You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
— —<br />
TORONTO REVIEWS<br />
*•••<br />
BUFFALO SOLDIERS<br />
Saad (Sheik Mahmud-Bey). The line<br />
Stalling Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, between good guys and bad guys is a bit<br />
Anna Paquin, Scott Glenn, Elizabeth<br />
blurred, however. This lends an aura of<br />
McGovern, Gabriel Mann, Sheik Mahmud- ambiguity to the proceedings, which culminate<br />
with an unexpectedly satisfying<br />
Bey, Michael Pena, Leon Robinson and<br />
Dean Stockwell. Directed by Gregor<br />
Susan Green<br />
twist.<br />
Jordan. Written by Gregor Jordan, Eric<br />
THIRTEEN CONVERSATIONS<br />
Alex Weiss and Nora Maccoby. Produced<br />
by Rainer Grupe and Ariane Moody. A ABOUT ONE THING **l/2<br />
Miramax release. Black comedy. Not yet Starring Matthew McConaughey, Alan<br />
Arkin, Clea Dul John Turturro and<br />
rated. Running time: 97 min.<br />
all,<br />
A kind of Milo Minderbinder for our Amy Irving. Directed by Jill Sprecher.<br />
Written by Jill and Karen Sprecher.<br />
time, U.S. Army Specialist Ray Elwood<br />
wheels and deals with relative impunity Produced by Beni Atoori, Gina Resnick,<br />
from his supply battalion on a base in Colin Bates and Sabrina Atoori. A Sony<br />
West Germany. Like his industrious predecessor<br />
Pictures Classics release. Drama. Not yet<br />
time: 94 min.<br />
rated. Running<br />
in Joseph Heller's "Catch 22,"<br />
the young conscript in "Buffalo Soldiers" Like film director/author John Sayles,<br />
Sprecher ("Clockwatchers") has something<br />
is a wizard at redistributing consumer Jill<br />
of a literary feel for dramatic ideas<br />
goods in a bustling black market.<br />
Everything from gallons of Mop 'n' Glo and characters. In "Thirteen<br />
to hard drugs passes through his hands. Conversations About One Thing," she creates<br />
a broad canvas that examines the<br />
As played by Joaquin Phoenix, Elwood's<br />
a crafty Cold War profiteer just before the paradox of what it means to be happy. In<br />
fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.<br />
much the same style as the weaving narra-<br />
_ tive of a novel. Sprecher<br />
spells out a number of<br />
criss-crossing stories about<br />
people in who are caught<br />
Joaquin Phoenix gels out the big guns in Miramax's "Buffalo Soldi<br />
This very black comedy, by Australian<br />
director Gregor Jordan, is full of surprises.<br />
He depicts the military as a haven for heroin,<br />
with Elwood consistently managing to<br />
fool his naive but essentially decent commanding<br />
officer. Colonel Berman (Ed<br />
Harris) fails to confront all the illegal<br />
activities because he*s too concerned with<br />
a potential promotion that his two-timing<br />
wife (Elizabeth McGovern) pushes him to<br />
pursue. Then three new people arrive on<br />
the scene: Robyn (Anna Paquin), who falls<br />
for Elwood; her father Sergeant Lee (Scott<br />
Glenn), a hard-nosed Vietnam veteran<br />
who immediately zeroes in on Elwood's<br />
corrupt practices; and Knoll (Gabriel<br />
Mann), a bookish young recruit with a<br />
hidden agenda.<br />
"Catch 22" satirizes the grim, frequently<br />
inane bureaucratic arm of government<br />
that sends Americans into combat.<br />
"Buffalo Soldiers" has much the same<br />
dark comic Hair, intensified by the fact that<br />
many o\' the characters are dope fiends or<br />
drug lords. Consequently, another nemesis<br />
for Elwood is a thugeish MP, Sergeant<br />
exploring this philosophical<br />
query.<br />
Walker (John Turturro)<br />
is a middle-aged physics<br />
professor who has his<br />
ordered view of the world<br />
shattered by a mugging.<br />
He's also feeling a loss of<br />
affection for his deeply<br />
lonely wife, Patricia (Amy<br />
Irving). Troy (Matthew<br />
McConaughey) is a young<br />
attorney who's happily<br />
built for success until an<br />
accident drives him into a<br />
crisis of conscience. Gene<br />
(Alan Arkin) is a hard-working manager in<br />
an insurance company. But Gene develops<br />
