For
once, the trailers don’t lie. X2: X-Men United is a really good
sequel — better than the first, actually, and maybe even in the same company
as Spider-Man (both are based on
comic books, hence the comparison). The action sequences are some of the finest
I’ve seen, and you couldn’t ask for much more from a story that features and
gives adequate screen time to the many unique characters. Director Bryan Singer
brings a refreshing change to the arid landscape with the rare summer sequel
that not only doesn’t just rehash the same situations as the original, but
flat-out breaks ground in sheer entertainment value.
           X2 takes off like a rocket and doesn’t think of letting up for a second — save
during the obligatory “romantic tension” scenes — until the final
credits start to roll. It’s set not long after the first film, with the Mutant
Registration Act still being bandied about Washington. Its creator, Senator
Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison), is now dead-set against the act, the passing of
which seems imminent after X2‘s
opening scene, in which a mutant named Nightcrawler infiltrates the White House
and comes within an inch or two of killing the president.
           (In case you’re completely
unfamiliar with the whole mutant thing, a small percentage of the world’s
population has special powers obtained through various forms of mutation. It’s
a thinly veiled attempt to show the plight of the outcast minority of your
choice: black, gay, Japanese, or, more timely, Arabic.)
           The first X-Men film concentrated on a battle between two different groups of
mutants. Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), or the Martin Luther King,
Jr. of the equation, runs a school for gifted children in Westchester County,
in hopes of helping mutants eventually integrate themselves into society.
Meanwhile, The Brotherhood of Evil, led by Erik Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen), wants
to physically punish the humans who refuse to accept his kind. As the title
suggests, in X2, the mutants unite to
battle a common human enemy, General William Stryker (Brian Cox).
           One of the things that made the
first X-Men picture so entertaining
was the decision its creators made not to bog the story down by showing the
origin of each character. In fact, aside from a brief opening depicting a young
Lehnsherr becoming Magneto, we don’t really learn the genesis of any of the other dozen or so mutants.
Part of X2‘s story revolves around
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) trying to regain enough of his memory to learn his own
origin, but that’s about it. While each character from the first flick is back
(except Toad and Sabretooth, of course), we see more of minor players Pyro,
Iceman, Jubilee, Colossus, and Shadowcat, in addition to a whole lot of
Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming). The latter’s scenes
alone are worth the price of admission. Bamf!
Before he
captured the top prize at Cannes for A Taste
of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami made three films, set in the northern Iranian
cities of Koker and Poshteh, which became known as his “Earthquake
Trilogy.” All three screen on successive nights, beginning May 7, at the
Dryden Theatre, and this week we’re going to focus on the first: Where
Is the Friend’s Home?
           Home? opens in a dingy Koker classroom, where we witness an overbearing teacher
belittle young Nematzadeh (Ahmed Ahmed Poor) because he didn’t do his homework
in a notebook. It’s the weeping Nematzadeh’s third warning, and the teacher
promises that if he screws up one more time, he’ll be expelled. As if that
weren’t enough hanging over an eight-year-old’s head, Nematzadeh takes a spill
on the way home, drops his books, and messes up his pants. His deskmate, Ahmed
(Babek Ahmed Poor), helps the boy up, gathers his books, and dusts off his
pants. Ahmed also accidentally picks up Nematzadeh’s school notebook and takes
it home.
           When he realizes the mistake he has
made, as well as the potentially devastating effect it could have on
Nematzadeh, Ahmed pleads with his mother to let him return the notebook. But
she’s not interested in his predicament, despite her son’s concerned and
repetitive begging. When he realizes arguing with his mother is futile, Ahmed
decides to take a chance and, when Mom isn’t looking, cheeses it up the winding
road to Poshteh.
           As the title suggests, Ahmed has
some difficulty finding Nematzadeh’s house, and the rest of Home? is all about his journey, which
reminded me somewhat of a Greek myth. Ahmed’s adventure pits him against
numerous adults, each of which is more unhelpful than the last. When they
aren’t ignoring Ahmed and his questions, they’re ordering him around like a
slave.
           Ahmed, on at least some level, sees
Iranian civilization as being trapped in a stagnant loop, and believes his
selfless act might be a step toward building a stronger and more caring
community. Kiarostami helps bring this point home by showing Ahmed attempting
to get help from two very different door-to-door salesmen. One is old, wise,
and very experienced (he helps Ahmed as much as he can), while the other is
young and crass (he ignores Ahmed, like nearly everybody else does). This plays
as a knock toward the generation of Iranians that came of age during the
Islamic Revolution.
           Kiarostami, who wrote, directed, and
edited House?, uses the screen and
various sounds to make Ahmed’s expedition into the unfamiliar Poshteh real.
Thanks to some careful camera placement and Wellesian shadows, we discover
what’s around every dark corner at the same time Ahmed does. Babek looks
genuinely upset throughout most of House?,
but he’s not nearly as entertaining to watch as Amin Maher, who also lights up
the screen in Kiarostami’s Ten (which
will screen at the Dryden this summer).
Interested
in raw, unsanitized movie ramblings from Jon? Visit his site, Planet Sick-Boy (www.sick-boy.com),
or listen to him on WBER’s Friday Morning Show.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2003.
