A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
'Dancemaker'
'Dancing at Lughnasa'
'Dante's Peak'
'Dark City'
'The Daytrippers'
'Dead Man Walking'
'Deceiver'
'Deconstructing Harry'
'Deep Blue Sea'
'Deep Crimson'
'Desert Blue'
'Devil in a Blue Dress'
'The Devil's Advocate'
'The Devil's Own'
'Diabolique'
'Die Hard with a Vengence'
'The Dinner Game'
'Dog Park'
'Dogma'
'Donnie Brasco'
'Don't Let Me Die On a Sunday'
'Down to You'
'Dr. Dolittle'
'The Dreamlife of Angels'
'Dream With the Fishes'
'Dreaming of Joseph Lees'
'Drop Dead Gorgeous'
'Drowning Mona'
'Dude, Where’s My Car?'
'Dungeons & Dragons'
'Dancemaker' (3/16/99)
Directed by Matthew Diamond
Starring Paul Taylor
A profile of the renowned modern dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor, Matthew Diamond's "Dancemaker" is as great a feat as any physical contortion performed by the dancers. Diamond, himself a former dancer, wields an insider's camera. Backstage shots showing the pain, sweat and adrenaline of the performers as they hurl themselves across the stage are contrasted with the tranquil, polished audience view of the same moves. The camera follows Taylor everywhere, from rehearsals, where he physically sculpts his pieces using the dancers' bodies, to fancy donor receptions and headache-inducing business meetings. Taylor emerges as a temperamental genius with tremendous creative energy and a formidably demanding personality. (After one trip, he unexpectedly fires one dancer, explaining, "It just wasn't fun to work with her any more.") More than just a picture of Taylor, though, the film is a sensitive tribute to dance itself. Diamond's camera knows exactly where to linger, on a bent arm or quick grimace of pain, and succeeds in bringing to life the beauty, joy and obsession that motivate the artists. The dancers become familiar, sympathetic personalities as they talk on camera about endless auditions, bleeding feet, personality conflicts and the other rigors of their profession. Diamond is the perfect documentarian: he listens and shows and lets the material do the rest.
ESTHER PAN
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'Dancing at Lughnasa' (11/16/98)
Directed by Pat O'Connor
Starring Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon
Meryl Streep is splendid in this adaptation of Brian Friel's prize-winning
play, but she's one of five superb actresses who should win the first
Oscar for ensemble acting. They play the unmarried Mundy sisters, scraping
a hard living in Friel's imaginary town of Ballybeg during the Depression
'30s. These women—stalwart Agnes (Brid Brennan), feisty Maggie (Kathy
Burke), simple-minded Rose (Sophie Thompson), lovely Christina (Catherine
McCormack), severe Kate (Streep)—are a group portrait of the deprivation,
spiritual, economic, sexual, of Ireland during a dark time. When their
priest brother, Jack (Michael Gambon), returning from 25 years' ministering to a leper colony in Africa, and Gerry (Rhys Ifans), the vagabond father of Christina's illegitimate son, Michael, show up, the story shifts into a high gear of tragic elation. The tension between an emotionally negative Christianity and a positive pagan exultation drives the screenplay by Frank McGuinness and the direction by Pat O'Connor. In a climactic scene, the five sisters, who will soon split up, break out into a wild spontaneous dance. This scene, both heartbreaking and jubilant, has more power than any showstopper in a $75 million musical.
