Reviews
COMED/ CLERKS II (15) 97min eee
‘With no power comes no responsibility.' declares the tagline on the poster for Clerks II, neatly summarising the minimal progress made by Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) as they leave behind their (obs as time wasting convenience store workers to become time wasting fast food operatives in this sequel. Despite the unpretentious directness of his 1994 original. writer/director Keyin Smith's blue collar credentials didn't quite click With audiences in high-profile proiects like Dogma or Jersey Girl, but Clerks // pitches him back to the familiar New Jersey ambience he understands best. Despite some soppy romance With boss Becky (Rosario Dawson) and a well choreographed muSical sequence set to The Jackson Five's ‘ABC'. Clerks // is strongest when it mines Williamson's now familiar rich seam of filth. There's irreverent abuse hurled at sacred cows in almost every scene. splattering targets as diverse as Helen Keller. Anne Frank, and animal sex practitioners — “We like to call it inter- species erotica.‘ retorts one game performer before copulating with an unrulfled donkey in the film's Oddly endearineg and irresponSIble finale. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 22 Sep. See profile in listings.
DRAMA
ECHO PARK LA
(oumcemémi (15) 90min eeee
Tony Richardson/Shelagh Delaney's 1961 drama A Taste of Honey is the direct inspiration for this beautifully composed teenage drama. Young Latina Magdalena (Emily Rios) is blissfully preparing for her Ouinceanera (15th birthday celebration) dreaming of her white taffeta dress and Hummer limo. when she falls pregnant and is forced by her pious parents to live with her great-great uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez). Tomas also houses Magdelena's cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). a young street kid struggling with his sexuality. Carlos is mostly interested in smoking weed and visiting his affluent gay landlords for nooky and chat. As Magdalana’s pregnancy grows more visible. the
outsider family pulls together when faced ‘.'./lih their increaSIngly diftiCult socioeconomic CirCumstances and in turn gay gentrification gets a sharp Cutting down Shot With a fearless realism. part-dOCumentary. part New Queer Cinema. Echo Park LA finds humOtir. paSSion and tense drama in hard-hitting storylines, Winners of the Grand Jury and Audience Award at Sundance 2006 (an accolade given only once before in the histOry of the festival). queer filmmakers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (The Fluffer) have delivered up a celebration and a feast. (Selina Robertson)
I C/neworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow and Film/iouse. Edinburgh from Fri 29 Sep. See interwew, page :12.
ANIMAT ION COMEDY HOODWINKED (U) 81 min 000
Like a bedtime stOry told by an amiable drunk, Hoodwrnked is a hackneyed narrative redeemed by great creative embellishment of the telling.
Writer/directors Corey and Todd Edwards have come up With a now setting that's equal parts Raymond Chandler and S/irek. uSing a police investigation led by Bill SIOrk (v0lced
DRAMA KEANE (15) 94min eeee
by Anthony Anderson) to draw together the usual suspects after a domestic disturbance at the cottage previously occupied by Granny (Glenn Closei. Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway). a woodsman (Jim Belushii and the big bad wolf (Patrick Warburton) all get to tell their Side of the story. Rashomon-style. offering a useful educational opportunity for parents who want their children to imagine a pOint—of—view other than their own. Even for adult audiences. it's an engaging gimmick. although the animation falls way short of the current gold standards of Pixar and Disney. and the tWists and turns run out round about the halfway mark. But there are enough cheeky gags in Granny's dangerous sports addiction or the Wolf's laconic CyniCism to make Hoodwmked an acceptable enough paCifier for kids. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 29 Sep. Se profile. page 44.
‘Schizophrenia may be a necessary consequence of literacy,’ according to the great Canadian philosopher and theorist Herbert Marshall McLuhan, but it is also a surety of grief. No one thinks he knows this better than William Keane (Damian Lewis), the searcher and unholy fool at the centre of Lodge l-l Kerrigan's intense, spare and outstanding character study. Keane is a self-medicating schizophrenic wandering loose and wild eyed on the streets and in the transportation ante chambers of New Jersey’s dock area, with the alleged mission of finding the daughter he lost some months before. As self-abuse and degenerate sex give way to ever more deranged behaviour he finds some redemption in a friendship with equally displaced mum Kira (Abigail Breslin) and her cute as a button daughter Lynn (Amy Ryan), but some saviours arrive just too late in the day. Kerrigan's challenging, minimal reworking of Stephen Poliakoff’s and Charles Sturridge’s much overlooked 1983 film Runners feels like being at the wrong end of a particularly woeful, fetid, vex-filled outbreath. New York filmmaker Kerrigan (Clean, Shaven, Claire DoIan) belongs to that small
group of US filmmakers who prize naturalism and cinematic honesty above
all things and while stylistically Keane is closer to the work of the Dardenne Brothers and Robert Bresson before them, Kerrigan is really just returning to the disturbing scope of first film Clean, Shaven (schizophrenia and daughters figure heavily here too). One can’t help feeling, however, that maybe Keane is more a strangulated cry from the writer/director who had previously spent a year making a Soderberg-produced film In God’s Hands starring Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal, only to realise, after wrapping, that the film had been shot out of focus. (Paul Dale)
I Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 22 Sep.
Film
Film news to remember
I Rough Cuts would like to dedicate this issue of The List to the memory of Shirley Gilmour (pictured). Gilmour was one of the cornerstones of the Filmhouse throughout the 1990s where her tireless administration of everything from the day to day running of the place to the Friends of Filmhouse scheme was crucial to the development of art house cinema in Scotland. A former life model at the Leith School of Art and generally joyous person, Shirley lost her battle with cancer recently. RIP, you will be much missed Shirley.
I Glasgay is on its way with another interesting selection of gay themed movies. Rough Cuts would like to recommend a couple for you. Queens is a very enjoyable comedy set around Spain's first mass gay wedding and Argentinean sex comedy El Favor is also worth checking out. Best of all however is Tim Kirkman's lovingly structured triptych drama Loggerheads. www.glasgay.co.uk for more info.
I Psychotronic Cinema returns in October with a screening of Argento’s Suspiria at Filmhouse (12 Oct; at GFI’ on 1 Nov). The fantastic new programme includes Maria Bava's Danger: Diabolik and blindingly good spaghetti western Dlango. Clear your diaries people.
WIN lAST EXIT T0 BROOKlYN
Uli Edel's superb 1989 film adaptation of Herbert Selby Jr controverSIal masterpiece. is getting a long overdue release in a lovely two disc special edition DVD courtesy of Metrodome Distribution. We have got five copies to give away. To be in with a chance of Winning one send an email marked ‘BROOKLYN' with your name, address and daytime telephone number to promotions@list.co.uk. Usual List rules apply.
21 Sec—5 Oct 2006 THE LIST 43