ma_teng Reviews

Bang Bang You're Dead (2002)

one last shot

[12 November 2004]

It's great to see a movie you think is going to be just awful ... and then is anything but.

The film amazed me by taking the issues of high school kids seriously, even those of kids who are about to commit the worst carnage imaginable. One of the best ways of perpetuating a problem is turning those affected by it and those who do bad things into angels and devils. Bang, Bang, You're Dead rejects this out of hand and gives everything a shade of grey, yet moves back, forgivably, from the logical climax to make a point about the theatricality of school life, much like the play on which it is sort-of-based.

It takes troubled kids out to kill seriously, gives them respect and tries to talk to them - and lets them talk, a lot. It is also a genuine drama, and takes no prisoners when it comes to depicting adult hypocrisy and aloofness. That's pretty subversive. Put it all together and you have a ready-made whipping boy for America's right wing. Yet it is this film that anybody who gives a damn about this kind of situation must see.

This makes it sound like a 1950s advisory film where parents and kids would watch what horrible consequences befell reckless teenagers. But it's much more than that: it's a cunning advisory film for everyone. Nobody comes out clean, but everybody is given the chance to become clean again.

The MPAA gave this an R rating, which is further proof that this pathetic star chamber of industry insiders ought to be disbanded.

Battle Royale (2000)

Run!

[29 May 2003]

***spoilers***

Strange and, in many ways, an old-fashioned film. Neither as grim or as funny as I was led to believe. Perhaps overrated in some quarters, but certainly an undeserving target for criticism in regard to its violence.

The enduring impression left by this film is that its various competing ideas and emotional set-ups blur quite heavily, leaving only a keen sentimentality standing by the end of the film. Last emotion standing. Quite like the rules of BR itself, actually.

There's been no serious attempt to make viewers stumble from the theatre in shock at the horror of it all, despite the technical presentation of death lists and other docudrama-like tactics (compare the similar strategy used in "Man Behind the Sun"). Apart from the heavy whiff of satire, most of the actors play their parts so broadly if not operatically (note also the old-fashioned, roller-coaster string orchestration in the score) that there's little to relate to at a deeply personal level. This may or may not have been deliberate.

Memorable moments aplenty though, as you would hope from a film with a character canvas as broad as this one. My favourite: the group of girls holed up in a house who choose to merrily ignore the game and cook up a storm instead, in raptures at having saved one of the nicer boys from a nasty end. Their subsequent unravelling and bloody fate is sardonic and dreadful, but there's a sweetness about all of this sequence. Also memorable: the first kill at the onset of the game proper (the girl with the arrow through her throat), scenes of carnage from an earlier BR, and the genuinely affecting flashbacks involving Shuya's tormented father.

There's also something quite moving about the coda, after the "winner" of the game is determined. The final message to the "winner" and to the audience is "Run!": to hell with the government and the military, stand up to your parents if need be, don't be duped by those who would use you, be wary of anyone who prevents you from achieving your very best....endearing and sagely words to end the career of Kinji Fukasaku.

Like "Ring", this is one Japanese film that could actually be remade very effectively in the US, though it would need to be *lengthened* to accommodate more character development. All you need then is a courageous casting agent, a director with his/her heart on his/her sleeve and a studio with the guts to cop an NC-17 from the lackeys at the MPAA, withstand fire from the usual hypocrites (the religious right and pro-gun activists and their political allies, in particular, who will froth and rail against the killing of children in this film but gloss over if not deny the killing of real children and other innocents at home due to gun availability), and who knows? An authentic American classic might be the result.

So how about it, George Romero? Paul Verhoeven? Or even you, John Carpenter! Get angry again! Run!

The Sentinel (1977)

nice freaks, shame about the ennui

[5 May 2003]

Beware - spoilers....(snore)

Surprisingly dated and tame. Its reputation suggested a nasty night's entertainment but there is very little here to get excited about and much to disappoint.

