eatingout
film
The Good German
Opal Dream
Director Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight,
Ocean’s Eleven) and George Clooney team up once
again for this failed attempt to replicate the look,
romance and intrigue of black-and-white classics
like Casablanca. Clooney is about as charismatic as
wallpaper paste as an American reporter assigned
to Berlin in 1945. Tobey Maguire is miscast and
hopelessly dorky as a scheming Army driver, and
an expert German accent isn’t enough to help Cate
Blanchett overcome the wooden script. C
—Stephen Blair
Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) directed this
heartwarming story about a little girl, Kellyanne
(Sapphire Boyce), who lives with her brother,
Ashmol (Christian Byers), and their parents in a
rough Australian opal mining community and spends
the day playing with her imaginary friends, Pobby
and Dtngan. When Pobby and Dingan disappear, the
impact for the child and the whole community are
severe. A great family movie—sometimes slow-
moving but definitely worth seeing. Both of the
young actors give especially wonderful performanc
es. Opens Jan. 26 at Hollywood Theatre. B +
—Yvonne P. Behrens
I Like Killing Flies
Kenny Shopsin is one of New York’s secret
treasures: a middle-aged, eccentric, improv
intellectual who for 32 years has run the infamous
diner Shopsin’s with a combination of warmth,
noise and Soup Nazi-style bitchiness (“No parties
of five will be seated—ever!”). Kenny, his family
and his establishment are the subject of this engag
ing 2004 documentary, which offers an irresistible
counter to the whole notion of the coldly efficient
corporate restaurant. Shopsin’s is more like a pub
run by a lovable tyrant who’s also an expert c<x>k
with a menu, according to one devoted customer,
offering “about 900 dishes.” Between Soup Nazi-
style scream-fests, Kenny offers sage wisdom on
everything from vermin (“It’s very existential,
killing flies”) to rhe “sexy pleasure" of creating
“fusion” dishes like Barbecue Banana Split (“It’s
almost like putting your dick in the wrong
hole...there’s a thrill to it!”). While Kenny is a fas
cinating one-man show
in himself, the film
heats up when Shopsin’s
is given the boot and
forced to find new digs.
This entertaining film is
also
an
important
historical record; sadly,
Shopsin’s appears to
have closed its doors for
good at this writing.
Opens Jan. 20 at
Hollywixxl Theatre. A
—Gary Morris
—SB
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U I HI 11111
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Pan's Labyrinth
Real and imaginary worlds collide when a young
girt is isolated in the Spanish countryside at the end
of World War II. To escape the horrors of rhe soldiers
that her new stepfather commands, and the failing
health of her pregnant mother, she discovers a
labyrinth, a 1O-foot satyr and the key to her destiny
as a princess. Stunningly gorgeous, even during its
intense moments of war’s atrocity and brutality, Pan’s
Labyrinth is the type of story the film medium was
meant for. Subtitled and gloomy, this won’t be for
everyone, but those who see it will have a transcen
dent experience. Opens Jan. 19 at Cinema 21. A +
—Andy Mangels
Primeval
Although the press materials, advertisements
and commercials deceptively make this movie sound
i
S’
Parking Validated
Smart Park
NW Davis & Front
120 NW Third
Nashville
Two months af'er
Robert Altman’s death,
his 1975 masterwork is
hack on the big screen
where it belongs. With
dozens of subplots and
the director’s trademark
overlapping dialogue,
be prepared to get a lit
tle bit dizzy as 24 char
acters converge in
Tennessee for five days
Lily Tomlin anchors the
of country music, love
masterwork Nashville.
affairs and political
campaigns. Altman required all of his actors to
write their own songs, resulting in Keith
Carradine’s Oscar win for “I’m Easy.” Lily Tomlin
and Henry Gibson anchor the flawless ensemble
cast, and Ronee Blakely just about steals the show
as a Loretta Lynn-like superstar who suffers a nerv
ous breakdown. A brand new archival print
straight from the Paramount archives opens Jan. 19
at HollywixxJ Theatre. A +
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503.231.7373
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flawless ensemble cast in Robert Altman's 1975
like a serial killer thriller, it’s not. It’s a giant croco
dile movie set in Africa...Lake Placid without Betty
White and with a hunkier lead: Prison Break’s
Dominic Purcell, who inexplicably still never quite
manages to completely lose his shirt. For a giant
crocodile movie, it is well-made, generates a few
thrills and even tries for some relevant political
statements, but shame on the studio for its deceptive
“inspired by a true story" serial killer come-ons. C +
—AM ©