Screen Scene

Published: Friday, February 27, 1998

Friday, February 27, 1998

Screen Scene

"Dark City"

Directed by Alex Proyas

Starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly and William Hurt

Here's one for the "X-Files" reject bin. Although "Dark City" captures the right murky and paranoid atmosphere, Mulder and Scully would be lost in this world. The pleasure of the film relies heavily on grandiose visuals, but in regards to a coherent plot line, "Dark City" leaves the audience in the dark.

"Dark City" claims to be a psychological sci-fi thriller, but the film doesn't involve the audience's minds enough to be psychologically effective, nor is it that thrilling either. The plot attempts to be clever, intricate and multi-dimensional (unfortunately, qualities not extended to the lead characters) but just ends up muddled and confusing.

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a bathtub to discover that he's wanted for a series of brutal murders. But he can't remember if he committed them or not. As Murdoch seeks to unravel this cliched mystery, he learns that his world is actually created and controlled by bald supernatural beings, uninspiringly named The Strangers. Headed by the fearsome Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) these alien Strangers use their special powers of sheer will to mix and match the city inhabitants' memories and, therefore, their identities. The film trusts the audience to suspend logic and connect this impractical plan to The Strangers' quest of unlocking the secrets of the human soul.

Strap on those wings, folks, because viewers will be doing a lot of logical leaping throughout this film. For example, the fiendish characters are powerful enough to eradicate the sun, leaving the city in perpetual darkness but somehow can't overpower Murdoch, the only man who could possibly challenge them.

If the audience ignores the inconsistencies, the eye-capturing special effects and stylish '40s-era set designs are dynamic enough to excite the senses. The expert use of lighting and set construction give "Dark City" a noir-ish, Gotham-City undertone. The spectacle of the buildings morphing are also definite scene-stealers.

British actor Sewell also has a strong screen presence. The rest of the cast includes Kiefer Sutherland overacting as an excitable scientist, William Hurt as the good cop and Jennifer Connelly, who brings sweetness and sensuality to her role as Murdoch's wife, Emma.

Optically-fixated filmgoers may delight in the engrossing visuals. However, while Murdoch desperately strives to recover his stolen memory, many filmgoers will have to forget about logical reasoning to enjoy this dim cinematic experience.

Sumyi Khong

Grade: C-

"Kissing a Fool"

Directed by Doug Ellin

Starring David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, Mili Avital and Bonnie Hunt

For awhile romantic comedies seemed to be doomed to such brainless pieces of crap like "Addicted to Love" and "She's the One." But "Kissing a Fool," set in the beautiful, postcard-perfect Chicago, makes being cute and corny fun and watchable again. It revives your faith in the goofiness and joy of falling in love (in a movie).

Jay (Jason Lee), a sensitive and extremely self-aware writer, and Max (David Schwimmer), a womanizing television sports reporter, have been friends for years. But their love lives couldn't be more different. While Jay has been pining away for the same bitch girlfriend who had been cheating on him for years (he even ran away to Europe and wrote a whole novel on the God-awful experience), Max goes through women like a child collecting beanie babies.

But all their notions of love change when Jay introduces Max to his pretty and intelligent book editor, Sam (Mili Avital). Max and Sam immediately fall for each other, and before you can say "romantic tension," they're engaged and moving in together. But ladies' man Max is soon getting a little paranoid about the whole commitment thing and wonders if Sam is truly the last woman he ever wants to sleep with. So he convinces Jay to test Sam to make sure she wouldn't cheat on him. But as Jay begins to spend more time with Sam, he starts to fall for her and she with him. One of the funniest and most romantic scenes in the movie is when the romantic triangle finally comes to a head over dinner at Sam's house, and everyone tries to figure out who's testing who now.

While the commercials might fool cynical people into thinking this is another dumb romantic comedy, the witty writing and energetic performances elevate this movie to the level of such other successful romances like "When Harry Met Sally" and "Jerry Maguire."

Schwimmer plays the shmarmy bastard role quite well, although at some points of the movie, you'll want to shout out, "Stop being so mean, Ross!" But Lee steals the picture with his completely adorable performance as the "sensitive guy" who gets so guilty over deceiving his friends that he can't eat. While Lee's previous performances in the Kevin Smith movies show that he can play a sarcastic loudmouth, this movie shows how he can play the wide-eyed romantic quite convincingly. All the women in the audience will want to take him home with them after this movie.

