LORDS OF DOGTOWN Even if you don't know anything about skateboard culture, all 90 minutes of the 2002 independent film Dogtown and Z-Boys will mesmerize you. Directed by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta, that smashing documentary chronicles the rise of the Venice, CA, teens who almost single-handedly revived skateboarding as a national phenomenon thanks to their radical reinterpretation of the sport during the 1970s. Now, Peralta has penned a Hollywood account of the Z-Boys, yet the resultant film fails to capture anything beyond random surface pleasures. In the documentary, it's clear that Jay Adams and Tony Alva were not only the sport's media celebrities but also the best skateboarders. In this film, Adams (played by Emile Hirsch) and Alva (Victor Rasuk) are prominently featured, but so is Peralta (John Robinson). The other members of the Zephyr Team are no more than blurs in the background. Initially, the choice of Catherine Hardwicke as director seemed inspired: As the helmer of Thirteen, it was clear she wouldn't back away from the grittiness of the project. Yet the ample party scenes that drove Thirteen seem extraneous here: We know these kids liked to get drunk, get high and get laid, so why do we need endless sequences of this when they serve only to take the focus away from the real story? Lords of Dogtown is well acted (especially by Heath Ledger as the group's stoner-mentor), and Hardwicke ably recreates a specific time and place. Yet the movie rarely conveys the import of what these lower-income kids accomplished: As depicted here, their cultural revolution seems no more noteworthy than a day spent at the mall.
MOOLAADE In the realm of international cinema, 82-year-old Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene shares bragging rights with Portugal's 96-year-old Manoel de Oliveira as one of the old lions of the industry, a prolific, award-winning filmmaker who has never achieved the stateside recognition of, say, Bergman or Fellini. The critical community has done its part to promote his works, as has our own Charlotte Film Society. The CFS, which previously brought the director's 2001 effort Faat Kine to town, now does likewise with Moolaade, which earned an award at Cannes and placed on over two dozen critics' "10 Best" lists for 2004. Sembene doesn't care whether he draws great performances out of his cast, and neither should viewers. Even with all the dialogue spoken in French and Bambara, it's obvious that the pregnant pauses really shouldn't be there and that some of the cast members (especially the small kids) have their hands full simply trying to remember their lines. But Moolaade, like past Sembene titles, is about the surge of human compassion above all else, and the writer-director manages to share his yarn in the tradition of a great storyteller sitting by the fire, adding plenty of color and detail to keep the audience captive. Moolaade centers on a grotesque tradition still practiced in many African villages: the genital mutilation of little girls so they won't feel sexual pleasure when they eventually marry. The male elders vocally enforce this practice while a small band of stern-faced women carry it out, but when six small girls turn to her for sanctuary ("Moolaade"), Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly) decides enough's enough and does her best to stop the madness. Striking imagery and memorable characters enliven the proceedings, though Sembene never downplays the tragedy at the heart of the film. 1/2
Current Releases
CINDERELLA MAN No filmmaker in his right mind would want his boxing picture to be released a scant few months after Million Dollar Baby, but Cinderella Man is so structurally and tonally different from Clint Eastwood's masterwork that it might as well be about jai alai. Almost every summer has one tony Oscar-bait production geared to older audiences, and Cinderella Man, which relates the real-life story of pugilist James J. Braddock, adequately fills that designation. Russell Crowe's touching portrayal is instrumental in recruiting the audience's sympathies from the get-go, and director Ron Howard and his A Beautiful Mind writer Akiva Goldsman take care to spend as much time detailing the ravages of the Depression as they do Braddock's exploits in the ring. This film may not break new ground, but in its ability to provide old-fashioned entertainment, the gloves come flying off.
THE LONGEST YARD Faithfulness to director Robert Aldrich's hard-hitting 1974 film, in which a former football star leads a group of convicts in a match against the sadistic guards, isn't the problem: Major plot points are kept intact, snatches of dialogue find themselves lifted wholesale, and characters' fates remain the same. But when this version does deviate from its source material, the results are disastrous - and all but kill any chance the film had in maintaining its modest pleasures. The leading character (Burt Reynolds in the R-rated original, Adam Sandler in this PG-13 piffle) has been softened, while the rampaging homophobia is astonishing (and annoying). Insult comedy can be uproarious in the right hands, but here it's merely witless, the cinematic equivalent of the school bully giving a weaker classmate a wedgie and then declaring himself the epitome of fine-honed drollery.
