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Volume 2, Issue 24
November 9 - November 22, 2000 |
Movies
BEYOND ALL HORIZONS
Andrew Noyes makes snowboard films his own way
My parents used to be ski instructors. They'd go skiing in the mountains just about every weekend before I was born. They stopped going just about the time I could have been taught how. My mom used to teach blind people how to ski, but she never taught me. If I had started skiing at a young age, I'd have learned to snowboard in adolescence, and I'd have probably been good at it.
I'm reminded of all of this while watching Beyond This Horizon. I see snow-boarders tossing themselves down steep-assed mountains and doing things I'll never be able to do on my skateboard. It's staring at me in 16mm, and I'm mad at my mother.
This film is the latest release from Noyes Productions, a local outfit run by Andrew Noyes. He got his start putting together a skateboard/ BMX/ snowboard video called Dysfunctional Superheroes, followed by Space Cowboys: Dysfunctional Superheroes II. The sequel, a dandy little picture put out in 1997, features not only local snowboarders, but some local skateboarders risking arrest and prosecution downtown in Skyline Park, and footage of Tony Hawk on a vert ramp on the mountains.
Noyes was born in Syracuse, N. Y., but moved to Steamboat Springs in 1988. Ski-induced knee injuries, knee surgeries and a dissatisfaction with the ski industry led Noyes to begin production on Dysfunctional Superheroes.
"Snowboarding was the new thing: relaxed, social, young, and punk," Noyes said. "I could relate."
After Space Cowboys, Noyes started focusing solely on snowboarding for his projects.
Featuring top-notch snowboarding from Chauncey Tanton, Justin Mooney, Ali Goulet and others, Beyond This Horizon, made in association with Burton and Ride, has the added element of a plot.
Joel Backus is sleeping in a recliner when a stranger stops outside his house and pours what looks like a jug of Thunderbird onto Joel's lawn. This being no ordinary Thunderbird, there is soon an electrical explosion, and when Joel gets up the next morning, there is a wineglass filled with a lager-esque fluid. "Drink Me," says the post-it note fixed on the bottom of the glass. When Joel drinks the concoction that morning, and other glasses on subsequent mornings, he sees electricity just before getting pulled into various segments of snowboarding footage.
"It's kind of like Groundhog Day and Alice in Wonderland mixed together-- that's kind of how I describe it." Noyes said.
Along with the plot, the film carries with it a very personal and cinematic feel. Some of the shots must have taken immense amounts of preparation. Most of the footage was shot in the four-corners region (some in France), and most of the snowboarding is done by a core group of snowboarders who are Noyes' close friends. Noyes has worked largely with the same group of snowboarders for all of his films.
"All these guys started as a smaller group that nobody'd ever heard about, and now they're all big," Noyes said. "My big thing is to find people that aren't out there, that aren't the big rock stars, to try and find new and up-and-coming people."
Noyes doesn't have the financial resources that other production companies do-- Dysfunctional Superheroes was financed with credit cards-- but he does have the advantage of a loyal group of riders.
"I know the people I shoot with, and I've known them for years," Noyes said. "We're kind of this close troop of people, and we're really good friends."
I need to skateboard to the bus stop. I have to go and visit my parents. What kind of Coloradan were they trying to raise? I want answers; and maybe a season pass.
--Josh Tyson
Beyond This Horizon is currently available to order at www.faceshot.com Colorado's original snowboard 'zine.
Photo courtesy of Noyes Productions
REBOUND LOVE
Bounce provides romance without the corn
Humans aren't meant to fly, but they force themselves to just so life is a little quicker, a little easier. There's a safety in experiencing travel first-hand, on the ground, but flying does the trick well enough, even if it is a little scary. Flying is an unnatural and painful experience, but a necessary one. Sometimes, reviewing romantic comedies feels the same way.
Writer-director Don Roos (The Opposite Of Sex, Boys On The Side) created what appeared to be a doomed flight: a romance called Bounce starring real-life are-they-or-aren't-they couple Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow. It's lucky for us that Roos is an exceptional screenwriter. And, after being pleasantly surprised by the performances of both leads, it's unfair to Affleck and Paltrow if you let their tabloid relationship stand in the way of their work in this film.
Affleck plays Buddy Amaral (bad name, Roos), a hard-drinking advertising executive who's so caught up in ad culture that he no longer deals with people honestly, opting instead to set up one-night stands like business deals and show generosity only if it turns a profit. One of these deals for nookie puts a man named Greg (Tony Goldwyn) in his seat for a plane flight out of Chicago. The plane crashes and everyone on board dies. The guilt of the transaction that spared Buddy his life drives him deeper into alcoholism, and it's a solid year before he's sober and ready to deal with himself.
