FILM index
FILM INDEX continued
Jesus' Son (18) **** (Alison MacLean, US, 2000) Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton. Denis Leary. 109 mins. Just occasionally a film about drugs can contain something of the magic and warmth of an addict's high. Fuckhead (Billy Crudup) is a Iikeable young bum in 70's lowa with a roaring drug problem. a crazy girlfriend (Morton) and a consuming need to help everyone he comes across, usually with dire consequences. This soulful diary of a ‘head' is everything the grossly contrived Trainspotting was not: intelligent. playful and full of big-hearted love. Cameo, Edinburgh.
Kadosh (15) **** (Amos Gitai, lsrael’ France/Italy, 2000) Meital Barda, Ya'l Abecassis, Yoram Hattab. 112 mins. Both a respectful study of the milieu, and a critique of the damage it does to women's lives, Gitai details. but never allows us to comprehend the Hassidic experience. Certainly the knowledge of Gitai's earlier work (Field Diary and A House In Jerusalem), and also of the director's left wing stance will point the viewer in a particular direction. Nevertheless, this is as subtly effective as one-sided cinema is likely to get. Fl‘ll Cinema, Falkirk.
Keeping The Faith (12) *itt (Edward Norton. US, 2000) Edward Norton, Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman. 129 mins. In this Woody Allen-esque romantic comedy, Norton's Catholic priest and his rabbi best pal (Stiller) have trouble keeping their faiths when childhood friend Elfman arrives in the Big Apple. In no time at all the trio are falling for each other precipitating a messy love triangle. Making his directing debut, Norton's comic touch is light and sure and this threesome perform like a dream. but what distinguishes Keeping The Faith from other rom-coms is its fiip, but never disrespectful attitude, toward religion. General release.
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (15) tank (Patrice Leconte, France, 2000) Juliette Binoche. Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica. 112 mins.'1he ever-versatile Leconte
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follows the fairytale playfulness of The Girl On The Bridge with this moumful period melodrama. Partly an examination of the iniquity of the death penalty and partly a portrait of the harshness of life in a godforsakcn 19th century colonial outpost, La vae is above all a fatalistic love story, in which l’amour, in both the physical and platonic senses, leads to such tragic consequences. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
The Last September (15) ** (Deborah Warner, UK, 2000) Keeley Hawes, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon. 104 mins. Adapted by John Banville from Elizabeth Bowen‘s novel, the film charts the end of British rule in Ireland through the eyes of the aristocratic Naylor family. There the conflict between the IRA and the Army creates a stifling atmosphere for budding debutante Lois (Hawes). Bowen‘s vision is awkwardly realised in celluloid. As costume dramas go, it's respectable enough, but given Warner's reputation for innovative spin on canonical works, it's something of a disappointment. F'TH Cinema, Falkirk.
The Last Waltz (U) tint (Martin Scorsese, US, 1978) The Band, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell. 117 mins. When The Band said their fond farewells after sixteen years on the road, Martin Scorsese was there to catch it all on celluloid. Hot on the heels of the mauling he received for New York, New York, Marty was on the hunt for a sure-fire follow-up. So what better way than to merge his love of music and movies with this landmark rockumentary'.’ Arguably, the finest concert film ever made. Lumiere, Edinburgh.
Liberty Heights (15) *** (Barry Levinson, US, 2000) Ben Foster, Rebekah Johnson, Joe Mantegna. 128 mins. Like Diner, Tin Men and Avalon before it, Levinson‘s affectionate ‘coming of age' story presents a nostalgic view of suburban Baltimore in the 1950s. In 195-1, before teenagers and rock ‘n' roll, the Liberty Heights neighbourhood is awash with chrome-trimmed Cadillacs, the crooning of Frank Sinatra, and the innocent romantic dreams of Jewish schoolboys like Ben
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58 THE LIST 5—19 Oct 2000
A big fat black woman shags a skinny white kid in the un-PC Road Trip
Kurtzman (Foster). Levinson knows this territory like the back of his hand, but this idealising nostalgia undercuts the seriousness found elsewhere. Showcase, Glasgow; UGC Cinemas, Edinburgh.
The Little Vampire (U) tit (Uli Edel, UK, 2000) Rollo Weeks, Richard E. Grant, Jonathan Lipnicki. 95 mins. Tony (Lipnicki), fresh from the orange groves of California, moves with his family to beautiful Scotland. He quickly becomes the most unpopular kid in his class, but finds a playmate when a ten- year-old vampire conveniently falls down his chimney. Can Tony join in the quest for the missing amulet and help the fanged Rudolph and his family become human? Despite its Hollywood re-vamp, Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's well-loved novel emerges with its sense of fun intact. However, while this film certainly doesn't suck, ultimately, it lacks real bite. See review. General release.
