Men in Black

Running time: N/A

The expressionless Men in Black, who monitor the presence of the roughly fifteen hundred thousand landed aliens on Earth, are onto the source of real news: supermarket tabloids. Scanning one screaming headline, "Aliens Stole My Husband's Skin," Man in Black "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) calls the tabs "the best damn investigative reporting on the planet," although he grants that the New York Times gets lucky sometimes. The talents behind Men in Black are onto something, too--lovely, laser-keen wit that comes at warp speed with modesty and effortless cool. With a new alien critter roughly every 10 minutes, director Barry Sonnenfeld uses sheer attitude to keep his actors from getting upstaged. He's also into a brisk pace, a gift other directors might look into. There may not be a better actor for deadpan, knowing attitude and power than Tommy Lee Jones, while Will Smith, coming from the noisy end of the cool spectrum, is his perfect foil. Rip Torn adds dry edge as Zed, boss of the whole MiB shebang, and Linda Fiorentino, woefully underused, is a chief NY medical examiner who far prefers the dead to the quality of the living she's dated. Please join Cinequest's winner of this year's Maverick Technology Lifetime Achievement Award, Barry Sonnenfeld, for this special screening of Men in Black. --Sheila Benson of Cinemania