You Will Not Forget Alana or Gary

 LICORICE PIZZA (2021)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Paul Thomas Anderson's deliciously sweet and strangely hypnotic "Licorice Pizza" is one of the finest films of his career - so abrupt in its own curlicue rhythms and so hypnotically alive in its romantic notions of adolescence that it stands out with paramount greatness. It is suffused with love over romance between young people and with collectively distant memories of a time and place in the pre-teen years when everything was somehow strange and wonderful. That collection of memories and deeply-rooted nostalgia of a time and place reminded me of Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" yet, rather than focusing a story told through the decades, "Licorice Pizza" is told through a shorter amount of time and almost as brilliantly. A charming knockout of a movie. 

Of course, there are two shifting points-of-view in "Licorice Pizza" and only one character is a pre-teen, a certain Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman's son) who is an actor in commercials and TV variety specials. He is bright, energetic, whimsical and also has an entrepreneurial spirit (he manages to open a waterbed company and a pinball machine arcade!) He also falls head over heels for Alana (Alana Haim), a 25-year-old girl photographer's assistant with a stubborn side and yet a lively spirit who can stomach a lot of heartache (oh, she can drive a mean truck with no gas in reverse too). Alana tries to push away Gary yet she is amazed at his tenacity, asking her to just come by and say hello at his favorite restaurant. Alana shows up and, as framed by director Anderson (who serves as one of the cinematographers), she is in the background and we only see the back of Gary's head in the foreground. She avoids eye contact at first and then she turns to him and says, "You are being creepy." The honest delivery of that line by Alana Haim took me back to my adolescent years and "Licorice Pizza" becomes fixated on that initial element of surprise and attraction in ways I had not seen before in a delicious long take. It is snapshot of a memory, and the whole film operates on that level. 

Gary tries his hand at selling waterbeds but eventually it goes broke during the oil embargo crisis of the 1970's because, you know, oil is necessary to make rubber (Alana reminds him, amazed at his obliviousness). Eventually Gary tries his hand at a pinball arcade after pinball is legalized, while Alana wants to mature by going her own way and not being Gary's business partner. She wants to hang with the adults, not adolescents, yet she is still tickled by Gary who is wiser, at times, beyond his years. Alana eventually works for a mayoral candidate and tension breaks when someone may either be trying to blow up the headquarters or be a reporter. We never quite find out who the mystery person is and the whole film revolves around adults whose world the younger people cannot comprehend. 

There are strange scenes involving the adult characters performing actions that make us question them as well. It was then I realized that they were being seen through Cooper and Alana's point-of-view and they see the world as strange and difficult. When we get scenes of a bearded Bradley Cooper as a womanizing, haughty Jon Peters who insists that Cooper pronounce Barbara Streisand's last name correctly, the movie almost loses us for introducing such a wild and crazy privileged Hollywood type who tries to beat the gas line by threatening the gas station's customers with a match. Jon smashes windows and has such total disregard for anyone or anything, all of which is seen from Alana's point-of-view. Then we get scenes of a seemingly calm Jack Holden (Sean Penn), an actor not unlike the late William Holden who is smitten with Alana whom he hopes to cast in his new movie as a character named Rainbow, talking about Korea yet in cinematic terms, almost like he is reading lines from a script and seeking approval from others. During a conversation fraught with tales of behind-the-scenes movie jargon and other indiscernible situations between Holden and his drunk director (high-pitched performance by Tom Waits), Alana is puzzled and says, "what are you guys talking about?" This sequence ends with Holden on a motorcycle and Alana falls to the ground and Gary, who had been watching this whole incident from afar, comes to her rescue.

That is at the offbeat heart of "Licorice Pizza" - Gary and Alana's unconsummated love for each other overcomes all obstacles. A literal running gag is that every time something happens (like Gary's arrest for a murder he did not commit), Gary and Alana run to each other and embrace. They remain loyal to each other no matter the jealousies or any pain or guilt. That in of itself makes the film doubly romantic, more so than any movie about young people that I've seen. Once the film is over, you will not forget the faces of Alana or Gary (the two actors make their amazing debut in this film and I expect great things from both of them in the future). They make us remember the power of distant memories from our early years and Paul Thomas Anderson has made those memories palatable. A wondrous achievement that you will not forget.    

