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ONGOING: We think of noir as an American art form, like jazz or the Broadway musical or making truly great hot dogs. But in fact, the Brits — well, we won't say they've surpassed us. There's no British Humphrey Bogart. But you can see various sterling examples of the genre produced across the pond at AFI for the next couple of weeks.
» AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring; through April 1; 301-495-6720. (Silver Spring)
Photo courtesy AFI
FOREIGN FILMS OFTEN get a bad rap — people think a film that's not in English means you're in for three black-and-white hours of watching cats play chess underwater. (But it's really a metaphor! For something!) Tell someone you're going to watch a Swedish film that's partly about insurance fraud — even if it's based on a best-selling novel — and you might get some eye rolls.
Which is too bad, because "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is as nail-bitingly thrilling as "Silence of the Lambs," but snowier, and with more Ikea-style furniture. It's two-and-a-half hours that fly by in pure, tense pleasure.
Once you get past the subtitles.
I despise subtitles and prefer dubbing, which makes me — according to many, many people — wrong. But subtitles compress content. Dialogue has to be trimmed so it can fit into the amount of text an average person can read — even with the best translator, you lose stuff. Moreover, no matter how fast a reader you are, you have to take your eyes off the actors, the framing, the entire "moving picture" part of the movie. Yes, dubbing sometimes looks lame, but at least you're, you know, watching the movie.
Still, it's worth it. "Girl" isn't for everyone — there are some brutally violent scenes, including some sexual assaults — but it would be a shame for anyone to miss it just because they don't like to read during films.
Written by Express contributor Kristen Page-Kirby
Photo courtesy Music Box Films
SURE, THE FRENCH love Jerry Lewis, but for homegrown physical comedy, they turn to actor/director Jacques Tati's signature character, Monsieur Hulot. The symbol of French provincialism clumsily navigates encroaching modernity in the AFI Silver's contributions to the Environmental Film Festival.
The opening credits to Tati's Oscar-winning masterpiece "Mon Oncle" (1958) are first overlaid on an ugly urban construction site, then quickly shift to Hulot's gorgeously rendered small town of cafes, outdoor markets and kids who make adults bump into lampposts. (Trust us, it's really funny.)
THE TIMES KEEP changing in Kansas. The onetime blood-drenched Civil War border state has seen the rise of occasional radicals and an evolution into a staunch home of conservatism. "What's the Matter With Kansas?" traces the state's political and ideological waves through the eyes of two conservative families and one very non-traditional farmer. Don't expect a Michael Moore polemic, though, as director Joe Winston takes Thomas Frank's best-selling book and lets the characters speak for themselves, without editorial comment. Rated one of the top 10 documentaries of 2009 by Roger Ebert, "Kansas" shows at E Street Cinema this weekend with Winston and Frank appearing at the 7:30 & 10 p.m. shows on Friday.
» E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW; $10; 202-452-7672. (Metro Center)
SUNDAY: The Environmental Film Festival is full of gems every year, but we have to admit that we've stoked for "Home" not because of any allegiance to the planet, but because we love Isabelle Huppert with a fiery passion worthy of how very French she is.
The movie, which screens at the National Gallery this weekend, tells the story of a family who lives beside a deserted highway. We hesitate to call it a road movie, but roads do figure prominently.
» National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW ; Sun., March 21, 4:30 p.m., free; 202-342-2564. (Smithsonian)
Photo by Jerome Prebois
DURING THIS YEAR'S OSCARS, the Academy showcased a tribute to horror films and included — perhaps as a nod to the presenters of the vignette, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart — a clip from "New Moon," the latest film in the "Twilight" series. Horror, however, this is not, unless you consider "it's-scary-how-seriously-this-movie-takes-itself" a new genre of terror.
But if you listened to the screams of frenzied prepubescent, teen and even adult female fans everywhere, there's nothing not to love about "New Moon," which comes out on DVD on March 20. Visually, it improves upon the special effects used in the previous "Twilight," which may be thanks to the first film's huge success at the box office. And in terms of attractive young men, there are two battling for Bella's (Stewart) affection: Robert Pattinson, who plays the icily delicious vampire Edward Cullen, and the aforementioned Lautner, who plays Jacob Black, a werewolf trying to steal Bella's heart. Sure, Lautner was in "Twilight," but back then he was a gangly, long-haired kid — now, to the glee of panting fans, he has a shorter coif and a more muscular build, the kind of physique that should really get Team Jacob fans cheering.
Having a pretty face, though, doesn't necessarily mean you can act, and in that sense, "New Moon" is almost as torturous as "Twilight."