a rueful spite for a cheerful employee with<br />
a carefree quality that Gene can never<br />
attain. Beatrice (Clea DuVall) is a cleaning<br />
woman with a contented optimistic air<br />
who later finds herself in desperate need of<br />
assurance.<br />
"Thirteen Conversations About One<br />
Thing" gleams with intelligence, and<br />
there's also a very thoughtful understanding<br />
of human frailty. But Sprecher has<br />
yet—like Sayles—to show a truly imaginative<br />
movie-making sensibility that would<br />
dramatically lift<br />
her characters out of the<br />
tight grip of her ideas.<br />
Despite some nimble work by Alan<br />
Arkin, who's a master of the doubletake,<br />
or the look of profound disbelief<br />
on John Turturro's face, the generally<br />
solemn tone tends to flatten everything<br />
out. "Thirteen Conversations About One<br />
Ihing" could use a lighter touch of irony<br />
because, after all, the idea o\' life being<br />
unfair is as much a cosmic joke as a<br />
human tragedy. Kevin Courrier<br />
COMMENT J'AI TUE MON PERE<br />
• ••1/2<br />
Starring<br />
—<br />
Michel Bouquet and Charles<br />
Berling. Directed by Anne Fontaine.<br />
Written by Anne Fontaine and Jacques<br />
Fieschi. Produced by Phillipe Carcassone.<br />
No distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated.<br />
Running time: 98 min.<br />
In "Comment j'ai tue iron pere." Anne<br />
Fontaine indulges her signature style, creating<br />
a carefully measured film—the kind<br />
whose impact slowly sneaks up on its audience<br />
and haunts them long after leaving the<br />
theatre. Fontaine is a master of subtlety and<br />
nuance, building her desired effects through<br />
the most subtle of cinematic elements<br />
namely performance, gesture and tone.<br />
Jean-Luc is a successful doctor whose<br />
carefully controlled life begins to unravel<br />
with the reappearance of his long-absent<br />
father, a doctor himself, who abruptly and<br />
inexplicably left for Africa years before.<br />
The son clearly resents his father's return<br />
but remains the model of courtesy and<br />
restraint—much like his own father. The<br />
subtle tension between these two similarly<br />
icy but unnervingly polite characters<br />
builds to its necessary and ultimately<br />
heartbreaking climax, made all the more<br />
effective by the understated yet intricate<br />
performances of the two lead actors.<br />
— Barbara Goslawski<br />
LAST ORDERS<br />
••••<br />
Starring Michael Caine, Tom<br />
Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins,<br />
Ray H instone and Helen Mirren. Directed<br />
and written by Fred Schepisi. Produced by<br />
Fred Schepisi and Elisabeth Robinson. A<br />
Sony Pictures Classics release. Drama. Not<br />
yet rated. Running time: 125 min.<br />
Based on Graham Swift's Booker<br />
Award-winning novel, director Fred<br />
Schepisi ("Six Degrees of Separation") has<br />
fashioned a moving ensemble drama, featuring<br />
some of England's greatest<br />
actors,<br />
to tell a tale about the cost of friendship.<br />
When one of a circle of buddies dies,<br />
the remaining friends carry out one of his<br />
"last orders": to take his ashes and scatter<br />
them off the pier at the seaside town of<br />
Margate. As the group makes the trip, they<br />
take stock of their friend's death. But<br />
rather than provide nostalgic relief, or sentimental<br />
remembrances, the journey<br />
uncovers unresolved wounds, lost opportunities,<br />
and once buried secrets.<br />
Although Swift's novel sets forth a<br />
neatly-tied pattern that gradually unveils<br />
the psyche of the characters. Schepisi<br />
favors more spontaneity. Along with the<br />
dramatic flashbacks (using younger<br />
actors) for a view into their younger days.<br />
Schepisi sometimes cuts forwards and<br />
back in the middle of a sentence, or a<br />
thought.<br />
The cast is also near perfect. Michael<br />
Caine. as Jack, is a simple man for whom<br />
perspective comes late. Bob Hoskins is<br />
extraordinary as Jack's best friend, Ray,<br />
134 (R-122) BOXOFFICE
Change language