Extreme Screen: The Living Sea (U) *** 40 mins. Although the lwerks experience impresses on a technical level, neither of these films transcend
entertainment as lumbering fairground
attraction. Everest is a dry-as-sand account
of a recent expedition up the big yin. Filmed
in the style of a Sunday afternoon docudrama, it also has the dubious honour of rendering a remarkable adventure mundane. A much better bet is the visually wondrous The Living Sea, an ‘edutaining’ look at mankind's relationship with the sea (with voice-over from Meryl Streep). UGC Cinemas, Edinburgh.
Love 8: Sex (15) **** (Valerie Breiman, US, 2000) I’amke Janssen. Jon Eavreau. 82 mins. When Janssen‘s magazine journalist files an article about how oral sex can save relationships, she's promptly sacked by her
; editor. Begging for a second chance. she's
forced to re-examine her previous relationships to see what went wrong in order to complete a palatable article. And as soon as we arrive at her ‘big ex', Adam (Favreau), Breiman's semi-autobiographical film comes alive, and it's frequently hilarious shooting straight to the heart of relationships. from flirtation through honeymoon period, loving companionship and break up. What also distinguishes this film from lesser tom-com efforts are the leads' sparkling performances. General release.
The Loved One (15) **** (Tony Richardson, 1965) Rod Steiger. Liberace. John Gielgud. 116 mins. Evelyn Waugh‘s black comedy is brought to morbid life in this story of funerals and the business
of death. A British poet goes to California
and somehow ends up working in a pet
I cemetery. to riotous effect. The script was
put together by Christopher lsherwood and Terry Southern, so you should know the kind of OPT goings-on to expect. Lumiere. Edinburgh.
Love’s Labour's Lost (U) Ark (Kenneth Branagh, US. 2000) Kenneth Branagh. Alicia Silverstone, Adrian Lester. 93 mins. Branagh‘s attempt to make Shakespeare multiplex-friendly will shock textual purists for he has taken the early, wordy. romantic
' comedy. cut 70 per cent of its dialogue and
filled the holes with show tunes from the 30s and 40s. Branagh's most audacious, and frankly maddest. Shakespeare adaptation to
date proves to be a funny, engaging, and consistently entertaining trifie. Odeon, Kilmarnock.
The Magnificent Seven (PG) iii"ka (John Sturges, US. 196()) Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn. Eli Wallach. 126
mins. Ever-popular Hollywood remake of
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has Brynner and Co. hired to save a Mexican village from the unwelcome attentions of Wallach's bandits. The plot became an archetypal movie narrative with a host of sequels and copies both official and unofficial. Trivia time: hands up who can name all seven of the desperadoes. Lumiere, Edinburgh. Magnolia (18) ***** (Paul Thomas Anderson, US, 2000) Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise. 185 mins. P.T. Anderson‘s follow-up to his superb 70s LA porn industry flick, Boogie Nights is a snapshot of the lives of a dozen residents of LA's San Fernando Valley. Their stories are sad, funny and moving without ever bCComing overly-sentimental and Anderson's script is full of humble humanity and beautifully observed moments. And the quite stunning miraculous conclusion is audacious but it works — the same can be said of the whole film. New Picture House, St Andrews.
The Matrix (15) **** (Wachowski Brothers. Australia, 1999) Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne. 136 mins. A visual bonanza which swept the SFX floor at the Oscars, The Matrix was the film which may well
have saved Keanu's career. The 'story' sees
Keanu's double life character realising that the world is, in effect, one big virtual reality. And, yep, he is the only one who can save
us. Awesome. as Ted would have
pronounced. UGC Cinemas, Edinburgh.
3 A Matter Of Life And Death (PU)
***** (Michael Powellflimeric
. Pressburger, UK, 19-16) David Niven. Kim Hunter, Roger Livesy, Raymond Massey.
104 mins. Wonderful film that rises above its
: beginnings as a piece of wartime ‘ propaganda about goodwill between Britain
and the USA. Niven is an RAF pilot who
finds himself before a heavenly tribunal
when he bales out of his burning plane. A
witty and stylish fantasy with a fair share of on-target satire. Film Guild at the
Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
Me, Myself And Irene (15) *t* (Peter
' and Bobby Farrelly, US, 2000) Jim Carrey.
Renee Zellweger, Robert l-‘orster. 116 mins. Carrey plays both Rhodc lsland State Trooper Charlie Baileygates and Charlie's alter ego, Hank. (‘harlie's sweet and kind; Hank is a sexually aggressive, misogynislic loudmouth. When (‘harlie Hank is are assigned to escort the lovely Irene (ZelIWCgCT) 10 New York State his split personality threatens to take over his life completely. The rude sight gags and stinging one-liners are blatantly in evidence, while the story also works as something more than just a shaky scaffold holding up the comic set-pieces. The res elation, how ever, is Carrev himself. His ('harlie Hank creations are the mark of a master craftsman. General release.
Miracle Maker (17) *t (Stains-lav Sokolov, Derek Hayes. l'K, 2000) Ralph liiennes, Julie Christie. Richard L. Grant. 91 mins.