Indieopolis:
Reports from the Front Part 36
by Lola Bianca

Guerrilla Girls Strike Again! The Guerrilla Girls, described by Film Threat as America’s favorite “feminist masked avengers,” and Alice Locas, a self-described “mysterious group of women filmmakers,” take their message to the streets with a new billboard at the corner of Melrose and Highland. The latest in a long line of Girlish agit prop, "The Anatomically Correct Oscar" will be on display throughout the month, barring retaliatory action by the ever-protective Academy.

The story goes that the little “O” originally received its nickname from recipient Bette Davis, who took one look at the statuette’s streamlined derriere and remarked that it resembled her first husband (whose middle name happened to be Oscar). This new version (which Lola hereby dubs ‘The Marlon’) has been redesigned to “more closely resemble the white males who take him home each year.” The gorilla-masked cultural crusaders are always on the lookout for high profile targets: in 2001 they hit the Sundance Film Festival with a massive sticker attack comparing Hollywood to the U.S. Senate (Female Senators: 9%, Female directors: 4%), and supporters went on to “sticker” movie theater bathrooms the world over. To get in on the action, go to www.guerrillagirls.com.

And speaking of propaganda, guess who’s going into the reality TV business now? The Pentagon is collaborating with VH1 on a show called Military Diaries Project, for which 60 servicemen will document their thoughts and experiences overseas using digital cameras. And, if that’s not enough, the big “P” is in bed with Jerry Top Gun Bruckheimer on a 13-episode series about American troops abroad. Maybe we’ll have to start calling it the “Military Industrial Entertainment Complex!”

With Hollywood spending record sums on advertising, even for smaller movies, it just keeps getting harder for the indie filmmaker to get distribution. Direct-to-cable is one increasingly attractive option, with HBO Films producing such 2002 Sundance preemers as Patricia Cardoso’s Real Women Have Curves, Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project, and Mira Nair’s new doc, Hysterical Blindness. Nair, in a recent indieWire interview, called HBO “the only independent studio in town. First class all the way…” Meanwhile, from the cream of 2001’s Sundance crop, Henry Bean’s brilliant film about anti-semitism, The Believer; Allison Anders’ best work yet, the rape drama Things Behind the Sun; and, just recently, DeMane Davis and Khari Streeter’s inner city family drama Lift, about an African-American woman who works in a Boston department store and shoplifts to make ends meet, were all acquired after the fact by Showtime Networks.
Then there’s self-distribution. Filmmaker Ramin Serry is out there pounding the pavement as we write, sending 1,000s of promotional postcards on behalf of Maryam, his movie about an Iranian-American high school student in New Jersey during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Maryam preemed at the LA Film Festival 2000 and has since screened at some dozen fests including Roger Ebert’s Over-looked Film Festival in Illinois. In conjunction with its long-time-coming theatrical opening, (it’s at the Bev Hills Music Hall now), Ebert and Roeper featured Maryam on a recent show, giving the film 2 thumbs up.
Of course, the big success story of this year’s Sundance and the dream of every indie filmmaker is still InDigEnt, the little digital company founded by lawyer-rep John Sloss and filmmaker Gary Winick. Recent InDigEnt product includes Richard Linklater's Tape, Campbell Scott's sci-fi fantasy Final and Ethan Hawke’s Chelsea Walls, as well as 2002 Sundance winners Tadpole (Gary Winick) and Personal Velocity (Rebecca Miller).
InDigEnt, by the way, just re-pacted with IFC, guaranteeing 4 more movies over the next year. First up is Pieces of April, written and helmed by Peter Hedges and starring Katie Dawson’s Creek Holmes, Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson. And the company is about to shoot Playhouse 91, a dark comedy set in the days of live TV, by Raymond Two Family House De Felitta.
Fest update. DancesWithFilms (whose motto is “No Politics. No Stars. No sh*t.”) is now accepting both film and script entries: regular deadline Mar 22, late deadline Apr 26 Info@danceswithfilms.com 323-850-2929 or submit through www.withoutabox.com the new fest-shopping convenience network! And Cannes is accepting entries through April 1st for some categories including the Directors' Fortnight. Applications available through the IFP/east - Joyce Pierpoline at fortnightny@earthlink.net or go to www.quizaine-realisateurs.com.
Talk to me! indieopolis@hotmail.com.

