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AGGIES
THE BATTALION
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Festival of lights, earner
A star-studded event of Texas-sizeproportions is coming to the.
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TTALIGN
Beth Miller
Edit
Chief
#1055-4726) is published daily, MoniJ? |
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£ X '' «
Dr. T and The Women!
Richard Gere,
Helen Hunt,
Liv Tyler
Oct. 12, Paramount,
7 p.m.
Billy Elliot
Jamie Bell,
Julie Walters
Oct 14, Arbor I,
7:20 p.m.
By Matt McCormick
T/je Battalion
The world has had a fascination
with the silver screen ever since Char
lie Chaplin first donned a derby and
a fake mustache.
Today, few institutions celebrate
the spiritof motion picture production
like the film festival, where indepen
dent film projects square off with pro
duction-company movies
to produce a lineup of the
best material currently
showing.
, The Yams
Mark Wahlberg,
oct oa iV2 Phoen *
9-4o‘ lra,,,OUnt >
p.m.
Duets
Starring Gwyneth
Paltrow and Huey Lewis
Directed by Bruce Paltrow
The joys and perils of
karaoke singing do not come to
mind when one thinks of poten
tial blockbuster material.
Lucky for the viewers of this
nearly two-hour film, Duets
manages to reach beyond the
theme of karaoke to follow a dif
ferent fad altogether — the cur
rent Hollywood trend of taking
so-called searing looks at the cur
rent state of American society.
Duets is the story of six peo
ple and how their lives interact
with the karaoke circuit. In
many respects. Duets begs to be
compared to Pulp Fiction or
Two Days in the Valley. The
aforementioned films were both
movies that attempted to follow
an oddball group of people over
a short time period and illustrate
the similarities between the su
perficially different storylines.
This is what Duets attempts
to do; unfortunately, it never re
ally connects these separate sto-
These festivals draw not only film enthusiasts,
but also professionals from within the industry
who participate in panel discussions to give the
enthusiasts an inside scoop on the Hollywood-
style dirty work.
Texas A&M students need not travel to Holly
wood to experience this carnival of characters —
just to the town down the road, Austin.
Spanning eight days, Oct. 12 to 19, the seventh
annual Austin Film Festival will host a variety of
different films, many of which have already re
ceived rave reviews from other festivals, such as
the Cannes Film Festival.
Of particular interest will be the regional pre
miere of the much anticipated film, Crouch
ing Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring Chow
Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Directed by
Ang Lee (The Ice Storm), this period
piece/martial arts flick blew away audi
ences at this year’s Cannes Festival.
The new film by David Mamet (The
Spanish Prisoner), State and Main, boasts an
exceptional cast, including Alec Baldwin,
/IftSSX
Win Mal kovich
Oct ftp Def °e
V^r ,o, ' nt ’
Sarah Jessica Parker, William H. Macy and David
Paymer.
Robert Altman’s Dr. T and the Women will
also be showing at the festival. The film, which
stars Richard Gere, Helen Hunt and Liv Tyler,
soon will be opening locally.
The pride of the Austin Film Festival is its
Screenwriter’s Conference, held Oct. 12 to 15.
In those four days, more than 70 industry pro
fessionals will participate in more than 45 pan
els on a variety of screenwriting subjects. These
panels are unique because the meeting rooms are
usually small, allowing for a more one-on-one
experience than some festivals, like Toronto,
where people are jampacked into a single,
huge room.
Many of these panels will offer a set
ting conducive to asking questions and re
ceiving feedback from people who are
successful in the movie business.
Among those attending this
year’s festival are screenwriters
Shane Black (Lethal Weapon,
The Long Kiss Goodnight),
Bill Broyles, (Apollo 13, En-
State and Main
Alec Baldwin,
Charles Burning
Oct. 14, Paramount,
7 p.m.
trapment, Cast Away) and Academy Award-winner
Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, A Civil Action).
“I really enjoy the Austin festival,” Black said.
“When I go to other festivals, I often spend a lot
of time in my room or walking around the town.
