complex inner feelings. Glasgow: (5171‘. Stirling: MacRobert.
Rear Window (PG) **** (Alfred Hitchcock, US, 1954) James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr. 112 mins. Laid up with a broken leg, Slim Jim takes to neighbour-spotting with binoculars and camera at the ready. Before long, he's getting hot under the collar about the dirty deeds done across the yard. Is it murder'.’ Or just naked voyeurism? One of Hitch‘s darkest movies, with an intense, unrelenting claustrophobia derived from confining the lens to the apartment set. Glasgow: GF'I‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Romance (18) i: (Catherine Breillat, France, 1999) Caroline l)ucey, Rocco Siffredi, Francois Berleand. 95 mins. Our female protagonist is very young and wears either nothing or a white frock throughout. She weeps constantly and nags her boyfriend for attention; denied this, she embarks upon a small-scale sexual odyssey. Long, static shots show a series of sterile, joyless physical encounters, while a morose and pretentious monologue describes her feelings. She concludes that the only true fulfilment comes from motherhood. The great Bill Ilicks dismissed the controversy around Basic Instinct with the observation that said film merited no such kerfuffie, being a ‘piece of shit'. Indeed. This is worse. (ilasgow: (iI’I‘.
A Room For Romeo Brass (15) ***** (Shane Meadows, UK, 2000) Paddy Considine, Andrew Shim. Ben Marshall. 90mins. Meadows once more combines colourful regional characters with impish humour and kitchen sink drama to great effect, but adds to the mix a deeply personal autobiographical element. And he elicits impressively naturalistic performances from a cast of newcomers for the story of young Nottingham lads Romeo (Shim) and Gavin (Marshall) who are best mates until the arrival of oddball Morell (the astonishingly dynamic ('onsidinc). Glasgow: GI’I‘. Edinburgh: Iiilmhouse. Rosetta (15) ***t* (1.th and Jean- Pierre Dardenne, Belgium/I’rance, 1999) Emilie Dequenne, Anne Yernaux, Fabrizio Rongione. 91 mins. Rosetta (Dequenne) is seventeen and has one wish: to find a job that will enable her to move out of the caravan that she co- habits with her alcoholic mother (Yernaux). Despite continual disappointments in the job market Rosetta refuses to give up hope and battles on like a bull facing a matador. A marvellous exposition of the continuing importance of cinema in highlighting social barriers and conflict. Rosetta was rewarded with the Cannes Palme d‘Or. See preview and review. (ilasgow: GFI‘. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Run Lola Run (15) **** (’l‘om 'I‘wyker, Germany, 1999) l-‘ranka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu. 80 mins. Young Berlin punk Lola (Potente) has twenty minutes to raise 100,000 marks to save her stupid, but beloved boyfriend from murderous drug dealers. Not an easy task, but writer/director 'I‘om Twyker gives Iola three chances and helps her pound the streets with a thumping, self-composed techno soundtrack. Using every style trick in the book, 'I‘wyker astounds with an adrenaline rush of a movie. St Andrews: New Picture House. Rushmore (15) ***** (\Ves Anderson, US, 1999) Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams. 93 mins. Bright, bespectacled and geeky, Max Fischer, scholarship boy at the exclusive Rushmore Academy in Houston, is irritating and endearing in equal measures, while his self-belief is awesome. In Bill Murray's self-loathing millionaire steel tycoon, Max finds a soul mate, but when they both fall in love with the new teacher Miss Cross (Williams), their friendship turns sour. Wes Anderson's quirky, original comedy puts most of Hollywood‘s recent output to shame. Murray gives his best performance in years, while film debutante Schwartzman is simply astonishing. Edinburgh: Cameo.
A Scene By The Sea (PG) tirrk ('I‘akeshi Kitano, Japan, 1991) Kuroko Maki, lliroko Oshima. 101 mins. A semi deaf boy working on a garbage truck in a seaside town finds a broken surf board
and repairs it. That‘s all your plot, but
Kitano, better known for his ironic violent films such as Sonitaine, provides humour and truth about human nature in abundance. Glasgow: GilmorehillGlZ. Scream 2 (18) *** (Wes Craven, US, 1998) Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, ljeiv Schreiber. 120 mins. Two years after the Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott (Campbell) is now a college student, trying to piece her life back together. But when an audience member is slashed to death during the premiere of horror movie Stab, the nightmare begins again. The film fails to fully integrate the many in-jokey references to horror sequel conventions, but it’s still streets ahead of what passes for horror nowadays. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Scream (l8) **** (Wes Craven, US, 1996) Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore. 111 mins. The teenagers of Woodsboro know they’re typical stalker fodder, so when a killer hits town, they gather in an enormous house to watch horror movies as the real bad guy gets closer. Self-conscious references are good fun, the opening sequence is genuine white-knuckle material, and — if you know the rules ~ you‘ll find it perfectly scary and funny. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Sense And Sensibility (U) ***** (Ang Lee, US/UK. 1995) Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant. 135 mins. Denied their inheritance when the father of the household dies, the female members of the Dashwood fatnin face a precarious future which complicates the romances of sensible Elinor (Thompson) and emotive Marianne (Winslet). 'I‘hompson's adaptation keeps the wordplay engagingly tart and sharp- witted, but never loses sight of the powerful frustrations simmering beneath the surface. Infinitely more satisfying than your typical fluffy period piece. Kilmarnock: Odeon.
The Sixth Sense (15) **** (M. Night Shyamalan, US, 1999) Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Olivia Williams, Toni Collette. 107 mins. Nine- year—old Cole Sear (Osment) has a terrible secret. He can see the dead walking the earth; they're around him all the time and it’s scary as hell. Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Willis) takes his case and spends all of his time, at the expense of his marriage to Anna (Olivia Williams), attempting to help the boy. Shyamalan‘s clever script suggests much and explains little, keeping the audience guessing. General release. Sleepy Hollow (15) **** (Tim Burton, US, 1999) Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken. 105 mins. During the final days of 1799 ambitious young policeman Ichabod Crane (Depp) is sent to the fog- shrouded village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of decapitations, but his scientific beliefs are shaken when he comes face to space with the Headless Horseman. Burton gives Washington Irving's Gothic folktale a distinctly British colouring, as he borrows merrily from the Hammer films of the 503 and 60s, while Depp brings the right note of comedy to the dark proceedings. General release.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (U) *** (George Lucas, US, 1999) Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman. 132 mins. On the surface, the plot structure isn't a million light years away from the original Star Wars. In visual terms, The Phantom Menace stands alone in the cinematic universe. At times you’d think there was more animation than live action on screen - and maybe it’s this toning down of the human element that has left the film lacking soul. Ayr: Odeon. Kilmarnock: Odeon.
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