October 2–9, 1997

movie shorts

Kiss the Girls

This oppressive thriller is so generic it's almost unfair to single it out for criticism, but there's something profoundly nasty about a movie whose only real purpose is to reenact the ritual rape and murder of young women. The perpetrator here is a serial killer named Casanova who "collects" talented, bright and above all strong-willed women, and murders them when they disobey his "rules." There's a brief, half-hearted attempt to paint Casanova's obsessions as extreme examples of societal attitudes, but that's soon replaced by the more marketable spectacle of his victims cowering in fear. Since the main characters have only one trait apiece—Morgan Freeman's detective is determined, Ashley Judd's escaped victim is feisty—there's never more at stake than worrying about which woman will be brutalized next. The storyline is lumpy and incoherent, and as a director, Gary Fleder (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) lacks even the technical facility which would qualify him as a hack.

-Sam Adams

(AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Main St.; UA Riverview; UA Sameric; UA 69th St.)