Film index
Open Your Eyes (15) O.
(Alejandro Antenabar. Spain. 2000) Eduardo Noriega. Penelope Cruz. Chete Lera. I 17 mins. Smooth looking. three car owning. inheritance spending Cesar (Noriega) has the sort of Madrid life many would dream of. He even gets the best looking girl. the stunning Sofia (Cruz). Ilowever. St‘lludl‘Il/i'tllldl’ demands a tum for the worst. and sure enough. there it is literally round the corner. Amenabar's second feature seems caught between the light comic touch of Almodovar and the pensive subtleties of Medem. New Picture House. St Andrews. Out Of Africa (PG) 0.. (Sydney Pollack. (TS. 1985) Robert Redford. Meryl Streep. Klaus Maria Brandauer. 162 mins. Sprawling romantic epic in which Streep plays author Karen Blixen. upon whose accounts of farming in Africa this film is based. Brandauer is her pox-ridden husband. Redford the Etonian traveller with whom she naturally falls in love with. Disappointing given the quality of the talent involved. ()deon. Edinburgh.
Out Of Sight ( 15) .0... (Steven Soderbergh. CS. 1998) George Clooney. Jennifer Lopez. Ving Rhames. 123 mins. This stylish adaptation of Elmore Leonard‘s novel teams Clooney‘s batik robber Jack Foley with Jennifer [.opez‘ chic. Chanel- wearing cop. Soderbergh catches perfectly Leonard‘s sly. deadpan wit. while infusing it with a wistful melancholy. Smart. sexy and deliciously bitter-sweet. Cameo. Edinburgh. Paws (PG) .00 (Karl Zwicky. Australia/CK. 1997) Nathan Cavaleri. Emilie Francois. voice of Billy Connolly. 83 mins. (‘lever tioggie PC is on a mission to deliver a computer disc. but is being tracked down by the unpleasant baddie who killed his master. Befriending computer whizz kid Zac. the mutt links tip to a voice simulator and starts talking with the broad twang of Billy Connolly. Some genuinely funny moments allow for a whole range of teenage crises to be dealt with in an uncringeworthy fashion. Cineworld. Falkirk.
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) (I8) .0... (Michael Hanekc. France/Austria. 2001 ) lsabelle Huppert. 12‘) mins. As with his previous films. ('mlt' L'nknmvn and Funny Games. Haneke shows but doesn't tell. It's left to the audience to piece together the disturbed psyche of Erika Kohtit. the Viennese piano tutor of the title (Huppert). llaneke tells the tale (based on Elfriede Jelinek‘s novel) through a series of beautifully composed scenes. editing them together with the precision of a surgeon. Huppert capitalises on her opaque visage. providing her director with a beautifully nuanced understated performance. It's a pleasure to ‘read‘ this film. and no surprise it garnered both controversy and awards at the Cannes Film festival. East Kilbride Arts Centre. East Kilbride.
Pippi Longstocking (t?) O.
(Clive Smith/Michael Schaack/Bill Giggic. ('anada/Sweden/Germany. 2000) 78 mins. There‘s something vaguely disturbing about a nine-year-old girl who parades down the street singing ‘()h what a fabulous day. I'm happy as can be' having just watched her father being washed out to sea. But maybe that's being churlish. After all. Pippi Longstocking's anarchic behaviour has won her a place in the hearts and on the bookshelves of many a child since Astrid Lindgren first unleashed the world‘s first riot girl. But in an age of sophisticated children's films. Pippi Longstocking with all her exuberance. fails to deliver. ITGC Parkhead. Glasgow.
The Pledge ( 15) 0... (Sean Penn. LS. 2001) Jack Nicholson. Robin Wright- Penn. Sam Shepard. 123 mins. 1n the cold mountain reaches of Nevada the body of a little girl is found. raped and murdered. A simple-minded Native American is swiftly taken into custody and a confession is extracted. following which the man kills himself. An open and shut case . . for everyone but Jerry Black (an admirably low key Nicholson). a retiring police officer who thinks they have the wrong man. ('ouchcd in the conventions of a thriller. Penn's third film as director is first and foremost a compelling psychological study of a middle-
40 THE LIST 14—28 Mar 2002
aged titan attempting to give his life meaning post-retirement. Jerzy and Mary ()lson Kromolowski's script. adapted from Friedrich Dtirrenmatt's novel. keeps things ambiguous. Penn counters this. directing with an even hand and casting a sombre mood over the proceedings. The Lumiere. Edinburgh; l'CI. Clydebank.
The Princess Diaries (PG) 0
(Garry Marshall. LS. 2001 ) Anne l-lathaway. Julie Andrews. Heather Matarazzo. I 15 mins. Goofy teenager Mia 'l'hermopolis (Hathaway) lives with her boho anist other in San Francisco. Although Mia gets the grades rather than the boys. she breezes happily through life. I.'ntil her paternal grandmother Queen Clarisse (Andrews) arrives at her doorstep and tells Mia she's the heir to the throne of the European principality of Genovia. Thereafter. Mia suffers under the tutelage of her stern royal granny as she is transformed from ugly duckling into a charming princess. Horrible. from sappy wish-fulfilment premise to sugar-coated execution. Selected release. The Private Lite 01 Sherlock Holmes (PG) 00.. (Billy Wilder. t'K. 1970) Robert Stephens. Colin Blakely. Christopher Lee. 125 mins. With the able assistance of his regular scriptwriter collaborator. Wilder demythologises the consulting detective. alluding to his
homosexuality and drug addiction. However.
this remains a touching portrait of Holmes. not least because of Stephens‘ wonderful performance. And as a straight Holmes adventure. all the elements are present and correct right tip to the climactic finale on Loch Ness. Nice support. too. from Blakely as Watson and Lee as Holmes‘ smart brother. Mycroft. The Lumiere. Edinburgh. Project Ability Screening (PG) (Various. (SK. 2002) the mins. Four films utilising animation. puppetry and digital technology made by children and young people with disabilities: (ilasgmt' .llv ('ily. [Jig Beat. 7211/ Titles and Digilait'. (JET. Glasgow.
