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Film Clips
MAY 24, 1999:
 ELECTION. I've never really agreed with universal participatory
democracy, because so much of the electorate is ill-informed and
their votes are easily manipulated by demagogues and heartlessly
ambitious power-mongers. (That's why I just let Tucson Weekly
editor Jim Nintzel pick my votes for me...he's well informed and
has no ambition. I call it Nintzelocracy.) Commenting on this,
Election takes all the worst traits of American politics
and squeezes them into a high school full of immature teens, which
is pretty much what American politics looks like to the rest of
the world anyway. Director Alexander Payne's sharp eye for satire
makes Election the funniest, and one of the smartest, films
so far this year. --DiGiovanna
EXISTENZ. This may be Cronenberg's best film, and makes
up for his misfire on Crash. The story involves a virtual-reality
video game, wherein the players play a virtual-reality video game,
wherein the players play a virtual-reality video game. Take that,
Will Shakespeare, with your little play-within-a-play motif! All
the technology in this surreal sci-fi is fleshy, like the video
game consoles that are made of organic parts from mutated amphibians,
and the anus-like "ports" in the player's spines through
which they jack into the games, and a gun made of frog parts that
shoots human teeth. Then there's the most disgusting lunch buffet
ever filmed. And some bizarre and compelling dialogue, with weird
and chilling performances that mesh neatly with the story's inherent
lost reality. eXistenZ is sexy, slimy and so refreshingly
creative that it's ultimately like nothing you've ever seen. Its
97 minutes zip by so fast you'll want to see it again just to
make sure it was real. --DiGiovanna
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Local punk rock star Greg Petix
told me that there's always one woman whom you cannot openly admire
without pissing off every other woman in the country. Currently,
that woman is Calista Flockhart, who I must say, turns in a fabulous
performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has a clear
mastery of the language, and is the only actor in the production
who emphasizes the iambic pentameter without sounding artificial.
Kevin Kline is also outstanding, as are Stanley Tucci as Puck
and Rupert Evert as Oberon. Unfortunately, Michelle Pfeiffer as
Titania sounds like a non-native speaker attempting to phonetically
sound-out the script; but there are enough strong performances
here to make her insignificant. This is good stuff for Shakespeare
lovers, but the difficult dialogue may be off-putting to those
who prefer Shakespeare in Love to the real material.
--DiGiovanna
THE MUMMY. When the female lead spouts dialogue like "we've
lost everything...our tools, our horses, and all of my clothes!"
you know you're watching a classy film. The Mummy is the
story of Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian priest who gives his life
for love. Three thousand years later, he's accidentally resurrected
by capitalist/colonialist grave robbers Brendan Fraser and Rachel
Weisz. In spite of the fact that Imhotep is the only character
in the film who stands for anything besides plundering the treasures
of other cultures, he's supposed to be the villain. Me, I just
wanted him to kill Weisz, Fraser and their entire posse of white-ass
imperialist war criminals. Bonus: this movie contains the most
stupid and offensive stereotypes of Arabs that I've seen in a
Hollywood film in the last 25 years, which can be considered quite
an accomplishment given Tinsel Town's insensitivity on this subject.
I'd rather you threw your $7.50 in the sewer than spent it on
this racist and predictable pabulum. --DiGiovanna
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