Film index
Babe: Pig In The City (PG) ooo (George Miller. US. I998) James Cromwell. Magda Szubanski. 99 mins. Jttst as precocious as before. young Babe accidentally injures Fartner Hoggett and puts the farm in jeopardy . In desperation Mrs H and Babe set off to make a fee- paying appearance at a State Fair. But fate is not smiling upon the farmer‘s wife and her innocent pig. as their adventures in the big city begin. A darker film than the original. Babe: Pig In The City is nevertheless entertaining. Grosvenor. Glasgow.
Baby, It’s You ( 15) (John Sayles. L'S. I982) Rosanna Arquette. Vincent Spano. Joanna Merlin. [05 mins. 1966. New Jersey. Jill Rosen (Arquette) . a frustrated highschool girl. is intrigued by an enigmatic new student known only as the Sheik (Spano). an Italian whose primary interests are his car. Frank Sinatra. and Jill. Their on/off romance is charted with a typically even-hand and eye for character detail by the great American independent filmmaker Sayles. Edinburgh Film Guild. Edinburgh. Bandits ( l2) .0. (Barry Levinson. L'S. 200l ) Bruce Willis. Billy Bob Thomton. Cate Blanchett. I22 mins. Written by Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks). Bandits is a tale of modern day bank robbers Joe Blake (Willis) and Terry Lee Collins (Thornton). Having become folk heroes. their crime spree is complicated by Blanchett's neurotic housewife who falls in love with both men whilst re-enacting the Patty Hearst story. Levinson and Peyton fail their likeable cast. but Thornton salvages the film with a genius comic performance as a hypochondriac criminal. It's a crime Thornton's poker face talents weren't matched by this overlong. unremarkable romp. New Picture House. St Andrews.
Bangkok Dangerous ( Ix) ooo (Danny and ()xide Pang. Thailand. 2001 ) Pawalit Mongkolpisit. Prernsinee Ratanasopha. |05 mins. This stylised thriller begs comparisons with the bullet ballets of John Woo. Certainly the cool carnerawork. employing slow-mo shots and distorted imagery. is reminiscent of Woo. The
territory. too. is pure Woo: the underworld of
gangsters and professional hitmen. Then there's the theme. one Woo has returned to often: detached professionalism versus personal loyalty. In the Pangs‘ film. that theme is played out through the story of Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit). a hired killer who is also a deaf-mute. Ultimately. though. Bangkok Dangerous is further towards the arthouse end of the spectrum than Woo's films. UGC Cinemas. Edinburgh.
A Beautiful Mind (12) ooo (Ron Howard. 2002) Russell Crowe. Jennifer Connelly. Paul Bcttany. l35 mins. A Beautiful Mind once more presents Crowe with the opportunity to alternate his tough guy roles (Gladiator) with ‘serious acting‘ (sec The Insider). Here Crowe plays John Nash. the mathematics genius during his college days in America in the l9-l()s. but also a paranoid-schizophrenic. who was nevertheless awarded the Nobel Prize late in his life. ()n the negative side of the equation. Howard's direction stinks. His efforts to
34 THE LIST 14—28 Mar 2002
make math interesting fail disrnally. A for ()scars effort. but C - for contribution to the field of biopic cinema. General release. Begging For Love ( IS) (llirayarna llideyuki. Japan. I998) I35 mins. Drama in which childhood memories of an abusive mother and her daughter are stirred tip after many years. GilmorehillG l 2. Glasgow. The Believer ( IS) oooo (Henry Bean. L'S. 200| ) Ryan Gosling. Theresa Russell. Billy Vane. 98 mins. A young New York Jewish kid who‘s also a neo-Nazi is about as provocative as subject matter gets. The story of Danny Blint rejecting his yeshiva studies to adopt a skinhead uniform and undertake acts of terrorism. might have been mere cheap sensationalism were it not for the thought-provoking manner in which writer-director Henry Bean investigates the story. and the fact that his script is based on a real case from the 1960s. t'nsurprisingly. Bean (a Jew) got himself into hot water in America. but his film is a cerebral theological and philosophical inquiry which transcends criticism. Cineworld. Falkirk. The Big Lebowskl ( I8) oooo (Joel Coen. US. 1997) Jeff Bridges. John Goodman. Steve Buscetni. 1 13 mins. The Coen brothers give their unique twist to a Chandler-esque LA noir. as 70s hippy throwback Jeff ‘The Dude' Lebowski (Bridges) is drawn into the sordid affairs of his millionaire namesake. Suddenly he has to sleuth his way through disorganised crime. Trademark oddball characters. surreal imagery and excellent performances grace this virtuoso comedy. L'Cl. East Kilbride. Black Hawk Down ( IS) oo
(Ridley Scott. US. 2001) Josh Hartnett. Ewan McGregor. liwen Bremner. l-H mins. Scott's war movie. based on the book by Mark Bowden. drarnatises the I993 battle in Mogadishu between US ground forces and Somali militia. recasting what was
essentially a military disaster as a tale of American heroism. It's a one-sided. jingoistic view of the events. playing to the American public in the wake of I I September. 'l'echnically. it's a remarkable. graphic re-enaciment of modern urban warfare. Yet. although we're clearly expected to be appalled. two fttll hours of orchestrated carnage ultimately comes across as voyettristic. Selected release. The Blair Witch Project ( IS) ooooo (Daniel Myrick and liduardo Sanchez. l'S. I999) Heather Donahue. Josh Leonard. Michael Williams. 90 mins. 'l'errifying docu- horror movie that purports to be an edited version of the film and video footage that Donahue. Leonard and Williams shot in the days before they disappeared in the woods around Burkittsville. Maryland. While you‘re watching you‘re too sacred to think about the clever tricks with your mind. The Filmhouse. lidinburgh.
