FILM index
FILM INDEX continued
E.B. White's classic childrens' book sees the sweet wee rodent orphan being adopted by affluent Manhattanites the Little family. Stuart's problems begin with a new nemesis, the mean-spirited, inappropriately-named family eat Snowbell. The message of the film is clear — little guy discovers the meaning of family, loyalty and friendship — but of more interest to viewers both small and large will be the TomAndJerry-style antics. General release.
Summer Of Sam (18) *ttt (Spike Lee, US, 1999) John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino. 142 mins. Summer 1977 in New York. Disco is the hottest new sound in the clubs, while the punk rock revolution has crossed the Atlantic. The city is also melting down under a record-breaking heatwave, causing blackouts, looting and riots. Out in the Bronx, however, New Yorkers are concerned about something else: a murder spree by a serial killer dubbed by the media the ‘Son Of Sam'. Lee tackles intolerance once more, and it's his best shot at the subject since Do The Right Thing. See Rough cuts. Glasgow: GFI‘.
Sunshine (15) iii (lstvan Szabo, Hungary/Germany/Canada/Austria/UK, 2000) Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle and William Hurt. 179 mins. Great big pan of goulash of a movie from former European cinema darling Szabo (Mephisto, Colonel Red). Focusing on lives defined and broken by history and politics, Sunshine tells the stories of three generations of Hungarian Jews living in the 20th century. But it's predictable, clumsy and ultimately manipulative; a modern audience does not need themes of bigotry, family and patriotism so obviously and chronologically underlined. Glasgow: GET. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
Sweet And Lowdown (PC) How (Woody Allen, US, 2000) Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman. 95 mins. Penn is simply awesome as 1930s musician Emmet Ray, the self-proclaimed second best guitar player in the world. Respect for the
FTH
Mon 17th Ju/y
Titanic (12) 7:00pm
Wed 19th July
Love’s Labour’s Lost (U) 11:OOam & 7:30pm
Sun 22nd July Virgin Suicides (15) 5:00pm Galaxy Quest (PG) 7:15pm
‘gypsy guitar man' Django Reinhardt is Ray’s sole element of humility; he is rude, egomaniacal and utterly selfish and the one who suffers most is the mute Hattie (the splendid Morton). Visually, musically, dramatically and comedically, Sweet And Lowdown can sit comfortably among Woody Allen’s best works. And with the passing of cinematic time, they will surely be reflected upon as his lead pair’s finest hour and a half. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Tarzan (U) *iHAHk (Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, US, 1999) Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Nigel Hawthorne. 88 mins. Disney has finally turned its attention to the second most filmed character in Western cinema (Dracula is the first) and has created some astonishing images. Storytelling-wise, Tarzan remains reasonably faithfully to Edgar Rice Burrough's original. Shipwrecked on a tropical island, baby Tarzan looses his human parents to a terrifying tiger and is adopted by an ape clan. All grown up, the Ape Man is reunited with man and womankind when a trophy hunting/anthropological expedition arrives and Tarzan meets Jane. Edinburgh: Odeon. Ayr: Odeon.
Thomas And The Magic Railroad (U) *** (kids)/* (adults) (Britt Allcroft , UK/US, 2000) Voices of Alec Baldwin, Peter Fonda, Michael E. Rodgers. 79 mins. This adaptation of the Reverend Wilbur Awdry books is aimed squarely at under tens. Whilst children will be lapping up the tale of Thomas The Tank Engine aiding The Conductor (Baldwin) against the evil Diesel train, accompanying guardians will be wondering what happened to Allcroft's classic series narrated by Ringo Starr. Surely it was never thisjuvcnile! See Frontlines and review. General release.
Three To Tango (12) * (Damon Santostefano, US, 2000) Neve Campbell, Matthew Perry, Oliver Platt. 98 mins. Straight architect Oscar (Perry) is mistaken for gay architect Peter (Platt) by his boss, Charles (Dylan McDermott), who is having an affair with free-spirited artist Amy (Campbell). Being the jealous kind, Charles
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encourages Oscar to hang out with Amy in order to spy on her, but matters are complicated when Oscar and Amy fall in love. This set-up compounds Hollywood stereotyping of gay men as asexual clowns, while preaching about tolerance between the gay and straight communities. Best quickly forgotten. General release.
The Tigger Movie (U) *itt (Jun Falkenstein, US, 2000) 77 mins. Identical in many ways to 1977's The ManyAdventures ()f Winnie The Pooh, this new yarn based on A.A. Milne's characters finds Pooh, Piglet, Tigger et al still living a charmed life of tea parties and aftemoon naps. Only this time, the wee stripy fella's decided being one of a kind isn’t quite as cool as he’d first thought and so a literal quest for the Tiger Family Tree ensues. A happy ending eventually makes its presence felt, because even Tiger is smart enough to recognise that with friends like Pooh, Piglet, R00 and Eeyore, who needs family? General release.
Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé) (18) ***** (Raoul Ruiz, France, 20(X)) Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, John Malkovich. 162 mins. A mission impossible surely to adapt Marcel Proust's towering modemist literary masterpiece? Not only are there multiple narratives, but the main one — a terminally ill writer uses his art to revisit his past — concems the elusiveness of memory, not a screen-friendly theme. But Ruiz creates a grand narrative, a tour de force of stylistic camerawork, tricks and lavish settings, supported by a top notch cast. Extraordinary. Edinburgh: Cameo. Titanic (12) **** (James Cameron, US, 1997) Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane. 194 mins. Cameron tackles the story of the doomed ocean liner through a touching love story that isn‘t overwhelmed by the awesome special effects. Rich girl Rose (Winslet) is unhappily engaged to arrogant Cal (Zane) but falls for third-class passenger Jack (DiCaprio): love blossoms as the ship hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic. In all its on-screen glory, Titanic does indeed look like the most expensive film ever made, conveying both the scale of the disaster and the feeling of claustrophobia as the water rises. Falkirk: l-TH Cinema. Topsy-Turvy (12) think (Mike Leigh, UK, 2000) Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Martin Savage. 159 mins. At the film's core is the turbulent creative partnership between Victorian opera writer Gilbert (Broadbent) and playboy genius composer Sullivan (Corduner). But preparations for their greatest Show, The Mikado, involve a whole cast who give flawless performances. This might be Leigh's first period drama, but it's another excellent ensemble piece engaging with his usual preoccupation: people at work, rest and play. Glasgow: GF'I‘.
