Film
:iterattire throws affecting poetry by ee cuinrnings and Elizabeth Bishop into the mix. adding thoughtful undercurrents to this lightweight stOry' of female bonding.
While both Collette and Dia/ acquit themselves well. MacLaine steals the fSl‘.()‘.'/ with a likeably understated performance that guarantees a tear- soaked finale.
Though sorely lacking a charismatic ma:e presence a la Jack Nicholson in Towns of [-ridea/inert! ibut maybe that IS the point as all the male characters here are depicted as stereotypical boors and nerds. In Her Shoes still provides a snug. (I()l“.l()l'l£ll)l€3 fit. iEddie Harrison) I General release from Fri 7 l Nov.
not.» " c coivlipv ELIZABETHTOWN
la ented .vi'itei—director Cameron C'e.'.'e‘s first film szr‘ce 2001 science “(IN)” romance l/ahr/i’a Sky is a (:or'lita" e“ ptece .sort of} to his last- but one film. Airircst FamOirs. for which the f'::rmei He iing Stone music got.“‘ai:st we”. a Best Original Si)"t:if"ll'£l, Oscz r. \‘.'here that semi- autet: egracircai fim was about Crexre's mother. Eli/ahet/itown is a love .etle' 1:; "is .ate father.
l "air, cast n a role that gives him the ehai‘ce to real ;, act. Orlando Bloom i; ays Cranes alter ego. Drew Baylor. Ha; "g; :i.sastrousiy screwed up a si::;r'.s fra her design icosting his soon to i;e 5:,rii‘er employer a cool billion (1:: ars . the s..:cidal young exec finds :;..'. 'lis ‘at'xer has died. and is sent by "ls {:"‘I()ll()'léti'\y malfunctioning mother is<:-:;~'v:: stealer Susan Sarandoni into A"‘<;-i -::a's heartiand to meet the other. estracget: side o" his father's family. Bi;'..'.i:(kl‘. ti‘s motley crev.’ of buinpkins ét'Yl a kdek, {till‘l‘iU fil(3‘.'/Ell(1€SS iKirsten Dufs'. . Dre-v. is able to forget about ‘cc! wear and get on ‘.'.’llll grieiring.
‘.'.v"‘iat r;<>..ld so (BélfStly have been a trite {it‘ll :; -cheo ur’aizla is in Crowe's hands a <::>'is.stently amusing. charming film ft‘a'. 'itea'lders along the road less traue ed. exert :t' the road trip ending feels ; cit lke the beginning of another /\’t(l .vhiie Cl'C‘h’O does ladle on the ES(;"'.t".l(2"l£t"l“. too thickly at times. [-u/ar;e!hfo.i'n is. ‘l‘. its championing of T'tl'=1i"al?a'lttit‘e.llZpCllect inlife. an -:,-"{;agi'i;;i, optiilyst c genture.
Vi ies Fedeiv
General "erease from in 4 Nov.
a warm THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
(15) 106min .000
US noxellst and short story writer Nateai‘ ei l’lélr'.’ill()rll(} wrote the truth
'te penned the eminently
:i..<;‘.ai> e me that ‘What we call real estate is ."e l)l()£.(l foundation on which 'iearzy a' the guilt of this world rests'. It s a train t"a: .'“:|.'l()l gangster and
44 THE LIST "ya. .V’x'x',
COMEDY THRILLER KISS KISS BANG BANG (15) 102min O...
This is unfortunately not an abstract attempt to capture the collected film writings (1965-67) of chief cineaste harridan and reactionary film critic Pauline Kael, it is however that very rare beast - an LA-based comedy film
noir which genuinely works.
Nice guy petty thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr) is having a weird evening. Somehow he has gone from robbing a toy shop to Hollywood pool party in one easy move. His luck, however, is about to change when he meets showbizzy private eye Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) and aspiring actress and pulp novels expert Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan). Through them he is submerged into the twisty-turny and downright mystifying world of LA’s pros, cons, losers and wannabees.
Screenwriter Shane The Long Kiss Goodnight Black’s first film as writer/director is a joy. Ultra convoluted, post-modern, smart and clever, the film positively bristles with the kind of Hollywood in-jokes that could have only been accumulated by a man who has been serving his time there since the early 80s (Black was a UCLA graduate and early Joel Silver acolyte) working on peculiarly clever mainstream fluff such as Lethal
Weapon 1&2 and The Last Boy Scout).
