Film index
Kissing Jessica Stein (15) 000 ((‘harles llerman-Wurmfeld. L'S. 2002) Heather Juergensen. Jennifer Westfeldt. 96min. Westfeldt plays Jessica. a neurotic journalist who‘s fed up with the string of loser dates she's had in the past. ()n a whim. she answers an intriguing woman seeking woman personal ad and meets Helen (Juergensen). a sexually
curious art gallery owner intending to embark on her first lesbian affair.
The performances are superb with a very strong support cast with some great Manhattan location work (not an easy achievement in such a visually familiar city). this has oodles of quirky independent appeal. Recommended. Cameo & Dominion. Edinburgh.
The Last Emperor ( IS) 0000 (Bernardo Bertolucci. Italy/China. 1987) John Lone. Peter O’Toole. Joan Chen. lb2min. Peking. 1908. and a three-year-old boy ascends to the Imperial Throne to become the ‘Lord of Ten Thousand Years‘. A mere 59 years later. however. he dies a humble gardener in a (‘hina that is now the Maoist People's Republic. Intelligent epic following the self-delusion and re-cducation of a man shaped by a superseded power structure. A little cold perhaps. but the pro- duction and cinematography are of such exquisiteness that one only wishes the film
FTH
Thurs lstAug Panic Room (15)
Sun 4th Aug Bend It Like Beckham (12) 5:00pm
7:30pm
Pollock (18) 7:30pm Tues 27th Aug No Man's Land (15) 7:30pm Wed 28th Aug
About A Boy (12) Cuppa & 7:30pm
Tickets and further information from The Steeple Box office
(Tel: 01324 506850)
or on the day from the hall
14 THE LIST 1—8 Aug 2002
were longer. Royal Museum Lecture Theatre. Edinburgh.
The Lawless Heart ( 15) 000
(Tom Hunsinger/Neil Hunter. L'K. 200l) Bill Nighy. Douglas Henshall. Tom Hollander. 1 10min. Three overlapping seg- ments. each filmed in a distinctive style. show the same tangled events from the viewpoint of each of the three men: Dan (Nighy). a faithful husband and loving father; restaurateur Nick (Hollander). who was Stuart's gay lover; and the wayward Tim (Henshall). who had been the dead man's best friend before he left to travel the world. Although it would have benefited frotn some of the melancholic intelligence that infortned David Kane's similar This Year's Love. Neil Hunter's script has plenty of wry. telling humour. L'GC‘ Renfrew Street. (ilasgow; L'(}(‘. Edinburgh. QLost in La Mancha (15) 000. (Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. UK. 2002) 89min. Lost in La Mancha operates around two very cruel ironies: Terry (iilliam failing to complete his ten yearjourncy to make a tnov ie based on (‘ervantes‘ Don Quixote. the story of a deluded old man undertaking a chivalrous quest. The second irony is that although (iilliam’s production of The Mun who Killed Don Quixote fell apart. two other filmmakers. Fulton and Pepe. who were on hand shooting a ‘making of‘ docu- mentary. got a film out of (iilliam‘s failure. All of which makes Lost in [11 Manchu morbidly interesting viewing and provides an insight into the tortuous process of mak- ing movies. See feature and review. Fllmhouse. Edinburgh.
0 Lovely and Amazing ( 15) 000. (Nicole Holofccner. LS. 2002) (‘atherine Keener. Brenda Blethyn. Emily Mortimer. 91min. Brenda Blethyn. Emily Mortimer. 91min. It's rare for an American film to offer such a studied glimpse of the female psyche. but Holofcener has created a family of dysfunctional women that tries to cover every angle of neurosis. The family Marks comprises mother Jane (Blethyn). who is about to go into hospital for a misguided liposuction operation. oldest sister Michelle (Keener). trying to survive as an artist whilst languishing in a loveless marriage. Elizabeth (Mortimer). struggling to make it as an actress. and adopted black sister Annie (Raven Marks). Packed full of wry observa- tions that are crystallised by a stellar perfor- mance from (‘atherine Keener. See review. (il’l‘. (ilasgow‘. [KKK Edinburgh.
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a
Lost in La Mancha is what happened to Terry Gilliam trying to film D
Made in Britain (18).... (Alan ('larke. t'K. 1983) Tim Roth. 78min. Soured by bitter racism and the conservative credo work hard. do well. get a job fiercely intelligent 16-year-old skinhead Trevor sticks two fingers up at the system at every opportunity. L'nfortunately. the system uses its own violent methods to deal with the ‘hooligan'. (il’l‘. (ilasgow.
