- Paris, 21 January:
 Bunny Godillot's feature directing debut Riches, belles, etc. concerns a little girl, Rose, who, alone in a big hotel during her rich and famous mother's absence, tries to understand what being a woman means by interviewing various women. Godillot's large cast includes herself (billed as Bunny Schpoliansky), Anouk Aimée, Marisa Berenson, Alexandra Kamp, Claudia Cardinale, and many other talented French actresses.
- Park Cities, 24 January: Marc Levin's Slam won the Grand Jury Prize for features at this year's Sundance Film Festival of independent films. The documentary Grand Jury Prize was shared by The Farm: Angola U.S.A., by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus, and Frat House, by Todd Phillips. Andrea Hart won a Special Jury Prize for her performance in Miss Monday. Filmmakers Trophies went to Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals (dramatic), which also won the Audience Award, and Steve Yeager's Divine Trash (documentary). Directors Awards were presented to Julia Loktey for her Moment of Impact (documentary) and Darren Aronofsky for his Pi (dramatic). Jeffrey Dupre's Out of the Past won the Audience Award for documentaries. Penelope Spheeris won the festival's Freedom of Expression Award for her The Decline of Western Civilization Part III. And, the festival presented its Tribute to Independent Vision Award to actress Frances McDormand.
 - Los Angeles, 30 January: The key ingredient in Great Expectations, a modern-day version of Charles Dickens' classic, is director Alfonso Cuarón, who made the glowing, estimable A Little Princess (1995). If you saw that (and you should), understand that Expectations has those ingredients (great sense of time, place, and timing) but adds modern music and sex appeal; the latter personified by the long-legged Gwyneth Paltrow. Finnegan Bell (Ethan Hawke as an adult, Jeremy James Kissner at age 10) is the new version of Dickens's Pip. He's a child wise beyond his years, befriending an escaped convict (Robert De Niro) in the warm waters of Florida's Gulf Coast. Finn is also the plaything for Estella (Paltrow as an adult, Raquel Beaudene at age 10), the niece of the coast's richest and most eccentric lady, Ms. Dinsmoor (a fun and flamboyant Anne Bancroft). The prudish Estella likes Finn but has been brought up to disdain men; she'll break hearts. As the object of Finn's desires, Estella unfortunately is a one-dimensional character, yet what a dimension! She and Hawke make a very sexy couple.
Mitch Glazer's script does better by Finn. He's a blue-collar worker with a gift for drawing. Following his Uncle Joe's (Chris Cooper) honest ways, Finn grows up as a fisherman, thoughts of Estella and art drifting away in the hard work. When a mysterious benefactor allows him to follow his dream, Finn finds himself in New York, preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime art exhibit -- and in the arms of the engaged Estella.
Filled with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's golden-drenched light, the film has an irresistible, wildly romantic look. Dinsmoor's place is certainly gothic, Estella and Finn's longing encounters glamorous. Cuarón uses an MTV-friendly soundtrack with a confident touch. Songs by Tori Amos and the band Pulp -- along with Patrick Doyle's silky score -- create passionate scenes. It all ends far too swiftly with a seemingly tacked-on ending (reflecting the book, as it happens) but the film is splendid storytelling. It's a stylish, sweet valentine. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
- New York, 13 February:
 From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton comes Sphere, an equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement out of material that doesn't match their talents. You're supposed to find awe and mystery in Crichton's story about a team of scientists and scholars who discover a 300-year-old alien spacecraft deep on the ocean floor, but mostly you feel that this is all much ado about nothing. The exploration team consists of a psychologist (Dustin Hoffman), mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), biochemist (Sharon Stone), and an astrophysicist (Liev Schreiber), and when they enter the alien ship they discover a mysterious sphere inside. What they don't know is that the sphere has the power to manipulate their thoughts and perceptions, and before long the scientists' undersea habitat is a veritable haunted house of frightening visions and creeping paranoia. Who can be trusted? What is the sphere's purpose, and why is it on the ocean floor? Sphere makes some attempt to answer these questions, but the film is a mess, and it leads to one of the most anticlimactic endings of any science fiction film ever made. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense, and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production delay), and as a result Sphere looks and feels like a film that wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of time, it's undeniably disappointing. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 20 February: Although it will probably be ignored during what will be a brief theatrical release, Dangerous Beauty, a sumptuously seductive production, is that rarest of cinematic breeds: the (barely) respectable guilty pleasure. Combining historical fact with hysterical anachronisms of language and mannerism, it's been tailored for maximum contemporary appeal but maintains a lush, romantic feel for its factual 16th-century tale of Venetian love, lust, and political repression. Catherine McCormack (Mel Gibson's ill-fated bride in Braveheart) delivers a star-making performance as the "dangerous beauty" who becomes a skillful courtesan to pursue her forbidden love for a dashing Venetian senator (Rufus Sewell). It's all rather silly in a high-toned fashion, and the film turns dour when the church intervenes with a Scarlet Letter-like papal inquest. But the movie's joyously ribald vitality is utterly irresistible, and the casting of McCormack with Jaqueline Bisset (as her mother and courtesan mentor) is a stroke of pure genius. Merchant-Ivory would've made a smarter film from this material, but it probably wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- Paris, 4 March:
 The title alone of Marie Baie des Anges by Manuel Pradal instantly conjures memories of Jacques Demy's 1963 La Baie des anges (Bay of Angels), a free-spirited ode to the loveliness of youth set against the sunny Riviera. Pradal's film also deals with young people in the same locale, but the tone is entirely different. Marie (Vahina Giocante), a 14-year-old girl, divides her time between hanging out with kids her own age -- many of them homeless and all of them morally and emotionally adrift -- and flirting with American sailors. In time she becomes friends with a rootless boy, Orso (Frederic Malgras), with whom she steals a boat and has a brief, blissful paradise on an island, chasing around and playing jokes until the story takes an unhappy turn. Pradal is as determinedly unromantic about this most romantic of settings as Demy was celebratory. It's not that Marie Baie des Anges is oblivious to its surroundings but rather that Pradal approaches them rather statically, presenting colorful scenes in fixed tableaux and giving us few of the usual bearings about what matters most within the story. The film can be a little maddening, a little redundant, yet the Lord of the Flies-like culture of beached children is too haunting to ignore. