Author: rakemag

A film noir for the twenty-first century, this crime drama is based on Frank Miller’s much-loved comic-book series, an elegant, violent, bleak, and sexy chronicle of various seamy underworlds. A grizzled cop (Bruce Willis) has vowed to keep a showgirl (Jessica Alba) alive, while a crook (Mickey Rourke) is out to avenge the death of his lover, Goldie. Benicio Del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, and Alexis Bledel bring other Miller characters off the page and onto the screen, filling the dancehalls and buying the bullets in a story with as many twists and turns as a pole dancer.

The newest in an increasing number of must-see films from Hong Kong, this extravaganza set in the glamorous and ruthless 1930s is a funny, eye-popping homage to Bruce Lee, Grease, and a thousand special effects. Aspiring gangster Sing longs to join the Axe Gang, which rules the city’s slums and casinos with a commanding combination of wicked martial arts gymnastics, a snazzy sense of fashion, and dazzling dance moves. Sing and his tubby sidekick pretend they are Axe members in order to pull off a minor crime, which only draws the real gang to town to dispense with these fools through a little song and dance.

Hapless Ben (Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon) is a teacher whose Boston Red Sox obsession consumes his life until he becomes smitten with Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), who couldnÕt care less about the sport. Sounds like your typical romantic comedy, except that it’s based on a novel by Nick Hornby, the Helen Fielding-for-guys who brought us High Fidelity and About a Boy. Also, it’s directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber). Hornby is adept at creating goofy and shambling characters with a stupid side that his readers identify with, while the Farrellys are notorious for making the stupid side of characters the only side you want to see. So Fever Pitch looks well-positioned to become a romantic comedy classic–or at least a romantic baseball comedy classic.

Great children’s movies attract not just families, but a sizable contingent of sheepish adults with no children, which may help to explain all the rap stars who line up with Ellen DeGeneres to voice-over cartoons. But this new offshoot of M-SPIFF brings a highly intelligent selection of international children’s film to the Twin Cities, demonstrating that the genre can indeed thrive without celebrity voices, garish animation, or fast-food toy tie-ins. Highlights include a spotlight on French animation, centered around a screening of Princes and Princesses at the Children’s Theatre Company, in which CTC actors will create a live soundtrack to the film. www.mnfilmarts.org/m-spiff/2005

Perhaps the most pleasurable thing about Barbette is the feeling that, upon gliding through its velvet-curtained entry, you’ve walked into a French movie. A host with chiseled cheekbones guides you past a round communal table. Stained-glass fixtures in circus colors suggest the performer from which the cafe takes its name. If you’re lucky, you’ll be seated with a view of a painting of a lovely nude with a sensuous backside. Patrons to your left slurp oysters, and across the room, a couple lingers over a bottle of Sicilian red with a spread of fruit, artisan cheeses, and warm olives. You can’t decide whether to indulge in the grass-fed steak frites or the wild mushroom risotto, but one thing is certain: it’s time to learn French. 1600 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-827-5710

Through fifteen years and three locations, Sakura owner Miyoko Omori has kept St. Paul swimming in top-grade sushi. In a high-ceilinged room with expansive windows, she and her staff serve up artful takes on classic Japanese fare, drawing a dining crowd that ranges from Lowertown loft dwellers to traveling classical musicians–don’t be surprised if you see a cello case patiently waiting while its owner scarfs down some mirugai (jumbo clam) or uni (sea urchin) nigiri. The place also has mean miso, terrific tempura, and some serious sake, in addition to lunchtime bento-box meals that have made many a downtown office worker’s day. 350 St. Peter St., St. Paul; 651-224-0185

We’re not sure why the server offered us a cup of water to sip while we waited for our takeout pizza; the pies were already boxed up by the time we’d paid and walked over to the pickup side of the counter. With an oven running at a truly infernal eight hundred degrees, pizzas here are fully baked in a mere ninety seconds. Really. This rapid-fire approach hardly compromises in taste, either: tangy San Marzano tomato sauce, huge basil leaves, and toppings like robust spicy sausage, all tossed lightly over a chewy crust tinged with a little wood-fire carbon, make a Punch pizza just about the most sophisticated ninety-second experience around. The Minneapolis location even has a community table for non-natives and other brave souls who might like to chat with strangers over a meal. 704 Cleveland Ave. S., St. Paul; 651-696-1066 / 8353 Crystal View Rd., Eden Prairie; 952-943-9557 / 3226 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-929-0006

Like opera, poetry doesn’t always translate well from its native tongue. Poems from the great mystic Rainer Maria Rilke, for example, lose nuance and, more notably, lyricism in the journey from Rilke’s native German to English (he also wrote a sizeable but less celebrated oeuvre in French). Rilke’s rhythmic dynamism is best enjoyed when expressed, lecture hall-style, in its original language, while we non-German speakers follow along with the help of handouts. So here’s a rare opportunity, in honor of National Poetry Month, to hear Rilke poems in their original German. Gerhard Weiss (pictured), a professor of German at the University of Minnesota, does the honors. Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts; 6666 East River Rd., Fridley; 763-574-1850; www.saseonline.org

The first stanzas of his song “Miss Fortune”–about an abandoned baby–left the musician/songwriter John Wesley Harding itching to tell the rest of the story. So he wrote an entire novel, “Misfortune,” under his real name, Wesley Stace. This elaborate and occasionally raunchy tale, told in Dickensian style, follows the baby as it is found by the wealthy Lord Loveall, who is thrilled to have a daughter and lavishes her with luxuries. How lucky for her–except that baby Rose is a boy. The tale that unfolds is peppered with vivid detail and lively dialogue, making it easy to see why publishers pounced on this first novel.

Mrs. Vollman–yes, last we heard, Bill was still married–must be the most tolerant woman on earth. Her husband is notorious for conducting meticulous research for his books, research that has included developing a crack habit (to understand drug addicts) and traveling for months through the world’s most unstable countries, with little access to communications and ample chances of getting one’s head shot off (to understand life in these places). Then there was the research involving lots of sex with lots of prostitutes, to understand, well, people who have lots of sex with lots of prostitutes. We hope Mrs. Vollman finds just reward in reading her wayward spouse’s books–epic and beautiful masterpieces that exercise language in new ways and illuminate dark corners of the non-Western world. Europe Central takes on the Western world during one of its darkest times, World War II.