Film index
Helet ( l5) 0... (David Mamet. L'S. 2(X)l ) Gene Hackman. Danny De Vito. Rebecca Pidgeon. 107 mins. Master thiefJoe Moore (Hackman) decides it's time to quit and seek retirement down South with his young wife Fran (Pidgcon). However. his fence Bergman (De Vito) blackrnails him into carrying out one final score. After the patchy filmmaking satire State And Main. Mamet is back on home-turf. offering up a noirish world of cons and scams. while his trademark charged dialogue is still intact. Yet. Mamet is also attempting to mUscle in on action-movie conventions for which he lacks the requisite visual panache. and he's now writing to a ‘nothing is what it seems' formula. L'GC Renfrew Street. Glasgow.
Hie Girl Friday (L‘) eeeee (Howard Hawks. CS. 1940) Cary Grant. Rosalind Russell. Ralph Bellamy. 92 mins. Hawks‘s dynamic comedy is one of the best Hollywood ever made. Grant and RUssell are simply fantastic as the sparring newspaper editor and top reporter drawing battle line sin their professional and personal lives. Hecht and MacArthur's script from their original play The Front Page. spits out a series of rapid-fire quips and cross-cuting gags. but allows the supporting characters to have thier scene- stealing moments too. Don‘t miss it. GF'T. Glasgow.
Human Body (PG) (2(X)l) Simulation ride bringing you the full-blown wonder of all those really. really small places inside us. lMAX Theatre. Glasgow.
Italian For Beginnere ( 15) (Lone Scherfig. ltaly. 2(X)l) 1 l2 mins. Preview screening of the first outright comedy from the Dogme school of filmmaking. Six Copenhagen-ites fall in love with one another and cross the barriers of class. temperament. even language. Think Mike Leigh crossed with Lars von Trier. if that‘s possible. Lumiere. Edinburgh.
It’e A Wonderful Life (PG) eeeee (Frank Capra. L'S. I946) James Stewart. Donna Reed. Henry Travers. Thomas Mitchell. 129 mins. Small-town boy Stewart runs into financial difficulties and is on the brink of suicide when an elderly angel descends to earth to show him all the good his life has done for those around him. Archetypal Capra sentimentality with a superbly detailed fantasy framework and one of Stewart's most lovable performances. One to warm even the most glacial heart. Selected release.
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (18) 0... (Kevin Smith. CS. 2001 ) Jason Mewes. Kevin Smith. Jason Lee. 95 mins. In this final instalment of Smith‘s ‘New Jersey‘ trilogy. slackers Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) discover a movie is being made about the comic book characters they inspired (Bluntman and Chronic). They figure if the film is crap they‘ll get slagged on the internet and this will ruin their chances of getting laid. So off to Hollywood the boys go. Cue high jinx involving a robbery. a bunch of Charlie '3 Angels types and cameos from Smith regulars. The comic dialogue is as sharp and foul- mouthed as ever. Can this really be the last outing for Jay and Silent Bob‘.’ General release.
FTH
Wed 76th January
Together (15) 7:30pm Mon 2 tst January
Moulln Rouge (12) 7:30pm Wed 23rd January
Enigma (15) 7.30pm Tues 29th January
Amelie (15) 7:30pm
Titkt‘fs and further information from The Steeple Box office
(Tel: 01324 506850)
or on the day from the hall
40 THI LIST 4—‘ 7 Jan 2002
John Carpenter’e Ohoete Of Mare ( 15) 0.. (John Carpenter. CS. 2001) Natashsa Henstridge. Ice Cube. Pam Grier. 97 mins. Carpenter transplants the western plot of Rio Bravo. plonking the ‘cowboys' on the red planet where Henstridge's police lieutenant is part of a team charged with collecting Cube‘s criminal from a mining settlement. However. once there. they discover the inhabitants have becotne murderous zombies. Rarely straying beyond its genre boundaries. Ghosts ()fMars is entertaining enough. but Carpenter re-treads familiar ground. making this another of the ailing auteur's lesser work. Showcase Cinema. Glasgow; Showcase. Paisley. Joele And The Pueeyeate (PG) 0... (Deborah Kaplan. Harry Elfont. CS. 2001) Rachael Leigh Cook. Alan Cumming. Parker Posey. 98 mins. Josie (smart/cute Cook on vocals and guitar) and her punk band The Passycats are ‘discovered' by slimey MegaRecords manager Wyatt Frame (Cumming) and re- packaged as the next big pop sensation. But the presence of government grey suits suggests there's more to MegaRecords than the kind of obvious media manipulation we've come to expect from. say. the backers of Hear'say. The performances in this film. based on the 60s Art-hie comic are a joy and the satirical script by the co-directors is kitty-cat claw sharp. ()deon. Dunfermline. Jump Tomorrow (PG) .00 (Joel Hopkins. CK. 2001) Tundi Adebimpe. Hyppolite Girardot. Natalia Verbeke. 97 mins. En route to an arranged marriage at Niagara Falls. young Nigerian-American George (Adebimpe) hooks up with love- lorn Frenchman Girard (Girardot) and kooky Spanish woman Alicia (Verbeke). Eventually. George and Alicia end up in a phone booth sheltering from the rain where they smile shyly. now in love with each other. “Jump Tomorrow has the hallmarks of a Hal Hartley film: bare bones script. minimal performances. abandoned locations. There's even a crazy dance sequence. Not that this makes Hopkins' film unlikeable. just unoriginal. See review. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Kath Khuehl Kebhle Ohem (PG) (India. 2001 ) Asian film presentation. L'CI. Edinburgh.