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 6 March: Premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, the latest film from the Coen brothers, The Big Lebowski opens nationwide today. After the tight plotting and quirky intensity of Fargo, this casually amusing follow-up from the prolifically inventive Ethan and Joel Coen seems like a bit of a lark, and the result will probably be a box-office disappointment. The good news is, The Big Lebowski is every bit a Coen movie, and its lazy plot is part of its laidback charm. After all, how many movies can claim as their hero a pot-bellied, pot-smoking loser named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who spends most of his time bowling and getting stoned? And where else could you find a hairnetted Latino bowler named Jesus (John Turturro) who sports dazzling purple footgear, or an erotic artist (Julianne Moore) whose creativity consists of covering her naked body in paint, flying through the air in a leather harness, and splatting herself against a giant canvas? Who else but the Coens would think of showing you a camera view from inside the holes of a bowling ball, or an elaborate Busby Berkely-styled musical dream sequence involving a Viking goddess and giant bowling pins? The plot -- which finds Lebowski involved in a kidnapping scheme after he's mistaken for a rich guy with the same name -- is almost beside the point. What counts here is a steady cascade of hilarious dialogue, great work from Coen regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, and the kind of cinematic ingenuity that puts the Coens in a class all their own. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- New York, 20 March:
 Based on the novel by Anonymous (a.k.a. political reporter Joe Klein) and released when the Monica Lewinsky scandal is in full swing, Primary Colors might be a case of too much, too soon for many moviegoers, who prefer the real-life Clinton crisis over the movie's thinly disguised "Clintonesque" comedy. The general public feels that the film exploits the President's indiscretions, and as a result one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 1998 will probably prove to be a box-office disappointment. But when considered apart from the Clinton scandals and judged on its own considerable merits, this superb comedy-drama provides an illuminating, insightful, and frequently hilarious look at the harsh realities of presidential politics. John Travolta stars as Jack Stanton, a presidential hopeful whose campaign is challenged by dual dilemmas: how to squelch a scandal involving the candidate's alleged sex with an underage girl, and how to handle information that could potentially ruin Stanton's opponent (superbly played by Larry Hagman). Stanton's wife (Emma Thompson) stands by her man despite awareness of his infidelities, but his loyal campaign planners (played by Billy Bob Thornton, Maura Tierney, and promising newcomer Adrian Lester) experience a crisis of conscience. So does one of the Stantons' oldest friends (Kathy Bates), whose sense of betrayal and lost idealism proves too much to bear. Masterfully adapted by director Mike Nichols and his former-comedy-partner-turned-screenwriter, Elaine May, Primary Colors plays like a sophisticated comedy with loads of memorable scenes and dialogue, but it sneaks up on you with devastating dramatic impact. Anchored by Travolta's superb performance (which is reminiscent of Clinton without being a cheap impersonation), the movie presents a story of great moral complexity and leaves viewers to contemplate their own reactions to the volatile and ethically complicated game of modern politics. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 23 March: (AP)
 Titanic won a record-tying 11 Oscars® on Monday night, including Best Bicture, Director and Song, while Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt took top acting honours as the misanthropic writer and the waitress who softens his heart in As Good As It Gets. "My heart is full to bursting... I'm the king of the world!" crowed Titanic director James Cameron, quoting a line from the movie's hero, as he accepted his prize at the 70th annual Academy Awards. The $200 million disaster epic and all-time box-office champion tied the number of awards won by Ben-Hur in 1959. Cameron himself walked off with three of the prized statuettes for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing along with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris, and the movie also won awards for art direction, cinematography, sound, sound effects editing, dramatic score, song, costume and visual effects. The movie lost its chance to win a record 12 Oscars® when it fell short in three categories: Hunt beat Kate Winslet, Kim Basinger took supporting actress for L.A. Confidential over Gloria Stuart, and Men in Black claimed the makeup prize.
Titanic's nominations tied another record , the 14 for All About Eve in 1950. Titanic so dominated the evening that no other film won more than two awards. Three managed that many: As Good As It Gets, Good Will Hunting and L.A. Confidential. Nicholson, who has been nominated a record breaking 11 times, joins an elite group of only four performers to own three or more Oscars®. His others are as Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and Supporting Actor in Terms of Endearment in 1983. Katharine Hepburn has won four Academy Awards, and Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan each won three. Nicholson joked about suffering from doubts, given the virtual sweep by Titanic: "I had a sinking feeling all night, right up to here". Hunt, the only American in her category, competing against four British actresses, thanked her director, who was not even nominated. "I'm here for one reason and that's Jim Brooks, one single reason, and that's the only reason really," Hunt said, and added to Nicholson , "Jack, I worship you, you know it," prompting him to blow her a kiss from the audience. For once, the hyperactive Robin Williams was almost at a loss for words as he won the supporting actor award for playing the bereaved psychology professor who counsels a troubled young genius in Good Will Hunting. It was the first Oscar® win for the four-time nominee "Ah, man, this might be the one time I'm speechless," said Williams, known for his stream-of-consciousness humour. He then managed to thank many, many people, including his young co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, quipping: "I still want to see some ID". Affleck and Damon won the best original screenplay Oscar®, and Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson won the adapted screenplay award for L.A. Confidential. Basinger, the Veronica Lake look-alike/call girl in L.A. Confidential, beat out Titanic's Stuart, who was a sentimental favourite after coming out of retirement at age 87 to play a centenarian survivor of the shipwreck. This year's Oscar pageant was a celebration of comebacks, with a batch of nominees who had been largely forgotten, including Peter Fonda, Julie Christie, Robert Forster as well as Burt Reynolds and Stuart. The nostalgia theme extended to the ceremony's invitation list. The Academy invited every living winner of the acting awards and introduced each one on the stage. These introductions took the show to three hours and 45 minutes, about half an hour over schedule. The worldwide TV audience was projected at one billion. Ratings were expected to be up over last year's disappointing numbers, largely because of the monster draw of Titanic.