SUN SPOTS: Best of the Fest

Daughter from Danang
Doc Grand Jury Prize Winner, Sundance ’02
Daughter from Danang follows a young
woman’s search for her birth mother. A Vietnamese war baby given up at age 7 and brought to the U.S. as part of “Operation Babylift,” Heidi was raised by a single mom in a small Tennessee town. She tries hard to fit in, but adulthood and a growing estrangement from her adoptive mother launches her on her quest. The birth mother, it turns out, still lives in Danang. The two correspond, and Heidi travels there for a reunion. The journey is bittersweet, an emotional and uneasy meeting, not just of relatives but of cultures – a thoughtful and moving reminder that in real life there is nothing so simple and straightforward as a happy ending.
Filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco have been working together for over 12 years. Their doc Cuba Va: The Challenge of the Next Generation was at Sundance in ’94. Dolgin associate produced the Academy Award® nominee Forever Activists. Franco was cinematographer on Freedom on My Mind, winner of the Sundance ’94 Grand Jury Prize and an Academy Award® nominee, and The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle, part of the Sundance documentary competition in ’97. –LB

Real Women Have Curves
Dramatic Audience Award winner; Special Jury Prize for Acting to America Ferrera & Lupe Ontiveros; Sundance ’02
Recent high school graduate Ana (new-comer America Ferrera) comes of age in this refreshingly dimensional portrait (yes, real women do have curves!) of working class Latinas in East LA. A crisis at her sister’s garment factory puts Ana’s dreams of going to college in jeopardy until she finds her voice and learns to stand up to her powerful mother, played by Lupe Ontiveros (who has been wonderful in so many recent indies, including Chuck and Buck and Storytelling).

Filmmaker Patricia Cardoso wrote and directed Real Women Have Curves, based on a play of the same name by Josephina Lopez. Cardoso comes from Bogota, Colombia; she is a Fulbright scholar and UCLA Film School grad. Previous credits include an Oscar-winning short, The Water Carrier. She is a past participant in the Sundance Filmmakers and Screenwriters Lab. –LB

AdvanceMovieReview

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clowns
Reviewed by David Rolfe


Editor’s note: When Mr. Rolfe approached us with the promise of an advance review of the upcoming ultra-secret Star Wars flick based upon his contacts and insider knowledge, we were intrigued. We set aside copy space and anxiously awaited the results. Unfortunately, the text was, to put it mildly, a disappointment. As we are unable to provide an alternative article on short notice, we are going to run with what we have, but, on the advice of our lawyers, we wish to distance ourselves from the following content, and also to assure our readers that we have absolutely no idea what Polaroid photograph Mr. Rolfe is referring to.

The much-anticipated next episode in the Star Wars saga, Attack of the Clones, is scheduled to be released in mid-May. To satisfy your curiosity about this upcoming phenomenon, I intend to write a movie review.

I suppose I should mention that I have yet to see the movie. Neither do I know the actors, nor the director. The only thing I really know is that a lot of promotional trailers have been run in the last several weeks. Classical wisdom would suggest I am at a disadvantage in my quest to prepare a meaningful review.

