FILM REVIEW FILM

THE RAPTURE

lncreasingly overwhelmed by feelings I of emotional emptiness, LA telephone _ operator Sharon (Mimi Rogers) tires of unsatisfying casual sex and becomes

I Batman Returns (PG) Ilc ofthe pointy ears and nifty gadgets is back to rid Gotham City of more

! larger-than-life baddies.

Even darker and better

I Sleepwalkers ( l8)The latest pile ofcinematic nail-clippings from the over-paid and over-prolific master of suspense is. surprisingly enough. the first Stephen King script written directly for the screen and it must have taken him all of a morning's work to knock it off. Bearing a distinct resemblance throughout to the earlier Salem '3 1.0!. a small community in Indiana provides the setting for a pairof itinerant. flesh-craving shape-shifters to go about their daily round of quaffing human blood. Assuming the identityof apparently normal mother and son Charles and Mary Brady. they are in fact the last survivors of the ancient breed of Sleepwalkers.

I Sfepkids ( PU) Thirteen-year-old Laura is having a hard time with her latest set of folks. Now that her mother Melinda is married to bearded wonder Keith. part ofthc deal is that she has to share a house with her stepdad's eminently detestable offspring by his previous marriage. Meanwhile. the poor

. dear‘sdad.compulsive

rc-marrier and starving artist David. has worries of his own in the shape of pregnant hippy girlfriend Stephanie. ()ur young heroine decides to run away and seek advice from the one person she

. rcallytrusts.kindly stepbrotherJosh.who‘s

fallen out with uncaring dad Keith and found work

at a nearby lakeside resort. Word of Laura‘s

pubescentcrisissoon leaks out. however. and . the various family and

22The List 3— 16July 1992

more and more fascinated by the evidence of spiritual belief that is apparently all around her. Initial scepticism soon becomes a thing of the past as she embraces a newfound faith that the world is facing imminent destruction and only those who know the Lord will be saved from eternal damnation. Sharon's devotion, however, is to face a series of stem . tests when personal tragedy strikes , I and when actual events infuriatineg i refuse to comply with the religious i A, innoccm schoolgir,‘ i visions in her head. Has she started to Tanya swim)- hcwmcs the , pine so much for the spirit in the sky fiends' latest prey. Mick , that her time on Earth seems an (‘rarris's film shapes as if , unnecessary prologue to heavenly joy? we‘re in for another If her life was without meaning before, “’mPC‘CN “1" through has the situation really changed that the well-worn darkness- much? "W‘l‘cf‘ié‘iw’f‘mfm Novelist Michael Tolkin, whose l routine. yet before too No" d t d. Th Pl 1 long it shtes away from ono s u '0 saga e aver . exploring the dark desires pmV'dEd the source I07 me inherent in rhe- nmcriai, much-acclaimed Robert Altman movie, copping out of any hint of . here makes his debut as writer-director disturbing seriousness to ; with a flawed but provocative offering Cimccmriiicinsmd‘m“ :' thatdeliberatelyraises more questions 51°“10fch'w'shWW",. = than it answers. Although his “CFP'9C9: :sif‘V’f‘ “1.5"” beginner’s command of moviemaking main achievementisto . , . . . make a “I,” (,hmlcncc‘ craft isn tquite up to the ambitious task ' bloodletting and he sets for himself. Tolkin’s project of : The Rapture (18) (Michael Tolkin, us. dismembcrment seem laying out both the gains and the i 1992) Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, rather less threatening pitfalls of spiritual salvation is 3 Patrick Bauchau, Will Patton. 102 lhoughi'WOViJklng in “5 very mins. From Sun 12: Glasgow Film ambiguity. Aided by a wonderfully Theatre.

than the original. with Burton‘s unrivalled cinematic eye lingering more lovingly over his l twisted villains than his upright hero. Sec feature.

:' t~

Rogers, we’re never offered the easy option of dismissing the protagonist as some Bible-bashing nutcase. Yet, as the apocalyptic portenls pile up in the

final reel, Tolkin refuses to indicate

! whetherthe end of the world is indeed

; nigh orwhether Sharon’s

* self-justifying need to believe in

i Armageddon has driven her to wild

j hallucinations. In this case, the

1 individual viewer must decide. (Trevor : Johnston)

sympathetic performance from Mimi g A flawed but

? provocative

offeringthat

E deliberately raises more questions

. thanit asks.

than the current cat food TV commercial it so V IN PRINT 1 CLASSICS IN PRINT

risiny resembles. as a myriad of local moggies mass menacingly on the monsters' front lawn. (TJ) g l The British Film Institute are justly infamous for their esoteric and worthy ' productions. But their latest project: , the BFI Film Classics, deserves a wide and appreciative audience. The ; National Film Archive is to acquire a pristine print of 360 key films in the history of cinema, to be shown regularly, while the BFI will publish a ~ companion book for each film.

Writing about The Wizard Of Oz,

Salman Rushdie, arguably the world’s

best known fugitive, reminds us of that immortal line: ‘There’s no place like home’. It’s a typically ironic and

personal angle in a book which could

3 so easily have been over-scholarly, but which ends up being well-informed and revealing.

For Double indemnity, Richard Schickel draws heavily on a recent interview with director Billy Wilder. By

7 examining how the screenplay was

i adapted by Raymond Chandler from a

James Cain short story, Schickel

! illustrates the film’s narrative

i WWW. but despite 5 strengths and dark, suspenseful mood.

: personable performances, 1 Besides providing a fresh insight into

from the ever-reliable ' the movie, like Rushdie he also puts

l (‘rriffen Dunne and Hal . the creative process into a historical i y r. 3 a

I‘lartley regular Adrienne perspective. ' r I ' " Cw .

= Shells)". you richer begin i Each book, although short (72 pages The Wizard Of Oz (Salman Rushdie),

i filth“ ) seems about the norm), is adequately Donnie Indemnitvlfiichard SCNiCKGI). l

: Cardboard CULJLIIS and I illustrated and, while £5.95 a throw is Weill The Dav We" (Penelope Houston) ; not cheap, they are the sort of ready and Stagecoach (Edward Buscombe) reference that any film buff will want to 370 available "0'" 3“ PUDIISMHO-

their petty traumas. no matter how dysfunctional return to. The first four in the series: (Thom ledlnl

step-family members soon

find each other

i converging on the scene

with. it has to be said. very mildly engaging results.

Resembling nothing so

much as a pilot episode for

a particularly bland US sitcom. this sorry ensemble rendezvous seems designed to introduce the various

characters involved rather than give any ofthem

terribly much to do.

: l’latitudes about the pains

' ofgrowingupandthe

3, perilsof responsibility fly

aroundlike vultures over

i their families are. (H)