Appropriately, in the snake-oil era of Bush II, the summer's biggest
money-maker is the cheesy, dumb, turgid "Matrix II," but real reel value
is yet to come, happily, as soon as this weekend.

"Dracula, Pages from a Virgin's Diary" is a weird, amazing, memorable
Thing, for lack of more specific term. It's director Guy Maddin's and
choreographer Mark Godden's silent-film fantasy with uncredited recordings
of Mahler's First and Second Symphonies.

Black & white (and red), the year-old film has the feel of the early
days of cinema. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet's sensual retelling of the
Bram Stoker story is complete with hilarious title cards and haunting
images.

Maddin, of the remarkable "The Heart of the World," is working on a new
film with Kazuo Ishiguru, whose "Remains of the Day," "The Unconsoled,"
"A Pale View of the Hills," and "When We Were Orphans" form a pivotal
collection of contemporary literature.

# # #

If you don't mind being searched and patted down by Disney security
personnel, "Finding Nemo" is worth seeing. (I did mind, said so, but was
informed by the anti-piracy security person, exploring my pockets, that
it "has to be done." Why? "Because it's mandated," came the reply. Well,
now, that explains it.)

The Disney-Pixar animated saga of a single-parent clown fish's search
for his son in Sydney (well, yes, just go with it) is not in the same
class with "Spirited Away," but it's well-made, funny, and blessed with
great voice work by Albert Brooks and, beyond all expectations, Ellen
DeGeneres.  She gives vibrant, hilarious life to Dory, the blue tang
with attention deficit and great inner strength. Barry Humphries (Dame
Edna) is Bruce, the Great White, a leader in the sharks' 12-step group
trying to kick the addiction to eating fish.

Clown fish, we learn, are not really funny. It takes the film's entire
100 minutes for Marlin-Brooks to produce: "with frogs like that, who
needs anemones?" Still, the film-makers do provide humor and adventure,
albeit with a great deal of excessive cuteness. Andrew Stanton (story,
screenplay, director) has been involved with all the good Disney-Pixar
films, from "A Bug's Life" to "Monsters, Inc."

A word of warning to parents of small children: "Nemo" has some heavy
and scary baggage. Like Bambi's, Nemo's mother is offed early and brutally
(although it's not shown), and the dangers of the voyage made some kids
at the preview show cry, not exactly on purpose.

Most importantly, neither the fantasy figures in "Dracula" nor the cartoon
characters of "Nemo" have "Matrix"-type 20-minute fight sequences atop
18-wheelers while misquoting Decartes. In the movies, as in politics,
this is the age of vastly diminished expectations.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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