In the brief lull between the
avalanche of ImageOut films and the onslaught that is High Falls, I decided to
unwind… by watching a bunch of movies. To be honest, it was the last thing I
wanted to do, but the films I saw helped to remind me of some troubling yet
fundamental truths.
1.
Eating in a restaurant calls for a terrifying leap of faith.
If the notion of faceless strangers
preparing your food doesn’t already make you paranoid, it will after you see Waiting…,
a game yet lame attempt at sweetly raunchy comedy a la this summer’s The Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Waiting… has its moments, but the only
thing that will be on your mind during the ride home from the theater is the
potential desecration of your next meal. Well, that and “the penis-showing
game.”
Writer-director Rob McKittrick
obviously spent time in the food service trenches before creating the wispy
script for Waiting…, which follows
the hijinks of the crew at Shenaniganz. It’s one of those restaurants lousy
with fake memorabilia and sub-par grub where the weary servers contend with
crazed diners and a hostile kitchen staff when they’re not trying to bed (or at
least stall) each other.
The story, which involves one guy
trying to get out of the waiting game and one guy trying to break in, isn’t so
much a plot as it is an excuse for occasionally funny set pieces involving
stomach-churning revenge on the nastier customers and tricking various
co-workers into looking at an array of phallic compositions.
Smirky Ryan Reynolds is the star of
the film, but Waiting… belongs to
indispensable character actors Luis Guzmรกn as the oversexed cook and Alanna
Ubach as the foul-mouthed powderkeg. The film’s ultimate message probably had
something to do with following your dream or whatever, but the most important
lesson here is an ancient one: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
2.
The world is full of shortsighted hypocrites.
Alcohol is acceptable, as are
recreational and prescription drugs. And while thumbsucking doesn’t exactly
lend itself to social situations the way the aforementioned therapies do, it’s
a harmless, legal way of taking the edge off. So if Justin (Lou Pucci), our
hero from Thumbsucker, wants to do a little germy self-soothing, what’s
the problem?
Justin’s dad (Vincent D’Onofrio)
doesn’t hide his disgust with the infantile habit, perhaps because of all the
correction money paid to Justin’s hippie orthodontist (Keanu Reeves). But the
debate coach (Vince Vaughn) notices that Justin seems distracted, which leads
to a diagnosis of ADHD and a Ritalin prescription that turns the former
introvert into a cold, debating fiend. Add some flashbacks, dream sequences,
and a starstruck mom (Tilda Swinton), and you might need a little Ritalin, too.
Thumbsucker is the latest in a long line of eagerly anticipated Sundance exports that
inevitably disappoint. It’s not without its charm — Reeves and Vaughn
stealing the odd scenes, with Pucci channeling the wistfulness of a Gilbert Grape-era Johnny Depp — but it
could best be compared to throwing a really ripe tomato against a brick wall:
Some of it stuck, some of it didn’t, and it went all over the place.
3.
Love is agonizing and should be avoided if possible.
We all conveniently forget this fact
until Wong Kar-wai reminds us. 2046 is his latest film and serves
as sort of a companion piece to earlier heartbreakers like In the Mood for Love and Days
of Being Wild, with damaged characters from both those works surfacing in
this one on their endless quest for connection. But Wong has made a career out
of keeping people who belong together apart.
2046 is ambitious and imperfect, though a viewer’s patience will be rewarded by this
Chinese box of a movie which finds Tony Leung reprising his role from Mood as Chow, a writer in 1960s Hong
Kong. The title of the film refers to both the number of the hotel room from
which he derives inspiration as well as the futuristic place he writes about
that contains swooning androids and a one-way bullet train. He’s also inspired
by the luscious women walking in and out of his life, usually with his help.
But no man could really be worthy of
these stunners: Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi (both star in the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha), as well as former
Wong leading ladies Carina Lau (Days),
Faye Wong (Chungking Express), and
Maggie Cheung (Days and Mood), who occasionally manifests as
Chow’s lost love Su Lizhen. Vintage cheongsams, neon, and rain have never
looked so sexy. Or sad. Or hopeful.
Waiting… (R), directed by Rob
McKittrick, is playing at Canandaigua Theatres and Tinseltown | Thumbsucker (R), directed by Mike Mills, is playing at Little Theatres and Pittsford Cinema
| 2046 (R), directed by Wong Kar-wai, is playing at Little Theatres through Thursday,
October 13.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2005.