JACK KROLL
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'Dante's Peak' (2/17/97)
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton
The disaster movie is back, though I'm not sure anybody was asking for it. The special effects are definitely the best thing about this curiously bland disasterthon. Unfortunately, attached to this fine display of technology are a story and something resembling characters, and we have to wade through a full hour of said "story" before the damn mountain blows. Pierce Brosnan is the volcanologist with a Tragic Wound. (His fiancee, who also loved volcanoes, was killed by one.) Now he sees in Dante's Peak, Wash., all the signs of another disaster, but of course no one will heed his warnings, because it might scare off big business coming to town. Supplying the generic love interest is Linda Hamilton as a single mom and the model city's mayor. It's a sign of how badly awry the human dimension of this movie has gone that scenes played for pathos, evoke only relief. If only those computers could generate virtual emotion. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Dark City' (3/9/98)
Directed by Alex Proyas
Starring Rufus Sewell, William Hurt
A man (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a hotel room bath without the slightest idea of where or who he is. All he does know is that there is a murdered corpse in the room and that he is a wanted man. His wallet tells him his name is John Murdoch. As he roams the gloomy streets of the city in search of his true identity, he encounters a bizarre underworld populated by The Strangers, a race of ominous beings that want to kill him. Aided by a sympathetic detective (William Hurt), an eccentric psychiatrist (Kiefer Sutherland) and his own strange powers, Murdoch is able to elude his pursuers long enough to discover the horrifying truth about himself and the city around him. Director Alex Proyas ("The Crow") floods the screen with cinematic and literary references ranging from Murnau and Lang to Kafka and Orwell, creating a unique yet utterly convincing world. At the center of "Dark City" is a mind-twisting question: what if all of your memories were manufactured, and the "reality" surrounding you were merely a fabrication? Then who would you be? (on video)
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
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'The Daytrippers' (3/31/97)
Directed by Greg Mottola
Starring Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci
The family that travels together unravels together in "The Daytrippers," a comedy that happily keeps catching you by surprise. Writer-director Greg Mottola's low-budget debut, shot in only 16 days, takes place in a 24-hour time frame. It starts the morning that young suburban wife Eliza D'Amico (Hope Davis) piles into a station wagon with her whole family—mom (Anne Meara), pop (Pat McNamara), little sis (Parker Posey) and her pretentious would-be novelist boyfriend (Liev Schreiber)—in order to drive into Manhattan and confront her possibly unfaithful husband Louis (Stanley Tucci). Funny as "The Daytrippers" is—especially when the clan's pursuit of the elusive Louis leads them into the company of families even loopier than their own—the movie's tone is ultimately more bittersweet than knee-slapping. Mottola knows all too well the maddeningly regressive dynamics of a family trapped too long in its own company. Thanks to the superb cast and the director's deft touch, this modest-looking comedy proves quite memorable. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Dead Man Walking' (1/8/96)
Directed by Tim Robbins
Starring Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn
Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is a nun who works in a New Orleans housing project. Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) is a tattooed convict facing execution for the murder of two teenage lovers. About all they have in common, quips the nervous Sister when she first encounters Poncelet, is that "we both live with the poor." In writer-director Tim Robbins's film, the nun and the murderer are forced into a kind of spiritual intimacy. As the good sister becomes obsessed with reaching this scumbag's soul, she finds herself alienating others. No simple diatribe against capital punishment, it's a strong film, made stronger by two terrific performances. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Deceiver' (2/9/98)
Directed by Josh Pate and Jonas Pate
Starring Tim Roth, Chris Penn
The two detectives trying to solve the murder at the center of "Deceiver" are not quite as clever as they think. Nor is the film, which is directed by the much heralded twin brothers, Josh and Jonas Pate ("The Grave"). Nevertheless, there is something appealing about the 'may the best mind win' situation involving a wealthy Charleston aristocrat, John Walter Wayland (Tim Roth) who is the primary suspect in the violent murder of a young prostitute (Rene Zellwegger). The focus is on the slippery nature of truth, and the fact that we are never able to determine what actually occurred the night of the murder is one of the film's stronger points. In the end, however, "Deceiver" is only superficially clever with a few moments of true originality. (on video)
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
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'Deconstructing Harry' (12/22/97)
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Kirstie Alley
Woody Allen is back in sharp comic form, though it's likely that his abrasive black comedy "Deconstructing Harry" will alienate as many people as it tickles. Allen is certainly not courting fans by casting himself as novelist Harry Block, the oft-married, selfish, sex-obsessed and generally despicable hero of this smart, nasty and very raunchy comedy. A lot of women fall in love with Harry (you may wonder why), but they all end up furious at him; if he hasn't betrayed them in life, he does so in his novels. "Deconstructing Harry" hops brilliantly between Harry's real and fictional lives and echoes Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" in its structure. It may be the bleakest, most self-punishing comedy Allen has made. Amazingly, it's one of the funniest. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Deep Blue Sea' (8/3/99)
Directed by Renny Harlin
Starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane
It doesn't really matter if you think "Deep Blue Sea" is totally preposterous. It will scare you anyway. It makes surprisingly little difference if the laughter it provokes means the audience is laughing at it, with it, or simply because it needs relief from the tension. This highly unlikely story about genetically enhanced sharks that terrorize the scientists who created them is one summer movie that delivers exactly what it promises: nonstop popcorn thrills. The setting is a floating lab somewhere in the Atlantic that is quickly destroyed by a timely tropical storm. The unlucky team of researchers (including Saffron Burrows as a chilly British scientist, Samuel L. Jackson as the project's CEO, Thomas Jane as a "shark wrangler" and LL Cool J as an intrepid chef) is trapped in submerged, flooding chambers. If the ocean doesn't swallow them a la "Titanic," the brainy mako sharks will have them for lunch. Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger") has some wicked fun undermining our expectations. In the movie's most startling moment, one of the main characters is suddenly, unexpectedly swallowed whole. This drew applause from the preview audience not because they hated the victim, but because they were happy to be so expertly faked out. "Deep Blue Sea" gives good rush—earning its stripes as one terrific junk movie.