Michael Winner seriously stuffed up his chance for an all-stops-out finale by substituting Dick Smith's special make up wizardry for the famous but desperately short-staffed parade of deformities. But unless you are the kind of person who points, grimaces at and flees from deformed or mentally ill people you see on the street, there's hardly anything to be repulsed or offended by, especially as the majority of these players are only mildly deformed. Morality aside, the final effect is one of mild distaste rather than Miltonian doom.

This sense of anti-climax is heightened by the fact that the two most confronting sequences occur fairly early on in the film - the famous masturbation scene (a twisted version of a similar set-up in "Emmanuelle") and the hallucinatory killing of the father.

Surrounding it all is a fairly tepid and technically clumsy reworking of other movie plots. The only terror on show here is Winner's terror toward lesbians.

If you're into the "gates of hell" theme, try Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci....or even Ghostbusters.

If you instead want to be disgusted by a Michael Winner film, track down an uncut Death Wish II, and marvel.

The Cosby Show (1984–1992)

exit the dragon

[20 April 2003]

Among the fond memories that this show conjures up are two or three that disturb.

1. Theo, truly one of the most hen-pecked sons to feature on TV. A fundamentally decent and civilised boy, living pathetically in the shadow of his parents who would never waste an inappropriate opportunity to correct or smother him. Constantly struggling to assert himself, and often losing badly, in particular against the weight of a smarmy, overbearing, smart-ass, dragonesque mother. Yet at no time is one made to feel that the parents might just be screwing things up, or just being normal, imperfect human beings when dealing with their kids. This is PARENTING 101, like it or not.

2. Cosby and wife were never more embarrassing than when the kids had been sent to bed, then starting their infantile romantic banter, never better remembered than when Bill would put on his 5-year-old-in-a-candy-store expression of wicked delight. OK, "Brady Bunch" this was not, but honest to God, how much pleasure is to be had watching Clair play "hard to get" for the umpteenth time?

3. The humour in the show seemed to start out a little off-the-wall, subversive even, and then ended as conservative, as predictable, as cautious and as plastic as shows with one-tenth of the talent on display. Maybe the writers, like Cosby's gut, became too flabby and no-one cared. No question, Cosby was at his peak when he was angrier and inhabited his characters on stage or in such shows as "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids". "The Cosby Show" was a slick and well-crafted show that rode in on his earlier achievements but left little more than the memory of a few belly laughs.

"Good Times", for all of its broad characterisations, was far more in-your-face than "The Cosby Show" could dream of being, and assuming that the sitcom portrayal of a black family is an issue to begin with, a lot more honest.

Man Behind the Sun (1988)

don't believe the sequel hype

[19 April 2003]

Man Behind the Sun is a worthy film, and readily smeared through its association with a number of schlock "sequels".

Given that most reviewers here can't read Chinese and are measuring the film by its disgust factor, it's easy to see why "Godfrey Ho" is wrongly credited with directing it, instead of just "parts" 2 and 3. The actual director, Mou Tun-fei (aka T.F. Mous) is alive and well and living in Taiwan at last report. He is also a committed Chinese nationalist, which helps to explain the genuine, almost uncontrollable anger in this film.

The "sequels" on the other hand are money-spinners. Anyone who has seen the original should know there was no scope for a sequel set in a camp that had already been destroyed at the conclusion of WWII. At best, "part" 2 is a remake, and a cheap, shabby one at that.

The film is also careful to note significant historical elements, such as how the US government protected some of the criminals portrayed in this film, partly in order to get hold of the scientific data produced at the expense of the lives of thousands of Chinese civilians. If you read books on the matter you will also discover that the vast majority of Japanese scientists implicated in these experiments went on to enjoy successful careers in Japanese universities.

There was no Simon Wiesenthal to chase up and prosecute these individuals, despite their conspicuous presence under a lengthy US administration, and to this day the two governments prefer not to talk about this particularly vile component of Japan's wartime legacy. "Stuff happens," eh Mr Rumsfeld?

