle-class Hollywood.” The attitude of a lot of festivalgoers underimpressed Rodriguez. “I was literally sitting down watching a movie, and... someone’s cell phone would ring and they’d get up and say, ‘Oh, well this movie’s not good anyway,’ and just walk out. Total disrespect.” Not, however, for Girlfight. The film netted the Directing Award and shared the Grand Jury Prize (with You Can Count on Me) and was snapped up by Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems banner, which will release it Sept. 29. Rodriguez’s performance jump-started critical buzz—and land ed her a role in the Spike Lee-pro duced Showtime flick, 3 AM. After that, audiences can catch her burning rubber with Paul Walker {The Skulls) in Universal’s Street Wars, about ille gal New York City drag races. Ultimately, she says, she’d like to write and direct also: “Movies that can be adventurous, suspenseful, comedic, and dramatic at the same time, with different ethnicities, backgrounds, life styles. It can all be mixed into the ult imate film, and that’s my goal,” she says. “That’s a big goal, isn’t it?” Seems like she has a fighting chance. • • • SEPTEMBER Black and White (Columbia TriStar. R] Nothing screams "poser" like Anglo dreads, which fall all over James Toback's largely improvised, overly theatrical study of hip-hop's ap peal to white wanna bes. But a distracting mishmash of celebs (including Ben Stiller, Brooke Shields, and Claudia Schiffer) dulls Toback's satiri cal point. B Final Destination (New Line. R] If you equate listening to John Denver with a fate worse than death, your fears will be realized in this thought-provoking [much talk about the nature of mortality] but often cheesily ex ecuted teen thriller about seven pawns struqqling to cheat a determined prim reaper with a thing for "Rocky Mountain Hfgh." C+ Hi^h Fidelity (Touchstone. R] In 1989's Say Any thing.... Everyhunk John Cusack wrote the book on modern teen heartbreak. Here, aided by his Grosse Pointe Blank writing team, a rock ing soundtrack, and irrepressible costar Jack Black, he revis its that achinp realm as a thirtysomethinp record store owner with an inability to commit. A OCTOBER American Pimp [MGM. R] Directors Allen and Albert Hughes [Menace 11 Society] fix their cameras on the put ter aristocrats who thrive off the profits of prostitution. Opu lently adorned with a funky soundtrack and clips from '70s mack-daddy cinema, this compelling documentary turns all the more unset tling when it lets the ladies tell their war stories. B + The Filth and the Fury [New Line. R] "The punks ruined it," claims Sex Pistol provocateur Johnny Rotten of his copycat fans in Julien Tem ple's riveting if band sided doc about the incendiary rise and fall of the group that launched a music revolution. Confes sional interviews, vin tage concert clips, and seldom-heard from manager Mal colm McLaren in a bondage mask—God save the anarchists! A Pitch Black [Universal. R] Ma rooned on an arid distant planet, weath ered crash survivors [led by Vin Diesel's captivating psycho murderer-prisoner] face off against noc turnal alien raptors in the middle of an eclipse. This is not your father's Alien. but it comes impres sively close. A NOVEMBER Chuck & Buck [Artisan. R] Dawson's Creek writing alum nus Mike White and American Pie pro ducer Chris Weitz deftly star in this touching but often creepy Sundance fa vorite about a wide eyed man-child named Buck [White] and his attempt to recapture the ' spe cial'' friendship he once shared with boyhood pal Charlie [Weitz], B+ Mission: Impossible 2 [Paramount, PG-13] Who cares if director John Woo surrenders to balletic overindul Bence while he tests the limits of Tom Cruise's spy fox with plenty of martial arts, shoot-outs, and motorcycle gymnas tics? It's not Mission: Oscar Nomination. Mr. Hunt. It's Mission: Impossible. A X-Men [Fox. PG-13) Armed with a well-developed back story—courtesy of the wildly popular Marvel comic—direc tor Bryan Sinper ca pably translates the onpoinp strupples of two ed^y mutant fac tions to the screen. Considering Holly wood's generally mis guided comic-book adaptations, capable is hi^h praise indeed. B+ —Erin Pichter MELISSA MOSELEY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY" on campiii i irihji