Continue Reading "Just Some Pretty Faces: 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' DVD" »
FORMED IN 1975 and defunct by '79, The Runaways are perhaps more legendary than listened to. The band of teenage misfits — all barely old enough to drive, none old enough to vote — was assembled by show-biz entrepreneur/svengali Kim Fowley, who devised their jailbait images: tight jumpsuits and lingerie sets, lyrics about come-hither glances and flipping the bird to authority figures. They recorded a handful of great-to-adequate albums, hit big in Japan and finally broke up before any of them were old enough to drink.
Even if their albums have been out of print for years, The Runaways' legacy thrives. The stuttering single "Cherry Bomb" has been endlessly anthologized on punk compilations like Rhino's excellent four-disc "No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion," even if The Runaways had only a glancing association with that scene or sound. After the break-up, rhythm guitarist Joan Jett sold 10 million copies of "I Love Rock & Roll," lead guitarist Lita Ford scored two solid hair-metal hits in the mid-'80s and Cherie Currie appeared in "Twilght Zone: The Movie" and a couple of television shows.
Now, more than 30 years after they parted ways, The Runaways are getting the Hollywood biopic treatment, starring that actress from the "Twilight" movies and ... that other actress form the "Twilight" movies. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning certainly look the part of Jett and Currie playing fierce juvenile-delinquent trash rock, but early trailers suggest director Floria Sigismondi may be overselling their importance, implying that fame killed the band when, in fact, they struggled more than succeeded.
Coinciding with the movie (in theaters March 19) and its soundtrack (featuring original Runaways songs along with new versions by Stewart and Fanning), Hip-O Select has repackaged the band's first three studio albums as well as 1977's "Live in Japan" onto "The Mercury Albums Anthology," which is more fun that you might expect or remember.
Continue Reading "Born to Be Bad: The Runaways, 'The Mercury Albums Anthology'" »
"OUR FAMILY WEDDING" is a "comedy" about two families — one African-American, the other Mexican — whose children wish to get married, but the parents don't like one another. "Romeo and Juliet" it's not, because "Romeo and Juliet" is funnier.
I often hear complaints that critics don't like anything. This is not true. Here is a list of things I like better than "Our Family Wedding":
"All About Steve." "New in Town." "Showgirls." "Cruel Intentions" (I actually like "Cruel Intentions" a lot.) Black licorice. "From Justin to Kelly." "Crossroads." My sister's entire home-movie oeuvre, which includes such standouts as "SuperNorm," starring the family basset hound, and "Jamie Makes Faces." Overcooked broccoli. "Pushing Tin." That YouTube video where the cat rides the Roomba. "Transformers." The episode of HBO's "Lifestories: Families in Crisis" that starred Ben Affleck as a guy on steroids. Oh, and the one where Calista Flockhart was bulimic and stored her puke in jars in a closet. People who don't clear the snow off their car's roof. "Glitter." "Leap Year."
A friend and I used to refer to "two-ticket movies," meaning a film that would require a ticket for both you and the guy holding the gun to your head. To see how many tickets you'd need for this steaming pile of cinema, think of how many people you love. Add one. That's the magic number.
Written by Express contributor Kristen Page-Kirby
Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight
YOU CAN'T MAKE an action movie without vengeance. "Taxi Driver," "The Dark Knight," "Death Wish," "The Crow" — all of them had revenge-seeking guys who wouldn't stop until they wronged the injustice in the world. Without payback, you got nothin'.
But while the original "Boondock Saints,"— released in 1999 — oozed with righteously violent awesomeness and earned a cult following for its stylized fight scenes and scarily relatable message (Honestly, what's so wrong with killing all the world's drug dealers and mob bosses?), its sequel, "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day," lacks most of that charm. Released to DVD on Tuesday, the film certainly made more than its original in box office returns — it actually made a profit — but there's just something about it that's not quite right.
Could it be the 10 years between the two films, a decade that's aged its main actors, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, who play the MacManus brothers? Is it the brief amount of screentime given to Willem Dafoe, who was so fantastic in the original as balls-to-the-wall FBI agent Paul Smecker? Or is the plot just too full of unnecessary twists and turns, while the original was refreshingly straightforward? Take your pick.
Continue Reading "Revenge Isn't Always Sweet: 'Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day'" »
AS PART OF "Taiwan to the World" documentary series, the Asia Society presents "Kungfu Secrets." A chronicle of a struggling tradition's attempt to evolve in a ever-changing world, the film traces the development of kung fu in Taiwan. Following three contemporary kung fu masters, the story maps their individual struggles to adapt their particular form of martial arts to modern Taiwan. Master Wang Jin Fa is head of the last secret chapter of the Hong Men society. His story and the stories of two young women in search of Taiwanese Olympic glory interweave to tell the tale of kung fu's glorious but hush-hush existence.
» 1957 E St. NW; Thu., 6:30-8:30 p.m., $15; 202-833-2742, asiasociety.org/centers/washington-dc. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)
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