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ANIMATION WAR WALTZ WITH BASHIR (18) 90min 0.00
An animated feature about war. memory displacement and the hideous genocide committed by Christian militiamen on Palestinian refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila during the 1082 Lebanese War may not sound particularly inviting but. like last year's Pry‘sepol/s. this illustrated memoir from writer and director Ari Folman attempts to tell rare and painful truths.
A conscripted Israeli soldier serves time on the frontline of a very nasty dirty little war. 2()-years later he's haunted by nightmares of what happened but he doesn't know if the dreams. which include black dogs running Wild and near— naked soldiers emerging from the sea. are hallucinations or memories of actual events that took place. He decides to find out the truth by Visiting a psychiatrist and interviewing his fellow soldiers about the fateful nights followuig the assassination of Lebanese politician Bashir Oemayel.
On an aesthetic level the decision to tell the story using animation is a successful one as it fuses seemingly disparate elements of both surreal and dOCumentary cinema. The removal of realism from such a historically pregnant background does cause some problems. many of which Folman attempts to redress in the clumsy final sequences. However. this remains a brave. damning and riveting piece of cinema that deserves to find an audience, (Kaleem Aftab)
I Selected release from Fri 2] Nov. See profile.
DRAMA CONVERSATIONS WITH MY GARDENER (12A) 108min 0000
When a successful Parisian painter (Daniel Auteil) returns to the rural childhood home he has inherited in the Rhone-Alps region of southern France, he places an advert for somebody to rejuvenate the property’s unkempt garden. The first applicant (Robert Guediguian regular Jean-Pierre Darroussin) turns out to have been an old school friend, whom he hasn’t seen for decades. While the two men have since led very different existences they relish each other’s company, and talk freely about their respective life experiences.
Adapted from Henri Cueco’s novel, this intimate two-hander from veteran writer-director Jean Becker (One Deadly Summer, Children of the Marsh/and) might seem slight on paper, but it’s a surprisingly moving study of male friendship. The female supporting characters, including the gardener’s wife (Hiam Abbass), painter’s estranged wife (Fanny Cottencon), his grown-up daughter (Elodie Navarre), and his on-off girlfriend (Alexia Barlier) make little impact here: the focus is very much on the exchanges between our two unnamed protagonists, who affectionately refer to one another as ‘Dupinceau’ and ‘Dujardin’.
Becker has found two ideal actors in Auteil and Darroussin to inhabit these roles, and it’s a pleasure to watch their characters simply spending time together and taking a genuine interest in how they each perceive the world. Unobtrusively shot and thoughtfully scored, Conversations With My Gardener quietly celebrates the supposedly ‘simpler’ things in life, meriting its poignant coda.
(Tom Dawson) I GILT Glasgow 8‘ Fi/rii/iouse, Edinburgh, fir/21 Nov 'l'lii/ 4 Dec.
COME DY DRAMA CHOKE (18) 92min .0.
Unrepentant sex addict Victor Mancini iSam Rockwelli has always believed that life is about making other people do stuff for you By day he does as little work as he can at a historical theme park and by night he cons money in restaurants by pretending to choke on his food. His only act of charity is to Visit his insane. dementia- besieged mother iAngelica Hustoni at a private clinic. One day Dr Paige Marshall iKelly MacDonald) suggests a radical new treatment for his mother. one that Will force Victor to face up to his past and put his life into a downward spin.
American actor turned writer director Clark Gregg's respectfully offensive adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's hilarious and sordid 2001 novel catches the central dialectic of Palahniuk's book ithat before things can get better they must get much worsei but is ultimately undermined by a faux oi' (Dario) Fo-ux wacky anarchism. But there s still plenty to enjoy iii this leaky. messy iiiucous—wet little film.
Crucially Palahniuk's misanthropic meditations on group therapy. fathers. religion, sex and the inheritance of mental illness are very much in place. Ihat Gi'egg's direction is at best choppy. at worst tone deal is regrettable. but Palahniuk's dialogue still maintains the ability to shock and the performances by all concerned are excellent. (Paul Dalel I General release from Fri 21 Nov.
COMEDY
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO
(18) 101 min 0000
Forget the salaCious sounding title. Zach and Mn is a Kevin Smith movie so it was never going to be a Ron Jeremy skin flick. Indeed. it's an archetypical Smith movie — an over- sentimental tale in which boy knows girl. boy and girl have relationship. they break up and then get back together again. Smith has followed this format in nearly all his films. from the critically acclaimed Clerks and Chasing Amy to box office clunker Jersey Girl .
Smith has a huge cult following because when on form he brings great dialogue. real emotions and laugh-out- loud adult humour to the party and that's exactly what he does here in his funniest film to date (although that doesn't mean it's as good or fresh as Clerks). Seth Rogan and Elisabeth Banks give ebullient performances as the auteur lovers of the title who've been best friends since school but their shifts in a local cafe aren't paying the bills. So they're inspired by a former classmate and a YouTube escapade to try porn — with hilarious results. (Kaleem Aftabl I General release from Fri 14 Nov See feature. page 20.
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