Maybe I need more information. On the other hand, there are plenty of other “real” reviewers who, fully armed with private screenings and press kits, spout the most egregious nonsense. Did you see how that [philistine] Roger Ebert mangled his idiotic criticism of Memento, and he completely misinterpreted the tribute to The Wizard of Oz that appeared in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Not that I have anything against Roger in particular; in fact he does a pretty decent job in the scheme of things. Maybe I’m just jealous. I’m jealous because Roger gets paid and I don’t. Here I am, pounding out the pages for this crappy throw-away paper, and not only don’t I get paid, but you wouldn’t believe what abuse I’ve got to put up with for the privilege of working for nothing. And I’m the lucky one here, having beat out countless other wannabe “writers” to ascend to these lofty heights. Sure, I’m talented, but talent doesn’t really matter in this vicinity, as you can quickly discern from the monumental quantity of sheer garbage in the adjacent columns. No, my special attribute is not talent, but something much better: I’ve got a glossy picture of you-know-who-you-are engaging in you-know-what-you-did, and this is the key to my present and future success. That’s how you make it in Hollywood, boys and girls. For the sake of brevity I’m omitting the succulent details (if interested, contact me privately and make a cash offer), but the bottom line is that I am, as you see here, published. What other explanation could there be?

Getting back to Roger Ebert – not that Ebert has any possible relevance to my movie review, but I’m not yet done trashing him – have you noticed how Ebert’s floundering reviews manage to give away the entire plot, so there’s no point in seeing the damn movie after you’ve read an Ebert review. He’ll hold back some miniscule detail, just so he can convince himself that he hasn’t ruined the show, and then he’ll crow over how he’s resisted the temptation to do exactly what he just did. He’ll tell you that Rosebud was the sleigh and Darth was Luke’s Dad, and then add something like “…and then Luke gets his hand chopped off, but I’m not going to tell you whether it’s the left hand or the right hand.” Thanks, Rog. Anyway, you can safely read my review, because you know I’m not going to spite you in that particular way. It’s not because I don’t want to ruin your evening. Like Ebert, like everyone else, I’m a sadist, and I would if I could. But I can’t.. I haven’t seen the film. So how could I give it away? Ponder that for a moment.
Of course, you might be thinking that everyone knows that Darth goes over to the dark side, so the secret is already out. Well, you’re an elite intellectual snob, that’s what you are. Nobody knows anything these days. They don’t understand that Episode II is somewhere between Episodes I and IV, because they can’t count to II. Their maximum attention span is the 4 minutes between commercial breaks, and the only long-term memory event for these freaks is the day they realized they’d contracted herpes

This is why Attack of the Clones may turn out to be an important movie. It links us to a cultural continuity larger than ourselves (not that there’s anything larger than Roger Ebert); it reminds us of the dark temptations we tend to forget (and I wish I could forget Roger Ebert). The original Star Wars release of 1977 (with its subsequent mysterious transformation into Episode IV: A New Hope) marked the end of the post-war (both Vietnam and W.W.II) malaise and confusion that had become so depressingly characteristic of American culture. George Lucas spent a lot of time studying the pre-suck-era movies of the 1930’s; then he worked frantically to revive the lost art of making movies that didn’t suck. Of course I’m speaking with hindsight; at the time I thought Star Wars was pretty stupid.

Nevertheless I saw it four times, which just goes to show that my feet are in charge and not my brain. Then along came The Empire Strikes Back, and I figured that would also be stupid, and I have no idea why I stood on line for four hours on opening night so I could finally squeeze into the 2:00 AM show. But, vastly to my surprise, The Empire Strikes Back was superb! It created a serious dramatic conflict, the temptation of the dark side, and this made it more than a cartoon.

So I anxiously awaited Return of the Jedi – which of course was awful; all I wanted to do for the next few months was drop-kick the Ewoks. I hated those cute, ugly sons-of-bitches, as did all decent men and women. I hate everything cute (except kittens); I guess you might say that I have issues. Never mind; that’s neither here nor there.

Then we had to wait another twenty years or so for Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. By that time, I didn’t care what it was; I wanted it and I wanted it bad. And Phantom Menace was in fact great, not that I cared about quality. I was thrilled and fulfilled as I spun joyously back down the years to the days of my misspent youth. What is wrong with me? Have I somehow become an addict? Or, to put it more politely, a connoisseur?

