FILM LIST
Ross, US. 1987) Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan. 111 mins. Country bumpkin Fox comes to New York determined to make it in the cut-throat world of big business. Slick yuppie comedy. with an obnoxious world view and a cast of well-practised hands. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road.
I See No Evil, Hear No Evil (18) (Arthur Hiller. US. 1989) Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Joan Severance. 107 mins. Yet another wacky instalment ofthe Pryor-Wilder combo. It‘s the same old recipe of farce, sentimentality and arrogant self-righteousness. Yet again our two loveable heroes get caught up in the criminal underworld. through no fault of their own. This time Wally (Pryor) and Dave (Wilder) are respectively blind and deaf , as opposed to previous outings ‘ where the two have just been plain dumb. Having witnessed a murder outside their New York news-stand they proceed to outwit anyone who may have cause to chase them. However the script writers (including Wilder) are too concerned to make statements about handicaps and our patronising attitudes towards them. This somewhat laboured and undeveloped moral canvas is illuminated by a handfulof dazzling moments. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: La Scala. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. UCl Clydebank 10, WMR Film Centre.
I Sex, Lies and Videotape (15) (Steven Soderbergh, US. 1989) Andie McDowell, Laura San Giacomo, James Spader. Peter Gallagher. 101 mins. The sex: John (Gallagher) is conducting a steamy affair with his sister-in-law Cynthia (San Giacomo). The lies: they neglect to tell his wife. Anne (McDowell). The videotape: John’s black-clad buddy. looking like an undertaker for the arts world, Graham (Spader) gets his kicks by videoing women‘s sexual confessions. Reduced to the bare bones. you may well wonder what all the fuss was about. Yet. 26 year old hotshot Soderbergh‘s first feature and winner ofthe Palme d'Or is astrikingly assured piece of work. establishing a rigorous tonal control on which he setsthe film’s urbane confrontation with the deeply personal aspects ofeach individual‘s sexuality. Though the final resolution is a little too pat, for the first hour at least the film doesn‘t put afoot wrong. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Salon. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I She's Gotta Have It (18) (Spike Lee. US, 1986) Tracy Camilla Johns. Redmond Hicks. Spike Lee. 85 mins. Spirited, sympathetic comedy of sexual manners, with a snappy script and a fluid technique that marked an auspicious debut for its young. gifted and black writer/director/star. Glasgow: GFT.
I Slaves ol New York (15) (J amcs ivory, US, 1989) Bernadette Peters. Adam Coleman, Niock Corri. Madeline Potter. 121 mins. Surprising dip intoTama Janowitz’s eighties sleaze from the man who brought you all those glossy Forster adaptations. But Ivory holds back and lets the sassy dialogue work for itself. with inconsistent but highly intriguing results. Most effective is the portrayal of tense shyness which besets Abby (played by Janowitz herself) and Eleanor in the face of boorish Big Apple art-bore brashnesss. Glasgow: GFT.
I Society (18) (Brian Yuzna.US.1989) Billy Warlock. Devin Devasquez. Evan Richards. 90 mins. Extraordinary fantasy film that was the talk of Cannes earlierthis year. Prepare to be shocked as high school kid Warlock discovers that all his friends and his parents are involved in a secret society devoted to the sexually perverse . .
and beyond. Special effects courtesy of a
gentleman named Screaming Mad George. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Something Wild (18) (Jonathan Demme. US, 1986) Jeff Daniels. Melanie Griffith. Ray Liotta. 113 mins. Best ofthe
WIRED
Wired (18) (Larry Peerce, 08,1989) Michael Chiklis, J.T. Walsh, Ray Sharkey, Gary Groomes. 100 mins. Previously almost a national hero tor his work in uncovering Tricky Dick Nixon’s Watergate scam, with the 1984 publication 01 his biography ‘Wired: The Short Lite and Fast Times at John Belushi', journalist Bob Woodward became one at the most reviled men in Hollywood. Ending with the sad death in March 1982 at admired movie and television comic Belushi, the book is unsparlng in its detail at the star’s gargantuan narcotics intake, names the likes ot Nicholson, De Niro, Robin Williams and Richard Dreytuss as his Beverly Hills playmates, and implicates the studios in his demise for ensuring that he always got the drugs he needed to carry on making the movies that would turn a profit for them.
Not surprisingly, when producer Ed Feldman embarked upon a lilm version at Wired, those sell-same studios didn’t want to know, and the reaction of Michael Ovitz’s management stable, Creative Artists Agency (who currently handle basically all of Hollywood’s leading actors) in withholding any involvement, meant that the movie was going to go ahead largely with a cast at B-list talents and newcomers.
In the central role, debut boy Michael Chiklis gives a remarkable impression ot Belushi, both the coke-fuelled comedic vigour and the dreadlul insecurities of his need tor artistic credibility, and he defends the film's sometimes irritating patchwork structure: ‘I liked the idea of that almost surrealistic approach because I
telt it was important to have John’s own perspective portrayed. In the editing stage, the lilm maybe got a little tragmented, but in a weird way that makes sense with what happened in John’s Iite.’