Woody Allen-lite relationships

TRUST THE MAN (2005)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

20/20 hindsight might dictate this frothy comedy-drama as a near-miss but it is surprisingly entertaining, enough to warrant a pleasant night of viewing, perhaps with a significant other. "Trust the Man" is perhaps negligible entertainment, a sort of Woody Allen-lite comedy on relationships, but it coasts by on its sense of humor and lightness.

Set in New York City, we focus on two modern couples, one that is married and the other that isn't. House-husband Tom (David Duchovny) is married to his actress-wife, Rebecca (Julianne Moore), who both have a seemingly super-duper marriage, until it is made clear that Tom desires frequent sex whereas Rebecca doesn't. They go to therapy only once a year, which may not help matters. The other couple is writer Tobey (Billy Crudup) and his girlfriend of seven years, a publishing house receptionist, Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who are not married because Tobey knows they are all going to die in the future so who cares. He also refuses to drive Elaine to work because his car is where he does his best writing, and he refuses to change parking spaces (Having once lived in New York amongst those that drive, I totally understand).

I suppose it is no surprise that these couples resolve their differences through infidelities. Before you can say "Manhattan" and any Woody Allen film since (the writer-director Bart Freundlich is a
fan), we get relatively little time devoted to what drives the men and women to have affairs. Rebecca has a fling with one of her fellow young actors at the theatre but it is treated with almost no emphasis
at all, except through a painful montage sequence that made me cringe. Tobey has a fling with an old college female buddy (Eva Mendes) that seems to have been left on the cutting room floor. And Tom's minor fling with a female parent who has lost her husband seems abrupt and half-baked. Elaine is the only character who had the courage to break up with her significant other.

Okay, so what does work in "Trust the Man"? For one, the four principal actors, which include Julianne Moore, David Duchovny, Billy Crudup and Maggie Gyllenhaal, are exceptionally good, vibrant actors
who keep you glued to the screen despite how undernourished some of their characters are. The writing is also occasionally smart and spot-on, with delicious zingers and one-liners. None of the dialogue feels rushed or forced, except for the rather inane ending at an opera house that feels less like the work of writer-director Bart Freundlich ("The Myth of the Fingerprints") and more like something a desperate, mediocre screenwriter might have concocted.

"Trust the Man" is uneven and truncated, but it has a breeziness and charm that almost makes it more captivating than it has any right to be. Many scenes register with truth and humor, and some do fall flat
when it opts for slapstick (punches to the lower male extremities never quite make me laugh). Still, for its rather rare sense of humor coming from the usually morose Freundlich, "Trust the Man"
occasionally works but it is nowhere near the level of what Woody Allen could attempt with these New Yorkers.

Literal Mind Trip

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed on Dec. 14th, 1999

For sheer audacity and outrageous invention, you can do no better than the truly extraordinary "Being John Malkovich," a bizarre, involving, strangely moving film experience. Putting it plainly, it is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

John Cusack stars as a ponytailed puppeteer named Craig Schwartz, an expressive, magical talent who performs his act on the streets. Most of his puppet shows contain sexual connotations, and thus are not always embraced by passerby. He lives at home with his animal-loving wife, Lotte (an unrecognizable Cameron Diaz), but the marriage is unexciting and their conversations do not merit much communication. When Craig is not performing, he sleeps most of the day until he gets the energy to look for a job. This leads him to an office vicinity located in the 7 1/2th floor of a Manhattan
building (one has to crawl in between floors to get in) where he works as a fast file clerk. It is here where he discovers a mysterious portal that leads into the mind of John Malkovich!