At the Austin Fest, I spend all day at the seminars,
listening to my heros and my friends and picking
up information that I can use myself.”
There are a variety of passes available for
those interested in attending the festival. For
those interested in just watching films, there will
be a $41 pass good for all films shown during the
festival, and individual tickets will be sold at all
theaters prior to showtime. Of particular in
terest to college students is the all-inclusive
film pass. With $195 and proof of college
enrollment, students will be able to attend
all showings and participate in all panels
during the eight-day festival. The normal
registration fee is $410 for other at
tendees.
More information concerning
films and panels at this year’s
Austin Film Festival, is avail-
[ able by calling 1-800-310-
FEST or by logging on at
www.austinfilmfestival.com.
rylines in a way that is clever
or complete.
As is the case in many ensem
ble movies, most of the characters
are one-dimensional and totally
dependent upon the actor’s
charisma for any originality.
Make no mistake about this,
even though her daddy is direct
ing, this is not a Gwyneth Pal
trow movie. In fact, she is only
on screen for about 20 minutes
of the picture, but during that
time, she reaffirms why Ameri
ca is so smitten with her.
Huey Lewis is appropriately
funny but vastly underused.
Maria Bello is one of this film’s
sweetest surprises, managing to
play the tough, yet vulnerable,
woman to perfection.
Director Bruce Paltrow cre
ates fairly competent scenes, but
the overall storyline wanders
and rambles, failing to come to
gether in a manner worthy of
such a cast.
The music, of course, is su
perb, with many of the cast ac
tually performing their own
karaoke routines.
Chow y,, r w? 0j
Mi chelieY~ a L>
Oct 1% a Y 00 * 1
^ 7:20.
Duets is one of those films
that is superficially entertaining
and great until one thinks about
what actually happened. Then
one realizes, had it not been tor
the solid acting, they would
have bailed on the movie long
ago. Do not expect too much,
because this film fails to deliver
all that it promises. (Grade: C-)
— Matt McCormick
Meet the Parents
Starring Ben Stiller and
Robert DeNiro
Directed by Jay Roach
Every once in a while, a
movie comes along that is so
silly and slapstick that the pain
from laughing distracts from
the fact that viewers’ minds
have received a wel
come reprieve from thinking. ■
This is the case with Meet the
Parents, a new comedy that
proves a successful comedy only
has to do one thing — make the
audience laugh like hell.
Parents is the story of Greg
Focker (Stiller), who is in love
with the perfect woman, or so
he thinks, until he travels home
to meet her parents. Greg
quickly discovers that his po
tential father-in-law, Jack
(DeNiro), is not really a retired
florist, but an ex-CIA agent.
Hilarious hi-jinks ensue as
Greg’s attempts to impress Jack
go horribly awry.
This movie is not long on
plot, but the jokes are fast and
furious — including a running
joke involving a play on Greg’s
last name, which is one vowel
away from — well, you know...
ill.
Director Jay Roach (both
Austin Powers and Mystery,
Alaska) keeps the tone of the
film light. He shamelessly ex
ploits a vast array of absurd sit
uations to get more laugh for
the buck.
Stiller continues to demon
strate a general likability cou
pled with an excellent sense of
comic timing. But, much like
his performance in Analyze
This, DeNiro serves up most of
the comedy.
This film really does not try
to be anything other than a first-
rate comedy. Forget romance,
forget being moved by perfor
mances — the only movement
a person is likely to experience
during this movie is a bowel
movement from laughing so
hard. (Grade: B)
— Matt McCormick
Need to get some
“real world”
work experience?
Attend the Co-op Career Fair
and see how you can benefit from
participating in co-op...
Co-op Career Fair
October 9 & 10
Zachry Building Floors 1&2
8:30 AM — 4:00 PM
Cooperative Education
TAMU Career Center
| http://co-opweb.tamu.edu
^ 209 Koldus ♦ 845-7725
Evolve into your
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October 9, 2000
October 10, 2000
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Alcoa Fujikura Ltd.
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ST Microelectronics
Solatia, Inc.
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Texas Instruments
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Walt Disney World
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