REVIEW FILM '
I The Cutting Edge (PG) Duff-but-enjoyably-duff sports farrago with retired ice hockey jock D.B. Sweeney and haughty ice skating hopeful Moira Kelly as an ill-matched couple going for gold in the rink at the Winter Olympics. Mutual antipathy soon melts (surprise! surprise!) into romantic attraction, but will their dangerously unconventional free
programme impress the
judges? Choreographed by our own dear Robin Cousins. the two young stars look both comfortable and convincing on the ice, but while there‘s some entertainment value to be had from the film‘s spirited predictability. it‘s hardly one you‘ll be getting your skates on to see. (TJ )
lThe Power at One ( 12) Blonde-haired. blue-eyed bombshell Stephen Dorff stars as PK. a young Afrikaaner boxing champ who, under the influence oftrainer Morgan Freeman and headmaster John Gielgud, courageously begins teaching English to underprivileged township kids, swiftly becominga thorn in the side ofthe
white regime and a legend among the black population. Hollywood crassness hits an all-time high Rocky meets Cry Freedom in this well-intentioned but ludicrously convoluted attempt at a liberal South African epic for today‘s mindless youth market. It almost, but not quite. has to be seen to be
. disbelieved. (TJ)
I Without You I'm Nothing (18) Film version of Sandra Bernhard‘s 1990 off-Broadway one-woman show has the generously-lipped one performing at full tilt to an incredulous all~black audience. Monologues sending up her troubled childhood and ‘superstar‘ lifestyle are interspersed with her own inimitable renditions of sundry soul classics, with occasional and rather puzzling go-go
dancing interludes to add to the fun. Bernhard has the Chutzpah to get away with it, but for the most part one‘s response is open-mouthed bewilderment rather than hearty laughter. And Prince's Little Red Corvette will never be the same again after you‘ve witnessed her bumping and grinding to it in tassels and a G-string. Crikey! (TJ)
WHITE SANDS
Deputy Sherlll Bay Dolezal (Willem Daloe) laces only the dull grind at a backwater New Mexico community until one day he comes across a corpse in the desert sprawled only a low leet
. away lrom a suitcase containing hall a
million dollars. Trying to identity the victim and piece together his last latal hours, Dolezal assumes the identity oi the dead man and takes his place in a dodgy FBI covert operation involving big money lntematlonal arms dealing. Pretty soon, the humble deputy is living on his wits in a world he barely understands, striking up contact with enigmatic gun runner Gorman Lennox (Mickey Rourke) and, much against his betterwisdom, linding himsell increasingly attracted to dilettante heiress Lane Bodine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a would-be philanthropist sending more than lood parcels to the most stricken areas oi the Third World.
On paper, all this might sound preposterous and over-lamlliar in almost equal measures but White Sands’ cast oi stylish perlorrners ensure that routine never sets in. More lrequently seen in cultish pictures like David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, Willem Daloe makes the bewildered but essentially decent Dolezal a credible individual, while it’s genuinely cheering to see Mickey Rourke back in an A-Iist movie and hitting the edgily
charismatic lorm ot his pre-91/z Weeks
career as the shady arms salesman leading the FBI a merry dance. Even ii the lilm’s gestures towards existential contusion as the protagonist laces the possibility ol leading an entirely dillerent llle don’t quite carrthe weight oiAntonionl’s The Passenger, this is pleasurany watchable stull. (Trevor Johnston)
White Sands (15) (Roger Donaldson, US, 1992) Willem Daloe, Mickey Rourke, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. 101 mins. From Fri 4: Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon, UCI. Strathclyde: Ddeon Ayr, UCl Clydebank, UCl East Kilbride.
LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
Running concurrently in Glasgow, London and Manchester, the Third Latin American Film Festival is set to be the UK’s broadest ever showcase ol contemporary Central and South American movlemaking. With no lewer than eighteen teatures screening at the Glasgow Film Theatre between 6-19 September, Scottish audiences will have the chance to sample a challenging diversity at styles and subject matter, knowing that the estimable expertise developed in this area by distributors Metro Pictures and event director Eva Tarr stands as a signilicant stamp ol quality control.
Previewing at the GFT as a taster lor its later British release, Mexican director Maria Novarro’s Danzon is one at this year’s LAFF hot tips, telling the touching story ol a telephone operator’s secret tile as an accomplished dancer, and the unexpected events that belall her when her partner ol a decade‘s standing mysteriously goes missing. Argentinian liimmaker Miguel Pereira’s Falklands drama Veronico Cruz made something ol an impression here a low years back, so his latest drama at cattle-ranching lolk The Last Honest, is awaited with interest, while Channel 4 have actually co-linanced two at the titles in the season: Alberto Durant’s Peruvian true-tile outlaw saga Alias La Gringa, and Pablo Perelman’s Investigation at a iugitlve Chilean dissident's tortured psyche in Archipelago.
With lurther details ol all the movies in the September GFT brochure, space doesn’t quite permit an in-depth survey here, sutlice to say that this year's special locus on Venezuela includes two major prize winners lrom the prestigious Havana Film Festival in Jerico, Luis Alberto Lamata's revisionist 161h century conquistador epic that’s drawn lavourable comparison with the likes ol Dances With Wolves and Black Robe, and the hard-hitting death squad thriller Shoot To Kill, an auspicious lictlon debut tor lorrner documentarlst Adollo Lopez Soio. (TrevorJohnston)
Latin American Film Festival, Sun S—Sat 19 Sept: Glasgow Film Theatre.
~ See listings and Index tor details.
The List 28 August — 10 September 1992 65