Limited runs and special events:
@ Facets, 1517 W. Fullerton, 773/281-4114: The Slaughter Rule (Jan. 24 – 30), MC5*A True Testimonial (Feb. 19), Dead Alive: Final (Feb. 28, Mar. 1 – 6)
@ Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312/846-2600: The Merry Widow – directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Edward Everett Horton (Jan.18, 22); The Student Prince In Old Heidelberg - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Ramon Novarro (Jan. 26)
@ WNEP Theater, 3209 N. Halsted, 773/296-1100 (reservations): The Neutrino Project – Saturdays (Jan. 18 – Feb. 1)
@ U of C doc films, gay series Thursdays, see www.docfilms.uchicago.edu or (773) 702-8575. Jan. 16, Aimee and Jaguar: WWII. Berlin.Jann. 23 Eyes of Tammy Faye and Scout's Honor. Jan. 30 Trembling Before God. All screenings: $4 each (except for Trembling Before G-d, free). At the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. at the U. of Chicago. Free parking on the street and in campus lots (after 4 p.m.).
In theaters:
Confessions of A Dangerous Mind (Miramax): George Clooney's admirable and ambitious directorial debut enters your head like a cross between A Beautiful Mind and Auto Focus. Based on the autobiography of TV game show (The Dating Game, The Gong Show) groundbreaker Chuck Barris (played by Sam Rockwell), the movie memoir takes some bizarre and entertaining turns when we learn that Barris, in addition to being in the entertainment industry, also claims to have worked for the CIA as an assassin. Rockwell is the embodiment of the young Barris and he brings an elfin energy to the role, and Drew Barrymore is uncharacteristically restrained, yet believable, as Barris's long-suffering love interest Penny. Julia Roberts's turn as fellow assassin Patricia is minor to say the least. Eternal bachelor Clooney's camera spends a lot of time on Rockwell's beautiful, bare bottom, which made me wonder if he had anything he wanted to confess. B+
25th Hour (Touchstone): Had I seen it sooner, Spike Lee's most mature and most Hollywood movie, 25th Hour, might have made it into my end of the year 'best-of' list. Based on David Benioff's debut novel, Lee's movie adaptation takes us into Monty Brogan's (Edward Norton) last day as a free man before turning himself in to the authorities to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence for drug dealing. The people around him, including his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), his father James (Brian Cox), his 'employers' Nikolai (Levani Outchaneichvili) and Kostya (Tony Siragusa), and his two closest male friends prep-school teacher Jakob (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and stockbroker Francis (Barry Pepper), do what they can to make his last day memorable. Elements of Monty's personality reveal themselves through flashbacks (when he first meets Naturelle, for example) and a poetry-slam like dialogue with his own reflection in the bathroom mirror of a bar where he rails against the residents of New York (including the Chelsea Boys) and then comes to his senses, accepting responsibility for the actions that led him to his fate. Part homage to Lee's beloved home, 25th Hour is also full of images of a post-9/11 New York, rebuilding itself. In a way, Monty is like New York, and must also begin to reconstruct himself. B+
On DVD:
A Regular Frankie Fan (Liberty International/Magick Films/Lighthead Prod.): 2003 marks the 25th anniversary of the first time that I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the historic Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. I spent nearly every Saturday night, during the summer of 1978, at the midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Narrated by Paul Williams, A Regular Frankie Fan is a loving and loony documentary from 2000 about The Rocky Horror Picture Show experience and the cross-dressing and sexually ambiguous cult following that it has inspired. Bringing together people from all walks of life, RHPS provided, as one interview subject put it, a place where people 'can be freaks and still fit in.' There are countless RHPS romances and the documentary also includes and RHPS wedding. Rabid RHPS fans have scrapbooks of their devotion to the cult classic and undying loyalty to RHPS creator Richard O'Brien. This brief documentary also includes scenes from the 'pre-show' and 'virgin sacrifice' activities, as well as footage from an RHPS convention in its special features. C
Circuit (TLA Releasing/Jour de Fete/Sneak Preview Entertainment): Sculpted and hot Jonathan Wade Drahos (whose last name, spelled backwards, is 'So hard') plays John, 'from Illinois,' an openly gay cop in the small conservative town where he grew up. On the advice of his superior, he packs up and relocates to a place where there are more people like him: West Hollywood. He temporarily moves in with his documentarian wannabe cousin Tad (Daniel Kukan), Tad's estranged lover Gill (musical theater star Brian Lane Green) and Tad's new lover circuit DJ Julian (Darryl Stephens). Shortly after his arrival, Tad and Gill take John to his first Hollywood party where he meets rent boy/junkie/plastic surgery addict Hector (Andre Khabbazi). John finds his own place to live and soon finds a place to fit in among the club-goers and circuit boys. Along the way we meet some other shady characters including HIV-positive stripper Bobby Rocks (singer Paul Lekakis) and party promoter Gino (TV's Greatest American Hero William Katt). We also meet some nice people, including Gino's abused spouse Louise (Nancy Allen of Carrie and Dressed To Kill fame) and Nina (Kiersten Warren). Former Playgirl Man of The Year turned filmmaker Dirk Shafer, who also co-wrote the screenplay, has an eye for detail, and even though the predictable elements of Circuit (drug overdoses, the dissolution of relationships, sexual excess) outweigh the surprises, the anti-drug message aimed at the circuit party boys comes through without being too preachy. DVD special features include an assortment of deleted scenes and the option to have the filmmaker's commentary while watching the drama unfold. C
On TV
Sundance Channel (check local listings for times)—Our Lady of the Assassins (Jan. 27), Scotland, PA (Jan. 18, 31), L. I. E. (Jan. 25)
Martin Luther King Day (January 20): Screening of documentary—St. Clair Bourne's John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk (Jan. 20)
'Anatomy of a Scene: Hedwig and the Angry Inch' (Jan. 19) 'Anatomy of a Scene: The Deep End' (Jan. 22)