Cactus, Cafe' Au Lait, Citizen Ruth: Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews collection for Shelterbelt Cinema Channel, world cinema page; movies from india china japan; European films, African Cinema

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the nightmarish Anthony Burgess novel has retained all its potency over the three decades since its release. Concerning a not too-distant future in which morality is breaking down institutionally, this is the story of Alex, a thug whose ultra-violent ways are modified by the state through behavioral aversion therapy. I’m not sure if I’ve become more inured to cinematic violence in the intervening years since first seeing Clockwork, but in watching it again, I was struck by the many scenes in which broad overacting of the Monty Python variety are played for laughs, working the absurdist rather than horrorshow vein. Everywhere, Kubrick’s corrosive sense of the satirical is at work. Malcolm McDowell’s impish performance plays to this sensibility brilliantly. Oddly, the production design that seemed so futuristic at the time of the original release now looks to be solidly anchored in ‘70s aesthetics and culture.

Daring in its day, Jules Feiffer’s script based on his stage play chronicles the sexual attitudes of two friends from their virginal college days in the 1950s through their debauched midlives. As such Mike Nichol’s cannily directed film serves as a timeline for the unraveling of sexual mores and the free love era. Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel both excel as the pals while Ann Margaret plays Nicholson’s pneumatic bimbo mistress to perfection. Alternately sad and squirmingly funny, we are finally left with the image of the Nicholson character who has grown sexually dysfunctional demanding that a prostitute precisely recite dialogue he has drilled into her that allows him to achieve an erection.

A Glasgow bus driver befriends a Nicaraguan woman who is suffering from post-traumatic stress resulting from her horrendous experiences during the civil war between the revolutionary Sandinistas and the CIA-backed contras. The Scotsman, played with charm and energy by Robert Carlyle, on impulse goes to Nicaragua with her where he undergoes a political awakening. Both a love story and a politically-fueled indictment of the Reagan administration’s effort to undermine the leftist government and reimpose the feudal reign of the Samosa regime, director Ken Loach brings a near-documentary touch to the story. Carlyle brilliantly depicts his fish-out-of-water dazzled by the tropical heat and shaken by the unremitting violence.

Paul Newman brought all his star power to bear in this profile of a spirited con who refuses to buckle under to the demands of the Southern prison in which he’s incarcerated. The film includes the warden’s memorable line, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate” whicj he intones before meting out heavy punishment. A tribute to mad, indomitable will and resistance in the face of overwhelming force.

This slight slacker comedy by Kevin Smith, the auteur behind Clerks and Dogma has cultivated a following for its sharp observation of our culture and bitingly funny dialogue. Ben Affleck plays a comic book artist who falls for a fellow artist (Joey Lauren Adams), despite the fact she's gay and the relationship causes a rift with his lifelong buddy and comic-book collaborator (Jason Lee). The chemistry between the leads is dead-on, there's a nice balance between the serious and the comic, and, as a special added attraction, Silent Bob and Jay from Clerks put in a hilarious appearance.

The icy and dark story of an Irish woman (Kate Cartlidge) who has come to New York and is working off her debt to a menacing gangster (Colm Meany) as a call girl. With a heart of stone she whispers erotic enticements over the phone to would-be clients and the sex that follows is grim, matter-of-fact, and non-erotic. Meany is tremendous as an outwardly jovial benefactor who drips with menace just below the surface. It is a difficult, stark film that sheds an icy light on the sex industry.

This is the highly stylized account of four siblings dealing with the deaths of their parents while covering up the death of the mother. This may strike some as being awfully pretentious stuff but the mounting is striking and the acting first rate.

Originally released around the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, this film about an unsafe nuclear plant and its corporate cover up seemed especially prescient. Indeed, one character in referring to the potential damage caused by a meltdown refers to an “area the size of Pennsylvania” being made uninhabitable. The story remains entirely relevant today with unresolves safety and nuclear waste disposal questions. Jack Lemmon serves up a yeoman performance as a nuclear engineer who suffers a crisis of conscience when he discovers that safety documents have been fudged and that his plant is at risk of a meltdown. Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas respectively play a TV reporter and her cameraman who witness a near-meltdown at the plant and contend with TV executives and industry forces arrayed to suppress their story. Oddly, though everyone else in the film pronounces the word “nuclear” correctly, the Douglas character insists on the bubba formulation “nookyular.”

