MOVIE REVIEWS
• Amores Perros (2001). Nominated for the best foreign language film at the last Academy Awards, this Mexican movie is a fascinating -- and long -- view on the inextricable link between random chance (i.e. fate) and paths that ultimately lead nowhere (i.e. loss). The movie is structured around three independent plot lines (a young man and his dog, a supermodel, and a former guerilla fighter in search of...well, you'll see) that come together right at the beginning of the movie in one auto accident that pretty much changes the lives of all involved. Although sometimes a little too labored, it is, ultimately, a very powerful movie that ends with a quote that, for those who have felt loss recently, will make you choke up for a second. The movie has a website here. (And by the way, it has a great soundtrack).
• Planet of the Apes (2001). Arright, arright, everybody just settle down. We've all been waitin' for this for months, we're all excited, we can't wait to get our tickets, and YES, it'll be a blast. I have nothing to say about it since I haven't seen it, except to ask my readers to confirm or deny whether NRA maniac Charlton Heston actually makes an appearance in this or not. Does anybody know? It might make the difference for me.
• Moulin Rouge (2001). With such low expectations, I was pleasantly shocked. The first 45 minutes of the movie just simply takes off, and is a fantastic spectacle of anachronistic pop babble. Ya get "Smells Like Teen Spirit" mixed in with "Diamond Dogs" and "Heroes" and all sorts of music that I only vaguely remember. Its production ethos is over-the-top, and for two hours, the screen jumps out in the most vivid of colors and sounds. The movie -- about love as we've always imagined it to be at our most romantic -- is played by stage actors unable to control their most gratuitous theatrical impulses, written by screenwriters who outdid themselves in search of the inside joke, and executed by a director who probably doesn't know what subtlety means. In other words, it's as brilliant as anything that makes fun of itself could possibly be. But that's also a limitation. Too much self-reference, too much irony, too much tongue stuck in the cheek and you fall under your own weight. It becomes as predictable as the Titanic. However, predictability is not the issue here. And indeed predictability is a small price to pay for my favorite moment, when the protagonist, ex-Trainspotter Ewan McGregor, tries to convince the object of his affections (no less than Nicole Kidman) that love is important. Why is love important? Because love is like oxygen. Furthermore, love lifts us up where we belong. Stunning, One of the best movies of the year -- and one that you'll forget as soon as you leave the theater. To see a trailer for the movie, go here.