Boxoffice-July.1997

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— — — — —— FESTIVAL REVIEWS to Laura ("Wyatt Earp's" Johanna Ter Steege)—is so original and exuberant that the whole film warrants recommendation for its beginning alone. After Jan and Laura consummate their unspoken courtship, they introduce themselves, and Jan reveals, "I'm married." What follows is the mother of all on-again/off-again relationships, as the forbidden lovers grapple with a passion that neither of them understands. Director and co-writer Heddy Honigmann reveals a wonderful intuition for complementing her characters' emotions with camera motion—variously caressing, running and staring. And it's unimaginable that Honigmann could have picked more controlled yet emotive leads than Van Sande and Ter Steege. "Goodbye" would have benefited from one less breakup and reunification, regardless of how true-to-life this drawn-out pattern is. It's a rare film, however, that can reaUstically portray all-consuming passion without descending into absurdity or going straight over the top. Ian Hodder (TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL •••1/2 FIRE Starring Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and RanjitChowdhry. Directedand written by Deepa Mehta. Produced by Bobby Bedi and Deepa Mehta. A Zeitgeist release. Drama. Unrated. Running time: 104 min. Deepa Mehta rebounds from her last misfire, the little-seen Jessica Tandy/Bridget Fonda starrer "Camilla," with a much better take on a friendship between two women. Set in contemporary Bombay, "Fire" is a probing and sensitive look at the continuing clash between traditional and modem Indian values, typified by the strong relationship between Radha (Shabana Azmi), an unhappily married older woman, and Sita (Nandita Das), a young and vibrant addition to the household who stirs her in ways she has not experienced before. Unlike Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra," "Fire" is imbued with real passion and conviction. Though shot in English, it never feels stilted; Mehta' s direction and plotting are pleasingly subtle. She even throws in some effective comic bits featuring Ranjit Chowdhry as a perf)etually homy boarder. The other men in the film, such as Sita's faithless husband Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi), are given their due, too. In its quiet way, "Fire' pacLs an emotional wallop. Shlomo Schwartzberg THE DELTA • Starring Shane Gray and Thang Chan. Directed and written hy Ira Sachs. Produced by Margot Bridger. A Charlie Guidanceproduction; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated. Running time: HO min. Set in the new Soutn, this pedestrian and amateurish drama lcx)ks at the gay life of two individuals in the Mississippi Delta. One, a white suburban teen (Shane Gray) who has a girlfriend, is given to sneaking off to pick up male hustlers. A Vietnamese 84 (K-98) KoxoKFKK man (Thang Chan) with whom he gets involved at the film's beginning falls in love with him, and the two undertake an odd, uncertain relationship that ends in tragedy. The American South remains an underused subject of stateside film, and its gay aspects have remained almost completely untouched. But "The Delta" is such a flat, slow and uninflected movie that it undermines any provocative observations it would like to make. Shot in 16mm, with nonpros as actors (writer/director Ira Sachs met his leads in a pool hall), "The Delta" leaves no impression at all, so its interest to audiences, whether straight or gay, is likely to be negligible. Shlomo Schwartzberg DOG RUN ••1/2 Starring Brian Marc, Craig DuPlessis and Lisa Ristorucci. Directed by D. Ze 'ev Gilad. Written by Brian Marc andD. Ze 'ev Gilad. Produced by Jeffrey Feldman, Brian Marc and D. Ze 'ev Gilad. No stateside distributor set Drama. Not yet rated. Running time: 104 min. Stuck working in New Orleans for a dmg dealer, teenagers Eddie (Brian Marc) and Miles (Craig DuPlessis) leap at the chance when their boss orders them to transport some heroin to Manhattan. Once there, they're left stranded with no place to go. "Dog Run" is an authentic-looking movie, a warts-and-all depiction ofthe squatters, drug addicts and homeless kids fending for themselves on the streets of New York. But director/co-scripter D. Ze'ev Gilad is on shakier ground when he tries to dramatize the situation. As Eddie and Miles become involved with two women, drug addict Tara (Lisa Ristorucci) and college student Rachel (EUzabeth Horsburgh), the film becomes less realistic and more contrived. The relationship between Miles and Rachel is especially unbelievable, a fake "West Side Story" for the '90s. A first-time helmer. Gilad demonstrates a talent for atmosphere, but