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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2007)
V JANUARY 6. 2007 jUStlOUt^l CHOOSE FROM 130 FRAGRANCES society for the CIA and s<xm Becomes more and more suspicious of everything and everybody, while his wife (a great performance by Angelina Jolie) tries to hold onto their marriage and deal with all of his secrets. Director Robert IX* Niro’s thriller has all the elements of a great movie—suspense, romance and strong character portraits—and while it might be a little long for some, I enjoyed the journey to the end. A- —YPB C ustom S centing 9 Any of our perfume oils or essential oils can be used for our custom scenting. Inland Empire Even diehard David Lynch fans might have trouble digesting this inscrutable three-hour mind- fuck about a Hollywixxl actress (Laura Dem) who Cate Blanchett (left) and Judi Dench face off in the wickedly fun psycho-thriller Notes on a Scandal. undergoes a nightmarish journey after landing a big film rote. Lynch revisits the theme of identity swap statement artiness; it contents itself with being a Still, Charlotte is nothing if not persistent, and ping from Mulholland Dr., and his uncompromising juicy, nasty, surprisingly smart, entertaining psycho she manages to convince Veronica to help her ly brutal portrayal of a woman in peril recalls Laura thriller with vibrant performances and some gen move a large bed. In return, the beautician drops Palmer from Twin Peaks. Unless you’re a Mensa uine bite to its themes of hyp<x:risy, class and self- off some expensive foundation for the makeup- member on acid, the best thing to do is rid your awareness (or lack thereof). There are doubtlessly challenged Veronica. Their connection is further mind of logic and let the dark, eerily beautiful more edifying films out there right now, but you’re cemented by the fact that their apartment building dream world swallow you whole. Featuring Lynch guaranteed to have a better time at this one. A- has paper-thin walls. Veronica becomes privy to veterans Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton and —CM Charlotte’s peculiar way of rebounding—fucking Grace Zabriskie. Opens Jan. 12 at Cinema 21. B one pickup after another and then kicking them —Stephen Blair The Painted Veil out—while Charlotte discovers Veronica’s suicide John Curran (We Don’t Live Here Anymore) attempt courtesy of the latter’s yapping dog, Miss Notes on a Scandal directed this remake of the 19 34 Greta Garbo classic Daisy. Now Veronica owes Charlotte the favor of , In the wickedly fun film Notes on a Scandal, based on W. Somerset Maugham’s love story about a having saved her life. Dame Judi Dench plays a villainess in the proud middle-class doctor (Edward Norton) who gets From there, A Soap (opening Jan. 5 at Hollywrxxl tradition of Cruella De Vil or some of Bette Davis’ married for all the wrong reasons to an upper-class Theatre) spirals into a series of unexpected encoun more compelling narcissistic schemers (or, less woman (Naomi Watts) in the 1920s. The couple ters, including Charlotte’s ex-boyfriend attacking her obviously, the misunderstood, friendless monster in move to Shanghai and from there to a remote area of and Veronica trying to handle Charlotte’s apparent, Frankenstein). Her patrician Barbara Covett, a stern China, where they finally find out that their marriage increasing sexual interest in her. ly old-fashioned spinster schixdteacher in present- is meant to be. Great performances, a wonderfully The Danish film’s queer sexual politicking and day London, abounds in glamorously sinister, fitting music score and stunning cinematography. fascination with female (and tranny) sexuality cigarette-smoking charisma. Ms. Covett is a dement The film also has a rare cameo by Dame Diana Rigg make it sound like a Pedro Almodovar knockoff. ed menace to the rest of the characters, but it’s clear as Mother Superior. A And its natural (dark) lighting, cinema vérité act that we viewers are meant, if not to actually side —YPB ing and sardonic voiceovers give it the feel of a Lars with her, at least to understand her point of view. von Trier movie. This becomes quite important when we’re talking A Soap But director Pernille Fischer Christesen lacks about a closeted (probably even to herself) lesbian Veronica, aka Ulrik (David Dencik), is a pre Almodovar’s robust embrace of such material as whose desire for an unreciprtKating other provides operative tranny and part-time dominatrix. well as von Trier’s edgy experimentation. The the impetus for most of the film’s events. Unlike the Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm) is a brassy blond beauti situations here seem contrived and unreal— one-dimensional, lunatic, pure-evil outsider stalker cian who has just engineered a brutal breakup—the there’s no sense of an organic connection between characters relied upon by the misogynistic Fatal sudden disappearing act—with her doctor boyfriend. these characters, whose quirky behavior soon Attraction or the homophobic Enduring Love, Covett, Veronica moves into the same apartment building as palls. Gimmicks like the repeated lingering static ruthless as she is, is more akin as a queer character to Charlotte, indeed just above her. Intrigued perhaps shots of a cherry tree and the voiceovers that Matt Damon’s Mr. Ripley: dangerous, hut human in as much by her neighbor’s bad wig and so-so makeup mark each new development feel more smug than a way that anyone who’s been in enough pain to as her unusual lifestyle, Charlotte tries none-too- surprising. A Soap won major awards at the pres have had an irrationally vindictive emotion can subtly to initiate a friendship. But Veronica isn’t tigious Berlin Film Festival, and it’s not without relate to. . exactly social; when she’s not whipping and scream merit—particularly in the often nuanced acting. When art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) ing at a trick, she mopes around the apartment, pop But ultimately this Soap, sad to say, needs a good arrives at the school where Covett teaches, rhe ping pills and grimly awaiting news of whether her scrubbing. C + —GM ® older woman immediately begins to size up her sexual reassignment surgery has been approved. strangely attractive new colleague, insinuating herself as Hart’s shoulder to cry on, a sort of older sister and the school's only voice of reason. We listen in on Covett’s cuttingly decisive musings, journal entries delivered in dispassionate British voiceover: “They do things differently in bourgeois bohemia,” she sneers to herself after witnessing the comfortably chaotic, somewhat self-indulgent household of Hart, her much older husband (Bill Nighy) and their two children. But Hart really does live something like the wishy-washy, complacent life characterized by Covett: A former free-spirited punk rocker vaguely dissatisfied with her wife/mother/teacher role, she takes the reckless actions of one in a midlife crisis—actions observed and exploited by her scarily omniscient mentor. Notes on a Scandal, despite its very British air and Philip Glass score, doesn't aspire to big- Trine Dyrholm (left) and David Dencik portray the odd couple in A Soap. ■ 3638 SE H awthorne B i . vd . 503.j36.7976 WWW. ESC ENTI A 1.0 N LI N E . CO M don't know jack about syphilis? [s’okay: that's our job*] * syphilis 101: it can cause painless sores or a skin rash • it can have no signs • it can be cured Testing for STDs every 3 months helps make it safer to play.