 - New York, 10 April: Mike Nichols directed the 1965 stage production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, but while Nichols went on to become a vitally intelligent director of contemporary comedy, Simon's career thrived in the 1970s and 80s before dwindling towards sentimental fluff like this amusing but mildly disappointing sequel. Closer to Grumpy Old Men than the wry wit of Simon's original play and 1968 screen adaptation, The Odd Couple II finds former roommates Oscar (Walter Matthau) and Felix (Jack Lemmon) reluctantly reuniting for the wedding of Oscar's son to Felix's daughter. When they get sidetracked in California, the road-movie formula unleashes the comedic chemistry of Lemmon and Matthau (which alone makes the movie worthwhile), but it's too casual to match the original's depth or dramatic foundation. Simon and Grumpy director Howard Deutch could have deepened the Oscar-Felix relationship to make it funnier and more emotionally involving, but instead they've played it safe with some good laughs in the kind of sketch comedy that Nichols would avoid. Simon's capable of much better than this, but Lemmon-Matthau fans will have a good time anyway. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- New York, 15 May:
 For director Robert Redford the trick was directing himself. The Oscar®-winning director (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) says that he is one kind of actor (in the moment) and a different kind of director (more controlling). Whatever the problems, Redford has worked it out beautifully in The Horse Whisperer, a leisurely paced adaptation of Nicholas Evans's bestseller. When the prized horse of New York magazine editor's (Kristin Scott Thomas) daughter suffers a horrible accident, she tracks down Tom Booker (Redford), a Montana horse healer who is known for working magic. Soon East Coast brashness meets Old West simplicity as the reluctant Annie takes her even more reluctant daughter (Scarlett Johansson) to Marlboro country. Booker's influence goes beyond the horse through healing the heart of daughter and mother. The 2-hour and 44-minute film is a beautiful travelogue of scene and sky (with a giant assist from Oliver Stone's usual cinematographer, Robert Richardson). Never complicated, the movie's rewards may be hidden in its length and Redford's tendency to introduce us to a way of life instead of focusing on a story. The major deviation from the end of Evans' novel is a welcomed change. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
 - Cannes, 24 May:
 The 51st Cannes Film Festival has concluded, and the winners have all been announced. This year's jury, presided over by American director Martin Scorsese, included other previous Oscar® nominees Lena Olin, Winona Ryder, Sigourney Weaver and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. They unanimously awarded the Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, to Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day), directed by Greece's Theo Angelopoulos, which concerns an old writer, who learns from his doctor that he is very sick and he is going to die the next day. Then, he meets a 10-year-old boy, who is an immigrant from Albania, and who works on the streets. He decides to spend his last day with the boy in an attempt to find love and understand the meaning of life... and time. The jury's Grand Prize went to Roberto Benigni's La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful). Jury Prizes were shared by La Classe de neige (Class Trip) and Festen (The Celebration) for features, and Gasman and Horseshoe for short films. Individual awards went to Peter Mullan, best actor for My Name Is Joe; Èlodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier, sharing best actress for La Vie rêvée des anges (The Dreamlife of Angels); John Boorman, best director for The General; and Hal Hartley, best screenplay for Henry Fool.
 - Los Angeles, 28 May: (Morbidly Hollywood) Emmy-winner Phil Hartman, the versatile, smooth-talking performer of "Saturday Night Live", and his wife Brynn are dead, the victims of an apparent murder-suicide, Los Angeles police said. Hartman is the second "SNL" alum to die in less than a year. An accidental drug overdose felled Chris Farley, 33, in December. In 1986, Hartman married his third wife, Brynn. The former model aspired to be an actress and screenwriter, but found herself relegated to the role of housewife and mother to their two children. Almost every one of Hartman's close friend's believed that Phil and Brynn were the perfect couple. They we always happy and seemed to gaze adoringly at one another. They led a low-key, non-celebrity type of life in their modest ranch style home in Encino. Brynn apparently did not feel safe there. She purchased several handguns and had them placed around their home. She believed that they needed protection from any crazy celebrity stalkers that might come after her husband and their kids. It is unknown whether Phil conceded to this armament. According to close friends of the couple, their dreamy existence slowly began to fade away. Brynn apparently became addicted to several type of prescription drugs, and also took Zoloft, an anti-depressant used to curb extreme emotions. She was also hooked on booze and loved the cocaine. Hartman eventually became frustrated with Brynn's addictive behavior and threatened to leave her several times. On the night of May 28, 1998 Brynn set out with a friend for a night of drinking Margaritas, snorting cocaine and popping Zoloft at the Buca di Bepo restaurant on Ventura Boulevard. Earlier that day, Phil had threatened to leave her for good and this did not sit well with her. She arrived back at their home at around 2:00 AM, entered the bedroom where she crept up beside her sleeping husband. She placed a gun very near his head and face and pulled the trigger several times striking him in the forehead, neck and forearm. Their two children were asleep elsewhere in the house. Brynn then calmly walked across the street to the home of her neighbor and friend, Ron Douglas. She confessed her crime to Douglas who comforted her for a while before they went back to her house to retrieve the children. At about 6:20 a.m., police responded to a 911 call that shots had been fired at the family's home in the suburban Encino section of Los Angeles, a house Hartman had dubbed "The Ponderosa." When they arrived, police found the Hartmans' children, unharmed in the house. As they were moving the second child out of the residence they knocked on the bedroom door where Brynn had barricaded herself in. Officers then heard a single shot. They entered the bedroom where the shot originated and found the bodies of the couple.
- Paris, 3 June:
 In Dieu seul me voit (Only God Sees Me), Denis Podalydès plays Albert, a slightly aging sound engineer who leads an almost normal and pleasant existence, except that he is always chronically hesitant. Giving someone directions in the street, going out for dinner, choosing a girlfriend... all become a source of indecision and endless questioning, and considerably complicate his relationships with other people. As soon as he develops deep feelings for someone, he is instantaneously ill. Poor Albert becomes entrapped in three romantic liaisons: In the country he meets Sophie (Isabelle Candelier), the nurse; back in Paris Corinne (Cécile Bouillot), the detective; and finally Anna (Jeanne Balibar), a disturbing and mysterious film director who has just finished a documentary. All three women seem to succumb to Albert's charm. But this is a little bit too much for him. Bruno Podalydès, who directed the film and co-wrote the script with his brother Denis, continues to be a French Woody Allen, and this charming comedy reminds one of Allen's work, just not so intellectual.