DAVID ANSEN
'Deep Blue Sea' (7/30/99)
Directed by Renny Harlin
Starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jan
Is it a good movie? Not particularly. Is it the most fun you're likely to encounter on the big screen this summer? Probably. Does director Renny Harlin know how to make an audience jump? You betcha! "Deep Blue Sea" begins with a very silly premise, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Some nutty scientists have created a genetically-enhanced, super-intelligent group of sharks (something to do with curing Alzheimer's—don't ask) which, of course, gets loose and starts to hunt down the crew marooned on a vast off-shore lab during a tropical storm. In terms of plot, "Deep Blue Sea" follows the "Alien" model quite faithfully: Establish a science-gone-awry scenario, then sit back and try to figure out which cast member will be the next to get it. But, by killing off the most unexpected person early on, Harlin cleverly turns 'who's next?' into a pretty unpredictable exercise.
Saffron Burrows ("The Loss of Sexual Innocence"; "Wing Commander") plays Dr. Susan McAlester with an edgy obsessiveness and, to her credit, she is enough of an actress to look like she might actually be a scientist, not just a pretty actress playing a scientist. Not that she doesn't find herself stripping down to her underwear in the name of self-defense, but let's not quibble. Rapper LL Cool J as a plucky chef provides some nice self-referential, "Scream"-like commentary on the usual fate of black characters in action movies, but the rest of the crew are basically cardboard cutouts. It's just as well; most of them will end up as shark snacks anyway and we wouldn't want any emotional connections to interfere with our enjoyment of the feeding frenzy. Harlin may not be big on character development, but he sure knows how to jack up the tension (remember the opening sequence of "Cliffhanger"?) and some of the action sequences are a marvel to behold. If you do not leap out of your seat at least once during "Deep Blue Sea," the sushi's on me.
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
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'Deep Crimson' (10/20/97)
Directed by Arturo Ripstein
Starring Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Regina Orozco
In real life they were known as the Lonely Hearts Killers. They were called "The Honeymoon Killers" in Leonard Kastle's 1970 cult movie. Now this monstrous love story has been stunningly remade as "Deep Crimson" by Arturo Ripstein, Mexico's finest living director. An obese nurse whose breath reeks of the morgue (Regina Orozco) falls for a gigolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) who reminds her of Charles Boyer. Together they answer lonely-hearts ads and cross the Mexican countryside in the 1940s fleecing and slaughtering their victims. Ripstein lures us in with black comedy, inviting us to feel pity for the grotesque nurse and the vain gigolo, only to horrify us when the movie wades into the deep end of evil. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Desert Blue' (7/20/99)
Directed by Morgan J. Freeman
Starring Brendan Sexton III, Christina Ricci
After a promising debut with 1997's "Hurricane Streets," writer/director Morgan J. Freeman—not to be confused with the actor—in his new film "Desert Blue" tosses too many balls into the air. Set in Baxter, California, Pop. 87, a forlorn and dusty mining town, the movie focuses on the eponymous Blue (Brendan Sexton III) and his group of teenage friends. Blue labors at his dead father's dream of bringing a water park to the desert, Ely (Christina Ricci) blows things up and Pete (Casey Affleck) tools around on his ATV. Two events finally drum up some excitement in their humdrum lives. First, teenage TV star Skye (Kate Hudson) arrives in town, and second, she's trapped there when a potentially hazardous chemical spill quarantines Baxter's inhabitants. Initially abrasive and pouting, Skye quickly latches onto Blue and his friends, who are unaware of her celebrity because cable TV does not reach Baxter. No TV? It sounds like a message—one too many for this cluttered story. Freeman not only lumps issue on top of issue—overzealous government power and sinister corporate greed, for instance—he also gives tertiary characters a confusing, and unnecessary degree of complexity. Endearing at times, "Desert Blue" might have succeeded as a simple love story, but is finally defeated by its own earnestness.
