FILM new releases
My Best Friend's Wedding
(12) 105 mins *‘k‘K
This film from the director of Australian hit Muriel's Wedding accomplishes the surprising feat of taking Julia Roberts out of her usual, wide-eyed role of irritating innocence and re-casting her as the devious, two-faced villain of the piece. She plays Jules, a twentysomething career girl who vaguely remembers what it felt like to have cried for the third and last time in her life when she split up with then short-term lover, now long-term best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney). But she gets her comeuppence for being such a tough, tearless cookie upon realising that she loves Michael desperately at the exact moment he invites her to his wedding, in which she is, alas. not to be bride but confidante and surrogate best man.
Some excellent comedy follows as Jules embarks upon her grand plan to scupper the marriage-to-be through devious double dealings and late-night plotting. Rupert Everett gives a priceless performance in his role as Jules’s charismatic gay friend George, who begins as the voice of reason but flips into eccentricism as the deception thickens, masquerading with a blend of high camp and lasciviousness as her off-the-wall fiance'.
Jules manages to earn the trust of Michael's candy- floss blonde fiancee Kimmy (Cameron Diaz), who is patronised both for her sheltered naivety and for sidelining her career for Michael. But we discover that she has assessed what is more important to her, and decides to put Michael first knowingly. Though carefully disguised by simpering sweetness, Kimmy is the precocious post-feminist who turns out, to Jules’s dismay, to be rather charming as well.
A wonderfully scripted film with a memorable
Spawn (12) 97 mins ii:
Yet another comic book character to graduate from the page to the screen, Spawn is the nihilistic brainchild of former Marvel Comics artist Todd McFarlane, whose entertainment company now helps bring his creation to a Wider audience. But what they will make of this 'scarred warrior’, sent to lead Hell’s army iii the destruction of mankind, is hard to fathom. In order to enjoy it, they w0uld presumably have to favour big, loud effects over mundane things like plot and
26 THE LIST 12 Sen-~25 Sep 1997
Alter states: Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding
performance from Roberts, it ultimately affirms the enduring nature of friendship. Although it may not satisfy those who crave a conventional state of all- round romantic bliss at the end, it is guaranteed to entertain. Ending with a 'devil may care' attitude to love and romance, George makes a profound observation of life when he says 'there may not be sex, there may not be marriage, but there certainly will be
dancing’. (Arifa Akbar)
Circus of horrors: John Leguizamo is Clown in Spawn
character, with a bloodlust that could be deemed unhealthy, but which regularly passes for entertainment in print while running into problems when filmed.
Michael Jai White is ace covert soldier AI Simmons, forever being sent all over the world to do his government's dirty business until he is betrayed by his boss, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen), and his impossibly pneumatic replacement, Jessica Priest (Melinda Clarke). Left to die in a burning chemical plant somewhere in the Middle East, AI mysteriously mutates into Spawn, :i
I General release from Fri 79 Sep.
severely annoyed supernatural version of himself, With bad skin, poor memory and funny hook things which come flying out of his body at odd moments -- a cross between Darkman and Freddy Krueger.
Not entirely happy With the role he has been asked to play by the deVil, Spawn rails against the contract while plotting his revenge on Wynn, trying to find out the fate of his beloved Wife and child, and coping With the crude iiiteriections of the squat, wcrous Clown (John Legiiizamo) who is Satan's PR. agent in this particular enterprise
It is Legmzamo’s astonishing performance that dominates this Cinematic equwalent of an ear-drum splitting computer game. His snide asides, occasional acts of senseless brutality and bizarre commentary on a strange film are the main reason to keep watching, but even this is not enough to encourage all but the most dedicated fans of the comic book to watch a headache-inducmg film. (Anwar Brett)
I General release from Fri 7 9 Sep Spawn The Making Of The Movre available from Titan Books, priced
[7 99
FESTIVAL Latin American Film Festival
If the Latin American Film Festival’s Deep Crimson seems familiar to you, it probably is. The true tale of two marginalised loners with permanent appearance trauma — she is a 'fat, disgusting pig,’ he is a 'slaphead with a Wig' — who forge a murderous alliance with rich women as their victims was formerly made in 1969 as Honeymoon Killers.
Where the original is a bleak, black and white, low-budget chiller, the new film is a deep hued, slick black
comedy. Still bleak, mind. Where _
the real-life deadly duo — Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez -- met their end on an electric chair, these Latin lovers find retribution in more desolate surroundings.
The Glasgow end of the festival has particular emphasis on Brazilian filmmakers and the way in which people either conquer or crumble in the face of the nation’s infamous poverty. Foreign Land is an unusual love story set in the days of the country's first democratically-elected administration Since military rule kicked in 30 years ago, while How Ange/s Are Born sees slum children of Rio stumbling upon temporary luxury.
The second half are biopics of two very different characters. Who Killed Pixote? explores the life and death of the title role actor from Hector Babenco's award-Winner, while 1950s political radical and spokesman for the poor, Tenorio Cavalcanti, is the subject of The Man In The Black Cape
Elsewhere, Chile is represented With an unusual tale — My Last Man —‘ of a love affair which occurs when a TV reporter arranges an interwew With two terrorists in a non-speciiic unstable dictatorship. The fact that director Tatiana GaViola has prewously risked her life to make doCunientaries whose central message ran contrary to the Pinochet pomt of View, gives you an idea Where her arrows are fired at, (Brian Donaldson)
I Glasgow Film Theatre, Fri l2-T/it/ 78 Sep. See Listings and Index.
Deep Crimson: honeymoon killers 90 Latin American
STAR RATINGS
* it x t ‘k Unmissable
* it t it Very good
i it it Worth a shot
it * Below average
it You've been warned