 - Los Angeles, 5 June: In Peter Weir's new film, The Truman Show, the whole world is watching -- literally -- every time Truman Burbank makes the slightest move. Unbeknownst to him, in this hauntingly funny film, his entire life has been an unending soap opera for consumption by the rest of the world. And everyone he knows -- including his mother, his wife, and his best friend -- is really an actor, paid to be part of his life. In this intriguing and surprisingly touching 1998 film, writer Andrew Niccol imagines an ultimate kind of celebrity, then sees it brought to life with comic intensity and emotional honesty by Jim Carrey in what may be the performance of his career. Carrey has exceptional support from Laura Linney and Ed Harris, but it's his show, in a portrayal that demonstrates just what kind of range Carrey is capable of. -- Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 17 June:
 Let loose the armchair film critics. The American Film Institute announced its highly subjective list of the Top 100 American movies of all time -- "100 Years... 100 Movies" -- last night. Now that the hype has passed, the scrutiny can begin. To celebrate American cinema's 100th birthday, AFI, which preserves movies and trains filmmakers, asked 1,500 critics, actors, directors, Industry types and high-profile fans (President Clinton, included) to pare down a roster of 400 flicks to find the best. When the results were announced Tuesday, the usual suspects finished on top. The best: Citizen Kane, Orson Welles' 1941 classic about a sled-missing publisher. That was followed by Michael Curtiz's WWII-backdropped love-triangle classic Casablanca (1943) at No. 2; the Francis Ford Coppola Mob-family opus The Godfather (1972), also a classic, charted at third. (His 1974 follow-up, The Godfather Part II was the only sequel on the list at No. 32.) Notice that word "classic" pops up four times, and it doesn't seem that repetitive. Heck, it also describes the rest of the Top 10: Gone With the Wind (1939), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Graduate (1967), On the Waterfront (1954), Schindler's List (1993) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) -- Daniel Frankel, E! Online (Use this link to see how the Top 100 films did at Oscar® time.)
- Copenhagen, 19 June:
 Rising to the challenge of Dogma 95's self-imposed restrictions on aesthetic freedom, Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (The Celebration) is a remarkable example of the way limits can give rise to creative opportunity. (Dogma 95 is a Danish filmmakers collective that also includes Lars von Trier. The group crafted a manifesto in which its members vow to eschew special lighting, optical effects, props, and the visible imprint of a director's personality in order to attain higher truths yielded by characters.) Festen, shot with a small video camera and transferred to 35mm film, concerns a black-tie birthday gathering for a family patriarch, Helge (Henning Moritzen), which erodes into a battle after long-suppressed secrets are revealed and the chance to settle old scores presents itself. Among the grievances are an accusation of incest and the responsibility for the death of a child -- gruesome stuff, but Vinterberg doesn't characterize the partying crowd's reaction in quite the way one might have expected. In fact, the whole of Festen is about unexpected perspectives and vantage points emerging from out of nowhere, largely due to Vinterberg's free hand at editing the film in such a way as to yank truth from every corner. This is a strong work that belies skepticism over Dogma 95's bare-bones trendiness, and is perhaps a harbinger of great work to come from Vinterberg. -- Tom Keogh
 - Los Angeles, 1 July: Armageddon, the latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay, continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster movies -- loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists -- the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth -- are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Clarke Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma to the cast of Hollywood regulars (Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Will Patton). When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly -- African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable females (Liv Tyler, Jessica Steen and Grace Zabriskie) -- four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? -- Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
- Paris, 8 July:
 Arthur Joffé is the writer and director of Que la lumière soit! (Let There Be Light!), a delightful and ambitious star-studded comedy about God's attempts to have a script He's written turned into a movie. The Supreme Being starts his quest in Hollywood but gets the bum's rush in the City of Angels so opts instead for the City of Lights. Once in Paris, God finds a producer, who has an, uh, devilish tendency to tamper with the script even though the Almighty Auteur protests that he knows his way around a gripping story line, having penned "the Bible... the best-selling book of all time!" Funny, touching and possessed of a luminous sheen and nifty special effects, Que la lumière soit! is one of the best French films nobody's ever seen. The cast is headed by Hélène de Fougerolles, and features Tchéky Karyo, Ticky Holgado and Pierre Arditi (as the Voice of God). Joffé spent eight years waiting to make his movie about God trying to make His movie. For five of those he was under exclusive contract to CiBy 2000 (a pun, in French, on director Cecil B. De Mille), the film-producing branch of gargantuan construction firm Bouygues. After trimming the budget by 20 million francs, CiBy 2000 finally said "yes" and the film was completed.