The portal changes Craig's life, as well as Lotte's (who forms a sexual awakening). Along for the ride is Craig's co-worker. a sexpot vixen (cunningly played by Catherine Keener) whom Craig is attracted to. To say much more is to ruin the fun of "Being John Malkovich," which takes its central idea through all kinds of delirious heights and lengths with one inventive twist after another. We are talking sexual connotations galore, celebrities, parentage, a one-hundred-year-old office manager, chimps, wooden
puppets, a bald-headed Charlie Sheen and, of course, John Malkovich. Cusack's Craig is the perfect foible for this type of bizarre fantasy - the Everyman as the malcontent artist trying to make a name for himself any which way he can. We are led every step of the way of his unusual circumstance, and
slowly the subjective stance of his character shifts to Lotte, back to Cusack and Keener, and Malkovich. This leads to an interesting question: whose life is it anyway? Anyone can live inside Malkovich's mind briefly before being deported hilariously into the New Jersey Turnpike, but when can a mind not be
your own? Craig uses this portal as a portal into his own alternate existence, and the film grows more complex and darkly comic as Craig's ambitions grow.

Cameron Diaz is astoundingly good, and proves she is a fine character actress - look how well she disappears into the role of the sexually carnivorous Lotte. This is clearly her finest work since the comic powerhouse of "There's Something About Mary." Catherine Keener gives an acutely observant
performance - her best scenes are when she tries to woo Malkovich (in and out of his brain) or when she seduces Charles and Lotte in their apartment. Malkovich is as always Malkovich, an elegantly stylish actor - he seems like the right actor for this kind of mind trip, though the running joke in the
film is that most of the characters can't recall what films he has appeared in.

"Being John Malkovich" is directed by music-video director Spike Jonze, who often relies a bit too much on hand-held camerawork, but nevertheless has an efficient, straightforward style. Writer Charlie Kaufman must have had a wonderful time concocting all the different paradoxes and twists with such a
novel idea - he runs with it and takes it from one extreme to another. It is not so much about being someone else as it is about losing your soul in the process. This is the first film I would literally call a mind trip of the first order.

The Force was strong in 1977

STAR WARS (1977)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed in 1978

George Lucas' "Star Wars" is one of the great outer space fantasy movies of all time - it was, and still is, a gleefully exciting popcorn movie full of special-effects galore and chivalrous heroes, stubborn princesses, evil dark empires, and two adorably argumentative robots. The characters were Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Darth Vader, to name a few. It is no surprise to state that "Star Wars" became a pop phenomenon on a scale like no movie before it or since - it redefined what audiences ultimately wanted from the movies - pure escapism into a world that did not exist. There has never been another phenomenon like it and, despite all the special revised editions and the two sequels that followed forming the Holy Trilogy, it is technically the first film (aside from Spielberg's "Jaws" released 2 years earlier) that initiated the term, blockbuster.

The original "Star Wars" was a major box-office success signaling the rise of merchandising and the wave of Hollywood blockbusters and endless imitators to come. The main difference between "Star Wars" and the so-called action entertainment of today is that "Star Wars" had wit, style and imagination to spare, not gratuitous action scenes and bloody violence at the expense of a story or characters worth caring about. It was even more of a sheer joy to watch this film restored to its original glory with the first Special Edition revisions in 1997 with its blazing colors, beautiful cinematography and the uplifting Dolby Digital musical score by John Williams. The special-effects are as awesome as they ever were, including the classic battle on the Death Star, the plentiful laser gun fights, and the lightsaber duel between Vader and Kenobi.

The actors are also rather pleasing to watch after all these years. Harrison Ford has as much fun here as when he played Indiana Jones and his constant snickering and witty asides are as marvelous as ever. Ditto the youthful Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia (who for some reason speaks with a British accent when confronting Vader); James Earl Jones' eerie voice for the mysterious Darth Vader; the comical interaction between the lovable robots C3PO and R2D2; Mark Hamill's naive farm boy Luke Skywalker who eventually becomes a fighter pilot for the Rebellion (Hamill's career never took off the way his co-stars did); the masterful restraint of Sir Alec Guinness as the sage Obi-Wan (no doubt inspired by Gandalf back when "The Lord of the Rings": was still only a book); Peter Mayhew as the hairy seven-foot growling Chewbacca; and notably Peter Cushing as the commander of the Death Star station - he's almost as scary as Vader when he blows up Leia's home planet Alderaan!