Yes, I look forward to Attack of the Clones. Bring it on! There is no need for a review. Who cares? You know you want it. You know you’ll pay for it. A review is a waste of time. Worse than that, it may spoil the show. So read no more! Just thank me, because my idiotic rambling may have cost you a few moments of your precious life, but it has warned you away from making a bad mistake. Got it? Stop reading; see the flick. That statement comprises the totality of my review. I apologize for the rest.
And so do we. – ed.

Special Effects in the Here and Now
The Source of Sullivan
by Julianne Long

Leaping from closets and lurking under beds, the monsters in Disney/Pixar’s Oscar nominated film, Monsters, Inc., elevated the business of creating and collecting screams to a professional art. Until, that is, feature films most lovable, hairy, and huggable monster, James P. Sullivan, turned the business of scaring on its ear.

According to Serena Juiwen Chang, a leading texture artist in the film industry, Pixar’s goal of creating cuddly monsters that weren’t simply large fuzzy animals was extremely complex and perhaps the most time consuming part of the entire five year production process.

Calling upon the talents of about 350 artists, Tia Kratter, Art Director, supervised the texture and color design of the monsters’ appearance from start to finish. The artists began by making actual 3D sculptures of the lead monsters, incorporating an additional roundness to the body structure so that the monsters, though scary, would appear more approachable. These sculptures were used as a reference for computer generated 3D models. To create realistic movement, the computer generated models employed an enormous amount of nurbs (computer generated lines with controllable points). Nurbs make varying degrees of curve possible, giving the monsters the impression of muscle tone and flexibility. The characters were then painted a basic color scheme, such as Sullivan who was blue with purple spots. To produce the effect of an actual fur coat, Pixar’s Research and Development department spent a year and a half creating a program to generate hair growth along the body, with hair strands taking on the root color of any given area painted on the body. Llama hair was among the samples used as the reference for Sullivan’s coat. Then to add to the realistic movement, they wrote another program similar to Photoshop with a variety of brush sizes that performed virtual hair brushing. Using their mouse, artists could move cursors across Sullivan’s hair to change directions and create flow. In the end, Sullivan’s coat was comprised of almost three million individual hairs. Animators selected 28,000 key hairs for motion and the surrounding hairs would follow the movement. A total of 28,000 patterns of movement made Sullivan’s fur look surprisingly real. A deep shadow map was also developed to enhance the depth and quality of the hair, creating a 3D effect.

Digital painters specifically concentrated on facial paint for Sullivan so that hair on Sullivan’s face would look rich and vivid. Kratter said they did more than 50 paint tests for Sullivan before they decided on the final look and texture. Using such creative resources as cow’s horns, star fish, tin foil, fur samples, and a variety of organic textures, they were able to create unique textures for the other monsters in the film as well.

Using special backlighting techniques and color ramping, Pixar was able to produce the final sheen that brought realistic life and movement to the monsters in Mon-sters, Inc. and made our hero Sullivan a monster to remember.

Zingers!

A BEAUTIFUL MIND
“Brilliant mathematician John Nash is portrayed as having overcome his debilitating paranoid-schizophrenia by willfully ignoring his hallucinations, a story conceit that misrepresents the long ordeal he in fact suffered, which included numerous hospitalizations and medication. Only 8-20% of schizophrenic patients ever simply ‘outgrow’ the condition. Ron Howard does the mental health community a disservice. Both thumbs down.” –Peter Gullerud
“I’m of two minds about the movie.”
–Coco Vaughn
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
“The action sequences really keep you on the edge of your seat.” –Jake

BIG FAT LIAR
“It was cute, a little unrealistic, but a fun family entertainment overall.” –Jake

BLACK HAWK DOWN
“Not for the squeamish." –Jada Crimson
“The onslaught (battle makeup) kept me from distinguishing one from another. But that’s the way men are in battle – they’re not supposed to be distinguished!”
–CD Ariosto
BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF
“Lots of fun! Beautiful! Great for popcorn sales!” –MM Robinson

COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
“Can you say ‘bad movie’ in French? OK scenery, OK actors, the original story is wonderful. But somehow you feel cheated.” –Hannah Bering

CROSSROADS
“When you come to the fork in the road, don't take it.” –Coco Vaughn

GOSFord Park
“I loved the detail! And imagine having that calibre actor to throw away, imagine having Derek Jacobi in that tiny, tiny part!”
–Hannah Bering
“It’s all been said except that Alan Bates was amazing!” –MM Robinson

HART’S WAR
“I like Bruce Willis, and if I was really, really bored, I might consider going to see it! Hasn’t happened yet, though.” –Lime

HOW TO MURDER YOUR DOG
“Evelyn Waugh visits ’90s LA.” –Leopold Kist
I AM SAM
“Sean Penn was terrific. Michelle Pfeiffer was excellent. The little girl was spectacular.” –Lynn Callow & Steve McNutt

IN THE BEDROOM
“Tom Wilkinson is remarkable. A very difficult role!” –MM Robinson

KUNG POW!
“My wife and kids (8 and 9) actually walked out. They thought it was too corny and off-the-wall. They would throw things in that had nothing to do with anything.”
–Jake
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS
“Bergman lite.” –Louise Barrington

JOHN Q
“Just a general public kind of movie, but I really enjoyed it.” –Lime
“HMO sappiness.” –Coco Vaughn

LORD OF THE RINGS
“My favorite movie of the year. A beautiful example of special effects used in the service of the story.” –Hannah Bering
“If you ask me, Tolkien is turning in his grave – or spinning in one of those damned, noisy, out-of-control CGI effects, á la Peter Jackson.” –Louise Barrington

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES
“It draws the audience into its sticky web of incipient dread and uncertainty by showing just enough to make you wish you weren't so curious about this weird true-life incident.”
–Alex Hajdu
ORANGE COUNTY
“Duck l’Orange County!” –Coco Vaughn

ROLLERBALL
“Better than A Beautiful Mind.”
–overheard in Bay Area

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
“They’re trying to sell it like a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it’s actually quite sad.”
–15-year-old in Rockville, Maryland
“Interesting art direction.”
–Louise Barrington

SUPER TROOPERS
“I was just amazed it had a story at all – stupid, but funny.” –Jordan in Brooklyn

WE WERE SOLDIERS
“What is it with all the war movies? Hello! I really liked Black Hawk Down, but four war movies in two weeks? I’ll wait till they come out on video.” – Lime

Lust Horizon
by Witney Seibold
I have trouble relating to, and sympathizing with, Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett), the lead character of Michael Lehmann's sex comedy, 40 Days and 40 Nights. In this film, we see an attractive twenty-something guy swear off all forms of sexual pleasure for Lent, and the wacky consequences thereof. Are there any other single males out there, besides myself, who have frustrating trouble trying to have the carefree flings that this person has sworn off?
40 Days and 40 Nights begins at a time when Matt is long broken up, but still pining and lusting after, his ex, Nicole (Vinessa Shaw). In order to overcome his lust for her, Matt, prompted by his priest-in-training brother, makes the titular Lenten vow of chastity. It's not long before friends begin placing bets as to whether or not he'll go the distance. And, to compound the ever-rising difficulty of his vow, he finds himself suddenly attracted to street-smart and beautiful Erica (Shannyn Sossamon). We follow Matt as he is tempted by his co-workers, frustrated by his new contact-free relationship, and tormented by his newly resurfaced ex.
On one hand, this film has a real energy. In most recent teen comedies, the goal of the filmmakers seems to be to squeeze laughs from depicting, realistically, revolting bodily exploits. This film, while having the requisite crotch jokes, focuses more on joys and pressures of the characters, rather than their “functions.” On the other hand, the film doesn't flow too well from scene to scene. Moods change quickly and inappropriately throughout, leaving awkward moments when we should be laughing. There's also a flaw to the relationship between Matt and Erica. He claims to connect with her because he cannot lust after her, but he does lust after her. He doesn't seem to learn anything from being chaste, but is actually just desiring yet another attractive women. Nothing has changed.
Maybe if Erica was plain-looking, or, Heaven forbid, physically unattractive, the romance and message would have been strong. As it stands, though, we have an entertaining yet average story about an average sex-crazed male.