Reminiscent of the '80s documentary Street Smart that chronicled the lives of street kids in Portland, Oregon, this troubling film homes in on a group of Romanian children living in a Bucharest subway station. Under the former communist regime, contraception and abortions were outlawed to swell the labor pool, resulting in a huge population of homeless children‑—the discards of poverty-stricken families. This is a difficult film to watch and one that will move the steeliest hearts.

For anyone with an interest in jazz generally and Latin jazz in particular, this is a must-see documentary. Made in 2000, Calle is a survey of the various tributaries of this compelling strain of music with its roots in Africa and branches extending all over the Americas and beyond. Some of the more memorable segments include a kinetic, comedic performance by the late timbalista supreme Tito Puente, a reunion and duet between Irakere founder Chucho Valdes and his octogenarian father Bebo, and a breathtaking big band number arranged and conducted by the seminal Chico O’Farrell. Unlike Buena Vista Social Club which delved more deeply into the lives and environments of its Cuban musicians, the emphasis here is on performance. Most were shot in highly controlled performance spaces without an audience, which optimizes the sound quality while losing the heightened emotion that an involved audience can inspire. An hour-long documentary about the music’s history as well as extensive discographies of the performers are welcome DVD-version extras.

When two men have a fender bender on New York’s FDR Highway it precipitates a series of events that sends each of their lives spinning out of control. Ben Afleck plays a Wall Street lawyer on his way to a court hearing on a crooked trust he has helped construct. Samuel Jackson is also on his way to court to try and salvage his marriage that has crumbled under the weight of an explosive temper and alcoholism. Told over the course of a long Good Friday, each man is confronted with his demons again and again in this well written and taut drama that only occasionally flags due to a certain lack of gravitas on the part of Afleck. Jackson, on the other hand, delivers the goods throughout.

After hearing much buzz about this feature-length Claymation film, I’m happy to report it deserves the acclaim it has received. Using sophisticated clay figures, wonderful sets, and the sort of lighting associated with live-action film, this is the story of a flock of hens who relentlessly attempt to escape the egg-factory farm that imprisons them. Theirs is a gruesome lot with the threat of becoming Sunday dinner if egg production flags, an ever-present reality. When they learn that the evil farmer and his wife intend to plump them up and convert the farm to a chicken pot-pie factory, they redouble their escape efforts, hoping to learn how to fly from a circus-performer rooster who apparently has that skill. Each chicken is a unique entity ranging from the brave to the dim-witted. Indeed, they are far more human in their strengths, foibles, and intricate characterizations than are many stock human characters in lesser live-action movies. Though it’s G-rated, there are a couple of scenes that may upset the very young. (If you are as captivated by this stuff as I was, seek out The Adventures of Willis and Gromit, three short films by the same creative team and that first aired on British TV.)

This is the 2004 U.S. remake of the Argentinean film, Nine Queens AKA Nueve Reinas (also reviewed here). As with the original, this adaptation set in Los Angeles offers breathless pacing and a labyrinthine plot in which a pair of con men attempt to make a big score by selling a fake piece of rare currency to a wealthy collector. We’re constantly misdirected as to what’s going on making it nearly impossible to figure out who is scamming whom. John C. Reilly and Diego Luna as the con men work well together and Maggie Gyllenhaal makes a lot of her minimal screen time. The remake has been streamlined by leaving out some of the convolutions of the original’s plot that results in a tauter, if slightly less puzzling effort. Given the choice, I’d recommend the original, but for non Spanish-speaking folks averse to reading subtitles, this is a worthy alternative.

Robert DeNiro has lately been earning healthy paydays playing the straight man in a succession of weak comedy vehicles. Here he is given a pithier part to chew on and delivers a performance reminiscent of earlier work. He plays a New York detective who in the course of investigating a drug dealer’s murder finds that his estranged junky son is a prime suspect. The issues between fathers and sons extend to his father too—a man who was executed decades earlier for the death of a baby in a botched kidnapping. This is a low-key drama that while incorporating some elements of the police procedural, is much more about character and environment. DeNiro excels in playing the sort of tight-lipped role called for here; a guy with a lot of buried feelings. His girlfriend played by the excellent Frances McDormand makes a perfect match for DeNiro and the two share scenes of consummate understatement. The title refers to Long Beach, New York, the scene of the crime and a crumbling urban landscape that in the 1950s was a popular beach destination for city dwellers. Though the ending is far too pat, the rest of the film works well.