There is not much more to be said other than the fact that I was 7 or 8 when I first saw it, in Toronto, Canada  in 1978 (I was going to see it even earlier when we lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil but my father told me kids could not see it then, 1977 to be precise, though I am sure that was a falsity). Just the opening title crawl alone followed by the Imperial Cruiser that seems to come from over our heads and the thunderous John Williams score were enough to entice me, to transport me to a galaxy light years away. When we first catch glimpse of Princess Leia, we don't know who she is or if she is even one of the good guys. The introduction of the ominous Darth Vader, as seen behind the mist of an explosion aboard a ship, who is carrying a loud breathing apparatus and a helmet that looked like it could give Dracula the heebie jeebies was enough to suggest villainy of the darkest sort. 

"Star Wars" is just grand escapist entertainment - a more mature update of Buck Rogers with its serialized quotient of action scenes and last minute escapes. In many ways, it anticipated the Indiana Jones movies (though they are more intense) and it also anticipated a seismic change in moviegoing habits. It also brought a new term in the lexicon - the Force ("an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”) If it wasn't for "Star Wars," there might not be superhero movies or "Avatar" or any number of so-called "franchises" of the fantasy or sci-fi sort. Studios went crazy with the escapist variety and tried to replicate it, foregoing personal statements by other directors contemplating on issues such as "real life." Adult cinema, that is to say, films for adults about adults became more and more rare to the point that today, a film about adults might be something you can only stream. Movies did change but it wasn't "Star Wars"' fault - the audience changed too after suffering through scandals such as Watergate, the Vietnam War and so on. There was a need for escape and that is understandable and "Star Wars" screams escape. 45 years later, we have had 10 or more "Star Wars" movies (My preference is still for "The Empire Strikes Back"; as for the sequel trilogy, "The Last Jedi") and yet for many, this 1977 pop entertainment and its two respective sequels remain the favorites for many (not sure how the tots of 2022 feel). The Force will be with us for some time. 

Jolly Green Giant with flashes of anger

 SHREK 2 (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Viewed on June 9th, 2004

Can it be true? Has Pixar and Dreamworks made a sequel to "Shrek" and released it in theatres? Well, considering it has been three years since the original, we know the computer animators have been working overtime to create something special the second time around, and they have succeeded. "Shrek 2" is probably better than what we can expect, and possibly superior to any direct-to-video
Disney sequels, but it also should've been better than we'd expect.

"Shrek 2" brings back the ogre couple from the original, Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz), now living happily in the swamps. They take mud baths, make love by the beach in "From Here to Eternity" style (how often has that scene been parodied?), and fart with the greatest of ease. All is well until the generally loquacious Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy)
returns with a message for Fiona and her groom to travel to Far, Far Away Land to meet her parents, the King (voiced by John Cleese) and Queen (voiced by Julie Andrews). Of course, the assumption is that Fiona was rescued by Prince Charming from the slaying dragon - the last person anybody expects to enter this land is not one but two ogres. The King and Queen, and most of the kingdom's population is shocked, especially a bird who flies into a wall and dies. A nice touch of humor is when the ogres first arrive at the palace, and everyone is quiet except for a crying baby. Naturally, the King and the jolly
green Shrek do not get along, throwing food at each other and trading insults. So what seems like an animated "Meet the Parents" soon enough turns into the semi-ingenious sequel we were hoping for.

The King fools Shrek into meeting him in the forest, thanks to a wicked plan by the Fairy Godmother (voiced by Jennifer Saunders) who is quite upset her son, Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), did not marry Fiona. Shrek and Donkey are moseying along when Puss-in-Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) challenges Shrek to a duel, though it mostly involves a catfight with Puss's sharp claws used as weapons. Eventually, the threesome decide to steal a potion from Fairy Godmother's castle, something called "Happily Ever After" (otherwise known as Love Potion No.9). Shrek hopes that the potion will make his Fiona look at him and fall in love. Unfortunately, cherry-lipped Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother have different plans.