Meanwhile, Greg's wife Abby (Paltrow) is making a brave widow's go of it, starting up in real estate and lamely inserting a rottweiler (coincidentally, and lamely, named Buddy) into her two boys' lives in the absence of a father. Buddy (the ad exec, not the dog) decides, as part of his 12 steps, to seek out Abby and reconcile what he's done with her. Funny thing is, he can't bring himself to tell her. Funny thing is, he falls in love.
Sound cliché? It is. Romances are built on formulas, and this is particularly tried and true one. Each main character even has a Jiminy Cricket best friend, and Buddy's is even gay-- the cliché character for the new millennium. Fortunately, this movie is still worth seeing for all the right reasons: the dialogue writing is surprisingly strong, the performances are heartfelt and 100%, and the situations are tweaked just enough to give the story a reason to live. You can feel the gravity of the formula clenching this movie at every major turn, but at least Roos sets it free between the gotta-do-it plot stuff. He took the time to create an extra layer of honest-to-god meaning, over which the clichés fly at 10,000 feet.
Watching this movie is indeed like riding on an airplane; you see the problems of real life from way up high, where you can empathize and react to them without having to inspect them up close. So what if every plot twist is predictable six scenes in advance? This movie does just what a good romantic story should-- it bounces right along-- each impact pulls a heartstring-- each airborne arc creates a welcome escape from everyday reality.
B --Chris J. Magyar
What's Cooking?
[PG-13 1h 46m]
Guns, lesbians, adultery, and
Thanksgiving. Starring: Kyra
Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies.
Directed by: Gurinder Chadha.
A ll that really defines American families these days are side dishes. We all love to eat turkey in late November, whether we are white, black, brown, or yellow, but we celebrate our diversity through side dishes. Eggrolls, tamales, marshmallow yam pie, asparagus; these are the things that color our ethnic diversity in this country. If our ancestors brought nothing with them to this country from their various corners of the planet, they at least brought recipes for killer stuffings and salads.
What's Cooking?, a new film by director Gurinder Chadha, is an ensemble piece about four families, of different ethnic backgrounds (Latino, Asian, African-American, and Jewish), coming together and intersecting while celebrating Thanksgiving in an upscale Southern California neighborhood. Watch as the four families prepare their token turkeys in cutely appropriate ways, and then really beef up the diversity by fixing little race and class appro-priate side dishes. The film comes across as an attempt to celebrate the diversity that makes this country great by contrasting it in endearing ways; sadly, at times, this occurs with an insulting lack of subtlety. Take for instance a musical montage, which shows the various families preparing their feasts while a rendi-tion of "Wipeout" playing in the background is textured with the sounds of salsa, tea-ceremony, white bread, and yuppie string quartet, respectively. The Latino family is large in numbers and gracious, the Asian family is reserved and strict, the African-American family has a father-son argument taut with racial tension, and the parents in the Jewish family are having old-fashioned reactions to their daughter's lesbian-ism.
Not only does this movie seem to harp on stereotypes, it tries to cram in too many contemporary issues so that it's left with the edge of a movie-of-the-week. This movie suf-fers from obviousness and pre-dictability. The performances by Mercedes Ruehl, Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, and others are good, and there are some genuinely funny moments, but it has the reso-nance of a bad made-for-television movie echoing blandly throughout.
C---Josh Tyson
DVD Report
DVD REPORT GEN-X COPS
They're not just cops-- they're COPS TO THE EXTREME! That's probably
the line that was used to pitch this Hong Kong thriller to whichever studio
made it. Elvis Tsang plays a former mental patient (!) who now works as an inspector
for the Hong Kong police force. For a particularly tough undercover assignment he
recruits three cadets thrown out of the police academy. The three are Jack
(Nicholas Tse), Match (Stephen Fung), and Alien (Sam Lee), and they're so
Generation X that Tsang catches up with them on their way to do some
parachuting!
Once recruited, the three use their Generation X-ness to infiltrate a drug
dealer's gang, and this somehow leads to a terrorist plot to blow-up a Hong
Kong landmark. The three main actors are allegedly supposed to represent the future of
Hong Kong action film stars, which is a bit scary. Nicholas Tse may do his own
stunts, but he doesn't have a fraction of the charisma of Jackie Chan or Jet
Li, a fact that is amply demonstrated by Jackie's small, enjoyable cameo at the
end of the film. The other two never engaged me.
The 32-minute "making of" documentary included as an extra (" Gen-X Cops:
No Pain, No Gain") is very interesting, with lots of behind the scenes
footage of the stunts, and interviews with most of the actors and crew. People speaking
Cantonese are subtitled in English. Rather amusingly, a number of the
people interviewed talk about this film as if Gen-X Cops is a major
statement on the twenty-something generation. There is also much patting themselves on the
back regarding the epic nature and originality of the film. "It's trying to do
something nobody has ever done before," observes Daniel Wu, as if ripping-off the
Lethal Weapon films is a novel idea. The documentary
also includes the music video to the end credits song, "You Can't Stop
Me," which was sung grunge-style by the three principal actors! After the
documentary, we are treated to a six-minute Hong Kong promo for the film. This
promo features a bunch of Ferraris, which may explain all those people from
the Ferrari Club who are thanked so prominently in the main feature's
credits.
