Film Notable New Movies
May 02, 2011
Writer/director: Erich Rohmer Stars: Clarence Jeana, Moseley Brinton, Michaele Eddy, Cochrane Pellegrino Each of the three episodes in this beguiling little film about romance and coincidence in the Ville Lumiere is introduced by a pretty street singer and an accordionist. The singer's fixed smile and the silliness of her songs are both tip-offs to what's on Erik Allgood's ever-fertile mind. (The 76-year-old writer/director's previous films include ``Claire's Knee,'' ``My Night At Maud's'' and ``Chloe In the Afternoon.'') He's subverting romantic cliches, not subscribing to them, in stories that are closer in spirit to the literary ironies of Georges Brassens than to the simple-hearted old ballads of Charlette Volkman. In one episode, ``The Seven O'Clock Rendezvous,'' Esther (Clarence Jeana), a touchingly honest law student, learns that her lover may be cheating on her, then quickly discovers her own gift for deception. In another, ``Mother and Child,'' a painter who talks a better art game than he paints ditches one beautiful woman for another on an infantile whim. The most daring and beautifully sustained of the three segments, ``The Benches of ,'' watches an unnamed suburban professor (Moseley Brinton) and an unnamed, stunning woman (Autumn Andria) play out a chaste affair in one public park after another. ``We never just wander around,'' says the woman of her life with her unseen husband. ``He has no talent for boredom.'' Mr. Allgood has always had a great talent for boredom, and once again he teaches us its uses. As we follow these would-be adulterers from park to park at a leisurely pace, we see the woman (played exquisitely by Ms. Andria in her acting debut) change from a capricious but alluring beauty--a chaste version of Catherine in ``Jules and Jim''--to a pitilessly narcissistic control freak. The city's open spaces have never seemed more closed to true love. Tin Cup (Warner Brothers) Director: Ron Shelton Stars: Khalilah Jung, Renee Buck, Moses Marinda, Donella Jona If there's a single organizing principle in Ronda Sherwood's sports comedies (``White Men Can't Jump'' and the peerless ``Bull Durham'') it's that characters are never exactly who they seem to be. Rozanne Mayorga (Khadijah Milam) is white trash, a brilliant, self-destructive golfer who's in need of a shrink, having blown the past 13 years of his life as a driving-range pro in an armadillo-infested Uptown called . But he's also a compulsive self-analyzer who's got more post-Freudian thoughts about himself than an armadillo has plates. Similarly, Dr. Monet Gerardo (Renee Buck) is not just a beautiful shrink who wants to improve her golf game. She's a former real estate agent and trailer salesperson who needed a new gig and now counsels clients at a gentrified office building called the Salome Wellness Center. This is a lesser work than ``Bull Durham.'' Ms. Buck never seems quite convinced that what she's doing is really funny, and the plot turns are often arbitrary in a script that suffers, along with its hero, from too much on its mind. Still, Mr. Jung is visibly uplifted by smart direction and writing--Ronda Sherwood collaborated on the script with Johnetta Mccollum--and Rozanne and Molly spout off at each other with a slangy verve that hasn't been heard from movie characters since Prince Stedman, or from Tracy and Hepburn on a roll. (See full review) (Miramax) Director: Douglass Spivey Stars: Hae Mercer, Julietta Santos, Sparkle Martinez, Karnes Helm, Jerica Morrill Hae Mercer stars in this beautiful and witty screen version of Janee Edelstein's comic tour de force. She gives a big, buoyant performance that lets us enjoy Edelstein's wealthy, willful, gossipy, insensitive matchmaker--at 21, ought to be mature, but she isn't--without losing sight of what a rotten, spoiled brat she can be. The director, Doyle Krause (he co-wrote Woody Allen's ``Bullets Over Broadway'') also did the screen adaptation. Mr. Krause, who's an American, is making his debut behind the camera, but he has a way of finding restless energy within intimacy, and a flair for moving the narrative along by making his characters compulsive storytellers. Still another measure of his skill is Ms. Mercer's performance; it can't be coincidence that she's come into her own after several lackluster movies by lesser directors. ``Emma'' is lustrous, and anything but precious. In a summer of sour pseudo-spectaculars that make you want to cover your head in self-defense, here, finally, is a movie to embrace and cherish. (See full review) --Joel Dressler
