FILM INDEX
-‘ scientist who develops a recipe for temporary faces just in time to avenge
himselfon the gangsters who removed his own rugged features with acid; and Danny Elfman (who scored Batman and Dick Tracy) provides another great soundtrack. Central: Cannon.
I The Doors (18) (Oliver Stone. US. 1990)
Val Kilmer. Meg Ryan. Kyle MaeLachlan. Kevin Dillon. Frank Whalley. 141 mins. It‘s 1966. andJim Morrison. aspiring poet and film-maker. joins a band ad transforms himself into the Dionysus of the Love Generation. From that point on. there's no let-up until his bathtime demise as an overweight
alcoholic. aged 27. Kilmer's superb
characterisation as Morrison dominates to
such an extent that the otheractors
struggle to assert themselves even one-dimensionally. and little insight is given into what fired Morrison‘s self-destructive genius. Still. Stone‘s ‘tits ’n‘ acid' version ofThe Doors‘ history. while selective and highly inaccurate. is never boring. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Grosvenor. Edinburgh: Odeon. UCI. Strathclyde: Cannon. Odeon Ayr.
Odeon Hamilton. UCI Clydebank. UCI
East Kilbride. I Dreamchlld (PG) (Gavin Miller. UK. 1985) Coral Browne. lan Holm. Peter
‘ Gallagher. 94 mins. The aged Mrs Alice Hargreaves who was the child to whom
Lewis Carroll told the Alice stories is in town to receive an Honorary Degree from Columbia University. The confrontation with a brash New World sends her back to the sunny days on the lsis ofher childhood. Dennis Potter‘s first original cinema screenplay is a careful and evocative study of the way in which the memories of old age can fit togetherthe half-understood experiences of youth. Browne is imperioust outstanding. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Emerald Forest (15) (John Boorman. US, 1985) Powers Boothe. Charley Boorman. Meg Foster. 113 mins. The young son of an American engineer working in the Amazon jungle is kidnapped by an Indian tribe. After ten years’ search, his father tracks him down. but he has been raised by the tribe as one of their own. Inspired by actual events. Boorman‘s film concerns itself with the gap betwen ’natural‘ and ‘civilised’ man. and the destructive effect of modern technology upon the unspoilt environment and man's relationship with nature. The stunning visual grandeur takes precedence over an occasionally ropey narrative in a serious action movie typical ofthe director. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Erotic Films By Women (18) A one-off programme of three shorts as part ofthe Filmhouse's International/1 vant-Garde Films season. Between is Claudia Schillinger’s exploration of bisexuality: Barbara Theil‘s Blues Transit investigates the possibilities of the whole body as an erogenous zone; and Mano Destru is Cleo Uebelmann‘s re-examination of the myths and mysteries ofsado-masochism. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Exorcist (18) (William Friedkin. US. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 11(1 mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little obsessed girl in this hugely effective scarefest. Dead good. dead scarey. dead priest. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. I The Fabulous Baker Boys ( 15) (Steve Kloves. US. 1989) Jeff Bridges. Beau Bridges. Michelle l’feiffer. 113mins. Writer’director Kloves makes an auspicious debut with this evocative tale of broken dreams. fraternal jealousy and slowly awakening passion among three very ordinary cabaret performers. Veteran piano duo Jeff and Beau draft in Ms l’feiffcr's smokey chanteuse to save their act's declining fortunes. but asthe trio go on the road together. romanticand
FILOFAX
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‘Let me tell you about some of the scripts i get sent,’ confides James Belushi. bouncing briefly into Britain to promote his latest movie, a lame comedy called Fllofax. ‘A lot of baseball stuti, ltell ya. One called Knuckleball, I remember. That was about a guy who gets his hand caught in a door and it puts his knuckle out of joint, so now he's got this great knuckleball pitch. He goes all the way
to the Major League, then his glrllriend ' stands on his hand and puts it back into .
place and he doesn’t know what to do. Great, huh?’ Whereupon he gives us the wiseguy grin that tells us he knows it’s a piece of crap.
Actually such a truly duff scenario just about makes Fllolax seem like it’s not quite the turkey you’d previously suspected, but not by much. Patterned after the usual Touchstone template (best exemplified by Pretty Woman), in
which a rich person and a poor person
are thrown together by misadventure
- and end up learning something from
the experience, this one has Belushi as a lovable petty thief who escapes from prison to catch the baseball World Series but promptly llnds himself In possession of high-powered yuppie adman Charles Grodln's precious but mislald Fllolax. With hilarious results, might be the operative phrase were the ongoing proceedings not so eminently chuckle-free.
Still, having taken to heart the advice of his restaurateur father that, ‘people don’t come to the movies to see natural, they come to see larger than life', for Belushi it was a chance to iurtherthe move into broad physical farce he’d begun with the canine cop comedy K-9. ‘The two movies l've done with Touchstone now,’ he explains, ‘Filotax, and Mr Destiny with Michael Caine, which I don't think has come out over here yet, are pictures you can take
your mom or your kid to see. Touchstone round the edges off, but as i go further in my career, I’m beginning to think that the thing I do best is actually the stuff with an edge. Like Salvador, which was a tough movie; like The Principal, or maybe even Bed Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
When he reels oft titles like that, you realise that this Belushi is last building a lllmography to rival that of his late brotherJohn, although even before his own Hollywood breakthrough he appears to have had few problems with the comparison. ‘He made the Belushi name famous. When your brother is on the Johnny Carson Show in Hollywood and you’re in Chicago it brings those two points real close together. It’s like it’s possible for you to do something with your life. When Salvador came out, one reviewer said I looked like John and l acted like Bill Murray, and to me that was great because those two guys are the best in the business.’
