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At the top of
the current pile of recent releases - probably the whole
year's - sits.........
American Beauty
(18), the first film by acclaimed British theatre director
and now Golden Globe winner Sam Mendes, most famous for
Nicole Kidman's kit off appearance in
The Blue
Room. The "beauty" refers to a rose,
not some Yankee totty. Shucks. It has the best acting you'll
ever see and subject matter not a million miles from the
recent Fight Club. It's brilliantly funny, seriously moving
and an instant classic.
Kevin Spacey's been a star since Se7en. With
American
Beauty he shows, quite simply, that
he's the best living American actor. Like many of the greats
- Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro -
he keeps his private life private. This unknown quality
works superbly in American
Beauty. Spacey's Lester Burnham is
in middle-aged meltdown, knocked sideways by an obsession
with his daughter's 16 year old friend.
Films
like this are rare as teetotallers on the Micklegate
Run
He junks his exec job, works
out, smokes pot, and buys a sports car. The uncannily judged
performance is Spacey's best. It's balanced by another
brilliant turn from Annette Bening as Lester's seemingly
perfect suburban wife. Mendes says he's surprised the way it
worked out. He should be.
Films like this are as rare as teetotallers on the
Micklegate Run.
"What, me? I never dunnit, yer
honour..."
Back to the
top
Much more mundane is
Double Jeopardy (15), an implausible
retread of The
Fugitive which pulled in an
inexplicable $100 million in the US. Tommy Lee Jones plays
another desperately seeking lawman (kind of) who never quite
catches up with his quarry. She's delightful mother of one
Ashley Judd, whose wealthy husband is called Nicholas
Parsons (Bruce Greenwood). He's dead in slightly more than
just a minute and the fun really starts. Where
The Fugitive
was a guy thing, Double
Jeopardy concentrates on a
chick-in-shit, but this is TV movie stuff. The plot has more
holes than Tupac Shakur's body and the locations include a
cemetery that could be the one in
Easy
Rider.
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top
Stigmata (18) is
a weak Exorcist wannabe with the Third World prologue,
ancient scripts and dodgy priests seen in The Omen and a
hundred rip-offs. The priest is Gabriel Byrne and the girl
with the hole-y hands is Patricia Arquette, who appeared
recently in an empty cinema near you in
Bringing Out The
Dead (18), Martin Scorsese's
slightly below par return to the edgy New York nightscape of
Taxi
Driver.
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top
The Beach (18)
sees the long-awaited return of the luminous Leonardo
DiCaprio. Directed by Danny Boyle, the story is taken from
Alex Garland's mega-successful novel. It's a beautiful film,
with stunning Thailand locations and an equally scenic
leading lady, Virginie Ledoyen.
Unfortunately, Boyle can't decide whether
he's making a travelogue or a grown up Lord of the Flies and
it all slides down the gully after a kickstart from an
unhinged Robert Carlyle. So Southeast
Asia's the white man's asylum and
paradise turns to hell pretty damn fast. Didn't we know that
already?
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top
Toy Story 2 (U)
is a rare sequel that beats its illustrious predecessor.
Once again astronaut Buzz and cowboy Woody (voiced by Tim
Allen and Tom Hanks respectively) head up the motley crew of
toys in Andy's bedroom, this time shocked into action when a
nasty toy dealer kidnaps the beloved cowboy, who's worth
several fistsful of dollars.
Both story and screenplay improve on the
original, the characterisation is deeper and the minute
detail - hair, clothing, cars - is superlative.
Toy Story 2
is state of the art digital
film-making spoiled only by shameless product
placement.
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