Rating: NNNNN
New releases
dude, where’s my car? (2001, Columbia Tri-Star), dir. Danny Leiner w/ Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott. Spaced-out pals Kutcher (TV’s That 70s Show) and Scott search for their misplaced car the day after a wild party. It’s an updated Bill and Ted adventure, with the boys being chased by hot alien babes, a transgendered stripper and their twin girlfriends. Stupid comedies have their moments, but it takes a lot to make stupid seem clever and Dude doesn’t quite pull it off. NN
Big-screen rating: NN (IR)
maelström (2000, Odeon), dir. Denis Villeneuve w/ Marie-Josée Croze, Jean-Nicholas Verrault. The best Canadian film of last year stars Croze as a despondent woman searching for the man she hit while driving drunk. In the wake of her investigation she falls in love with the man’s son. I love Villeneuve’s exuberance and his obvious relish at making grand statements. He intermingles hope and dread in almost every scene, finding humour in desperate situations. Croze gives a tortured performance but stops short of sinking into an emotional morass. NNNN
Big-screen rating: NNNN (IR)
unbreakable (2000, Touchstone), dir. M. Night Shyamalan w/ Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson. Shyamalan offers a fascinatingly sombre follow-up to his mega-hit The Sixth Sense, and although it didn’t rake in the same box-office dollars or critical acclaim as that film, it rates as one of last year’s most interesting films. (You get the feeling audiences wanted The Sixth Sense 2 instead of this original work.) Willis stars as David Dunn, the sole survivor of a horrible train accident, who, according to comic-book aficionado Elijah Price (Jackson), may just be invincible. A slow-paced drama, it’s full of quiet moments that resonate long after the movie is over. NNNN
Big-screen rating: NNNN (IR)
you can count on me (2000,Paramount), dir. Kenneth Lonergan w/ Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo. Linney delivers last year’s best female performance as a single mom dealing with a slacker brother (Ruffalo), annoying boss (Matthew Broderick) and demanding boyfriend (Jon Tenney). Linney’s looks and talent can be compared to Meryl Streep’s she may be her heir apparent. In this brilliantly written role, Lonergan’s presented Linney with a great gift. NNNNN
Big-screen rating: Lonergan displays an unerring instinct for the tension that tugs people apart no matter how intertwined they are. NNNN (JH)
Also this week
Panic The Tic Code X Change
Upcoming
July 3
Snatch, The Wedding Planner, Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000
July 10
The Claim, Malèna, Monkeybone, 13 Days.
DVD pick of the week
colonel redl (1985, Anchor Bay) dir. István Szabó w/ Klaus Maria Brandauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl. This is the middle film in Szabó and Brandauer’s trilogy of male repression (Mephisto-Redl-Hanussen), and it’s still a scorcher. Brandauer’s colonel claws his way up through the Austro-Hungarian military, getting more and more desperate to hide his homosexuality. It all ends in what’s been called the most painfully realistic suicide in cinema. Not pretty stuff, but brisk and harrowing. Extras: interviews with Szabó and Brandauer, trailer. 114 minutes. NNN