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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2005)
october 21.2005 » just OUt 3g FILM .....▼...... REVIEWS Domino This new film from director Tony Scott (True Romance) and writer Richard Kelly (Don nie Darko) is “sort of’ based on the life story of actor Laurence Harvey’s daughter, Domino (Keira Knightley), who turned away from her career as a model and become a bounty hunter in Los Angeles. Domino is not an easy movie to watch. It’s bkxxly and hardcore, almost like a color version of Sin City —quick cutting, multi media presentation, overlapping lines and inter esting déjà vu with Beverly Hilts, 90210 vets Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green playing them selves and Mickey Rourke as Domino’s boss. C+ —Yvonne P. Behrens Good Night, and Good Luck George Clooney’s timely, well-considered and confident directorial follow-up to the auspicious Confessions of a Dangerous Mind recounts—in cinematographer Robert Elswit’s beautifully frank, rerun-evocative black and white—the 1953 media confronta tion between television newscaster Edward R. Murrow and witch-hunting anti-Commu- nist Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis. David Strathairn—supported by a stellar cast including Clooney, Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson—is likely to garner awards for his spot-on portrayal of Murrow, and the film balances its deft exploration of the tele vision newsroom dynamics of yore with a healthy skepticism (apt, given Clooney’s own eatingout eatingout tube origins) toward the medium’s future dominance. A- —Christopher McQuain North Country In the feisty female tradition of Nt/rma Rae and Silkwood, Charlize Theron plays a single mom who files harassment charges against her sexist male co-workers at a northern Minnesota iron mine. The action is gripping, edgy and infuriating, but it loses credibility in the climac tic, over-the-top courtroom scenes. Though W(x>dy Harrelson inadvertently comes off as a total bozo of a lawyer, director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) coaxes terrific, earthy perfonn- ances from her cast. Frances McDormand steals the show as Theron’s witty and ailing friend, and Bob Dylan makes frequent appearances on the soundtrack. A- —Stephen Blair À Tout de Suite Benoît Jacquot (Sade, A Single Girl) directed this French new wave thriller—shot in black arid white and based on actual events—about a Parisian art student (Islid Le Besco) who flees her stifling bourgeois family to join her lover, a MoriKcan gangster, on a cross-continent adventure through Spain, Morocco and Greece. (This will make up for the vacation I couldn’t take this year.) Her breathtaking jour ney of self-discovery captures the fear and exhilaration of love on the run. Opens Oct. 21 at Hollyw<x)d Theatre. B —YPB eatingout eatingout 24 Hours on Craigslist spotlights a transsexual escort (right) and an Ethel Merman drag queen searching for the perfect backup band for her Led Zeppelin covers. 24 Hours on Craigslist To its credit, this film (opening Oct. 21 at Clinton Street Theater) doesn’t purport to be anything other than what it is: brief interviews, over a one-day period, with various people who’ve used San Francisco-based Craigslist. This vastly popular online classified service, now in just about every city, allows people to find everything from apartments to clothes to sex partners. Idle d<xz samples a wide range of these types: a butler wannabe, a gay pom star/drag queen, a guy who buys “250 women soldiers’ pants,” a self-styled “rent-a-husband,” a Chinese immigrant girl who paints penises. All are “unmasked” from the noted anonymity of Craigslist. (don’t kxtk here for how Craigslist started during the crazy dot-com era, or the scandalous purchase of part of it by eBay a few months back. eatingout eatingout There’s no history and no context here, just interviews. But reality riffs like this are only as interesting as their subjects, and enough of these folks are duds to make the whole project seem more like a self-indulgent home movie than a fascinating dip into a consumer subculture. A few characters and scenes keep the film from being a total waste. Best of all is a bril liant, hilarious “flash mob” sequence, in which hundreds of hipsters meet (via a Craigslist post ing) at a posh San Francisco hotel, where they all “fall asleep" in unison, hug each other and do all manner of other whimsical things while the staff watches in astonishment. But the film’s attempt to make Craigslist inventor Craig Newmark a kind of Wizard of Oz mythic figure are way strained. As anyone who’s lived in SF knows, Craig is a familiar fixture around town with no mystery at all. Kind of like this film. C —Gary Morris JH eatingout eatingout eatingout La Calaca Comelona Restaurante Mexicano I— 3551 SE Division Street 503-236-6890 aja J' www.havcncoffee.com WE HAVE WI-FI trattoria ? enoteca pacific kitchen northwest cuisine with asían influence. lunch & dinner everyday breakfast sat & sun at 9am happy hour everyday 4-7pm 5:30 pm Monday to Saturday 2304 SE Belmont • (503) 239 9675 Regional Ameritan Cuisine www.lacalacacomelona.com Reserve now for Day of the Dead Nov 2nd featuring original paper collage by elizabeth bngham 503.287.5400 • 3449 ne 24th and fremont ’ reservations taken, but not required reservations 503 • 232 • 6151 assaggiorestaurant.com
