Film
ROMANTIC COM’CL / LATE NIGHT SHOPPING (15) 91 mins .00.
II
Mom “If h"
Smartly-scripted, handsomely-directed slacker comedy
It’s all too rare in modern British cinema, a film that doesn’t attempt to rip- off previous box office hits. Late Night Shopping is neither gangster film, period drama nor working class comedy. Instead, debuting feature filmmakers director Saul Metzstein and writer Jack Lothian have made the kind of film they’d like to see. Thank fuck.
It’s a romantic comedy filmed largely in Glasgow, though set in what could be any large city, about four slackers wasting their lives working night shifts in various menial jobs. They have a good, amusing moan about how modern life is rubbish, but of the quartet hospital porter Sean (Luke de Woolfsoon) has most reason to. His girlfriend Madeline (German superstarlet Heike Makatsch) works days so Sean never sees her. He’s unsure if they’re even still living together, which leads him to examine the soap and other bathroom products in their flat. His late night companions have their own crisis: Lenny (Enzo Cilenti) can’t handle women, Vincent (James Lance) can’t stop himself handling them, while Jody (Kate Ashfield) can’t even get a handle on platonic friendship.
Lothian has drawn on his own all-night shelf stacking experiences, turning out a script as wordy and witty as anything a filmmaker like Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) has delivered. What Lothian has over Smith, who’s good with a pen but awful with a camera, is Metzstein who brings to his creative partner’s script a fine sense of pacing and handsome gloss finish courtesy of ace cinematographer Brian Tufano (Trainspotting, East Is East). Long live Brit cinema. (Miles Fielder)
I Se/ecfed re/ease from Frr 29 Jun.
ROMANCE
THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR
(15) 135 mins 0.
ln hrs thrrd feature frlm. Run Lo/a Flt/n. German drrector Tom Tykwer ruthlessly serxed the attentron of the ernema- gorng populace wrth hrs fast—paced. adrerralrn-fuelled crrme drama starrrng plucky charn-smoker Franke Potente. Tykwer now rrsks los‘rng that hold thanks to hrs fourth feature frlm. The Prrncess And The Warrror. Although bearrng uncanny thematrc Srmrlarrtres and once agarn starrrng Potente rn the female lead. thrs followup manages to be the polar opposrte of rts forerunner. herng that rt rs overblown, long-Wrnded and frequently crrngeworthy.
Potente repr'rses her role as a persevmrng young woman, rn thrs case Srssr. a shy and retrr'rng psychratrrc nurse unwrttrngly lookrng fer love. Knocked down by a truck. SISSI rs saved by soldrer-turned-bank robber Bodo lBenno Furmannr and the torrrd chance and fate plot-lrne gets
Long-winded follow-up to Run Lola Run
undemay. Belrevrng Bodo to be her knrght rn shrnrng armour. Srss: persues her savr0ur only to frnd that she must return the favour and save hrs lrfe before therr mutual love can Desprte brref moments ‘.'.'l1€'"‘;? Tykv-rer drsplays the dead-pan drrve that made Lo/a so effectrve. the overbearng reliance on seemrng cornCrdence and chance encounter becomes almost rnfurratrng by the long-antrCrpated em to thrs rneffectual. rdealrst romance. rCatherrne Bromleyl I General release from Frl 29 Jun.
24 THE LIST L.“ Jun—f", Jar QC; ‘
BAN‘ISE A PART (THE oursroensl (PG) 95mins O...
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l lt )l’ltt )ll GINGER SNAPS (18) 108 mins 00..
Wrrter-rlrretztor' John Favree-tt's sardonrt: treatment of the Arner'rean heurgetnsre grves thrs horror movre the feelrng of an acutely ol)sel‘.'atronal romp. Katharrne Isabelle's blossomrng nymph sprouts a tarl on her otherv/rse exdursrte body after a werewolf attack. but after much perplexrty hegrns to bear rt wrth fortrtude. She eventually spreads her rnfectron wrth her sexual favOurs, and as her slavrshly devoted srster trres to Intervene. she transforms from empowered teen to tragrc monster.
However. rn tr‘eatrng lycanthropv as a metaphor for the stresses of adolescence. Fawcett seems unaware that / lit/as A fee/rage l‘r/erewo/f rn the {5th and Teen Wo/f rn the 80s have done thrs before. And although he s; he's never heard of a female ‘t'rerewolf In the movres. there are art abundance of them rn The How/rng and rts sequels. Even the treatment of the ‘.‘.’t3l't:‘.'.”)li"; eondrtwrr: as rllness Is not unfamrlrar. srnce thrs rs how both the orrgrnal l un (,‘harte‘, .Jr character saw hrmself. and much later. Dazrd Naughton. rr‘. Arr /'l'rrerl<,arr l'./er‘el'/o/f /r: r’ orrdon. That sard. frlnr hrstor‘y asrde and rrr the light of Hell, .'./;r)rl", rnallrlrt, to breathe new lrfe rnto the horror genre. Favrcett's funny. tragrr; frlrn strll eontrrres to be orrgrnal. rSteve Cr'arnerr
Supine and lupine
CCMEUY "r HRlllH? TAXI 2 (15) 82 mins .0
Luc Besson returns. as pvrrter and producer. firth the cast of the lif’S: ‘sz and a new drrector. Gerard Krasrcxyk. for the second rnstalment of hrs actron comedy serres. Danzel Sang. Naeer' :s Strll dr'zvl'tg hrs call. .vnrcl‘. has more gadgets tnar: the average Bond car. and seen gets ernbrorled rn rnternatronal espronage '.'.'Inl‘e tr,r"g tr,
l'noress hrs grrlfrrend's ‘atner. There are
Dumb extended car chase
humblrng cops. kung-fu nayas. a Japanese amtx‘rssadc" to 'esC-xre and leads ar‘rr' earls of car atlases along the .'.ray.
\."~.’hrle "rezer actuall, horrng. the fast pace nake- . sure that. eararloxreally rt's nexer er‘uag 'tg. Sofie of the stunts are trfltl‘flléiln,’ slrek. est/{,lall,’ the frrral chase
tl"‘ct.utr t‘rrs .'.'nrr';“ tgrrrus ‘o rnrnd The Blue-5; Brofr‘ers ‘rxaie. surel; the mother of ar. r'totcr .ewole prle ups. But you rust car“ t/rrrg ,oxself to care about these hapiess ho, racers and ther" scarred-up n‘rotcrs. The so" err, r, of the slapstrck narret .' and rts chrldrshr‘ess :loes'l't srt easrl, tr: the srmrai corterrt and xeltOphobrc refe'enr:es to Etie— Japanese. but that's Perch ‘arrx; for ,Uu. Basrcall/ an extended car chase ruined: earl jekes a”: a .veak stag. rHe'xr, Northmorer
I Selected 'eease We,” Fr 4;; Jun.