Movies

'Tropic Thunder': too much promise, not enough delivery

Moira Macdonald — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's mid-August, the summer movie season is waning, and audiences numbed by their 10th viewing of "The Dark Knight" are ready to laugh. So the sporadically funny "Tropic Thunder," directed by and starring Ben Stiller, may well get a boost it doesn't entirely earn. (I can see the quotes on the ads now: "Not At All The Worst Comedy To Come Out This Summer!")

'Elegy': Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz stand out as lovers

John Hartl — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Philip Roth's 2001 novella, "The Dying Animal," is the basis for "Elegy," a small but sturdy vehicle for Sir Ben Kingsley, who turns it into a tour de force.

Kingsley plays David Kepesh, an aging literature professor and cultural critic who becomes a minor celebrity thanks to his appearances on public television. His duties include covering theatrical events for which he has little sympathy or enthusiasm.

'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2': Time with old friends is well spent

Moira Macdonald — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" is a sweet movie about four nice girls, their cute boyfriends and a pair of magic jeans that are, mysteriously, never too small. Unfortunately, the demographic for this movie just might be a little shrunken.

'American Teen' captures the heartache and hope of the high school experience

John Hartl — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From Edward S. Curtis' "In the Land of the Head Hunters" (1914) to Nanette Burstein's "American Teen" (2008), the nonfiction films in this year's Seattle International Film Festival challenged the conventional definition of a documentary.

'American Teen' director tracked stories from the heartland

John Hartl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Nanette Burstein's prizewinning documentary about high-school seniors, "American Teen," looks awfully white.

She claims she never planned it that way. Visiting the Seattle International Film Festival this spring, Burstein said she ended up shooting in an Indiana school, Warsaw High, because she found the students there that she wanted to follow through to graduation. (The movie returns Friday for a regular run.)

This time, the trip to revive 'Brideshead' is cut short

William Arnold — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The award-winning, 11-part 1981 PBS version of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" is widely considered a landmark TV miniseries and one of the best -- and certainly most complete -- film adaptations ever made of a great novel.

If you've experienced it, a two-hour take of the same material -- roughly one-fifth of the earlier film -- is bound to seem, at best, a kind of CliffsNotes guide to the novel's highlights, especially if the casting is not all that inspired.

Northwest Film Forum screens 'My Neighbor Totoro' July 22 and 23

Lora Shinn — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:36:32 -0700

Just a reminder -- tonight and Wednesday night, Capitol Hill's Northwest Film Forum will show "My Neighbor Totoro," an enchanting Japanese animated film about big, cuddly monsters and ... a Catbus.

You cannot beat a Catbus as the greatest mechanical animal ever.

'Mamma Mia!' is big fat Greek wedding

William Arnold — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In "Boffo," his examination of entertainment blockbusters, Variety editor Peter Bart names the stage production of "Mamma Mia!" as one of the all-time great show business phenomena, on the short list next to "Casablanca," "Psycho" and "I Love Lucy."

Heath Ledger's Joker is wild in masterful 'Dark Knight'

Moira Macdonald — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Some men," observes the unflappable butler Alfred (Michael Caine), "just want to watch the world burn."

SAM event one of many tributes to Bruce Lee

Tan Vinh — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Because, apparently, the world's appetite for all things Bruce Lee knows no limits, there will be Bruce Lee, the musical, coming to Broadway.

But not before a 50-part Lee documentary airs in China after the Summer Olympics. Or the Lee documentary the History Channel has scheduled for next year. Or a Lee cartoon in development.

Dozens of other Lee projects are in the works, including a proposal to raise $50 million to build a museum in Seattle, where Lee lived from 1959-64.