THE ACTRESS
***½
Hong Kong
A biopic of 1930s' Chinese
actress Ruan Ling-yu. Leisurely unfolding in pretty vignettes
of little conflict, with bits of documentary footage scattered, it's held
together by Maggie Cheung's serene, bewitching performance (in her first
'serious' role).
dir:
Stanley Kwan
ph:
Poon Hang-Sang
m:
Huang Jin Chen
cast: Maggie Cheung, Han Chin, Carina Lau, Waise Lee,
Tony Leung Ka Fai
AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A
SERIAL KILLER
****
USA
The oddballs that pop up in this documentary are more outrageous and
horrific than anything a piece of fiction could get away with. Nick Broomfield
never lets taste or dignity get in the way of a good story, but his
approach seems justified in this case.
dir:
Nick Broomfield
ALADDIN
***½
USA
The Arabian tale of the boy who
stumbles upon a magic lamp with a Genie that grants him three wishes.
A popular and entertaining Disney feature that only comes undone very
near the end.
dir: John Musker, Ron Clements
voices of: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin,
Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale
BAD LIEUTENANT
***
USA
A deeply pretentious study of an
exceptionally corrupt, drug-abusing policeman involved in a case where a
nun is raped but refuses to press charges. In the title role, Keitel
engages in some gratuitous full frontal nudity, jacks off as he abuses his
power over two teenage girls and when the Catholic guilt accumulates,
cries a lot. All of the actors with bit parts are perfectly wooden. So
much of the film comes off as with the sole and fervent intention to shock
you, you stop taking it
seriously and lose interest pretty early on.
dir: Abel Ferrara
cast: Harvey Keitel, Frankie Thorn, Zoe Lund, Anthony Ruggiero,
Eddie Daniels, Bianca Bakija
BASIC INSTINCT
**½
USA
A suspended detective falls for
the prime suspect in a murder investigation.
A single notorious leg-crossing is what turned this into a landmark. The story
plays like an excuse for supremely kinky sex scenes.
dir: Paul Verhoeven
cast: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne
Tripplehorn
BATMAN RETURNS
***½
USA
Batman goes up against Catwoman
and The Penguin.
Comfortably the strongest instalment in the
franchise. Inane dialogue and acting are never allowed to get in the way
of awesome visuals and spectacular production design.
dir:
Tim Burton
ph:
Stefan Czapsky
pd:
Bo Welch
cast: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher
Walken, Michael Gough, Michael Murphy
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA
**½
USA
In the 19th Century, a vampire
falls in love with a London woman he believes to be the re-incarnation of
his dead lover from 400 years ago.
Extravagant and purportedly faithful to the novel, but
incoherent, self-involved and uninvolving.
dir: Francis Ford Coppola
cast: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves
BROTHER'S KEEPER
****½
USA
"A heartwarming tale about
murder," read the tagline. A remarkable documentary that concentrates
on the trial of Delbert Ward, an uneducated farmer in his 60s, accused of
murdering one of the three brothers with whom he shares a two-bedroom
lodging in a town of 500 people. It's particularly fascinating for the way
it portrays the small-towners gathering around one of their own in
response to what they perceive as inner-city aggression.
dir: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
CHAPLIN
***
UK/USA
The life of Sir Charles
Chaplin.
An entertaining if flawed biopic of a fascinating man.
dir: Richard Attenborough
cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin,
Kevin Dunn, Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Kevin Kline, Diane Lane,
Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, John Thaw, Marisa Tomei, Nancy Travis,
James Woods
THE CRYING GAME
***½
UK
After the death of a soldier he
befriends while held hostage, an IRA gunman goes to London and meets the
man's lover.
This minor British indie feature turned out a sensation and today
everybody knows the Crying-Game twist. The film itself morphs from a
thriller into a clever and
quirky love story examining issues of gender and identity.
dir: Neil Jordan
cast: Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker, Jim
Broadbent, Jaye Davidson
A FEW GOOD MEN
*½
USA
A young lawyer defends two
marines accused of killing another.
A laughably overblown courtroom drama, simple-minded even by Hollywood's
standards.
dir: Norman Jewison
cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon,
Kiefer Sutherland
GAS FOOD LODGING
***½
USA
A truck-stop waitress and her
two teenage daughters look for love in a small town.
An engrossing and insightful indie domestic drama of three fragile but
stubborn women.
wr/dir:
Allison Anders
cast: Fairuza Balk, Ione Skye, Brooke Adams, James
Brolin
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
***
USA
Four real estate agents are in
competition with each other over who can sell the most. The weaker two get
the sack.
A tough and talky pseudo- exposé of the trials and tribulations of the real
estate business. The need for comic relief is urgent but the performances
are compelling.
dir: James Foley
wr:
David Mamet
cast: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris,
Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce
HOWARDS END
***½
UK
The fortunes of two middle-class
families in England, 1910.
