Year: 2005

Roald Dahl is said to have hated the movie adaptation of his creepy children’s story so much that he refused to permit the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, to be filmed. It’s too bad he didn’t live to see Tim Burton’s mind-bending remake, which takes the director’s eye-popping style to soaring new levels of delicious excess. Johnny Depp, always an avid collaborator with Burton, adopts a ripped-from-the-headlines, Michael Jackson-like appearance for his role as Willy Wonka, topping even his flayboyant Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. He makes Wonka’s dislike for the children he leads through his candy factory more evident than Gene Wilder did, and for good reason—snotty Veruca Salt and her companions sport even uglier personalities than in the old film. It’s a terrifying pleasure to watch them meet their just deserts.

Bearing a Joycean title (“yes” is the last word of Ulysses) and delivering dialogue in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, Sally Potter’s newest film is unabashedly poetic. The superb cast delivers the verse deftly, concentrating on meaning rather than meter, thus making it an almost transparent device. We notice it just enough to admire it. This contemporary love story pairs a married upper-class American woman and an immigrant Middle Eastern man. They attempt to find commonalities in a world that amplifies their political, social, and religious differences. The beautiful camerawork and score underline the sublime writing. But enough of the brainy aspects of this flick: The sex scenes in this film are totally hot. Yes.

After the last sizzling chunks of downtown Minneapolis’ fireworks drop into the river, head over to the Soap Factory for an open-air screening of dozens—perhaps a hundred! Maybe a thousand?—films before you go home. It’s fully possible when the films are just ten seconds long. But that’s time enough to experience pathos, hilarity, and maybe even some tacky naked people. These days, anyone with a digital camera or fancy cellphone can be a filmmaker. But it’s the undoubtedly rowdy audience that will confer greatness-in-filmmaking status on winners for such categories such as “action,” “documentary,” and “most dangerous film.” Be sure to vote your conscience—the winners will be awarded a beer and a burger at Grumpy’s. 110 Fifth Ave S.E., Minneapolis; 612-623-9176; http://tensecondfilmfest.org ??

Some complain that coverage of the war in Iraq is too negative. Others complain that the countless civilian deaths and deteriorating living conditions are being kept from American eyes. One thing is certain: The media has yet to present much of any picture of Iraq’s citizens. Which makes the release of this documentary, filmed by Hayder Daffar, a night clerk at Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, all the more remarkable. Working with a team of U.S. and Iraqi producers and filmmakers, Daffar depicts life in post-Saddam, pre-reconstruction Baghdad, offering an unnerving look into the streets of Iraq streets and the minds of its citizens. Lingering on the psychological and social effects this experience is having on Iraq’s children, Dreams makes it clear that the ultimate price the war will exact, in the Middle East and in the U.S., remains to be tabulated. 10 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-627-4430; www.bellmuseum.org

Hmm. Which do you think would be most difficult: Learning English as an adult, starring opposite Hollywood yester-hunk Richard Gere, or kindling a torrid love affair with film star and “Wicked Game” crooner Chris Isaak? Chinese émigré Bai Ling has accomplished all of that, and much more, since leaving her homeland fifteen years ago. In The Beautiful Country (opening July 22), she plays an altruistic Chinese prostitute who makes her way from a Malaysian refugee camp to New York City as an illegal immigrant. When we sat down with Ling to talk about the movie, we planned to ask about her tastes in clothing; she has earned a reputation for being among Hollywood’s least-dressed, even going so far as to wear a nipple-baring blouse to the premiere of a children’s movie. She ended up telling us a few things about posing for Playboy, and much more than we wanted to know about her sex life. ??

Do you relate to the prostitute you play in The Beautiful Country? I understand her completely! She is kind of powerless and in need of help. And she’s pretty, so men take advantage of her. Luckily, for me, I’m much more romantic, much more intelligent, and much more gifted than she is. When I go through her life, I think of my own life and think, I’m really lucky.

But surely you relate to the burdens of being pretty… Being pretty is a gift! But it’s also a curse. When I first arrived here, I worked as a waitress. Men gave me tips, took me out to Broadway shows. I didn’t mind it. Everybody wants to be liked. It’s psychological. It’s just flirting, sex, fun.

What else are you working on??I just finished up a Hong Kong film called Dumplings, which is very different from this film. It’s an extremely modern piece. I won four of the most important Asian acting awards for it. I also just finished up a film with William H. Macy. I play an exotic dancer.

Did posing for Playboy prepare you for that one??Yes, Playboy trained me for it. I want to thank Hugh Hefner for making me feel comfortable. Now I can dance naked before strange gentlemen and still feel comfortable.

