FILM REVIEW
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It’s dope time for the Dazed And»
Confined crew, talking Forrest G Check out ourjo
we review and
and we’re not ump’s IQ level. int approach as preview next
fortnight’s film releases.
I The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert ( 18) This year‘s glittering Edinburgh Film Festival gala opener comes out of the closet for a wider release. Fortner Neighbours star Guy Pearce teams up with Hugo Weaving and ()0s icon Terence Stamp to fortn a trio of drag artists making their way across the Australian outback for a show in Alice Springs. Small town prejudice and in-bus bitchiness keep the serious issues and jokes juggling in the air. while director Stephan Elliott brings the musical back in outrageous style in the shape of some gloriously tacky set-pieces. See preview.
I Dazed And Confused (18) American Graffiti for the generation who shudder when they remember that they too wore flares and wide- collar shirts in the mid- 70s. Slacker director Richard l.inklater masterfully handles the multi-stringed narrative of schoolkids partying their way through the last day of term. See feature.
I The Funny Man (18) Few films revel in their own crapness with the
unashamed glory of The Funny Man. The plot is perfunctory — an odd assortment of bods are dispatched one by one by a malevolent wise-
cracking demon; the
acting is not particularly good; the dialogue is nowhere near as funny as it thinks. But get together a group of mates. down a few pints and try this out fora late-night groanfest.
So bad. you‘ve got to laugh.
I Ladybird, Ladybird (18)
Ken Loach returns to the hard-hitting. socially relevant style of filmmaking that he pioneered in the ()0s with Cat/iv Come Home. Based on a true story. Rona Munro's screenplay follows ‘Maggie’ as she has her four children taken from her by Social Services on account of her history of relationships with violent men. Evert when she settles down with kind-hearted South American exile Jorge. the traumas otin increase. A disturbing indictment of a system that is unable to deal with the intense emotional distress of those on the receiving end. See preview.
~ get. A strong feeling of nausea,
I The Lion King (PG) Disney‘s latest blockbuster veers away from the classic fairytale roots of the studio's greatest works and most recent successes. but retains its familiar sense of moral guidance. Cheated from his inheritance as king of the lions by his devious uncle.
young Simba grows up l
not knowing his true identity or destiny. Soon. however. he must come to terms with his past and his ancestors in order to restore his rightful place in the future. The animation is startling. the music (by Elton John) a little bombastic. and the
cast of cuddly sidekicks as L endearing as ever. See
preview.
18 The List 7—20 October 1994
FORREST GUMP
Forrest Gump: ‘surprisingly dark-tinted’
| centres.
( While waiting at a small-town bus
1 stop, slow-witted Forrest Gump (Tom
‘ Hanks) starts re-telling his life story -
l from his childhood days, propped up
i by leg braces and an unflinchingly
i loyal mom (Sally Field), through his
3 adult years as a college football star,
a soldier in Vietnam, a national table
tennis champion, a shrimp boat
§ captain, a messianic runner across America. In the land of the free, even a man with an ID of 75 can rise to the
i ; top. Now, this cute-and-cuddly ' } Hollywood attitude to mental
deficiency - coupled with a fairly
standard love story - could have made
Forrest Gump an infuriating piece of cinema whimsy; but, despite the fact that the film has taken over $250 million at the US box office, it presents a surprising dark-tinted view of recent American history, complete with war, child abuse, drug abuse and racism.
The insertion of a gonnless Ilanks into footage of White House receptions with Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon is technically clever, but it also serves a more serious purpose. JFK is assassinated; John Lennon, who appears with Forrest on a TV chat show, is assassinated. This America is
a troubled place where such violent
Life, says Forrest Gump’s mother in an '
already much-quoted piece of folk
wisdom, is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna
probably, if you overdose on sugary sweet platitudes. Fortunately, Forrest Gump (the movie) isn’t the out-and-out sentimental sickener it could have
events become background TV noise. But it’s also a country whose casualties - personified in the crippled body of army lieutenant Gary Sinise and the tortured spirit of childhood sweetheart Ilobin Wright —
' can be redeemed through the twin
2 efforts of their own determination and i the guiding influence of another’s
2 good heart. (Alan Morrison)
Forrest Gump (12) (Robert Zemeckis,
, i US, 1994) Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, been, thanks to the few slightly bitter- . i tasting choices hidden among the soft 3
Gary Sinise. 142 mins. From Fri 7. General release.