DOUGLAS LEVIN
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'Devil in a Blue Dress' (10/2/95)
Directed by Carl Franklin
Starring Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore
The film noir style born in Los Angeles in the '40s has proven so indelible that it's hard to think of that city, in that time, separate from the shadow-streaked look of Hollywood thrillers. Carl Franklin's film, based on Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mystery, takes us back to 1948 L.A.'s Central Avenue, a vital, jazz-and-blues-infused community. The evocation of that vanished world is alone worth the price of admission. Denzel Washington is Easy, a war veteran who's lost his job and accepts $100 from a shady, well-connected white man (Tom Sizemore) to find a missing woman named Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), the fiancee of a rich mayoral candidate. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'The Devil's Advocate' (10/27/97)
Directed by Taylor Hackford
Starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino
Some movies are so silly that they cross over into some mystical land of superkitsch, where they take on a kind of crazy grandeur. That is the case of "The Devil's Advocate," which has McDeep things to tell us about Good and Evil, love and lust, free will and fate. A young lawyer, Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves), is plucked from the Florida courts by a big-time New York law firm, headed by John Milton (Al Pacino). Well, long before poor Lomax has gotten it, everyone in the audience knows that Milton—with his lavish apartment and a corporate setting that looks like the digs of a Renaissance doge—is the Devil. Written with brio and staged rousingly by director Taylor Hackford, the film is good, kitschy fun—after all, how can you hate a movie that casts litigators as the new legions of Lucifer? (on video)
JACK KROLL
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'The Devil's Own' (3/31/97)
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Starring Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt
When IRA terrorist Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) brings violence into the home of honest cop Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford), the cop's gotta do what a cop's gotta do—bring the fugitive to justice—and, with any luck, keep him alive before his many other enemies get to him. This is the serviceable, if hokey, setup of "The Devil's Own," a topical thriller that manages to be watchable despite director Alan J. Pakula's best efforts to take all the fun out of it. The invocation of the Irish Troubles leads him to set the tempo at a solemn funeral march: you could drive several wagonloads of hops through the stars' brooding pauses. Fortunately, Ford and Pitt are bona fide movie stars: their charisma is a considerable compensation. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Diabolique' (4/1/96)
Directed by Jeremiah Chechik
Starring Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani
The original is one of the scariest films ever made. The update isn't. The first had a totally implausible plot, but its director's sadistic pessimism created a tension of evil building to a frightening climax that's legendary. Here director Jeremiah Chechik ("Benny and Joon") can't overwhelmed disbelief. He relies on Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani. Adjani is Mia, the wife, and Stone is Nicole, the mistress, of Guy (Chazz Palminteri), an s.o.b. who runs a boys' school that Adjani has inherited. Tired of his abuse, the women decide to kill him, which they do as adroitly as two hippos drowning a beetle. Also starring Kathy Bates. (on video)
JACK KROLL
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'Die Hard with a Vengence' (5/29/95)
Directed by John McTiernan
Starring Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons
"Die Hard WAV" is a ludicrous, impossible story, another whiplashing ride through the world of amazing stunts and special effects, directed by action specialist John McTiernan. Sophisticated bombs are planted all over New York—in a department store, a public school, the subway—while Bruce Willis's character battles a terrorist gang led by the fiendishly clever Simon (Jeremy Irons). Zeus Carver, the owner of a Harlem appliance store who becomes Willis's reluctant buddy, is played with wit by Samuel L. Jackson. But "Die Hard WAV" lacks the freshness of its two predecessors: we've had it with gassy police psychiatrists and supersmart terrorists. (on video)
JACK KROLL
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'The Dinner Game' (7/13/99)
Directed by Francis Veber
Starring Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret
(In French with subtitles)
Director and screenwriter Francis Veber specializes in very funny French comedies ("La Cage Aux Folles," "The Tall Blonde Man With One Black Shoe") that Hollywood picks up and makes into much less funny American versions ("The Birdcage", "The Man With One Red Shoe"). "The Dinner Game" will probably fit the pattern. The question is whether any major studio is willing to reproduce its cynicism with any fidelity. A group of Parisian yuppies organizes a competitive weekly dinner to which everyone must bring the most idiotic, boring guest thay can find. Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) discovers the perfect date, a man who works for the Ministry of Finance and builds models of famous monuments out of matchsticks. How many matchsticks does it take to replicate the Eiffel Tower? François Pignon (Jacques Villeret) will tell you. Unfortuantely for Brochant, he ends up stuck alone in his apartment with his prize offering, who turns out not to be quite as stupid as he had assumed. Indeed, the well intentioned Pignon is quite adept at creating complicated catastrophes which lead to many a laugh for the audience and increasing irritation for his host. Despite the stagey set-up (it was originally conceived as a play and it shows), the film manages to maintain its humor and energy until the final scene in which Veber suddenly casts aside his delightful meanspiritedness and gets soft-hearted and preachy. It is a disappointing shift of tone that only serves to underline the uncompromising hilarity of what went before.
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
Related Link
The Importance of Being Funny: Report from Cannes
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'Dog Park' (9/29/99)
Directed by Bruce McCulloch
Starring Luke Wilson, Natasha Henstridge
"Dog Park" is a clever look at dating in the 90's, reminding us that no one is safe from the entanglements of love—not even our dogs. At times it's hard to decipher the point of all this love gone wrong, but perhaps it doesn't really matter. Bruce McCulloch (of Kids in the Hall fame) has written a script that is littered with quirky and amusing observations about relationships. The story is centered on the lives of Andy (Luke Wilson) and Lorna (Natasha Henstridge) who are unlucky in love, Mogley the dog, who has been traumatized by viewing aggressive sex and Jeri (Janeane Garofalo) and Jeff (McCulloch) who round out the cast as a couple obnoxiously passionate about each other.
