(U.S., 1999)
  ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY; BEST DIRECTOR, SPIKE JONZE; BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE, CATHERINE KEENER

  Being John Malkovich tells the story of an unemployed puppeteer, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack), whose relationship with his absentminded wife Lotte (a brunette and frizzy-haired Cameron Diaz) and whose unappreciated talent and passion for puppeteering estrange him from the world and from himself.... His boss, Dr. Lester (Orson Bean) is 105 years old and obsessed with sex; the secretary has a speech impediment and does not know it, and his co-worker, Maxine (Catherine Keener) enjoys seducing Craig only to be entertained by his vulnerability.... After removing a heavy file cabinet to retrieve a lost document, Craig discovers a secret portal. On all fours, he peeks in, is sucked in, and realizes the passageway leads into the mind of "John Malkovich." At the end of this metaphysical tunnel Craig finds the opportunity of being the "master puppeteer" and of never being himself again. -- Cinephile

"Stakes out a completely new place and colonizes it with limitless imagination. Either "Being John Malkovich" gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains." * * * * -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

(CANADA, 1999)
  BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD
  TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

  Jeremy Podeswa's cleverly structured story takes place over an intense three day period, during a massive search for a missing child that has mobilized the entire city's attention. Gabrielle Rose (The Sweet Hereafter), a massage therapist who can't touch her daughter, treats the missing girl's mother (Molly Parker, Kissed). Mary-Louise Parker (Fried Green Tomatoes) is Roma, a cake decorator who can't taste. Philippe Volter (The Double Life of Veronique), a French eye specialist who is losing his hearing, is aided in building a "sound library" by Pascale Bussières (August 32nd on Earth). Daniel MacIvor (Eclipse) is the house cleaner Robert who believes he can smell love, and Brendan Fletcher plays the voyeur Rupert. These intersecting stories weave a layered yarn that brings a fresh touch to the theme of emotional disconnected relationships.

"The Five Senses is clearly one of the year's best films." * * * * * -- Bruce Kirkland, The Toronto Sun

(U.S., 1999)
  WINNER, GRAND JURY PRIZE
  SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

  Chris Smith's (American Job) madcap documentary about a beer guzzling Midwestern wannabe filmmaker took the Cannes, Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals by storm. Redneck auteur Mark Borchardt sees himself as the next Orson Welles, if only he can get a film made. His dream project is to shoot a feature length horror film called Northwestern. To raise the finances for his ultimate project, this unlikely filmmaker returns to an earlier unfinished project, a half hour B&W gory horror short entitled Coven. American Movie chronicles Borchardt's often desperate struggle over two years to raise funds (finally securing $3000 from his disgruntled Uncle Bill who then becomes the producer), cast the film from a local amateur theatre community, shoot it (even his reluctant mother takes a turn behind the camera), and against all odds, edit the film in time for its premiere at a local theatre. Unforgettable characters, agonizing pathos and sheer hilarity make this inspired documentary a remarkably satisfying experience.

"By far the most satisfying competition title to debut at Sundance 1999... Though technically a documentary, "American Movie" is that rarest of rarities: a riveting narrative of humor and heart." * * * * * -- Ray Greene, Box Office Magazine

(U.S., 1999)
  ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION FOR BEST ACTOR, RICHARD FARNSWORTH

  This immaculately simple and quietly moving cinematic piece will be seen as a profound departure for director David Lynch (Blue Velvet). Based on actual events, the story focuses on what may be one of the year's most unforgettable characters, Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth, The Grey Fox) as a stubbornly proud 73-year-old widower who lives with his speech-impaired daughter Rose (Academy Award-nominated Sissy Spacek, Affliction) in Laurens, Iowa. When he learns his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton, Paris, Texas) has had a stroke, he undertakes the 300 mile journey to Mt. Zion, Wisconson to visit his brother's bedside. Undaunted by ill health and having neither car nor driver's license, he sets out on a riding lawnmower. Alvin's five week journey down Wisconsin roads, past Iowa cornfields and alongside the Mississippi River also becomes a journey into his past and, as he and Rose travel, we get to know some of the crucial events in his family life.

"The Straight Story, a movie that is completely different from anything we have previously seen from Lynch ... is an example of an artist in peak form." * * * 1/2 -- James Berardinelli

(CANADA/UK, 1999)
  Atom Egoyan's (The Sweet Hereafter) eagerly awaited film is based on the novel by William Trevor. The film stars 18-year-old Elaine Cassidy as an innocent Irish girl who sets out on a journey to England in search of the young man who has made her pregnant. What begins as a simple journey becomes dramatically intense when she meets a compassionate older man (Bob Hoskins, Mona Lisa) who offers his help. Horror dawns on Felicia when she discovers that her travelling companion is none other than a sought-after English serial killer. Locked together in a complex and rivetting relationship, they confront each other in an encounter that forever changes them both.

