THE TAMPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
This week's Outtakes section contains reviews of films playing in the Tampa International Film Festival, continues through April 13 at the Tampa Theatre and University of Tampa. Festival films are marked with an asterisk (*). For more information, visit the festival website at http://tampafilmfest.ut.edu or call 813-253-3333, ext. 3425.
ABOUT SCHMIDT (R) Jack Nicholson is resplendently bland in this skewed character study of an ordinary retired insurance salesman with a penchant for crankiness and a bad comb-over (is there such a thing as a good comb-over?). After his wife suddenly dies, Nicholson's Schmidt hops in his 30-foot Winnebago and embarks on a mini road-trip revisiting his past — only to find he doesn't really seem to have a past or a future. Also stars Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates and Howard Hesseman. 
AGENT CODY BANKS (PG) TV's Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) stars as a typical teen living a not-so-typical secret life as a CIA agent, complete with cool spy gadgets, dangerous missions and hot babes at the ready. Also stars Hilary Duff and Darrell Hammond. (Not Reviewed)
*ALEXEI AND THE SPRING (NR) Seiichi Motohashi brings a distinctly Japanese eye for delicate but authoritative visuals to this post-apocalyptic poem about a small Russian/Belarus village that's been contaminated by Chernobyl. Images of quiet beauty abound in sequences detailing an ancient, all-but vanished life: people plant potatoes, thresh wheat, wash clothes, tend to animals and attend pagan-like festivals. It's a bit like a Russian Tree of Wooden Clogs, as the camera caresses every crease in the weathered faces of aged characters who refuse to leave "this afflicted land that is our home." A small but amazing film, and that rare documentary that manifests all the visual power and storytelling chops of narrative. This one-time-only screening will be the film's Florida premiere. Plays Fri., April 11, 8:30 p.m. at Channelside Cinemas, as part of the Tampa International Film Festival
ANGER MANAGEMENT (PG-13) Adam Sandler takes a court-ordered class where he butts heads with Jack Nicholson as the world's angriest anger management instructor. Also stars Marisa Tomei. Opens April 11 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
*AT FIRST BREATH OF WIND (NR) A distillation of pure cinema, for better or worse, in which director Franco Piavoli evokes a summer day in the Italian countryside. Barely a word is spoken as characters eat, read books, nap, take walks and sit at the piano playing endless cycles of Erik Satie. No one does any work except for the African hired help (the movie's token political statement?), and everyone else in the film simply drifts in and out of sleep. You may too, but that's probably OK. This one-time screening will be the film's Florida premiere. Plays Fri. April 11, 7 p.m. at Channelside Cinemas, as part of the Tampa International Film Festival
BOAT TRIP (R) Cuba Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sanz attempt to end a run of bad luck with women by going on a cruise, but they're unaware that their vengeful travel agent has booked them on an all-gay voyage. (Not reviewed)
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (PG-13) Steve Martin and Queen Latifah star in what the previews reveal to be the standard Hollywood comedy that starts with a wacky Internet match-up but winds up with Ms. Latifah as helper-to-the-rescue a la Mrs. Doubtfire. (Not Reviewed)
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PG) Steven Spielberg's movie about the world's most successful con man is glossy Fun with a Capital F, a snappy old-school caper that never takes itself too seriously. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, a high school dropout who in the 1960s successfully impersonated a doctor, a lawyer and an airline pilot, and who passed some $4-million worth of forged checks, all before his 21st birthday. Also stars Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen and Nathalie Baye. 1/2
CHICAGO (PG-13) Rob Marshall pulls out all the stops in this lavish, big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical about a 1920s chorus girl who shoots her lover, goes to jail and becomes a big celebrity. Taking place simultaneously in gritty reality and in the projected fantasies of its characters, the movie cleverly folds its story into a series of show-stopping musical numbers. Stars Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John C. Reilly and Taye Diggs.
