FILM index
FILM INDEX continued
Pokemon (U) H: (adults)/***** (kids) (Michael llaigney/Kunohiko Yuyama. Japan/ US. 2000) 96 mins. Cloned Pokemon (pocket monster) Mewtwo embarks on world dominance and so hero kids, Ash. Brock and Misty. accompanied by their Pokemon. set out to make him see the error'of his ways. Cue a great deal of gratuitous fighting and an interlude in which it's explained that lighting is bad ('3!) The stupor induced by viewing the film strand of the phenomenal Pokemon franchise (computer game. collecting cards, etc.) as an adult. convincingly confirms that it's a kid thing. good or bad. General release.
Pola X (18) ** (Leos Carax. France, 2000) Guillaume Depardieu. Catherine Deneuve. Delphine Chuillot. 134 mins. l’ierre (Depardieu) is a successful young writer, who enjoys a blissful existence with his adoring mother (Deneuve) and beautiful fiancee (Chuillot). But his life is turned upside down by the appearance of lsabelle (Katerina Golubeva). who claims to be his long-lost. illegitimate sister from Yugoslavia. liight years after the patchy Les Amanrs Du I’on! .N'eaf. Carax returns with this bizarrely updated adaptation of Herman Melville's Gothic novel Pierre ()r The Ambiguilies which sorely lacks narrative coherence. See review. lidiriburgh: liilmhouse.
Pusher(18) **** (Nicolas Winding Refn. Denmark. 1990) Kim Bodnia. Laura Drasbaek. Zlatko Buric. 105 mins. Watching this Danish thriller is rather like gazing itito a basin full of piranhas in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Small-time dealer l’rank (Bodnia) finds himself in hock to a Serbian gang boss after a drug transaction is ruined by a police bust. but attempts to free himself are balked at every turn as it beConies apparent that fate has it in for him. The film has a documentary sheen and direction is admirably controlled btit. God. is it cold. Glasgow: Gl’l‘.
Quadrophenia (18) *t* (l-‘rank Roddam. UK. 1979) Phil Daniels. Leslie Ash. l’hilip Davis. Sting. 120 mins. Mods and rockers live it tip on Brighton beach by swapping buckets and spades for chains and sticks. Lively first half has enough energy. music, violence and period flavour to carry it along. but all too soon it degenerates into some sort of treatise on the morality of youth, set to tunes by The Who. lidinburgh: Cameo.
Return Of The Secaucus Seven (15) *‘ki‘k (John Sayles. US. 1980) Mark Arnott. Maggie Cousineau. John Sayles. 100 mins. A group of good friends who shared the radical Sixties college life get together for a weekend years later. and find out the different directions they have each since been follow irig. lixcellent script by Sayles powers this low -budget entry that was more or less remade a couple of years later (without credit) as Tllc' Big Cliill. l’alkirk: l7l'll Cinema.
A Room For Romeo Brass (15) ***** (Shane Meadow s. L‘ ’. 2000) Paddy Considine. Andrew Shim. Ben Marshall. 90 mins. Meadows once more combines colourful regional characters with impish humour and kitchen sink drama to great effect. but adds to the mix a deeply personal autobiographical element. And he elicits impressively naturalistic performances from a cast of newcomers for the story of young Nottingham lads Romeo (Shim) and Gavin (Marshall) who are best mates until the arrival of oddball Morell (the astonishingly dynamic Considine). Glasgow: Grosvenor. Stirling: Carlton.
Rosetta (15) ***** (Luc and Jean- Pierre Dardenne. Belgium France. 1999) Emilie Deijuenne. Anne Yernaux, l’abrizio Rongione. 91 mins. Rosetta (Dequenne) is seventeen and has one wish: to find a job that w ill enable her to move out of the caravan that she co-habits with her alcoholic mother (Ycrnaiix). Despite continual disappointments in the job market Rosetta refuses to give tip hope and battles on like a btill facing a matador. A marvellous exposition of the continuing importance of cinema in highlighting social barriers and conflict. Rosetta was rewarded with the Cannes l’alrne d'()r. Stirling:
36 THE lIST 25 May 8 'tii‘ 2000
Unsafe sex in Patrice Leconte's tale of love and knife throwing, The Girl On The Bridge (La fille sur le pont), starring Vanessa
MacRobert.