"Aided by a uniformly superb cast, Egoyan triumphs in a pared-down film that makes chillingly impressive use of his signature themes, including voyeurism, denial and humans desperate to connect." * * * * -- Lael Loewenstein, Box Office Magazine

(SPAIN, 1999)
ACADEMY AWARD WINNER, BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  Pedro Almodovar's latest film is opening to five star reviews around the world. Cecilia Roth plays strong-willed hospital worker Manuela, whose 18-year-old son's accidental death transforms her life. Reading her son's journals, grief-stricken Manuela realizes that he longed to hear about the father he never knew. Forsaking Madrid for Barcelona, she embarks on a search for the man she left almost 20 years before. During her quest, she encounters an old friend who happens to be a drag queen (the sympathetic Antonio San Juan), a celebrated actress her son revered (veteran star Marisa Paredes), and a young nun who's found herself pregnant (the beautiful Penelope Cruz). Though these characters appear to have little in common, each in her own way gives Manuela a renewed sense of purpose that will help her recover from her son's death and eventually carry on. Using his trademark bright color palette and bits of nearly farcical comedy to offset the occasionally somber story, Almodavar creates an impressively rich, evocative film replete with uniformly fine performances. Paying homage to cinema legends with a script that overtly references "All About Eve" and "A Streetcar Named Desire," the director has created similarly memorable heroines of his own.

"As good as -- if not better than -- his most popular film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." * * * * -- Lael Loewenstein, Box Office Magazine

(Canada, 1999)
  Life's delicate balance between chance and fate is powerfully explored in Jerry Ciccoritti's (Paris, France) gripping new film. This darkly nuanced fable is launched by a horrific act of random violence. Two gunmen burst into a hip, downtown coffee house and a frightening blood bath ensues in which most of the café's customers are killed -- victims in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, as one character says, "everything almost never happens." A flashback magically resurrects the characters at the beginning of the day. We retrace the steps of a relationship-challenged bridal shop employee (Catherine O'Hara), a young couple (Sarah Polley and David Hewlett) who move in together and encounter early difficulties, a haunted exterminator (Stephen Rea) who can't get over the loss of his daughter, an aspiring actress (Emily Hampshire) who feels dominated by her famous actress mother (Jennifer Dale), two school girls who hatch a cruel plot against their French teacher, and a lawyer (Joe Pantoliani) who has embezzled a trust fund and has until the end of the day to raise $200,000 and escape discovery. As their stories progress, we realize that these intriguing characters are not necessarily pre-destined to meet their deaths at the café that evening. Small details -- nuances in relationships, delicate shifts in timing, chance meetings and precariously balanced, intimate confrontations, may rescue the characters from what lies ahead ... or seal their fate.

"The Life Before This is a testament to the exceptional work being achieved in Canadian cinema that too often goes unnoticed and unheralded." -- Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun

(U.K., 1999)
WINNER OF TWO ACADEMY AWARDS

  Acclaimed director Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies) has created what, for him, is an unusual film -- a backstage comedy. However, Leigh's signature techniques of extensive pre-shoot rehearsal and improvised dialogue provide a unique flourish to his treatment of Gilbert and Sullivan in this semi-biographical feature. The year is 1884 and London's high society is out in force to see the opening of their new comic opera Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre. The opera flops in the middle of a suffocating heat wave and delightfully stuffy composer Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner, The Imposters) and libertine librettist W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent, Little Voice) are at each other's throats. Gilbert bristles at being dubbed "The King of Topsy-Turvy" by the London Times and Sullivan announces that he's tired of collaborating with Gilbert, and wishes to devote himself to more serious music. When a Japanese art exhibit suddenly sparks Gilbert's imagination, the partnership is saved and The Mikado is born. Gilbert and Sullivan's exuberant music, backstage intrigue, rehearsal antics and wonderful performances create a gem of a mischievous film that sparkles brightly.

"One of the year's best films." * * * * -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

(U.S., 1999)
  Polish director Agnieszka Holland, best known for films that deal with questions of identity in features like Europa, Europa, turns her eye toward issues of faith and rutuals of Catholicism in this dramatically compelling film. Father Frank Moore (Ed Harris, The Truman Show) is an avowed skeptic - his work debunking false miracles has earned him a reputation as a "miracle killer" and killer of a community's faith. He is sent to a poor district of New York city as a "spiritual detective," to investigate the veracity of a reported miracle: a statue of the virgin Mary that cries tears of blood. Father Moore's skepticism is severely shaken when his inveestigation begins to support the incredible possibility of a bona fide miracle. The clues point to a recently deceased, deeply spiritual woman named Helen O'Regan. His situation becomes further complicated by the temptation of a blossoming attraction with the deceased's radiantly defiant daughter Roxanna (Anne Heche, Wag the Dog). Moore must run the gauntlet of political powers within the church and his own personal demons in an effort to prove the existence of a New York saint and seek his own redemption.

"Harris demonstrates that pursuit [of faith] in every nuance of dilemma and revelation in this, his career-best performance." * * * -- Rob Blackwelder, Spliced Online

(Bhutan, 1999; SUBTITLED)

  This is the first film from Khyentse Norbu, who has an unusual background for an emerging filmmaker. Norbu is the reincarnation of a 19th century saint and serves as High Lama for monasteries in exile from Tibet. His background in film is centered on an apprenticeship with legendary filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. Basd on a true story, the film follows a group of teenaged monks in a Bhutanese monastery who are obsessed with soccer and passionately determined to watch the World Cup. The monks band together and scheme to rent a TV and a satellite dish. However, even if they are successful, will they be able to gain permission from their master to watch the match? The serene monastery Abbott seeks to understand what seems to him a perplexing battle of the modern Western world for a little cup - no different than the one from which he drinks tea. The cast, comprised of real monks studying Buddhism in exile from Tibet, provides performances of real inspiration and charm. The film is an uplifting experience that continually surprises and delights with its freshness and an almost slapstick sense of comedy.