The Most Anticipated Films of the
Season
Commentary by Greg Dean Schmitz |
| Featured September
Movies: |
Das
Experiment (Opens September 18)
From Germany comes this gritty, nihilistic
drama about how easily ordinary people, given the right (or
wrong, as the case may be) circumstance, can slip into grey
moral zones. Specifically, the film is about a psychological
study in which 20 men take the roles of either "prisoners"
or "guards", in an artificial prison with vague
guidelines about what should happen. Moritz Bleibtreu, who
played Lola's boyfriend in Run
Lola Run (and looks a lot like Joseph Fiennes), stars
as a former journalist who sees a chance at getting back into
the business, infiltrating the experiment, aided by a pair
of high-tech glasses which are actually a video camera. I
*have* seen this movie, and can say that it's an emotional
shocker of a movie, filled with creepy allusions and situations.
I think that the film is German adds an extra layer of subtext,
as you can't help but make the connection, as these ordinary
guys become shock troopers, to Nazi Germany and WWII, in which
people just like them did the very same thing, capable of
acts of horror within a relatively short timeframe. If A
Clockwork Orange or Fight
Club are among your favorite films, you're definitely
going to want to seek this one out as well.
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Greg's Preview
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8
Women (Opens September 20)
French cinema these days, at least
the French movies which tend to be imported, has a reputation
I think for being serious and dramatic, something which is
thrown out the window in this winsome comedy which combines
elements of Agatha Christie-style whodunit mystery with 1950s-style
musicals. As an homage of sorts to 1939's The
Women (the long-in-development remake
kept director Francois Ozon from doing so himself), the film
features an all-star cast of French actresses, including Catherine
Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart and Fanny Ardant. I also have seen
this film, and I was thoroughly entertained and delighted
by the sight of eight beautiful actresses not known for doing
comedies, having a great time singing and playing characters
they ordinarly wouldn't. The mystery plot of a murdered man
in a house where the only suspects are the eight women closest
to him keeps you guessing right to the very end, but you might
also find yourself trying to figure out which of the eight
women will be doing their musical numbers next (everyone gets
a turn). Of the eight performances, I was particularly impressed
by Fanny Ardant's vampy turn as the victims ostrasized sister,
and young Ludivine Sagnier as the pixie-ish youngest daughter,
which makes her recent casting as Tinkerbelle in the new Peter
Pan seem quite appropriate.
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Greg's Preview
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The
Four Feathers (Opens September 20)
It's been four years since director
Shekhar Kapur made his English-language debut with the lavish
historical epic, Elizabeth,
and after being in talks for several ambitious projects, he
finally landed on this adaptation of the A.E.W. Mason novel
which has been filmed several times before, most famously
by Zoltan Korda in 1939. Heath Ledger stars as a young British
officer who drops out of the service when his unit is called
to fight against the Sudanese, which is perceived by his betrothed
(Kate Hudson) and best friend (Wes Bentley, from American
Beauty) as being a sign of cowardice, so they and two
others give him the titular feathers. What they don't know,
of course, is that Ledger is actually sneaking over to the
other side, as a sort of spy, which puts him in the right
place to see ahead-of-time that the British are likely to
get their red-jacketed backsides handed to them by the Sudanese.
The success of Gladiator
is inspiring a wave of historical war epics, but it takes
a while for Hollywood to move projects through development,
and they're not here yet. So, in the meantime, The
Four Feathers gets the advantage of being the first massively-scaled
pre-20th Century (barely) war movie we've seen since The
Patriot, in 2000. That it's got Shekhar Kapur, known for
his luxuriant eye for detail at the helm, is just gravy.
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Greg's Preview
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Spirited
Away (Opens September 20)
Master Japanese animator Hayao
Miyazaki loves taking us into the world of the "spirits"
that embody elements of nature; rivers, trees, the sky, the
earth, they all have spirits that represent them. The title
character in My
Neighbor Totoro was one, and Princess
Mononoke was filled with an entire pantheon of them. Now,
he actually takes us into the parallel magical dimension that
they live in, as a little girl named Chihiro becomes trapped
there, in an epic adventure that feels like equal parts Alice
in Wonderland and The
Matrix (if you replace the robot technology with magical
spirits). This film was a massive blockbuster in Japan, where
it broke just about every record imaginable (including those
previously held by Titanic),
and it has also been a hit at both foreign box office and
festivals, including winning the Best Film prize (in a tie)
at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival. I had a chance
to see this film recently, and as much as I admired Miyazaki's
previous films, Spirited
Away rocked my socks. Miyazaki has created a magical world
and adventure unlike anything most moviegoers have ever seen,
with a story that appeals to both children and adults, and
a broad range of creatures that range from cute to threatening
to majestic to just plain weird.
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Greg's Preview
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Biggie
and Tupac (Opens September 27)
British documentarian Nick Broomfield,
hot off the conspiracy-laden release of Kurt
and Courtney, journeys to Los Angeles to investigate the
circumstances of the murders of gangster rappers Biggie Smalls
and Tupac Shakur. I got a chance to see this at the Los Angeles
Film Festival, and although I've previously not been a big
fan of Broomfield's, this film both entertained and intrigued
me with its dangerous story of the rap recording industry
and possible criminal ties to the Los Angeles Police Dept.
Like Michael Moore (Bowling
for Columbine), Broomfield asserts himself into the film
at every possible opportunity, providing levity and a humorous
tone to what would otherwise be a completely grim and foreboding
tale of fame brought down by bloody murder. The film finds
its climax with a visit to Death Row Records founder Suge
Knight in prison (he's out now), during which we sympathize
with Broomfield's very real physical fear of the man. Whereas
I felt Broomfield's previous films were skating on thin ice
in regards to reliable sources, his investigation this time
around feels a lot more convincing. Lions Gate was originally
going to distribute Biggie
and Tupac in August, but recently dropped it, with the
tiny San Francisco-based Roxie Releasing picking it up for
a September release instead. This film is highly recommended
(obviously) for fans of Biggie and Tupac, but I think it also
has a potential audience in anyone who appreciates true crime
stories.
Read
Greg's Preview
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| All
September Movies |
| Opening
September 4, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 6, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 11, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 13, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 18, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 20, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 25, 2002 |
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| Opening
September 27, 2002 |
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