An intelligent and affecting costume drama. Among the best of the
Merchant-Ivory collaborations, with their signature meticulous production
values.
dir:
James Ivory
cast: Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma
Thompson, James Wilby, Sam West
HUSBANDS AND WIVES
***½
USA
Two long-married couples deal
with the fact that one of them has
decided to split up.
An observant and entertaining exploration of marriage and relationships.
wr/dir: Woody Allen
cast: Woody Allen, Judy Davis, Mia Farrow, Juliette
Lewis, Liam Neeson, Blythe Danner, Sydney Pollack
INDOCHINE
***
France
In 30s Indochina, the adopted
daughter of a plantation owner runs away to a French officer, with whom
both mother and daughter are in love.
Soap opera providing a showcase for the commanding presence of a
screen legend.
dir: Régis Wargnier
cast: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham,
Jean Yanne
JAMÓN JAMÓN
***½
Spain
A wealthy mother disapproves of
her son's engagement to a prostitute's daughter.
Renamed 'A Tale of Ham and Passion' for its American video release. A
darkly amusing, erotically charged and generally bizarre farce set
against a nicely detailed rural backdrop.
dir:
Bigas Luna
cast: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stefania Sandrelli, Anna
Galiena, Jordi Molla, Juan Diego
THE LIVING END
***
USA
An angry, ugly, blackly funny, nihilistic road movie about a couple of
HIV-positive gay guys that start sleeping together. Eager to shock in an
adolescent way that becomes exhausting before the movie's half-over.
wr/dir: Gregg Araki
cast: Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Johanna Went, Mark Finch, Mary
Woronov, Paul Bartel
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THE
LONG DAY CLOSES
**½
UK
Through a thinly-veiled pubescent alter ego, Terrence Davies presents his
memories of growing up poor and introverted in 1950s Liverpool.
Essentially the film is nostalgic selection of pop hits from the period
stitched together with impressionistic vignettes of working-class life in
post-war England the way it may have transpired in Davies' severely
aestheticised brain. Interspersed throughout are hints of Davies Jr.'s
conflicting feelings of affinity and isolation from his environment,
defined as they are by his tight-knit family, the abuse he suffers at
school and his encroaching desire for boys. There are also a couple of
sequences meant to celebrate the escape and rapture that cinema can offer,
but they seem ill-informed within the context of this particular film's
paralysing tedium.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Davies' intentions -
it's an interesting and imaginative enough conceit in stylistic terms. The
trouble is in the execution. The prissy, self-conscious formalism very
quickly grows suffocating. Every composition has the oxygen studied out of
it, every scrap of dialogue is cutesy and simplistic, and every scene
revolves around Leigh McCormack's vacant face that stares back at you the
way a deer does at headlights. It's evocative of the film's overarching
feel of crude, mannered preciousness.
wr/dir: Terrence Davies
cast: Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormack, Anthony Watson, Nicholas
Lamont, Aysee Owens, Tina Malone, Jimmy Wilde
MAN BITES DOG
***½
Belgium
An independent freelance killer
goes about his business along with a camera crew.
Material for an exceptionally cruel, pitch-black short film about
violence and voyeurism is stretched to feature-length and rendered with exaggerated
brutality and gimmickries. Little along the way matches the cleverness
promised by the opening sequence and the film's caricaturised, proudly excessive, initially
shocking violence turns tiresome. But all in all it makes its point - heavy-handedly,
perhaps, but with gusto.
dir: Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde
cast: Benoît Poelvoorde, Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel
MY COUSIN VINNY
***
USA
Slight but generally enjoyable.
dir:
Jonathan Lynn
cast: Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell
Whitfield, Fred Gwynne, Lane Smith, Austin Pendleton, Bruce McGill, Maury
Chaykin, James Rebhorn
ONE FALSE MOVE
***½
USA
A cops await three killers in
a small town in Arkansas.
A tense, complex, compelling thriller, dealing with matters
of family and racism.
dir: Carl Franklin
wr: Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson
cast: Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael
Beach, Jim Metzler
ORLANDO
***½
UK/Russia/France/Italy/Netherlands
The story of a person who lives
for 400 years, first as man, later as a woman.
A unique, episodic examination of gender, sexuality and identity.
wr/dir:
Sally Potter
ph:
Alexei Rodionov
ad:
Michael Buchanan, Michael Howells, Stanislav Romanovsky, Igor Gulyenko
cast: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Lothaire Bluteau, John Wood,
Quentin Crisp
THE PLAYER
***½
USA
A Hollywood studio executive is blackmailed by a rejected scriptwriter.
A biting Hollywood satire with dozens of star sightings making up for
the occasional flavourless stretches.
dir:
Robert Altman
cast: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg,
Peter Gallagher
RED ROCK WEST
****
USA
A drifter arrives in a small
town and is mistaken for a hitman.