CITY OF GOD (NR) We've seen this story before, more or less — the blood, psychopaths, the budding psychopaths, the all-too-young victims of urban decay — but never quite like this. City of God is a movie bursting with life in all its nuances, often entwining beauty and ugliness in complex ways that are going to make a lot of audience members somewhat less than comfortable. The movie covers several decades in the lives of various low-level gangsters who inhabit a seedy housing project on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and takes its shape from a series of tales as richly drawn as anything from Faulkner's Okefenokee County. The stories flip back and forth through the years, giving the film a fluid, elastic sense of time, recalling the postmodern playfulness of Pulp Fiction or Amores Perros, and the style is frequently dazzling. Director Fernando Meirelles' movie comes off as a compelling social history as eccentric and epic in scope as P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights, but it also succeeds on a very personal level. This is a comic tragedy about people who appear to change and to speed along at the speed of sound while, in actuality, they're standing absolutely still. Stars Alexandre Rodriguez, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge and Leandro Firmino da Hora. Held over at Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota. Call to confirm. 1/2
CORAL REEF ADVENTURE (G) Another quality IMAX production from the acclaimed team of MacGillivray Freeman (who seem to be able to do this IMAX thing in their sleep), Coral Reef Adventure is a fascinating and somewhat frightening look at an exotic and rapidly disappearing underwater world. Music by flag-waving hippie diehards Crosby, Stills and Nash brings home the environmental message concerning the destruction of the reefs (from a deadly combo of over-fishing and global warming), but the movie has its moments of fun as well. 1/2
THE CORE (PG-13) See Rome's Coliseum destroyed by freak lightening! See the Golden Gate Bridge melt and collapse! See the space shuttle skid to a landing in downtown L.A.! All that really does take place in The Core, but you'll have to wade through a lot of excruciatingly boring pseudoscience and predictable plot "twists" to get to the good old-fashioned disaster flick lurking within. The movie also owes considerably to Fantastic Voyage, although the journey taken by our heroes here is not into the human body, but into the earth itself. See, it seems the Earth's core has stopped spinning (don't ask), resulting in a disintegrating electromagnetic field, resulting in the impending end of the world. That means it's up to hunky genius-boy Aaron Eckhart, pixie-cute astronaut Hilary Swank and a team of disposable sidekicks to hop into what looks like a giant drill bit and get on down to the planet's center to make things right. The special effects and dialogue are often cheesy enough to generate a smile or two, but the movie is mostly just too long and tedious to really be much fun. Also stars Delroy Lindo and Stanley Tucci. 1/2
DAREDEVIL (PG-13) The latest Marvel superhero to hit the big screen is by far the most dour and exquisitely tormented of them all. "I'm not the bad guy," Daredevil tells us (and himself), but that's debatable, considering how much he obviously relishes inflicting pain upon the scummy lawbreakers scurrying through the city. A blind lawyer by day, a costumed, superpower vigilante by night, Daredevil has a thirst for justice that borders on the pathological, so that our vicious, crime-fighting hero often seems to have crossed the line from self-doubting neurotic (a la Spider-Man) to full-blown nutcase. Daredevil is a violent, relentlessly downbeat and dark movie on almost every level (amazingly, it wasn't rated "R"), often coming across like Death Wish crossed with vintage film noir, with just a bit of extreme sports thrown in the mix. Ben Affleck is surprisingly effective as the tortured title character, and he's surrounded by a well-cast ensemble including Jon Favreau, Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell. Only a handful of overly cartoon-y moments and a generic soundtrack mar the final effect. Also stars Jennifer Garner. 1/2
DREAMCATCHER (R) Although it starts out intriguingly enough, director Lawrence Kasdan's sci-fi/horror blowout quickly reveals itself as a disaster of Battlefield Earth proportions. Based on one of Stephen King's weaker efforts, this astonishingly bad movie crudely mashes together recycled tidbits from Stand By Me and The Tommyknockers with Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing and even a bit of Kasdan's The Big Chill. The resulting flick is a kitchen sink horror filled with exploding body parts, ubiquitous X-Files-esque alien viruses and vaguely psychic childhood pals who turn into lovable thirtysomethings and are promptly killed. It's boring, scatterbrained and an embarrassment to everyone involved. Stars Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis and Tom Sizemore.
DysFunKtional Family (R) This is a film of Eddie Griffin's stand-up material. It contains clips of his family, including former pimp Uncle Buckey and porn aficionado Uncle Curtis. (Not Reviewed)
GANGS OF NEW YORK (R) Martin Scorsese's enormously ambitious new film about mid-1800s blood feuds and power struggles is a huge, magnificently sprawling thing that manifests all the power and resonance of classical myth. The movie's focus is the love-hate relationship between the characters played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, but Scorsese constantly layers his cinematic mural with additional characters, historical nuances and stories within stories. Gangs of New York is certainly History Writ Large, but the bulk of it is as accessible as anything this director's ever done. The movie is big, bloody, ornate, passionate and full of over-the-top emotions, like a grand opera re-imagined as a really cool comic book. Also stars Cameron Diaz.
