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East Is East (1999)
A gem of a comedy about life as a Pakistani in 1970s Britain
"East is East" is set in 1970s Telford, where the first generation of Anglo-Pakistanis are dealing with the tension between the culture of their people and the one of the country they were born in. The story focusses on George Khan (brilliantly played by Om Puri), a twice-married Pakistani man who is desperately trying to find wives for his older sons. Meanwhile, his sons have other ideas...
With such a great story to begin with, you would expect this to be entertaining, but "East is East" manages to be even more than that. Most of the time it is a highly entertaining comedy, using the tension between the old ways of the father and the new ways of the kids as a vehicle for all sorts of gags and great set pieces. (The scene in which they have to get rid of the evidence of bacon-eating in a hurry is a great example of this.) Of George's six sons, Tariq is the most spirited, climbing out of his bedroom window at night to head down to the local disco, where he pretends to be English and has a whale of a time flirting with all the local girls. His regular squeeze, sweet-natured Stella, comes from a family of Enoch Powell supporting racists, emphasising the tensions that accompanied being a "Paki" in 1970s England. Fortunately, the film does not labour the point, instead focussing on quite how normal and spirited the English-born Khan kids really are.
The film turns a bit darker in the last 20 minutes, as father tries to assert his absolute authority over his (white) wife and all of his children -- but this is also handled well and does not make the film seem too heavy. In fact, the final scenes are really quite moving, because after a big confrontation, everyone is shocked that the order of things has been challenged so fundamentally. This points to the fact that both Pakistani and English cultures are quite stable and slow to change, revealing similarities which lie beneath the apparent differences of culture.
"East is East" is not a particularly deep film but it's a great chunk of entertainment and is well worth seeing. If it never reaches the dizzying heights of "The Buddha of Suburbia" (of which it is very faintly reminiscent), it is because its primary aim is to entertain, which is manages very well indeed. Definitely worth watching. 8 out of 10.
Last Night (1998)
A quiet, haunting, brilliant film
** CONTAINS A COUPLE OF SPOILERS **
The premise of "Last Night" is simple: the world is going to end in 6 hours. The film follows an assortment of characters through their final hours, quietly observing them as they spend time with loved ones, have sex, smash things up and generally find meaning for their existence in their final acts. It is a simple idea and which could so easily have been horribly naff and tearful a la Hollywood. But in the hands of Don McKellar, who wrote and directed the film as well as leading the cast, it turns into an elegant meditation on the joy of living, a celebration of human diversity and a highly moving experience.
What makes "Last Night" such a masterpiece (albeit a very quiet one) is the telling detail. The film starts by showing the abandoned rows of shops, unattended and completely empty. The streets are filled with revellers and thugs. Sandra, a fraught Chinese-Canadian, gathers wine and other things for a final meal with her husband. As she does so, the thugs turn her car over and roll it down the street. In a world about to end, society's norms are shattered and meaning can be found in everything and nothing. This mood is at the film's heart, as human life is shown at its most vulnerable and joyous. Whether it is Patrick so desperate to spend his last night alone in memory of his dead wife, his mother pretending that it's Christmas to relive the family's happiest days or his best friend playing out each and every sexual desire before it is too late, meaning is found in a delicate mixture of truth and fantasy, fact and fiction.
The performances help to keep this film utterly convincing and extremely moving. McKellar is brilliantly morose as Patrick, trying so hard to honour his love by being alone, unable to reveal the kindness that his beloved awoke in him. Sandra Oh is a study in nervous tension as she realises that her careful plan is not going to work out. I could go on about each of the others because the cast is perfect - no stars, just a classy ensemble of actors famous in Canada who work together perfectly. (Sarah Polley has of course gone on to bigger things - Doug Liman's Go -and her legs alone should guarantee her a long career as high class celluloid totty.)
Last Night is such a quiet film that it could have been made in the 50s or 60s. It also contrasts charmingly with other "end of the world" tragedy movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact. There's no resistence here, no heroics - just the tender melancholy of humanity at its worst and best. This is a truly wonderful film, capable of touching the heart and stimulating the mind - I highly recommend it.
