St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 45

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH FriimyJ Septkmber 29 2000 Movie reviews inside Film critic Joe Williams: There's a lesson not to be forgotten in "Remember the Titans." D3 Williams: Meet the tunnel dwellers in "Dark Days." D5 SECTION MOVIES Winding Roads" director hits the highway to promote new film Director Karyn Kusama: "It's really quite a thrill. There's something particularly exciting about introducing the film ('Girlfight') at the Tivoli, where I spent a good part of my childhood." 5' -3s-- I' if 1 Mrir inirrii irn innnmi r. By Joe Williams Post-Dispatch Film Critic I'm jetting down Interstate 70 in a rented Buick with director Ted Melfi. Our destination is Columbia, where a backwoods band called Big Smith is performing at Mojo's.

As the Buick careens past the Elvis Is Alive Muse: um in Wright City, I think of my mentor, the legendary film critic Lester Flicks, who always warned me not to get too close to the people I write about. He said they'd fill my gullet with sushi and fill my head with dreams of Joe Williams gives to "Winding Roads," the movie made in -Springfield, Mo. Review, D6 three-picture development deals. But when Melfi arrived at my office today to talk about his new movie, "Winding drier ream comes to the big screen Karyn Kusama, who wrote poetry and contemplated life's possibilities while growing up in St. Louis, is seeing her quest to express finally reach the mass media in the new film "Girlfight," her directorial debut.

REVIEW By Joe Williams and Ellen Futterman Of the Post-Dispatch aryn Kusama sits beneath a cafe umbrella on the north side of Delmar Boulevard and connects the dots that draw a portrait of the artist as a young lady. A block to UL the west is Blueberry Hill, where she once worked in the kitchen, and beneath it is the space that used to be Cicero's, where she frequently went to hear bands. To the east is Streetside Records, where she bought albums by Soul Asylum, the Replacements and R.E.M. And directly across the street is the Tivoli Theater, where the Ladue native was mesmerized by movies like "Eraserhead." Roads" (which opens tonight at the Des Peres and St. Charles cinemas), he seemed like such an affable guy, I consented to a nighttime joy ride for the chance to hear his story.

Melfi, 28, has been crisscrossing the highways of Missouri for 10 years. When Melfi was a high school senior in Brooklyn, N.Y., his father pointed at a random spot on the map and announced that the family was relocating to someplace called Conway, Mo. For most families, it would have been an unusual turn of events. But the elder Melfi was a famously eccentric character, the publisher of a conspiracy-minded newspaper and a former write-in candidate for governor of New York. After high school, Ted Melfi earned a psychology degree from Southwest Missouri State and attended grad school at the University of Missouri at Kansas City before seeking his fortune in Los Angeles.

A bartending gig at a West Hollywood restaurant led to his first job in the movie business, rustling up the funds for an independent film that never made it past the festival circuit. After producing four low-budget films (and briefly working for Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen network on a show in which drunken women were interviewed in tavern restrooms), he stepped into the director's chair. "Winding Roads" reflects his love for both filmmaking and southwest Missouri. Shot on location in Springfield (where he also produced the award-winning film "Park it tells the story of three women who are coming to terms with their relationships: the grieving Kelly, the reluctant Sam and the pregnant-but-unmarried Rene. The movie was budgeted for less than half a million dollars (or roughly 2 percent of the cost of a typical Hollywood movie), yet the cast is filled with rising stars.

They include Rachel Hunter (the former Mrs. Rod Stewart), James Marsters (who plays Spike on "Buffy the Vampire Patricia Hold-en Bronson (the daughter of Jill Ireland and Charles Bronson) and Kim-berly Quinn (a busy prime-time actress who is Mrs. Ted Melfi). "They're all doing better than I am," Melfi jokes. But it's easy to believe that the charismatic fellow behind the wheel is on the fast track to success.

He has a representative at the powerful CAA agency agent keeps telling me to think and a full slate of upcoming projects, including a documentary series on working-class America for executive producer Alec Baldwin and a feature adaptation of a novel he describes as "a hillbilly 'Pulp But whatever he does, Melfi is committed to the path of independence. That's why he prefers to work in low-rent Springfield instead of Los Angeles, where he and Quinn maintain an apartment. "Not having money is a good thing," he says "because you have t6 learn to do everything yourself." Melfi co-wrote "Winding Roads" with his wife, raised the money frorn dozens of Missouri investors and shot the film in 22 days. See "Winding Roads," D6 On this particular afternoon, there's a banner hanging above the Tivoli box office. It's a black-and-white close-up of a young Latina.

