Word: tarantella
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Millennium hopscotches the world in vignettes, making regions characters in a global mini-series (and paying ample attention to non-Western areas). It eschews Ken Burnsian still lifes for a tarantella of computer animation, film clips, re-enactments and folk performances, whirling impatiently like the dervishes and dancers it uses to maximum effect. This mix can shock us into seeing the present in the past, as when Isaacs crosscuts modern Italian hipsters and preening Renaissance Florentines. The conventional re-enactments, however, are like a forced march to colonial Williamsburg...
...brother, is a high-school junior with quite a few issues himself that are aggravated by Ben's reappearance. Ben's hardworking and optimistic father, Pat, seems thoroughly convinced that if everyone could just put aside their cares over a plate of pasta and a rousing rendition of "La Tarantella," things would work out fine. But although these may seem like gross generalizations--the insecure teen, the boisterous Italian--the film succeeds in taming the stereotypes by developing its characters so effectively...