Also this issue:

Future Tense
Fighting destiny and city hall in Minority Report.
-Sam Adams

Cold Fire
Inuit storytelling makes the jump to the big screen with Atanarjuat.
-Sam Adams

Cruel Tunes
S&M meets Shostakovich in The Piano Teacher.
-Sam Adams

Movie Interview
with Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn
-Cindy Fuchs

new

June 20-26, 2002

screen picks

Screen Picks

Save the Sameric It's not looking good for the run-down Chestnut Street movie palace. The site's owners, Broomall's Goldenberg Group, continue to tell reporters they have no plans to tear down the building, but last Friday, they obtained a demolition permit which would allow them to raze the structure as early as July 5. The Committee to Save the Sameric, which hopes to raise enough money to buy back the building, staged a demonstration outside the theater last Saturday and collected over 800 signatures, with further "Saturday Matinee" demonstrations planned "until opening night." For further information, keep checking www.historicboydtheatre.org.

The Hustler (Thu., June 20 and Sun., June 23, 4:15 p.m.; Mon., June 24, 7 p.m., County Theater, 20 E. State St., Doylestown, 215-345-6789, www.countytheater.org) The County's "Hollywood Summer Nights" series continues with screenings of Robert Rossen's powerful 1961 film. Paul Newman, in one of his most ferocious performances, plays "Fast" Eddie Felson, a small-time pool shark who meets his match in the smooth, implacable Minnesota Fats (a splendidly reserved, coolly arrogant Jackie Gleason). It's both Eddie's good and bad luck that Fats' manager, an oily George C. Scott, takes an interest in him -- Eddie gets all the success he ever wanted, but nearly loses himself in the process. Although it runs longer than it strictly needs to, you can see why The Hustler needed to make room for each of its stunning performances: The vast majority of its actors were never better.

Also available is a new DVD, which supplements the film with a neat featurette (which, oddly but delightfully enough, includes Jerry Orbach reminiscing on his old pool hall days), picture-in-picture commentary on the film's trick shots (which illustrates the film's only major departure from reality: Its characters don't dress like they've just come from a low-rent wedding), and commentary by Newman, assistant director Ulu Grossbard and Rossen's daughter. The only sour notes are the comments by critic Richard Schickel, who only compounds the disgrace Rossen brought on himself by naming names by minimizing its significance. Tarring Hollywood leftists as "evil" (a disgusting rationalization in and of itself) doesn't minimize the damage wrought by giving in to HUAC's authority. There are plenty of reasons, some of them understandable, for naming names -- because it didn't make a difference isn't one of them.

P.O.V.: The Smith Family (Tue., 10 p.m., WHYY-TV) Among the sweetest things summer brings is a new season of PBS's documentary showcase, which opens with Tasha Oldham's portrait of the Smiths, a Mormon family whose traditionalism is challenged when Steve, the father, confesses to repeated infidelities with men, and it's discovered both he and wife Kim are HIV-positive. Splintering the family is not an option, so Steve, Kim and their two sons struggle to hold onto their values in the face of overwhelming change. Oldham doesn't introduce much context, dealing only incidentally with Steve's near-excommunication (he's allowed to attend services, but not to pray), but the film is full of fascinating character moments. The Smiths' oldest son, who's about to leave for his two-year mission, is made most uncomfortable by his father's homosexuality, while their youngest, who looks as if he just might have a tongue stud, proves more flexible and embracing. "We're not going to fold our cards," he says defiantly, "and then whatever happens, we win."