Yet, despite Chiklls’s best efforts, the necessarily compromised screenplay tails to come up with the kind of insights into Belushi’s need tor sell-destruction that would give the uncertain tone ol the lilm a little substance. The Blues Brothers sequences are an able reproduction, but lorthe tricksy cutting on view, the overall sense is one at tlailing toothlessness. There’s almost an admission at deteat that by blunting the edge Wired the movie needed to have, the Hollywood studios’ sell-interested hypocrites and lat cats have gotten away with murder. (TrevorJohnston)
burgeoning yuppie-in-peril genre as business executive Daniels is willingly led astray by the irresistible charms of Griffith only to find himself involved with genuine love and the frightening possessiveness of a psychotic ex-beau. Kooky comedy and genuine thrills are artfully blended with a non-stop soundtrack of eclectic treats. Not to be missed. Glasgow: GFT.
I A Strange Place To Meet ( 15) s: (Francois Dupeyron, France, 1988) Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu, Nathalie Cardone. 97 mins. See review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Subway (15) (Luc Besson. France, 1985) Christopher Lambert, Isabelle Adjani. Richard Bohringer. 104 mins. Would-be stylish thriller set in the Paris Metro with jewel thief Lambert courting the attractive Ms Adjani while trying to stay out ofthe way of cop Bohringer. Far too pleased with itself, this is plain irritating. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.
I The Thing (18) (John Carpenter, US. 1982) Jeff Bridges, E.G. Marshall. 96 mins. Scientists on an Antarctic research station thaw out an alien creature able to change its shape and horribly murder humans. Extraordinary effects in this tense shocker, which utilises the central gimmick from the original short story in the way that the 1950 version did not. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Three Fugitives (15) (Francis Vebcr, US, 1989) Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Sarah Rowland Doroff. 96 mins. Yet another chucklefest with the word ‘Three' in the title, this time following the fortunes of cx-con Nolte , inept bank robber Short and
cutsey 5 year-old Doroff as they escape from the authorities who are somehow convinced that the the three have pulled a heist together. So it’s two men and a poppet really. This time the people at Touchstone have actually brought the French director over to remake the French film in Hollywood as opposed to simply redoing it themselves. The result is some eyecatching slapstick (albeit sub-Tati) and of course sentimentality in abundance. Reasonably entertaining though it may be, this is a particularly cynical act of commerce. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank 10, WMR Film Centre. I To Kill A Mockingbird (PG) (Robert Mulligan, US, 1962) Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Robert Duvall. 129 mins. Fine film of Harper Lee‘s famous novel has Oscar-winning Peck as the liberal lawyer struggling against bigotry in a southern town as he defendsa black man accused of raping a white woman. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Walker ( 18) (Alex Cox. US, 1987) Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Rene Aubcrjonois. 94 mins. 1853 and self-styled American liberator is funded by the Vanderbilt dynasty to invade Nicaragua. Together with his band of mercenaries he finds it rather easy to gain military control ofthe country, but his initially enlightened rule soon deteriorates into brutal dictatorship. Wildly uncontrolled blend of carnage, low comedy and would be intellectual analysis from the unpredictable Alex Cox. Chockful of knowing anachronisms there‘s even a rescue by US helicopters to ram home the obvious political parallels. Edinburgh:
Filmhouse.
I What Have 1 Bone To Deserve This? (Pedro Almodovar. Spain, 1984) Carmen Maura, Luis Hostalot. 100 mins. From the camera that brought you Women On The Verge. . . , an earlier. more surrealvision of desperation, sex and bizarre familial interactions in middle-class Spain. The central role is again played by a distracted Maura. this time as a housewife coping with her depression and her ghastly family by taking a wee snort of cleaning fluid with her prescribed amphetamines. Another gem. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Willow (PG) (Ron Howard, US. 1988) Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley. Jean Marsh. 126 mins. A mystery baby turns up in the land ofthe little Nelwyn people. and one oftheir number has to return it to the adult-sized land ofthe Daikini. However. the kid turns out to be the little princess. who will save the country from the clutches ofthe wicked Queen. Would-be blockbusting fairtytale epic offers producer George Lucas another opportunity to refashion the Star Wars narrative in a setting straight out ofTolkien. The result is not unentertaining. but we‘ve all been here too many times before. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Wings Oi Desire ( 15) (Wim Wenders. W. Germany .1987) Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin. Peter Falk. 127 mins. Restless angel Ganz on duty over Berlin takes a tip from American movie star and former angel Peter Falk on the possibilities of crossing over. and follows his mentor's path to consumate his relationship with beautiful circus acrobat Dommartin. Gorgeous black-and-white. and an attractively sensitive feel forthe people and places of Berlin grace this thematically rich and uncharacteristically optimistic slice of Wenders movie enchantment. Highly recommended. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Wired (18) fr (Larry Peeree. US, 1989) Michael Chiklis, Ray Sharkey, J. T. Walsh. 100 mins. Controversial biopic of drug burnout Hollywood comic Belushi. features a remarkable central performance by Michael Chiklis as the dead star revisiting the scenes of his past crimes, while Walsh plays Bob Woodward on the trail of the information which went into the writing of the bestselling (some say prurient) book upon which the film is based. See feature. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Grosvenor.
I The Year My Voice Broke (15) (John Duigan. Australia. 1987) Noah Taylor, Loene Carmen, Ben Mendelsohn. 105 mins. Small town boy in 1962 New South Wales grows up to understand his soulless environment through typical teenage disillusionment. But Duigan‘s great strength here is the dark, unpredictable irony which offsets the clichés inherent in adolescence movies. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
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The List 29 September — 12 October 1989 25