Sea of Love (1989)

Dorothy Michaels deja vu...

[8 January 2003]

*spoiler*

Watched this again on TV recently. Lotsa good stuff in this film.

Just a comment on the final scene, which reeks a bit of studio tweaking. Seems to me that the screenwriter, stuck for an emotionally satisfying resolution, went out and hired Tootsie to relieve the impasse. Whack! Inspiration! Heroine deceived throughout the whole film by male lead and devastated thereby is *instantly* brought back to romantic equilibrium by some kerbside repartee.

Compare the two and tell me it's a coincidence. Other than that, a satisfying effort.

Beneath Clouds (2002)

the bleak and the beautiful

[9 July 2002]

***possible spoilers***

A movie so well conceived and executed that, like a Tarkovsky film (I'm not kidding), the story acts merely as a quiet vehicle for more important and more powerful things - barely expressed but wrenchingly felt emotions, the inescapable clutch of landscape and fleeting moments of profound beauty and joy within a life of violence, humiliation and despair.

Beneath Clouds reminds me very much of an SBS TV doco also directed by Ivan Sen called Shifting Shelter, in which a small number of Aboriginal Australian youths are interviewed twice across a period of a year or two. That too was quiet but affecting, and seemed to point to the inevitability in life among the least affluent of the Aboriginal communities across rural Australia.

Who knows? Maybe it's Sen's own background that allows potential road movie and Aborigine cliches to come off fresh and convincing. Supporting actors with the smallest parts to play come off convincingly as separate characters rather than fodder for the narrative, something that few directors seem to value - Martin Brest being an exception. I suspect too that there's a whole bunch of stuff that only Aboriginal viewers will recognise.

Scenes to treasure - (1) the mute, elderly Aboriginal woman in the back of the car who is the *only* character in the film to correctly identify the heroine as Aboriginal (in her only line of dialogue), who shudders at the sight of the killing mountain, and who, apparently out of sheer experience, neither moves nor speaks as her relations are assaulted by police.

(2) Arthur Dignam, that wonderful actor, in an austere cameo as the one white person (rural gentry? urban middle class retiree?) who lends a hand to the fleeing couple, no questions asked.

(3) Having established a bond, the two leads, each and alone, looking into the eyes of animals they encounter, distracting them just long enough from their predicament to sense something beyond what imprisons them. When they first start their trek the animals they see instead are roadkill.

The casting is outstanding; the last movie like this to use amateurs so effectively was probably Pixote.

Beneath Clouds doesn't have the sexy tagline or superhuman behaviour of a film like Rabbit Proof Fence. It offers only the smallest glimmer of hope in the face of overwhelming circumstances. But it makes total sense and punches deep inside. If Ivan Sen can make a better feature film than this then Australia can only rejoice.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

Parminder Nagra may not be David Beckham, but she might just be God

[1 July 2002]

***spoiler or two***

Despite its modern gloss, hybrid cultural influence and saucy language, this is an extremely familiar and old-fashioned mix of comedy of errors movies and sporting aspiration movies. But it's still very enjoyable indeed, even if the director tends to manipulate the viewer just a little bit too much.

Some critics have closed in on the all-but-consummated homosexual attraction between the two main female characters, and even though there are enough gay panic scenes in Bend It Like Beckham to fill a hundred movies, I tend to think the writers wanted to avoid the stereotype of dykey young girls being the most attracted to sport. Read into it what you like. Just about everything seems possible - and permissible - by the end of the film, and it's a great feeling.

Gay or straight, Indian or English or neither, whatever category you rely on to classify her character, Parminder Nagra is achingly beautiful and inspiring and is the one major character in the film to evade caricature (compare the broad comedy of Juliet Stevenson as her friend's mother; she's a million miles from Truly Madly Deeply here). You can really understand why Jonathan Rhys-Meyers falls for Nagra so hard. I sure did. Her performance is just sublime. Not many actors could so convincingly pull off a transformation from a trakky-dak wearing frump in the opening scenes to a sensual, glowing, sort-of-liberated woman at the end (whether wearing a sari at her sister's wedding or flying off to the US to launch her career) through playing football.

