FILM:
Season of suck

Hot times often mean soulless celluloid, but here's what might actually be worth seeing

by MATTHEW HAYS

So the big news this summer is that Fahrenheit 9/11, shitdisturber extraordinaire Michael Moore's anti-George W. Bush, anti-Iraq War rant will indeed be getting a summertime release, and with the help (yet again) of a Canadian company. (Bowling for Columbine, you'll recall, was bankrolled primarily by Halifax's now-defunct Salter Street Films.)

As good as that news is, it's also one of the few uplifting things I can say about this year's summer crop of movies. I don't know what or why it is, but the studios really do seem to think that everyone who goes to see the movies in the summer has utterly no interest in anything remotely thoughtful (or good, for that matter). I mean, I enjoyed Spider-Man as much as the next comic-book geek and Sam Raimi freak, and I look forward to the sequel (due out on June 30), but really, can we not have some balance in the calendar year? Here, as part of our seasonal overview, is the best I can come up with in terms of hope for filmgoers struggling to find stuff worth catching. I have pored over the offerings and worked out what might be the very best - and believe you me, there was a lot of fat to cut off this particular bone.

At some point, Mario Van Peebles' Baadasssss! will finally arrive here (it's already in limited release across the U.S.). It's getting rave reviews south of the border, and has Peebles playing his own father, legendary blaxploitation filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, as he struggles to make the '71 landmark independent feature Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For fans of the film - and I count myself among them - this will prove a seasonal treat. (No set date yet for Montreal.)

Terminal sentimentality

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks will again join forces for The Terminal, the inspired-by-atrue- story movie about a man who gets stuck in an airport after strife in his home country means he can't return. (The actual man upon which said story is based, Iranian exile Merhan Karimi Nasseri, remains in the Paris airport to this very day.) Some of The Terminal was shot at Mirabel, so look fast for glimpses of our now defunct airport. Given the director, this film will be entertaining, if nothing else (June 18). In other film news that is tangentially Montreal related, Ryan Gosling - an actor who emanated from our burg - stars in The Notebook, the latest from spawn of the gods Nick Cassavetes. In Bridges of Madison County form, the film leaps between now and then, as people reminisce about how a true love was born. Cassavetes' mom, Gena Rowlands, also stars, along with James Garner. The cast is worth the price of admission alone, but, unlike his legendary filmmaking father, the young Nick tends to go overboard in the sentimentality/ maudlin department (see Unhook the Stars), which can often mar his work (June 25).

In the I-feel-a-song-coming-on department, De-Lovely is Irwin Winkler's homage to Cole Porter. The man's life was already brought to the screen before, of course, when Cary Grant played him in the '46 biopic Night and Day (now there's Hollywood irony for you - one closet case playing another). Here, Kevin Kline plays the lead, sexual orientation intact. With musical performances by Elvis Costello, Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow. Musicals are dodgy, but the genre has managed quite the comeback in the past few years (June 25).

Droids and cats

Robots are generally a good dumb summer thing, as was the case with last year's T3 (not of James Cameron proportions, but still fun). This summer, director Alex Proyas brings us I, Robot, with Will Smith as a futuristic cop out to battle a bunch of 'bots who are way out of control. In the Bladerunner mould, the film has Smith as a hardened detective trying to get to the bottom of all the nefarious plots behind these malicious droids. Effects look like tons of fun, but Smith often rubs me the wrong way (July 16). In other cartoonish news, Oscar-winner Halle Berry will play the lead in Catwoman, in a departure from the Selina Kyle most of us comic book nerds grew attached to in the original Batman comix. Oh well… change is good - at least the folks behind this franchise wannabe hope so (July 23).

Sequels include The Bourne Supremacy, which, hopefully, will prove as good as the original, which was a well-handled little chase/espionage movie. It helped that Matt Damon (perfectly cast as a man who doesn't quite have a grip on his identity) was joined by Euro-goddess Franka Potente, who is always outstanding. Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Jon Voight headline The Manchurian Candidate remake. Don't quite know that this film was crying out for a remake - the John Frankenheimer original is, in my estimation, untouchable, but we'll see what Jonathan Demme (hardly a slouch) can come up with (July 30).

Another in the potentially-betterleft- alone department is the liveaction version of Thunderbirds, starring Bill Paxton, Ben Kingsley and Sophia Myles. Er… wasn't the whole point of this thing the cheeseball puppets? (July 30). Extraneous sequels abound - or prequels, rather - with Exorcist: The Beginning, in which Stellan Skarsgard steps back in time to reveal where the devil it all began (Aug. 20).

Film fest madness!

Finally, the season wouldn't complete without a quick rundown of various festival events. The best of the bunch is, without a doubt, Fantasia, which will take place July 8-Aug. 1. Standouts this year include the bloodier-than-bloody Shallow Ground, starring Bad Seed alumna and horror legend Patty McCormack. Comedia, the comedy film fest that runs part of Just for Laughs, will reportedly be offering a 3-D film fest year (July 15–25). And Serge Losique's annual everything-thatdidn't- get-into-Toronto event, World Film Festival, will unspool Aug. 26–Sept. 6.