Set in the ironically-named Rio de Janeiro slum of the same name, this is an exceedingly violent film about child-criminals and the primacy of the gun in their world. Visually dizzying, highly creative and hyperactive, the film tracks the lives of several street kids over the course of two decades in a zig-zag manner that serves the chaotic environment it depicts. If the film makes any statement beyond merely portraying a hellishly violent environment, it is that as one criminal falls, another will rise to replace him. Dark humor punctuates what would have otherwise been an unrelieved expanse of misery. A documentary about the real-world realities of life in Rio’s favelas that is included on the DVD release makes it clear that the film does not overstate the anarchic conditions it portrays.

Kirsten Dunst plays a troubled, hedonistic high school girl from a wealthy family who against odds is smitten by a Chicano guy (Jay Hernandez) from the barrio whose feet are firmly planted on the ground and who is committed to making a success of his life. The lead performances make this a very watchable film with Dunst showing depth many of her other roles haven’t permitted while Hernandez emanates a quiet dignity that is exactly right for his character. Sadly, their efforts are undermined by an all too predictable script and a hyperactive editing style that hardly ever gives the actors time to dig deeply into their work.

Casting against type, director Michael Mann chose Tom Cruise to play a steely-hearted hit man and comedian Jamie Fox to play a meek cab driver. The story, that on further reflection inordinately taxes our credulity, has the Cruise character hiring Fox for the night while he goes about his business. During that 10-hour nighttime stint, the body count soars and Fox improbably takes on the ferocity and cool of his fare when the going gets tough. As with all of Mann’s films, the staging and photography is brilliant although there is a nightclub shootout in which the action becomes so frenetic that it’s hard to tell what’s going on. Though the film’s ultimate thrust is about action, there is enough characterization and intrigue to keep us involved.

Steven Speilberg’s highly entertaining film rendition of Frank W. Abagnale Jr.’s memoirs as a consummate con man is one of the director’s least pretentious, well-crafted creations. Leonardo DiCaprio does a nice job as a smooth-talking teenager who creates alter egos as an airline pilot, doctor, and lawyer and who passes hundreds of big, worthless checks. As much a knowing take on ’60s American culture as it a caper flick, the film is full of clever spoofs that poke fun at that era.

More a series of sketches than a unified narrative, this film depicts the city of Belgrade and its crazed atmosphere during the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s. Strident and raucous yet compelling for its look at a society that too few of of us have any appreciation for. Somewhat ovelong, butindividual sequences are riveting.

In 1987, Arnold Friedman, a respected computer and music teacher along with one of his sons was arrested and charged with serially sodomizing a group of boys who attended private computer classes in the Friedman home. As with the classic film Roshomon, we come away with no clear sense of what the “big T” truth is here; instead we are presented with a succession of relative truths as told by all the key participants: the Friedman family, police and prosecutors, as well as the victims and their families. What emerges is a contradictory web of information that seems to point to a scenario in which the adage “where there’s smoke there’s fire” was a persuasive factor. What is clear is that Friedman was caught with some child porn and did confess to some homosexual activity in the distant past. However he and his accused son adamantly denied the charges in the case that ultimately sent both of them to prison. The Friedmans were fond of making home movies and much of that footage along with recent interviews of all the participants serves to heighten the contradictions. Some of the alleged victims admit to being browbeaten by police into accusing the Friedmans while one primary accuser says that it was only after a hypnosis session that he was able to recall being abused. As with the notorious McMartin daycare center case in California that occurred in roughly the same era, there seems to have been a culture of hysteria and victimization that developed around the case. In the end, there are no conclusions, just the recognition that behind the façade of a loving, upper middle-class family there are deep secrets. Especially curious is the family dynamics in which the three sons of Arnold Friedman rallied to his defense providing emotional support while his wife distanced herself urging both her husband and son to plead guilty. The DVD release includes a great deal of additional material that due to its complexity and length was not part of the theatrical release. This material brings new revelations to light including the fact that there was a second boy accused of being a participant in the sex crimes who ultimately became a witness for the state. If anything, all the extra information only further muddies the waters.
DVDs To Your Doorstep!

Director Joel Schumacher, noted for his car-crash-and-explosion epics, dispenses with the pyrotechnics in this character-driven suspense movie adapted from a John Gresham novel. A young boy (Brad Renfro in a crackerjack debut) becomes a key witness in a federal Mafia investigation when he hears the last confessions of a suicidal mob attorney. Susan Sarandon plays a feisty lawyer who shields the boy from a publicity-hound U.S. attorney played with the right level of intensity by Tommy Lee Jones. Solid entertainment.