Saving Grace (15) it (Nigel Cole. L'k. 2000) Brenda Blethyn. Craig Ferguson. 94 mins. Saddled with crushing debts after the sudden death of her husband. keen horticulturist Grace (Blethy n) transforms the greenhouse of her Cornish mansion into a marijuana plantation with the assistance of her Scottish gardener. Matthew (Ferguson). Already being touted as this year's feelgood British comedy. Saving (irace attempts to recapture the magic of the lialing classics; instead it merely feels out of touch with modern life. General release.
Scream 3 (IS) *‘kit (Wes Craven. LS. 2000) Neve Campbell. Courtney Cox. David Arquette. llb‘ mins. The third instalment of the horror film parody expands the by now familiar jokey film references to satirise the industry that spawned the inspirational Halloween and Friday The 131/1 series. The victims this time round are the cast of film-vvithin-the- film. Stab 3. the final instalment of the exploitative dramatisation of the Woodsboro murders. which were the subject of the first film. An endless stream of amusing cameos and film references makes Scream 3 as entertaining as the first film. That said. it's funnier than it is scary. General release. Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (18) *‘k‘k (Gough Lewis. CS. 2000) Annabel Chong. Sb mins. Chong became an international sensation by orchestrating the inaugural 'World's Biggest Gang Bang' in which she had sex with 351 men in ten hours to provide her with Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame. The sex feat also attracted the attention of Gougli Lewis w ho spent the next year filming Chong as she came to terms with overnight celebrity status. A truly depressing picture of the human condition in which even Chong is not afforded the luxury of a sympathetic light. Yet despite the depressing tone. it is impossible not to be enthralled. lidiriburgh: Cameo.
Show Me Love (15) *** (Lukus Moodysson. vaeden. 2000) Rebecca Liljeberg. Alexandra Dahlstrom. 89 mins. A slight tale of two teenage girls falling in love in the small Swedish town of Amal. Moodysson's film combines a cinema verite eye with some stock situations and characters. Creating tension and turmoil out of the rite of passage movie gets harder and harder. but Moody'sson manages a modicum of freshness. and there are enough variables at work to keep the film going for an engaging hour and a half. Stirling:
MacRobert.
Showboat (t?) in“: (George Sidney. US. 1951) Kathryn Grayson. Ava Gardner. lloward Keel. 108 mins. Kern and llainmerstein's musical gets the MGM colour treatment. and it's one of the best. Set among Mississippi river folk. it contains a batch of favourites including ‘()1' Man River’ and ‘Make Believe'. lidinburgh: Brunton Theatre.
Sleepy Hollow (15) **** (Tim Burton. LFS. 1999) Johnny Depp. Christina Ricci. Christopher Walken. 105 mins. During the final days of 1799 ambitious young policeman lchabod Crane (Depp) is sent to the fog-shrouded village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of decapitations. but his scientific beliefs are shaken when he comes face to space with the Headless Horseman. Burton gives Washington Irving's Gothic folktale a distinctly British colouring. as he borrow-s merrily from the Hammer films of the 50s and oils. while Depp brings the right note of comedy to the dark proceedings. lidinburgh: Cameo. Snow Day (l’ti) *tt ((‘hris Rock. 18. 2000) Chev y Chase. Pam Grier. John Schneider. 90 mins. Weatherriiai‘ Tom Brandston's (Chase) ratings are sliding as the public reject his traditional routine in favour of slick network rival Chad
Sy miiionz (Schneider). llis network manager Tina (Grier 1 orders Toni to spice tip his act by wearing comic book costumes. all of w hich troubles pale in comparison to family man Tom's domestic stresses. Chase confounds expectations to appear. for the first time in years. in a movie that is actually funny. Kilmainock: ()deon.
