COMED r LITTLE MAN (12A) 97min 0
The genre heading of this hes. .er‘tt.re from the creatOrs of 2004's lihlre Chlcks IS listed on the IMDB as ‘Comedy Crime'. It's a phrase that should become the Wayans lamll, motto. With Keenen lyony \‘Ja‘, ans directing the sorrpt he co-wrote .‘atr‘. brothers Shawn and Marlon, .‘Jllll8_ tn front of the camera. Shawn pla,s a tiny thth and Marlon Is the aSplrlng father who inadvertently adOpts hlm Little Man makes Brg Mommas House look as intellectually sprightly as Mollere. this rude. crude low-brow farce struggles not Just for laughs. but also to VlSLlallS€ its ludicrous central
SEVERANCE (15) 95min .0.
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3.8'81362‘. races 8’X1.‘t?‘. specai e‘f’etts hc" graft a" adult "ead onto a Chad's trod; "‘ake in s per.erse dlsgtuse e'.e.r‘. ess cenanclng than the Pans Hilto 7 Nlccle P‘tr‘nle 1:;r'l5alt3 " re C" :as. .‘ath t'te em: YzéSal‘. wiser to the grotesque than to aq‘taal awed" \.“.omen are groped. ha‘ls are k :‘kea and. o, of llght rellef. there's mm» on otter apart from the srn‘lllar xlrtues of regular exCremental leakage and a Rob Schneider cameo. For crimes against comedy. Llrtle Man demonstrates that the Way ans family are surer due an ASBO by noun. lEddle Harrlsom
COMIC MELODRAMA VOLVER (15) 121 min 0000
Whisper it softly - Volver - the 16th feature of Pedro Almodovar, may not warrant the masterpiece status with which it was accorded by many critics at this year's Cannes festival. Indeed it shows signs that its acclaimed director. often held up as one of the saviours of contemporary European art-house cinema, is resting on his Iaurels.
Taking its title from a 19608 tango song by Estella Morente, Volver in Spanish means to ‘return home'. Set partly in Almodovar's home province, the windswept La Mancha, it reunites the filmmaker with two of his former actresses, Carmen Maura and Penelope Cruz, and marks, after Bad Education and Talk to Her, 3 return to the female-centred universe of All about My Mother.
Almodovar himself has described Volver as a cross between the Joan Crawford melodrama Mildred Pierce and the Capras comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Cutting between the city and the countryside, it centres on Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), a working-class mother in Madrid struggling to make ends meet and shielding a dark childhood secret. Her problems escalate when her
26 THE LIST 24 Aug-7 Sep 2006
I General release from Fr/ r Sep.
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daughter stabs her layabout husband to death in self- defence, and she finds herself in charge of the corpse disposal operation. Meanwhile Raimunda’s sister Sole (Lola Duenas) has been visited by the ghost of their dead mother Irene (Maura), who herself mysteriously died in a house fire several years earlier.
A brightly coloured tribute to motherhood and inter- generational female solidarity, in which men are rendered superfluous, Volver doesn’t so much represent as idealise femininity. Sporting figure- hugging outfits, padded buttocks, piled-up hair and black eye-liner, Cruz’s Raimunda, veering between forcefulness and vulnerability, is to quote from Jules 9! Jim, ‘Iess a woman than a force of nature’. She's explicitly compared in one clip to Italian diva Anna Magnani, although the Ieering over-head shot of the actress’ cleavage is hardly a subtle touch. As skeletons tumble out of closets, Volver draws on a vein of farcical humour, not least in the way Irene materializes in unlikely places. There’s elegance to the shooting style, but there are also unnecessary sub-plots such as the one concerning an exploitative ‘reality' TV show. The tried-and-trusted ‘Almodrama’ format needs, on this evidence, some modification. (Tom Dawson)
I Selected release from Fn 25 Aug.
C:lll|‘§l()[)ll(‘l Smith's; t; )[tll‘ llllt trl- t‘lll wt 13; another melange of horn tr and comedy He's; taking heed ol the detlrtlent‘let; ol Creep to tin-ate a l()lll(jl\lll(} tale Set lll rn,r;tenour; l ant European woodland that it: filllllllll Ill taste and tone to i ll lloth's. l router. In fact It}; hetter than Hostel llt” aune Smith manages; to take a satlnttal swrpe at the arms; trade, the foreign policies; of Blair and Bush and company learn hulldlng event; and he entertaining Ill the protest, lhe European Sales team of Palisade Defence, a multinational {illllfS supplier, are on a teamhurldlng weekend Ill Central l urope. The team are left stranded when a tree on a Hungarian road forces them to seek refuge Ill an ahandoned lodge The team ls an eclectic llllX of llll‘;l|lf;. Our heroes are pothead Steve (Danny Dyer lll his; familiar Cockney wrdehoy role) and the pretty grrl he'd quite like to get his way ‘Nlllt, hlond Yank Maggie llaura llr’illlf) of P4 tamer. It's tedious; to hegln With at; the lndrvrdual team members are set up as characters. hut once a supernatural force starts takrng out the team one by one. a l()llll;l<lll() and hilarious ride to the finale ensues. (Kaleem Aftah)
I General release from HI 2") Aug,
ANIMATION COMEDY TERKEL IN TROUBLE (15) 80min 0..
It Rik Ma/all, Ricky Gen/8|?) and Simon Amstell one day had a change of heart and deoded to become puckrsh Danish anlmators they ma/ well produce something a lrttle like thls qurrky. Violent, srlly and Immensely enjoyable animation. Based on the characters developed