PLANET SICK-BOY MOVIE CAPSULES

Rochester’s own Robert Forster headlines a stellar cast in the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s Lakeboat, which starts a one-week run at the Little Theatre this Friday. The film is told through the eyes of Dale Katzman (Tony Mamet, David’s younger brother), a grad student who has decided to spend the summer working on Chicago-based freighter called the Seaway Queen. And, yes --- they all swear like sailors.

Dale learns lessons about booze, women and loneliness from a group of actors that have appeared in numerous Mamet projects (Charles Durning, Jack Wallace, J.J. Johnston) and a few who haven’t (Denis Leary, Peter Falk, George Wendt). There isn’t much of a plot here --- it’s more of a collection of stories you might hear if you camped out at a bar for an entire day.

(1:39 - for language)

Less a horror film than a comedy, Lake Placid tells the story of a giant crocodile that terrorizes the inhabitants of a small lake in Maine. (The body of water in question doesn’t refer to the place in upstate New York that hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics). Written by television guru David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal and The Practice), the picture is slowed down only by the romantic subplot and the "should we kill it or capture it" debate.

Particularly hysterical are the moments shared between local sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson, The General) and wacko croc expert Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt, Simon Birch). With the presence of Bridget Fonda (A Simple Plan), Kelley demonstrates his irrational need for an anorexic female lead (like Calista Flockhard and Lara Flynn Boyle), and director Steve Miner (Halloween: H₂O) shows a strange affection for filming water movies. (1:22 - for violent creature attacks and related gore, and for language)

You may remember her as "Bubble," the dippy receptionist from Absolutely Fabulous, but Jane Horrocks is so much more in this adaptation of the wildly popular play of the same name. She plays the title role, an extremely quiet and sensitive girl that spends all of her time playing her recently deceased father’s record collection in the attic of her house. Her isolation helps her develop the uncanny ability to perfectly mimic the vocal stylings of each of the popular singers, like Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe (Horrocks does all of her own singing in the film).

When her mum’s drunk beau - who happens to be a sleazy talent agent - hears Little Voice, you can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes. The ending is a bit on the empty side, but the film is still very entertaining. Co-stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Caine and Brenda Blethyn. (1:35 – for adult language and some mild adult situations)

Indie film legend John Sayles (Lone Star) returns with this strange but striking story of the relationship between a fisherman (David Strathairn) and a fledgling lounge singer (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The film is divided into two distinct halves – the first on mainland Alaska, where the wealthy dream of making the area into a resort and the poor either catch fish or gut them at the cannery; and the second on a deserted island where Straithairn, Mastrantonio and her daughter (Vanessa Martinez) find themselves stranded.

Sayles, as usual, wrote, directed and edited the film, which is as breathtaking as any of his previous efforts (cinematographer Haskell Wexler shot Sayles’ The Secret of Roan Inish), but its ending is abrupt, to say the least. Like The Blair Witch Project, viewers will be wondering if an additional reel of film was misplaced by the theater’s projectionist. Consider the title a warning of sorts. (2:06 - for language and minor adult situations)

Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito star as two people (yawn) unlucky in love. The former is a wealthy divorcee while the latter is the financially strapped doorman in her building. Hunter comes off as a Sarah Jessica Parker clone (complete with bleach-blonde hair) and DeVito, well, he’ll always be The Penguin to me. Living Out Loud is the directorial debut of Richard LaGravenese, the guy who wrote Brazil and The Bridges of Madison County. (1:42 –

for adult themes and language)

This Grand Jury Prize winner at Cannes was nominated for a mind boggling seven Oscars, including the holy award trifecta (director, actor, screenplay) for Roberto Benigni. His character is an Italian Jew who tries to protect his young son from the horrors of their World War II concentration camp by pretending that the whole thing is just an elaborate game to win a tank. Warm, touching and surprisingly hysterical, given the heavy subject matter. Life is the first film in thirty years to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Film. (1:57 –

for the aforementioned horrors of war)