 - Los Angeles, 10 July: Winner of the Director's Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, Pi goes into general release today. Patterns exist everywhere: in nature, in science, in religion, in business. Max Cohen (played hauntingly by Sean Gullette) is a mathematician searching for these patterns in everything. Yet, he's not the only one, and everyone from Wall Street investors, looking to break the market, to Hasidic Jews, searching for the 216-digit number that reveals the true name of God, are trying to get their hands on Max. This dark, low-budget film was shot in black and white by director Darren Aronofsky. With eerie music, voice-overs, and overt symbolism enhancing the somber mood, Aronofsky has created a disturbing look at the world. Max is deeply paranoid, holed up in his apartment with his computer Euclid, obsessively studying chaos theory. Blinding headaches and hallucinogenic visions only feed his paranoia as he attempts to remain aloof from the world, venturing out only to meet his mentor, Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), who for some mysterious reason feels Max should take a break from his research. This movie is complex -- occasionally too complex -- but the psychological drama and the loose sci-fi elements make this a worthwhile, albeit consuming, watch. Pi cost only $60,000 to make, most of which was raised in the form of individual $100 contributions from the director's friends and family. When it was later bought by Artisan Entertainment, each contributor got back a $150 return on their investment. -- Jenny Brown, Amazon.com
- New York, 15 July:
 There's Something About Mary is one of the funniest movies in years, recalling the days of the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker movies (Airplane!, Top Secret!), in which (often tasteless) gags were piled on at a fierce rate. The difference is that cowriters and codirectors Bobby and Peter Farrelly have also crafted a credible story line and even tossed in some genuine emotional content. The Farrelly brothers' first two movies, Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin, had some moments of uproarious raunch, but were uneven. With Mary, they've created a consistently hilarious romantic comedy, made all the funnier by the fact that you know that they know that some of their gags go way over the line. Cameron Diaz stars as Mary, every guy's ideal. Ben Stiller plays a high-school suitor still hung up on Mary years later; the obstacles standing between him and her include a number of psychotic suitors, a miserable little pooch, and, oh yeah, a murder charge. -- David Kronke, Amazon.com
 - New York, 24 July: When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with Duel in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic -- and maybe the best -- war film ever. With today's production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost insurmountable odds. A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance. The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar®-winning Schindler's List, but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians -- Janusz Kaminski (cinematography) and Michael Kahn (editing), Gary Rydstrom (sound and sound effects editing) -- deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. Perhaps Saving Private Ryan touches us more deeply than Schindler because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
- Toronto, 19 September: This year's Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award went to Roberto Benigni's La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful). Todd Solondz's Happiness, with Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker and Lara Flynn Boyle, won the Metro Media Award. Robert Lepage's Nô was chosen Best Canadian Feature Film, and Don McKellar's Last Night was selected as the Best Canadian First Feature Film.
- Paris, 23 September:
 Like everything else, the secret of a good wine is in the timing: the timing of the grape-picking, the fermentation, the breathing. And the timing is just right in Conte d'automne (Autumn Tale), a luminous story set in the winemaking country of France; director Eric Rohmer, in his late 70s when the film was made, clearly waited until this particular bottle had reached the proper maturity. At the center of the film is the friendship between two gracefully middle-aged women: Vineyard owner Magali (Béatrice Romand), blunt and compact, is currently unattached. Isabelle (Marie Rivière), willowy and slightly ditzy, is married -- and would like to see Magali happily wed. A matchmaking scheme via the personal ads leads to a gentle, amusing, yet increasingly profound romantic confusion. At first glance, the film may seem like sun-dappled simplicity itself, but stick around for the final moments at the very tail of the end credits, and you'll appreciate the wise mingling of longing, satisfaction, and regret that have been percolating through the movie all along. Rohmer likes to make films in groups (the "Six Moral Tales" launched him onto the international film stage in the 1960s), and Conte d'automne rounds off a set devoted to the four seasons. The other films in the quartet are worthy enough, and Rohmer has the kind of adornment-free clarity that many great artists develop after a lifetime's worth of craft, but Conte d'automne is the best of the bunch: a warm, quiet masterpiece. -- Robert Horton, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 25 September: John Waters' latest film, Pecker, which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and premiered last week, opens nationwide today. Pecker (so named, at least according to his grandmother, because he always pecks at his food) loves to use the camera to capture his fellow Baltimore residents living their daily lives. Of course, since this is a Waters movie, those daily lives include visits to strip bars, shoplifting, and various other quirky, and frequently hilarious, human activities. When Pecker's makeshift photo exhibit comes to the attention of a New York art agent (Lili Taylor), Pecker becomes the latest sensation. Unlike the hero in most sudden-fame stories, however, Pecker, as played by Edward Furlong, isn't exactly an innocent; rather, he takes in the world with his eyes, and his mind, wide open. So instead of suffering a precipitous fall, Pecker eventually turns the tables on his more worldly New York peers. While not as outrageous as early Waters features such as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, Pecker still has something to offend just about everyone. But those who take the offenses to heart would be missing out on what amounts to a sweet-natured farce. The movie is not so much a pointed satire as a gentle teasing of the art world and its pretensions. The all-embracing world of John Waters allows for lovable freaks from the big city, too. The movie sags a bit when it settles into its plot; it can't sustain the comic inspiration reached in the opening scenes of Pecker's encounters with Baltimore's misfits. But running gags about a sugar-addicted child and a ventriloquist-doll Virgin Mary are hilarious. What ultimately makes the movie such a pleasure, though, is Waters' genuine fondness for all of his characters. Aided by a charming cast, including Christina Ricci and Waters regulars Mink Stole and Patty Hearst, Waters has created a surprisingly touching ode to human eccentricity. -- Chris Neman, Amazon.com
- New York, 2 October:
