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Film Clips
JUNE 29, 1998:
 CAN'T HARDLY WAIT. This movie rocked my world. Jennifer
Love Hewitt stars as a high-school princess at a really ganga
all-night graduation party. She just got the big dumpola from
her hunky jock boyfriend, Peter "Hey, I'm Tom Cruise's look-alike
and there's no stoppin' me" Facinelli. But no prob, 'cause
the totally sweet Ethan "Look out Matthew McConaughy, I'm
takin' over" Embry has been in love with her for like eons,
and he's telling her tonight! But guess what? Embry's cynical
best friend, played by Lauren "Mind if I borrow your attitude,
Ms. Garofalo?" Ambrose, loves him even more painfully than
Mary Stuart Masterson loved Eric Stoltz in Some Kind of Wonderful!
Ouch! If you think that's brutal, wait till you get a load of
Seth Green, a dweeby wannabe who has no idea where it's at; or
Charlie Korsmo, the genius geek who finally stands up and makes
everybody take notice! It's a kick-ass party that made me wish
I was invited. And it was rad to see a cameo by Sabrina the Teenage
Witch--without that stupid cat! Writer/directors Harry Elfont
and Deborah Kaplan are, like, the John Hughes of the '90s.
--Brittany Barnes
CLOCKWATCHERS. Finally, a movie that takes on the most
pathetic area of corporate America: the world of temporary workers.
Stuffed into cubicles, monitored by cameras, denied benefits or
living wages, and treated with such disregard that few bother
to remember their names, the temps in Clockwatchers try
to use friendship to fight against their nowhere existence. Will
office pettiness get the best of them? The answers are simultaneously
hilarious and depressing, buffered by the kind of details that
only someone who has endured the mind-numbing banality of temp
work could know. Kudos to the writing-directing team of Karen
and Jill Sprecher, sisters who in their first outing have out-classed
99-percent of other filmmakers by focusing on an unaddressed yet
wholly relevant social subject. Well-realized performances by
Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach, and especially Parker
Posey keep the film a constant treat. Definitely one of the best
movies of the year. --Woodruff
SHOOTING FISH. A cute caper comedy from Britain, Shooting
Fish piles on the winks and smiles and skimps on anything
you might actually feel in your gut. Dan Futterman and Stuart
Townsend play twentysomething orphans who keep pulling off quick
scams so they can save up to buy a mansion. Kate Beckinsale's
pixie hair and perfect teeth star as the guys' perky love interest.
Will Kate fall for the fast-talking, ever-smirking playboy, or
the shy, socially awkward technical wizard? The movie hardly pauses
for an answer, whisking our protagonists off for still more mini-adventures.
For all its mobility, though, Shooting Fish never really
catches you off guard, and gets about as sexy as a science fair.
It would make a nice double feature with Cold Comfort Farm.
Emphasis on the word "nice." --Woodruff
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