Susan Granger’s VIDEO UPDATE for week of Friday, June 2nd:
“Snow Falling on Cedars” is a misty, murky murder mystery/romance set on an island off Puget Sound. Ethan Hawke plays a reporter covering the murder trial of a Japanese-American fisherman in 1950. The wife of the accused is his secret childhood love and the agonizing prejudice faced by Japanese-Americans during W.W.II surfaces. Directed by Scott Hicks (“Shine”), it’s over-orchestrated, over-edited, and heavy-handed – but beautifully photographed.
Actress Saffron Burrows is the muse of film-maker Mike Figgis. In his screen version of August Strindberg’s drama, “Miss Julie,” set in Sweden in 1894, he casts her a cruel, imperious aristocrat who forces her father’s footman, played by Peter Mullan, into an ill-fated, sado-masochistic, degrading affair.
For sci-fans: “Fortress 2: Re-Entry” is set in the not-too-distant future when Earth is controlled by a giant corporation called Men-Tel. Christopher Lambert plays a fugitive who is sent to a high-tech security jail cell from which escape is – theoretically – impossible.
For collectors: “The Thief,” a 1997 Oscar nominee as Best Foreign Language Film, is now available – in Russian with English subtitles. It’s a compelling and haunting look at life during Stalin’s regime in post-war Russia, told through the eyes of a six year-old boy.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Milos Forman’s “Man on the Moon” in which Jim Carrey cleverly captures the neurotic, eye-bulging essence of the late comedian Andy Kaufman. Nevertheless, in this uneven compilation of comedy shtick, what really motivated the brilliant yet baffling Kaufman still remains a mystery. Danny DeVito’s superb as his agent with Courtney Love as his girl-friend.