Despite a lack of chemistry between Wilson and Henstridge and a plot that often falls into easy Hollywood romance clichés, "Dog Park" survives because of the oddball wit that typified "Kids in the Hall" comedy. There is a very funny dog psychologist—played by fellow KITH'er Mark McKinney and healthy amounts of strange advice—"Love is not a beast you can chase. You can smell its fur but you can't see its face."—interspersed throughout the movie. Through the laughter, though, there is real empathy for the characters. It's a light-hearted movie, but avoid stopping by a pet store on the way back—you may not come home alone.
KEVIN STUART
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'Dogma' (11/12/99)
Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino
Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) are angels with a bad employment history who have been banished from heaven forever. As Kevin Smith's manic comedy "Dogma" opens—in present-day New Jersey—they are scheming to sneak back in. If Loki and Bartleby make it, God will be proved fallible, and all existence will be obliterated. So a team of angelic superheroes bands together to stop them. There's a grumpy messenger (Alan Rickman), a muse who's now working as a stripper (Salma Hayek), an apostle named Rufus (Chris Rock) who claims he was left out of the Bible because he is black and an abortion-clinic worker (Linda Fiorentino) who's been chosen as the human who must save humanity. What follows is a movie about heaven that makes no earthly sense.
Smith ("Clerks," "Chasing Amy") attempts something ambitious with "Dogma"—an antic mix of the sacred and the very profane, of organized-religion bashing and sex jokes. And the movie is gutsy, too, at least in the sense that it will infuriate some devout Roman Catholics. The real trouble here, however, isn't sacrilege: Smith clearly believes in God and fears hell and so on. The real problem is that "Dogma" isn't as funny as it thinks it is. The speechifying about religion is dull to a surreal degree and ultimately makes pedestrian points. For some reason, though, you never stop rooting for "Dogma," perhaps because, as preposterous as the movie gets, it's clearly reveling in its own hokiness.
JEFF GILES
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'Donnie Brasco' (3/3/97)
Directed by Mike Newell
Starring Al Pacino, Johnny Depp
You're telling yourself: I need another wiseguy movie like I need to pay more taxes. Al Pacino as a two-bit mafioso? Is the pope Catholic? Johnny Depp as some goombah named Donnie Brasco? Fuggedaboudit... There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about "Donnie Brasco," but give this movie 20 minutes and you'll change your tune. The story, based on true events, is so good, and the characters so rich, that the familiarity of the turf becomes irrelevant. After all, we haven't been there with Lefty Ruggiero—the small-time hit man Pacino plays—or with Depp's Donnie Brasco. Donnie is actually FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone, a man who is so successful insinuating himself inside the mob that he doesn't know how to get back out again—or whether he wants to. This is Depp's coming-of-age role, and he's terrific. Pacino, who's shown more flash than substance recently, reminds us how great he can be when he loses himself inside a character. The bond between these two makes the film sing. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Don't Let Me Die On a Sunday' (4/21/00)
Directed by Didier Le Pecheur
Starring Elodie Bouchez, Jean-Marc Barr
"I like debauched people. They're touching," says Elodie Bouchez's character towards the end of "Don't Let Me Die On a Sunday. " Clearly director Didier Le Pecheur agrees, and hopes that his audience will feel similar sympathy toward the immensely charismatic and disturbed characters in his film. Le Pecheur's France is a strange place: People talk like philosophers and never smile, but they have a lot of sex—a lot of odd, creepy sex. The plot—such as it is—centers on a group of Parisian morgue workers and the women who love them. It begins with the death of Teresa (Bouchez), a 19-year-old raver, and her subsequent resurrection-through-necrophilia (yes, she literally comes back to life) at the hands of Ben, a mortician going through an existential crisis. She joins Ben and his work pals as they move through a series of S&M parties and orgies that would be a fundamentalist's nightmare. A seeming innocent, Teresa is our guide, and as she joins the fray, so do we. Bouchez (the star of "The Dreamlife of Angels") is a wonderful naïf; her wide, fascinated eyes become ours. It should be difficult to find Ben attractive, yet the smouldering Jean-Marc Barr portrayal of the character's inner conflicts makes him more than sympathetic. Martin Petitguyot, as a suicidal savant Ben and Teresa pick up, gives a funny and touching performance as the cerebral center of the film. Despite its bizarre intellectual project, Le Pecheur's film is seductive and shockingly sexy.
