When the pivotal character in a movie is a neurotic underachiever who feels insignificant and lusts after the most beautiful and most elusive woman in his environment, the role cries out to be played by Woody Allen - even when the movie is a computer-animated comedy-adventure aimed to attract legions of children more familiar with the problems of Barney or Bart Simpson than with the emotional insecurities which permeate Allen's serious comedies.
While Allen's characteristic references to neuroses and therapists will bewilder or sail right over the heads of most youngsters who go to see Antz, they serve the function of box-office insurance to keep accompanying adults amused. And while the film's surfeit of references to Allen's preoccupations - many of them scripted by an Allen himself, uncredited - seems out of place in the context, they are ultimately apt in the case of the character Allen voices in Antz.
In this comic study of the struggles of the individual against the system, Allen provides the voice of the ant, Z-4195, who feels neglected, being "the middle child in a family of five million". A nonconformist living in a Central Park colony, Z, who physically resembles E.T. and is undaunted by the ant caste system, sets his sights on the spoiled princess Bala (Sharon Stone).
Unfortunately for him, she is engaged to marry the colony's gung-ho, warmongering General Mandible (Gene Hackman) who persuades her mother, the Queen (Anne Bancroft) that it's crucial to take pre-emptive action against an invading army of termites. But an opportunity for unlikely heroism presents itself when the cowardly Z unwittingly finds himself in the front line of the action.
Antz is the first computer animated feature from DreamWorks, the studio formed by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and former Disney hotshot Jeffrey Katzenberg, and it is directed by Eric Darnell, who has applied his expertise in animation and art direction to commercials and an award-winning short film, and Tim Johnson, who was the animation director responsible for Homer3, the 1995 Halloween special of The Simpsons which transported Homer into a three-dimensional world.
There is a very impressive depth and scale to the images in Antz, an ambitious and very entertaining - though somewhat over-plotted - achievement which blends some spectacular sequences with a keen sense of humour in stand-out sequences such as an elaborate dance number (performed to Guantanamera) in which only Z is out of step.
"Snake Eyes" (15) General release
As one has come to expect from a Brian De Palma movie, technical virtuosity and visual style abound in his new thriller Snake Eyes - most exhilaratingly in the 12-minute opening sequence which consists of one dazzling, apparently continuous steadicam shot following a brash New Jersey detective's nervy progress through the a vast, bustling Atlantic City gambling emporium and boxing arena as a heavyweight boxing championship is about to begin. Outside, a hurricane is raging.
This arresting operatic opening establishes the chaos and excitement of the pre-fight atmosphere and reveals that detective Rick Santoro (played by Nicolas Cage) is morally tainted and not beneath robbing robbers to fund his own gambling. As De Palma's cynical thriller proceeds, it becomes clear that virtually every significant character in the drama is corrupt on one level or another.
The fight has just begun when one front-row member of the audience, the US Secretary of Defense, assassinated. Santoro seals off the venue as he sets about investigating the murder with his old friend, a navy commander (Gary Sinese), now highly placed in the US Department of Defense. As one also has come to expect from a Brian De Palma film, Snake Eyes comes replete with reference to classic movies by other directors, principally the Kurosawa classic, Rashomon, in its examination of the assassination from multiple perspectives - on a grand scale in this case, given that there are 14,000 witnesses and the complex is dotted with surveillance cameras.
And there are a few obligatory Hitchcockian references - notably a nod to Vertigo in the case of a blonde woman who is revealed as brunette. In this flamboyant, high-powered thriller, De Palma takes maximum advantage of the technology at his disposal, dexterously employing split screen, steadicam and gliding overhead shots to heady effect. It is unfortunate that this slick entertainment is undermined by the slackness of its narrative in the later stages - and by an entirely unconvincing coda which appears to have been tacked on to appease those wretched US preview audiences who are allowed to dictate more and more of what we see - and often don't see - in Hollywood movies these days.
"Afterglow" (members and guests only) IFC, Dublin
Alan Rudolph, the uncompromising American writer-director who made a distinctive debut 21 years ago with Welcome to L.A., hits the peak of his form with his latest, belatedly-arrived movie, Afterglow. This sophisticated romantic drama concerns two couples from different generations whose lives become inextricably interconnected.
One of the couples is middle-aged - a former B-movie actress (Julie Christie) and her handyman husband (Nick Nolte) still trying to cope with a traumatic event in their past. The movie's other central couple are in their twenties - a wealthy, uptight executive (Jonny Lee Miller), and his frustrated wife (Lara Flynn Boyle), who longs to have a child. The paths of the couples cross when the younger woman hires the handyman and gets involved with him.
Set in Montreal, Rudolph's handsome-looking film is emotional and melancholy, yet spiked with witty throwaway humour, as when Nolte observes: "I don't know much about what I like, but I know what art is." In a glowing comeback which deservedly has earned her an Oscar nomination this year, Julie Christie is on wonderful form while Nick Nolte hasn't had material this satisfying in ages and the versatile young English actor, Jonny Lee Miller (from Trainspotting and Regeneration) continues to surprise and impress.
"Just in Time" (members and guests only) IFC, Dublin
Two couples from different generations also figure at the core of the Irish film, Just in Time, John Carney and Tom Hall's assured follow-up to their impressive, no-budget November Afternoon. Their new film, which Carney also wrote and scored, features Gerard McSorley as Frank, an author temporarily based in London where he's working on a new book - and uncomfortably involved in an adulterous affair - and Frances Barber as his wife, Maria, a painter uneasily approaching middle-age.
Frank and Maria's plans for a quiet, close weekend together at their Irish country cottage are disrupted with the unexpected arrival of their friend, Michael (Michael McElhatton), an academic who co-owns the cottage, and his lover, Kate (Hilary Reynolds). The older couple always assumed that Michael and his wife had the perfect marriage, and they are shocked to find he has left his wife for another woman.
From the outset the film acutely catches the awkwardness with which Frank deals with his own lover, and in his guilt-ridden relationship with his wife and the small talk he contrives to fill their edgy silences. Tensions mount and there is mutual embarrassment all round when Michael and Kate, become stuck overnight at the cottage when their car packs in.
This subtle, intimate drama of secrets and lies makes for highly satisfying cinema for the duration of its fleeting, 50-minute running time, and it is marked by telling, expressive performances from its four fine central actors. Frances Barber precisely catches the brittle, lonely woman Maria hides behind her spirited exterior, while Frank is vividly brought to life in all his contradictions by Gerard McSorley, a remarkable actor all too often relegated to supporting roles in Irish cinema. Showing on the same programme is Joe Lee's engaging short film, A Basketful of Wallpaper, based on a Colum McCann story of the relationship between a curious young Irishman (John Cronin) and the older, Japanese man (Togo Igawa) he helps to wallpaper houses.
