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<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>Chicago Reader Review-O-Mat</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY color="#FFFFFF"> <IMG Align=Top SRC="july.gif"><H3>The Chicago <i>Reader</i> Review-O-Mat</H3> <i>Want to see what Jonathan Rosenbaum thinks of the latest flicks, but don't have time to flip through all that newsprint? You've come to the right place. Just find the right category below, choosing one from each set of alternatives in parentheses, sniff, sneer, and voilà! Instant Rosenbaum. <br>--M.R.</i> <hr color="#000000"> <dl> <dt><b>Any Hollywood movie</b> <dd>An (<font color="#000080">inflated, elephantine, offensive</font>) (<font color="#000080">feature, failure, piece of total mush</font>)-- the best argument yet for the abolition of the star system. Filled with (<font color="#000080">soggy caricatures, strident obviousness, manufactured emotions, shameless mugging</font>), it's no more than a ninety-minute advertisement for the inevitable (<font color="#000080">movie tie-ins, sequel</font>). The subtext is alarmingly and violently (<font color="#000080">sexist, fascist, misanthropic</font>), and it's directed the way a cop directs traffic. I left (<font color="#000080">halfway through, feeling rotten, cursing the influence of Quentin Tarantino</font>). <dt><br><b>But if a six-sided die comes up 1, write:</b> <dd>I expected to hate this piece of typical Hollywood hokum, but found it (<font color="#000080">surprisingly effective, reasonably flavorsome, not devoid of interest</font>). Obvious and (<font color="#000080">frenetic, derivative, squalid, rambling</font>), it's nonetheless (<font color="#000080">never dull, satisfying in broad terms, undeniably effective, cheerfully fast-paced</font>), and it kept me (<font color="#000080">fairly, mostly</font>) entertained. <dt><br><b>First feature by an independent</b> <dd>The début feature of an undeniable talent. It starts out (<font color="#000080">lively, frenetic, densely imagined, promisingly irreverent, better than average</font>), and though the (<font color="#000080">cinematography, script, acting, animation, mise en scène</font>) is (<font color="#000080">spotty, ultimately unsatisfying, noted mostly by its absence, mostly pilfered from other directors</font>), it's still (<font color="#000080">rich, stirring, subversive</font>), (<font color="#000080">poetic, quirky</font>), and sometimes hilarious-- (<font color="#000080">more like a European movie than an American one, ten times more worthwhile than the usual Hollywood fluff</font>). <dt><br><b>Second feature by an independent</b> <dd>The (<font color="#000080">sad, ugly, repulsive</font>) results of wasting money on a formerly promising filmic voice-- technically adroit but (<font color="#000080">aesthetically offensive, philosophically dubious, revealing unexpectedly creepy recesses of the director's mind</font>). The acting is as (<font color="#000080">histrionic, intolerable</font>) as the narrative is (<font color="#000080">clumsy, incoherent, unfocussed, ruthlessly violent</font>). <dt><br><b>Any foreign movie by a director you've heard of</b> <dd>A (<font color="#000080">beautifully contrived, neglected, interesting and unexpected</font>) film, this picture, though never reaching the level of the director's earliest work, is (<font color="#000080">not devoid of interest, a masterpiece of sorts</font>). The (<font color="#000080">filmmaking, cinematography, performance</font>) is predictably (<font color="#000080">punchy, breathtaking, masterful, abstract</font>), but the film is (<font color="#000080">overlong, pedestrian in spots, unfocussed, thoroughly cynical</font>). (<font color="#000080">Gérard Depardieu, Cathérine Deneuve, Kenneth Branagh, Chow Yun-Fat</font>) turns in a (<font color="#000080">fitfully effective, energetic, galvanizing, embarrassing</font>) performance. <dt><br><b>Any foreign movie by a director nobody's heard of</b> <dd>Probably the (<font color="#000080">most accessible, least interesting</font>) of the director's six movies, none of which has been screened in this country-- beautiful but difficult, this movie's (<font color="#000080">stunning, stirring, disturbing, powerful, masterful</font>) exploration of an existential dilemma is executed (<font color="#000080">by unknown non-actors, with panache, with craft and patience, without a breath of sentimentality, using only puppets</font>). A (<font color="#000080">breakthrough feature, essential piece of filmmaking, masterpiece</font>) from one of our greatest living filmmakers. </dl> <hr> <A HREF="default.html">[Home]</A> </BODY> </HTML>