9 out of 10
Stealing Beauty (1996)
A beautiful, dream-like nothing of a film
Bertolucci films are always magnificent to look at. From the epic scenes of The Last Emperor to the claustrophobic bedroom in Last Tango, he is a film-maker whose mastery of visual language is immense. Stealing Beauty is no exception. Right from the start, the film has a dream-like beauty which reflects its 19-year-old protagonist, Lucy (played by the stunning Liv Tyler). Lucy is beautiful, naive, dreamy and still a virgin. Her mother's suicide prompts her to go to Italy to visit her parents' bohemian friends...
There is nothing really wrong with this film but there isn't much to it either. The story is extremely slight, and even some good performances (particularly from Charles Dance as the dying man) can't save it from being slightly dull. It hints at some interesting themes - the way the post-AIDS generation is more hesitant about sex, how the past haunts the present - but does little with them. Instead, Bertolucci seems content to focus the camera on Tyler for most of the film, trying to intoxicate us with her breathtaking beauty to make us forget that there's nothing much here. This works for a while, aided greatly by the short summer dresses and some lovely scenery, but basically it can't carry the film through its entire length. Somewhere along the way I just got bored.
If this happens to be on, you could do a lot worse, but it's definitely not worth a trip to the cinema to see - not even to the video shop, I don't think. Considering Bertolucci's pedigree, I had expected better from Stealing Beauty, but I suppose everyone has their off days. Average.
Ringu 2 (1999)
A worthy sequel, as terrifying as the first "Ring"
Hideo Nakata's follow-up to "Ring" is terrifying stuff. Building on the events of the first film and following the dreadful video curse through to the next level, it is a very worthy successor to the original classic.
In terms of filmmaking style, very little has changed. "Ring 2" is high quality horror filmmaking, including excellent music, a couple of nasty shocks (used sparingly, making them all the more effective) and some really frightening images which stay in your mind long after the film is over. We also learn more about Sadako and the circumstances leading up to her imprisonment and death, which deepens the horror by making the audience more compassionate towards the object of fear. This is the sort of thing that classic Western horror USED to do, but now it is more concerned with shock tactics and tongue-in-cheek self-referencing (see "Scream") to bother with good old-fashioned empathy.
This is not to say that we grow to love Sadako any more in this film than in the first. She is still very much the epitome of evil. "Ring 2" also makes less sense than its predecessor and demands more leaps of the imagination than the first film did. That said, the irrationality leads to some truly terrifying moments: the way the curse marks all media (photos, videos, any TV in range); the whole sequence with the well; the flashback sequence at the Inn where Sadako was raised. By not trying to be too logical about the plot here, Nakata actually taps into a deeper vein of horror, although it makes "Ring 2" slightly less satisfying than its predecessor.
Everything about this production is so good that it barely even needs to be mentioned. The acting is terrific, particularly Miki Nakatini as Mai, burdened with a psychic capacity she doesn't want and drawn into the mystery against her will. Rikiya Otaka also deserves a mention as Yoichi (the little boy from the first film) - his expressions of blank terror and occasional moments of rage are very effective indeed.
Don't watch "Ring 2" alone and don't expect to sleep easy afterwards. This is good quality horror the way it hasn't been made in Hollywood for a good few years now - go with a friend!
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Curious, unsatisfying and half and hour too long
I am huge Kubrick fan. I haven't seen everything he's made but the films I have seen - Lolita, Clockwork Orange and Dr Strangelove in particular - have left a deep impression on me. He seems willing to tackle subjects no one else will touch, and the results are always mesmerising. For this reason, I was really excited when Eyes Wide Shut came out, as it was his last film and dealt with another difficult subject - marital jealousy and infidelity.
Perhaps my expectations were too high. The first time I saw it (at the cinema on its release), I thought it was interesting, if slightly dissatisfying. I liked the way the streets of New York became a netherworld for Tom Cruise's fraught, jealous consciousness. I was fascinated by the way sex was on display and on sale everywhere, particularly in the curious and disturbing sequence in the fancy dress hire shop. The film didn't hold together for me, but I remember leaving the cinema impressed and thoughtful - and contemplating the film for several days after.
When revisiting the film on DVD, I found it less interesting and frustratingly slow. Tom Cruise's performance is unnatural and unconvincing - he doesn't have the range in his facial and vocal expressions to carry off such a tough part, and he falters with the weight of the film on his shoulders. Nicole Kidman is better but even she struggles to put across the highly stylised dialogue in a convincing way. This is particularly painful when she is dancing with the "mysterious" Hungarian (a hideous cliche of central European charm, grafted warts and all from bad 70s soft porn). She is best when ranting at Cruise in the scene where she confesses the temptation which drives the film forward.
