Boxoffice-September.1997

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FEST REVIEWS: GALWAY, IRELAND E |p Incoming European correspondent TONY DEAN reports on the Galwayfestfrom Ireland. THE BUTCHER BOY •••• Starrinq Eamonn Owens, Alan Boyle, Stephen Rea, Aisling O'Sullivan, Fiona Show, Brendan Gleeson and Ian Hart. Directed and produced by Neil Jordan. Written by Patrick McCable and Neil Jordan. A Warner Bros, release. Drama. Rated R for language and violence. Running time: 109 min. This may be an Irish-made movie with local surroundings, but it could be set anywhere in the wona. Based on a best-selling novel by Patrick McCabe, "The Butcher Boy" is set in a small Irish town in the 1 960s. The cinema and radio are what keep the locals going, and young Francie Brady is no different than anyone else. A boy with a fertile imagination, he listens to the adults as they argue the ways of the world, in particular the Cuban missile crisis. Coming from a dysfunctional family (his father is an alcoholic, his mother is a suicidal manic-depressive), Francie is closest to his school chum Joe. Life is best for him when they act out the cowboy and Indian games based on what they've read in comic books. Living with a drunken father and a mother who is forever preparing cakes for the imminent arrival of 'Uncle Alo" from London does not deter the cheerful lad. Life gets cruel, however, and he loses his father, mother and friend, which leaves him insecure and threatened by his adult surroundings. In order to get his own back on the world, he takes his ariger out on a snobbish neighbor who won'tlet her son play with him; the fact that she dresses in shock green makes him think she's like one of the aliens in his comics. Neil Jordan's 10th film is an extraordinary piece of cinema. It features almost an entire Irish cast, including Stephen Rea as the father and Aisling O'Sullivan as the mother; pop sinqer Sinead O'Connor appears in the film s apparition sequences as ttie Virgin Mary. Perhaps the most astounding performer in the film is a youngster named Eamonn Owens, who plays the young boy. With no acting experience, he was picked from 2,000 other hopefuls for the part: Alan Boyle, who comes from the same school, plays his paijoe to perfection. This film gives life to the screen, capturing an era long forgotten. And not only are the performances stunning; so is Jordan's direction, of the caliber that says "Oscar." BOGWOMAN ••• Starring Peter Mullan and Sean McGinley. Directed and written by Tom Collins. Produced by Martha O'Neill and Tom Collins. A De Facto production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated. Running time: 80 min. The Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland is tfie setting for this striking movie about the women of the area known worldwide for "the trouisles." The film goes a long way to explain the origins oFthe civil rights movement: The setting is right before Bloody Sunday, when many marchers for Irish freedom were shot by British troops. A woman goes back to her old home in the country to see the lost of it as it's being pulled down. Safe for the moment and away from the troubled place in which she now must live, she picks up a bulb from the ground to bring back home with her the feeling of having "roots." A lot of the Irish question makes its way into the plot as the old woman tells her story; in between, the film shows different aspects of life up north. Weil made and acted, "Bogwoman" is a strong look at the poiiticalsituation and the human condition in Northern Ireland. THE DISAPPEARANCE OFFINBAR ifV2 Starring Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Luke Griffin and Sean McGinley. Directed by Sue Clayton. Written by Sue Clayton and Dermot Bolger. Produced by Martin Bruce-Clayton, David Collms, Bertil Ohisson and Soren Staemose. A Samson production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated. Young Finbar comes from a dilapidiated housing estate in the south of the city; his father fiad little success with his singing career, so he invests his energies into his son. The lad gets a chance at ecoming a footballer and is given a hero's send-off by the community. Within a month, he's back. He calls on his friend Danny, who has always been there for him, and in a moment of self-pity Finbar falls from a bridge. Friends search for him, but there is no trace of a body. After months pass, a garbled phone call from Stockholm to Danny gives the first clue as to Finbar's whereabouts. Danny sets off to find him, meeting up with all sorts of eccentric characters who eventually lead him to Lapland, where he finds our hero. For almost an hour, moviegoers are treated to the culture of Lapland and Stockholm. Yet this could have been a silent film; there is very little dialogue (most of what there is in Scandinavian languages and isn't subtitled, in any case), so audiences ore left with little explanation why a local girl beds Danny while all the men in the village snigger. The film is beautiful, but there's so much of that beauty and so little going on plotwise that the movie almost disappears like Finbar. Luke Griffin as Danny holds the film together with his facial expressions, ancTJonathan Rhys- Myers as Finbar lights up the screen with his presence. Except for that, however, "The