I I
HORROR Ac i IUN PLANET TERROR (18) 105min 00..
Cut loose from its Grindhouse packaging Robert Sin City Rodriguez‘s freaky, apocalyptic horror film is undoubtedly the baddest, nastiest and least well behaved child to come out of that divorce. But in this case that’s a very good thing.
When an experimental chemical weapon is accidentally released at a Texan military unit, the locals start turning into flesh eating zombies. When the survivors start holing up in the local hospital, a bloody siege begins with only moody mechanic Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), stripper Cherry (Rose McGowan) and dysfunctional doctors William and Dakota Block (Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton) holding fort until the military can get there.
By tailoring this gloriously wild and unhinged high-
42 THE LIST 15-29 Nov 2007
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octane horror to half-remembered 8 movies and straight to video horror tripe from the 19705 and 803 Rodriguez has produced a gruesome hybrid of cinematic quotations, messy pastiche and pure meltdown. With references made to works as diverse as Philippine horror maestro Gerardo de Leon’s 1971 prison flick Women in Cages, Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (1979), George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) and even long forgotten 70$ drifter motorcycle hero TV series Along Came Bronson starring young Mr B Movie himself, Michael Parks, this is a joy for strong- stomached cineastes. With great cameos from Bruce Willis, old pal Tarantino and Parks himself this is more fun than you can point a prosthetic leg machine gun at. Arguably the best horror film of the year.
(Paul Dale)
I Out now on general release.
DRAMA/HISTORY/MEMOR BLAME IT ON FIDEL! (12A) 98min 0..
Paris in the early 19705 and nine-year‘old Anna de La Mesa (Nina Kervel) is having problems coming to terms with her radical political activist parents. Her Spanish-born lawyer father Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and journalist/writer mother Marie (Julie Depardieu) have been inspired by the atrocities of the Franco dictatorship in Spain. Salvador Allende's victory in Chile. feminism and the abortion issue to climb abroad the ideoiogical bandwagon and live a more self aware life. This. of course. has an irrevocable effect on their comfortable life and Anna is soon plunged into a world of refugee nannies, international cuisine and cramped apartments full of noisy chain smoking revolutionaries.
Blame It On Fidel! is the debut feature of Julie Gavras, the daughter of Greek French filmmaker Costa Gavras (Z. Amen) and is a small, sweet natured. cherishable affair which has its heart very much in the right place. The fact that this cutesy. mildly stereotypical evocation of a time when the middle classes were more inclined to put their money where their beliefs were WlII appeal to the very kind of unmotivated, self contained petit bourgeois folks that the film seeks to parody is unfortunate but comes with the territOry.
Gavras herself IS a slightly wobbly uncertain director, but that is to be expected at this early stage of her career - scenes of quiet comedy are never as funny as they must have seemed on the page. plus her yOUng protagonist comes across as more annoying than ‘confused but Iikeable' but hey as Castro once noted. ‘a revolution is not a bed of roses.‘ (Paul Dale)
I Cameo, Edinburgh, Fri 76—Thu 22 Nov.
Bug (18) 101 min 000 William The Exorcist Friedkin's film adaptation of Tracex Letts' nausea-inducing plax ab0ut a couple of depressed white trash lovers hOled up in a rundown hotel, and their slow realisatioit that something max be crawling under their collective skins Th0ugh deeply unpleasant. this darkly COmic horro' is ai‘tuallx, pretty coittpelling Out "CH 0" selected release. Brick Lane (15) 101 min eee Good. low-key adaptation of Monica Ali's bestselling noxel which concentrates on the love story aspect of the book rather than the community politics. Excellent performances and strong direction from first timer Sarah Gavron make tOr a Superior British drama, See feature. page 20, General release from Fri 76 Nov Weirdsvllle (15) 90min eeee Lovable losers Dexter (Scott Speedman) and Royce (Wes Bentley) tear around in the Canadian midwmter, purSLied by dealers. dwarves and diabolists in this screwball stoner comedy from the director of Empire Records. Weirdsw/le is a feast of haIIUCinogenic randomness With a nostalgic Gen-X feel which offers some satisfying gags. and an unexpected standout comic performance from Bentley (American Beauty). See mterwew, page 38. Selected release from Fri 16 Nov. August Rush (PG) 113mm 0 Dreadful “heartwarming drama about a musically gifted orphan, August Rush (Freddie Highmore). who. on finding out his parents are still alive sets out to find them in New York City. Keri Russell. Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Robin Williams and Terrence Howard also star. This sentimental slop is directed by Kirsten Sheridan, screenwriter on In America and daughter of the director of that film Jim In the Name of the Father Sheridan. General release from Fri 23 Nov. The Darjeeling Limited (15) 104mm eeee Three eccentric brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) cross India by train in an attempt to deal With the recent death of their father. Clever and kooky comedy drama that plays on the theories of bereavement cycles as put forward by Swiss psychiatrist Dr Elisabeth KUbIer-Ross among others. On this eVidence writer/director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) is fast becoming the John Cheever of US cinema. This film is preceded by Anderson's shOrt called Hotel Chevalier, and it is imperative you see this film in order to understand what follows. A delight. See feature. page 10. General release from Fri 23 Nov.