THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (Andrew Wagner) *1/2
Couldn't even remember how much I'd liked Wagner's first film -- quasi-documentary The Talent Given Us (answer: **) -- and his follow-up, a flavorless foray into narrative filmmaking, is sure to vanish from mind's eye just as fast. Yet another InDigEnt production where the poverty extends well past budget and into the creative contributions of almost all involved; Wagner's inept integration of a Lili Taylor-based subplot -- straight out of a sitcom -- is particularly embarrassing. Between this and The Return of Jezebel James' pilot, the question must be posed: When did Lauren Ambrose morph into such a bad actress?
THE MOTHER OF TEARS (Dario Argento) *1/2
A shame to see such an invigoratingly flamboyant sensibility wasted on such a relentlessly idiotic script. The camera ogling Asia's ripe sexiness and characters being disemboweled, then strangled with their innards, only get you so far. (Though hilarious Gregorian chants of "Murder!" overwhelming the soundtrack at random do get you a little farther still.)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
THE BRAVE ONE (Neil Jordan) *
A shame to see Philippe Rousselot's sumptuous evocation of New York City wasted on such a relentlessly idiotic script. There's a trace that Jordan is conflicted about bloodlust, but it's buried beneath atrocious plotting and characters behaving completely out of turn. If directors like Mike Figgis and Jordan are going to enter the studio gates, can't they at least choose halfway decent material? Those vaults are deep.
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Hou Hsiao-hsien) *
The freedom of youth (you get to play video games and watch red balloons drift around town) squares off against the messy realities of adulthood (you have to haggle endlessly to make tenants pay their rent). I liked watching the titular balloon's elegiac flight. I grew weary of watching Juliette Binoche haggle endlessly. Could've been a short.
CAPTAIN MIKE ACROSS AMERICA (Michael Moore) *1/2
[Digital projection]
On one hand, a self-portrait so revoltingly hagiographic it'd make Vincent Gallo blush. On the other, an admittance -- albeit nearly tacit -- that Moore's heroic quest to knock George W. Bush out of office (the "Slacker Uprising Tour") was a catastrophic failure. But Moore is way too egotistical to explore how troubling his ostensible crowd-pleaser is: If all the youthful energy, optimism and goodwill on screen here couldn't bring America to its senses, what ever can?
THE VISITOR (Tom McCarthy) **
A modest, schematic pleasure until it progressively pisses away most of its credit. Leaves no doubt that superb character actor Richard Jenkins -- front and center in The Visitor's every frame -- can hold a film in his quietly desperate throes, but the alliance between character study and pro-immigration screed grows uneasy as it becomes clear McCarthy has nothing of note to say about the latter and -- past a point -- no fresh ideas on how to deepen the former.