In terms of animation, "Shrek 2" is astounding to look at once again. Not a moment is wasted anywhere for maximum visual impact, whether it is seeing the Fairy Godmother's two show-stopping musical numbers or her carriage being whisked away into the night. As expected, Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey look as real and three-dimensional as the human characters (the latter still a major flaw
design in the CGI era). But we movie critics can get nitpicky, and I am afforded the pleasure of being
as picky as I can get. "Shrek 2" has moments of inspired lunacy and several blink-and-you'll-miss jokes in the background and the foreground (stabs are made at Starbucks, Fat Boy, Tower Records, Hollywood and, of course, Disney). There are also a plethora of film parodies with the likes of "Spider-Man," "The Lord of the Rings," and the original "Shrek." The movie piles on so many clever
in-jokes and references that you're likely to miss most of them - they spring out of the screen at such an alarming rate that it is like a cartoonish nightmare version of Robert Altman's "The Player."

What "Shrek 2" lacks is a real reason for its existence. The story is basically a recap of the original's themes and subtexts, namely be yourself and get rid of your inner rage. Aw, shucks, not another simplistic moral lesson. If Pixar is going to separate themselves from Disney, they need to face certain
realities and avoid the moral cliches of the past sixty years - the animation is more lifelike than Disney but the story can't bear such close scrutiny. I wanted to like "Shrek 2" so much more than I had. I liked it enough to give it a passable recommendation, but I think kids and adults alike will find the
original, a parody of fairy-tales, far more enjoyable. Still, seeing Red Riding Hood running in fear of Shrek makes me smile. And Shrek himself is still a jolly green giant with flashes of anger. That's just the way I like him.

Quentin Tarantino's Twisting Crime Noir Epic

 PULP FICTION (1994)
Reviewed and Reassessed by Jerry Saravia
Best Film of 1994

"Pulp Fiction" is still, to this day in 2022 as I write this, one of the most pleasurable movies I have seen in a great while, and it will stand as the breakthrough movie of the 90's. It is a love it or hate it deal - either you admire the artistry of Quentin Tarantino's dark flourishes or you detest the sickening violence and brutality inherent throughout (the latter has still caused a stir in every film he's made since). Not only is the title "Pulp Fiction" a household name but so is Quentin Tarantino, a video store clerk who never went to film school and became an overnight success directing 1992's gory "Reservoir Dogs." All the attention is not for naught; "Pulp Fiction" is a great, rhapsodically inventive film that breaks new ground, is politically incorrect and unconventional. Tarantino has not so much reinvented film as much as he has rejuvenated it - he has brought back the sheer joy we all share of watching a great movie. 

"Pulp Fiction" won the Golden Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and won the Best Original Screenplay award at the Oscars. Since the film's release, "Pulp" has erroneously stirred great controversy over its obscenities, short bursts of bloody violence, racial overtones in its everyday use of slurs, sexual abuse and rape, and misogyny. All of these charges are largely silly because there is more violence and misogyny in the cartoonish "True Lies" and "Forrest Gump" than in "Pulp" (all released the same year). What upsets people is that "Pulp" is more open and subtly honest with these issues, and because the characters only seem cold and heartless. This is largely a falsity as you will observe. There is truth in the film but it is mostly an exaggeration, and shouldn't be taken seriously. 

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson play the main characters, Vincent Vega and Jules, two black-suited hoods who work for the big, black, bald boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Vincent and Jules are on a mission to retrieve a mysterious stolen briefcase belonging to Marsellus. Some college roommates are in possession of the briefcase, and Jules torments and kills two of them with his gun, but not before ranting and raving a biblical quote from "Ezekiel 25:17." Later, Vincent meets Marsellus's wife, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman). He is supposed to entertain her while the boss is away on business. They go to a 50's diner restaurant called "Jack Rabbit Slim's" where they do the Bat dance to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell." When they come back to her house, Mia has a heroin overdose where she is treated by an adrenaline needle to the heart administered by Vincent at a drug dealer's house (a frighteningly funny bit cribbed from Scorsese's documentary, "American Boy"). By the way, the grungy drug dealer is hilariously played by Eric Stoltz ("Killing Zoe"). 