 Woody Allen as a worker ant with an inferiority complex? Sylvester Stallone as an affable soldier ant who discovers that digging tunnels is cool? The animation playground we all knew so well is turning into a theme park full of in-jokes for grownups. Antz, from Pacific Data Images and DreamWorks SKG, explores age-old topics (one person -- err, insect -- can make a difference, individuality and social responsibility must exist side by side, war is hell) with comic asides and Woody Allen's funniest quips this side of PG (adults will chuckle at the socialist slogans bandied about as he campaigns for workers' rights). Sharon Stone voices the rebellious princess with a fun-loving streak that doesn't quite overcome her royal bearing and court training, but she can learn. Gene Hackman is all teeth (ants have teeth?) and menacing grins as the Army general plotting insect-icide. This bug's-eye view of life on Earth gives Allen's neurotic nonconformist an epic adventure of microscopic proportions: a devastating war with a termite colony, an odyssey to the fabled land of plenty (a picnic ground), and a race to save his fellow workers from certain death. Other voices include Anne Bancroft as the Queen, Christopher Walken, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and John Mahoney. The computer animation isn't exactly realistic but feels as solid and contoured as puppet animation with the smoothness and slickness of traditional cel cartoons, and the character designs and animation offer a marvelous range of expressions. The PG rating includes a gritty battle sequence that may frighten youngsters. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
 - London, 2 October: Shown at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, Elizabeth premieres here today. Shekhar Kapur's film serves up a brimming goblet of religious tension, political conspiracy, sex, violence, and war. England in 1554 is in financial and religious turmoil as the ailing Queen "Bloody" Mary attempts to restore Catholicism as the national faith. She has no heir, and her greatest fear -- that her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth will assume the throne after her death -- is realized. Still, the late Queen Mary has her loyalists. The newly crowned Elizabeth finds herself knee-deep in dethroning schemes while also dodging assassination attempts. Her advisers (including Sir William Cecil, superbly played by Richard Attenborough) beg her to marry any one of her would-be suitors to stabilize England's empire. No matter that she already has a lover. The passionate Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes) is married, however, and shows he cannot stand up to the growing strength of the Queen. With the help of her aide Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth strikes against her enemies before they get to her first. But her rise ultimately entails rejecting love and marriage to redefine herself as the indisputable Virgin Queen. Cate Blanchettt's performance as the naïve and vibrant princess who becomes the stubborn and knowing queen is both severe and sympathetic. Her ethereal, pale beauty is equal parts fire and ice, her delivery of such lines as "There will be only one mistress here and no master!" expressed with command rather than hysterics. As striking as Blanchett's performance is the film's lavish and dramatic production design by John Myhre. The cold, dark sets paired with the lush costuming show the golden age of England's monarchy emerging from the Middle Ages. Rich velvet brushes over the dank stones while power is achieved at any price, and with such attention to physical detail, Elizabeth fully immerses you into its compelling chronicle of pioneering feminism and revisionist history. -- Shannon Gee, Amazon.com
- New York, 23 October:
 Roberto Benigni's La Vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful) -- released in his native Italy last year and highly regarded on the international festival circuit (Cannes, Montréal, Toronto, et al.) -- opens across America today. Benigni, Italy's rubber-faced funnyman, accomplishes the impossible in this World War II comedy: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. He plays the Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the heart of his sweetheart (Benigni's real-life sweetie, Nicoletta Braschi) and raises a darling son (the adorable Giorgio Cantarini) in the shadow of fascism. When the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win (of all things) a tank. Guido tirelessly maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son safe, secure, and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy -- he accomplishes feats no man could realistically pull off -- both of which have drawn fire from a few critics. Yet for all its wacky humor and inventive gags, La Vita è bella is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 23 October: Shown at the Toronto and Austin film festivals, Gary Ross' Pleasantville opens nationwide today. Ross, the fantastical writer of Big and Dave, makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two '90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of "Pleasantville," a "Leave It to Beaver"-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop, and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are forced to play along as Bud and Mary Sue, the obedient children of George and Betty Parker (William H. Macy and Joan Allen). Maguire, an obsessive "Pleasantville" devotee, understands the need for not toppling the natural balance of things; Witherspoon, on the other hand, starts shaking the town up, most notably when she takes football stud Skip (Paul Walker) up to Lover's Lane for some modern-day fun and games. Soon enough, Pleasantville's teens are discovering sex along with -- gasp! -- rock & roll, free thinking, and soul-changing Technicolor. Filled with delightful and shrewd details about sitcom life (no toilets, no double beds, only two streets in the town), Pleasantville is a joy to watch, not only for its comedy but for the groundbreaking visual effects and astonishing production design as the town gradually transforms from crisp black and white to glorious color. Ross does tip his hand a bit about halfway through the film, obscuring the movie's basic message of the unpredictability of life with overloaded and obvious symbolism, as the black-and-white denizens of the town gang up on the "coloreds" and impose rules of conduct to keep their strait-laced town laced up. Still, the characterizations from the phenomenal cast -- especially repressed housewife Allen and soda-shop owner Jeff Daniels, doing some of their best work ever -- will keep you emotionally invested in the film's outcome, and waiting to see Pleasantville in all its final Technicolor glory. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 30 October: Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive -- at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation. The film's basic message -- that hate is learned and can be unlearned -- is expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment, and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities -- and a compelling clash of visual styles -- to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
- New York, 4 November:
 One of the most critically acclaimed films of 1998 and winner of several awards, Gods and Monsters is a compassionate speculation about the final days of James Whale (1889-1957), the director of Frankenstein and 20 other films of the 1930s and 40s, who was openly gay at a time when homosexuality in Hollywood was discreetly concealed. Adapted and directed by Bill Condon from Christopher Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein, the film stars Ian McKellen in a sublime performance as the white-haired Whale, who is portrayed as a dapper gent and amateur artist prompted by failing health into melancholy remembrance of things past. Flashbacks of lost love, World War I battle trauma, and glory days in Hollywood combine with Whale's present-day attraction to a newly hired yard worker (Brendan Fraser) whose hunky, Frankenstein-like physique makes him an ideal model for Whale's fixated sketching. The friendship between the handsome gardener and his elderly gay admirer is by turns tenuous, humorous, mutually beneficial, and ultimately rather sad -- but to Condon's credit Whale is never seen as pathetic, lecherous, or senile. Equally rich is the rapport between Whale and his long-time housekeeper (played with wry sarcasm by Lynn Redgrave), who serves as protector, mother, and even surrogate spouse while Whale's mental state deteriorates. Flashbacks to Whale's filmmaking days are painstakingly authentic (particularly in the casting of look-alike actors playing Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester), and all of these ingredients combine to make Gods and Monsters (executive produced by horror novelist-filmmaker Clive Barker) a touchingly affectionate film that succeeds on many levels. It is at once a keen glimpse of Hollywood's past, a loving tribute to James Whale, and a richly moving, delicately balanced drama about loneliness, memory, and the passions that keep us alive. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 14 November: There was such a magic on the screen in 1995 when John Lasseter and the other people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story. Their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty, it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible. Brighter and more colorful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help -- a hearty bunch of bug warriors -- and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just traveling performers afraid of conflict. As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybug, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick bug, and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible pillbugs. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big sweet spot for Flik. More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug's Life still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise of the villain. However, the film will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