he'll need a better screenplay next time around if he expects his film to score. Shlomo Schwartzberg FLOATING LIFE ••• Starring Annette Shun Wah, Annie Yip and Anthony Wong. Directed by Clara Law. Written by Eddie L.C. Fon^ and Clara Law. Produced by Bridget Ikin. No stateside distributor set. Drama. Chineselanguage; English subtitles. Not yet rated. Running time: 95 min. An aptly titled, uneven yet emotionally affecting work that deals with areas of the immigrant experience seldom explored in contemporary films, "Floating Life" was shot mostly in Australia (where director Clara Law and her husband/co-writer, Eddie Fong, now reside). The film chronicles a Chinese family from Hong Kong that has scattered to the winds on the eve of reunification with mainland China. Eldest daughter Yen settles in Germany with her husband and daughter; youngest sibling Bing obtains a huge house Down Under with her husband, and there the rest of the family—including a crop of teenagers—turns up (however uncomfortably) to live; oldest son Gar Ming stays in Hong Kong at the old family home awaiting his own immigration papers. Law shifts her story from house to house to explore the dislocations, tensions and longing for a sense of home. Placed in a suburb that's stuck in endless space with all that harsh light, the levels of that displacement are obvious, and it's both funny and sad, especially when contrasted with Gar Ming's loneliness in Hong Kong's teeming crowds and Yen in Germany's darker shadows. What most makes "Floating Life" refreshing is the way it tackles the subject of emigration. Rather than making the family into victims of racist rejection at die hands of the Aussies, the fihn—as did Paul Mazursky's "Moscow on the Hudson"—looks deeper into a more complex type of homesickness brought on by leaving one's cultural roots behind. Law's work occasionally lapses into melodrama (as in Bing's battles with her family), but it reaches incongruently comic heights also (as when Pa confronts a kangaroo on his street). Kevin Courrier LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT ••• Starring William Hutt, Martha Henry, Peter Donaldson and Tom McCamus. Directed by David Wellington. Written by Eugene O'Neill Produced by Daniel Iron and Niv Fichman. No stateside distributor set Drama. Notyet rated Running time: 173 min. Probably the greatest of all American plays, Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical Irish-American saga "Long Day's Journey Into Night" has been made into a handsome and faitnilil work by Canadian helmer David Wellington ("A Man in Uniform"). Based on the 1994 Stratford Theatre Festival production, Wellington has shot this "Long Day's Joumey" in autumnal colors and in Panavision; meanwhile, a lonely, spacious family home itself becomes a character. William Hutt, as miserly patriarch James Tyrone, gives a sturdy and powerful performance as a man who cloaks his despair in a haze of alcohol and blarney. As Mary, the morphine addict who opens the spiritual wounds that lay the family bare, Martha Henry is better here than she was in the stage version (though she still exhibits the kind of technical brilliance that reminds audiences they're watching a f)erformance). Tom McCamus, as younger brother Edmund, a struggling writer who is ill with consumption, conveys his brooding and melancholic humor with true lyricism. But Peter Donaldson (as older brother Jamie, a man who has failed to live up to his father's—and his own—expectations) in the final act, when he confronts Edmund with his darkest secret, plays so inebriated that it slurs the potency of O'NeiU's prose. This take might not have the sweeping power of the onUf other theatrical film version, the great 1962 interpretation directed by Sidney Lumet and starring the amazing ensemble of Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robaras and Dean Stockwell. But it still stands on its own as a fine adaptation. Kevin Courrier
" — July, 1997 (R-99) 85 SPECIAL FORMAT REVIEWS CINEMA OF CD by Ann Kwinn Now that the marriage between Hollywood and Silicon Valley is no longerfront-page news and the couple are not quite newlyweds, some behavior patterns have emerged in the relationship. In the case ofCD-ROMs based on movies, studios have become much more cautious, not viewing as many titles as appropriate for the conversion. Some interactive departments have come and gone. The way the interactive medium is being used— the approaches, models and paradigm — is narrowing. There are fewer cinematic or narrative titles, such as "Johnny Mnemonic. " There are fewer adult edutainment titles like the "Braveheart" CD-ROM, which gave information about medieval Scotland and background information about the