FILM REVIEW

BACARDI BLACK

I The Oraughtsman’s Contract ( 15) Quintessential Greenaway. without his more recent over- excesses. re-released on a new print. Anthony Higgens is hired by aristocratic lady Janet Suzman to make twelve drawings of her husband‘s estate. He agrees, on the condition that she has sex with him daily. and also embarks on relations with the good lady‘s daughter. Lavish period decor and costumes underline the baroque quality that is always present ill Greenaway‘s work. and Michael Nyman‘s score is also more openly influenced by the period than usual. lfyou‘ve missed this one on the big screen to date. now is your chance to see it in its full glory.

I Love And Human Remains ( 18) Based on Brad Fraser‘s play. Denys Arcand‘s latest movie grasps hold of the originals arty style of dialogue and odd.

As The Flintstones heralds our second prehistoric summer in succession, The List casts an eye over the more modern cinematic offerings on show this fortnight.

deliciously unstereotypical characters Perhaps the twin narrative prongs of (homo)sexual exploration and ongoing serial killings don‘t quite come together. but it‘s still i an exhilarating blend of

sex and death. handled

with more meaning than

Almodovar could ever

hope for.

i David is a cynically appealing actor-turned-

waiter. who shares a flat

with Candy. a book

E reviewer searching for

love but confused by the

advances of male and female acquaintances.

Across the city. a trail of

female corpses is being

left by a killer for whom

death replaces sex. Closer

to home. a gay friend of

l David discovers he is HIV

' positive for him. sex has

I brought with it the threat

l of death. Clever and

i symbolic some might

say pretentious the film

is wonderfully acted.

ignore the slacker movies and see something that has ‘)()s relevance. See

. feature.

I My New Gun (15) Newly released on video, Stacy Cochran‘s independent American comedy thriller has garnered some rave reviews. but some of us are at a loss to see why. There are early touches of satire on a consumerist society that demands everyone have a gun to keep up with the Joneses. but this is soon left behind.

Living out a dull suburban existence. Debbie (Diane Lane) has her personal piece of protection stolen by next- door weirdo Skippy (James LeGros). With her husband in hospital with a bullet wound in the foot.

Debbie finds herself caught up in a confused and confusing state involving an ex-country- and-western singer and her unbalanced ex- husband. ()ne problem is that. in setting up a realistically boring

lifestyle for Debbie that

will contrast with the

enticement of her later

adventures. Cochran

makes it too boring for the audience as well. Apart from a few stylistic

eccentricities and some

black comic touches.

l there's not really much

here to recommend the

movie. This gun‘s fln'ng

on an empty chamber.

l (AM)

_ MY GIHI. 2

largely unheralded on its 1992 release, My Girl proved something of a surprise hit, endearing itself to children with its frank and earnest view of growing up, and to their parents with the merciless killing off of Macaulay Culkin’s character. And while there is nothing so dramatic on show here, perhaps, the sequel is all the better for it, as we meet Veda Sultenfuss (the increasingly impressive Anna Chlumsky) two years on, coping with the trials and tribulations of life as a teenager.

Given a school project to write about someone she never met but always wanted to, Vada decides to write about her mother, who died soon after she was born. Packed off for the summer to see uncle Phil (Richard Masur) in California, Vada takes seriously the task of researching her mother’s past, looking up old friends and dragging the reluctant Hick (Austin O’Brien), son of Phil’s girlfriend, along with her.

In the same way that the original managed to be sweetly nostalgic and

. painfully honest at the same time, My

Girl 2 opens up the story a little more, taking Vada on a voyage of discovery that coincides with her growing understanding of a confusing world. The trail she follows is tortuous and often disappointing, but Vada and flick stick at it and, in the end, while their search may be inconclusive, they

' discover a great deal more than they

could have imagined.

Seen on film as Vada’s adored mother, Commitments star Angeline Ball gives their iourney some focus, and the film itself the elusive quality

of aching reality. True, it’s mushy stuff and not to everyone’s taste, but restrained, skilful performances from Chlumsky and O’Brien and director

Howard Zieff’s assured hand make this 3

an uncommonly touching and believable coming-of-age story. (Anwar Brett)

My Girl 2 (PG) (Howard Zieff, US, 1993) Anna Chlumsky, Austin O’Brien, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis. 98 mins. From Fri 22. Glasgow: Odeon, MGM Parkhead. Edinburgh: Odeon, llCl. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, Ins.

! ‘In the same way that l the original managed l to be sweetly nostalgic : and painfully honest at

the same time, My l Girl 2 opens up the story a little more’

; I— co FISH

Even if Spike lee was a romantic and

a lesbian, he couldn’t make a film as fresh, funny and openly entertaining as this one. Ho special pleading here: writer/director Hose Troche’s women

offer a casual spectrum of dykedom as ,

it is lived. These gals don’t have to worry about the whole coming-out thang: instead, there are the universal

questions of life to be answered. Is

there really that special someone out

ones taken already?

Max (Guinevere Turner), a twentysomething Chicagoan and would-be author begins the

there for me? And why are all the good

.hrg 3%

W°ce°din9$ i" melancho'v 80'0 “V'e- ' deliciously catty dialogue. Although

Wise owl flatmate Kia (T. Wendy McMillan) reckons that Ely (V.S.

the film wears its sexuality with pride and forthrightness, these are people -

Brodie), a shy vet’s assistant from just “the, man issues - first and “'09” "m", migh‘ “'5‘ be "‘3 “we” i foremost. For some viewers, it’ll be a r peek at a different subculture; for

match, but Ely’s long-distance girlfriend and both parties’ heel- kicking shyness present apparently

unassailable obstacles to the course

of true love.

Shot for very little money indeed under the watchful eye of the Swoon team of Tom Kalin and Christine

Vachon, Hose Troche’s film bustles ; with visual invention to complement

its entirely natural performances and

other, nothing ‘different’ at all. Everyone, though, will be rooting for Max and Ely to get it together. She’s Gotta Have Her, anyone? (Trevor Johnston)

Go Fish (18) (Hose Troche, US, 1993) Guinevere Turner, V.S. Brodie, Anastasia Sharp, T. Wendy McMillan. 89 mins. From Fri 22. Edinburgh: Canon.

sponsored by BACARDI BLACK

‘Although the film wears its sexuality with pride and forthrightness, these are people - rather than issues - first and foremost.’

20 The List l5—28 July 1994