--Scott Hamilton
102 Dalmations [G] We didn't really need
the liveaction update of 101 Dalmations,
so why must we suffer through a sequel?
Starring: Glenn Close, Gerard Depardieu.
Directed by: Kevin Lima.
The 6th Day [PG-13] Ahnold in da
future as a clone of Ahnold. Starring:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Duvall,
Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rapaport.
Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode.
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
[PG 1h 28m] Squirrel and Moose do bat-tle
with DeNiro and DeNiro loses.
Mildly funny self-references, like
Scream without the blood or the pretty
girls. Starring: Robert DeNiro, Rene
Russo and Jason Alexander. Directed by:
Des McAnuff.
Almost Famous [R 2h] Instead of going
to summer camp, a young boy goes on
tour with a rock band. Starring: Billy
Crudup, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit,
Frances McDormand. Directed by:
Cameron Crowe.
Bedazzled [PG-13] Remake involving a
sexy devil and dumb geek. Starring:
Elizabeth Hurley, Brenden Fraser.
Directed by: Harold Ramis.
Best In Show [PG-13 1h 30m] Spinal Tap
for dog shows. Starring: Christopher Guest,
Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred
Willard. Directed by: Christopher Guest.
Billy Elliot [R 1h 40m] Coal miner's son
takes ballet lessons. Starring: Jamie Bell.
Directed by: Stephen Daldry.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 [R]
More woods, less shaky camera stuff.
Starring: Erica Leerhsen, Jeff Donovan,
Tristen Skyler, Stephen Turner. Directed
by: Joe Berlinger.
Bounce [PG-13] Is this a movie about
Affleck and Paltrow's life? Starring:
Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natasha
Henstridge, Jennifer Grey. Directed by:
Don Roos.
Bring It On [PG-13 1h 32m]
Cheerleaders fight to the death in biki-nis!
Only without the death. Starring:
Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union, Jesse
Bradford. Directed by: Peyton Reed.
Broken Hearts Club [R 1h 34m] A
chick flick for gay men. Starring: Dean
Cain, Timothy Olyphant. Directed by:
Greg Berianti.
Charlie's Angels [PG-13] One big tease
-- you mean they can't use guns and
don't get naked? Puh-leeze. Starring:
Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy
Liu, Bill Murray. Directed by: McG.
Contender [R 2h 6m] A chick wants to
be vice-president, but she's had too much
sex. Starring: Joan Allen, Gary Oldman.
Directed by: Rod Lurie.
Dancer in the Dark [R 2h 20m] Bjork
goes blind and crazy all at once, but she
still sings. Starring: Bjork, Catherine
Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare.
Directed by: Lars von Trier.
Digimon: The Movie [G 1h 30m] Do
they even bother translating these into
English anymore? Starring: Bad
Drawings. Directed by: Bad Cartoonist.
Dinosaur [PG 1h 22m] The dialogue in
this movie is about as good as a super-serious
Saved By the Bell episode.
Directed by: Eric Leighton and Ralph
Zondag.
Dr. T & the Women [R 2h 1m] Richard
Gere plays a gynecologist -- insert hamster
joke here. Starring: Richard Gere,
Helen Hunt, Liv Tyler. Directed by:
Robert Altman.
The Exorcist-- The Version You've
Never Seen [R] Don't be fooled by the
long title-- it's just the original with
eleven more minutes added on. Starring:
Linda Blair. Directed by: William
Friedkin.
Get Carter [R 2h 27m] Remake of the
classic British heist movie starringÉ
wellÉ Starring: Sylvester Stallone,
Michael Caine, Rachael Leigh Cook,
Alan Cumming. Directed by: Stephen
Kay.
Girl Next Door [NR 1h 22m] Everything
you wanted to know about a porn star if
you're afraid to ask. Starring: Stacy Baker.
Directed by: Christine Fugate.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas [PG
1h 42m] I wouldn't touch it with a 39 1/ 2
foot pole. Starring: Jim Carrey, Molly
Shannon, Christine Baranski, Jeffrey
Tambor. Directed by: Ron Howard.
The Kid [PG 1h 44m] Bruce Willis has
an inner child that's fat and annoying.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Lily Tomlin and
Spencer Breslin. Directed by: Jon
Turteltaub.
Ladies Man [R] I repeat, there should be
a law against big-screen adaptations of
"Saturday Night Live" skits. Starring:
Tim Meadows, Will Ferrell, Tiffani-Amber
Theissen, Billy Dee Williams.