- Paris, 18 November:
 Perhaps only the French could create a movie with the sexual heat of Benoît Jacquot's L'Ecole de la chair (The School of Flesh). International star Isabelle Huppert, a strawberry-blonde beauty with brimming blue eyes, is Dominique, a successful businesswoman of "a certain age." Quentin (model-pretty Vincent Martinez) is a bisexual male hustler half her age. They begin an affair after meeting at a disco, and their relationship turns toxic in short order -- a compulsion that neither can shake, with negative consequences for both. Each is drawn inexorably into a hurtful game of cat and mouse, switching roles back and forth with every round. More than anything else, the film does a truly convincing job of depicting the exquisite pain of addictive relationships. It is impossible not to become drawn into the enticing energy of the affair -- to hope it won't end, while knowing it must. L'Ecole de la chair takes us on an irresistible walk on the wild side. -- Laura Mirsky, Amazon.com
 - New York, 20 November: Walter Salles' latest film, Central do Brasil (Central Station), was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and it goes into general release today. In the opening scenes of the film, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid -- in longshot -- underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertão, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles mixes magic with realism in his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central do Brasil is primarily fueled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judi Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion -- and emotion -- is potent pleasure, even if Salles' trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. -- Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com
- New York, 3 December:
 One of the most winning and intelligent romantic comedies of the 1990s, Shakespeare in Love, which premiered here tonight, is filled with such good will, sunny romance, snappy one-liners, and devilish cleverness that it's absolutely irresistible. With tongue placed firmly in cheek, at its outset the film tracks young Will Shakespeare's (Joseph Fiennes) overwrought battle with writer's block and the efforts of theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, in rare form) to stage Will's latest comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. Most of the jokes in the first one-third of the film are along these lines: Will's anachronistic therapist session, a mug inscribed "A Souvenir from Stratford-Upon-Avon," Henslowe's battles to pay off his debts, and the backstage high jinks of pre-production. However, once Will sets his eyes on the beautiful Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), joking takes a backseat to ravishing romance. Well, almost -- turns out Viola wants to break into the world of male-only theater, and disguises herself as a young man to wangle herself an audition. She wins the part of Romeo and, after much misunderstanding, the playwright's heart. Soon enough, Will's pirate comedy becomes a beautiful, tragic romance, and Ethel is shoved aside for a woman named Juliet. Will and Viola's romance, however, is equal parts comedy and tragedy -- he's married, and she's betrothed to the slimy Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), and it doesn't take an English major to figure out that it's not all's well that ends well.
 Like Shakespeare's work itself, the film is instantly accessible to everyone, from the raucous groundlings looking for low comedy to the aesthetes hankering for some intellectual bite behind their entertainment. The way that screenwriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard enfold their story within the parameters of Romeo and Juliet (and even Twelfth Night) is nothing short of brilliant -- it would take a Shakespearean scholar to dissect the innumerable parallels, oft-quoted lines, plot developments, and thematic borrowings. And most amazingly, Norman and Stoppard haven't forgotten to entertain their audience in addition to riding a Shakespearean roller coaster. Director John Madden (Mrs. Brown) reigns in his huge ensemble with a rollicking energy that keeps the film's momentum going at top speed for its entire two hours. Along the way there are small gems to be found: Ben Affleck's riotous egotistical actor, Imelda Staunton's nimble nurse, Tom Wilkinson's play-backing Apothecary, and of course Judi Dench's eight-minute turn as a truly regal Queen Elizabeth I. However, the key element of Shakespeare in Love's success rests on the milky-white shoulders of its two stars. Fiennes is a dashing Will as we might expect him at the early stage of his career, bundled full of comedy and tragedy but unsure of how to harness his talent. And as for Paltrow... well, nothing she's done before could prepare us for how amazing she is here. Breathtakingly beautiful, fiercely intelligent, strong-willed, and lovestruck -- it's a performance worthy of Shakespeare in more ways than one. By the film's end, you'll be thoroughly won over -- and brushing up your Shakespeare with newfound ardor. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
- New York, 4 December:
 Having made the rounds of the international festival circuit (Toronto, London and the Hamptons), Mark Herman's Little Voice opens in the U.S. today. Michael Caine gives his finest performance in a decade as big-talking small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy, pale life-of-the-party hiding his desperation under gold chains and cool bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrocks' meek little LV (short for Little Voice) fill her bedroom with the rich voice of Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time. Little Voice is ostensibly LV's story, and in fact the original play was written for Horrocks, whose amazing vocal impressions of Garland, Shirley Bassey, and Marilyn Monroe (among others) form the centerpiece performance of the film. But as directed by Mark Herman and shot on location in Scarborogh in Yorkshire, the story of this mousy girl who shuts herself in from a bellowing world is just as overwhelmed by the bombastic characters as LV herself. Brenda Blethyn babbles a blue streak as LV's overbearing mother, Mari, an aging widow who escapes her unhappiness in carousing and becomes almost pathologically jealous when Ray's attentions turn from her to LV. Excellent supporting work is put in by Ewan McGregor as LV's love interest, Philip Jackson as his boss, Annette Badland as the Mari's also-nearly-mute sidekick Sadie, and -- as always -- Jim Broadbent as the smarmy club owner, Mr. Boo. As Ray puts his dreams on the line for LV's showcase, he reveals his true self: a venal man who spits and barks out his bottled-up anger in an astoundingly bile-filled delivery of Roy Orbison's "It's Over." The showstopping moment once again overwhelms LV's tale, but Caine's performance is so astounding it seems a fair trade. He must certainly be recognized come Oscar® time.