Having just returned from Monte Carlo locations on Criminals, a black comedy with John Candy and Cyblll Shepherd, and previously completed work on John Hughes’ lollow-up to Home Alone, a so-called “baby buddy road movie’ called Curly Sue, Belushi has every right to reflect, ‘l’m pretty secure in what i do.’ He does, however, reserve his utmost vltrlol lor journalist Bob Woodward, hero of Watergate but also the author of controversial John Belushi expose, Wired. ‘I can only answerirankly and directly, but knowing what happened in the lives of the members of my family, after reading that book I now think that Nixon is innocent.’ (TrevorJohnston)
From Fri 17. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon, UCI. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kilbride.
turmoil. Crackling with some of the sharpest dialogue in years. this is a moody. mature picture. beautifully shot and scored. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Ferris Bueller’s Day Gift 15) (John Hughes. US. 198(1) Matthew Broderick. Jennifer Grey. Charlie Sheen. 103 mins. A sunny Spring day in Chicago is fartoo
good to spend locked in a classroom so the f
malady. cuts classes and promises his two best friends a day to remember. Characteristically uneven Hughes teen comedy that scores with fresh dialogue and appealing characterisatitms. but has the drawback of some laboured farce and the need to make meaningful statements. Glasgow: GF'T.
I Filoiax ( 12) (Arthur llillcr. US. 1991)
|
1 ofjail. petty crook Jimmy (Belushi) hasa
DeSalvo. Mako. 108 mins. On getting out
' lucky break: he happens upon the Filofax ; belonging to upmarket executive Spencer ‘ Barnes(Grodin). Without further ado. he
assumes Barnes' identity and embarks
, upon a spree of good living. at great cost-
financial. emotional and logistical — to the former. Enjoyable but unremarkable l'lollywood pulp comedy. See preview, page 32. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: ()deon. UCl. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride.
I The Fool (U) (Christine tdzard. UK. 199(1) Derek Jacobi. Maria Aitken. lrina Brook. Paul Brooke. Cyril Cusack. Michael 1 lordern. 139 mins. Set. like her debut Little [)orrit. in the heyday of Victorian values. Edzard's second film is the tale of a shabby clerk (Jacobi) who ingeniously infiltrates high society.which he finds to be every bit as brutal asthe lowlife of the slums. and twice as corrupt. Beautifully mounted on a ludicrously small budget. it‘s a triumph for British craft and starkly relevant to our times. Central: MacRobert Arts Centre.
I The Freshman (PG) (Andrew Bergman. US. 199(1) Matthew Broderick. Bruno Kirby. Marlon Brando. Maximilian Schell. 102 mins. The youthful-looking Broderick arrives in New York to begin a course in film studies. and immediately falls prey to Kirby's hustler. Worse is to come. though. when Kirby makesamends by introducing him to Uncle Brando. a wealthy but shady figure. who makes him an offer he can't readily refuse. The Godfather parodies are ofcourse deliberate (Broderick's course even includes a seminar on the film) andthe movie's knowing humour. spot-on casting and escalating suspense give it an irresistible charm. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Green Card (12) (Peter Weir. US. 1991) Gerard Depardieu. Andie MacDowell. Bebe Neuwirth. Gregg Edelman. 107 mins. The hugely amiable figure of Depardieu dominates this. his Hollywood debut. He plays a French composer living illegally in New York and in desperate need ofa work permit. MacDowell's horticulturalist is in love with a conservatory apartment. but needs a husband to get the lease. A marriage of convenience is arranged. but the authorities are not convinced. so the mismatched couple are forced to invent a history for themselves. In doing so. of course. they fall for each other. Funny. charming. and not without profundity. but suspend your disbelief for the denoument. Edinburgh: Dominion.
I The Gritters ( 15) (Stephen Frears. US. 199(1) Anjelica Huston. John Cusack. Annette Bening. 119 mins. Hugely satisfying nuir melodrama. centring on the relationship between three streetwise ‘grifters‘— mob moll Lily (Huston). her estranged son. injured con man Roy (Cusack). and Roy's ambitious girl Myra (Bening). When Lily decides to visit Roy in hospital. skeletons start tumbling from closets. and their loose grip on security beginsto weaken. Rich. dark and very substantial. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Hair(15)(Milos Forman. US. 1979) John Savage. Treat Williams. Beverly D'Angelo. Annie Golden. Dorsey
Wright. 121 mins. lll judged version ofthe
hippy stage mUsical. centring on a mid-western hick whose plan to join up for ' service in Vietnam falls by the wayside when he discovers flower power in NYC. Besides being well past its sell-by date. it's 3 really too vacuous to stand the transition ' fromthelivelytheatricalcntertainmentit ; once was. Edinburgh: Cameo. ' I Hamlet (U) (Franco Zcffirelli. US.
199(1) Mel Gibson. Alan Bates. Glenn Close. Paul Scoficld. Helena Bonham-Carter. lan llolm. 135 mins. A
to find his father dead and his mother
i 1 1
professional relationships are soon in irrcprcssjblc Ferris Bucller feignsa | marrying his uncle. Then Hamletsenior's
1
young man returns home from university |
James Belushi. Charles Grodin. Anne J
1 1 l
'34 The List 17—3(1May 1991