TED GIDEONSE
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'Down to You' (01/26/00)
Written and directed by Kris Isacsson
Starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Julia Stiles
Almost exactly a year ago, Miramax released a film that most industry watchers assumed was going to be just another garbage bag in the cinematic dumpster that is January. But "She's All That," a "My Fair Lady" for adolescents, was a surprise hit; more shockingly, it was charming, funny and peppered with inspired moments. It was just one of the several low-budget films that reaped huge profits last winter by pandering to the kids who made "Titanic," well, titanic. This year, Miramax put the star of "She's All That," Freddie Prinze, Jr., in another teen-oriented romantic comedy and hoped lightning would strike twice. Of course, no such luck. "Down to You" is a disaster: dull, predictable, at times cringe-worthy. After casting some of the most promising talents of last year's teen boom--Prinze, Julia Stiles ("Ten Things I Hate About You"), Shawn Hatosy ("The Faculty") and Selma Blair ("Cruel Intentions")—writer-director Kris Isacsson manages to embarrass each of them with a script that sounds more like a treatment than an actual screenplay. Prinze plays Al, a New York college student who falls for a fellow co-ed, Imogen (Stiles). They are each other's first true loves, but predictably, break up, grow despondent, and, well, you can probably figure the rest out yourself. Isacsson had some vaguely original ideas: Al is the son of a wacky, famous TV chef (Henry Winkler, the only actor who emerges from the film unscathed); his best friend, Monk (Zak Orth), is porn-actor-cum-director; the young man's desperation comes to a climax when he drunkenly guzzles Imogen's shampoo. But these small flourishes can't make up for the film's worst aspect: adorable as they are, Stiles and Prinze have extraordinarily little chemistry. And for a movie in which two young lovers do nothing but slowly "grow apart," a certain amount of electricity is essential.
TED GIDEONSE
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'Dr. Dolittle' (7/6/98)
Directed by Betty Thomas
Starring Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis
You know "Dr. Dolittle" has gone '90s when the good doctor lives in a spacious San Francisco condo, transports tigers in a jazzy sport utility vehicle and is stressed over whether to sell his neighborhood practice to an evil HMO for millions of dollars. Eddie Murphy, as John Dolittle, is as hip and sardonic as ever, but the real revelation is how well he plays a straight man to a cast of talking animals. The creatures (wonderfully voiced by Garry Shandling, Julie Kavner, Norm Macdonald, Chris Rock and John Leguizamo) steal the show with wise-guy attitude. The remake also smartly broadens Dolittle's role. He isn't just a friendly vet, he's an all-around animal counselor and the film is a blast.
VERONICA CHAMBERS
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'The Dreamlife of Angels'
(4/13/99)
Directed by Erick Zonca
Starring Elodie Bouchez, Natacha Regnier
As graceful as its title, Erick Zonca's "The Dreamlife of Angels" (in French with English subtitles) is a tale of two young women adrift in the world. Isa (Elodie Bouchez) is a sensitive wanderer who ends up in a garment factory in Lille. There she meets the tough-as-nails Marie (Natacha Regnier) who grudgingly offers her a place to stay. The two girls camp out in the apartment of a family who have died in a car crash; only their daughter survives and she is in a coma in the local hospital. The girls hang out, lose their jobs, try to get new one, hook up with a couple of bouncers at a concert, and live through all the day-to-day events that weave together the threads of a relationship. Then the fabric unravels. Marie, whose flinty exterior protects an almost unbearable vulnerability, gets involved with a ruthless local playboy (a consistently unsympathetic Gregoire Colin). It is an ordinary tale of falling for the wrong guy, but the treatment is extraordinary: Regnier and Zonca show us Marie's desperate neediness and deliberate self-deception in painful close-up. Both the process and the outcome are as heartbreaking as anything in recent cinematic history.
Meanwhile Isa starts to read the comatose girl's diary and visit her in the hospital. It seems too pat to say that Isa learns of the fragility of life and the importance of human connections; more aptly, it is we who learn those lessons though her actions. As Isa, Boucher is a rare amalgam of innocence, wisdom, strength and vulnerability all tempered with a welcome sense of humor. Her quirky features and toothy grin radiate a sweetness and light that give her the face of a saint, indeed one wonders how Luc Besson could have avoided giving her the leading role in his upcoming version of Joan of Arc. Yet at the same time she really is just another girl, perhaps somewhat nicer and more impressionable than most, bumming around France, making friends and moving on when the time comes. The last shot of the film says it best: the camera pans from a close-up of Isa, at work in another anonymous factory, to a series of close-ups of her new and unknown work companions. For two hours we have been involved in the intricacies of Isa and Marie's tale only to realize that it could be anybody's story, that behind every face in that factory lies another "dreamlife" as complex and moving.