And who knows? It's this kind of movie that might just ease ethnic tensions in England. What better an advertisement and incentive for having the courage to go for the one your desire dictates regardless of colour or culture (or gender)?

Sadly, US audiences will be unlikely to access or embrace this film or its relatively unknown actors. Nagra herself would appear more likely to be shuttling between London and Bollywood rather than Hollywood in the future. But who cares? Wherever she goes I figure there will be a no shortage of moviegoers like me ready to follow.

Spider-Man (2002)

what a debacle

[28 June 2002]

***spoilers, maybe***

This wretched movie seems to have taken America by storm. Pity America.

It's difficult to know where to begin. The violence is amplified beyond belief and exquisitely irrelevant to the story and overpowers the characters. Compare with the first two Evil Dead films Sam Raimi made - superb, original movies with horror and violence in perfect balance. With Spider-Man, the violence is assaultive and pointless, given that kids are the primary target. Hey, I don't mind a good, bloody, violent movie, but this piece of junk is worthless to adults as a romance or as an adventure. So who is the audience? Trekkies in withdrawal?

The effects are fun but overdose heavily on CG - no stuntmen, by the looks. The script is rock-bottom. At every opportunity David Koepp inserts lines that are either corny (but not charming) or cliched. There is no character development. Peter Parker changes from a dope into a bland jerk in a red and blue suit instead of a hero. Why does he suddenly wisecrack ala Schwarzenegger? Why can't he get it on with Kirsten Dunst? Is it because he has eyes for James Franco instead? Watch this space - the sequel is on the way.

Tobey Maguire - I can see why people like him, but really, his performance was in complete monotone, as if he'd just been attending a Charles Bronson master class. Some of the lovey-dovey dialogue between him and Kirsten Dunst (especially in the hospital) was particularly awful - people were cackling in the theatre where I saw it. Still, he tried hard. Dunst - a thankless role but a good effort. But still forgettable. Some other actors in this film - who shall remain nameless - were inexplicably bad.

Spider-Man lacks completely the warmth and sincerity of Donner's Superman and the wicked humour and bleakness of Burton's Batman. Yet it rips off both films and even puts in jokey references to Superman AND Star Wars (of the "I am your father, Luke" variety). I thought the dark side to Michael Keaton in Batman was not entirely convincing, but how wrong I was after watching this.

Oh, and listen up, those who dream of the death of "political correctness" will be overjoyed to see two key scenes: (1) the wrestling sequence, where newly confident Spider-Man in his prototype suit baits the incumbent with an idiotic fag joke (jeez, we all laughed at that), and (2) when Kirsten Dunst is about to be gang-raped, and is saved by Spidey, and she instantly recovers from this everyday experience to kiss him passionately. Say boys, did you notice her wet shirt with protuding nipples? Just the ticket in the aftermath of a rape threat scene. Michael Winner himself couldn't have done better (though he tried real hard in Death Wish II).

When Spidey does his last little aerobatic display and lands atop a building with the American flag, I thought - hang on, have I missed something? Is there a reference here to something deeper? Like US foreign policy going berserk, what with all this "with power comes responsibility" stuff? Nah. Naaaah. Spider-Man doesn't touch the wealthiest, nastiest criminals; he sticks to folks who snatch bags from little old ladies. How charmingly naive. Just like the airbrushed twin towers: perfect for post-S11 America.

It is incredible to think that Stan Lee associated himself with this cynical film. It's a travesty. I just cannot believe that Sam Raimi, of all people, could go so corporate and trash the idea of Spider-Man.