Kandahar (PG) 0... (Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Iran/France. 2001) Nelofer Pazira. Hassan Tantaoe. Sadou Teymouri. 84 mins. Kandahar (based on the life story of Pazira) is the story of an Afghan exile. Nafas. who returns to Afghanistan to find her suicidal sister. The sister has sunk into depression under the Taliban‘s oppression of women. Don‘t expect good production values (though there is some extraordinary visual poetry). nor professional perfor- mances — Makhmalbaf and Pazira filmed on the hoof with a starving crew. Expect a
filtn that's deeply moving and disturbing and uplifting. Expect a film about Taliban- ruled Afghanistan that’s barely fictionalised at all. See review. GFT. Glasgow; Filmhouse. Edinburgh. A Knlght'e Tale (PG) eee (Brian Helgeland. US. 2001) Heath Ledger. Mark Addy. Paul Bettany. 132 mins. After his master dies halfway through ajousting tournament in medieval France. peasant William Thatcher (Ledger) dons his suit of armour and drags begrudging pals Roland (Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk) across Europe towards victory. Writer-director Helgeland's (LA. Confidential. Payback) filtn displays a playful sense of humour with its anachronistic soundtrack featuring Queen. David Bowie and other 70s rockers. and amusing allusions to the World Cup. And unusually it also emphasises character interaction so that the working class heroes are aided by Laura Fraser's widow-turned- blacksmith and Bettany's scene-stealing gambler/poet ‘Geoff‘ Chaucer. MacRobert Arts Centre. Stirling. Legally Blonde (12) eee (Robert Luketic. L'S. 2(X)l) Reese Witherspoon. Luke Wilson. Selma Blair. 97 mins. Legally Blonde is adapted from Amanda Brown‘s unpublished novel. an anthropological study of the 'law student species‘ drawing on her experiences as a blonde attending law school. By contrast. Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirtsen Smith's (IO Things I Hate About You) screenplay focuses on the 'clueless' nature of protagonist Elle Woods (Witherspoon). a California babe who finds herself to be a fish out of water when she follows her boyfriend to Harvard. It also resorts to a deeply conventional narrative about honesty and integrity winning the day. ThUs. Legally Blonde lacks the bite of other teen satires such as Election. another film starring Witherspoon. but one which lived up to the actor's impressive talents. General release. Little Otlk (Oteeenek) (15) eee (Jan Svankmajer. Czech Republic/UK. 2000) Veronika Zilkova. Jan Hartl. Jaroslava Kretschmerova. 131 mins. Utilising an old Czech folk tale. Svankmajer focuses on a barren couple who go to extreme lengths to become parents. When their ‘child‘ gets out of control. snacking on anything which stumbles into its path. hard decisions need to be made. Coming on like a cross between Eraserhead and The Beast In The Cellar. Svankmajer‘s eye for a beautifully framed image is flawless for the first twenty minutes. but wears thin as soon as the overlong. repetitive story takes hold. As an animated short. it would have made a wonderful addition to his surrealist re ertoire. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
The Lord Of The Rlnge (PG) .0... (Peter Jackson. New Zealand/L'S. 200]) [an McKellen. Elijah Wood. Liv
Juetln Theroux'e brattleh young filmmaker freaks out durlng a casting meeting In David Lynch‘s Mulholiand Drive
Tyler. Cate Blanchett. Viggo Mortensen. 178 mins. At long last. a sword and sorcery adventure that really delivers the goods. J. R. R. Tolkien‘s great achievement was to create an English mythology. located in a fantastical yet believable world. Jackson's great achievement is to bring the author‘s 1000 page tome to life. not merely realising the fantastic elements with special effects spectacle (though they are very spectacular). but through storytelling flare and marvelloUs performances from his cast. Visceral and breathtakingly dramatic. The Fellowship 0] The Ring is an inspired labour of love and a monumental achievement. See feature and review. General release.
Maeletrom (tbc) eee (DL‘nls Villeneuve. Canada. 2001) Marie-Josec Croze. Jean-Nicolas Verrault. Stephanie Morgenstern. 88 mins. A fishy talc from Quebec. From its slaughter slab an ugly fish tells the story of Bibiane Champagne (Croze). the neurotic daughter of a famous fashion designer who. upon losing her grasp on the family business. accidentally hits a man while driving drunk one fateful rainy night. This strange. multiple-award winning surrealist thriller is by turns stunningly pretentioUs. joyous to watch and ridiculous. Beautifully shot. though. with a wonderful soundtrack which shifts seamlessly from one of Grieg's adagios to Tom Waits. See review. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
The Maglc Flute (L') O... (lngmar Bergman. Sweden. 197-1) Josef Kostlinger. Irma L'rrila. Hakan Hagegard. 135 mins. Originally made for Swedish TV. Bergman's version of Mozart is set in an actual theatre where a modern audience watch an 18th century performance. The result is sympathetically attuned to the talents of his performers but still a fairly frothy addition to the Swede's canon of faithless anguish. GilmorehillGl2. Glasgow.
The Men Who Ween’t There (15) 0.... (Joel Coen. US. 2001) Billy Bob Thornton. Frances McDormand. James Gandolfini. 116 mins. Set in the Californian backwater town of Santa Rosa circa the 1940s. The Man Who Wain “I There takes its cue from the cynical world of pulp crime writers like James M. Cain. The tale turns on a regular fella. Thornton‘s mild-mannered barber Ed Crane. who is unwittingly the catalyst for a spiralling series of events beginning with infidelity and extortion and ending with. well. maybe you can guess. The Coen brothers“ latest reinvention of a classic Hollywood film genre is their most audacious to date. mixing hard-boiled. small town film noir with existentialism and metaphysics. it‘s a wry-humoured. retro-styled. wickedly-plotted. moody gem. Cameo. Edinburgh.