Bloody Sunday ( l5) (Pattl Greengrass. l'K/lreland. 2001 ) James Nesbitt. Tim Pigott- Smith. .\'icholas Farrell. I07 mins. (ireengrass‘ documentary-style drama recreates the events of 30th Janttaryl972 in Derry when British soldiers fired upon civil rights activists during a peaceful demo. The effective scene setting and recreation of the mood around the vents is superb. as are the performances. particularly Nesbitt in the lead who proves he‘s got anything but Cold Feel. Gl’l‘. Glasgow.
Blue Planet (17) (200l ). An awesome trip around. above and beyond our planet on the lMAX giant screen which prompted the Washington Pay! to write: ‘If a picture is worth a thousand words. one image from Blue Planet is worth a zillion'. IMAX Theatre. Glasgow.
Broken Silence (Silencio Boto) ( IS) (Montxo Armendariz. Spain. 2001) Lucia Jimenez. Juan Diego Botto. Mercedes Sampietro. I I0 mins. Set against the background of Spain's post-Civil War period. when many Republicans took to the mountains as guerrilla fighters battling Franco's fascists. a romance between a new arrival in a village and the local blacksmith sparks off tension within the community. Part of the Spanish Film Festival. (il’l‘. Glasgow; The l-‘ilmhouse. lidinburgh. Brotherhood Of The Wolft IS)
0. (Christopher Gans. France. 200i ) Samuel Le Bihan. Mark Dacascos. Vincent ('assell. Monica Bellucci. limilie Dequenne. 134 mins. In 18th centttry France a terrifying beast is terrorising the (ievaudan region. ripping its victims to shreds. Adventurer and scientist Fronsac (Le Bihan). together with his Native American companion. Mani (Dacascos). is dispatched by the King to investigate the phenomenon. Aided by a mysterious Italian courtesan (Bcllucci). Fronsac's investigations uncover a witch. a secret society and the sinister brother ((‘assell) of the beautiful noblewoman (Rosena‘s Dequenne) with whom Fronsac is enarnoured. This bizarre
Technofear in Akira, the greatest anime movie-ever made
hybrid of film genres historical romance. martial arts. horror - is lavishly assembled. yet strangely muddled and etnpty. New Picture House. St Andrews.
Buena Vista Social Club It') oooo (Wim Wenders. Cuba. I999) Ry Cooder. Ibrahim Ferrer. Ruben Gonzalez. 10-1 mins. Cuba looks a little like the land that titue forgot. A theme Wenders brings out both in the over-exposed images of Havana and also in the musical brilliance of these octogenarian and nonagenarian musicians who have for so long been neglected. And it's ironically thanks to an American. Wenders' regular musical collaborator Ry Cooder. that their careers have been resurrected. The Lumiere. lidinburgh. Bully ( Ix) oooo (Larry Clark. ('8. 2002) Nick Stahl. Brad Renfro. Rachel Miner. I 12 mins. If you can get past the fact that Clark is the biggest paedovoyeur working today then there is lots to enjoy in the new movie from the director of Kids. Bully is based on the true story of Bobby Kent who was murdered in Florida in 1993 by a group of teenagers led by his best friend Marty Pttccio. As you would expect from this legendary photographer. Bully looks great and is naturalistically paced and acted. .\'o one catches seedy suburban teenage nihilism better than Clark. LGC Renfrew Street. Glasgow; l'GC Cinemas. lidinburgh.
Charlotte Gray ( IS) ooo (Gillian Armstrong. l'K. 2002) Cate Blanchett. Billy Crudup. Michael (iambon. l2l mins. There‘s a fundamental flaw in this adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' novel about a young Scots woman who is trained as a spy by the British Army dttring World War ll and dropped into occupied France to work with the Resistance movement: it's about as tense as an episode of ‘Allo. 'alln. The film focuses too much on the characters and not enough on the action. In contenting himself with character are and rites of passage narrative. screenwriter Jeremy Brock and Armstrong have abandoned the heightened drama of the story. Fine performances. though. Selected release.
0 Commédie de l’innocence (PG) 0... (Raoul Ruiz. France. 2002) Isabelle lltippert. Nils llugon. Jeanne Balibar. 103 mins. lltippert plays a wealthy. uptight tntnn whose son (llugon) disowns her as he's semi-adopted by another woman altogether: Balibar's grieving music tutor. whose own son died two years previously. An emotionally rewarding relationship develops between the eccentric Balibar and the isolated llugon. as all those around him lose themselves not in shared emotions but singular aims. There's lltippert's obscure work as a sculptor. llugon's uncle's (Charles Berling) wotnanising. and his father's business trips. What fascinates Rui/ (and his audience) are the real emotions at work in this film. See review. The Filmhouse. lidinburgh.