_ DARKNESS IN TALLINN
Ilow here’s a thing. The first film from the newly independent Baltic republic of Estonia is not, as you might expect, some grimy chronicle of how tough life was under the old Soviet communist regime, but a cracking heist movie in the darkly comic tradition of Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle and Britain’s very own League i of Gentlemen.
Shot in visually captivating, high contrast black-and-white, Finnish director Ilkka Jarvilaturi’s second feature springs from a highly credible (though largely fictionalised) set of circumstances. The return of the Estonian national gold reserve from a Paris bank - held there since Estonia’s: previous period of independence just before World War II - is pounced upon by a highly-organised gang of crooks. Their plan involves plunging the city of Tallinn into darkness, snatching the shipment, melting it down and shipping it out disguised as cigarettes.
True to generic form, all does not go ;as expected, though as well as telling a rattling good tale, Jarvilaturi (sketches in a telling subplot involving the wife of one of the gang’s hirellngs :giving birth at a most inopportune ' moment. Just as the premature baby’s l
Darkness In Tallinn: ‘cracking heist movie’
i welfare is threatened by the widespread lateral effects stemming
from the robbery, so this very young nation is in danger of being suffocated by greed and corruption before it has had a chance to get on its economic feet. The result is both cool and caring. Tarantino eat your heart out. (Trevor Johnston)
Darkness In Tallinn (15) (Ilkka Jarvilaturi, Fin/US/Est/Swe, 1993) lvo Ukkivi, Milena Gulbe, Juri Jarvet. 95 mins. Subtitles. From Fri 14: Glasgow
Film Theatre. From Mon 31: Edinburgh
Filmhouse.
E— zsno PATIENGE
Zero Patience: ‘never triviallses’
If you think films on AIDS should be austere - morose even — stay at home. if your moral
l sensibilities were
offended when the Monty Python team did a song- and-dance routine to declare ‘Every Sperm ls Sacred'. look elsewhere. ()n the other hand. if you can handle the portrayal of the HIV virus as a drag diva and can accept the concept of two (literal) assholes discussing the pros and cons of anal sex in a bouncy little ditty, then this will challenge and amuse at the same time. Zero Patience certainly has a lot of fun
‘ while getting to the point.
Victorian sexologist and explorer Sir Richard
Burton is alive and well
and working in a Canadian Natural History Museum. His on-going
project is a ‘Hall of
Contagion‘ — a hi-tech
i Chamber of Horrors where Patient Zero. the
French Canadian flight attendent blamed for bringing the HIV virus to
North America in the
; early 80s. is to hold centre : stage as a modern serial
killer. Zero himselfcomes
back from the dead. visible only to Burton. and begins to turn around this exploiter's views on the disease.
John Greyson's inventive. hilarious film brings a pop video approach to the material but never trivialises the subject. Profiteering drug companies. prejudiced AIDS activists and. most of all. the pointless preoccupation with scapegoating. frotn Zero himself back to the African Green Monkey. are gleefully shot from the skies: this is a problem that transcends the assignation of guilt. Zero Patience proves there’s a role for modern musical satire in broadening our consciousnesses. because there is as much dignity in
‘ laughter as in tears. (Alan Morrison)
Zero Patience ( [8) (John
(Ireyson, Canada, I 992) John Robinson. Nomtaml FautetLr. Dianne
Hetherington. 100 mitts.
Front Sat 8: Edinburgh F i [nth ottse.
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