Men in Black II (PC) .00 (Barry Sonnenfeld. LS. 2002) Will Smith. Tommy Lee Jones. Lara Flynn Boyle. I03min. The tagline for Men in Black II sums up the film quite succinctly: ‘Same planet. New scum'. ()r. to put it another way: Satnc film. New special effects. Once again we are intro- duced to the quasi-official government agency. MlB. which secretly polices the multitude of alien immigrants who. unbe- known to Joe Public. have made a home on Earth. And once again Agents Jay (Smith) and Kay (Jones) don shades and black suits to save the world in cool. laconic fashion. The gags cotne thick and fast. the chemistry between Jones and Smith remains and Sonncnfeld directs with the kind of flare he completely lost on the dreadful iii/(l ll'i/(l li’est. See review. (ieneral release. Minority Report ( 12) 000 (Steven Spielberg. l'S. 2002) Tom (‘ruise. Samantha Morton. Max von Sydow. l-l-lmin. Submerged beneath Spielberg's patented layer of sentimental schmaltz and another v'igorotisly self-indulgent performance from (‘ruise is a half-decent futuristic thriller. The scribes get the credit for this: screenwriter Scott Frank and the late writer Philip K. Dick. In the year 2054 the murder rate in America's crime capital (\N'ashington [)(‘) has been reduced to left) through the intro- dttction of the controversial pre-crime police division. Psychics predict murders before they happen. (‘ruise's Detective John Anderton arrests felons for crimes they will (or rather won't) commit. But when Morton‘s ‘pre-cog' predicts a murder corti- mitted by Anderton himself. the Detective goes on the rttn. (ieneral release. Monsters, Inc. (l') 0000 (Pete Docter. LS. 2001) John (ioodman. Billy Crystal. Steve Buscemi. 92min. The latest (‘(il animation from My Story makers Pisar is set largely in .‘vlonstropolis. a city inhabit- ed by the fotilest of beasts. The monsters power their city by sending ‘scarcrs‘ through doors which teleport them into chil- dren's rooms. Once there. they pull faces at the kids. producing shrieks of terror. which
.1) u on Quixote
are bottled back in Monstropolis and used as a source of energy. It's a neat idea. but what really lifts the film is the sense of fun that pervades the whole movie. .tlonsters. Inc runs as smoothly as a fairground slide. that no one is too big to enjoy. ()deon. Ayr: ()deon. Kilmarnock.
Mulholland Drive ( 15) 0... (David Lynch. LS. 200] ) Naomi Watts. Laura Elena Harring. Justin Theroux. l-lbmin. (iiven the troubled production history of Lynch's latest slice of nightmare noir it was originally a pilot fora ['S television series which was cancelled it's nothing short of miracttlous that .Tlttllmlltlml Drive shines with the tilmmaker's idiosyncratic brilliance. Although set in the present day (albeit with retro styling). Lynch draws on his fascination with 40s and 50s Hollywood and its secret history of crime. here involv- ing two actresses. amnesiac Rita (Harring) and amateur sleuth Betty (Watts). The pro- ceedings veer into the kind of waking night- mare territory that either fiummoxes or delights viewers as Lynch mixes the bi/arrc. almost laughable with the moments of elec- trifying fear. (‘ameo. Edinburgh.
Murder By Numbers ( IS) .0. (Barbet Schroede. LS. 2002) Sandra Bullock. Ryan (iosling. Ben ('haplin. l20min. This 1020s (‘hicago true horror story is based on the Leopold and Loch case in which two high school law students mur- dered a boy to demonstrate their intellectual superiority. The film opens with student friends discussing their murder of a young woman: before long an ace detective (Bullock) has linked the crime to them whilst colleague (Chaplin) stubbornly pur- sues clues to drug dealer ('hris Penn. The tnain element of surprise is missing yet every so often Schroeder provides tantalis- ing glimpses of the chiller that might have been. Selected release.
ONine Queens ( IS) 0000 (liabian Bielinsky. Argentina. 2002) Ricardo Darin. (iaston Pauls. lgnasi Abadal. l ISmin. Two small-time swindlers meet seemingly by chance in a Buenos Aircs convenience store and agree to team up for the day. And then an opportunity to pull a major-league scam lands on their laps. as an expert forger con- tacts Marcos about a set of rare stamps from Weimar (iermany. the so-callcd Nine Queens of the title. .-\ huge hit it) its native Argentina. Bielinsky 's fast-moving Nine Queens is both an engrossing con-artist yarn and a sly commentary on a society currently