What was that like? It was liberating. For someone coming from communist China, it’s beyond my wildest dreams! They told me Playboy is like the Western man’s Bible, so I imagined this blond girl with big boobs. But me, I’m all natural. And they still think I’m beautiful.

Are you still dating Chris Isaak?  When we see each other. We’re both very busy. I’m very lucky that I get to meet a lot of nice gentlemen. I have different affairs. I have one-night stands. There are so many beautiful men out there. It’s hard to choose sometimes.

Uhhh …  I believe one-night stands and lifetime commitments are the same thing. I think that if you meet somebody who makes you feel love, makes you feel butterflies in your stomach, it’s a gift. Doesn’t matter if it’s twenty-four hours or a lifetime.

What’s this we hear about you writing a book? Yes, it’s called Clock: Falling From the Sky, Dreams from Tibet. When I was fourteen years old, I worked as a soldier in Tibet in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. I’m writing a three-hundred-and-twenty-page book about it. I think it’ll be a best-seller.

Is this a misprint? Nope. The Suburbs’ Chan Poling, Semisonic’s John Munson, and Steve Roehm (“Your Neighborhood Trio”) are indeed playing American songbook standards on the chill stage at the Dakota. A little Rodgers & Hammerstein, a little “Love is the Law”—it’s a surprisingly sweet blend in the hands of these accomplished local rock gods (the act has been a sensation at St. Paul’s French Press Jazz Café). Maybe we should blame Happy Apple for showing everyone that jazz is the truly freeing sonic art form, or maybe the aging rockers around here are just turning into swinging gents. Either way, we’re feeling the love for these guys, who keep making it interesting to play and see music in this town. 1010 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; www.dakotacooks.com ?

Those born too late to truly appreciate Carole King’s 1971 classic, Tapestry, might believe that her greatest contribution to pop culture was Really Rosie, the soundtrack for an animated show based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s stories. Catchy numbers like “Pierre,” the cautionary tale about a snotty boy who was eaten by a lion, and “The Ballad of Chicken Soup With Rice” kept us sitting too close to the TV all those years when they were slipped into the Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock mix. But the truth is, King’s songwriting career goes back forty-plus years; recently she’s collaborated with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, a songwriter whose impulse for sweet and bouncy pop suggests that he, too, may have spent some time sitting too close to the television. Her new album, The Living Room Tour, comprises two CDs’ worth of recordings from last year’s tour, which she is said to have enjoyed so much that she’s hitting the road again this summer. 612-339-7007; www.hennepintheatredistrict.com

John Hiatt’s sprawling catalog of recordings is chock-full of minor classics and overlooked gems. His latest

album, Master of Disaster, was recorded with the legendary producer Jim Dickinson at the equally legendary

Ardent Studios in Memphis (where Dickinson also produced Big Star’s Sister Lovers and the Replacements’

Pleased to Meet Me). As they did on Master of Disaster, Dickinson’s sons Cody and Luther—prodigious music

makers in their own right—will back Hiatt at the Zoo, and their own country blues band, North Mississippi

Allstars, will do an acoustic opening set. Hiatt is consistently engaging as a live performer, and between

the cozy setting and the music—which turns from intimate ballads to bar-rockin’ jams, and back— this has the

makings of a seriously sweaty affair. 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; 952-431-9200

We waited all winter long, it seems, to hear the Olympic Hopefuls’ power-pop melodies outside on a sultry evening as the sun goes down. What better setting for serious booty-shaking when the all-stars sha-la-la through the infectious “Let’s Go”? On this occasion, they’ll play the open-air Ruin Courtyard at Mill City Museum, hard by the Stone Arch Bridge and Mississippi River. However enchanting the surroundings, though, we can’t help but wonder if the summer heat will tempt the troupe to peel off their tracksuits. Bring on the bun-huggers! 704 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612-341-7555; www.millcitymuseum.org

Well, it isn’t the Fillmore, but Lucinda Williams’ heartbreaking ditties ought to work just as well in a place that keeps animals confined in cages. After all, while Williams is known to belt out the occasional blues-rock wallop, we would never think of her shows as sunny occasions. Instead, her world-weary, weathered voice and her songs, which often wallow in memories of lost love, have a particular resonance with the the lovesick, the homesick, and the imprisoned (perhaps animals as well as humans). This time, when she croons “I wanna watch the ocean bend” (a line from her sea-longing “Ventura”), we’ll think of the far-from-home dolphins in nearby Discovery Bay. Likewise with “Lonely Girls” for the trumpeter swans, “World Without Tears” for the red pandas, and even “Fruits of My Labor” for the popsicle vendor camped outside the amphitheater. 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; 612-604-4466; www.uptowntix.com