Punishment Park ( 12) 00.. (Peter Watkins. LS. 1971) 88 mins. Pttrporting to be news footage. this realistic looking pseudo-docutnentary has a crew following a team of soldiers ensconced to the desert to escort a group of hippies and other anti- establishment types. The sentence (instead of holice death squad) is to traverse ()0 miles of desert in two days to retrieve a flag. Set amidst an America of Nixon-era social crisis. the characterisation may be cliched the racist militant. the gnarly FBI agent. the
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and lover of kitsch 503 retro
limp pacifist leader - but as the action heats tip so do the increasingly hostile soldiers. C(‘A. (ilasgow.
Rat Race ( 12) .0. (Jerry Zucker. ['S. 2001).lohn Cleese. Rowan Atkinson. Whoopi Goldberg. 1 12 mins. In Jerry Zticker‘s madcap comedy. a bunch of money grabbers undertake a crazy race across America to New Mexico to find a hidden treasure hoard. Cleese is one of the select circle of Las Vegas business men who organises the race as a new means of placing a wager. Don‘t expect much in the way of comment on greed and corruptibility. Instead. Zucker focuses on the laughs. employing the tactic he used with great success on his hit films Airplanv.’ and Naked (Jun: the scattergun fire of endless slapstick jokes. (ii-T. Glasgow: Magnum Theatre. Irvine.
Return To Never Land (cert the)
0. (Robin Budd & Donovan Cook. CS. 2002) Harriet ()wen. Blayne Weaver. Corey Burton. Mitts tbc. Wendy has grown tip and now has two children of her own. The oldest. Jane. who witnessing the devastation caused by the blitzkrieg conditions of World War II. no longer believes in Peter Pan and stories of ‘faith. trust and pixie dust‘. That is until the night before she is to be evacuated to the countryside. when Captain Hook kidnaps her mistakenly believing that she is Wendy. Jane rediscovers the magic; it doesn't. however. return to the viewer »- everything about the film is dated. frotn plotting to animation. Disney need to come up with some new ideas to keep the cartoon fortnat fresh. See review. General release.
0 The Royal Tenenbaums (15) 0.... (Wes Anderson. (TS. 2002) Gene Hackman. Angelica Huston. Gwyneth Paltrow. I 10 mins. The 'I'enenbaums are no ordinary fatnily. [)escended frotn a long line of overachievers. these New York geniuses are now in stultifying decline. The memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums has since been erased by two decades of betrayal. failure and domestic disaster. most of which is perceived by the family to be the fault of absent father. Royal (Hacktnan). Then. at the very moment his three grown-up children have. for various reasons. all moved back itito the rambling home of their mother. Royal decides he wants his family. With learn/mums. Anderson (Rushmore) has surpassed himself with an enchanting. odd tale of an awkward family and its member‘s impossible magnet- ic attraction to each other. See feature and
review. General release.
Sagittarius (Sagitarlo) ( 15) (Vicente Molina Foix. Spain. 2001 ) Angela Molina. Eusebio Poncela. Enrique Alcides. I 10 mins. A number of interweaving stories in which city dwellers in Madrid — a divorced painter. her gay confidante actor. an Argentinean architect. a pizza delivery boy and a mystery man - search for romance. Part of the Spanish Film Festival. (EFT. Glasgow; The Filmhouse. Edinburgh. Sexy Beast ( 18)..” (Jonathan Glazer. UK. 2000) Ray Winstone. Ben Kingsley. Ian McShane. 88 mins. When retired criminal Gary Dove (Winstone) gets a visit from East End headcase [)on Logan (Kingsley). who's to persuade Dove to leave his Costa del Sol villa to do one last ‘job' for crime boss Teddy Bass (McShane). the sparks fly. Dove stutters a nervous ‘No thanks'; Logan screams ‘Yes. you c**tl‘. At length. The back and forth between the hard man who‘s lost his bottle and the officious little psychopath is nothing short of Pinter- esque. alternately menacing. hilarious and terrifying. Cast against type. the leads are superb. Glazer rigorously maintains content over style. and the result is a razor sharp drama that‘s no mere gangster film. Edinburgh Film Guild. Edinburgh. Shallow Hal ( 12) 00. (Bobby and Peter Farrelly. US. 2001) Gwyneth Paltrow. Jack Black. Jason Alexander. 1 13 mins. Black (so good in High Fidelity) takes his first starring role as Hal. an immensely shallow man who only ever dates beautiful women. All that changes when Hal gets trapped in a lift with a self-help guru who hypnotises him into only being able to see a person‘s ‘inner beauty'. Shortly afterwards. Hal falls in love with a sweet-natured nurse who is itnmensely obese. but who appears only to Hal as slimline Paltrow. Given the Farrelly brothers' penchant for gross out comedy. Shallow Hal turns out to be. at heart. a very sweet film. though it lacks belly laughs. General release.
0 The Shipping News (15) O... (Lasse I-lallstrom. US. 2002) Kevin Spacey. Julianne Moore. Judi [)ench. I 17 mins. Annie Proulx‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a depressed middle-aged father who takes his daughter off to his family's ances- tral home in barren Newfoundland after the unfaithful wife (though love of his life) is killed in a car wreck. is an eccentric black comedy. but also a raw. melancholy yarn. What hope. then. for arch sentimentalist Hallstroin not leaving Proulx's masterpiece lloundering'.’ None it would seem. yet