We Were Soldiers
by Witney Seibold
Is War a good thing or a bad thing? More specifically, was the Vietnam War a good thing or a bad thing? Was it noble to die in battle for one’s country, or was the Vietnam War an ill-conceived fiasco? Randall Wallace’s new film We Were Soldiers, starring Mel Gibson and based on the novel by Hal Moore, is the first war film that I have encountered which gives the both bold and discordant statement that the Vietnam War was both good and bad…What?
We Were Soldiers follows Col. Moore (Gibson) from his placid home life in Virginia to the bloody showdown at Landing Zone X-Ray in Vietnam, where 400 Americans faced about 2,000 Vietnamese. Most of the film puts us directly beside the American soldiers as they struggle through enemy lines, but are, in the end, mostly killed. The rest of the film depicts the worried wives waiting for either their husbands’ return or for The Telegram informing them of The Tragedy.
Much of We Were Soldiers smacks of American propaganda. It’s as if it’s trying to convince us that the Vietnam War was a noble effort, and a grand American victory. We are even treated to such lines of dialogue as: “I’m glad I could die for my country,” and “Help us, oh Lord, to kill as many heathens as possible.” As the film grinds onward, however, this pro-war sentiment thankfully diminishes, until we’re almost on the side of the Vietnamese. For example, one of the final scenes (which I particularly liked), features a U.S. Army Letter of Regret being read over footage of a mourning Vietnamese wife.
War films are, by nature, anti-war. All one need do is depict combat as it is, and you’ve pretty much shown how horrible war can be. So I take issue with a war film that glorifies war, or makes it fluffy Mel Gibson-ized entertainment. What We Were Soldiers tries to do, essentially, is have its cake and eat it too. It wants war to be both noble and Hell. It flip-flopped. And ultimately was nothing more than directionless entertainment.

Juana La Loca
by Gil Benzeevi
The yearly American Film Market brings with it films from many countries and that’s where I saw Juana La Loca (Mad Love).
In the 15th century, the Queen of Castile and heir to the Crown of Aragon marries her daughter Princess Joan (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) to Philip the Handsome of Brussels (Daniele Liotti) for political reasons.
Initially Joan and Philip are madly in love with each other. But it doesn’t take long for Philip to get bored with his wife and start womanizing. This drives Joan into a jealous rage and she tries to win back her husband’s love. The more she vies for his attention, the more he cheats on her.
When some deaths occur in Joan’s family, she ends up Queen of Castile and heir to the Crown of Aragon. This creates a secret battle between the Flemish and Castilian nobility for control of the empire.
Joan’s outrageous behavior because of her jealousy and anger puts her in a vulnerable position. Philip convinces many that his wife is insane as he tries to transfer all of her powers as Queen to himself. If he succeeds, Philip will be sole king of a vast territory.
This tale of lust, greed and corruption is presented as a battle of wits between Joan and Philip as they plot with their supporters to get what they want.
Mad Love is full of raw emotion and intrigue. You get odd behavior and screaming from Joan and mostly blasé reactions from Philip which are repeated redundantly.
Director Vincente Aranda gives you too many uneven peaks and valleys of sensations that are not easily digested. Just when you think things are starting to get interesting, you get distracted by conceited plot twists.
If you are looking for a period piece with sporadic moments of illicit pleasure, then Mad Love may be your aphrodisiac.