Falling Down (1993)

a crying shame

[7 May 2002]

***spoilers***

There's so much in this movie to enjoy. But just as things are winding up for the final confrontation, director Joel Schumacher and writer Ebbe Roe Smith lose the plot - literally - and show us some background information by way of a home movie suggesting Michael Douglas' character was a disturbed kook from the outset. Wham! Instant destruction of the Everyman theme which gave the film its strength and danger.

It's difficult to imagine how such a stupid decision could be arrived at. The film fizzles from then on and fires blanks, just like Michael Douglas' weapon on the pier.

All that good work undone. At least Schumacher's "Batman and Robin" was inept from the outset.

Three Summers (1992)

refreshing, delightful, unusual teen drama from Hong Kong

[6 May 2002]

The Chinese title, "My Brother's Lover", was originally "Three Summers" and retains that title in English. The change probably reflected the producers' need to trumpet the presence of former Hong Kong adult actress Veronica Yip (Yip Yuk Hing/Ye Yuqing), whose marginal character (one of the first to herald a well-received crossover into non-adult roles) and understated, shadowy sex scene no doubt disappointed the grindhouse crowd in Mongkok.

What they saw instead was a lovely, surprising movie about friendship between young girls growing up in rural Hong Kong - Tai O on Lantau Island, to be precise. One of those girls is played by a very young Wu Chien-lien (of Eat Drink Man Woman fame) at the very beginning of her acting career.

Director Lawrence Ah Mon's other films tended to be gritty, realistic affairs, and this movie is no exception, especially in comparison with other facile HK efforts on the subject. Written by Taiwanese stalwart Sylvia Chang (another Eat Drink Man Woman alumnus), the film mixes teenage joy, sadness and confusion in a way that is neither patronising nor predictable.

The film was made in 1992; at that time Hong Kong's future international airport was still having land reclaimed for its construction. In one scene, the kids go for a hike and spy the site off shore. A neat metaphor for the loss of their innocence. It's good to see that Ah Mon is still working in HK despite the near-collapse of the local industry.

Screen One: Truth or Dare (1996) Season 8, Episode 2

it's Helen Baxendale's show

[5 May 2002]

Credible and moody treatment of incredible premise, as Helen Baxendale is made to pay for minor extracurricular excesses when her up-and-coming lawyer is targeted for nasty mind games, career destruction and even death by crazies from university days.

It's surprising that this sober, gripping TV movie hasn't received more attention on IMDb; surprising too that Baxendale hasn't made more cinema films on the strength of this and other roles.

Baxendale's part is winning, bringing complexity and sympathy to the disintegration and recovery of a very real and character whose human faults are preyed on mercilessly. Her downward spiral as the walls close in is memorable and affecting.

The Personals (1998)

desperately seeking....?

[30 April 2002]

When you compare the gulf that exists between the wretched quality of acting in the bulk of Taiwan's television dramas and that in the high proportion (but small number overall) of excellent films, you have to wonder whether there are two different worlds in this small country. "The Personals" is an example of the latter to treasure. Rene Liu is captivating in a quiet sort of way as a professional woman struggling with her well-concealed demons and subjecting herself to an endless round of meetings with various suitors. The acting is so natural and attractive that one almost feels like an eavesdropper at the table in the tea shop, but a welcome one.

The overall emphasis is wry comedy, but as with so many Taiwanese films that get foreign release, there is a drifting air of sadness and dislocation. This might be partly due to the fact that the bulk of Taiwan's foreign-screened films are obsessed with the fortunes and neuroses of the "mainlander" minority in Taipei (Eat Drink Man Woman is thus far the pinnacle of this syndrome). Many "mainlanders", even their Taiwan-born children, retain an equivocal attitude toward Taiwan as a home outside of the sphere of greater China and from this I suspect comes that sadness and dislocation. Yet pro-Taiwan independence zealots might even read into this film a more troubling interpretation: Rene Liu is smart, attractive, sassy, engaging - thoroughly modern - but is stung by prior romances, and unable to find a partner in anyone, yet is desperate for affirmation and companionship.