This dark near-comedy may well give you the creeps. Buck is an emotionally immature gay man whose obsession is his former boyhood pal Chuck, now a successful recording industry executive engaged to a lovely woman. After a 15-year lapse the pair meet again and Chuck quickly realizes that his former pal is a few bricks short of a wall. When he attempts to distance himself, Buck responds by stalking him and mounting a thinly-veiled play called Hank and Frank. There are tragic and unsettling tones throughout this story of one boy failing to understand why another does not want to come out and play anymore.

This gently funny film takes place in the waning days of WWII when a Finnish sniper, Russian soldier, and Lap war widow find themselves sharing bed and board. None can speak the others’ language, setting up wonderful moments in which they coexist via gesture and intuition.

Humphrey Bogart offered one of his most powerful and least characteristic performances as the paranoid Captain Queeg whose crew revolts. Full of highly memorable scenes including the Captain’s midnight inquisition to discover who stole the ice cream and the court martial sequence that has become a model for this sort of picture.

John Sayles covers a lot of ground during 92 minutes in this story of six women from the U.S. who are awaiting adopted children in an unnamed Latin American country. The title of the film derives from the local nickname of the hotel that hosts their stay while legal formalities are completed. Sayles’ script only hints at these women’s histories; he leaves it for us to guess exactly why they haven’t been able to adopt children at home. His cast is extremely strong with Marcia Gay Harden, Maggie Gyllenhall, and Mary Steenburgen doing particularly noteworthy work. Not only does the film explore the emotional fragilities of the would-be mothers, it touches on the lives of the local natives and their economic struggles as well as the perilous existences led by a group of street kids. Though it could be argued that Sayles has bitten off a bit more story than the film can comfortably contain, the juxtapositions of the people involved seems essential in telling his story of emotion and economic haves and have-nots.

An Arizona sheriff investigates the case of a grisly, charred corpse in this low-budget 1990 film. The plot deepens when an outside investigator assails his approach to the case and takes up with the sheriff’s daughter. The no-name cast acquits itself well against a well-shot backdrop. Minor but diverting.

Alec Guiness plays a freighter ship captain who has forged a paradise for himself. He has two wives; one each in his two regular ports of call. In Gibralter he is married to a Latina spitfire who brings out the playboy in Guiness. Their life is a mad whirl of nightclubs, dancing and romantic candlelight dinners. Back in

England

he is married to a pretty but staid woman; their life together is quiet with the couple retiring to bed faithfully each night on the dot of ten o’clock. And of course, this idyll can not last… Great fun all the way.

Al Pacino turns in a typically intense performance as a career criminal just released from prison who after a five-year stretch struggles to deal with the new realities on the street. Sean Penn sporting a fright-wig hairdo plays the sleazy lawyer who embroils Pacino's character in a whole new round of difficulties. If not exceptional, this is a gritty and well-made look at the criminal ethos at work.

Directed by the always inventive Spanish director Bigas Luna (Jamon Jamon) this is the story of a French foundry worker who wins a trip to England to see the launching of the Titanic. While there, he either does or doesn't become involved with the title character spending a night of bliss with this exotic stranger. Upon his return to France his tale becomes a cause celebre and he is egged on to tell his tale over and over in a local saloon. This is a wonderful and novel look at the way fables and myths occur.

This Wayne Wang film was an early indicator of the director's skill. Shot on location in San Francisco's Chinatown for practically no money, it is the comedic story of two cab drivers searching for a crook that has made off with their money.

Ethan Hawkeâ€™s directorial debut is a messy but intriguing commingling of several stories, all taking place within the walls of the Chelsea Hotel, the real-life New York lair of countless bohemians. Shot on video and made for chump change, the film's bleary, incoherent characters spout hip, vaguely poetic dialog that at times grows tiresome. Though there is no central character as such, Kris Kristofferson is probably the most representative denizen here doing his alcoholic novelist thing. (He and Nick Nolte lately seem to be caught up in a contest to see who can play the most dissolute down-and-outer.) Taken individually, none of the stories here is especially compelling, they're just too vague and incoherent to get involved in. Yet taken collectively, the movie has some of the frowzy appeal that made Barfly such a beguiling work.

Based on actual events, this is the story of a personal injury lawyer (John Travolta) who takes on a pair of large polluting corporations in behalf of their victims. Exceedingly well-detailed story depicts how big-time defendants can undermine the cause of justice with their massive resources.

This is a well-crafted adaptation of the John Gresham novel in which a young boy becomes the target of both the FBI and the Mafia after he hears the confession of a mobster. Both suspenseful and full of three-dimensional characterizations.

