FILM REVIEW
BACARDI BLACK
CREEN
STE
It may be party time back in Aurora with Wayne and Garth, but
The List has decided to ignore all the new films opening in Scotland over the next two weeks. Not.
I Bhaii On The Beach (15) A bus-load of Asian women frotn across the generations — teenagers to grannies — leave their daily woes behind in Birmingham and head for a day's frolics in Blackpool. And woes many of them do have. The stories of each member of the group criss and cross as the day progresses. everyone finding some sort of personal space in the tacky seaside surroundings. Decisions are made. new relationships are formed. everyone becomes a little bit stronger and wiser. The structure of Gunnder Chadha‘s directorial debut is deceptively simple. It slowly weaves a tapestry of understanding that gets beyond its ethnic milieu. while avoiding the easy route of setting one set of beliefs against others. Traditional viewpoints
2 century. attd immediately ! falls under the charismatic l sway of its head.
Professor Mandry
(Charles Dance). Shocked at his mentor's forays into
sterilisation of the lower
classes and furious at the
suppression of his own work. he is banned from
3 the institute. and moves in
with the strong-willed young woman (Miranda Richardson) who has become his lover.
A fresh view of the past. free of the traditionally
: staid British period ' atmosphere. with telling
insight into class
differences. medical
advances attd the attitude towards European immigrants. A decidedly
: modern feel is aided by the casting: Owen and Richardson both have a
may be challenged but they ; - I The Hour Of The Pig
are not trashed. Well acted as an ensemble piece. Bhuji also allows some touching individual performances to emerge. notably Kim Vithana‘s brave struggles to escape the lists of her husband and Zohra Segal’s elderly disapproval. in which hides a glimmer of forgiveness. Funny. well- intentioned and perceptive on many levels. See preview.
I Can ry (15) Art ambitious young doctor (Clive Owen) joins a medical institute in London at the tum of the
contemporary feel that brings an energy to their playing. Nicely detailed and admirably forward- looking. See preview.
(15) A medieval murder
; mystery with more than a ; touch of the comic absurd. The Hour Of The Pig
dives into the mud and the
‘ mire of Middle Age
animal trials. An idealistic young lawyer leaves the big city for a rural town. only to find a community
rank with prejudices and superstitions. One of his first cases is to defend a 7 pig accused of killing a
Jewish boy. but soon it becomes clear that tnore is involved: the porcine
perpetrator belongs to
some gypsies who are
. feared by the locals.
: Bawdy and full-bloodedly atmospheric. the unusual
! setting for sotne decidedly
mainstream narrative
elements keeps interest alive. especially when the
actors themselves can't
a quite decide what
timespan they're supposed to be inhabiting. Great design. and good supporting turns from Michael Gough. Donald Pleasance and lan Holm. See preview. (AM)
24 The List 28 January—10 February 1994
_ wnvns’s WORLD 2
OK, so it’s like sooo fifteen-minutes- ago these days, but Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s geeky airhead guitarists Wayne and Garth rank among the freshest comic creations of the past few years. Based on the sensible (it seems to this viewer) notion that Middle America’s - and indeed the world’s - heavy metal fans are both slight of intellect and stuck at the adolescent stage of sexual development, the remarkable trick of Wayne’s World was to have us laugh at and with the characters at the same time. The movie-conscious knowingness introduced a surprise note of sophistication for the cognoscenti, while everyone else contented themselves by mindlessly repeating the dear chaps’ iaunty dude- speak argot.
But could they manage the same trick a second time? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’. As the boys move away from home, graduate to a snazzy new studio and face the emotional peaks and troughs of mature childhood, the laugh level remains agreeably high. Guest stars, including slimy rock ’n’
roll manager Christopher Walken and - a gamely self-satirising Kim Basinger
as Garth’s (l) ultra babe ladyfriend lloney llornée, do their stuff to likeable effect, while the increased proportion of multi-media parody takes in everything from Oliver Stone
l 5‘s ; . fu flicks.
The central plot device, in which our cable access commandos mount an
open-air rock festival (Waynestock, if
you will) in their home town, recruiting
I Sarf london roadie Del (Ralph Brown, Withnail And l’s Camberwell Carrot
. vendor) expressly for the purpose, also
i does sturdy service. Really, the only
5 thing wrong with W2 is that it’s a
I sequel. Familiarity may be a comic
l handicap, yet even if the chuckles are
l those of recognition, chuckles they
' are nonetheless. It’s schwing-time
again. (Trevor Johnston)
.5 Wayne’s World 2 (PG) (Stephen Suriik,
f US, 1993) Mike Myers, Dana Carvey,
Tia Carerre. From Fri 4. General release.
cod-seriousness to badly-dubbed kung '
‘the laugh level remains
agreeably high’
_ MRS nouerrtns
Robin Williams is improving as an actor; but he can’t be topped as a
performer. This distinction — between “ creating a separate character and letting rip with crowd-pleasing banter
- is perhaps the reason why so many of his roles have a clear duality: The Fisher King’s Parry as cleaned-up
' professor of medieval history and mad vagrant, llook’s dull Peter Banning and
childish Peter Pan, and now estranged husband Daniel llillard and nanny-in-
drag Mrs Doubtfire.
In this latest burst of comic genius, Williams is an out-of-work voiceover actor who is granted once-a-week access to his three kids when his marriage with Miranda (Sally Field)
: breaks down. Desperately addicted to ; his children, Daniel drops in on his
l .spnnsvn‘cil by BACARDI BLACK
make-up artist brother and, after a prosthetics work-over, he is able to con his wife into accepting him as her new housekeeper - albeit in the disguised role of formidable sexagenarian Mrs Doubtfire, who wisecracks left, right and centre in a curiously Aberdonlan accent. flow, he’s able to spend extended time with his offspring, while also trying to throw the odd spanner in the romantic works of Miranda and her new boyfriend Stu (Pierce Brosnan).
Fields may at times be reduced to Williams’s straight-woman, but Brosnan is perfect as the British male bimbo (is it surprising that Miranda, an interior designer, prefers the
« \ 2’ surface gloss of Stu to the quirky depths of Daniel?). In the end, this is undoubtedly Williams’s movie and he holds everyone - kids and adults alike - in the palm of his hand. Mrs Doubtfire is also one of those rare
at several ages: unlike many divorce plots, this one takes into consideration the feelings of the kids as well as the parents, while Williams’s quips are sufficiently saucy to cause an outbreak of the giggles in the older members of the audience. Far more entertaining than Tootsie, Mrs Doubtfire uses its man-as-woman narrative to better effect and squeezes out every ounce of its comic potential. (Alan Morrison)
Mrs Doubtfire (12) (Chris Columbus, US; 1993) Robin Williams, Sally Field,
General release.
cinema treats that is perfectly pitched
Pierce Brosnan. 125 mins. From Fri 28.
‘this is undoubtedly
Williams’s movie and he holds everyone - kids and adults alike - in the palm of his hand’