Our Flick of the Week is “The Newton Boys,” a “Bonnie and Clyde”-inspired piece of Americana about a successful bank-robbing gang that worked mostly in the Middle West during the 1920s.
The cast is young and talented, with Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D’Onofrio and Ethan Hawke playing the Newton crew, and the byplay among them is more limited than one might expect. Rather, the script emphasizes the renegade spirit of bank robbing of that time — that robbing a bank is really robbing a robber, an institution that rips off the working class.
Writer-director Richard Linklater, an independent spirit working on his first mainstream entertainment, provides an occasional line of dialogue that is fresh. The film looks good, evokes the ’20s and concludes with a most memorable postscript over the closing credits. Indeed, the most important thing I can tell anyone about seeing “The Newton Boys” is not to leave the theater early. You will get to meet a couple of the real Newtons via vintage videotape from a most entertaining and surprising source. Rated PG-13. (star) (star) (star)
– MEN WITH GUNS. Writer-director John Sayles, an original voice in the American cinema, is at the top of his form in creating a portrait of impoverished Latin American natives who are kept at bay by the law and the lawless in a story that proceeds like the construction of a mosaic. Rarely have we encountered such a rounded, rich portrayal of poor people. No MPAA rating. (star) (star) (star) (star)
– GREASE. A 20th anniversary revival of the classic high-school movie musical that was really a tribute to young love and to movies from the 1950s. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are perfectly cast, along with such ’50s icons as Frankie Avalon, Sid Caesar and Eve Arden. Travolta’s star quality pops off the screen in the film’s very first number, “Summer Love.” PG. (star) (star) (star) 1/2
– MEET THE DEEDLES. A thoroughly stupid comedy about a couple of air-headed surfers who are mistaken for park ranger recruits and are forced to try to save Old Faithful from being extinguished by a money-grubbing ex-ranger (Dennis Hopper). Steve Van Wormer and Paul Walker play the obnoxious Deedles in a screenplay that lamely rips off Bill Murray’s comic turn in “Caddyshack!” as the boys combat an infestation of prairie dogs. Your teeth will be on edge within 10 minutes. PG. 1/2 star
– = New this week