Touch of Evil (18) *ttti (Orson Welles, US, 1958) Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Marlene Dietrich, Janet Leigh. 108 mins. Welles made a return to Hollywood studio employment after a decade in the wilderness with this classic baroque thriller. In a sleazy border town, the murder of a Mexican bigwig causes friction between corrupt local detective Hank Quinlan (Welles himself) and upright Mexican narcotics agent Vargas (Heston). Amidst a gallery of Wellesian grotesques and expressionist camerawork the dialogue between truth and justice becomes progressively more garbled. Don‘t be late or you'll miss one of cinema's most famous opening shots. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Toy Story 2 (U) *itti (John Lasseter, US, 2000) Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack. 95 mins. The new film expands on the original settings and themes: When Woody is not taken to Cowboy Camp by his owner Andy, he begins to question the meaning of his ‘lifc'. When he‘s subsequently stolen by a collector — who plans to sell him to a Japanese toy museum — Buzz and the gang travel across town to rescue their pal. The emotive range of the animated characters is extraordinary; they say that computer generated images will never replace the real thing, but Toy Story 2 makes you wonder. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Galashiels: Pavilion. Mothcrwellz Moviehouse. Stirling: Carlton, MacRobert. Tutti Frutti *tit (Tony Smith, UK, 1987) Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Maurice Roeves, Richard Wilson. 360 mins.
All six episodes of John Byrne's classic TV drama about a Scottish rock ‘n’ roll band, The Majestics. With intervals. Glasgow: GFT.
U-571 (12) *fk‘k (Jonathan Mostow, US/ UK, 2000) Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel. 115 mins. Mostow plays fast and loose with WWII history; the first successful attempt to secure an Enigma coding device from a German U-Boat was achieved by the Royal (not US) Navy. But his aim isn’t gritty realism. Instead, this is a rollicking, old fashioned adventure that's more in the style of The Guns ()fNavarone than Das Boot. McConaughey comes over like a movie hero from the mould that broke when Mitchum and McQueen hit the dirt. Glasgow: Odeon Quay, Showcase. Edinburgh: Dominion. Irvine: Magnum Theatre. Paisley: Showcase.
Une Liaison Pornographique (15) *** (Frederic Fonteyne, France, 2000) Sergi Lopez, Natalie Baye. 80 mins. An anonymous man (Lopez) and woman (Baye) separately recount to an unseen interviewer the nature of their ‘liaison pornographique‘. In flashback, we learn of their sexual fantasy, a routine repeated on a weekly basis. The film, whilst retaining a sense of mystery around the couple's erotic encounters, does achieve a measure of poignancy through the subtle, credible performances of Lopez and Baye. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Up At The Villa (12) ** (Philip Haas, UK/ US, 2000) Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fox, Sean Penn. 116 mins. Despite Haas pumping new blood into the period drama with the weird Angels And Insects, his adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novella turns out to be a rather static and dull affair. On the plus side Thomas looks gorgeous as Mary Panton, a penniless English widow living off the generosity of others in a pre- World War II Florentine villa, torn between her starchy fiance (Fox) and a rakish American playboy (a miscast Penn). Edinburgh: Lumiere.
The Virgin Spring (18) **** (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1959) Max Von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom. 88 mins. As in The Seventh Seal a couple of years earlier, Bergman conjures up a brooding and cruel medieval landscape within which to situate a heavily symbolic morality play. Here, a young virgin is raped and murdered after her elder sister summons up a pagan curse, but when Von Sydow avenges her death by dispatching the swineherds who committed the original atrocity a spring spouts up from the ground on the spot where she died. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
The Virgin Suicides (15) ***~k (Sofia Coppola, US, 2000) Kirsten Dunst, Kathleen Turner, James Woods. 96 mins. American suburbia in the 19705. When the five beautiful Lisbon sisters begin killing themselves one-by-one, there‘s nothing the local and adoring boys can do but watch, and afterwards carry into their adult lives regret, confusion and loss. Coppola's adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' novel is shot through with a beautiful, melancholic nostalgia for lost youth. The central mystery is never resolved, and the film remains all the more powerful for it. Glasgow: GI’T. Edinburgh: Cameo.
The Whole Nine Yards (15) it): (Jonathan Lynn, US, 2000) Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis, Rosanna Arquette. 98 mins. A screwball crime comedy that teams fidgety Perry with laid-back Willis. Nicholas Ozeransky (Perry) is a hen-peeked Montreal dentist whose shrewish French-Canadian wife (Arquette) has saddled him with her late father's debts. Jimmy "Ihe 'l‘ulip' 'I’udeski (Willis) is the affable hit-man who hasjust moved in next door. Not hard to tell what happens next, but the pairing of Willis and Perry works surprisingly well. Glasgow: Showcase.
FILM REVIEWS
New releases are reviewed on pages 31-33.
Short reviews of all other films showing this fortnight are in the Film Index, pages 34—38.