Her dark eyes are smoldering and angry. But to Kusama they're a welcome sight. The banner announces the local arrival of "Girlfight," Kusama's directorial debut, which would make its St. Louis premiere that night on the street that such an early age," says Kusama. "She was so willing to deal with my emotional voice and my passion to express, express, express." Throughout high school Kusama wrote poetry and fiction.

"One of my more vivid, fondest memories of Karyn's creative expression," says her mother, Susan, "is coming back from a family gathering in central Michelle Rodriguez and Jaime Tirelli in Karyn Kusama's "Girlfight." "Girlfight" is a prize fight without the purse One day while running an errand, Diana discovers the gritty world of a Brooklyn boxing gym. Her brother reluctantly takes lessons there, but she feels an immediate affinity. She becomes determined not only to learn the sport but to also excel at it and refuses to let anyone including the young By Ellen Futterman Post-Dispatch Critic At Large Every so often a film comes along that manages a new take on familiar genres; so much so, that what results feels fresh. "Girlfight" is such a film, largely owing its success to protagonist Michelle Rodriguez and writer- was such a big part of her formative years. "Girlfight" was a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, earning Kusama the Best Director award and a flood of attention from Hollywood power brokers.

"It's really quite a thrill," says Kusama, 32, referring to the impending screening. "There's something particularly exciting about introducing the film at the Tivoli, where I spent a good part of my childhood." Kusama is the eldest "Karyn was always artistic and ahead of her time. She was writing amazing poetry back in fourth and fifth grade. Even my mom couldn't believe how good her poems were. She was into vintage before it became fashionable.

She wore ugly shoes before they were cool." David Meyer, friend of Karyn Kusama since grade school Illinois, with the car radio playing, when all of a sudden, Karyn (pronounced CAR-in) started reciting this poem she made up on the spot about the St. Louis skyline. It was astonishing. We ended up submitting it to (a major poetry competition), and it won first prize." Adds St. Louisan David Meyer, who has remained one of Kusama's best friends since grade school: "Karyn was always artistic and ahead of her time.

She was writing amazing poetry back in fourth and fifth grade. Even my mom male boxer she ally falls fr stand in her way. Through the (out of demands of training, four) she begins to channel Rating: (vio- her volatility, and she lence, language) finds PurPose and self" worth. The ring seems Running time: t0 be the one place 1 53 where she feels she be- Opens today longs-Part coming-of-age director Karyn Kusama. Rodriguez stars as Diana Guzman, a tough-minded, uneasy Latina teen growing up in the projects of the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, N.Y..

Diana is lost in her life and very angry. Her rage is so tightly bound it can't help but daughter of a Japanese-American child psychiatrist and an An- glo-American college educator. She describes her parents, who met at Washington University, as culturally aware and supportive. Her mother often drove her to the Tivoli, where she was influenced by movies that ranged from the political thriller "The Parallax View" to a 3-D screening of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon." Kusama also credits English teacher Marjorie Stelmach as being a major in couldn't believe how good her poems were. She was into vintage before it became fashionable.

She wore ugly shoes before they were cool." After graduating from Ladue's Hor-ton Watkins High in 1986, she went to New York University on a scholarship to study screenwriting. "I wanted to be in New York," she says. "I wanted to be in a big city. That sense of unreality I got in Ladue is what pushed me toward the city, wanting an understanding of the way that other people lived." See Kusama, D2 pop. She doesn't fit in among her classmates or at school, where she's been warned that another fight will get her expelled.

At home she feels equally alien. Her mother is dead, her artistic brother (Ray Santiago) is as timid as she is ill-tempered and her macho father (Paul Calderon) regards her with an unsettling blend of triviality and scorn. drama, part sports saga, part love fable, "Girlfight" could seem trite if dissected piece by piece. But with Kusama at the helm, this indie film is much more than a gender-bender "Rocky." Its richness comes from clear, straightforward storytelling and from a production that looks, feels and sounds amazingly natural. See "Girlfight," D5 fluence.

"She just supported me from.