Aimee Phan

Grade: A-

"O Amor Natural"

Directed by Heddy Honigmann

"The ass, how cute. Always smiling, never tragic. Couldn't care less what's round the front. The ass is self-sufficient. Is there anything else?"

Actually there is something else to those seemingly crass lines. In its truest form, sex is a part of love, and in Heddy Honigmann's new documentary "O Amor Natural," she's out to prove it. But not in the conventional sense. With a book of erotic poetry under her arm, she has taken to the streets of Rio de Janeiro to find out what the people think.

The poetry is taken from a collection written by one of Brazil's most reknowned poets, Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Drummond's book, from which the movie was named, was published posthumously because Drummond believed that they would have been perceived as pornographic. With subjects ranging from oral and anal sex to let's-do-it-on-the-floor-because-we-can't-wait sex, Drummond's poems certainly come under the category of erotic. As for pornographic, Honigmann leaves it for others to decide.

After reciting the poems, most of the participants, in their 60s, 70s and 80s, don't think the verse is pornographic at all, but highly erotic and sensual. At first, many of them read Drummond's verses enthusiastically and comment on the beauty of the poems.

But instead of simply having the elderly analyzing poetry, "O Amor Natural" that lets the older generation remember their past sexual escapades, and the results are quite often hilarious and touching.

To most, the words "elderly" and "sex" don't really go together. They were doing it back then. The interviewees casually recollect fond memories of their more virile past. A man in his 80s surrounded by members of his family talks about how throughout his 50-year marriage, he had many infidelities. But his wife tolerated him because she loved him.

In one of the funniest scenes, an older woman discusses how after finding pleasure in sex, she needed to be taken violently because, in her words, "I am violent." "None of that softy crap," she says. Then an elderly couple reads a poem about making love on the floor, having a good laugh. Feeling the filmmaker's embarrassment, the lady says, "We're old. We're not dead."

"O Amor Natural" doesn't just document poetry analysis by our older citizens. Nor does it try to make fun of them by showing them say words like vulva and penis on camera. It shows how love, happiness and passion is felt through sex. And though once we get older, it becomes harder to maintain the sensuality the memories and feelings still remain.

Warren Tessler

Grade: B

"An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn"

Directed by Alan Smithee

Starring Ryan O'Neal, Eric Idle, Coolio, Chuck D and Richard Jeni

Leave it to Hollywood's most outspoken screenwriter to write a film speaking out against Hollywood.

And further leave it to Joe Ezsterhas to make a movie you weren't expecting him to make. Let's face it, after "Basic Instinct" (1992), "Sliver" (1993), "Showgirls" (1995), and "Jade" (1995), we all sort of figured that we knew what was coming next.

But it wasn't "Burn Hollywood Burn," a film about a disgruntled director whose been used and abused by his producer, his studio president and even his actors. Shot almost entirely with actors talking directly into the camera, this mockumentary-style film tells the story of film editor Alan Smithee (Eric Idle) who is hired to direct a big-budget action film because he is viewed by studio executives as controllable.

When the action film, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sylvester Stallone and Jackie Chan as three bad-ass cops, is finished, Smithee finds that not only isn't it his work, but that it is terrible.

Most directors who find themselves in this position have the option of using a pseudonym specified in 1969 by the Directors Guild of America. Unfortunately for Smithee, the preselected pseudonym is "Alan Smithee." Unable to remove his name from the film, he steals the movie and threatens to burn it if he cannot have final editing rights. In the meantime, he hides out with his new negotiators, independent film makers Coolio and Chuck D.

"Parking in South Central is worse than in Westwood," Smithee observes.

Unfortunately, the story line turns out to be more interesting than the movie.

Despite several dialogues which Hollywood insiders and movie buffs are sure to find amusing, and several more which residents of the West Side will undoubtedly appreciate, the mockumentary style ultimately serves to bog the film down with a tedious and sleep-inducing pace.

And just as a reminder that this truly is an Ezsterhas film, all of the women in the movie play objects, and all of the African Americans play "black people." It is occasionally moderately funny, usually offensive and almost never redeeming.

This movie is a definite rental.

Matthew Schmid

Grade: B-

Kiefer Sutherland (right) and Richard O'Brien (left) star in "Dark City."