Ethnic interpretations aside, the film could have been an ugly disaster by mocking the men (and one woman) who would be her companion. Instead we get a lovely selection of real people, complex and banal, kooky and elegant. But never dull. If you walk down a Taipei street, these are the people you will meet.

The writer and director deserve the highest accolades for this effort. It's one of the best contemporary Taiwanese films out there.

Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (1989)

an in-your-face Hong Kong postcard

[30 April 2002]

Memorable mixture of surreal comedy and drama by Wayne Wang, about a stranger from overseas on a mission in Hong Kong - but he's not quite sure what the mission is. During the process he wanders around the city and gets caught up with a variety of dodgy, weird and alluring characters.

Semi-documentary material (interviews, animal slaughter) is inserted throughout, giving "Life is Cheap..." an intriguing texture. Memorable for possibly the longest foot chase sequence in the history of movies, ending in the infamous and now demolished Walled City near the former Kai Tak Airport.

Not a movie for everyone by any means (especially not the blinkered MPAA ratings board), but those who love Hong Kong and its movies should make the effort and hunt down this strange, near-forgotten little movie. Fans of "Pink Flamingos" will connect with the penultimate scene.

Cunnamulla (2000)

much ado about little

[28 April 2002]

This documentary is to be admired for bringing rare voice and - despite itself - a degree of dignity to the down-and-outs (or soon to be; this is what is implied at least) of a remote-ish Queensland town. But making grand statements about the Australian outback and its ethnically and financially troubled communities is not within the power of this film, however hard it may try. The kind of community and family dysfunction O'Rourke has discovered is hardly unique to rural people. It is also preposterous to focus on one group of troubled or unhappy people and categorise all others accordingly (what else could the title "Cunnamulla" mean?).

In that light the reported anger and sense of betrayal felt by some of Cunnamulla's citizenry upon the release of the film is understandable. Also understandable is the legal action commenced against O'Rourke by at least one of the female minors in the film.

But that's not to say there isn't room for exploring white-black relations or rural poverty in an Australian documentary. If anything, these are problems - a dirty secret - that lie across Australia like a stinking fog. You could make similar documentaries with titles like "Kempsey" or "Wilcannia" and find rich pickings for examining such problems. It's just that "Cunnamulla" hasn't turned out to be the vehicle for it.

For all that there are still many memorable moments. The scenes with the DJ remain with me - wherever he is I wish him the best.

Rats in the Ranks (1996)

near perfection

[28 April 2002]

A near perfect documentary that benefits immeasurably from the free-wheeling personality of Larry Hand and his cheeky asides to the off-screen filmmakers as he vies for yet another term as mayor of Leichhardt, an inner-west council in Sydney. For all of the dirty tricks and conspiring characters, it's the comedy that kept this viewer coming back many times to see it: councillor Trevor ruminating on the unimportance of it all, the get-together at the local swimming pool in celebration of council week, Hand leaking stories to the Sydney Morning Herald ("off the record"), and of course the outwitted Labor boys fuming upstairs in the council building while they await the never-to-arrive "rats" of the title. Every scene a gem.

This great film deserved much wider international release. Its absence on Oscar night in favour of US-oriented material was yet another weary example of how uninformed, onanistic and complacent the Academy can be.

R.I.P. co-director Robin Anderson (d. March 2002). Quiet Aussie legend.

Wake in Fright (1971)

Kotcheff's walkabout

[28 April 2002]

It's been said: "The best film ever made about Australia was directed by a Canadian." Possibly true. "Outback/Wake in Fright" is one of those films which gets a little too close for comfort. Unlike most Australians, those of us who grew up in the country will recognise a lot in this film, not always with displeasure.