HEAD OF STATE (PG-13) Are you ready for Presidential candidate Chris Rock? If so, this latest Rock comedy might be for you. Also stars Bernie Mac and Dylan Baker. (Not Reviewed)
THE HOURS (PG-13) The film interweaves moments from the lives of three women living in three separate times and places, straining to establish unifying themes involving feminine strength (or lack thereof), motherhood, lesbianism and suicide. In the best segment, the writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) skulks about in1923, chain-smoking and mulling over ideas for a new book. In the worst segment, a contemporary New York publisher (Meryl Streep), nicknamed for a character in Woolf's book, prepares a party for Ed Harris' dying writer. In between, there's Julianne Moore as a 1950s housewife who reads Woolf's book, quietly cracks up, and checks into a hotel with a year's supply of sleeping pills. Also stars Toni Collette and Claire Danes.
HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (R) Rob Zombie's loooong delayed (and reportedly veeeery troubled) production finally gets a national release. Expect lots of gore, recycled 1970's atmosphere, cannibalism, inbred mutant families and other odds and ends left over from The Hills Have Eyes. Stars Rainn Wilson, Chris Hardwick and Jennifer Jostyn. Opens April 11 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (PG-13) This one marks the first time that Kate Hudson has truly been able to command the screen: She's utterly winning as a women's magazine columnist who, for the sake of a story on what females shouldn't do when dating, hooks up with a guy with the intent of driving him away within … well, check the film's title. She settles on a slick ad man (Matthew McConaughey), unaware that he's made a bet that he can get any woman to fall in love with him within the same time period. For a film that wallows in the usual male/female stereotypes, this one's surprisingly light on its feet, thanks in no small part to its well-matched leads. Alas, the third act follows the exact pattern as almost every other romantic comedy made today: The deceptions become unearthed, the pair break up, some soul searching takes place, and bliss arrives after a madcap chase. Leave before this excruciating finale and you should have an OK time. 1/2
THE HUNTED (R) Ex-military assassin (Benicio Del Toro) offs deer hunters to get his kicks. His former instructor (Tommy Lee Jones) teams up with the FBI to catch him. (Not Reviewed)
*INSIDE/OUT (NR) A film that tells us about its world almost exclusively through images and the way that space opens up as the camera works through those images. The action is inscrutable and largely wordless here, as a number of nameless characters seem to collide and collapse in a snowy, rural landscape dominated by a mental institution where the keepers appear to be as disoriented as the patients. Director/cinematographer Rob Tregenza's long takes, luminous imagery and fluid, graceful camerawork evoke the works of Angeloupolis and Bela Tarr (for whom Tregenza has shot films), but the sensibility is ultimately uniquely his own. Tregenza and producer J.K. Eareckson will be present at the film's Florida premiere. Plays April 13, 6 p.m. at Channelside Cinemas, as part of the Tampa International Film Festival
*MONDAYS IN THE SUN (NR) Javier Bardem virtually disappears into his role as one of a group of balding, bearded, middle-aged men who haunt the unemployment lines in a Spanish port city. The film does an exquisite job putting us inside the skins of these beautiful, quietly desperate losers as they pass the time drinking in bars, talking about soccer and politics, making stupid mistakes and dreaming of something better. For all the obvious injustices with which the film concerns itself, the tone here is one not of anger, but of compassion and bittersweet hopefulness. This little gem is Spain's official Academy Award nomination for last year's Best Foreign Language film, and the winner of five well-deserved Goyas (Spain's equivalent to the Oscar). Plays one time only, Sun. Apr 13, 8 p.m. at Channelside Cinemas, as part of the Tampa International Film Festival
OLD SCHOOL (R) Returning to his distinguished oeuvre of college comedies, director Todd Phillips (Frat House, Road Trip) takes a promising gimmick of three thirtysomething friends (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn) who decide to start their own fraternity. Phillips unfortunately forms that tasty notion into a bland soy retread inspired by films like Animal House, but without the brains to retool the collegiate comedy genre. Vaughn and Ferrell, however, make an honorable effort to inject some much-needed goofiness into their parcel of the film. 1/2 —FELICIA FEASTER
