Caracara (DVD)
Henstridge (SPECIES, THE WHOLE NINE YARDS) plays a lonely ornithologist who`s only friend is a rare breed of hawk. Her isolated world turns upside down when FBI agents invade her New York City apartment to use it for a stakeout. She becomes romantically interested in David (Schaech, THAT THING YOU DO), the leader of the team, until she discovers that the agents are actually renegade South African assassins plotting to kill Nelson Mandela.R"
Director: Graeme Clifford
ACTORS: Natasha Henstridge, Jonathan Schaech, David McIlwraith, Lauren Hutton
The Long Goodbye (DVD) Widescreen Director Robert Altman, famous for his ability to turn any genre inside out, takes aim at film noir with this evocative adaptation of Raymond Chandler`s novel. Altman`s Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is a relatively unsucces...
Director Robert Altman, famous for his ability to turn any genre inside out, takes aim at film noir with this evocative adaptation of Raymond Chandler`s novel. Altman`s Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is a relatively unsuccessful private eye living and working in 1970s Los Angeles. Stepping into the shoes of the infamous detective, Gould delivers a captivating performance that is the definition of 1970s hip. He spends the entire film mumbling to himself, smoking cigarettes, and making wisecracks to everyone he encounters. John Williams`s composition The Long Goodbye, gives an added ironic punch to the film`s tone. Marlowe decides to investigate a friend`s suicide, unconvinced by the autopsy. He is hired by the friend`s neighbor Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt) to track down her husband Roger (Sterling Hayden), a successful author and belligerent alcoholic. Slowly, the mystery begins to reveal itself, as Marlowe discovers that Eileen`s relationship with Terry was more than merely casual. All the while, Marlowe must contend with police, a psychopathic (Mark Rydell), and a host of other characters and situations that make up the hazy existential malaise that is the world of the LONG GOODBYE.
R"
Director: Robert Altman
ACTORS: Elliott Gould, Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Henry Gibson, Mark Rydell
Rain (DVD)
The debut film by director Christine Jeffs, RAIN, records with charm the confusion of coming of age amidst domestic disintegration. In Far North New Zealand in 1972, Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) has traveled to the beach for a long lazy summer with her family. As the days get longer, Janey teaches her little brother, Jim (Aaron Murphy), to swim while their Scotch-sedated parents ignore each other, wallowing in their messy marriage. From hungover days to beach party nights, they fake their way through parenting. It is late into one such night, while party music plays loudly, that Janey`s mother, Kate (Sarah Peirse), lulls photographer Cady (Marton Csokas) into a swirling secret embrace. Though Janey detests the drunken dramatics, her mother`s boozing and flirting symbolize the freedoms of adulthood, so Janey steals sips and smokes, and kisses the neighbor kid. But he`s just a boy, and Janey`s becoming a woman, so she sets her sights instead on her mother`s pick, Cady.
As the title suggests, the oceanic climate of New Zealand leads to dramatic changes of weather, and also reflect RAIN`s mid-film change of heart. RAIN first sparkles like the bright blue sea and warm summer nights in the glow of fairy lights, then crumbles under bruised bourbon-colored skies. With a superb musical score, the Split Enz` Neil Finn band provides retro-styled melancholia indebted to the Brothers Gibb.NR"
Director: Christine Jeffs
White Oleander (DVD) Full Frame WHITE OLEANDER, the Janet Fitch novel made famous on Oprah`s Book Club, is the tale of an intense and toxic mother-daughter relationship, coupled with a look at the fundamentally skewed U.S. foster care system. When the beau...
WHITE OLEANDER, the Janet Fitch novel made famous on Oprah`s Book Club, is the tale of an intense and toxic mother-daughter relationship, coupled with a look at the fundamentally skewed U.S. foster care system. When the beautiful photographer Ingrid Magnusson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is imprisoned for allegedly murdering a philandering boyfriend, her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) does her best to survive a string of foster homes where natural adolescent mistakes turn into land mines. Her first stop is the home of a born-again Christian, Starr (Robin Wright Penn, who is so good in this part she`s physically unrecognizable.) Next, she is sent to the home of a clinically depressed actress, Claire Richards (Renee Zellweger, whose natural effervescence is delightfully disturbing here.) Claire uses Astrid to fill the void left by a roaming husband (Noah Wyle). Astrid juggles her list of changing homes with visits to Mommy Dearest in prison, while suffering flashbacks of the alleged murder.
WHITE OLEANDER, the first feature for U.K. television director Peter Kosminsky, is stark and brooding. Its simultaneously awful and lovely tone is reminiscent of AMERICAN BEAUTY or THE ICE STORM.
PG-13"
Director: Peter Kosminsky
ACTORS: Michelle Pfeiffer, Alison Lohman, Robin Wright, Renie Zellweger, Billy Connolly
3 Ninjas (DVD)
Three brothers must use their martial arts skills to battle an organized crime ring, would-be kidnappers, and an entire troop of ninja soldiers. Surrounded by danger and excitement, the boys must rely on their wits and their grandfather`s ninja training to defeat their foes.PG"
Director: Jon Turteltaub
ACTORS: Chad Power, Max Elliott Slade, Michael Treanor, Rand Kingsley, Margarita Franco