Disappearance of Finbar" has little to keep patrons from making o similar exit. FESTS parts of a world that no longer exists to make a documentary that manages to illuminate a fascinating comer of humanity while remaining witty fun. Using film clips and interviews with the era's technicians and stars (including two identified as the Elvis and the Doris Day of the East), "East Side Story" shows how these musicals acted as both propaganda and escapism for their audiences. Despite the fact that the genre originated in Hollywood, Stalin, it turns out, was its biggest booster, supporting films that portrayed cheerful workers harmonizing about the while in reality his purges were good life, diminishing the flocks. Meanwhile, films like the 1958 East German hit "My Wife Wants to Sing," in which a Mrs. Cleaver-ish hausfrau becomes a glamorous performer, thrilled audiences while offending communist censors. The filmmakers parallel such movies with Hollywood's lush-life musicals of the Depression era, depicting a fantasy world when reality was anything but. The best part of "East Side Story" is that it is copiously illustrated with kitschy excerpts from films such as "Tractor Drivers" (USSR, 1939), "I Don't Want to Marry" (Romania, 1961) and "No Cheating Darling" (East Germany, 1973), which give the documentary its humor and energy. Seeing a scene from East Germany's version of "Beach Blanket Bingo"— 1968's "Hot Summer"—with its Frankie and Annette doppelgangers is kind of like climbing through the looking glass. It's this delicious sense of the bizarre that makes "East Side Story" as suited to a midnight-movie marquee as to an art-house. FORGOTTEN LIGHT ••l/Z Starring Boleslav Polivka and Veronika Zilkova. Directed by Vladimir Michalek. Written by Milena Jelinek. Produced by Alice Nemanska, Jana Tomsova and Ivana Kacirkova. A Studio Fama 92 production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Czechlanguage; English subtitles. Not yet rated Running time: 101 min. Won best actor (Boleslav Polivka) and an audience award The makers of "Forgotten Light" ("Zapomenute svetio") deal with recent Czech past in this story of a beleaguered village priest and a small group of parishioners struggling to save their church in 1 987, two years before the communists, with their repressive religious policies, fell. Considering its elements—a dying mother, a crisis of faith, plus a flood and some fire—the movie has surprisingly little power. What it does have is a somber steadiness and a cohesiveness. It also has the calmly magnetic presence of Boleslav Polivka, who (in a best-actor-winning performance) plays denim-and-leather-clad Father Holy. The film touches on the issue of members of the Catholic hierarchy who collaborated with the communists. The film's making must be a release of sorts, given that its story couldn' t be told even a decade ago. Still, the main question "Forgotten Light" raises is: Why this film now?
s — " û^^ 100-7 /'!> i'yi\ FESTIVAL REVIEWS THE GOOD LIFE iririr Starring Fernando Ramallo and Lucia Jimenez. Directed and written by David Trueba. Produced by Ana Huete and Cristina Huete. A Fernando Trueba, Kaplan & Olmo Films production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Spanish-language; English subtitles. Not yet rated. Running time: 108 min. Won a specialjury prize. A kind of Spanish "Wonder Years," "The Good Life" ("La buena vida") is about how 15-year-old Tristan (a very natural Fernando Ramallo) copes when both mortality and sex hit him in the face. When the film begins, he's just another smart-ass kid, good-humoredly recounting his parents' foibles (including his own conception the night Franco died) by inserting himself into the retelling. Then tragedy strikes: Tristan's parents are killed in a car accident. He is left with his doddering grandfather (Luis Cuenca), a sympathetic teacher (Isabell Otero) and a sexy firebug of acousin (Lucia Jimenez) to comfort him. In recounting the painful adjustments Tristan must make, the film manages not to wallow in the tragic, instead leavening the proceedings with realistic humor. It also manages the tricky act of putting Tristan's sexual explorations against such a woeful backdrop without trivializing the situation; he's grieving and trying to score at the same time. That said, the film doesn't take its audience to any great heights, although it elicits a few lumps in the throat. Most of the time, "The Good Life" unreels in that comfort zone between close-to-the-bone truthfulness and too-clever artificiality. It's a relief for a filmgoer who doesn't want to be wrung dry, but it also leaves one with the nagging feeling that if it had taken a few risks it would have been harder to watch but a better film for the sacrifice. LATE FULL MOON 1/2 Starring Icchak Find and Nikolaj Urumov. Directed and written by Eduard TMchariev. Produced by Edi Yahariev. A Bulgarian National Television and Budapest Filmstudio production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Bulgarianlanguage; French subtitles. Not yet rated. Running time: 120 min. It's nice to hear a voice from Bulgaria, but did it have to be this film? "Late Full Moon" ("Zakasnialo palnolunie") examines the generational breach wrought by the fall of communism in Europe, leaving a Wild East of mafia capitalists