 - Los Angeles, 4 December: Numerous critics have already sharpened their knives even before today's release of Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot color "re-creation" of the 1960 black-and-white Hitchcock classic Psycho, chiding the Good Will Hunting director for defiling hallowed ground. This intriguing cinematic curiosity, though, is hardly as sacrilegious as critics would lead you to believe. If anything, Van Sant doesn't take enough liberties with his almost slavish devotion to the material, now updated with modern references. At times, you wish Van Sant would cut loose with a little spontaneity, a little energy, a little something. Unfortunately, when he does venture outside Hitchcock's parameters, with inserted shots of storm clouds during the murder sequences, it's to little effect. Granted, he liberally splashes color throughout the film (especially in the case of the infamous shower scene), and this is a great-looking movie, but in his obsession with adding a new physical dimension to the film, there's little insight into these characters that Hitchcock hadn't already provided. Vince Vaughn, a robotic and giggly Norman, doesn't crawl under your skin the way boy-next-door Anthony Perkins did, and Anne Heche is admirable if not very sympathetic in the Janet Leigh role. Van Sant does score a minor coup, though, in his casting of the supporting roles: Julianne Moore provides a welcome shot of energy as Heche's irritable and curious sister, William H. Macy is a perfect small-time detective, Viggo Mortensen is studly enough to make you understand why Heche would want to run away with him, and James LeGros walks away with his one brief scene as a used car salesman. And Danny Elfman's gorgeous rerecording of Bernard Herrmann's score is a potent supporting character unto itself. Students and fans of the original film will get a kick out of the modern revisions, but don't expect anything of Hitchcockian caliber; watch it for the sum of its intriguing parts, but not the whole. --Mark Englehart
- New York, 11 December:
 Wes Anderson's follow-up to the quirky Bottle Rocket, Rushmore is a wonderfully unorthodox coming-of-age story that ranks with Harold and Maude and The Graduate in the pantheon of timeless cult classics. Already shown at the Toronto, New York and Telluride film festivals, it's opening here and in Los Angeles today. Jason Schwartzman (son of Talia Shire and nephew of Francis Ford Coppola) stars as Max Fischer, a 15-year-old attending the prestigious Rushmore Academy on scholarship, where he's failing all of his classes but is the superstar of the school's extracurricular activities (head of the drama club, the beekeeper club, the fencing club...). Possessing boundless confidence and chutzpah, as well as an aura of authority he seems to have been born with, Max finds two unlikely soulmates in his permutations at Rushmore: industrial magnate and Rushmore alumnus Herman Blume (Bill Murray) and first-grade teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). His alliance with Blume and crush on Miss Cross, however, are thrown out of kilter by his expulsion from Rushmore, and a budding romance between the two adults that threatens Max's own designs on the lovely schoolteacher. Never stooping to sentimentality or schmaltz, Anderson and cowriter Owen Wilson have fashioned a wickedly intelligent and wildly funny tale of young adulthood that hits all the right notes in its mix of melancholy and optimism. As played by Schwartzman, Max is both immediately endearing and ferociously irritating: smarter than all the adults around him, with little sense of his shortcomings, he's an unstoppable dynamo who commands grudging respect despite his outlandish projects (including a school play about Vietnam). Murray, as the tycoon who determinedly wages war with Max for the affections of Miss Cross, is a revelation of middle-aged resignation. Disgusted with his family, his life, and himself, he's turned around by both Max's antagonism and Miss Cross's love. Williams is equally affecting as the teacher who still carries a torch for her dead husband, and the superb supporting cast also includes Seymour Cassel as Max's barber father, Brian Cox as the frustrated headmaster of Rushmore, and a hilarious Mason Gamble as Max's young charge. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
 - Los Angeles, 11 December: Seen at the Toronto Film Festival in September, Sam Raimi's latest film, A Simple Plan, opens nationwide today. An endless white landscape of rolling hills and snow-blanketed forests. A lonely acoustic score (by Danny Elfman) playing in the background. A vision of rural simplicity portrayed in hushed tones. The stillness is about to shatter. Brothers Hank (Bill Paxton), an accountant at a small-town feed store, and Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), an unemployed, hygienically challenged dim bulb, accompanied by Jacob's oafish pal Lou (Brent Briscoe), stumble across a downed plane in the brush containing a corpse and a sack containing millions of dollars -- surely the aftermath of a drug deal, they conclude. Greed overcomes good sense, and the three agree to hide the money for a year and keep the secret to themselves. A simple plan indeed, and it doesn't take long for it to go all to hell as the lure of wealth tears at kinship and friendship, and the ruthless machinations of impetuous partners leave a body count in its wake. Bridget Fonda costars as Hank's wife, whose initial hesitation gives way to cold-blooded plotting. Raimi, best known for wowing audiences with stylistic gymnastics and manic mayhem, directs this quietly desperate thriller with chilly restraint, finding its cold, tragic heart in the estranged relationship between Hank and Jacob: the college boy blind to the truth of his own family and the town loser whose tortured soul reveals a humanity lost on his brother (a brilliant performance by Thornton). Adapted by Scott B. Smith from his acclaimed novel. -- Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
- New York, 16 December: The New York Film Critics' Circle has announced its awards for the films of 1998. Best film is Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Best director goes to Terrence Malick for The Thin Red Line. Acting awards are Nick Nolte, best actor for Affliction, Cameron Diaz, best actress for There's Something About Mary, Bill Murray, best supporting actor for Rushmore, and Lisa Kudrow, best supporting actress for The Opposite of Sex. The Critics' Circle presented a Special Award to Rick Schmidlin for his reworked and restored version of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).
- New York, 25 December:
 20th Century-Fox has decided to open Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line in limited release today in order to qualify for the 1998 Oscars® and thus ending one of the cinema's great disappearing acts. Malick, the cryptic recluse who withdrew from Hollywood visibility after the release of his visually enthralling masterpiece Days of Heaven (1978), returned to the director's chair after a 20-year break. Malick's comeback vehicle is a fascinating choice: a wide-ranging adaptation of a World War II novel (filmed once before, in 1964) by James Jones. The battle for Guadalcanal Island gives Malick an opportunity to explore nothing less than the nature of life, death, God, and courage. Let that be a warning to anyone expecting a conventional war flick; Malick proves himself quite capable of mounting an exciting action sequence, but he's just as likely to meander into pure philosophical noodling -- or simply let the camera contemplate the first steps of a newly birthed tropical bird, the sinister skulk of a crocodile. This is not especially an actors' movie -- some faces go by so quickly they barely register -- but the standouts are bold: Nick Nolte as a career-minded colonel, Elias Koteas as a deeply spiritual captain who tries to protect his men, Ben Chaplin as a G.I. haunted by lyrical memories of his wife. The backbone of the film is the ongoing discussion between a wry sergeant (Sean Penn) and an ethereal, almost holy private (newcomer Jim Caviezel). The picture's sprawl may be a result of Malick's method of "finding" a film during shooting and editing, and in some ways The Thin Red Line seems vaguely, intriguingly incomplete. Yet it casts a spell like almost nothing else of its time, and Malick's visionary images are a challenge and a signpost to the rest of his filmmaking generation. -- Robert Horton, Amazon.com
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3 April - Santa Monica, CA, 
