Space Invader
A Russian thriller that’s more tedious than titillating
By Simon Abrams
How is it possible that a movie as violent as Alien Girl could be so boring? A blood-soaked contemporary Russian gangster movie that simultaneously romanticizes and puts down the crime-ridden Kiev of the early 1990s, Alien Girl is a colossal waste. It has nothing to do with aliens or immigrants and is a wholly turgid and unconvincing thug romance between a young Ukrainian hood (Evgeni Tkachuk) and his hot hostage-cum-girl-shaped baggage.
Missing the Macher
The movie version of Barney’s Version needs a director who can grapple with Jewish guilt.
By Armond White
Barney’s Version
Directed by Richard J. Lewis
Runtime: 132 min.
Mordecai Richler, the Canadian Philip Roth, gave away his artistic bias in the novel Barney’s Version by having his protagonist work for a TV outlet named Totally Unnecessary Productions. Richler also made any film adaptation of his novel automatically redundant. As directed by Richard J. Lewis, the movie version of Barney’s Version enters the same self-serving territory as Greenberg and The Social Network—movies by a later generation of Jewish artists who lack Richler’s (and Roth’s) self-critical sense of humor.
Grimy Glamour
Neil Jordan taps into myth as a metaphor
By Armond White
Fantasy has become the mode by which today’s highly hyped F/X and animation deceive audiences into not-thinking. Yet Neil Jordan’s Ondine—a modern-day fantasy about an Irish fisherman who believes he has rescued a mermaid in his net—uses no CGI. Its real-life, sensuous imagery prompts more than thought: Jordan’s updated Celtic myth provokes erotic, spiritual consciousness. It’s an adult fantasy whose beauty invites both dreamlike surrender and rationality—as the best cinema always does. Read more
The Men Who Stare at Goats
George Clooney meet Dusan Makavejev: Hollywood clown to Yugoslavian art-movie satirist. Clooney’s dismal new comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats makes it essential to re-learn what good political satire means. There’s no richer example than Makavejev’s films, and three of them are now packaged in Criterion’s DVD box set, Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical. Read more
Mixed Reactions to Up Review
To the Editor:
I would like to give praise to Mr. Armond White on his insightful review of Up (May 28). While I disagree with him on his assessment, I felt all of the points he made about the film, like the fact that all the plots are similar, were justified. Unlike many critics, he usually gives a solid reason for disliking a movie. I myself disliked the movie Cars, which I thought was overly cliché, yet everyone I knew loved it and told me I was an idiot. Read more
