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Film

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Tracking Shots

Film

by Michael Atkinson

September 7th, 2004 12:00 AM

Cellular
Directed by David R. Ellis
New Line, in release

Kabluey
Tracking Shots by Jim Ridley

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
by McCann, Ruth

Diminished Capacity
Tracking Shots by Nick Pinkerton

Holding Trevor
Tracking Shots by Julia Wallace

We Are Together
Tracking Shots by Ella Taylor

Trash Talking With Harvey Weinstein
by Tony Ortega

Coming and Then Licking It Up. Is This a Gay Thing?
Savage Love by Dan Savage

At Home With Competitive Swallowers Crazy Legs and Eater X
by Andy Kropa

Gene Simmons and the Whores He Admires
La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto

Columbia's Knotty Noose Problem
by Graham Rayman

The 'W.' Stands for 'War Criminal' (17)
Nat Hentoff

Scientology's Crushing Defeat (15)
Tony Ortega

Runnin' Scared: From Brooklyn, a Rap Campaign Against Tight Clothes (9)
Runnin' Scared: Arcynta Ali Childs

Runnin' Scared: The City Pitted Kids Against Artists in the East Village (6)
Runnin' Scared: Chloé A. Hilliard

Savage Love: My Boyfriend Almost Fathered a Lesbian Couple's Baby?!? (5)
Savage Love: Dan Savage

Cellular was written by a neophyte script polisher, and directed by a second-unit pro whose main fame claim is having helmed Final Destination 2, but the whole buoyant, pleasantly pulpy, invigorating doodle has Larry Cohen's pawprints all over it. (He receives only a "story by" credit.) The scenario is Cohen-ultra, akin to Phone Booth and an inverse-double-flip of Sorry, Wrong Number: Classy Santa Monica mom Kim Basinger is kidnapped God knows why, and manages to get a broken phone to work—calling, haphazardly, the cell phone of an irresponsible beach stud (Chris Evans), who must then drive like a bat out of hell through L.A. to save her family and intervene in the bad guys' every maneuver. Dead spots, dying batteries, crossed lines—every cell phone tech burp is a set piece. As light on its feet as any B-movie this featherweight, Cellular belongs to Evans, who looks like a Tiger Beat demigod but jumps the hoops with infectious aplomb. Basinger takes her shuddery Stanwyckness very seriously, but everyone else has a ball.

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