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Film Clips
JUNE 14, 1999:
 AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME. In the '60s, the
television show Laugh-In pioneered the idea that if there
were 20 gags in a minute, only one in four had to be funny for
the audience to stay entertained. Austin Powers slavishly
follows this formula, even going so far as to have the characters
wince shamefacedly into the camera after the lamest jokes. The
best part of this '60s spy-spoof is Heather Graham's bizarre "I
can't believe I'm doing this" performance as Austin's sidekick,
Felicity Shagwell. She seems like someone who just won a "you
can be in a movie" contest, and her inappropriate giggles
and smiles during "tense" scenes are the perfect complement
to the ridiculous plot, sets and characters. --James DiGiovanna
THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS. The structuring device of this
French film is not a narrative but a location. The apartment that
young transients Isa and Marie share is the site of the beginning
and end of their relationship; it serves as their protection from
the patriarchal world they have difficulty navigating, and rejects
them when that realm is invited inside. Focusing on mundane events
such as job hunting and dish washing proves effective in revealing
well-rounded protagonists and the friendship that thrives within
the safe haven they've found. In stark contrast, the male characters
are merely devices to portray these women. Unfortunately, the
film's second half is dominated by Marie's dramatic and unbelievable
emotional shift, as she enters a simplistically vile relationship
and follows it to a clichéd conclusion.
--Polly Higgins
INSTINCT. After The Matrix and The Phantom Menace,
I thought we'd have a dearth of "chosen one" references,
but Disney keeps the trend alive by offering Cuba Gooding Jr.
as its savior of the month. How exciting that men keep choosing
men--this time, the smitten one is Anthony Hopkins. He plays Ethan
Powell, an anthropologist who communes with gorillas for a couple
of years until he is jailed in Rwanda for killing three men. When
he's transferred to a psychiatric penitentiary in the United States,
Theo (Gooding) is the doctor who attempts to discover Ethan's
motives and understand how he was accepted into a simian family.
The blossoming doctor-patient relationship is dialogue heavy and
relatively free of tension as Ethan recalls his jungle days and
teaches Theo "how to live." Most of the trips outside
of the prison are disjointed, as Theo visits either his reality-based
mentor Ben (Donald Sutherland), or Lyn (Maura Tierney), Ethan's
heterosexually recuperative daughter. According to the musical
score, every scene contains a highly dramatic moment, so be prepared
to laugh, cry and cheer as Ethan sits down, Theo pours a cup of
coffee and a gorilla grooms itself.--Polly Higgins
OPEN YOUR EYES. A sterilized-looking Madrid is the backdrop
for this incredibly smart and challenging Spanish film investigating--you
guessed it--virtual reality, body modification and immortality.
As César (Eduardo Noriega) recounts stories of lovers,
a disfiguring car crash and numerous plastic surgeries to a psychiatrist,
his credibility is consistently undermined as reality is embedded
in dreams which are in turn enveloped in nightmare. This engaging
phenomenological tale is ostensibly guided by César, but
he is plagued by a seemingly benevolent yet mysterious man who
heads a cryogenics company. The protagonist dons a mask for much
of the movie, raising issues of authenticity as well as self-image
in contemporary Western culture. As the narrative layers are revealed
and recovered, the characters are repeatedly duped; best of all,
so are the viewers. --Polly Higgins
THREE SEASONS. Extremely beautiful cinematography doesn't
quite make up for the trite stories in this Saigon-slice-of-life
piece. A young woman who begins work at a lotus-blossom farm,
a bicycle-taxi driver and a
10-year-old street urchin all encounter compelling others in the
streets of modern Vietnam. Harvey Keitel does a long vanity bit
about a former Marine searching for his daughter, and there's
a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold piece, but the show stealer is the
story of the flower girl. Serene shots of lakes filled with blossoms
and the women who row out to pick them make this a relaxing, if
not entirely engaging, effort. --James DiGiovanna
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