The biggest problem with the film is its pace. There are so many scenes of Cruise stuggling to come to terms with the temptations around him (particularly the one his wife confesses to) and he just doesn't have the depth or range to carry such a lot of chin-stroking angst. The set pieces, such as the one with the whore or the orgy itself, are okay and hang together reasonably well - but there's just too much pontificating in between. The most effective scene remains the one with gorgeous Leelee Sobieski as the teenage nymphet having a secret party with two Japanese men in her father's shop. In this scene Kubrick seems to be showing us a world gone mad, in which parents will pimp their children and only pretend they are doing anything else for a "respectable" customer. Sobieski is incredible as the little girl, sweet-looking but incredibly sexy at the same time, whispering something into Tom Cruise's ear which we will never hear.
Interesting though this scene is, it also reinforces one of the film's biggest drawbacks - its profound and (occasionally) painful misogyny. The women in the film are sex objects of a very particular sort, drawn straight out of Schnitzer's neurotic Freudian 1930s novel and dumped into the middle of Manhattan. In the context of 1930s Vienna, a place at once sexually charged and highly repressed, these kinds of characters at least made a modicum of sense - in 1990s New York they make little or none. Also, by showing New York's melting pot of cultures through a host of first generation immigrant characters, is Kubrick suggesting that this cultural diversity has led to the sexual confusion of the modern world? One suspects not - he was from immigrant stock himself - but it seems that this is one of the subtexts of the novel; perhaps there is an unconscious trace of self-loathing in Kubrick's film which he could not see because he was so close to the project for so long (and died before it was released).
There are so many problems with this film that I'm sure it will continue to be viewed with curiousity and confusion by audiences for many years to come. It is something of a shame that Kubrick's last film should be his least satisfying and also one which suggests that he died without understanding or really liking women.
Gladiator (2000)
Brilliant action sequences, variable philosophising
[There is a spoiler in this review for the first few minutes of the film...]
Ridley Scott has made some brilliant action films in his time, including the stunning Alien series and Blade Runner, possibly the most lauded sci-fi pic ever made (at least until The Matrix came along...) In Gladiator, he turns his talents to ancient Rome, and tells the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Rome's most respected general who suddenly finds himself an enemy of the state when he refuses to pledge loyalty to the new Caesar, Commodus (well played by Joaquim Phoenix). His family slaughtered and his status destroyed, he is captured as a slave and sold to a gladiator trader...
Russell Crowe is the lynchpin in this film - his performance captures the complex loyalty and nobility of the ancient Roman soldier perfectly, while his exceptional poise and good looks ensure that he is the focus of attention throughout the film. He is particularly good when at his fieriest, as when he reveals himself to Commodus in front of the crowds at the Coliseum. His performance is the thing which holds this film together and makes sense of some of its less believable moments.
He is well supported by the rest of the cast, in particular Connie Nielsen and Joaquim Phoenix. The action sequences are also stunning, although I lost some of the impact they might have had because I saw the film on video. This is really a big-screen epic and should be enjoyed that way for maximum effect. The stadium sequences are the best bits and there are plenty of them - keep your eyes covered if you are squeamish...
So what's missing? Basically the film is at its best when it gets on with being what it is - a mighty fine action movie set in ancient Rome. It disappoints slightly when it tries to be more: some of the dialogue is too Hollywood by half and undermines any serious point the film is trying to make. Furthermore, the characters' relationships are not explored in enough depth to allow the film's philosophising to work, and I personally was relieved when it moved on to the action sequences, which really are riveting. The worst thing of all is that the film is about 25 minutes too long, so that the dramatic tension which would make the film work as a whole is lost because the film is too slow at points.
