Film roundup

[img1][b]The Descent[/b]

Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers) has made a new horror movie that is absolutely terrifying.

In The Descent, six mostly British-sounding girlfriends head to the Appalachian Mountains for their annual extreme outdoor adventure. This year, they're going spelunking.

Since most are inexperienced climbers, they choose a novice-level cave. As the trip progresses, one of them notices the path doesn't quite match the guidebook. The trip quickly starts to go bad, and personal conflicts between the women come to the surface, exacerbating an already tense situation.

Then the monsters attack.

There's not a moment between the point when the women descend into the cave and the end of the film that I didn't feel at least a little on edge. Then again, I do have a fear of enclosed, unstable caves -- and monsters. Maybe some people find that kind of thing less frightening.

One of the main reasons for the film's success is simply that it is intelligently put together -- the director knows how to move the camera and when to cut so as to maximize the tension. The lighting is effectively creepy as well.

Horror films as a genre are famous for exploring social issues like racism, communist paranoia and consumerism. Not so with The Descent -- you'll have to look pretty deeply if you want to find any social relevance in this film. Mainly it's just a good ride. Sometimes that's enough.

The Descent opens Friday.

-- David Nordmark

[b]Bazi[/b]

Bazi is a children's movie. That shouldn't stop you from going to see it -- the film is so well crafted and the little girl who plays the lead role is so adorable that adults will find more to enjoy in this film than children will.

Soraya is at home playing in the courtyard with her dolls. Her mother is busy inside and won't pay attention to her. So she talks absently to herself and her dolls, telling them to stay out of her business and other things she undoubtedly hears all the time from her mother.

First, she wants to play with a new doll that for some reason she's not allowed to. Then she wants to play with the new neighbors, but can't because her mother hasn't met their parents. What follows is a clever series of attempts to evade her mother's will.

The tension is very slowly, subtly built, and we feel Soraya's nervousness as she first tries to get the forbidden doll and then attempts contact with the neighbors.

The style of Bazi is wonderfully minimal. The shots are nicely composed, the cuts are slow and the camera barely moves. It was clearly painstakingly made, but it never feels put-together. The result is a beautiful film.

Bazi is part of the series "Through the Eyes of Child: 3 From Iran." For more information, go to www.nwfilmforum.org/cinemas.

Bazi opens Friday for a one-week run at the Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Ave.)

-- David Nordmark

[b]The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green[/b]

Don't let the title of the movie fool you: There really is nothing unfabulous about Ethan's social life. In fact if the title hints at any sort of social stagnation, it couldn't be further from the truth.

Daniel Letterle plays Ethan Green, a 26-year-old guy looking for love, not in all the wrong places, but in every place possible. Sexually promiscuous, Ethan is only choosy about who he wants to spend the rest of his life with, but not particularly particular about who he's going to spend the night with.

I wish I could commiserate with having attractive men throw themselves at me, but for Ethan, it's not the lack of options but the plethora of them that present a problem. It seems every guy he spends the night with ends up falling in love with him, and Ethan is picky and unwilling to settle.

Ethan thinks he finally might have found "the one" in Kyle Underhill, a beefed-up professional baseball player who's just come out of the closet. But he starts having second thoughts when ex-boyfriend Leo gets engaged to a gay Republican (can there really be such a thing?)

Though the story is told in an unconventional, explicit way, the same universal theme is reinforced: Sometimes the very thing you're looking for is staring you right in the face.

The film is based on the comic strip by Eric Orner, which appears in both gay and mainstream media throughout North America and Europe. Despite the popularity of the comic strip, I have the feeling this film may not be widely accepted by mainstream viewers.

The crude humor was like There's Something About Mary or The Sweetest Thing, only imagine all the girls in the movie were trying to make out with each other. However, whether you're gay or straight, Letterle may just be charming and attractive enough to make the film worthwhile.

The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green opens Friday at the Varsity (4329 University Way N.E.)

-- Erin Hicks

[b]Only Human[/b]

A hip 20-something living in Barcelona brings her fiance home to Madrid to meet her eccentric family. The twist -- she's Jewish and he's Palestinian. When the family realizes this, all hell breaks loose, followed by an airing of dirty laundry, uncomfortable realizations and a fairly happy ending.

It's pretty standard fare, but the farcical humor served up in Only Human is satisfying all the same.

The religious differences between Leni's and Rafi's families end up taking a backseat to the more fleshed-out characters who end up dominating the film -- her older sister Tania, a promiscuous and perpetually unemployed belly dancer, her devoutly Jewish younger brother, her blind, rifle-toting grandfather and her mother, who is convinced that Leni's father is cheating on her.

Things really get going when Rafi accidentally drops a frozen block of soup out a seventh-story kitchen window, possibly killing a man passing underneath. Rafi's odd behavior ruins the rest of the evening, leading to what some might refer to as "a scene" and the aforementioned dirty laundry and confessions no outsider would want to be privy to.

There seems to be a never-ending wealth of good, cringe-worthy lines that come out of movies like this ("Do you find me attractive? Would you sleep with me?" Leni's mother asks Rafi rhetorically, and later declares, "There will be peace in Israel before your father gives me an orgasm."), and for the most part, it's well-acted.

Unlike many American comedies, which rely on over-amplified sexuality and toilet humor to generate laughs, part of this laid-back comedy's charm is the way it underplays serious themes of sex and religion.

Only Human opens Friday at the Harvard Exit (807 E. Roy St.)

-- Blythe Lawrence

[b]Little Miss Sunshine[/b]

This movie is really funny. You should go see it.

Little Miss Sunshine is about a dysfunctional family's attempt to get to California so that 7-year-old Olive can participate in a children's beauty pageant.