PHONE BOOTH (PG-13) A nifty little pulp thriller that's considerably more than the advance publicity would lead us to expect. Collin Farrell turns in another fine performance as an ethically challenged PR guy who finds himself trapped in a booth and in the telescopic sights of a clever psychopath with a major grudge against him. The movie-length mindfuck that ensues is quite a ride, as they say, especially considering the film's minimalist premise — a hero unable to move from a patch of ground measuring only a few square feet — and the fact that one of the two main characters is a disembodied voice. It's a slight but, in its way, perfect concept, played with precision and verve, and building skillfully on a claustrophobic tension that keeps us on the edge of our proverbial seats. At an ultra-brisk 80 minutes, this is one no-frills popcorn movie that's high energy almost all the way. Also stars Forest Whitaker and Katie Holmes. 1/2
THE PIANIST (R) Roman Polanski's film is based on the memoirs of Polish-Jewish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who continued to be devoted to his art even as he watched his world crumble and suffered an endless series of horrors and humiliations designed to rob him and others like him of dignity, humanity and, ultimately, life. The film's cool, reserved and utterly unsentimental style might sound at odds with the extremity of the subject matter, but it's all the more haunting for it. Stars Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Ed Stoppard and Frank Finlay. PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE (G) Audiences may feel exhausted at the prospect of another journey into the Hundred Acre Woods and at the feeling they'd seen all the Heffalumps and Woozles they could handle. But director Francis Glebas does a remarkable job injecting a much-needed dose of reality into A.A. Milne's tales of honey-crazed bears and manic-depressive donkeys. Stepping out from behind Pooh's shadow, Piglet proves himself a uniquely gifted and engaging performer, bringing poignancy to this story of a piglet who feels unappreciated and overlooked by the friends who eventually understand how much they need him. Bring a hankie. —Felicia Feaster
THE QUIET AMERICAN (R) In a stunning one-two punch that began with Rabbit-Proof Fence, director Phillip Noyce follows through with this evocative Graham Greene adaptation, filled with the writer's trademark intrigue and sophisticated, world-weary wit. On the surface, the movie's a romantic triangle set in early 1950s Indochina, with titular quiet American Brendan Fraser moving in on Brit journalist Michael Caine's young Vietnamese mistress (the lovely Do Thi Hai Yen from Vertical Ray of the Sun). The woman's a not-so subtle stand-in for the country of Vietnam, of course (mistress to a variety of Westerners, colonized by the world), and the film plays out as an intimate account of the battle for her soul. The movie's elegantly mysterious atmosphere is due in large part to cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the Caucasian master of Asian imagery. Also stars Rade Serbedzija. 1/2
SHANGHAI GHETTO (NR) Unknown to many, a community of Jewish exiles hid in Shanghai, China, during World War II. Filmmakers Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann revisit the Jewish Ghetto with their digital camera, capturing shots of places unchanged since World War II. With them were two former inhabitants who discuss their impressions. The film includes never-before-seen footage of Shanghai and explores how the Jewish exiles interacted with the Chinese and Japanese occupying army. Held over at Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota. Call to confirm. (Not reviewed)
SPIRITED AWAY (PG) This Academy Award-winning film from revered director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) unfolds a dream logic as memorable as that of Alice in Wonderland, which seems to be the model here. The film is a wonderfully odd, extended journey, in which a young girl named Chihiro watches her parents transform into pigs and then enters into a surreal world of giant babies, big-headed witches, wolf-dragons, enchanted balls of soot, and incredible spirits of all make and manner. It might be a bit too long or too unusual for some small children, but others are bound to be absolutely enthralled. My 3-and-a-half-year-old liked it almost as much as I did. An instant classic. Featuring the voices of Daveigh Chase (the weird girl in The Ring), Michael Chiklis and Jason Marsden.
