Film
SATlPE DR T AND THE WOMEN (12) 121 mins .00
Dr Richard Gere in an uneven satire on Dallas society
A successful, handsome gynaecologist, Dr Sully Travis (Richard Gere) adores women, reckoning that ‘they are sacred creatures and should be treated as such’. The ladies in his life, however, are proving a burden. His wife (Farrah Fawcett) has been placed in the local psychiatric clinic, his alcoholic sister-in-law (Laura Dern) has pitched up to stay with her three kids, and the doc’s cheer-leading elder daughter Dee Dee (Kate Hudson) is planning a costly wedding, although her true romantic affections lie with the maid of honour (Liv Tyler). Striking up a friendship with the new country club golf pro (Helen Hunt), which proves a respite from the demands of his patients and staff, Dr T contemplates an extra-marital
affair . . .
Seventy-five-year-old veteran director Robert Altman, in tandem with Cookie’s Fortune screenwriter Anne Rapp, delivers an uneven, yet frequently enjoyable satire on Dallas society, and in particular its expensively pampered females. A loose riff on the biblical story of Job, the patriarch whose patience was tested by bizarre events, Dr TAnd The Women sees Altman use his trademark overlapping dialogue and fluid tracking shots to express one of his favourite themes - how meaningless chatter has replaced meaningful communication in modern society.
There are so many players in this farce that some of the characters - Fawcett’s and Dern’s — remain disappointingly superficial, and there’s an element of cruelty about the way females get stripped bare, both metaphorically and literally. Gere, though, produces an amiably bemused performance, and the gale-force ending makes a fantastical leap away from straightforward ‘realism’. (Tom Dawson)
I Fr/mhouse. Edinburgh from Fr/ (5 Jul
DRAMA TOGETHER (15) 106 mins 0...
Set In the mud-70s. Swedrsh drrector Lukas Moodysson's follow-up to the highly-rated Show Me Love grves a gentle. comrc drg rn the rrbs to the hlppy Ideal.
When Elrsabeth lLrsa Lrndgrent and her children take refuge from a yrolent husband with her placrd brother Goran (Gustaf Hammarstenl at hrs commune. named Together. therr Infestyles are not the only ones that end up bong reassessed. Populated by a cross- section of the COunter-culture. the household soon frnds rts strrct adherence to alternatrve values disrupted by the newcomers presence; the appearance of a TV and meat-based meals berng merely the first Srgns of cracks tn group solrdanty
ImpOrtantly. the frlm eschews both nostalgra for the perrod and mockery of it. despite the retro soundtrack (Abba. naturally) and embarrassmg contemporary clothrng. Hand-held.
32 THE LIST 5—19Jul 2001
Comic dig at hippies
close-tn camera's/om favours actron over decor. whrle the humour tends to be more affectronate than patronrsrng. Moodysson comes to the cooclusron that a new soc:ety can end up makrng as many mrstakes as the one rt rebels agarnst and cleverly uses the next generatron — Elrsabeth's fatherless. frrendless chrldren taffectrngly portrayed by Sam Kessel and Emma Samuelssonr — to grye these Issues a more unryersal context.
lHenry Spencerl
I GFT. G/asgon': Cameo. Earnhurgi from Fr; 73 Jul. See Drel'lett. page 32.
NO‘WH‘ERE 'ro HIDE (15) 110 mins .0
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rils,.ta'.ttt:’ t'ugsa'. :f'e streets 7“ Seouu rte, t.‘ ; aw». fakes: (:‘.'(:"‘.f’)lfl<) personalg. esr we , .'.'-"t>"
'tzs traltner ts krl‘ed. Cur.- (sat; "gr‘rts.
l)()".f2"l;] a 2a the earl, {l7(1‘.'l(i“_; wt tllfi’llt
Demo" l ee M.urtg 8e Ines has best
to keep thzngs fresh
.-./.th saute Amazing visuals, derivative drama rtnpresswge use of colour and 'nctror‘r.
tlzts *t- tks lrke a soporrfrl attempt to ex; lort the move
but irttle can save ths tl(:l'1‘\.ttil‘.(? drama. Sun l. "st «33%. Plus the lead actor Park Jo mg; l-loorr s so over the top It's embarrassrr1g. At a trme when so n‘rany rnterestrng films are comrng out o" Korea notably Jang
gorng put m '5; current obsession ‘~.".’i'.l) Kurtu Fu 1, rte 'Paul Dale'
I fie/e :3 «I release (rm? /-/I "l Jur
Tl lllll ll H THE MONKEY’S MASK (18) 95 mins 00..
After fucklng around rn Hollywood appearing as the heterosexual Ion; :nterest Ill trash such as Top Gun, dyke rcon Kelly McGlllls goes down under to Australia and comes out of the closet to play a ‘strarght' lesbian Ill thrs murder mystery McGrllrs :s In Incredible. sexually pv‘<>vrx:atr\./e form; thrs modern frlm-norr wrll undoubtedly propel her career Into a hrgher stratosphere.
Co-star Susre Porter plays a young. butch. workrng cl; ss Iletectwe hrred by distraught parents to frnd therr mrssrng daughter. Her search takes her to Sydney's do\.ynto\.‘.rn poetry scene and rn particular Into the classes and arms of bisexual poetry professOr McGrllrs. lrresrstrbly drawn to each other. therr affarr ts steamy. krnky and rncreasrngly dangerous as McOrllrs' llllT()(,-rl)(2(3 begrns to lwok suspect.
Drrector Samantha Lang's frlm rs stylrshly shot and rmbued .vrth an approprrately nerrrsh atmosphere. The screenplay rs entrrely Ill verse lfron‘: Dorothy Porter's novel). though It takes you a whrle to realrse thrs. The poetr‘. s erotrr. and tender, Irke the Ioye scenes between the tun/o \.'./omen. which wrll blcxx you away. rJohn Brnnrel I Fr/mhouse. Ed/nhurgh from Fr/ 6 Jr ll.
ALSO ()PLNINC)
(18) 82 mins
Whrpped Is ‘.'./hat three srngle guys If) New York are. How Is a woman. Who Is Mia lAmanda Peetr. who gives the boys a hard trme by hayrng sex with each one of them Thereafter. the strurnpet puts a strarn on the fnendshrp of Wall Street surt zvrth loose bon'rels Brad anan Van Holtl. emotronally sensrtwe Jonathan 'Jonathan Abrahamsr. who can't stop spankrng the monkey. and East Vrllage posey bohemran Zeke lZorIe Barber). who shouts and swears a lot. As the frrendshrp deterrorates so does Brad. Jonathan and Zeke's rrtualrstrc Sunday lunch, where, rn the company wrth marrred pal ErIC (Judah Domkel. they drscuss the weekend's sexual conquests.
The San Franc/see Chrome/e slated frrst trme frlmmaker Peter M. Cohen's semr- autobrographrcal moyre. wrrtrng. 'Sex comedres don't get any uglrer than lift/oped. Sometrmes ugly means honest . . . In the case of Whrpped rt Just means ugly' And contrnued wrth: ‘What to make of Mra. a character who thrnks that sex rs a great way to punrsh and humrlrate men. That premrse rs the fundamental dlshonesty at the core of thls very bad film. rlvlrles Fielder)
I General release from Fr, .73 Jul
Naughty and not very nice