The father, played by Greg Kinnear, is a failed motivational speaker. Alan Arkin plays the grandfather -- who's also a heroin addict, and who instructs Olive on her dance routine. The son has taken a Nietzsche-inspired vow of silence. Steve Carrell plays Uncle Frank, a gay Proust scholar who tried to kill himself after the graduate student he was in love with left him.

The film works so well because the characters believably switch from caring to caustic and back again (mostly caustic, really) without ever making the audience dislike them too much.

When I first heard the premise of Little Miss Sunshine, I thought it was just a little too clever to really be funny. But the characters are all so well realized by the actors who portray them that everything feels just believable enough for the film to work. There's no dead weight from any of the performances.

It must be said that a beauty pageant for children is a pretty easy target for satire, and the pacing does slacken a little too much toward the last third of the film. But things pick up with the climax, which has to be the funniest part. You need to see it for yourself, because the humor comes from the shock more than anything else.

Little Miss Sunshine opens Friday.

-- David Nordmark

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[b]Go for Zucker[/b]

Beginning as a film about debt, gambling and commitment, Go for Zucker quickly turns these seemingly simple issues into a world of madness, deceit and mediocre Jewish humor.

When the death of main character Zucker's mother reunites a torn Jewish family, chaos ensues as two brothers and their families attempt to perform Shiva in her honor, despite Zucker's disregard for religion and ceremony.

The first half of the film is a bit slow moving, spending a lot of dialogue and scenes establishing characters and situational conflicts.

The saving grace of this film -- the tension developed between minor characters -- amounted to endless unexpected and intriguing plot twists, such as incest and unorthodox drug trips.

As each member of the family struggles to deal with their problems, the film shifts in tone toward the end, becoming more sentimental and defeated than humorous. Coated with a heartfelt message, the resolution takes a little longer than necessary to arrive but is a nice way of ending what had become a seemingly hopeless run around.

Go for Zucker opens Friday at the Grand Illusion (1403 N.E. 50th St.)

-- Jen Ludington

[b]Lemming[/b]

Sit up straight, tuck in your shirt and mind your P's and Q's. The only real way to describe this light French thriller is "polite."

Presenting a seemingly normal couple and their lifestyle, Lemming, directed by Dominik Moll, spends the opening scenes following the couple around, making me wonder if anything substantial was ever going to happen.

When the husband and main character, Alain, invites his boss and his wife to dinner, an eerie feeling takes over and never really leaves. A strange series of events unfolds, including the discovery of a lemming in their sink pipe, and confusion ensues for the remaining hour and a half.

The awkward parallel of supernatural events to the life of this grotesque animal is only worsened by the openness with which all characters accept the corruption of harmony. No amount of split personalities, ghostly visits or outright absurd dialogue phases any of the characters. This led me to scoff at the seriousness with which the film took its metaphors.

The repeated use of creepy music, shadows and the sounds of deep breathing often pushed me to the edge of my seat, but left me quite disappointed, as nothing frighteningly climatic ever seemed to follow.

While the film doesn't deliver in the area of "thrill," Alain's wife Benedicte, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, did an enthralling job of portraying two completely different personalities, complete with great facial expressions.

A film for those less interested in plot and more captivated by symbolism, Lemming provides an interesting contrast of creepy concept in a wonderfully polite setting.

Lemming opens Friday at the Varsity.

-- Jen Ludington

[b]The Night Listener[/b]

The Night Listener stars Robin Williams and Toni Collette, and misuses them both.

The film is about a writer (Williams) with a soothing, NPR-style radio show who is in the midst of a difficult breakup with his much younger boyfriend. The writer, named Gabriel Noone, receives a manuscript written by a young boy with a fatal illness, and he begins talking to the boy on the telephone.

When his partner points out the resemblance between the boy's voice and that of his guardian (Collette), Noone begins to wonder if he's the victim of a hoax. Not to spoil the ending to this horrible movie or anything, but it turns out he is the victim of a hoax. There! Now you don't have to see it for yourself.

Really I haven't spoiled anything. It's perfectly obvious to the audience that Noone is being had just 20 minutes into the film; that he doesn't figure it out until the one-hour mark is a source of unending frustration.

Collette, who is normally a fine actress, is too unhinged in the crazy role to be effective.

The one bright point of the film is the performance from the luminous Sandra Oh. Will someone please, for the love of god, give this woman her own film?

The Night Listener opens Friday.

-- David Nordmark

[b]Other releases[/b]

V for Vendetta, produced by the Wachowski brothers last year, was released on DVD yesterday.

The film redeems the brothers for their mangling of the Matrix trilogy with its glorious knife fights, epic speechifying from Hugo Weaving and a vitriolic performance from John Hurt as the chancellor of a fascist England a few years down the road. Oh, Natalie Portman is in it too. She's OK.

What really makes the film great though is the high-flown dialogue. An example:

"We've swept this place. You've got nothing. Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have guns."

"No, what you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I will no longer be standing, because if I am you will all be dead before you've reloaded."

All I can say is yes. Yes.

In other news: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby opens this week, as does Barnyard: The Original Party Animals. Which one to see first?

Fremont Outdoor Movies continues this week with The Manster. Doors at 7:30 p.m.; movie begins at dusk. For more information, go to www.fremontoutdoormovies.com.

Wim Wenders' 2004 film Land of Plenty opens Friday at the Northwest Film Forum for a one-week run. The White Balloon, another film from the Iranian children's-film series, plays Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Midnights at the Egyptian (805 E. Pine St.) continues Friday and Saturday with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The Three Stooges series continues at the Grand Illusion. See www.grandillusioncinema.org for more information.

-- David Nordmark