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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2002
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (R)
The theme of growing up Catholic has an edgier feel than usual in Peter Care's film. Teenagers Tim (Kieran Culkin) and Francis (Emile Hirsch) have a running feud with Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster), a peg-legged nun who rides a moped like a witch's broom. After she catches them drawing a rude comic book, they commit several pranks to gain revenge.
First impressions: "There's depth to the rebellion, a desperation shown through comic book adventures springing to life on the screen at just the right moments. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane produced these dark, dazzling segments, making us feel the characters' pain by turning cathartic sketches they have done into expressive flights of fantasy.
"(The filmmakers) are working from a cult novel by the late author Chris Fuhrman, and the urge to include everything sometimes makes The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys mope a little too long in one place. But this film ranks with American Beauty for its realistic depiction of timeless, youthful angst, standing head and slumped shoulders above Ghost World and other films claiming to speak for teenagers today."
Second thoughts: Culkin and Hirsch are actors with promising futures.
Rental audience: Parochial school graduates with a sense of humor and nostalgia.
Rent it if you enjoy: The Virgin Suicides, Ghost World.
Two novels by Rebecca Wells are blended into a stew of mother-daughter conflict and Southern eccentricity. Sandra Bullock plays Siddalee, whose mother (Ellen Burstyn) is a constant source of tension. Mom's lifelong friends, known as the Ya-Ya Sisterhood since childish bonding rituals, kidnap Siddalee in an effort to explain why Mom is the way she is. Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan and Shirley Knight are amusing in their conspiratorial roles, and Ashley Judd plays Burstyn's character in tragic, revealing flashbacks.
First impressions: "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is oddly arbitrary, a movie that (except for the first and final 15 minutes) could have its scenes rearranged in almost any order to achieve the same effect. The polite term of description is 'episodic.' Structurally, the movie is a bore. But it does have personality.
"(It) is a pleasantly mediocre movie with blanks that Wells readers can fill in, but that doesn't help the rest of us. (Director Callie) Khouri wants this to be another Fried Green Tomatoes with 'Ya-Ya' replacing 'Towanda' as a feminist cheer. But that film flowed easier, cascading to a stirring climax. This one is just a gussied-up stick in the mud."
Second thoughts: That review drew more negative responses from devoted viewers and Wells readers than any other this year.
Rental audiences: Fans of the books, probably wearing big, gaudy hats like the Ya-Yas do. And I thought that Iron John stuff a few years ago was annoying.
Rent it if you enjoy: Fried green tomatoes -- the Southern delicacy, not the movie.