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
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'Dream With the Fishes' (6/30/97)
Directed by Finn Taylor
Starring David Arquette, Brad Hunt
Finn Taylor's "Dream With the Fishes" has all the required elements of a deathbed tearjerker—a dying man who teaches those around him how to live—but the blackly comic premise of the film saves it from being maudlin. Terry (David Arquette), an uptight accountant type, wants to commit suicide, but can't. Then he runs into the charismatic but terminally ill Nick (Brad Hunt), who makes a proposal. He will help Terry kill himself, if Terry in turn will help Nick live out his unrealized fantasies during his last couple of weeks of life. Together they experiment with living life on the edge, but one of the strengths of the movie is that these experiences are realistically mundane. The fact that they are ordinary guys, with ordinary fantasies, and an ordinary income to support them is what produces the realism and ultimate poignancy of the story. (on video)
ANDRÉA C. BASORA
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'Dreaming of Joseph Lees' (11/5/99)
Starring Samantha Morton, Lee Ross, Rupert Graves
Directed by Eric Styles
"Dreaming of Joseph Lees" is an engrossing, superbly acted film that will haunt the viewer's thoughts long after the film is over. The film, set in 1958 England, is the story of Eva, a sensitive, quietly passionate young English woman (the riveting Samantha Morton), whose dreams extend well beyond the confines of her town and her era. When she is wooed by Harry (Lee Ross), a persistent, but provincial pig farmer, she daringly moves in with him. But she still fantasizes about her distant cousin Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves), whom she hasn't seen since she was a schoolgirl. Joseph is a well-traveled geologist who lost his leg in a quarry accident, and when they meet again at a family wedding, their mutual attraction and natural compatibility draws them closer together until Eva finally leaves Harry, who goes nearly mad with grief. The characters are so convincingly depicted that the viewer can relate to both Harry's obsessive dependence on Eva and Eva's decision to leave him for Joseph. At the center of a strong cast, Morton plays Eva with such a perfect balance of dreaminess and pragmatism that the audience is nearly crushed with the burden of her dilemma.
LAURA SHIN
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'Drop Dead Gorgeous' (7/23/99)
Directed by Michael Patrick Jann
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley
The pinnacle of faux documentary was "Waiting for Guffman," Christopher Guest's story of a community theater group putting on a show in the local gym. Gut-bustingly funny, it was also affecting and sad: Guest and co-writer Eugene Levy cared about the pathetic characters and their pathetic lives. "Drop Dead Gorgeous," ostensibly a documentary about a beauty pageant in Mount Rose, Minnesota, owes much to "Guffman"—and even more to films like "Heathers"and "Fargo" as well as real-life dramas, such as the story of the Texas mother who tried to kill her daughter's cheerleading rival and various interviews with Patsy Ramsey. "Gorgeous," while often funny, is one of the meanest films in years. The film centers on two contestants, Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst) and Becky Leeman (Denise Richards). Leeman's mother, Gladys (Kirstie Alley, worse than ever) is the pageant's organizer, a rich civic booster with a crazed desire to have her bitchy daughter win the contest. Amber, however, is a perfect contestant. Though white trash, she's beautiful, smart, and genuine. Her real talent? She practices her tap dancing while fixing the make-up on dead bodies at the local funeral home. But someone is trying to kill her, at one point blowing up Amber's trailer and melting a beer can into the hand of her mother (a drunken, hilarious Ellen Barkin). As the pageant progresses, wacky things happen, often at the expense of poor white people, Japanese-Americans, lesbians, and anorexia patients. You laugh and then you feel bad that you're laughing. But unlike "South Park," the crude humor in "Drop Dead Gorgeous" does not have a moral point to it. It's just crude.
TED GIDEONSE
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'Drowning Mona' (3/3/00)
Directed by Nick Gomez
Starring Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, and Jamie Lee Curtis
At the beginning of "Drowning Mona," Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) drives her Yugo off a cliff and splashes down in the Hudson River. Anyone who has ever seen the Hudson or any part of upstate New York knows that the movie has been filmed somewhere else, quite obviously Southern California. The yellow grass and stunted trees give it away. It is a detail indicative of the problems that destroy this film. There's a "why bother?" quality to just about everything. It's too expensive to shoot in New York, so why bother re-setting the script in California? We hired great comic actors—Midler, Danny DeVito, and Jamie Lee Curtis—so why bother with good jokes? And sitting in the theater watching this crap, it's impossible not to wonder why one bothered to go at all.
"Drowning Mona" is a murder-mystery farce conceived as an Agatha Christie set in white-trash America. Mona, the town bitch, dies in the car she's driving after someone tampers with the brakes. Everyone in the cast has a motive and it's up to Police Chief Rash (DeVito) to fit it all together. As the mystery meanders to a shockingly nonsensical and bland conclusion, the only joy is in the strange details director Nick Gomez and writer Peter Steinfeld throw into the mix: Mona's pathetic husband, Phil plays the Wheel of Fortune board game with the local waitress, Rona, as foreplay, there's a Coke machine in the funeral home, and Chief Rash is a nut for musical theater. But for every good detail, there are three bummers. As dumb as the film is, the actors escape relatively unscathed. Even Midler, who has made some disastrous choices recently ("Isn't She Great?"), pulls off a few moments of brilliance as the truly evil Mona—she luckily doesn't bother to give us a reason to feel sorry for her.