Based loosely on Jane Austen's Emma, this is a biting satire of life at Beverly Hills High that somehow manages to never get nasty. If you need a primer for teenspeak along with plenty of genuine laughs, here is your movie.

Cissy Spacek, who did her own singing for this biopic of country singer Loretta Lynn, is astonishingly good despite the fact she bears little physical resemblance to Lynn. British director Michael Apted approaches the story truthfully and objectively with none of the derision that might have been subtly apparent had an American hipster made the film. Tommy Lee Jones in one his earliest outings is also fine as Lynn's philandering husband and manager. Whether or not you're a fan of country music, the humane depth of this film should prove alluring.

Robert Duvall and Sean Penn are teamed up as a pair of cops assigned to a street gang unit in L.A. and both turn in the accomplished performance we would expect. Directed by Dennis Hopper, the film breaks no new ground in this genre and a love interest for Penn seems to be tacked on as a sop to the producers and boxoffice receipts. Nonetheless, the two leads make this a worthwhile expenditure of time.

French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard is hardly known for making comedies, yet this 1963 movie is one long insider's joke. Michel Piccoli plays a director with artistic standards who finds himself involved with a crass American producer (Jack Palance) in an effort turn Homer's Odyssey into a spear-and-sandals epic.) With Brigitte Bardot in a secondary role and director Fritz Lang playing himself, the movie bristles with memorable moments. Of course, the biggest joke of all is the fact the film's real producer Joseph E. Levine reportedly failed to see the contempt being hurled at him in this acidic satire.

William Macy plays Bernie Lootz, a compulsive gambler and loser who is employed by casino boss Alec Baldwim as a cool someone who by dint of his abysmal luck can actually cool off the winning streaks of gamblers merely touching them. Bernie's luck changes when he falls in love with a cocktail waitress (a very appealing Maria Bello) at which point the film takes on the characteristics of a gilt-edged fairy tale. Shot on location is a seedy casino that was undergoing renovation, we can almost smell the booze and stale smoke. A great cast and a winning script put this one over big time.

Close My Eyes
A brother and sister who were raised separately by their estranged parents
embark on an obsessive, incestuous affair that continues unabated when she
marries a wealthy dilettante. The film's construction is a little clunky, but
the performances by Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves as the siblings, as well as
Alan Rickman playing the deceived husband, are fine.

The City AKA La Ciudad
The City is an altogether extraordinary, transcendent film composed of four
stories about illegal Latin American immigrants living in New York City,
desperately struggling to attain a foothold at the edges of society. The film
was written and directed by David Riker who first worked in still
photography, then studied at New York University Film School. Like his fello
w graduates, Spike Lee and Martin Scorcese, Riker has an abiding interest in
life on the streets and alleyways of our society. He has a still
photographer's eye for composition and tone. It was shot by Harlan Bosmajian
whose gorgeous black and white work is realistic and poetic. The melancholic
score is perfectly suited to the subject matter. The cast, mostly composed of
non-professionals, is stunningly effective. (Riker learned Spanish expressly
so he could communicate his vision directly to his actors, most of whom are
non-English speakers.) Reminiscent of "Bicycle Thief", the director's love and
empathy for his subjects are redolent in every frame, making this one of the most
powerful and moving films I've been privileged to see.

In the first tale, a group of desperate men seeking casual work on the
streets are lured with the promise of a $50 daily wage. A hoarse-voiced
Italian wearing gold chains hires a dozen of the men and loads them into the
sealed cargo compartment of his truck. One of the recruits smuggles his
little boy aboard. After a claustrophobic trip, they arrive at a desolate,
ruined industrial siter in New Jersey. The Manhattan skyline is far off,
across a river. The deal changes: they'll be paid 15 cents for every brick
they clean and scrape. It is soon apparent that with the painstaking chipping
that is required to remove the mortar from the brick, they'll earn far less
than was promised. The story comes to a sad conclusion that won't be spelled
out here. It is gripping and heartfelt.

In the second story, a handsome young man, newly arrived in the big city from
Puebla in Mexico becomes hopelessly lost trying to find an uncle. He stumbles
into a sort of Latino coming-out party, drawn there by the festive rhythms of
the band. He's immediately attracted to a young woman who, it turns out, is
from his home town. They dance. He tells her that he has discovered the
reason he has come to New York: it is she. Though the girl initially keeps
her distance emotionally, they talk late into the night and she is finally
overwhelmed by the young man's charming directness and his naive, obviously
genuine declaration of love. But the city finds a way to thwart this budding
relationship...

