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Indie Flix
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 4, 2001
A dazzling dance of life
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man (G) (38 min.) -- Some phenomenons beg for resistance, as is the case with Riverdance, Cats and the Montreal-based circus troupe Cirque du Soleil. The outlines of such entertainment are so odd -- synchronized stomping, singing felines and hyper-acrobatic clowns -- that the audience's fervor, despite high ticket prices, becomes something to ridicule.
Surrender, all you cynics, to the overloaded sensations of Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man. Seeing these athletic artists in person is a trip. Blowing up those mind-bending maneuvers and aural impressions to IMAX proportions is absolutely thrilling. Add the capacity for 3-D projection of those images and you have an enormously visceral movie experience, the stuff of which dreams are unavoidably made.
Journey of Man gathers Cirque du Soleil specialists from the troupe's various stage productions, mostly in Las Vegas, for what is best described as interpretive dances symbolizing human life from birth to second childhood. "Dance" is much too subtle a word, though. Cirque du Soleil comes up with dizzying ideas; bungee ballets, underwater chorus lines and a guy twirling a giant cube like a majorette. Either you've never seen this kind of performance before or else you're dying to see it again.
Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters, X-Men) narrates the program with poetic references to the importance of dreams, hope and, above all, love. He speaks for a nameless male introduced at birth with thundering percussion, passing through a watery gestation until he's dropped into a dense forest of youthful possibilities. The boy is led by his instincts, represented in bizarre fashion by prancing harlequins.
The landscape changes, and those instincts are left behind as the boy grows older and more daring. Then comes the awareness of love, observed as a counter-balanced dance between a man and woman painted like marble statues. The last act, when age is accompanied by hauntings from past mistakes, is a letdown until redemption arrives in the form of recaptured youth.
Journey of Man -- especially with IMAX bombast behind it -- excites our eyes while Benoit Jutras' musical score seduces our ears with a compilation of maturing sounds ranging from primal drums to ethereal strings. One doesn't watch the film as much as being bedazzled by it.
Opens Friday at Channelside Cinemas in Tampa. A
- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic
Bucs fans, clap if you believe
We Believe (NR, probably R) (107 min.) -- Local independent filmmakers Rob Hall and Justin Kelly have whipped up a decent pep rally for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans -- but not a good documentary -- with their first feature, profiling the team's most ardent followers.
There's Big Nasty, a genial lunk in Darth Maul war paint and a Bucs hard hat with a protruding rhino horn, and Pillow Lady, an elderly woman in a wheelchair who makes cushions for players and coaches. You may also get a kick out of Sign Man, whose hand-printed exhortations to the team are displayed under the worst conditions.
These fans are interesting for about half of We Believe. The rest of the time, the movie sorely lacks perspective. A few more scenes describing these rabid supporters' lives away from football, or giving them some dream beside one -- the Bucs winning Super Bowl XXXV -- that didn't come true would be helpful. We observe their tragedy but don't quite feel it.
A narrator would lend depth, and talking to people who believe this fan behavior is dumb could provide balance. Jittery, hand-held camera work gives the project a home movie feel, for better or worse. Often the lens' auto-focus doesn't get the job done. Yet there is a sense of dedication behind the occasional clumsiness rivaling the film's brash heroes. Hall and Kelly did it guerrilla-style, sneaking cameras anywhere possible before the NFL's properties division warned them to stop. Don't be surprised if the filmmakers catch heat for using TV and radio audio without the league's express, written consent.
But if you need a Bucs fix -- or believe the team just needs a little fixing -- We Believe may be a decent diversion until Sunday.
Opens Friday at Channelside Cinemas with premiere screenings at 8 and 10 tonight. C
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