film. Instead, the studios have largely pointed their efforts toward creating true games. And most studios have given game-making back to the professionals: top performers such as Activision, 7th Level andAcclaim Entertainment. This trend is so strong that some titles, such as "Space Jam, " are createdfor proprietary game hardware such as the Sony PlayStation or the Sega Saturn as well as for CD-ROM use. Still, movie-based CD-ROMs haven't vanished. Following are reviews of some recent titlesfrom the genre. DISNEY'S ANIMATED STQRYDOOK: TOY STORY ••••1/2 Disney Interactive and Pixar Animation Studios; Windows and Macintosh; $35-$40. Wow. Pixar Animation Studios (whose CEO and main stockholder is Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs) introduced 3- D animation to animation festgoers with "Luxo," a short subject about the relationship between a high-intensity desk lamp and a rubber ball. Pixar later created the hilarious "Tin Toy," in which toys cower in the shadow of a drooling, bumbling baby who doesn't really mean to toss them around and in the end wants to play only with the packaging. And the first completely computer-generated feature film, Pixar' s "Toy Story," delivered stunning images, humor and excitement. That means the bar has been raised for children's CD- ROM titles. Yet Pixar amazes the eyes again with a wonderfully choreographed dance of light on the CRT with its Disney Animated StoryBook version of 'Toy Story." On an average multimedia computer, this title seamlessly animates 3-D characters on many areas of the screen. Designed for children ages three through nine, "Toy Story" is the fourth in Disney Interactive' s Animated StoryBook series and features the talents of Annie Potts, Jim Vamey, Wallace Shawn and Don Rickles, who voice the same characters they played in the movie—the toys of a six-year-old boy named Andy. But the CD-ROM also features new animation and content, especially in the form of activities. The Broderbund Living Books format has been improved upon with integrated puzzles throughout the (toy) storybook. For example, youngsters can click on Buzz Lightyear's buttons to see what they do. Selecting Buzz at various points makes the spaceman catch Dance Fever or lift into the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. Scenes from the movie are reworked into activities. For example, in the movie's final scene. Buzz and Woody chase the moving van that is transporting CD SENTINELS: Woody and Buzz stand ready to entertain again, this time via Disney/Pixar's "Animated StoryBook: Toy Story. Andy's family to a new home. Here, in an effort to bring the two on board, all the toys have to help. If you choose the wobbly little Fisher Price people to help, they say, "Get real. We have no arms." This product is very well done—although a title about toys can give you the sneaking suspicion that you are being marketed to! FORREST J. ACKERMAN'S MUSEUM OF SCIENCE FICTION, HORROR AND FANTASY ^^^1/2 Marlin Software; Windows and Macintosh; $42.95. For starters, Forrest Ackerman's apparent unconcern for what others think of him and his simultaneous desire to be known and liked make him an interesting character. Add to that his having edited 190 issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine plus other fanzines, won six Hugo awards and two Gold Satums, acted in 52 sci-fi, horror and fantasy films, and been a literary agent for more than 200 writers, including Ray Bradbury—and you have an icon. Ackerman is known to such movie megafigures as Steven Spielberg, John Landis, George Lucas, Joe Dante and Stephen King, some of whom have put him in bit parts in their movies. A fan of wordplay, he coined the expression "sci-fi," and he can be seen on the sci-fi convention circuit, gracious to new fans and old, no matter how freakish, showing them his mummy ring a prop from an old B&W horror flick. Ackerman has one of the world's largest collections of sci-fi movie memorabilia, certainly risen in value since the days when Forry hung with Vincent Price and Bela Lugosi. Housed in his home, the Ackermansion, are 300,000 items, including 100,000 photos, 50,000 books, and original artwork by sci-fi artists. He's guided 25,000 fans on tours through this private showroom. The collection is the basis for this CD- ROM program. It includes interviews, video clips, artwork, rare photos, seven fulllength novels, and props and miscellany from seven decades of collecting. The four- CD set is grouped by three areas—science fiction, fantasy, and horror—and presents the material in a virtual museum something like the original. A whole room is devoted to Ackerman's fave flick, "Metropolis."
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