aprii 18,2003 ■ Ju s t o u t 45
A nger M anagement
Nobody escapes unscathed from this
disaster: gay lawyers, lesbian pom stars,
trans prostitutes, fat people, even fat
felines! But the biggest victims are audience
members anticipating a coherent comedy
starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson
as, respectively, yet another bland loose can
non and his beret-wearing therapist.
—Jim Radosta
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^
^
B etter L uck T omorrow
Like its cult hit Election, this new release
from M T V Films possesses effective surreal
imagery and the conspicuous (yet legitimate)
message that once you act on a decision, you
can’t go back. Co-writer and director Justin
Lin (Shopping fo r Fangs) portrays everyday
racism and suburban boredom through Ben
(Parry Sh en ), a brilliant Asian teen-ager
who has everything except that elusive cool
quality he finds when he and three friends
begin engaging in theft, drug dealing and
various “deals.” T h e sophisticated knowledge
of technology and distinct absence o f parents
highlight the lack of direction and search for
excitem ent o f this growing population of
privileged and apathetic youth.
— Lisa Bradshaw
H oles
Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf) is sent to a
camp for troubled teens in this touching film
based on the best-selling novel by Louis
Sachar. T he kids aren’t cookie-cutter carica
tures, the adults (Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight,
Patricia Arquette) don’t phone in their perfonn-
ances, and the plot is complex and revelatory.
T he best children’s adventure since The Goonies.
-JR
<
0 $>
<£§> <&> M orvern C allar
Sam antha Morton is captivating as a young
Scottish woman (whose unusual name gives
the film, and the book on which it was based,
its title) who claims her boyfriend’s novel as
her own after his suicide. Director Lynne Ram
say (R atcatcher) indulges our visual and aural
senses in a way unique to contemporary cine
ma; without contrived sleekness, she singles
out the beauty and strangeness in every image
and circumstance. It’s exhilarating.
— Christopher M cQ uain
<&> ^
P hone B ooth
S pun
What's popped
and what's flopped.
In a theater near you.
Crystal meth
junkies snort, inject
and twitch throughout
this Eugene-set film by
Swedish director Jonas
Akerlund, whose manic style puts the
audience directly into the head of an addict. The
performers chew the scenery with delight— especial
ly Deborah Harry as a kick-ass dyke and Eric
Roberts as a toupeed chicken hawk— but the thread
holding the whole story together soon wears thin.
— JR
dud, bottom of the bag
only if you’re really hungry
<£§> <&> good effort, pass the salt
mmmm, tasty!
get the big tub o com
S tevie
Steve James (H oop Dreams) just wanted to re
visit the titular subject years after mentoring him in
die Big Brothers-Big Sisters program. But his raw,
balanced, engrossing documentary quickly takes on
a life of its own, examining the cycle of abuse, the
flaws of social work and even the exploitive
nature of films like this one. If you never bought
into the bullshit drama and manipulative editing
of reality television, welcome to the real world.
— JR
<&> V iew from the T op
It’s doing gangbusters at the box office, but
that doesn’t make this psychological thriller from
gay director Joel Schumacher (Flawless, A Time to
Kill) any better. Colin Farrell plays a New York
promotions professional who gets stuck in a
phone booth at the mercy of a nearby sniper, who
has specifically chosen him based on his “sins.”
(Think Seven on a street comer.) Also in shooting
range is the victim’s wife and stereotypical calm,
understanding cop (a wasted Forest Whitaker).
A great idea is blown with a weak script and the
constant nagging feeling that at the very begin
ning of the phone conversation, anyone would
have just hung up and walked away.
— LB
Gwyneth Paltrow slums it in this appallingly
unfunny, uniaspiring tale of upwardly mobile stew
ardesses with hearts of gold and brains of lead.
Mike Myers falls flat as a cross-eyed instructor,
Candice Bergen follows up her embarrassing turn
as a ball-busting mayor in Sweet Home Alabama
with a ridiculous portrayal of the world’s most
famous flight attendant-tumed-motivational speak
er, and Joshua Malina hits every wrong note
as a nelly queen who makes predictably
“snappy” comebacks about warm nuts
'
and circumcised Europeans.
— JR
.........................................................................* ..
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