A twisted and twistful neo-noir. Clever, scheming and captivating.
dir: John Dahl
wr: John Dahl, Rick Dahl
cast: Nicolas Cage, Lata Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, J. T.
Walsh
RESERVOIR DOGS
****
USA
After a failed robbery, a gang
hides out in a warehouse and tries to discover what went wrong.
A talky, violent landmark thriller, groundbreaking in its time-jumping
structure and complete subversion of caper film clichés.
wr/dir: Quentin Tarantino
cast: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Miachael Madsen, Steve Buscemi,
Chris Penn, Lawrence Tierney, Randy Brooks, Kirk Baltz, Eddie Bunker,
Quentin Tarantino
SAMBA TRAORÉ
***
Burkina Faso/France/Switzerland
After robbing a petrol station,
Samba Traoré returns to his home village and woos his one-time
lover.
A simple morality tale, not notable beyond offering a glimpse into
a seldom filmed culture.
dir:
Idrissa Ouedragogo
cast: Bakary Sangaré, Mariam Kaba, Abdoulaye Komboudri,
Irène Tassembedo
SAVAGE NIGHTS
***½
France
A bisexual cameraman finds out
he is HIV-positive.
An honest, involving and moving examination of love, sex and death.
wr/dir: Cyril Collard
cast: Cyril Collard, Romane Bohringer, Carlos Lopez, Corine
Blue
SCENT OF A WOMAN
*
USA
A high-school student gets
lessons in life from a blind ex-soldier.
Sugar-coated drama, with a ludicrous finale and arguably the dreariest
major performance captured on celluloid.
dir: Martin Brest
cast: Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle
Anwar, Philip Seymour Hoffman
SIMPLE MEN
****
USA
Two brothers go in search for their
father, a radical football star on the run since the 60s.
A quintessentially quirky Hartley feature riddled with offbeat characters,
deadpan dialogue, chance encounters, surreal sequences and droll
exchanges.
wr/dir: Hal Hartley
cast: Robert Burke, William Sage, Karen Sillas, Elina
Löwensohn, Martin Donovan, Mark Chandler Bailey, Chris Cooke
SINGLES
***½
USA
The lives of Seattle singles
living in the same apartment block.
A fresh, witty, episodic comedy about the singles scene in the 1990s, with an appealing
cast.
dir:
Cameron Crowe
cast: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick,
Sheila Kelley, Jim True, Matt Dillon, Ally Walker, Eric Stoltz, Tom
Skerritt
SOFIE
**½
Denmark/Norway/Sweden
An arthouse woman's picture.
dir: Liv Ullmann
cast: Karen-Lise Mynster, Ghita Nørby, Erland Josephson, Jesper
Christensen, Torben Zeller, Henning Moritzen
STRICTLY BALLROOM
***½
Australia
A talented ballroom dancer who
angers the establishment by improvising his own steps, searches for a new
partner.
Luhrmann's kinetic, eccentric and wildly successful debut.
dir:
Baz Luhrmann
cast: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson, Gia
Carrides
SWOON
****½
USA
A fascinating, hypnotic, bold and brilliant study of
the notorious Lepold and Loeb case.
dir/ed: Tom Kalin
wr: Tom Kalin, Hilton Als
ph: Ellen Kuras
cast: Daniel Schlachet, Craig Chester, Ron Vawter, Michael
Kirby, Michael Stumm
THIS IS MY LIFE
***
USA
A cliché-driven single-mom dramedy with an appealing cast.
dir: Nora Ephron
cast: Julie Kavner, Samantha Mathis, Gaby Hoffmann, Carrie
Fisher, Dan Aykroyd, Bob Nelson, Caroline Aaron, Kathy Najimy UNFORGIVEN
****
USA
A former killer comes out of
retirement for one last hit, for the money.
A compelling, intelligent Western that takes some time to get
going, but has a brilliant second half. Deemed revisionist in the sense that amid the
bloodshed, it maturely explores issues of family, grief, honour
and revenge.
dir:
Clint Eastwood
wr:
David Webb Peoples
ed:
Joel Cox
cast: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard
Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek, Frances Fisher, Anna Thomson
LA VIE DE BOHÈME
***½
France/Italy/Sweden/Finland
Three untalented but proud
artists are down and out in Paris.
A bittersweet, deadpan tale of survival in a timeless Parisian setting,
in which Kaurismäki matures but forgets to decorate his signature offbeat
characters with relatable human attributes. Its most effective weapon is the
bleached-out monochrome - luminous and reminiscent of the poetic French
realist dramas of the 1930s.
wr/dir: Aki Kaurismäki
ph: Timo Salminen
cast: Matti Pellonpää, Evelyne Didi, André Wilms,
Kari Väänänen, Christine Murillo, Jean-Pierre Léaud
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