*SWEET SIXTEEN (NR) Veteran English director Ken Loach offers up yet another of his patented portraits of institutionalized underclass life in this grotty tale of a Glasgow family of petty criminals, druggies and all-around losers. Loach is playing with some well-worn narrative elements here, but he makes the material live and breathes through sheer conviction, humor, a love of his characters and a cast of mostly unknowns who seem to be essentially playing themselves. The approach is fly-on-the-wall, the young lead a winning mix of Eminem, Johnny Rotten and Casper the Friendly Ghost and the English subtitles crucial for rendering the thick Scottish accents decipherable to our Yankee ears. Plays Sat. April 12, 8:30 p.m. at Channelside Cinemas, as part of the Tampa International Film Festival 1/2
TALK TO HER (NR) The "new" Almodovar all the way, a natural evolution of the more relaxed and emotionally direct approach that the director's been steadily honing over the past several years. It's a curiously restrained film for Almodovar, almost fragile in its way, but still bursting with life and fully informed by the juicy, overwrought passions and fabulous theatricality. In Talk to Her, Almodovar gives the male perspective for a change as two men express their love for women in comas. Almodovar skillfully zigzags through time, offering up strange little narrative detours and flashbacks within flashbacks but never allowing anything to get in the way of the movie's forward momentum. Stars Javier Camara, Dario Grandinetti, Leonar Watling and Rosario Flores. Held over at Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota. Call to confirm. 1/2
TEARS OF THE SUN (R) Antoine Fuqua directs the carnage in a thriller that attacks with careful timing and impeccable pacing. From its tense beginning to gung-ho ending, Tears of the Sun promises much and nearly delivers. Bruce Willis stars as a career soldier sent into Central Africa to retrieve an American care worker in the middle of a bloody civil war. Inevitably reluctant to abandon her charges, Dr. Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) manages to convince Willis to hike for three days through the jungle, all the while pursued by a gang of heavily armed but expendable extras. Watching Willis go from hard-nosed soldier to humanitarian takes some doing, but thereafter Willis and his band of men deliver one of the most suspenseful war flicks in recent memory. Cinematographer Mauro Fiore delivers lovingly shot panoramas of the would-be victims, but the script is lacking. Fuqua fastidiously avoids the question of U.S. involvement in wars with humanitarian repercussions. Tears of the Sun is considerably more concerned about the horror of war than its bombastic and far less interesting cinematic contemporaries, but nonetheless still falls short of being the sensitive and shocking tour de force that it threatens to be.
—DAVE STEVENSON
TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US (R) Guy Pearce stars in a man who returns to his hometown and finds he just can't get a childhood sweetheart out of his head. Only problem is she's dead. Also stars Helena Bonham Carter. (Not Reviewed)
VIEW FROM THE TOP (PG-13) Part Miss Congeniality, part Bring It On, View From the Top is Bruno Barreto's tale of a small-town girl who works her way up the flight attendant ladder. Mike Myers does his cross-eyed best to haul this average movie out of the quagmire but doesn't, and the upward mobility of Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow) is rarely matched by the movie itself. More a collection of passe stewardess jokes than an entirely self-supporting movie, A View From the Top is big-hearted enough to transcend its slapdash approach to structure and script. Unfortunately, the bad casting, silly jokes and laughably improbable ending prove more difficult to transcend, leaving us with a frustrating misfire. —Dave Stevenson
WHAT A GIRL WANTS (PG) Stuffy English stereotypes galore in this excruciating Romantic Comedy Writing 101 exercise from Dennie Gordon, who inflicts intelligence-insulting and blindingly obvious father-daughter humor by way of Daphne (Amanda Bynes), the illegitimate child of a New York hippie and her dad (Colin Firth), a distinguished MP. The British stereotypes fly thick and fast, from the crusty old grandmother to the rather charming British stuttering so perfected by Hugh Grant, but offered here by Firth. I laughed. I cried. I tried to fashion a crude noose from the threads of the theater seat. Firth does his level best with what little script and cooperation from the surrounding cast he gets and lends credibility and comic timing to an exercise that would barely even raise an eyebrow without him. What a Girl Wants isn't a bad idea for a film; it's tremendously warmhearted and well intended. The script is workable, and if some of the more heavy-handed Brit-stereotypes were ripped from the screenplay (and preferably stuffed down the throats of the writers), this would be the bubblegum-chewing crowd pleaser that it has the potential to be. —Dave Stevenson
WILLARD (PG-13) OK, let's see: Crispin Glover in full-blown fruitcake mode and a whole bunch of nasty rats. So how bad could it be? Unfortunately, a more appropriate question here is how good could it be? Glover stars in this remake of the 1971 oddity about a put-upon loner who cultivates rodents as friends. The movie's sufficiently pop-culture-savvy to toss around allusions not to the original Willard only but to everything from Psycho, The X-Files and Glover's own heavily baggaged on-screen persona, while retaining the grubby emotional essence of the original movie. Glover's well cast (although he often seems to think he's in a David Lynch film) and plays up his character's seething mass of pent-up rage to the hilt. The movie drags badly after its initial setup, though, largely because nothing much really happens. Also stars Laura Elena Herring, R. Lee Ermey and Jackie Burroughs. 1/2
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2003.