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Reviews
My Name Is Joe (1998)
glasgow tourist board advert - not
Not surprisingly, in the long list of people and institutions that funded this wee gem of a film the Glasgow tourist board were not listed. The film does perhaps reinforce a weary stereotype about the city of my birth, that it is all thugs, drugs and pubs but it re-visits the story with a vigour for honesty that I find missing in so many other attempts. The honesty comes in the dialogue, the settings, the characters and perhaps most importantly in being able to show that Joe - and everyone else for that matter - is not a good guy or a bad guy but is a painful mixture of both.
I think the film was ostensibly set in the east end of glasgow, an area that I lived in for a short while a few years back and this film really brought the sights, sounds and the feelings that I remember about my time there sharply back to me. Please do give it your time and don't be put off by the (mostly accurate) subtitles!
Dating the Enemy (1996)
I laughed through my candy floss
This is a terribly hackneyed plot. All about the stereotypes of men and women and how we are supposed to interact. But I laughed frequently and out loud and I suppose that's what a comedy film is supposed to make you do. I enjoyed the playing of the actors who brought life and humour to a sometimes rather corny script. They brought out the full farce of their acting one might say!
The first twenty minutes, whilst the plot establishes itself, are a bit of a chore but thereafter the silliness takes over and I chortled away as predictably absurd scenes were unravelled.
Disappointing homophobic line about men and women being the natural (and implicitly, only) form of coupling for human beings, which seemed at odds with the rest of a fresh, healthy skip through sexual norms but alas every script writer has a bad day.
I grew up on that staple of british cinema the 'Carry On's and this is kind of doing a similar thing. Don't expect it to change your life, just entertain you for 90 minutes.