among the young and deepening poverty among the old. The Old Man (Icchak Finci) is one of the latter. He tsk-tsks the shallow life of his son (Nikolaj Urumov): nude-model wife, thieving son, twittering cell phone. Soon he's spiraling into Sofia's dregs: first a prison-like old folks' home, then a garbage dump lorded over by a trash-palace Gypsy. Some bad performances, jarring transitions, teen-age villains from the "Saved by the Bell" school of subtlety, a busload of old-people cliches and, finally, spelling mistakes in the French subtitles make "Late Full Moon" a tedious experience. ORBISPICTUS iriîr Starring Dorotka Nvotova and Marian Labuda. Directed by Martin Sulik. Written by Martin Sulik, Marek Lescak and Ondrej Sulaj. Produced by Rudolf Biermann. An In Film production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Slovaklanguage; French subtitles. Not yet rated. Running time: 105 min. "Orbis Pictus" is inscrutable yet curiously satisfying. Sixteen-year-old Tereza (Dorotka Nvotova) leaves her waywardgirls home to find the mother who put her there. She tramps across Slovakia, ablaze in fall colors; as in a Middle Europe fairy tale, she suffers the perils of forest and city, meeting odd characters along the way. An old woman buried to her neck in soil, a May-September couple celebrating their folk wedding, a distinguished man hiding in a restaurant kitchen: Their stories are nominally explained, but whatever they're meant to symbolize hovers above the scene like a ghost refusing to be acknowledged. Perhaps it's a parable of a girl facing precarious womanhood: Tereza's encounters have an undertone of sexual menace. UNDER THE BRIDGE -ki^Vl Starring Damien Leake and Melissa Leo. Directed and written by Charles Weinstein. Produced by Charles Weinstein and Andy Clark. A Soho Partnership production; no stateside distributor set. Drama. Not yet rated. Running time: 90 min. "Under the Bridge" might have seemed fresh a decade ago because of its fromwithin portrayal of a homeless community as well as its vivid, if romanticized, performances. Today, though, that's not enough. The catalyst for looking at this particular collection of roof-challenged individuals is the appearance of Eddie, an eight-year-old runaway orphan who appears at their squat under New York's Williamsburg Bridge. He joins a familiar group: There's the black sage (Damien Leake); the junkie prostitute with fabulous hair (Mehssa Leo); the crusty but kind-hearted overseer (Zach Grenier). The kid (Matthew Weathers) is cute but personality-free. It's easy to forecast the movie's plot: Junkies overdose, dreams are shattered, some people die, others get a shot at redemption. It's really not a bad story, just a too-familiar one. FEST: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA7% COURTIiJG COURTNEY ^^V^^ Starring Dana Gould, Eliza Coyle, Taylor Negron and Sean Masterson. Directed and wr/ffen bv Paul Tarantino. Produced by Hadeel Reda, Serge Rodnunsky and Paul Tarantino. A Toasted Films production; no stateside distributor set. Romantic comedy. Not yet rated. Running time: 84 min. Perhaps the most original romantic comedy of its kind since 'When Harry Met Sally...," this deceptively clever debut by v/riter/director Paul Tarantino (no relation to Quentin) emerges as both a genuine crowdpleaser and a surprisingly poignant look at the chaos of modern courtship. An inventive faux COURIERS: Dana in Paul Tarantino' documentary structure focuses on the ongoing romantic crises of 29-year-old Courtney Baker (Eliza Coyle) as recorded by her best friend and aspiring filmmaker Nick Hastings (Dana Gould). As Courtney finds herself on the verge of her 30th birthday and no closer to finding a suitable mate than when she and Nick were unsuccessful high school sweethearts, Nick looks for an explanation. Interviews with ex-boyfriends, family members, friends and acquaintances are interspersed with flashbacks and real-time intrusions into Courtney's private life. slowly and steadily building a portrait of romantic dysfunctionality as funny as it is touching. Episodes centering around a misfit singles support group and its lessthan-ethical patron. Doctor Phelps (veteran comic Taylor Negron), are priceless. Unlike such popular mockumentaries as "This Is Spinal Tap" and "Bob Roberts," however, "Courting Courtney" is neither Gould and Eliza Coyle "Courting Courtney. cynical nor satirical. Even at their most bizarre, the emotions and relationships always ring true, a credit not only to Taronti no's writing but to an eclectic and able cast. Gould's breezy affability and Coyle's homespun charms anchor the picture solidly among such familiar comic faces as Kothy Griffin, Ryan Stiles, "Saturday Night Live" alum Julia Sweeney and Negron, who proves to be a scene-stealer. Technically, the film is similarly polished, exhibiting no traces of its rumored five-figure budget. Deftly edited and crisply photographed, "Courting Courtney" is currently seeking a stateside distributor, but European audiences in Holland and Belgium will see the film released, respectively, during this September and October. Tarantino's skillful blending of unabashed honesty and romantic optimism is a feat that's almost as impressive as true love itself. Wade Major
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