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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2002)
t jpoL5.20Û2’ )M tM K | 4 1 D eath to S moochy Like previous Danny DeVito films (Throw Momma from the Train, The War of the Roses), his latest project brims with inspired lunacy, dark humor and inventive situations. Publicly dis graced kiddie show entertainer Robin Williams plots to destroy his successor, Smoochy (Edward Norton, brilliant as always), who meanwhile attempts to reform the corrupt and dangerous world of childrens entertainment. Harvey Fier- stein’s amusing appearance as a charity fund racketeer is not the only “gay theme” here. — Kevin Moore <£> I n the B edroom Todd Field’s dark, stoic drama— misrepre sented in Miramax’s relentless ad campaign as some sort of stalking thriller— is overhyped, but its flawless execution is unquestionable. Rather than the expected criticism of small town mores, Field and screenwriter Robert Festinger reveal the disturbing ferocity under lying familial relations with sharply contrasted maternal (Sissy Spacek) and paternal (Wil liam Mapother) instincts. Spacek s perform ance hilly warrants her deafening acclaim. — Christopher McQuain I ris Kate Winslet actually seems to channel Iris Murdoch as a young woman despite writer/director Richard Eyre’s determination to bland down the eccentric, brilliant bisex ual novelist and her writer husband, John Bay- ley (Jim Broadhent and Hugh Bonneville), into tiresomely “serious” movie subjects. Judi Dench as the older Murdoch is fine but wast ed, as Eyre’s middlebrow sensibility precludes much of interest in favor of a predictable, Life- time-movie Alzheimer’s storyline. —CM <£§> <£> K issing J essica S tein Two attractive women find love in the per sonal ads, but can essentially straight girls become gay? What could have been a homo- phobic embarrassment isn’t in this adaptation by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen of their stage play. Fortunately the pair insisted on playing the leads, too, which is largely why this film is so dam endearing. — Lisa Bradshaw Room is a success. Director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) offers the usual showy, techno philic camera tricks, and it’s filmed in his patented slick, dark Dank ’n’ Damp-ovision (which actually does befit the story). We also get to see Jodie Foster dis play the fiercest maternal iastincts this side of Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. What's and what's In a theater <§> <&> P anic R oom In the “for what it is" category: For what it is— an action suspense thriller, basically— Panic <*£>> only if you’re really hungry <&b <C§> < ^ > good effort, pass the salt <2^ mmmm, tasty! <£><& > get the big tub o’ com through restraint in pacing and performance. Include You Can Count on Me, and this sort of perceptive, cheese-free clarity and integrity almost seems like a trend. If so, let’s thank the cinema gods and ask them to keep it coming. —CM M onster ’ s B all A heartbreaking, incendiary, passionately erotic drama involving a racist cop (Billy Bob Thornton) and the widow (Halle Berry) of a black inmate he helped execute. The unlikely twosome become, through a tortuous chain of events, romantically involved. Some situa tions and resolutions seem a bit pat and con trived, but under Marc Forster’s sharp direc tion, the pacing and performances are spot-on. ?M dud, bottom of the bag Y T u M ama T ambien Jodie Foster and her baby-dyke daughter kick ass in Panic Room T he S on ’ s R oom Italian auteur Nanni Moretti won the Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival for this affecting story of a healthy, happy family coping with the inexplicable death of a child. Like In the Bed - room, it rises above the family-drama fray Using storytelling quirks similar to those in Amélie, director/co-writer Alfonso Cuaron somehow achieves the impossible: A teen sex comedy that actually shows sex. A buddy movie in which one friendship’s limits truly are put to the test. A coming-of-age road trip where the characters arrive in a much different place by the end of their journey. Don’t miss it. —Jim Radas ta G et the P arty S tarted H O U S E V O L U M E ( L I K E O N E 16 DJ mixed house hits by such artists as Amber, Deborah Cox, Kim English, Katrina Ruiz, Tina Ann, 110, Silent Nick, Flip Flop, Nicole J. McCloud, Modjo, Elizabeth Withers, Goldtrix Featuring Andrea Brown. 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