Brevitas

The Apostle

The Apostle doesn't have much depth; as a study of spiritual crisis, it falls short. Robert Duvall has long wanted to make (and star in) this intimate epic about a preacher forced to reappraise his life when he commits a crime and is compelled to leave his Texas flock for a mysterious calling in rural Louisiana. Duvall doesn't acquit himself at all, either as an actor or as a filmmaker. But he coaxed true performances from Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton, John Beasley and June Carter Cash. But the fine supporting cast does not have much to do. Every scene, every frame of the overly long Apostle centers on Duvall. --Alexander Laskey

As Good As It Gets

Anyone who thinks romantic comedies are formulaic hokum is probably all too easily proved right. But every once in a while a gem comes along to silence the cynics. Director James L. Brooks has crafted a warmhearted modern fable with a prickly sense of humor. Jack Nicholson plays an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon named Melvin Udall, whose isolated life is complicated by developing relationships with two acquaintances: a gay painter who lives in the apartment next door and a lovely, down-to-earth waitress who serves him lunch every day. The film's genuinely funny, moving script will make the audience feel as if it's earned a pleasant afterglow (and perhaps a Kleenex or two).   --Erwin R. Rosinberg

Dangerous Beauty

Catherine McCormack delivers a refreshing, funny and inspired performance in Marshal Herskovitz's new period piece. As Veronica Franco, a lower-class beautiful girl turned high-class court prostitute, McCormack leads a well-assembled cast in this slightly flawed--yet worth-seeing--film about life as a courtesan in 16th century Venice. Prefaced by both opening and closing textual summations, the film clearly advances a social agenda--in this respect, it slides by with an average grade. The cleverness of the rest of its script and the excellence of the acting, however, save Dangerous Beauty and makes it shine.   --Marc Resteghini

Good Will Hunting

In any other movie, we would hate young Will Hunting. His perfection would be nothing short of irritating and boring. Yet Harvard golden boy Matt Damon '92 sheds layer upon layers of complexity until finally we reach the core of his character near the movie's end. The film itself is nothing particularly exceptional. Director Gus Van Sant prefers a straight-up telling of the tale--there's little to distract you from the fable playing out on screen.   --Soman S. Chainani

Krippendorf's Tribe

Krippendorf's Tribe centers around widowed anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and how, after spending grant money on rearing his dysfunctional children, he is forced to present his findings on the "undiscovered" New Guinea tribe that he was supposed to have used the money to study. The resulting mess that follows is a formulaic farce filled with poor acting, an even poorer script and obnoxious, one-dimensional characters with barely anything sympathetic about them. Occasionally, the film tries to get warm and sweet, but concludes with a contrived and impossible ending. Leaving the theatre, one cannot help feeling that Touchstone Pictures took a cue from Krippendorf and his false tribe by stealing ticket money, and handing over this excuse for a movie in its place.   --Marc P. Resteghini

Kundun

Kundun may be Martin Scorsese's most daring film to date. There isn't much talk in Kundun, and what talk there is isn't especially revealing or eloquent. However, this ceases to matter very much as the breathtaking cinematography tells its own story, accompanied by a sonorously haunting score by Philip Glass. Kundun's slow pace may cause occasional restlessness, but never boredom. It's too much of a feast for the eyes to lose its power of fascination, and its poetry of color, perspective and motion lingers long after what's actually said is forgotten.   --Lynn Y. Lee

L.A. Confidential

You know L.A. Confidential has ended when it is both daytime and not raining. In a fine version of the somewhat beefy Ellroy crime novel ostensibly about a strange murder, director Curtis Hanson portrays the cool, brutal world of Hollywood glam and corrupt police in '50s Los Angeles with all its gradations of questionable ethics. Guy Pearce and Russel Crow turn in fine performances that give us two different approaches to policing, thinking first and hitting later, or vice versa. A reptilian James Cromwell and slick Kevin Spacey round out a fine cast and a finer tale. Could this be an Oscar contender? I'm not a betting man.   --Nicolas R. Rapold

Mrs. Dalloway

Set in post-WWI London, the movie follows Clarissa Dalloway as she goes about her preparations for a party she is to give that evening. Apart from the jarring and somewhat dislocating opening, the film remains remarkably faithful to the book. Towards the end, the movie lapses almost completely into voice-over, which eventually becomes rather irritating. This is, however, no fault of the actors, who are probably the best thing about the film. Vanessa Redgrave is Vanessa Redgrave and, as the lynchpin of the story, holds center stage with her usual poise. There's much to admire about this adaptation--the faithfulness of the script, the sensitive direction, the first-rate acting--but in the end it's just not enough to add up to a successful transference from novel to film. One comes away from this film with the feeling that it doesn't cut much ice with Virginia Woolf. Which gives this Mrs. Dalloway some claim to respect as a daring experiment--ultimately, it's a failure, but an honorable failure.   --Lynn Y. Lee

Nil By Mouth

There is no doubt that Gary Oldman's poignant, visceral portrait of family life in seedy South London is an impressive piece of work--not to mention a sterling, writing/directing debut for Oldman. Nil takes no prisoner. From the outset, the film unleashes a barrage of unpleasantness, in the form of nonstop expletives, explosive bouts of chillingly realistic domestic violence and frequent screaming. The contaminating influence of American pop culture is everywhere, as indicated by choice shots of American brand names (Ford automobiles, Prozac "happy pills"), clips from American movies and glimpses of American cultural icons. Through a gray haze of depression, addiction and despair, Oldman and his cast somehow manage to salvage a sense of optimism and indomitable vitality from this tangle of wrecked lives. In doing so, they rescue the movie from wallowing in its own despair and self-pity. Be warned--it's not a happy ending, but it's not a miserable one either.   --Scott E. Brown

Titanic

Although everybody knows how the movie must end, director James Cameron drains the tension by framing the story of the Titanic through the eyes of Rose (Kate Winslet), who tells about her romance with the impoverished passenger Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two run the events of normal cinematic romance, and Cameron's script presents the lead actors with incredible cliches. Each of the other characters represents a segment of society rather than a person. As the ship breaks apart and its passengers choose between life and death, Titanic achieves an epic grandeur that the film may not deserve. Overall, the film is a pyrrhic victory for Cameron,   --Jeremy Ross

Twilight

If nothing else, Robert Benton's film Twilight is an ode to a fading brand of screen legends. Paul Newman plays Harry Ross, an alcoholic former detective in Los Angeles dependent on his employers, retired actors Jack and Catherine Ames (Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon). Harry becomes involved in a murder investigation after Hackman sends him to deliver a package to a mysterious woman. The essential features of film noir are in place in Twilight, which dutifully follows nearly every single convention of the genre. The inconsistencies in the film could be forgivable if the film had any dramatic urgency. Fortunately, nothing in Twilight fails prominently enough to completely doom the film.   --Jeremy J. Ross

Wag The Dog

Wag the Dog is a wonderfully biting satire of the prevailing attitude which links show business to American politics. Two weeks before he is up for re-election, the president is accused of making advances on a Girl Scout; mysterious political consultant Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) is called to resolve the catastrophe. Everyone gets brutally skewered in this film: politicians, filmmakers, actors, reporters and the credulous masses. The load eventually proves to be too much for the film to carry, but the film has to be admired for its sheer effort. Wag the Dog remains vastly entertaining even during its most tenuous moments.   --Soman S. Chainani