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 THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS. Screenwriter William Goldman,
who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the
President's Men and The Stepford Wives, among others,
proves once again that the nineties will never be as good as the
seventies, movie-wise. This "true" tale about great
white hunters protecting the natives from a couple of man-eating
lions endorses the standard myopic myths about colonialism, manhood,
hunting, etc. Val Kilmer plays John Patterson, an engineer who
has been sent to the African savanna to build a bridge that will
expand the ivory trade. He speaks of Africa as if it were a town,
rather than a continent ("I love Africa!"), and sets
about proving his manhood and protecting his men (various
racial stereotypes, mitigated somewhat by one or two heroic black
characters) against a pair of man-eating lions. A great hunter,
Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) comes to show him how it's
done. The two men bond, hunt, kill etc. Remington remarks with
revulsion that the pair of unnatural lions "are doing it
for pleasure," i.e., killing, but the movie doesn't have
the intelligence to draw the connection between the lion's pleasure
in killing and man's pleasure in hunting, colonization and dominance.
After a while, it's hard to not root for the lions. At least they're
resisting the conquest of their domain.
THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson
star in what starts out as a promising action thriller about a
30-something amnesiac (+name) who was "born eight years ago,
naked, on a beach in New Jersey." The first 45 minutes delve
into some interesting character development as +'s former personality
starts to resurface and reclaim her rightful place. Disappointingly,
the directors seemed to feel 45 minutes was plenty for the American
movie-going demographic: The remaining 135 minutes are filled
with the requisite campy one-liners, saccharine sentimentality,
plot holes large enough for a flaming semi to careen through and
bad guys (as well as heroes) who insist on dying at least twice,
as if this is somehow surprising. In spite of the movie's flaws,
Davis is superb as the kick-ass, psycho-spy soccer mom. Elements
of James Bond, Pulp Fiction and Xena: Warrior Princess make
Long Kiss thoroughly enjoyable mindless entertainment.
PAPERBACK ROMANCE. A loopy, endearing little romantic comedy
from down under, Paperback Romance has, um, interesting
production values and not a familiar face in the cast. There's
nothing very weighty here, but the story of a pretty, handicapped
romance writer (she conveniently composes her smutty stories aloud)
who pretends to have been injured in a skiing accident in order
to nab Prince Charming has a ridiculous but undeniable charm.
Like While You Were Sleeping or even Funny Face, Paperback
Romance does a fine job of conflating absurdity with romance.
Bring a date.
SLEEPERS. Director Barry Levinson overshoots the mark in
Sleepers, a long, overly dramatic movie emphatically about
the loss of innocence. Though the first part of the film, about
a group of mischievous friends growing up in Hell's Kitchen, has
some of the neighborhood charm of Levinson's Diner, the
story unravels in the second half into an annoying series of flashbacks
that are basically all the same. The plot concerns a group of
boys who pull a prank that gets out of hand; as a result they're
sent away to a Draconian boy's prison where the guards torture
and abuse them. Fifteen years later the boys (haunted by black
and white flashbacks), take their revenge on the guards. (One
astute viewer leaving the theater commented on the similarities
to First Wives' Club.) Though the plot gains some power
through the fact that it's based on a true story, the tension
never feels genuine, and the boys never seem as real as adults
as they did as happy children. Dustin Hoffman gives a nice performance
in his plum little role, and Robert Deniro manages a kind of manly
rectitude as the neighborhood priest; unfortunately, the adult
versions of the boys aren't played nearly as well.
THAT THING YOU DO. Tom Hanks wrote and directed this one
(yes, he's in it too), and it seems like just the kind of thing
Hanks would produce: It's cute, endearing, and utterly without
tension or meaning. The core idea for this movie though, is great.
It traces the rise and fall of a little rock and roll band from
Pennsylvania during the mid-sixties; a "one-hit wonder"
group that rocked the charts for a few weeks, then disappeared
from view. The young cast is adorable, the music is infectious
(we get to hear that one hit, the eponymous That Thing You
Do, something like 11 times), and the sixties sets, costumes
and cars are a pleasure to look at. There's not much conflict,
though, and the character Hanks plays, the record company representative,
never really sorts himself out as being for the band or against
it. This fuzziness makes That Thing You Do a little boring
at times, and the speech Liv Tyler gives about wasted kisses is
absolutely humiliating, but this movie is so good-natured that
it's hard not to like it at least a little.
WALLACE AND GROMIT. Aardman Animation, that U.K. studio
where claymation cracker jack Peter Lord creates his Oscar-award
winning films, has packed this series of shorts made for British
TV and sent them over the waters to prove that British television
is woefully superior to much of American cinema. This 90-minute
compilation is a straight-forward mix of fairy tales, a fable
of the urban labyrinth, misadventures with "Rex the Runt"
and "Pib and Pog," "Creature Comforts" commercial
spots and, of course, Wallace and Gromit's "A Close
Shave." The more you watch, the funnier they get; and the
animation is first-rate. Go if only to see the subversively hilarious
zoo mocumentary in "Creature Comforts," which uses dialogue
from interviews with actual (human) immigrants to London.
Special Screenings
LESBIAN AND GAY FILM FEST. Tucson' second annual Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival, organized by Wingspan, continues Thursday
through Sunday, October 24 through 27, at The Screening Room,
127 E. Congress St. Festival Guest of Honor Douglas Langway presents
the premiere gay action film, Raising Heroes, at 7
p.m. Thursday, October 24, with an additional screening at 9 p.m.
Friday. Other featured works include Change the Frame,
a lesbian love story by Christina Rey, on Thursday and
Friday; a program of four short films exploring identity on Friday
and Saturday; and two series of men's and women's video
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