WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR): "Intimate Strangers," "Cellular," "Criminal," "Nine Queens"

WCBE #182-FINAL
"IT'S MOVIE TIME" WITH JOHN DESANDO & CLAY LOWE
“Intimate Strangers,” “Cellular,”
“Criminal,” “Nine Queens,”
Taped: 4:00 pm, September 8, 2004
Aired: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 10, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

HIT NEW THEME MUSIC (CD: “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN” (CUT 15: “HE’S A PIRATE”), ESTABLISH, THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay
“Intimate Strangers” is a delectable study of passion Francaise . . .

John
"Cellular” is phones for thrills . . .

Clay
“Criminal” is more “cinema dejas vu” . . .

John
“Nine Queens” is a queen of a con . . .

MUSIC UP AGAIN, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak:
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AND SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay (“Intimate Strangers”)
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John, billed as a comic thriller (but don’t you believe it), Patrice Leconte’s “Intimate Strangers” is a quietly told tale about concealed passions and deliberate deceptions. It’s also the story of a woman in a troubled marriage who is compulsively drawn to the forbidden. [Shades of Catherine Denueve in Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour.”] “Intimate Strangers” is, additionally, the story of an unsuspecting tax accountant, whom, as you might expect, has compulsions of his own.

Brought together by one of those accidents of circumstance that seem to so delightfully fascinate the French, they first meet one late afternoon when she mistakenly wanders into his office. She thinks he is a psychiatrist with whom she has made an appointment. He thinks she’s come to talk about taxes. And so begins this rather dark and erotic comedy of errors.

John, when it comes to the sensual exploration of the anatomy of two lonely selves, Patrice Leconte, is the cinematic master.

John ("Cellular")
Clay, Cell phones annoy me because now they threaten to capture in OUR health club locker room my sorry backside for the Internet.  The new film Cellular glorifies ALL annoying elements of those little monsters for a worthy cause, saving lovely Kim Basinger and her family from abductors as she contacts on his cell a hapless Chris Evans to engage his help.

This is boilerplate Hollywood with improbable car chases and plot holes big enough to drive that featured $80k Porsche through. But it is fun.

The satirical savaging of the geeky lawyer/owner of that Porsche, who claims the new car can cause the loss of a woman’s crucial piece of under garment in 3 seconds, is satisfying; his trying to redeem that auto from a lady with extreme attitude in the impounding lot is spot on funny frustration.  

It’s not your kind of movie, Dr., as "Phone Booth" wasn't either, but then you’re the only friend I have without a cell, and ironically you’re even funnier than all of them.

Clay ("Criminal”)
John, my comedy’s not divine, but my love of wordplay has always been my devotion. Not surprisingly, then, your talk about cells reminds me of an early radio show that began: “Time and the little grey cells, they always catch the criminal.” After “Cellular,” those “little grey cells” have taken on a whole new meaning.

Unfortunately, however, there’s nothing new about John C. Reilly’s recent film “Criminal,” which turns out to be no more exciting than its title. An English language re-make of “Nine Queens,” this counterfeit copy follows the original plot-line to a “T,” but like Gus Van Sant’s re-make of “Psycho,” the film is equally dull and lifeless.

Who knows why movies go wrong, but like in the world of politics, blame should always be bestowed upon the one who was calling the shots.

John ("Nine Queens")
I have never seen a film as relentlessly uncompromising about the allure, power, and banality of the con game as I have seen in the Argentine `Nine Queens.' From the opening sequence where small-time grifter Juan pulls a $20 switch at a convenience store to the final scam that looks like `House of Cards' and `The Sting' welded onto `Hard Eight,' nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.

This is David Mamet territory, where buddies keep one eye on the target and the other on the buddy.

The film's pace is quick, like the hands of 3-card Monte; emotional involvement either on the screen or in the audience is minimal; everyone has a moment of triumph and defeat.

`Nine Queens' won 7 awards from the Argentinean Film Critics Association. I'm betting THAT'S not a con.

Clay
It’s grading time!

John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

Clay
“Intimate Strangers” gets an “A” because Partrice LeConte knows all there is to know about love . . .

John
"Cellular” earns a “B” because BASINGER is till a BABE . . . .

Clay
“Cellular” gets a “B” because it gets better when it plays it for laughs . . .

"Criminal” gets a “C” because it’s a counterfeit copy . . .

John
(Phone ringing) “Yes, Dear, that is our locker room on your cell screen. Yes, that is CLAY. Dear . . . Dear!!!! Oh, My Russian interpreter’s fainted. I’m outta here!

I'm outta here.

Clay
I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.

See you at the movies, folks!

HIT MUSIC “AIN’T WE GOT FUN”

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe