Angela's Ashes (15) **** (Alan Parker, UK, 1999) Robert Carlyle, Emily Watson, Joe Brccn. 148 mins. Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning childhood memoir of Films screening this fortnight are listed Limerick in the 30s is a publishing below with certificate. star rating, phenomenon, loved across the world by credits. brief review and venue details. those with no connection to the book's three Film index compiled by Miles Fielder. defining elements - Ireland, Catholicism and poverty. Parker can't establish the same level of engagement as McCourt does, but Abba The Movie (U) ** (Lasse Halstrom, he can train his lens on the faces of his Swe/Australia, 1977) alia. 95 mins. Made at remarkable cast to show a texture of the height of their popularity, the wafer thin emotions. Sentiment here is a natural plotline consists of the four Swedes being ingredient, not a saccharine additive. pursued across 02 by a Sydney journalist. Cameo, Edinburgh. Dancing Queen, Waterloo, 5.0.8, etc. Takes The Barber Of Siberia (12) iii (Nikita you back eh? Grosvenor, Glasgow. Mikhalkov, UK/Russia, 2000) Julia The Adventures Of Priscilla. Queen Of Ormond, Richard Harris, Oleg Menshikov. ) The Desert (18) *‘kt‘k (Stephan Elliott, 179 mins. 'I‘sarist Russia 1885: American Australia, 1994) Terence Stamp, Hugo Jane Callahan (Ormond) meets and falls in f Weaving, Guy Pearce. 104 mins. Two love with Andrey Tolstoy (Menshikov in a , "aesves'i‘cs and a transfscxua' mam "P for “pelt? performance)’ an elegant ind , American beauty Mena Suvari and the ever-reliable Greg Kinnear have it out (and a trip across the Australian outback for a senSitive young cadet. Their relationship has om as student and college lecturer in Amy flecker|ing.s romantic comedy. Loser drag show in Alice Springs. Serious Issues personal ramifications on all those around pop up from time to time, but the emphasis them and eventually tears their worlds apart. Lewis. 111 mins. Billy (superb newcomer carefree arrogance with the conventions of is on the camp humour of the in-bus Constructed like a historical whodunnit, this Bell) finds release from life's daily filmic grammar, but today it stands as a bitchiness and outrageous musical set- is controlled chaos par excellence. The man drudgery, and ultimately self-fulfilment, casual love letter to the American B-movie pieces. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. who directed the sublime Urga and the through ballet dancing. As unlikely a leisure crime picture. MacRobert, Stirling. American Movie (15) **** (Chris Chekovian Burnt By The Sun has thrown up pursuit as that might be for a teenage boy Bring It On (12) *** (Peyton Reed, US, Smith, US, 2000) 104 mins. Smith and a lumbering, awkward but awe-inspiring growing up in the recession-hit Yorkshire of 2000) Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse producer Sarah Price's documentation of movie. Lumiere, Edinburgh. the 80s (and that’s the point), it becomes Bradford. 98 mins. The Tom cheerleading oddball Wisconsin filmmaker Mark Bedazzled (12) iii (Harold Ramis, US, young Billy’s ticket out of hard times. quad from Rancho Came High School, San Borchardt's efforts to get his Great 2000) Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth. 93 mins. Making his film debut, theatre director Diego have won them the national American Movie made is amusing and An updated riff on the Faust legend, loosely Daldry handles the political backdrop and championship trophy five years running. fascinating. Borchardt is more Ed Wood based on Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's dramatic foreground with equal assurance. Nevertheless newly-elected team captain than Orson Welles, but American Movie's 1967 cult favourite, substitutes Fraser's The dance routines provide much of the Torrance (Dunst) is pulling out all the stops makers admire his tenacity, and their non- nerdy tech support guy for Dud's depressed film's humour and quite overwhelming for a sixth. But when Torrence discovers judgmental approach has been rewarded Wimpy chef and Hurley’s sexy Satan for feelgood factor. General release. she's inherited a routine stolen by her with a strange and wonderful film. Cameo, Cook's droll Devil, but the set-up is the Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (18) it predecessor from East Compton’s hip-hop Edinburgh. same: a cautionary tale about making deals (Joe Berlingcr, US, 2000) Jeff Donovan, cheerleading squad the Clovers, things begin American Pie (15) *** (Paul and Chris with the Devil. Madly in love with the Erica Lecrhsen, Stephen Barker Turner. 90 to look bad for Tom. A spunky performance Weitz, US, 1999) Jason Biggs, Eugene oblivious O‘Connor, Fraser signs away his mins. Veteran documentary filmmaker by Dunst lifts the film above the fairly Levy, Chris Klein. 96 mins. The latest in immortal soul in return for a fat legal Berlinger's sequel to the enormously conventional storyline about triumphing 1999's bumper crop of teenage comedies contract that grants him seven wishes; but successful mock documentary horror movie against the odds, and an even less turns out to be a surprisingly sweet-natured the catch, as always, is in the small print. begins with the film phenomenon, including imaginative message about the importance account of adolescent sexual frustration. More than enough laughs to sustain its real (yes, really real) interviews with of participating rather than winning. General What disappoints is American Pie's ultimate modest running time. See review. General residents of Burkittsville, Maryland (where release. conventionality. Entertaining, but hardly in release. The Blair Witch Project was filmed). What Bringing Up Baby (PG) ***** the comic league of There's Something Billy Elliot (15) **** (Stephen Daldry, follows is a ‘dramatic reconstruction of the (Howard Hawks, US, 1938) Cary Grant, About Mary. Cameo, Edinburgh. UK, 2000) Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary events' (i.e. not shaky cam) following an Katharine Hepburn, Charles Ruggles. 102 oddball group of film fans and occultists mins. Zany gal Hepburn causes timid who go into the Black Hills woods in search zoology professor Grant to lose a valuable of the Blair Witch. But though Berlinger dinosaur bone and mislay a pet leopard boldly attempts to confound expectations, within the course of one screwball evening. Book OfShadows swiftly degenerates into Archetypal Thirties crazy comedy with one the kind of predictable supernatural thriller outlandisth hilarious scene following you would expect to be released straight-to- another within the progression of an video. General release. unerringly logical narrative. Both stars at destinations rm from des'ino'ions m, from Blue Planet (U) An awesome trip around, their charismatic best. Edinburgh Film Guild Athens £149 above and beyond our planet on the lMAX at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Ams'erdam £85 giant screen which prompted the Brother (15) **** (Alexei Balabanov, BoanOl‘ £328 Washington Post to write: ‘If a picture is Russia, 1997) Sergi Bodrov Jr, Victor , Budapest £181 worth a thousand words, one image from Sukhorukov, Svctlana Pismitchenko. 96 Berlin £1 25 Buenos Aires £464 Blue Planet is worth a zillion'. IMAX, mins. An enormous success in Russia, this Cairo £206 Glasgow. . tale of a young man returning home after Bos'on £193 C Boogie nghts (18) **** (Paul Thomas two years national serVIce and finding it Graces £309 Anderson, US, 1997) Mark Wahlberg, Burt hard to fit back into society really struck a Casablanca £225 Reynolds, Julianne Moore. 152 mins. Doing chord with the nation's youth. From the Copenhagen £95 f o r s g u d e n . 5 Delhi £429 for pom filmmaking what (ioodfellas did for director of the superb ()fFreaksAnd Men. d Dubai £296 gangsters, Boogie Nights charts the rise, fall Filmhouse, Edinburgh. a n y o u n g and redemption of a fictional porn superstar Buffy The Vampire Slayer (12) ** (Fran Dublin £77 B l' a V e | | e I‘ S Goo £269 (Wahlberg) against the enormous changes Rubcl Kuzui, US, 1992) Kristy Swanson, H009 Kong 5345 wrought in the industry between the 70s and Luke Perry, Rutger Hauer. 94 mins. Jo'burg £345 805. Large-scale social commentary and llighschool cheerleader becomes vampire Istanbul £1 99 Los Angeles £233 small-scale human dramas account for the slayer in this insult to the intelligence Mexico £365 film's epic feel, while the kitsch fashions horror-comedy that is neither funny nor . . and funky disco soundtrack create a film scary. With its dialogue slapped together New York £1 92 M'om' £239 that is as ambitious as it is entertaining. from hip-for-fifteen-minutes phrases Nairobi £321 Cameo, Edinburgh, overheard in a shopping mall, it should have Prague £89 CALI. CENTRE Rio de Joneiro £337 The Borrowers (U) **** (Peter Hewitt, been staked at birth. Filmhouse, Edinburgh. 0] 3] Stockholm £93 UK, 1997) John Goodman, Jim Broadbcnt, Butterfly 5 Tongue (La Lengua De Las - S d Celia lmrie. 86 mins. At a height of only Mariposas) (15) *i'iuk (Jose Luis www°”5'ic°mpus°‘°°”k Tykney four inches, the Borrowers hide in wall Cuerda, Spain, 2000) Manuel lxizano, 0 Yo s cavities and livin beneath the floorboards Fernando Fernan Gomez. 95 mins. Set in Toronto £235 of the Lender horisehold. When a nasty Galicia, in the period preceding Franco's destinations from Zurich 5121 lawyer tries to swindle the humans out of fascist uprising in 1936, Cucrda's film traces their inheritance, families bi and small join the relationship between seven-year-old France £99 BRANCHES ELI/:8" _ Bangkok/5699 forces. The design and effcci; create a Moncho (Lozano) and his benign anarchist- Austria £2] 9 NATIONWIDE Singapore - Sydne strangely familiar, oddly unplaceable world, leaning teacher‘Don Gregorio (veteran - Auckland - Hono ulu and children will have little difficulty Spanish actor Gomez). Ihis is Republican Andorra £239 BRANCHES '+L'°5 Angel“ '£§°8"d°" suspending enough disbelief to be Spain seen through rose-tinted glasses; a WORLDWIDE ox approx ( ) spellbound by the magic of the film. Gl’l‘, harsh and bitter world transfomied into a Glasgow. make-believe utopia about to be cruelly Glasgow Unl‘r’erSliY, The Hub, Hillhead Street, GlO$gow Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (15) crushed by fascism. Lumiere. Edinburgh.

*‘k‘kfk (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1959) Calamity Jane (U) *tit (David Butler, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg. 90 mins. US. 1953) Doris Day. Howard chl. Allyn

122 Gearge Street, GlaSQOW

53 Forrest Road, Edinburgh Achic Parisian petty criminal (Belmondo) McLerie, (iale Robbins. 101 mins. When. Student Travel Department, 3 Bristo Square, Edinburgh and his American expatriate girlfriend the Deadwood stage comes on over the hill . . . , . . ' ,‘ , . . , . . . . . he 92 South C|erk fr , (Scberg) drift through a world of stolen cars bringing the wrong Adelaide Adams tot S 88 Edmburgh and aimless romance towards an inexorable town‘s music hall, Calamity shin trouble 5'21”. LONdOn ' reatrrtt'ons :ipt‘l. 0 “' downbeat finale. Godard's debut feature again, and Wild Bill Hickok ain't too happy provoked quite a stir in its day for its either. Bouncy musical With good songS.

32 THE UST 2—16 Nov 2000