MADAGASCAR Unlike the banal Robots and Shark Tale, this animated delight strikes an appropriate balance: It's hip without being obnoxious, and it's sentimental without being cloying. Through a wild chain of events, four animal pals from a New York zoo : lion (Ben Stiller), zebra (Chris Rock), hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and giraffe (David Schwimmer) : find themselves stranded on the title island. Despite the ingratiating leads (Rock, for one, has never been better), despite the eye-popping animation, and despite the presence of other scene-stealers (check out the lemurs), the main reason to see this is to catch the penguins, four no-nonsense types who plan to dig their way to Antarctica but instead end up hijacking a ship. First Opus, then Sparky, now these guys : the lion may be comfortably ensconced as king of the jungle, but when it comes to the thick brier of popular culture, it's the penguin who reigns supreme. 1/2
MAD HOT BALLROOM In much the same manner as the superior Spellbound, this documentary centers on several groups of kids who, as students enrolled in the NYC public school system's ballroom dancing classes, hope to find themselves competing in the annual tournament. This is yet one more nonfiction film that ably extols the transformative power of the arts and its ability to allow individuals to discover the best within themselves. But the movie also goes beyond that: It captures the palpable love that teachers can feel for their students, and, most intriguingly, it hangs out with these 10- and 11-year-olds as they chat in that open, unaffected manner as only kids can. It's a pleasure spending down time with these lovely boys and girls (most from the lower rungs of the economic ladder), which is why it's disappointing when the movie shifts away from their individuality to focus on the mechanics of the tournament.
MONSTER-IN-LAW After a 15-year hiatus, Jane Fonda returns to the big screen, and young 'uns who've only heard about her standing as one of the finest actresses of the 1970s will automatically assume that their parents have been pulling their legs all these years. Fonda is an embarrassment in this torturous comedy, betrayed both by director Robert Luketic's mishandling and by her own rusty instincts. Blank-faced Jennifer Lopez stars as Charlie, a jill-of-all-trades (caterer, dog walker, receptionist) who finds the perfect man in Dr. Kevin Fields (Alias' Michael Vartan). All goes well until she meets his mother, a TV personality who also turns out to be psychotic. This only escapes a one-star rating because of the acerbic wit of Wanda Sykes (cast as Fonda's wisecracking assistant); otherwise, the laughs are as scarce as Coke machines in the Kalahari. 1/2
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS Ann Brashares' best-selling book among female readers has been transformed into a luminescent motion picture for anyone interested in an emotional high. As they prepare to go their separate ways for the summer, four high school friends (winningly played by America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively and Amber Tamblyn) stumble across a pair of jeans that miraculously fits all of them. They quickly decide that the pants will be passed among them throughout the summer, as a way of staying in touch over long distances. Statutory rape, parental abandonment, the death of a child - these are heavy issues for any movie, let alone one aimed at young girls. Yet while Sisterhood occasionally skirts around the full import of these hot-button items, it's still honest enough to acknowledge the perils of adolescence as well as the pleasures.
STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH Better than their overall critical standing would have one believe, the new Star Wars flicks have nevertheless registered as disappointments to those of us for whom the original trilogy felt like a coming-of-age rite of passage. The Phantom Menace was a mixed bag, while Attack of the Clones (by a hair the best of the newbies) only occasionally managed to recapture the spirit and flavor of the original three-pack. This last chapter follows suit, a cinematic seesaw in which the good bits are packed into the second half. The movie gets off to a dreadful start, stuffed with chaotic chases, ill-defined new characters and the rapid elimination of a worthy foe. And then something inspiring occurs: The mythology takes over, and the latter sequences : directly connecting to events first recorded in the original Star Wars film back in 1977 : resonate beyond the screen, fueled as much by our own nostalgic twinges as by George Lucas' ability to send the series off in style.
1/2
UNLEASHED After being treated like a dog his entire life by a Glasgow mobster (Bob Hoskins), a henchman (Jet Li) finds comfort in his friendships with a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter (Kerry Condon). "Poignant" and "touching" aren't words usually associated with a Jet Li flick, but this isn't your standard action yarn. That's not to say Li has gone the Sense and Sensibility route: Fans of martial arts mayhem will still be satisfied with the degree of bone crushing and rib cracking on display. But while the thrilling set pieces goose the proceedings, it's the acting that provides this with an advantage: Freeman packs his usual authority, Condon is an absolute delight, and Hoskins clearly relishes the return to the UK underground milieu of his career-making films The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa. And then there's Jet Li, whose puppy dog demeanor as the domesticated Danny the Dog adds some tears to the expected blood and sweat.