Another story circulates around "The Gold Watch," and this concerns a hot-headed boxer named Butch (Bruce Willis). He is told to throw a fight by Marsellus (this subplot reaches as far back as "The Set-Up" and a hundred other noirish tales from the 50's). Of course, Butch does not throw the fight and kills the opponent. He tries to flee with his French girlfriend (Mia De Medeiros) but he won't leave without his gold watch, which he left at his apartment. When he tries to retrieve it, he finds Vincent whom he kills without hesitation. Butch almost gets away scot-free until he confronts Marsellus on the street - they hit and shoot each other until they are caught and bound by S&M freaks in one of the most thrillingly gory moments in the history of cinema. Then we return to the Jules and Vincent predicament involving the roommates and the mysterious suitcase - this episode is titled "The Bonnie Situation." Jules and Vincent kill all the roommates except for Marvin. They take Marvin along with them, and in the car, Jules feels that their survival from death was an act of God. Just then, Vincent accidentally blows off Marvin's head and, needless to say, it is a bloody mess. They arrive at Jimmy's house (Jimmy is played by Quentin Tarantino) where they store the bloody car in his garage until no-nonsense Winston the Wolf (Harvey Keitel) comes by to help the boys clean up the mess by telling them how to do it. This whole sequence plays like an eerie extension of the Billy Batts trunk scene from "GoodFellas."

"Pulp Fiction" is thrilling eye-opening fun and a miraculous movie simply because it plays and twists with the conventions of at least three different genres - the lurid atmosphere of film noir, the standard action-oriented melodrama, and your basic gangster crime picture. The difference is that the characters end up in bizarre situations that aren't dictated by cliched plot points or mediocre chases. These characters live and die by doing stupid things! Butch's stupid deed is to get his precious gold watch back at this apartment where the killers are inevitably waiting for him. When he arrives, there seems to be no one around. Ah! But Vincent went to the bathroom and left his silencer on the kitchen counter thus making it easy for Butch to blow him away!

"Pulp Fiction" has one classic scene after another and my favorite is the extended sequence with Vincent and Mia on their date at the Jack Rabbit Slim's restaurant where the waiter is dressed as Buddy Holly (Steve Buscemi). The conversation between Mia and Vincent consists of T.V. shows, Mia's supposed foot massage, five-dollar milk shakes, and "think of something to say"-type language, while they shoot frequent glances at each other. It is a delightful, entertaining and wonderful sequence to behold. The philosophical discussions between Vincent and Jules are also priceless, including the discussion on McDonald's hamburgers in America versus France, and let's not forget that Jules's favorite burger is the Big Kahuna burger.

"Pulp Fiction" has been severely criticized for containing foul language, gratuitous violence, and thoroughly repellent characters whom you couldn't care less about. Firstly, the violence is not gratuitous, it is explosive and brief (unlike some of "Reservoir Dogs" more profane passages). Secondly, these characters are not repellent (except for the nonsensical inclusion of the Gimp)
because Tarantino shows that he cares about them by instilling them with humanistic touches. Marsellus seems to be a one-dimensional big gangster boss until you see the hate etched on his face when he is hideously raped by one of the hillbillys. In fact, Butch goes back to save Marsellus from these hillbilly
freaks even though Marsellus initially wanted him killed. And look at the conclusion of the film (which is actually the beginning) where Jules decides to get out of the gangster business after having experienced a case of "divine intervention," and decides he'll "walk the earth like Caine in 'Kung Fu'." Rather than killing a lowlife thief (Tim Roth) and his girlfriend (Amanda Plummer) who are trying to rob a cafe, Jules chooses to let them go - he is doing the responsible, ethical thing rather than have a bloodbath on his and everyone else's hands (Tarantino hasn't come close to such an ethical decision since - most of his films feature bloody shootouts and sheer mayhem). Finally, don't forget Vincent aiding Mia after a heroin overdose. The scene is both frightening and hilarious, like most of Tarantino's masterful epic. 

