Todd Graff leaps offstage with his cinematic directorial debut, Camp. Hailed as the Fame for a new generation, it lives up to its promise as a feel-good, energetic flick about misfit kids who sing and dance their way to a sense of community at a stereotypical theater camp. The requisite gay boys bunk together, with Robin de Jesus’ Michael, a self-doubting Latino, the stand-out performance of the film. Joanna Chilcoat plays Ellen, a love-lorn teenage girl devoted to her gay male campmates, with grace and humor, and falls for the seemingly sole straight camper, Vlad (Daniel Letterle), the less-than-captivating Romeo of her romance. The theme is somewhat tired—we all know what it’s like to not fit in at high school—but the music and choreography are great. Besides, what could beat a cameo performance by Stephen Sondheim, replete with stretch limo? Only the uproarious reaction of these Broadway babies to his arrival at summer camp. (ABM)

Lost in Translation

Fulfilling the boundless promise exhibited in her debut effort, The Virgin Suicides, director Sofia Coppola crafts a sublime love letter to both Tokyo and transitory friendship with her newest film, Lost in Translation. Hollywood star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has been shipped off to Japan to hawk Suntory whiskey to the natives. There he encounters Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), the beautiful wife of a photographer who spends much of her day staring out her window in hopes of somehow finding herself within the city’s skyline. The pair are soon discovering Tokyo culture and a profundity in their friendship that is lacking in their respective marriages. Johansson perfects the prolonged sulk, while Murray delivers his best performance yet, donning the hats of weary voyager, droll companion and cynical mentor with equal comfort. There are plenty of belly laughs to be had along the way, but what remains with the viewer is the significance of the fleeting connection that these two people share. Coppola dreamily lingers on every scene, adorning each of them with the sensation of the aftermath of a first kiss. (BYC)

The Magdalene Sisters

Set in an unconventioal nunnery in 1960s Ireland, The Magdalene Sisters is a film about hypocrisy, dogma and the horrible deeds committed as a result of religious hysteria. This fact-based story focuses on the lives of three women who, in one sense or another, are judged by the Catholic Church as having been “sinful” and, as a result, are essentially sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor and abuse at the hands of the Sisters of Mercy in what was known as a Magdalene Laundry. The sins of these women extend from the merely unthinkable—flirting with boys—to the purely satanic bearing a child out of wedlock or being raped by one’s cousin. In reprisal for these transgressions, the nuns of the Laundry subject the women to humiliation, threats of eternal damnation, and pure outright sadism, all of which all but force the women—many of whom had been entirely sexually innocent prior to their arrival—to sell themselves for the slightest opportunity of escape. Not so much an attack on Catholicism as all religion, this film depicts the needless abuses inflicted upon women in the name of faith. (SNJ)

The Secret Lives of Dentists

Alan Rudolph’s adaptation of Jane Smiley’s novella “The Age of Grief,” features projectile vomiting on the scale of Spirited Away but manages to make it charming. Three young girls, sickeningly cute even with the flu, steal the show from their parents, dentists and partners-in-practice David (Campbell Scott) and Dana Hurst (Hope Davis). The blond babes are also the only thing rooting David to the roost—he thinks he has witnessed his wife stealing a kiss backstage at her debut singing Verdi as an amateur soprano—and his visions of her infidelity envelop him as the movie progresses. These fantasies are spurred by David’s ethereal companion, Slater (Denis Leary), his most difficult patient, who follows him home in spirit to tap his repressed emotions. Through accomplished acting and exacting direction, the cast manages to achieve wonders with a somewhat limited script, presenting a look as if through a keyhole at the crossroads of a contemporary relationship. (ABM)

Swimming Pool

François Ozon’s Swimming Pool is a sexy, mysterious thriller that seamlessly weaves fantasy and reality into a single plotline which will leave viewers either completely confused or entirely satisfied. Sarah Morton, as played by English actress Charlotte Rampling, is an accomplished mystery author whose career has descended from critical acclaim to popularity among bored housewives and her peers’ mothers. Insecure and unable to write, she travels from London to her publisher’s house in southern France. Looking for peace and solitude, she instead encounters her publisher’s French daughter, Julie, whose reckless and promiscuous lifestyle is exactly what Sarah is trying to escape. Thrown together, the reluctant housemates enter an odd relationship in which both simultaneously disapprove of and are fascinated by the other. The result is a complex and subtle mystery that transcends standard thriller and mystery cliches. Swimming Pool will be rewarding for more cerebral viewers; for others, it may be hopelessly confusing. (SNJ)

Thirteen

Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Evie (Nikki Reed) have just become teenagers in Thirteen, the story of a nice dorky girl who befriends the most popular girl in junior high and is led into the seedy underbelly of teenage life: drugs, sex and petty crime. Co-written by Reed and based on her own experiences, Thirteen has a refreshingly true perspective: it doesn’t blame anyone for Reed’s interest in the cool clique, it just shows her desire to be a part of it. As Wood follows Reed deeper and deeper into the hole they create for themselves, the movie becomes more and more over the top, but the strong acting keeps it from becoming a cheap, cautionary after-school special. But the key is Holly Hunter, playing Wood’s divorced mother. She embodies a mother who is both easy to hate and rebel against and then, finally, to come back to in an ending that lets the audience forgive all her maternal mistakes in the aura of the true love she shares with her daughter. (Alex S. Wasserstein)

Under the Tuscan Sun

A bit of late-summer escapism unfolds on the other side of the pond, as a recent divorcee (Diane Lane) flees to Italy, purchases a villa and finds a mysterious foreign love interest. Adapted for the screen by Audrey Wells‚ who also produced and directed‚ from author Frances Mayes’ bestselling memoir, with a number of departures from the book. In the past, Wells has been responsible for such mixed fare as George of the Jungle, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and The Kid; here she strives to transcend the cliches of the typical romantic romp. An array of complications and subplots flesh out the simple story of one woman falling in love with a countryside estate, a beautiful landscape and a new life. (SWVL)

Happening was edited by Ryan J. Kuo ’04 and compiled by Tina Rivers ’05, Sarah L. Solorzano ’05, Brian J. Distelberg ’05, Michael S. Hoffman ’06, Simon W. Vozick-Levinson ’06, Ben Y. Chung ’06, Alexandra B. Moss ’05, Steven N. Jacobs ’05, and Alex S. Wasserstein ’07.