Film roundup

[b]Army of Shadows[/b]

Director Jean-Pierre Melville made this masterpiece about the French Resistance in 1969. It's finally getting a well-deserved release in the United States.

The film is an episodic tour of Vichy France in 1942. It follows resistance leader Philippe Gerbier through various prison camps, escapes, planning meetings and missions.

There isn't really a continuous storyline; rather, the film is a stylized cross-section of various situations resistance fighters find themselves in. The film is so engaging, though, that one never notices that the plot is very limited.

The craftsmanship on display in this film is astounding. The filmmakers manage to make the resistance fighters seem capable, determined and conflicted all at once. Every element of the film comes together to make this happen, from the crisp, dark-blue lighting style, to the clipped dialogue and flat demeanor of the characters.

Melville made his name as a director of gangster pictures (including the wonderful Bob the Gambler) and that influence is felt in this film. The characters walk around in their nice, no-nonsense suits and hats and have the same grim remorseless professionalism of career criminals. They will occasionally feel bad about the ends to which they must go, but it won't stop them for an instant from doing what must be done.

Army of Shadows opens Friday at the Harvard Exit (807 E. Roy St.)

-- David Nordmark

[img1][b]Brothers of the Head[/b]

At its best, Brothers of the Head is like an acid trip through the seedy underworld of 1970s Brit rock -- it's hard to tell what's real and what's caused by the drugs. At its worst, it's like eating an uncooked pie as you're coming down.

The film is essentially a pseudo-documentary about conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe, though unnecessary frills at the beginning and end ebb away at its edgy, appealing quality.

The Howe twins, connected by a thick ribbon of skin on their stomachs, are raised in obscurity on the desolate English coast and sold by their father to music impersario Zak Bedderwick, perhaps the closest thing to a circus promoter that can be found in Britain in 1974.

Quiet, good-natured Tom and antagonistic, volatile Barry are whisked away to Bedderwick's summer home, where they are instructed in the art of being rock stars by a musician mentor, an asshole manager and an American documentary filmmaker who records them bathing and sleeping.

After several months, their band The Bang Bang plays a London pub, and the twins -- who titillate the audience with their good looks and abnormal anatomy --- gain an instant following.

Complex and sometimes poorly explained subplots -- including the introduction of a beautiful freelance journalist who gets romantically involved with Tom -- follow, interspersed with rather boring present-day interviews where the characters try to justify their actions.

The twins embrace self-destruction, acting like musicians who've overdosed on VH1 Behind the Music specials -- horsing around in the studio, wearing skinny jeans and doing cocaine while retaining that aloofness characteristic of British rock stars.

Although the ending leaves several unanswered questions and some dream sequences can be hard to take, the vulnerability of the Howe brothers, beautifully portrayed by identical (but not conjoined) twin actors Harry and Luke Treadaway, make this film worth seeing. The raw, uncut documentary footage is also a plus, especially during scenes when the twins play seedy, crowded London nightclubs.

Brothers of the Head is marketed as the freak-show connoisseur's kind of movie, but it's the humanity at the bottom of all the weirdness that initially draws the viewer in and unapologetically spits us out.

Brothers of the Head opens Friday at the Varsity (4329 University Way N.E.)

-- Blythe Lawrence

[b]Sir! No Sir![/b][img2]

Sir! No Sir! offers an interesting contrast to a film like World Trade Center.

The latter film lacks any kind of broad perspective, and ultimately has nothing to say about anything. Sir! No Sir! is all perspective. It has all kinds of things to say, and it takes very definite political stances.

What the two films have in common is a lack of context, which serves to make them weaker than they ought to be.

Sir! No Sir! is a documentary about the antiwar movement during the Vietnam era. What makes the film interesting is it is almost entirely about the soldiers who were opposed to the war, many of whom had actually been in combat.

Their stories about standing up and opposing what was happening in Vietnam is very moving, especially in light of the fact that many of them were court-martialed and convicted of mutiny.

It would be nice, though, if the film's argument didn't feel so one-sided. I'd like to hear some other perspectives, if only to see how the filmmakers and the soldiers in the documentary profiles would respond to them. The problem, I fear, is many documentary filmmakers do not see themselves as journalists. They all want to be Michael Moore.

Raging at the man is all well and good, but it doesn't change anyone's mind. I don't doubt the sincerity of the producers of this film, and in fact I hold similar views about the Vietnam War being a terrible waste. But in the end, they're just preaching to the choir.

Sir! No Sir! opens Friday for a one-week run at the Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Ave.)

-- David Nordmark

[b]Other releases[/b]

If you haven't had a chance to catch Woody Allen's latest film, Scoop, I highly recommend it.

Allen casts Scarlett Johansson as a younger version of himself, something which in and of itself is worth the price of admission.

The film somehow manages to make the audience laugh itself silly with its cheesy-yet-hysterical one-liners. An example from Allen talking about religion at a highbrow English party: "I was born into the Hebrew persuasion, but when I got older I converted to narcissism."

The film also benefits from Allen playing a supporting comic-relief role as opposed to the romantic lead, which he's sadly getting a little old for.

In major studio releases this week, we have Zoom, a comedy starring Tim Allen; Pulse, a movie about a mysterious force trying to transmit itself into the world of the living; and Step Up, a film about which I have nothing to say.

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

The Northwest Film Forum's series "Through the Eyes of Child: 3 from Iran" concludes with Abbas Kiarostami's Where is the Friend's Home, running Friday through Sunday.

Midnights at the Egyptian (805 E. Pine St.) continues Friday and Saturday with Mirrormask.

King of Hearts opens Friday at the Grand Illusion (1403 N.E. 50th St.) From the press release: "This brilliant satire stars Alan Bates as Charles Plumpick, a kilt-wearing Scottish soldier who is sent by his commanding officers to disarm a bomb left behind by the retreating German army, who have booby-trapped an entire town to explode."

-- David Nordmark