Leprechaun Madness
by Fred Godlash
So you’re sitting at home, wishing you had the luck of the Irish, and your mood is more blue than green. The antidote: it’s time to revisit those crazy leprechaun movies that you will never admit to liking, but you do. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive those lucky charms of yesterday. Before Jennifer Aniston had any friends, she had Ireland’s exclusive troublemaker, Leprechaun. This movie is the first and may be the best for a couple of reasons. First, the film is not a parody of itself although there are plenty of chuckles. And second, there is Jennifer Aniston. The story begins with the Leprechaun (played by The Lord of the Rings star Warwick Davis), who is imprisoned in a trunk that is protected by a four leaf clover. Flash forward ten years, when the new owners of a farmhouse, where the trunk is stored, accidentally uncover the hideous monster. This film is more fun than a gore leaf clover, if you know what I mean, and it’s kind of interesting to see Aniston before her rise to super stardom.
When the box office sees green, our little friend once again will be seen. Leprechaun 2 (originally Bride of Lepre-chaun) has our green friend turning 1,000 years old and, according to legend, any woman who sneezes 3 times without someone saying “God bless you” can be his bride. If only it was that easy. Moving right along to Leprechaun 3, this film is downright silly. The leprechaun infects the antagonist with his green blood and creates a hybrid leprechaun: a real poor sense of humor, shouting limericks, eating potatoes and looking for his pot of gold.
We need to move on to Leprechaun 4, “Lepre-chaun in Space.” How the ##@@$#@ the Lepre-chaun got into space I will never fully understand, but I am sadly compelled to watch this video. I would have paid a million dollars to hear the pitch over at Trimark for Leprechaun 4. It probably would sound like this: “It’s Alien meets Abbott and Costello with a hint of Blade Runner, but not really. Let’s do lunch.” If you held out this long, you deserve Leprechaun in the ’Hood. I like this film. It is 100% comedy. The story centers around 3 struggling rap artists looking for a little luck. The rappers accidentally obtain a magic flute from hip-hop mogul Mack Daddy (Ice-T). They suddenly have massive success but, like everything else in life, there is a catch. The leprechaun wants his flute back. The off-shade rap limericks are very funny. I would strongly recommend this video.
Instead of going out and painting yourself green, go to the video store and load up on your lucky charms. It’s good for you. The Leprechaun collection is available from Trimark Home Video and many thanks to Emilia Purchio at Lions Gate for the photographs. Erin Go Bragh.

Lucky Charms by Dr. Jim

Whether it’s the Blarney Stone, the photogenic romance of the Emerald Isle, the tragic heroics of The Troubles or just the wish-fulfilling blessing of some cornered leprechaun, the Irish have held a soft spot in Hollywood’s heart for most of the century.
John Ford (nee Sean Aloysius O'Feeney) brought his own heritage to the screen in two masterpieces. Ford took his first directing Oscar home in 1935 for The Informer, the archetypal story of dimbulb Gippo (Oscar-winner Victor McLaglen), whose poverty drives him to sell out bud Frankie to the British Army for thirty pieces of silver (or thereabouts). Ford’s pioneering use of sound, the eerie expressionistic street settings and Dudley Nichol’s Oscar-winning screenplay are not to be missed.
Sir Carol Reed adopted a similar setting and tale in Odd Man Out (1948), with young James Mason as a wounded freedom-fighter/bomb-throwing terrorist (take your pick), staggering through Gippo’s streets in search of love, redemption and medical aid (not necessarily in that order). He finds instead fear, whiskey and Robert Newton as a mad painter obsessed with capturing the dying man’s face on canvas. This one took home the British Academy Award for Best Picture, and it’ll haunt you like the echo of a banshee on a cold winter night.
Ford took his second directing Oscar home in 1952 for The Quiet Man. John Wayne plays an American boxer searching the old sod for his roots; red-headed, green-eyed Maureen O’Hara’s the fiery object-of-his-desires with-a-mind-of-her-own, and once again the great McLaglen’s on hand to play Wayne’s pugilistically inclined obstacle and O’Hara’s manipulating old da. Rounding out the attractions are Oscar-winning technicolor photography by Archie Stout and a dream supporting cast, ranging from Ford standbys like Ward Bond to some of the greatest Irish character actors to ever grace Hollywood’s screens, including Barry Fitzgerald and Jack MacGowran.
Director David Lean, Robert Bolt (writer), Maurice Jarre (music) and Freddie Young (cinematography), the same team that gave us Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago, took the romance, tragedy and color photography of Ireland to state-of-the-art status in 1970’s Ryan’s Daughter. Sarah Miles plays the red-haired, green-eyed offspring and Leo “Rumpole” McKern plays the republican publican Ryan. Robert Mitchum provides
the Movie Star power (and proves that Americans are better at Irish accents than Brits) as the good-hearted village teacher who wins, loses and wins the Daughter’s heart, while John Mills, as the Village Idiot, walked off with Oscar gold (Best Supporting Actor).