Snow Falling 0n Cedars ( 15) 1nd: (Scott llicks. LS. :lllllll litltan llavv kc. Rick \ittrtc. Youki Kudoh. 1.30 mins. Adapted front
Dav id Gutersoit's best-selling novel. flicks' follow -up to .S/rine turns out to be a solemn. rather t111l11\ olv ing exploration of memory. racial prejudice and reconciliation. set on remote island off the Pacific Northwest coast circa 1950. llicks establishes the dank. oppressive atmosphere of an isolated fishing community. Yet the jigsaw -pu//le narrative lacks dramatic focus. Glasgow: Gl’l'. lzdiriburgh: liilmhouse.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (L'i tit (George Lucas. LS. 1999) liw an McGicgor. Liam Necson. Natalie l’ortman. 152 mins. On the surface. the plot structure isn‘t a million light years away from the original Sm; llarv. lii visual terms. The Phantom ,llenaee stands alone in the cinematic uiiiv erse. At times you‘d think
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Paradis and Daniel Auteuil
there was more animation than live action on screen - and maybe it's this toning down of the human element that has left the film lacking soul. Stirling: MacRobert. Starship Troopers ( 15) *‘k*** (Paul I \'erhoeven. US. 1997) Casper Van Dien. Dina Meyer. Denise Richards. 129 mins. Way in the future. liarth is run by a crypto- i fascist regime. and the members of the Galactic Armed Forces are sent into space ; to fight a race of alien bugs hell-bent on I wiping out humanity. The computer animation work is first rate and. despite its ! gory slice ‘n' dice violence. one reading of the movie's sub-text is decidedly anti- militaristic. Glasgow: Gl’l‘.
Stir Of Echoes (15) tit (David Koepp, CS. 2000) Kevin Bacon. lllcana Douglas. Kathryn lirbe. 99 mins. Tom Wit/ky' (Bacon) sees dead people. a spooky insight that only comes about when he's hypnotised by sister-in-lavv Lisa (Douglas) as a party trick. The supernatural material allows Koepp (working from Richard Matheson's . 1958 novel) a narrative means of getting beneath the surface sheen of modern American life. At the centre of the sudden scares and the low key' special effects. Bacon gives the film a sense of blue collar reality. See review. Glasgow: ()deon. ()deon At The ()uay. Show case. lidinburgh: ABC. L'Cl. L'GC Cinemas. l’aisley: Showcase. Stop Making Sense (l’Gl **** (Jonathan Demme. l'S. 198-3) SS mins. There's plenty of quality in Stop .llalving Sense. the film of'l'alking llcads‘ 1954 stage show. The songs. the band's original musicians enjoy ing themser es tremendoust and Dcmmc. who has a radar- likc eye for the little smiles and exchanges between band members. But the element of Sin/i .llaking .S't'nve that ariests the attention from beginning to end and makes this film unforgettable is the scintillating. inesriicric David Byinc. l'alkiik: l’l‘ll Cinema. Sullivan's Travels (t) t t 1H * (l’ieston Sturgcs. LS. 1941) Joel McCtea. Veronica Lake. 91 mins. ln equal parts crazy and clever. Sturges' screwball comedy lurchcs wildly from slap§tkk comedy to tragedy to social comment and back again. it starts with John L. Sullivan (McCieai. a Hollywood movie mogul who attempts some first hand research of his planned social conscience film. U [inn/rel: ll'liere
Arr 'l'liini.’ (which gives its title to the Coen :
brothers' new film). by taking to the road as .i hobo. Glasgow: Gl’l.
The Talented Mr Ripley l 15) **** (Anthony Minghclla. LS l'K. 2000) Matt