What a strange, malleable career Ted Kotcheff has had. Of late he has retired to the relative comfort of making TV movies and even contributed to "Law and Order SVU". Yet like Nicolas Roeg ("Walkabout"), Kotcheff's brief spot of work in Australia was a wake-up call to a blinkered urban population (or those that went to the movies at any rate) to the complexity of the outback, in all its bloody glory, dispensing with the romantic pills we were used to swallowing. Kenneth Cook's novel should be held in equal regard, but his writing doesn't get much press these days, which is a shame.

Television prints of this film - rarely shown these days - heavily censor the kangaroo kills, which says a lot about the hypocrisy of the city. Uncut version is essential viewing.

Bullet in the Head (1990)

which ending?

[27 April 2002]

***definite spoilers - beware***

In the cinema version of Bullet in the Head screened in Australia, the film concludes in the boardroom with Jacky Cheung's bullet-punctured skull being unveiled to Waise Lee before his former friend shoots him stone dead in front of the other executives.

An alternative version seen on cable in Taiwan - the one discussed by other reviewers here and often criticised - sees the pair retire somehow (how???) from the boardroom and engage in a protracted and bizarre, almost gladiatorial combat somewhere by the docks of Victoria Harbour (presumably).

The first ending was easily superior and no less bleak; the second suffers terribly in comparison. But despite that, the second ending's ferocity indicates just what John Woo lost when he packed his things and moved to LA. For all of the clumsiness of the second ending, it still rammed home Woo's unrelenting fury at the thought of friendship betrayed. This "non sequitur" ending is redeemed by the honesty of that fury.

Hong Kong movies are (were?) so often like that - short on technical and narrative polish, but long on passion and drive. Compare Broken Arrow, Face/Off and MI2 (or almost all of the films made by other HK expats in recent years) - they're the exact opposite. None of these come close to Bullet in the Head. Woo may never top it.

The Celluloid Closet (1995)

some facts stay in the closet, unfortunately

[26 April 2002]

This is an interesting film with lots of entertainment and lessons contained within.

But there is one small criticism to be made. Jonathan Demme is presumably to be commended for directing "Philadelphia" with its sympathetic and sensitive treatment of a victim of homophobia. Yet elsewhere in this documentary a fleeting image of the cross-dressing serial killer Buffalo Bill in another Demme film, "Silence of the Lambs", is presented as an example of a smear against homosexual people (even though the film spells out that the character is NOT gay).

Similarly, "Cruising" is attacked for its homophobia, yet director William Friedkin was also the director of "The Boys in the Band", effusively praised elsewhere as a landmark gay film. But the audience is not told this.

So two important "pro-gay" films were directed by men who have been attacked for two "anti-gay" films. Surely this was worthy of note. Why did the filmmakers not follow this up? Why were Friedkin and Demme in particular not interviewed? The lack of balance reminds one just a little bit of the selective use of facts (bordering on hysteria) in other documentaries such as "Not Love a Story: A Film About Pornography".

The Celluloid Closet remains worthwhile and revelatory viewing, but it tends to be superficial and happy to avoid the complexity of films and the men (mostly) who make them in favour of sloganeering. Which makes it vintage Hollywood.

The Thing (1982)

the last great John Carpenter movie

[23 April 2002]

If the critics of the day had treated this movie with the utmost respect it deserved, who knows where John Carpenter would have ended up?

As it is, he remains respected for his independence and commitment but is handicapped by revisiting material beneath - or corrosive of - his ability. It's a bloody tragedy that Carpenter can't take his writing more seriously now, but some of us are still hanging in there for his big comeback picture.

The film lays out Carpenter's cynical take on the world like no other, and none of his other films - not even Escape From New York - has a downbeat ending that makes as much sense as this one. Wonderful, all-male ensemble cast. As for the music, the soundtrack is brilliant, but somewhat surprising is the amount of Morricone's music that didn't make it onto the screen (check out the precious CD instead which has no Carpenter on it) in favour of Carpenter's own additions.

One of the all-time best, and one to keep fans loyal through thick and thin.