Wrap-Up - Part III
THE MOVIES
I FOUND DISAPPOINTING

The Barbarian Invasions
Like a stripper wearing a wetsuit, this psuedo-sequel to The Decline of the American Empire teases with all kinds of deep emotions and threatens to be naughty, when all it really wants to do is to be left alone. No problem.

Bon Voyage
I was quite excited about this one, since the director rarely works and when he does, I admire the richness of his efforts. But this time, he reaches for too many things, leaving a hodgepodge of acting styles and tones that never quite come together. This seems to have been a recurring theme at this year's festival.

Bright Young Things
Expected to be the "must buy" film of the festival, Stephen Fry gets caught in the "trying too much" trap and never quite gets down to the nitty gritty. Even when one bright young thing is put in the psych ward, there is a shiny surface even in her sadness. Think of All That Jazz' "I got insight into you, Gideon" hospital sequence and take away the commentary by the doctors and even by that fake Dustin Hoffman character played by Cliff Gorman. We know that the façade is a façade, but the message has to be more than that.

The Cooler
A disappointment for me from way back at the LA Film Festival. It's a true festival film. Some great actors doing some real stretching in a story that loses its way and meanders drunkenly down a video store alley.

The Event
Billed as a sure audience favorite, this story about a group of friends euthanizing a friend "in the best way possible" is not only obvious and overly sentimental and maudlin… it contains the first truly horrible Parker Posey performance ever, as the New Yawk-accented investigator/cop chasing down the truth about this death. Paging Dr. Kervorkian.

Girl With The Pearl Earring
Love the cast, like Vermeer, if I had been able to allow myself to sleep, it might have been the most comforting lullaby of the year. As a movie, it was much like watching paint dry… or not. The reason that Shakespeare is Shakespeare and "Friends" is "Friends" is that some things are iconic and last forever and some things are not. A period movie that does not reach beyond the moral issues of its time is a movie that will not find a modern audience. Making beautiful images is not enough… not even for those of us who embrace the artistry of film.

The Human Stain
"Sir Tony, you mah beeeest friend!" Sorry, couldn't resist. The real downfall of this movie and the real reason to move it into a wider release is so it can at least get one decent weekend of box office in, because as a film, it is more schizophrenic than its lead character. Essentially, it is two movies, either of which might be interesting, and which fit together like Ben Affleck and a low profile. I would have been interested in a movie about an esteemed college professor who loses everything because of a false charge of racism (though in this story, the idea that this man, who is hiding his race, being a bit of a self-hating racist is where it really might have gotten interesting) and then takes up with a "white trash," uneducated, young lost soul and in that relationship, finding his soul again. Great. And I would have been interested in the movie about a man who hid his race and then found his life changed by that. But much as I enjoy shrimp and chicken in hot garlic sauce, neither fish nor foul is a problem here… no matter how much Nicole or Jacinda Bares-It.

Nicotina
This one was all hyped up as another brick in the growth of new Mexican cinema. Instead, it was a bloody episode of some WB action show… but not as well directed, written or produced. Behavior is funnier. It is funnier when there is some foundation in reality.

Pieces of April
A lovely effort by a lovely group of people leads to very little. As with Tadpole, the DV here had the effect of making the film look even more like a lost kinescope of a very special episode of "My Mother The Car."

The Saddest Music In The World
Some ideas are better in small doses. This was one of those ideas.

Wonderland
This opportunity to revisit this small piece of the Johnny Wadd Holmes story, covered in Boogie Nights, but with the likeable Mark Wahlberg in the Holmes role, should have been great. Val Kilmer was perfect casting and delivers a solid performance. Lisa Kudrow is one of the best "loving shrew" actresses in the game. It's hard to keep up with Alfred Molina as the drug kingpin, but as with most elements of this movie, Eric Bogosian plays a darker version of the same role, in the same underwear... and in this case, is also excellent. All that said, this Rashamon -style movie doesn't let you in on the gag until the second act and by then, you are already a little bored. Instead of Kate Bosworth's young, still excitable character being the audience's doppelganger, it is Kudrow's disgusted, over it, still-stuck-in-it character that we identify with.

Young Adam
Everyone wants a ride on Ewan's knob! Thrilling, huh? I'm still not sure quite what the point was here. It is one of those movies that doesn't flinch from showing you a reality that you really don't care about in the least. And it is not exaggeration to say that in this film, all Ewan McGregor has to do is to walk in a room and the panties start coming off. And maybe it is that way in real life. But who cares, really?

Part I: The Films I Liked | Part II: With Reservations
Part III: Disappointing | Part IV: Sorry To Miss