Reviews
DHAMAl ic COMEDY (Hilll3LElflilLKY (12A) 98min on
As with other regional dramatic comedies such as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot. On a Clear Day has at the centre of its politicised working—class milieu an on-the-face-of—it ridiculous proposition. In this case it‘s not male stripping or a boy ballet dancing. it's swimming the English Channel.
The ever-excellent Peter Mullan puts in a faultless performance as Frank. a Glasgow shipyard worker who finds himself without a Job when the yards sold off to foreign investors. Denied his livelihood. Frank decides to swim to France (20 hours of freezing. water-borne madness) to prove something to himself and ~— unconsciously — to his estranged son Bob (Jamie Sives). whose twin brother drowned by accident as a child.
Not Quite the broad comedy of The Full Monty and not as feelgood as Billy Elliot. On a Clear Day. written and directed by newcomers Alex Bose and Gaby Dellal. is a more sombre film. But like those films it benefits from its concrete setting and vivid characters. and from its criticism of the sorry state of the nation that's inherent to the story rather than being shoved down our throats.
The script and direction are satisfactory (especially considering the film's low budget). but the strength of On a Clear Day lies in its performances. Mullan makes a very compellingly flawed working-class hero of Frank, while Sives' more subtly drawn character simmers convincingly in the background. And there's fine support from Brenda Blethyn. Billy Boyd. Sean McGinley and Fion Cook. each of who flesh out their minor roles. (Miles Fielder)
I Selected release from Fri 2 Sep.
HORROR TtflitmNVE (12A) 97min .0
A standard issue ‘8‘ monster movie with an uninspiring second-string cast — Cole Hauser. Morris Chestnut. Piper Perabo. Lena Headey -~ and a distinctly second-hand plot. Although set in an earthbound cave system rather than on a distant planet. this is James Cameron's Aliens by any other name. However. it does not smell as sweet. It also bears an uncanny
resemblance to The Descent. so if yOu‘ve seen Neil Marshall's infinitely superior movie you don't have to bother with this.
Ignoring local legends about battles between Knights Templar and giant winged demons. the cave-diving team lead by Jack (Hauser) plunges headfirst into a vast flooded cave System. Along for the dive are their boffin hosts: 'believable but attractive‘ biologist Dr Kathryn Jennings (Headey) and her elderly mentor Dr Nicolai (token Romanian actor Marcel lures). Swimming through flooded Sumps. wriggling through crevices and climbing vertiginous rock faces. the team discovers a subterranean world of cavernous chambers. frozen ice caves and broiling lakes.
Unfortunately. the cave's unique ecosystem has created a parasite which transforms its host into a Sightless. raptor—like flying predator perfectly adapted to its enVironment. Trapped by a rockfall that blocks their way back. and unsettled by the discovery of gnawed human bones. the team fractures under preSSure. turning on one another as the ferocious creatures swoop down to attack.
Aussie first-timer Bruce Hunt's direction is busy. jerky and messy. So the only interest lies in guessmg who Will die first. or in the most gruesome manner. (Nigel Floyd)
I General release from Fri 26 Aug.
DRAMA EHRCHJEIMSEfli(AICKJIIIIOHI THREAD)
(12A) 89min coo
A nicely played and directed piece of therapeutic cinema. Brodeuses has drawn not entirely inappropriate comparisons to Rosetta and Vagabond. But the Dardenne brothers' film and Varda‘s work never allow themselves to become resolved enough emotionally to have the sense of conventional — if justifiably earned — satisfaction which writer and director Eleonore Faucher achieves here. In this story of a pregnant teenager who gains meaning from her life through becoming intensely involved in embroidery. the director weaves a narrative of two characters — Ariane Ascaride's grieving mother and Lola Naymark's quickly maturing teenager — as they move towards a mutual understanding of life. its losses and its gains.
There seems little doubt that Faucher is a Symbolic filmmaker — and. perhaps ergo, a schematic one ~
INTERVIEW
VVEflHHDSNCIEINBE Shane Carruth, the writer/director and star of the bizarre and very different new sci-fi flick Primer. talks money, science and movies.
‘Primer was all self-financed. But I was just so naive, I didn’t think it was even a possibility to talk somebody else into getting involved with this, and possibly finding financing, finding investors or whatever. So it was written for the money I had saved up at that time, which was roughly $7000. And luckily I was very taken with Rodriguez’s El Mariachi - that film was notorious for costing $7000, so once I heard that amount, that’s where I stuck my budget, without even knowing really what I would actually need. Then I wrote this story, keeping in mind the locations I had at my disposal, and that I really wasn’t going to be paying actors, or I couldn’t afford to, so I needed to kind of keep it more intimate. I always did like the fact that the story has this pretty insane device at the centre of it, but the scope of it is pretty narrow, it’s pretty intimate.
‘Primer was all researched, probably too much so. Believe it or not, what they’re saying actually makes some sense, up until they begin to talk about the device altering time. But what they’re doing at the beginning, and the way that they’re doing it, it’s all based on real- world stuff. And the thing is that I had intended that to come across better, and it all boils down to very technical things.
‘With Primer I tried not to pay homage to or steal from other films but I love All The President’s Men and The Conversation and those other films from the 703 that play things very straight, mundane and true to life. It seemed to me that I’ve got this odd device, this mechanical device at the centre of this story: I need to play the rest of it as mundane as possible. I think the whole idea is ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, so you try to start as ordinary as you can get, and you’re kind of grounded so people stick with you when you start introducing these fantastical things.’
(Interview by Paul Dale) I Primer is on selected release from Fri 2 Sep. See review. page 28.
but nevertheless hers is a quiet. patient style. as she lovingly films the rural landscapes and lights her y0ung leading lady with rapt attention. If she wants her film to add up to more than the sum of its parts — and finally wants it to be more symbolically held together than narratively evolving — she still has a healthy interest in the places in which she films. and the faces she captures on screen. Very minor but meaningfully so.
(Tony McKibbin)
I Film/rouse. Edinburgh from Fri 2 Sop.
2i) Aug 2) Sep 9005) THE LIST 25