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Show TOWER CORNER f Frank and Sincere Look At Sex in Intimacy' - ' - M A "Intimacy" Empire Pictures Directed by Patrice Chereau e Written by Patrice Chereau & Trividc, based on the short stories "Intimacy" and "Night life," by Hanif Kureishi Produced by Patrick Cassavetti, Charles Cassot and Jacques Hinstin Starring Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, Timothy Spall, Alastair Calbraith, Phillippe Calvario, and Marianne Faithful Not rated, but lots of sex if that's important to you. ple sexincluding a rare showing of the male's face during the vulnerable moment of orgasm with Jay's regular life as a head bartender. He's bitter toward a new employee, who's an actor currently in between jobs. The film flirts with, but doesn't confirm, the idea Jay may be a homosexual like this employee and hasn't come to terms with it But Jay certainly despises .the fact that the man's an actor. He was a musician six years ago, but abandoned his dream a choice he blames on others. Jay abandoned his family and lives in a dumpy house. His best friend's house is even worse. The only moment of ill respite comes on Anne-Louis- (out offour) slxtrhayfui tatrice Chereau's "Intimacy" may be flawed, but it is also a brave film that demonstrates the difference U between pornography arid art. Its sex scenes attempt to deeply explore characters and sometimes succeed. "Was this agreed?" Jay (Mark Rylance) . asks Claire (Kerry Fox) as she stands at his door one Wednesday afternoon. As the film's characters are introduced, without an explanation of how they met in the first place, he doesn't even know her name and won't for some time. They haven't talked much, but soon make a weekly habit of meeting for sex. Chereau juxtaposes scenes of harsh, sim 'All "All About the Benjamins" Cuenveur Smith, Arfthony Michael Hall and Lil Bow Wow R OP (out offour) by Jeremy and isn't authentic human connec- tion, but im do. The mitiai SfaKr" ( V' j I 1 I 1 it ,,. ...,. . ,.: curiosity. Jay follows Claire and discovers her playing Laura in a production of "The Glass Menagerie." The theater is in the basement of a pub, behind the door that also leads to the toilets. At this point, the film really begins to crack into Jay's actions. He can't come to terms with the incapability of controlling the woman who made him vulnerable in ? jczl i 1 .J ,l;M,ll.,m.rt. 'Intimacy' uses sex as an entry point to character exploration. bed. He's mean and wants to break her. Jay begins spending time there with Claire's friendly husband (Timothy Spall), Rylance and Fox is superb. ft ' A sex grows more and more By the end of the affair, Clair doesn't seem to be enjoying it at all. She meets him for a break from her life, but receives the same treatment she gets everywhere else. Some of the final scenes aren't quite right. Jay doesn't always have enough purpose for his actions and Claire changes a bit, too. If Chereau's direction wasn't so good, his screenplay might have spoiled the d. who hangs around the pub, and soon seems set out on destroying the marriage. Jay is very mean, perhaps due to bitterness and anger about his own marriage. When the film ends, it doesn't seem quite through with the character. Both in the bedroom and out, the acting by Rylance and Fox is superb. The film never fully answers Jay's bitterness toward women, but the character always seems brutally real. Claire is too caught up in the pain of reality to understand the purpose of the acting workshops she teaches. Jay denies any respect to his partner. The film. "Intimacy" is ultimately a touching film, gritty and surprising. It uses sex as an entry point to intriguing characters and is fascinating, even when those characters don't quite make sense. , jeremyred-mag.co- m About the Benjamins' Isn't About Anything New Line Cinema Directed by Kevin Bray Written by Ronald Lang and Ice Cube Produced by Matt Alvarez and Ice Cube Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Eva Mendes, Tommy Flanagan, Carmen Chaplin, Valarie Rae Millet, Roger Rated the bedroom and OUt, the acting by Both Jeremy Mathews by 'X "C ft1 Mathews aive minutes into "All About 31 the Benjamins," Bucum, a bounty hunter played by Ice Cube, is trying to apprehend a man. The man's girlfriend and mother opened fire to protect him, and once a frustrated Bucum catches the man, he zaps the guy's crotch with a Tazer. Why isn't this testicular electrocution funny? Well, first of all, director Kevin Bray speeds up the film like in a Keystone Cops film. He does this to hide the fact that, while he can move a camera fanci-ly- , he has no grasp on comic timing. Then nothing happens to provide a perspective on the act, and it goes on for what's probably only five or 10 seconds, but seems much longer. "All About the Benjamins" also believes that thoroughly Mike Epps is funny simply because he is Mike Epps. He is not. Funny, that is. He starts singing songs and occasionally makes some strange noises, which annoys Bucum, but co-st- since he usually ignores it, doesn't create much comic tension. s reminded Epps' unfunny me of Chris Tucker's attempts at humor with no material in "Rush Hour 2" after the studio thought it was simply the actor's presence ad-lib- that made the first film a hit. "All ' About the Benjamins" is basically like Jackie Chan's better films. All e it lacks is the fight scenes and the funny stuff. The story proper starts when Bucum tries to chase down Reggie criminal who (Epps), a small-tim- e has "been in jail more times than Robert Downey Jr." Soon, fate well-don- thrusts them in the mid- - This movie feofaA thoroughly heist with a creepy Scottish villain (Tommy Flanagan, 'uBrav ). The arc ar Mike Epps is funny simply because he is Mike Epps. He is not Funny, of the story . that is. apparently lies in whether Bucum will start treating Reggie as a partner, or not trust the former criminal. Since this isn't much, there are love interests played by Eva Mendes and Valarie Rae Miller. They don't have much to do, but in the end, the film lets them display skills. some cunning off Then they run giggling. This is executed with laziness that suggests the women only get to do trap-settin- g And Carmen Chaplin's villain-ess- , Ursula, seems to exist only to have sex with the other bad guys. She might have also fired a gun or hit someone, though. There are a lot of gratuitous, nonsensical action scenes. There are some explosions and too many gunshots, but nothing is unique and nothing fits in the story. In a chase scene toward the end of the film, there's a sequence with a grenade launcher and a truck. The villains appear to be near the heroes, but then disappear while Bucum, Reggie and their lady friends recover from the explosion.. After the film, I asked some fellow critics if I missed a shot showing the bad guys leaving or explaining anything. One of them compared it to a James Bond villain not sticking around to make sure the hero is dead, but it's worse than that. There's not even a sense that the villains have left, and it couldn't have looked like their victims were dead. It's just a lot of shots and explosions with an attempted punch line. There's nary a concern for making the plot at all r ft u v. fish-delive- far-awa- f believes that co-st- something because strong female characters are required nowadays. . X n y f f f t .A. u I ..A' sensible.' What "All About the Benjamins" shows, then, is that watching a film that shows someone's crotch being electrocuted may be more pleasant than experiencing the act physically, but it isn't as interesting an experience. Oh, and "Benjamins" refers to money, $100 bills, to be specific, as in Benjamin Franklin. jeremyred-mag.co- m Can Ice Cube as cop and Epps as petty-crimin- al RED Magazine work together? march 7, 2002 77 |