Perhaps, this is Tarantino's finest hour, and he may never make another movie quite like "Pulp Fiction." ("Inglourious Basterds" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and the low-key crime drama "Jackie Brown" have come close to eclipsing "Pulp"). Some critics have said that he may never make a real movie about real people in real situations dealing with real emotions ("Jackie Brown" excepted). That may be true, but "Pulp Fiction" is as real a movie as we are likely to get for sometime. It is also one of the greatest entertainments of the 1990's.

Email from the Shop around the Corner

 YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed in 1998

I have always admired writer-director Nora Ephron's efforts, as mild as some were, such as "Heartburn"

and "This is my Life." "Sleepless in Seattle" is one of her best, a sophisticated romantic comedy with

allusions to old movie classics such as "An Affair to Remember" and "The Wild Bunch." It had the innate, likable pairing of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and some delightful zingers courtesy of Rosie O'Donnell. The surprise is that "You've Got Mail" is even better - as romantically pure and cleverly funny as you can imagine, and Hanks and Ryan are back in roles they were born to play.

Hanks stars as the aggressive Joe Fox, the owner of a Borders-type bookstore called "Fox Books" where they serve cappuccinos and thousands of books for discount prices. His business is the type to
put any real literary bookstore out of business, including "The Shop Around the Corner" - a children's bookstore run by Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan). Kathleen holds this precious commodity dearly to her heart, and it is practically around the corner from Fox Books. Distracting her from her business is her laptop computer, which she regularly uses to talk to an anonymous male friend through the wonders of e-mail. She has a regular rapport with this friend, and patiently waits for her beloved, a writer for The New York Observer (Greg Kinnear), to leave for work before she rattles around her computer. Only, she's not aware that her e-mail buddy is her competitor Joe Fox!

Of course, Joe is unaware of this himself, and regularly waits to go online until his girlfriend, a book editor (Parker Posey), leaves for work. The e-mails mount as they both write to each other, seeking help
about their business prospects. And never shall the twain meet, though we constantly hope that they do.

Nora Ephron is the perfect writer for such lightweight nonsense, but I was surprised how sophisticated and clever the dialogue was. Joe's double entendres hit a 10 on the laughometer - the best scene is when
he visits Kathleen's bookstore and tries to prevent his kids from saying "F-O-X". There are also the witticisms of supporting characters, such as Joe's philandering father (Dabney Coleman) and his
philandering grandfather (John Randolph), who describes women as being "enchanting"; his loose, Chris Tucker-ish executive pal (Dave Chappelle); and Kathleen's old bookkeeper friend (Jean Stapleton), who remarks that her last boyfriend "ran Spain". These characters are so joyous and entertaining to watch that they are partly responsible for making "You've Got Mail" such a success.
Ephron has less success with Joe and Kathleen's better halves. Parker Posey, one of the ubiquitous queens of independent film, is given little to do and is too boring and insipid to inspire much interest -
no wonder Joe is less than enthralled by her presence. This is partly true of Greg Kinnear's character, though he is given a little more leverage by Ephron and is allowed some sparkling zingers at a cocktail
party scene with Posey.

Another mild flaw in "You've Got Mail" is the relentless number of oldies playing on the soundtrack - how many times do we need to hear "Rockin' Robin"? The only reason so many immaterial songs appear on the soundtrack is so that they can make more sales at record stores. Only the inclusion of Harry Nilsson's "Over the Rainbow" feels justified. The center of "You've Got Mail" is the movie star combo of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and they are as delightful and adorable a pairing as James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan were, or Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Hanks is surefooted as he switches subtly from being charming and likable to mean and comically furious. Ryan is, for once, not too
bubbly or cute and handles her comedic scenes with flair and good timing. Her last scene, where her eyes fill with understanding, hope and regret, is stunning to watch. Combine that with Ephron's crisp,
often hilarious dialogue, and "You've Got Mail" makes for one of the best romantic comedies since "When Harry Met Sally."