TED GIDEONSE
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'Dude, Where’s My Car?' (12/21/00)
Directed by Danny Leiner
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott
It seems almost redundant and perhaps even a bit unfair to harp on the fact that “Dude, Where’s My Car?” isn’t exactly an exercise in intellectualism.
The title lets you know immediately that you’re in for a comedy in the vein of “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “Wayne’s World” that’s aimed at prepubescent boys and the occasional girl unlucky enough to be there on a date.
In addition to leaving no doubt as to what sort of cinematic experience audiences can expect, the title also serves as shorthand for describing the plot.
Roommates Jesse (Ashton Kutcher of TV’s “That ’70s Show”) and Chester (Seann William Scott from “American Pie”) wake up one morning with no memory of the preceding night. First the boys stumble upon a lifetime supply of chocolate pudding in their kitchen—though why and how it got there is a mystery to them. Then comes an irate call from their twin girlfriends (Marla Sokoloff and Jennifer Garner) who are steamed because Jesse and Chester trashed their house. When the two step outside and discover that Jesse’s wheels are missing, they realize they must retrace their steps from the previous evening.
A wacky series of vignettes ensue as the boys attempt to put it all together. Much of what transpires here is pure male fantasy. They run into sexy Christie Boner (Kristy Swanson), who had never noticed either of them before, and she gushes about what a good time she had with Jesse in the back seat of his car. Jesse doesn’t remember, but rather than being offended, she puts his hand on her breast to jog his memory. Next they find a matchbook which leads them to a strip club where everybody knows their name and the strippers perform a special impromptu wet T-shirt dance for them free of charge.
Meanwhile, Jesse and Chester keep getting approached by different groups of wackos who insist the two have a device called a “continuum transfunctioner” that belongs to them. (Don’t ask.) But even that has its upside, because among the people interested in the transfunctioner are a bunch of babes from another planet, who offer the boys “erotic pleasure” in exchange for the gadget.
For the most part, the asinine plot is harmless fun, except when the film gets bogged down by rampant sexism. But it’s hard to take any of the infractions too seriously, especially when the film is so good-natured. This is due in large part to Kutcher and Scott, who make their characters far more appealing than they have any right to be. That these actors can still elicit laughs the 50th time the words “dude” or “sweet” come out of their mouths is a tribute to their comic abilities.
Catch this one on pay-per-view in a few months and you might even enjoy it. But see it in theaters now, and you run the risk of being plagued afterward by the question: “Dude, where’s my $9.50?”
LEAH REISMAN
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'Dungeons & Dragons' (12/8/00)
Directed by Courtney Solomon
Starring Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch, Justin Whaley
Here's the pitch: take a director who's never actually completed a feature film, add a cast of mostly unknown actors and base your screenplay on a best-selling fantasy, role-playing game that many American males around age 30 may associate with puberty.Does this sound like this Christmas season's surprise box-office hit or the cinematic equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle? Certainly, New Line Cinema and the optimistic creators of "Dungeons & Dragons" are hoping for the former. Unfortunately, this ogre of a movie may thwart their holiday wishes.
When we enter the lair of "Dungeons & Dragons," we learn that the land of Izmer is on the brink of civil war, with the evil sorcerer Profion (Jeremy Irons) poised to seize power from the nubile Empress Savina (Thora Birch).
Soon a ragtag group of adventurers led by the virtuous thief Ridley Freeborn (Justin Whaley) takes up a quest to keep the realm safe for all human-, elf- and dwarfkind. Will they be able to retrieve the necessary magic wand in time while avoiding the many perils of Izmer and Profion's minions? With a plot this thin, the answer is obvious.
Though director Courtney Solomon has a real affinity for his subject matter, you would think that his eyes were closed for the majority of the actual filming of "D&D" given the flatness of the final product. Furthermore, his movie is so derivative of predecessors such as "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that one keeps expecting a dancing Ewok to jump out from behind a tree stump at any moment. Marlon Wayans tries to bring comic relief to "D&D" as the hapless thief Snails, but sadly most of his gags are so stale they make Bob Saget look like a comic genius.
Finally, the movie commits the cardinal sin of mixing fantasy with social commentary by hitching a class struggle between the commoners and the highfalutin wizards. It's pretty much a given that one is going to witness some sort of clash of good and evil in any work of fantasy, but do the theories of Karl Marx really belong in Merlin's spell book? In its favor, "D&D" does have some dizzying special effects and moves at a good clip. But it's a good bet that one is going to hear a lot of grumbling about the movie at the next Dungeon Masters Convention.
Jeremy Hinsdale
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