Indie Flicks & Foreign Films Beat Summertime Blues
Bartleby, The Dinner Game Offer Some Surprises

After a summer filled with explosive blockbusters, special effects wizardry and teen comedies, one might be hesitant to rush out to the movies and plunk down seven bucks to witness the new Ashton Kutcher comedy My Boss’s Daughter.

At least I was. So, instead of going to a theatre to watch one of the new summer films, it was off to the video store to rent some of the films that never made it to Boone in the first place. If you look hard enough, you’ll find a wealth of independent and foreign films out now on video—the perfect antidote for summer movie burnout.

The Dinner Game

French director and screenwriter Francis Veber is best known for his comedy La Cage Aux Folles which was Americanized into the Robin Williams-Nathan Lane farce, The Bird Cage. His latest film is once again a humorous comedy of (table) manners, this one poking fun at a bunch of upper crust Parisians who get together every Wednesday for an “Idiot’s Dinner.” Each member brings as a guest the most absurd individual they can find, but tells the poor fools they are there to discuss their lives and hobbies for a proposed book.

Publisher Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) discovers tax clerk Francois Pignion (Jacques Villeret) on a train and upon learning of his new acquaintance’s obsession with making matchstick models of great feats of engineering invites him to the cruel dinner.

Pignion has a puppy’s enthusiasm and a real need to impress his new friend and possibly get a book published about his matchstick marvels.

Needless to say, things backfire for Brochant and he doesn’t even come close to winning the Idiot’s Dinner that week. Sometimes comedy does not translate well in foreign films, but The Dinner Game’s timing and situational complexity is perfectly conveyed in the English subtitles.

The Dinner Game is rated PG-13 for language.

Bartleby

One of Herman Melville’s novellas, Bartleby the Scrivener, is updated for an eerie comedy starring Hollywood’s most misanthropic leading man, Crispin Glover (Willard). Called simply Bartleby, the movie is the directorial debut by musician Jonathan Parker and follows the boss of a public records company (David Paymer) as his life comes unglued when he hires a new employee named Bartleby (Glover). Engrossed with the art of filing and staring for hours at an air vent, Bartleby refuses to do anything else for the company, stating simply and repetitively that he “would prefer not to.”

Bartleby is an engrossing yet creepy comedy that explores the paralyzing effect a man afflicted with a mysterious nothingness can have on the people around him. The always-terrific Paymer plays the exasperated yet humane boss with perfection while Glover is at his bizarro best as the eccentric file clerk. Bartleby also features fine performances by Joe Piscopo, Glenne Headly and Maury Chaykin. While quite possibly a little longer than it needs to be, the movie is offbeat, interesting and occasionally very funny.

Bartleby is rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

Out Now on Video

If you find yourself in the video store waiting for someone to return a copy of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, you might want to consider renting one of the other films that never came to High Country big screens.

New films on video include Raising Victor Vargas, the funny and scarily realistic portrayal of a teenage Casanova in New York City (rated R). Or how about Levity, the Billy Bob Thornton-goes-to-jail flick starring Kirsten Dunst (rated R)? No? Well then, you’ve got to have a look at Mule Skinner Blues. Documentary filmmaker Stephen Earnhart goes to the people populating a Florida trailer park and lets them make their own movie, using their own hidden talents. This is as funny and tragic and messy as real life gets. And Ashton Kutcher is nowhere to be seen…