Stateside to becotnc a contract killer. Daft. but fun. lndividual elements. from ()TT performances to violent gun play. work in isolation. but the tones jar: in one scene you're laughing at Ricky Tomlinson playing Robert De Niro via Jim Royle. the next yottr reeling at him being tortured in the most graphic fashion. General release.
Fllpper (PG) 00. (Alan Shapiro. L'S. I996) Elijah Wood. Pattl Hogan. Chelsea Field. 96 mins. Difficult city teenager Sandy (Wood) doesn't warm to ex-hippy uncle Porter (Hogan) down in the Florida Key s until along cotnes friendly dolphin Flipper. The story brings to mind aspects of Andre and Free ll'illy. but there are only so many scripts that can accommodate an acquatic star. Predictable stuff in the heart-warming category. Carlton. Stirling.
Gabrlel And Me (15) O (L‘dayan Prasad. L'K. 2001) Sean Landless. lain Glen. Billy Connolly. 86 mins. After the monumental success of Billy [fl/tar. writer Lee Hall seems to have become complacent as his follow-up is simply a formulaic retread of last year's balletic barnstormer. Gabriel And Me sees teenage Geordie lad Jimmy Spud (Landless) struggle to hide his wish to be an angel from gruff. dying father (Glen) with the help of none other than the Archangel Gabriel (Connolly). The dialogue is cliched. the script sickenineg sentimental and the mix of gritty reality and high-flow n fantasy just doesn't work. \"ikingar Cinema. Largs; MacRobert Arts Centre. Stirling. Geordle (L') 0.. (Frank Launder. L'K. I955) Bill Travers. Alastair Sim. Norah Gorsen. 99 mins. Laundcr and Gilliat's comic fable tells of a Scottish weakling who sups his porridge to the extent that. one day. he is able to hurl the hammer at the Olympics. Full of old-fashioned charm. Lumiere. Edinburgh.
George Washington ( 12) 00000 (David Gordon Green. LS. 2001) Donald Holden. Candace Evanofski. Eddie Rouse. 89 mins. In a humid. broken North Carolina backwoods town a group of angsty. literate and above all verbose teenagers talk and play. Green was a mere 24-years-old when he tnadc this haunting film. possibly the first to be justifiably compared to Terence Malick's Day's ()fHeat'wt. From its Ittsh. elegiac photography. rctnarkablc performances from a group of non-actors and the deeply sensitive editing. this is an instant classic. Like Lynne Ramsey's Rult‘ult'llw' it deals with the suffocating guilt yet ultimate powerlessness ofchildhood. GET. Glasgow.
Ghost World (15) .0000 (Terry Zwigoff. LS. 2001) Thora Birch. Scarlett Johansson. Steve Buscemi. I I 1 mins. Daniel Clowes adapts his own cult comic with Zwigoff. opting not to translate parrot- fashion. bttt to distil the essence of the source material. Thus. characters. setting and tone are spot on. but the episodic nature of the serialised strip is shaped into a low key story revolving around high school graduates Enid and Rebecca (Birch and Johansson) who temper disgust with the bland western world of shopping malls and theme restaurants with cynical bemusement.
index Fllm
Trouble at home and lot of trouble with the script in the overly-predictable thriller Domestic Disturbance
The dialogue. humour. production design and performances are a world apart from lesser American teen llicks. Selected release.
Gigi (PG) 0.. (\‘incente Minnelli. LS. 1958) Leslie Caron. Louis Jourdan. Maurice Chevalier. l 19 mins. Caron is the coquette allied to Jourdan's rake: they are watched over by an cxtravagantly French Chevalier and the rest offin dt' sire/e Paris. This is a lavish musical from the golden days of MGM. adapted from Colettc's novel by Lerner and Loewe. As ()scar-winner in its day. now best remembered for songs like 'l'ltank Heavens For Little Girls. Lumiere. Edinburgh.
Le Gout Des Autres ( 15) IO.
(Agniis Jaotti. France. 2()()l ) Jean-Pierre Bacri. Anne Alvaro. Gérard Lanvin. l 12 mins. Britain doesn‘t have exclusive rights on the provincial class comedy. l.(' gut?! shows the workings of a small town. w hich are brought into focus when Jacques Castello (Bacri) falls for actress and English tutor Clara (Alvaro). a bohemian looking for love bttt hardly expecting it from Bacri‘s crude factory owner. There are a number of other sub-plots that show s Jaoui borrowing as readily frotn farce as the provincial comedy. The surprise is that they're combined to make for something more wistfully winning than either form Usually offers. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
Grand Canyon (PG) (. . 2001) mins. Simulation ride bringing you the full-blown wonder of that really. really big hole in America. IMAX Theatre. Glasgow.
The Grinch (PG) .0. (Ron Howard. [S 2()()()) Jim Carrey. Taylor Momsen. Jeffrey 'I‘ambor. 105 mins. Surprisingly. The Grinch is the lirst live action feature to be adapted frotn the work of the world's best- selling children's author. Dr SeUss. And beneath sfx magician Rick Baker's green costume Carrey — the world's highest paid comedian — w recks glorious havoc on his cloying sweet neighbours. the Whov ians of Who-v ille. Howard lays the book‘s moral — Christmas is about fatnin ttot presents _ and the sickly-sweet sentiment on pretty thick. 'Iav Story 2 got the cross generational appeal right; golly gosh Howard's Grt'm'lt hasn't. Carrey 's great though. Selected release. Groundhog Day (PG) 0000 (Harold Ramis. LS. 1993) tttitts. Bill Murray. Andie MacDow ell. Chris Elliot. TV weatherman Phil Conners (Murray) finds himself in the back of beyond, trapped in an ever-repeating single day. Partying and babe-chasing leads to serious romancing as he goes after his producer (MacDowell ). Murray 's cuddly sarcasm stops the mov ic front becoming the kind of moralising mush that surrounds so many of his contemporaries. A genuine rarity — a Hollywood comedy that is really funny. Lumiere. Edinburgh.
Harry Potter And The Phllosopher's Stone (PG) 0000. (Chris Columbus. L'S/L'K. 2001)
Daniel Radcliffe. Robbie Coltrane. Maggie Smith. John Clecse. Richard Harris. Julie Walters. 152 mins. Columbus has remained true not jUst to the spirit but. in many cases. the letter ofJ.K. Rowling's novel. With only the occasional nip and tuck. the film follows closely the tale of orphan boy Harry. who grows up in suburbia little realising that he's of wizard stock. Like the novel. the film is unsentimetttal. with no hint of icky whimsy. Rather. it is sustained by a set of superbly dry performances by the all- British cast and rewarded by the true. well-earned emotion of an honourable quest successfully fought. General release. Heavenly Creatures (18) 0000 (Peter Jackson. New Zealand. 1994) Melanie Lynskey. Kate Winslet. Sarah Peirse. 98 mitts. In 1952. New Zealand was shocked by the tnurder of Honora Parker by her teenage daughter and a schoolfriend. Despite director Peter Jackson's back catalogue in slapstick gore — Braim/mtd. Bad Taste — Heaven/y Creartu'es does not dwell on the more lurid details of the crime. Instead. it examines the imaginative fantasy worlds of the girls and the strength of their friendship in a sympathetic light. Cineworld. Falkirk.
4—1 7 Jan 2002 THI LIST 39