Directed by: Reginald Hudlin.
The Legend of Bagger Vance [PG-13]
Supernatural golf caddie-- every
Republican's wet dream (except he's
black). Starring: Matt Damon, Will
Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill.
Directed by: Robert Redford.
Directed by: Reginald Hudlin.
Legend of Drunken Master [R 1h 42m]
Yet another Jackie Chan import.
Starring: Jackie Chan, Ti Lung. Directed
by: Lau Ka Leung.
Little Vampire [PG] Kids can suck
blood too. Starring: Jonathan Lipnicki,
Richard E. Grant. Directed by: Uli Edel.
Lucky Numbers [R 1h 48m] Who knew
the state lottery could be rigged?
Starring: John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow.
Directed by: Nora Ephron.
Meet the Parents [PG-13 1h 47m]
Never marry a woman whose father is
Robert DeNiro. Starring: Robert DeNiro,
Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner.
Directed by: Jay Roach.
Men of Honor [R 2h 9m] The Navy's
first black master diver has to put up
with DeNiro. Starring: Robert DeNiro,
Cuba Gooding Jr., Charlize Theron,
Aunjanue Ellis. Directed by: George
Tillman Jr.
MVP: Most Valuable Primate [PG 1h
33m] A chimp that plays hockey.
Starring: Kevin Zegers, Jaimee Renee
Smith, Hairy Primate. Directed by:
Robert Vince.
Non-Stop [NR 1h 22m] Three losers are
running from the yakuza. Starring: Tomoro
Taguchi, Diamond Yukai, Shinichi
Tsutsumi, Sabu. Directed by: Sabu.
Nurse Betty [R 1h 40m] Woman takes her
soap opera obsession to a new level by
landing a role. Starring: Renee Zellweger,
Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg
Kinnear. Directed by: Neil LaBute.
The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
[PG13 1h 45m] Contrary to all common
sense and logic, it's only the poopoo
that really shines. Starring: Eddie
Murphy, Janet Jackson. Directed by:
Peter Segal.
Pay it Forward [PG-13 2h 4m] A whole
slew of Oscar winners learn to love.
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt,
Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr. Directed
by: Mimi Leder.
The Perfect Storm [PG13 2h 12m] My
first reaction to the movie was, "you
dopes, just move and stop fishing before
you die." Starring: George Clooney,
John C. Reilly and Mark Wahlberg.
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen.
Red Planet [PG-13] NASA disapproves
of this mission to Mars, which probably
means it's more fun than that dreadful summer
movie. Starring: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne
Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin
Bratt. Directed by: Antony Hoffman.
Remember the Titans [PG 1h 53m] A
football team asks, "Can't we just all get
along?" Starring: Denzel Washington,
Will Patton, Wood Harris, Kip Pardue.
Directed by: Boaz Yakin.
The Replacements [PG13] A football
strike means the NFL is taken over by
Keanu Reeves and his evil band of strippers.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Keanu
Reeves. Directed by: Howard Deutch.
Requiem for a Dream [NR 1h 42m]
Drugs are very, very, very bad. Starring:
Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer
Connelly, Marlon Wayans. Directed by:
Darren Aronofsky.
Rocky Horror Picture Show [R] Let's
do the time warp again-- and again --
and again --
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie [G] If the
title doesn't explain the movie, nothing
will. Starring: John Lithgow, Susan
Sarandon. Directed by: Stig Bergguist,
Paul Demeyer.
Solas [NR 1h 38m] The Spanish equiva-lent
of American Beauty. Starring: Paco
De Osca, Antonio Dechent. Directed by:
Benito Zambrano.
Space Cowboys [PG13] Fogeys in
space! Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tommy
Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James
Garner. Directed by: Clint Eastwood.
Titan A. E. [PG 1h 35m] Space cartoon with
no Space Ghost. Starring: Matt Damon, Bill
Pullman, Hank Azaria and Drew Barrymore.
Directed by: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.
Two Family House [R 1h 44m] A how-to
guide for those who want the cabaret
in the privacy of their own home.
Starring: Michael Rispoli, Kelly
MacDonald. Directed by: Raymond De
Felitta.
Urban Legends: Final Cut [R 1h 34m]
Weren't teen slasher films declared dead
again? Starring: Joey Lawrence.
Directed by: John Ottman.
What Lies Beneath [PG-13 2h 6m]
Your partner is guaranteed to jump into
your lap at least four or five times.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Michelle
Pfeiffer. Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
X-Men [PG13 1h 36m] This is a film
that was made with a sequel in mind, if
not already written. Starring: Patrick
Stewart, Ian McKellan, Famke Janssen
and Halle Berry. Directed by: Bryan
Singer.
The Yards [R 1h 45m] Double-crossing
and intrigue in the subways. Starring:
Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James
Caan, Faye Dunaway. Directed by:
James Gray.