SCI-FI ACTION
Yoda may be the most diminutive character in the Star Wars universe, but the elfin font of wisdom towers over friends and foe in this latest and final chapter of director-writer George Lucas's six-part series. Improve significantly the movie does when the backwards-talking, wrinkly green Jedi Master (again voiced by Frank Oz) finally shows up in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. Funnier, and more lively, Yoda this film makes.
The good news is that Sith is an improvement over Episode II—Attack of the Clones, which with its moony teenage lovers (Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Portman as Queen Padmé) played like Dawson's Creek on the Planet Naboo. Still, Sith's first half proves tough sledding. It's filled with clunky dialogue (always a weak point with Lucas) and convoluted political maneuvering between warring factions within the Empire. It's like watching a C-Span channel broadcasting from a far-off galaxy.
Fortunately Yoda rides to the rescue, his light saber abuzz, and Sith begins delivering on its mission: serving up the backstory that will propel the later episodes (starting with 1977's Star Wars). Heroic Anakin must transform into evil Darth Vader, and his twins, Luke and Princess Leia, must be born. Given how deeply inculcated in the culture the Star Wars saga has become, as these gotta-happen plot points occur, they resound with mythic resonance and give audiences the satisfaction of fitting in the final pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle. As for acting, well, the special effects are the show here. Christensen and Portman, both effective performers outside Star Wars, are stiff, with Christensen in particular coming off as Darth Zombie. (PG-13)
Stellan Skarsgård, Billy Crawford, Clara Bellar
HORROR
This prequel explains a key 1940s incident in the life of Lankester Merrin, the priest who dies in The Exorcist fighting Satan over the soul of a possessed girl. Paul Schrader completed shooting Dominion in 2003, but producers decided his footage wasn't scary, sacked him and hired action director Renny Harlin to do a new version with juicier gore, including a kid gobbled up like gingerbread by hyenas. Cool! Harlin's film, released last summer, didn't interest critics or audiences. Now Schrader's is getting a limited release.
Set in Africa, with Father Merrin on an archaeological dig into a mysteriously buried church, it's a strange movie but definitely the better one—dramatically and visually spare, with an emphasis less on shock than on arrestingly surreal images (the best: a deranged woman beneath a sky streaked by an aurora borealis). Yes, it's arguably less frightening than an Exorcist movie should be. One doesn't expect a demonically possessed boy to look like a young Buddha and levitate in the lotus position, as happens here. But Schrader's movies (Affliction, Auto Focus) are always more about mining psychological tension than raising people's goose bumps: That's the deal you make with this particular devil. (R)
Crash
Don't miss this heart-wrenching look at problems caused by urbanites making snap judgments based on skin color or accent. An ensemble drama featuring overlapping story lines, the film boasts an impressive cast, including Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard and Matt Dillon. (R)
Layer Cake
A stylish British crime thriller follows a nervy London cocaine dealer (Daniel Craig) as he tries to make one last score before retiring. Highly entertaining. (R)
Kingdom of Heaven
Dusty and dull. Only the fierce battle scenes prove exciting in a tepid, striving-to-be-politically-correct epic set during the Crusades. A milquetoast Orlando Bloom stars. (R)
SPOTLIGHT ON: THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL At Cannes, the complaints are always the same: long lines, overpriced restaurants and mediocre movies. But every now and then, a knockout film stops the kvetching. Leah Rozen samples some of this year's offerings.
A History of Violence: Canadian director David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers) scores mightily with History, a superb thriller starring Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello. Tightly constructed and beautifully acted, it's about a small-town diner owner who may have a hidden past. It opens in the U.S. Sept. 30.
Match Point: Just when most critics (moi aussi) had written off Woody Allen as having nothing left to say, the writer-director turns in a beaut: the witty drama Match Point. It's about a ruthless London social climber (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who two-times his socialite wife (Emily Mortimer). Scarlett Johansson plays an American actress.
Last Days: A self-indulgent bore. Director Gus Van Sant's dramatically inert look at the final days of a Kurt Cobain-like rocker features numbingly long takes of star Michael Pitt (The Dreamers) stumbling about and mumbling incoherently.
Broken Flowers: Bill Murray continues his onscreen exploration of middle-age melancholia in an enjoyable road movie from director-writer Jim Jarmusch. Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Frances Conroy appear as his ex-girlfriends. Opens Aug. 5.
Factotum: Matt Dillon buoys his mid-career renaissance with a strong turn as a down-and-out writer based on cult author Charles Bukowski.
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen,
- Tom Gliatto.
CELINE’S INFERTILITY STRUGGLE: MY PRIVATE HEARTBREAK
Daily injections, painful tests and four failed IVF attempts: The singer, 41, reveal her dreams for a second baby. ‘I’ll try until it works’