That said, Gladiator is a really entertaining film and well worth watching, in particular to watch the mighty Russell Crowe mature into the fully-fledged superstar he was born to be. He has already proved his acting credentials in LA Confidential and shown the depth of his talent in The Insider - in Gladiator he steps up to the plate and relishes the hero role in magnificent style. It is also nice to see someone trying to recreate the epic genre, and although Scott's film is not perfect, it makes a decent fist of a difficult style. 7 out of 10.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Another gothic masterpiece from Tim Burton
Tim Burton has always been a maverick amongst Hollywood directors, and Sleepy Hollow is no exception. Written in his unique, heavily gothic visual language, it is a fascinating exploration of the boundaries between reason and magic, and the way that evil leads to evil, violence inexorably to more violence until justice is done.
The film is carried along at a scorching pace by a riveting plotline, eschewing the horror convention of not showing the ghost until at least halfway through the film. Instead, the conspiracy at the heart of the plot reveals itself in deepening layers, each one implicating more and more of the people in the town until the horrible secret is revealed. With each twist I thought we had found the culprit, only to be thwarted by yet another level of complexity. The denouement was both surprising and shocking.
As with all Burton films, Sleepy Hollow is visually very striking and creates a world of its own, a world where ghosts and ghouls are real and interact with the living for very good reasons. As with Beetlejuice, the atmosphere is both sinister and comical, although a lot more emphasis is placed on the sinister here than in the earlier film. And at the heart of the film is Constable Ichabod Crane, puffed up with an absurd self-confidence and belief in reason which rapidly crumbles under the weight of evidence of supernatural goings-on. Johnny Depp is fantastic as the 19th century "modern man" who trusts reason over superstition, slowly revealing the horrific facts of his own history through dreams and visions as the film unfolds. Christina Ricci excels (yet again) as his love interest Katrina, the beautiful innocent who falls in love with him and sets out to help him unravel the mystery. The rest of the cast are also terrific, particularly Michael Gambon and Miranda Richardson as Katrina's father and step-mother. Burton always seems to get the best out of his actors, and they pay hearty tribute to his talents in the "Making of..." film on the DVD.
There is so much to say about Sleepy Hollow that it would take more than a brief IMDb review to cover it all. It explores the limits of the rational approach and the way in which belief and understanding are based on a combination of reason and openness, the union represented by the blossoming love between Katrina and Ichabod. It deals with evil and its consequences. It shows how love can bloom out of horror and how the apparent horror on the surface of things can belie the true horror caused by social ostracisation and rejection. Burton's gothic fantasy world is not there to help us escape from our own but to help us understand it, and Sleepy Hollow is yet another masterpiece from a true Hollywood genius. Burton is a man who knows why he makes films - look on and see.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
An interesting subject, disappointingly handled
Sofia Coppola's directorial debut has received much hype and attention from press and audiences alike. It focuses on a year in the lives of 5 beautiful teenage sisters and the boys that admire them from a distance. It attempts to adopt a dreamy, spaced-out style which is (apparently) redolent of the novel it is based on, but in doing so, it loses a lot of the coherency and emotional depth which would make it an interesting study of teenage angst and suffering.
The main problem with the film for me is that the characters' motives are barely explored. I think this is a deliberate ploy to show the story from the teenagers' perspective, suggesting the way in which life at that age can seem like a series of meaningless, unconnected experiences. Unfortunately, without the ironic distance to hint at potential meanings behind this (false) perception, the film itself becomes shallow and empty. In particular, Mrs Lisbon's behaviour as the girls' mother is presented without any explanation, without even a glimpse at why she might be so strict and dictatorial. In general, parent oppress their children because they are afraid of losing them, and this is suggested in only one shot in the film - when the boys take the girls for a date and Mrs Lisbon is left standing in the hall, looking nervous and upset. Without more exploration of this sort, she becomes a two-dimensional tyrant of a mother and the audience is unable to feel sympathy for her.
Perhaps this is the film's biggest shortcoming - however hard I tried, I couldn't for a moment feel sympathy for any of the characters, not even the girls. As a result, any emotional impact the film's tragic denouement might have had was lost on me.
There are some positive features to this film which deserve a mention. The soundtrack, a combination of Air's dreamy tunes and some classics from the 60s and 70s, is absolutely stunning. The filmmaking is excellent on the whole, creating a dreamlike beauty which is intoxicating and attractive. The performances are fine, particularly Kathleen Turner (despite the character's limitations) and Kirsten Dunst as Lux. This isn't a terrible film but it's a disappointing one - Sofia Coppola could have done a lot more with the concept, or chosen a story with more emotional depth, to display her abundant directorial skills.