Director John Woo somehow gives plausibility to the notion of two men who switch faces for an adventure in Face/Off (B), and he does a great job staging the action. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage are effective in their roles as FBI agent and criminal mastermind in this cat and mouse thriller.
Robert Zemeckis’s Contact (A) succeeds on the power of its leads’ Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey’s central debate of science and faith as they explore the notion of finding life outside earth in the universe. The film’s powerful performances and effects are used at the mercy of its central questions and get a nice payoff in the film’s final reel.
P.J. Hogan’s My Best Friend’s Wedding (A) gamely casts Julia Roberts as the woman who doesn’t get the guy, and that drives her character crazy. Knocking the Pretty Woman off her pedestal turns out to be a winning formula for a spiteful revenge comedy co-starring Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney and Rupert Everett. It’s cheeky and joyous.
David Mirkin’s film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (B+) is a surprisingly winning female empowerment comedy with Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino posing as impresario inventors to wow the folks they want to school with as they return to their ten-year get-together. Splashes of neon color, smart flashbacks, spicy writing and a potpourri of whimsical characters blend for an all-out comic joyride.
Every groovy costume, character and quirk in director Jay Roach’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (C+) suggests the film will be a smashing fun-fest. But regardless of the kitschy freeze frames, the spiraling flowers and the lace-lined crushed velvet suits, the film often strikes an empty pose. Mike Myers plays the zany leading character in this 007 spoof and brings a distinctive and bizarre sensibility to the proceedings. It’s a flighty romp that seems more suited for a Saturday Night Live segment than a feature film.
For writer/director Kevin Smith, making movies seems a lot simpler than therapy. A pioneer of no/low budget films with his Clerks debut, he is creating a cottage industry out of working on his own hang-ups, insecurities and doubts on the big screen. It’s as if he says, “let’s have a dialogue” to his inner selves, and out pops a talky movie from his percolating psycho-mind. In Chasing Amy (A-), Smith further explores how one’s skewed outlook of the world alters one’s own relationships as a central character (Ben Affleck) determines if he can successful date and “convert” a woman who is a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams). Funny friendship dialogue between Affleck and Jason Lee is a highlight; Adams is somewhat successful in embodying her part (it could be better written). Peppered with whip-smart wit and irrational human obsessions, it’s a mature look at human connections from a filmmaker who sometimes refuses to grow up.
Theodore Witcher’s Love Jones (B-) tells a love story set in Chicago’s sexy art district as Larenz Tate and Nia Long discover the pacing, rhythm and rhyme of romance to the beat of a modern beat poetry community. This slice of life pulses with power and opportunity; and even when it doesn’t land just right, it’s great to see a story told in this milieu with talented actors strutting their stuff.
Despite the big guns, street talk and Mafia themes, Mike Newell’s crime drama Donnie Brasco (B) is essentially a love story at heart. Al Pacino plays a mobster and Johnny Depp an FBI agent who infiltrates the 1970’s Mafia, but the betrayal to the friendship that ensues has echoes of infidelity. It’s great to watch Pacino and Depp act together and the latter act without eccentric makeup. It’s an original relationship movie amidst lots of great action.
Director John Singleton comes of age with the historical Rosewood (B+) which addresses the way hate breeds throughout generations. Ving Rhames and Jon Voight give affecting performances.
Wes Craven’s Scream 2 (B-) tries to one-up its tongue-in-cheek predecessor by satirizing sequels, often with great success. But the film-within-a-film and the story-within-a-story conceits may sometimes make this a little too meta for its own good. Still it is twisty, thrilling and united the original cast with enough surprises that it stands on its own with more of the brand of fun fans of the franchise will come to expect.
Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi outer space creature feature send-up Starship Troopers (B) is both an exciting tale of fresh-faced young people fighting galactic aliens and a parody of such films. It works best if you simply succumb to the silliness. There are no acting standouts in this one, just wall-to-wall action. It’s well-filmed pulp and exactly what a B-movie should be.
In Breaking the Waves (A-), director Lars von Trier crafts an elegant, heart-wrenching epic about a woman guided to the edge of sanity by a moral quest that leaves her physically, mentally and emotionally vulnerable. Emily Watson shines in the central role of this chilling film that deftly blends pathos and transcendence.
