Movies

MONKEYBONE

The biggest risk to Monkeybone is that it will be seen as a family film. After all, it's about an animator who gets trapped in an overly-stylized world by a cartoon monkey, and it's directed by Henry Selick, the guy who did Nightmare Before Christmas. Who wouldn't let their little ones drag them to the theater? But the perception that this is a kids movie is only half-true. While much of it is very childish, it's clearly intended for an older audience.

Notice I said "older" and not "more mature." Monkeybone is little more than the latest attempt to piggyback on the success of South Park-style gross-out humor, but without the clever social satire Trey Parker and Matt Stone sneak in between fart jokes. Most of the crudeness comes from the title character, a cartoon monkey who has grown tired of life as a figment of his creator's imagination. So when that creator, Brendan Fraser as cartoonist Stu Miley, goes into a coma, Monkeybone manages to take over his body. Apparently, this is where hilarity is supposed to ensue.

Actually, what ensues is far from hilarious. The monkey-possessed Stu acts like the cartoon character, but all his psychiatrist girlfriend does is give him strange looks, writing it off as the result of three months in a coma; no one else even seems to notice a difference. The result is basically a "Saturday Night Live" sketch (complete with an annoying performance by Chris Kattan) that runs far too long.

The only interesting part of Monkeybone is what takes place in Down Town-- a bizarre city populated by comatose people and figments of their imaginations. Most of the movie's actual humor is found here too, in the form of amusing visual jokes, wordplay, and a tongue-in-cheek cameo by Stephen King. Down Town is done with all the style of Selick's Nightmare Before Christmas, but with none of the elegance which made Nightmare a classic. Still, Monkeybone would have been much more entertaining if Selick had spent more time in Down Town; working in the real world isn't his strong suit. The animated Monkeybone is also fairly amusing, especially when compared to Fraser's attempts to recreate the animated personality in the real world.

What's most disappointing about this movie is its failure to use the potential available in its premise. The ending implies that Stu and Monkeybone form a sort of yin and yang, but we are shown nothing to make us believe Stu is incomplete without having to share his body with an id-driven monkey. If anything, he's played up to be perfect before his coma, overcoming mental problems, selflessly entertaining the masses, and turning down the money he would get from Monkeybone merchandise (because, as movies have taught us, making money is wrong). In fact, the only character who seems to resent Stu at all is his sister, who for some reason feels the need to pull the plug on her brother while he's in his coma. As soon as he wakes up, however, she conveniently goes away with no explanation.

Further disappointment is provided by the weak send-up of the merchandising spree every other new movie goes through. While it is something ripe for satire (what would a summer be like without McDonald's telling us which overblown action movie we should see?), Monkeybone doesn't take it far enough. Funny moments like Stu finding a pig gut in his burger then agreeing to look the other way in favor of the bigger paycheck are too few and far between. Perhaps the folks at Fox are planning to market actual Monkeybone merchandise and didn't want to discourage moviegoers from buying it.

There are laughs in this movie, and the visuals Selick creates for the subconscious are interesting, but in the end Monkeybone isn't funny or interesting enough. Most of what we see is a shadow of what it could have been. Still, there's the glimmer of talent that reminds us that Selick made a great movie once, and may have another one somewhere in him. C-
--Chris Ward

BEFORE NIGHT FALLS

Painter-turned-director Julian Schnabel, who wrote and directed 1996's Basquiat-- the story of New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat-- now delivers the starkly tragic and noble story of exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas with his new film Before Night Falls.

Based largely on Arenas' memoir of the same name, the film is a birth-to-death account of Arenas' life. A native of Cuba, Arenas was persecuted and eventually jailed for his prowess and clarity as a writer and for his homosexuality. These two "delicious vices"-- as Arenas described them-- did not fly well under Fidel Castro's policies, and Arenas spent two years in prison before eventually leaving Cuba for America. Taking up residence in America didn't free Arenas from hardship, however; here he was a foreigner battling AIDS. But even as tragedy snowballs throughout the movie Arenas' indomitable spirit and drive to write rise above the mar.

While Pollock explores art and the creative process by focusing on Jackson Pollock's tortured and insane tango with a seemingly haphazard form of creative inspiration, Before Night Falls takes a look at the passion that keeps a man committed to his form of free expression so deeply that he can surmount privation. Of course, you can't really write if you don't have anything to write about, and the film expresses this truism with subtlety also.

The film manages to put male homosexuality in an almost whimsical yet frank light that movies like last year's forgettable Broken Hearts Club miss with overtly stereotypical portrayals of gay men as little more than the spoils of their sexual preference.

Here, Javier Bardem more than earns his Academy Award nomination for best actor, with a performance of seamless grace that infuses Arenas with not just strength and determination, but also a childlike sense of wonder and naivety that fortifies the character's credibility. The film also features Johnny Depp in two separate and memorable performances, and one grimy Sean Penn in another.

For a painter, Schnabel has a pretty good grasp on film. This could have easily been an over-the-top attempt at flushing out all the turmoil in Arenas life in a way that dripped of art and pity and all of the pretentiousness that usually comes attached to either. Instead, it is a celebration of sorts, paying homage to one of Arenas' most admirable qualities, his unwavering dedication to his inner voice.

This film has a lot to say about writing, politics, sex, and I suppose life in general, but basically it's just a stirring film about a prolific writer. B

--Josh Tyson