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 Celluloid Closet. This terrific documentary traces
both the overt and covert portrayal of lesbians and gays in the
movies from the freedom of the silent era, to the middle of the
century (when same-sex relationships in the movies usually ended
in death), to today, when a gay character actually has a chance
of surviving! This movie is full of wonderful clips and intriguing,
behind-the-scenes glimpses from actors and screenwriters. Learn
all about the secret love-plot embedded in Ben Hur from Gore Vidal;
hear about the obsessive lesbian yearning of the housekeeper Mrs.
Danvers in Hitchcock's Rebecca from Susie Bright. Best of all,
hear Susan Sarandon talk about the triumph and trials of bedding
Catherine Deneuve.
Chungking Express. This delightful, bittersweet love story
from Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai is innovative and stylish
from start to finish. Two loosely affiliated stories about love
connections in the big city blend detective-story intrigue with
fantasy romance. Filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai, who is widely known in
Hong Kong, has a sly, offbeat sense of how stories should be put
together, and the structure of this film is as surprising and
fresh as the love lives of the characters. Good performances by
handsome young actors make the whole thing even more appealing.
Cold Comfort Farm. John Schlesinger makes a wonderful comeback
with Cold Comfort Farm, a zippy comedy with a very sly,
British sense of humor. Tons of witty dialogue and clever asides
pepper this story of a plucky gal who decides, after the death
of her parents, to go live with the most "interesting"
family members she can find in order to scavenge fuel for her
writing career. The distant relatives she locates are closer to
insane than interesting--a weird, gothic clan of vaguely inbred
farmers who don't even observe the custom of afternoon tea. The
plucky Flora Poste tries her 1930's modern-girl best to turn her
relatives' shame-filled, squalid lives into something out of the
society section. Ah--but will she succeed?
Dragonheart. Not since the Star Wars trilogy have
we seen an otherworldly creature this "realistic" and
lovable. Unfortunately, the quality of the storytelling is light
years away from that cinematic masterpiece. The plot (and the
occasional quip) err at times on the contemporary side considering
the 18th-century setting; but Dragonheart overcomes its
weaknesses to deliver an action-adventure-comedy that's perfect
for bored, young audiences out-of-school children with nowhere
to go. The moral for insolent teenagers-in-training may alone
be worth the price of admission. Dennis Quaid plays the dragon-slaying
knight and Sean Connery is wise, clever Draco, the last dragon.
Overall, this is a marvel of special effects with plenty of comic
relief to make the cloying sentimentality bearable. On an unlikely
yet appropriate scale, it's better than First Knight but
not as good as Princess Bride.
Heaven's Prisoners. This long, sweaty look at cops and
robbers in bayou country never really coalesces into much of a
movie. There are lots of stylish shots and the atmosphere is so
thick you could eat it with a fork, but beneath this is virtually
nothing! Alec Baldwin plays a tough homicide detective who's trying
to retire, but bad guys keep literally falling out of the sky
and landing on top of him, and he just can't resist chasing them.
Not only is he addicted to fighting crime, he's also battling,
unsuccessfully, to stay on the wagon. A bevy of babes, both good
and evil (including Teri Hatcher as a clothing-impaired villain),
come to soothe and tempt him. The characters run around for two
and a half hours, then it's over.
Mission: Impossible. Rather than having a plot, this movie
features an accretion of random events arranged next to each other
on film. If you're confused during this movie, join the rapidly
expanding club. On the other hand, Brian DePalma is a genius at
directing action scenes, and you will almost certainly gasp involuntarily
when Tom Cruise hangs above that white supercomputer by a thread.
Those who consider Cruise to be a babe will certainly find him
in top form here. But if you were a fan of the Mission: Impossible
TV series, or if you expect your movies to have coherent plots,
you will be disappointed.
Phantom. A flick that truly earns the adjective unwatchable,
The Phantom is simply the corniest, most predictable, flat
piece of filmmaking imaginable. Okay, yes, so a guy runs around
the jungle in a purple spandex suit, but don't let that fool you:
There's nothing exciting here. Every single line of dialogue has
been recycled from other movies (example: "She's a feisty
one, isn't she!") and all the sets look like they've been
borrowed from the back lot of Xena: Warrior Princess. There's
some plot here somewhere, something about forbidden skulls or
something; but believe us, it's nothing you haven't seen before.
Don't waste an irretrievable portion of life on this travesty.
Spy Hard. A feeding-frenzy of rampant stupidity, shoddy
production values and of course, fart jokes. In one particularly
depressing aspect of this movie, a whole bunch of actors we haven't
seen in a while reappear looking fatter, older and less talented
than they ever have in their lives.
When Night is Falling. This story of forbidden love is
sure to mesmerize from start to finish with its visually stunning
cinematography and set design. The two hesitant lovers, Camille
and Petra, are perpetually swathed in warm rose and gold tones
and surrounded by an exotic circus of images contrasted with the
wintry blue light of the Canadian winter. It's true: You'd have
to be pretty cold-hearted not to feel writer/director Patricia
Rozema's sense of tenderness and romance. But the plot is a tease.
Though Camille is a theologian at a Christian college, the tension
between religion and homosexuality--between private and public,
individual and society--are only superficially developed. Nonetheless,
the film retains a less-is-more resonance that leaves the mind
free to admire all the pretty pictures.
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