Structured around something that vaguely resembles Chandler’s plot for The Big Sleep (albeit suffused with Badhams’ 1991 comedy thriller The Hard Way) Black amusingly allows his film to become littered with allusions to the writers, books and films he clearly loves, so Ivan Passer’s Cutter and Bone peeps through the jokey syntax as do Altman's The Long Goodbye, James Hadley Chase, episodes of Columbo, McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun and so on. It all adds up to a savvy satire of Hollywood’s Babylon and a kind of metaphor for youthful enthusiasm and hero worship. It also boasts one of the best title sequences you will see this year. (Paul Dale)
I General release from Fri 7 I Nov. See preview. page 42.
wannabe pianist Thomas iRoman Durisl has yet to learn. He and his friends spend their days and nights Violently managing refugee squatted flats fOr greedy PariSian developers. Thomas has got the property game in his blood — his father iNiels Arestropi is a failed tycoon, but his late mother was a concert pianist. Thomas is torn between the two worlds. his secret ambition is to become a concert pianist. but dreams are not that easily z‘ittained.
Director Jacques Audiard and screenwriter Tonino Benacquista's second feature together ltheir first was the superb Read My Lips) is a stunning remake of James Toback's 1978 small thriller Fingers which in turn was inspired by Scorsese's Mean Streets i. In opening up Toback's wantonly machismo indie flick to include many of Audiard and Benacquista's favourite themes (mistreatment of refugees. marginal characters caught in vaguely Hitchcockian melodramas eICl they have achieved something very unusual — a remake that measures up to the Original. French mOVie heartthrob Duris is phenomenal in the lead role — a
good-looking Wire ball of tightly wound ill temper — as are the rest of the cast. lvloodily upholstered by Stephane Les Arnants du Pont Net/f Fontaine's reductive photography and Alexandre Desplat's scoring. this has to be one of the best French films of the year.
(Paul Dalei
I GFT. Glasgow and Film/louse. Edinburgh from Fri 4 Nov.
COMEDY ADVENTURE FANTASY THE BROTHERS GRIMM (12AO 118min 0000
In French occupied Germany during the Napoleonic Wars future fairytale scribes and supernatural hoaxers Will and Jack Grimm (Matt Damon and Heath Ledgerl are making a good living until the
French authorities. in the shape of food-
obsessed General Delatombe and highly strung torturer Cavaldi (Peter Stormarel. catch up With them. Striking a deal. the brothers are forced to go to mud and shit-filled Marbaden to break a real curse on the town which seems to be emanating from the local enchanted forest.
Wildly unpredictable. free-wheeling and riotously imaginative Terry Gilliam invests this - his long cherished Bavarian blood sausage of a protect With all the primitive ingenUity he can muster. Accused runes. spiders. cockroaches and baby-swallovving horses nestle well into his landscape of half-formed fairytales. poverty. beans. rocking horses and Bosch-ian dyspepsia. Though confused and annoyingly frantic at pouits iStormare in particular gratesl there is no denying Gilliam's consummate Vision and cinematic intelligence. With its echoes of the work Dreyer, Dore iof course) and Tony Richardson ifor Tom Jones and Joseph Andrewsr T he Brothers Grimm is a fitting fanfare for this most abused and uncompromising of filmmakers. (Paul Dalei I General release from Fri 4 Nov. See interview. page 43.
DOCUMENTARY MURDERBALL (15) 85min oooo
It's murder on. the basketball COurt. there's a bunch of quadriplegic men in reinforced tank chairs throwing a ball about and trying to ram the crap out of each other. Welcome to the wonderful ‘.‘."()i'l(l of quad rugby. It's Rol/erha/l for the disabled and it's about as brutal and thrilling as wheelchair sports get.
Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's thrifty. unsentimenta! look behind the scenes of this fascinating sport is powered by the rivalry between Canad'an coach iand former American all Sléil'i Joe Soares and US star player Mark Zupan. it is a grudgingly gripping Journey towards the Athens Paralympics of 2004 and the cameras are there to catch every moment of it. Along the way r'vlur'der'bal/ picks up and investigates many interesting ideas. including the idea of a trophy culture. yenal patriotism. quadriplegic sex and the social diviSions between the mentally and physically disabled. Nicely structured and intelligently soundtracked. this is a little gem. iPaul Dale;
I C/llt,“i‘.’()l'l(l Rent/er; Street and Crooner/d. Edirihirr'gr'r from Fri :1 Nov.