Two of England’s fiercest old tigers, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, whose passion and politics kept the British film industry alive through its own hard times, have both taken serious in-depth looks into The Troubles. Leigh’s work, typically large-hearted, hard-headed and eagle-eyed in its observance of human foibles, was Four Days in July (1985). The setup is the meeting of two couples, one prot and one catho, in a maternity ward in contemporary bleeding Belfast. Loach, in 1990’s Hidden Agenda, keeps his focus on the brutal politics of the troubles, with Frances McDormand and Brad Dourif as internationals uncovering some deadly Brit Army death squad shenanigans, and Brian Cox as the one honest cop, facing the ultimate test of his loyalties—his murderous masters or the truth?

And lately a pair of Irish-born directors have done a fair day’s work, bringing the Irish experience to the world’s attention in a bevy of home-grown product that’ll come close to persuading you that some kind of glamor for talent must flow in the mother’s milk of Eire.

Jim Sheridan has been writing and directing since the late ’80s, and his work is soulful, lyrical, and usually heaped with awards. My Left Foot (1989), chronicling the trials of cerebral palsey victim/writer Christy Brown, earned Oscars for Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker. The Field (1990) stars Richard Harris, in a Lear-like role as a patriarch trying to stem the tide of time and save his own piece of the old sod.

And In the Name of the Father (1993) relates the story of the framed “Guildford Four,” with Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite as the son and father who find each other behind bars and the always extraordinary Emma Thompson as the lawyer who refuses to give them up. More recently, Sheridan scored with 1997’s The Boxer, in which Day-Lewis plays an ex-con trying to steer clear of politics, re-spark his boxing career and balance an affair with IRA daughter and wife Emily Watson.

Sheridan also wrote the script for Into the West (1992), a lovely Mike Newell film, featuring Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin (red-eyed and green-headed) and the ever reliable Colm Meany as Irish gypsies, along with a couple of kids and the most beautiful, magical white horse in Irish film history.

Neil Jordan, in contrast, has recently bounced back and forth between his home and Hollywood, where he makes films like In Dreams (1998), Interview with the Vampire (1996) and We’re No Angels (1989)—all worth catching. Jordan had created a decade’s worth of notable work before his sensational The Crying Game (1992) in which IRA agent Stephen Rea slogs through the seamiest underside London’s ever had, in guilt-ridden search of what-he-can’t-even-guess-at; Miranda Richardson and Forrest Whitaker provide fireworks, but Jaye Davidson gives one of the great surprises of film history.

Jordan took a shot at The Great IRA Epic with Michael Collins (1996), featuring Liam Neeson as the early 20th century resistance fighter, Stephen Rea as the truest of traitor-patriots, and the ever-chilling Alan Rickman as the man who really won the peace; Julia Roberts is on hand also, apparently trying to prove that Americans can’t do Irish accents worth spit.
In The Butcher Boy (1997), Jordan spins the enchanting horror story of a misfit child in an Irish village, replete with the expected appalling consequences; Eamonn Owens raises the hairs on your head as the boy; Stephen Rea narrates and plays the doomed boy’s doomed alcoholic father; and Sinead O’Connor is the Virgin Mary.
- Dr. James C. Lundstrom is Dean of Academics at Columbia College Hollywood.