The third segment concerns a man and his daughter who live in a
battered car and support themselves with a portable Punch and Judy
show. Lacking a rent receipt or phone bill, he is defeated in trying to
enroll his daughter in school. Because he has no permanent address, no
school will have her.

The final story is that of a seamstress working in a Korean-owned sweatshop
that is weeks behind on its payroll. The owners string the workers along with
promises of their being paid "maybe next week." The seamstress learns that
her little daughter, cared for by family in her home country, is desperately
ill and requires hospitalization. She needs to send money home to get her
child medical care. She explains the situation to the boss and asks to be
paid what she is owed, or at least a part of it. But her pleas fall on deaf e
ars. A subtle confrontation between the workers and sweatshop operators
ensues and it holds out a glimmer of hope for the future.

This quartet of stories are constructed like parables rather than small
dramas, and especially in the case of the first tale, remind me in their
execution of Vittorio De Sica's classic, "Bicycle Thief." Like De Sica,
Riker seems to believe that people are best at playing themselves. And like
the great Italian neorealist, he extracts astonishing performances from his
large cast. They are without any of Hollywood's gloss. The stories are told
directly with no artifice. As with the Italian neorealists, Riker often uses
severe images to reflect the plight of his subjects. But with advantages in
resources and modern cinema technology, "The City" is a more refined film
than "Bicycle Thief." (De Sica shot his classic in 1948 for $8,000 in
poverty-stricken, post-war Italy.)

It took Riker five years to get his film made. He shot the the third story
first and used it as a means of recruiting cast members for the remaining
three tales. Despite the length of its making, there is a remarkable
cohesiveness and independence at work in the way the stories relate, yet
stand alone, each one a compact miracle. This film has failed, for reasons that
mystify me, to make much of an impression with audiences. I found it on the
impoverished foreign film rack at a local Blockbuster. I say this rarely:
This is a great film. Seek it out.

The Contender
When the Vice President dies, the President (Jeff Bridges) names a female
Ohio senator ( the underrated Joan Allen) as his successor. A priggish
congressman (Gary Oldman) with an axe to grind decides to trash her in
the public hearings that follow. She resists the temptation to dabble
in his dirt. Its timely subject is illuminated by good performances
across the board with Oldman standing out, though the script is
strictly by the numbers.

The Crazy Stranger aka Gadjo Dilo
French director Tony Gatlif has an abiding fascination with gypsy culture
which he's previously evidenced with the phenomenal music documentary "Latcho
Drom", and the feature film "Mondo". The stranger in the title is a young
Frenchman who goes to Rumania in search of an obscure female gypsy singer who
his late father admired. He meets an old fiddler called Izidor and is soon
embraced by the gypsy's extended family. Bubbling with ribald humor, word
games and above all, gypsy music.

China Cry
The compelling story of Nora Lam (nee Sung Nam Lee) whose autobiographical
account of her life, first as a privileged Shanghai schoolgirl, then later as
a political prisoner of the Communist Chinese, is a little tame in the
telling, but fascinating for its historical sweep. Produced by a now-defunct
Christian movie-making arm of Billy Graham's empire, the film registers
strongly thanks to a committed performance by Julia Nickson-Soul and a series
of believable locations .

Combination Platter
If you've wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Chinese restaurant,
and what life may be like for the people who staff them, this little film
offers documentary-like insights into those questions. Robert is an illegal
immigrant newly arrived from Hong Kong who works at the Schezuan Inn outside
New York City. He is desperate to get a green card and casts about for a
potential mate who will enter into a fake marriage so he can remain in the
U.S. without fear of deportation. Told with plainness and wry humor, this is
an intriguing and credible look into a side of America we mostly never see.

Central Station AKA Central dos Brasil
Walter Salles' Central Station is the story of an abandoned orphan who is
rescued from the streets by an irascible middle aged woman who makes her
living writing letters for the illiterate in Rio's train station. His
probing camera work captures the swarm of thieves, beggars and
underemployed who swirl through the terminal. Life is cheap here, only the
strong will survive. The odd couple's relationship begins rockily but
strengthens with time as the film evolves into a road story in which they
seek salvation and identity in the countryside. Though heart wrenching
much of the time, there is also mirth here. The letter writer never mails
any of the letters she is commissioned, instead taking them home to read
aloud to her roommate with much merriment. She's a tough old cookie who
only grudgingly becomes involved with the orphan. What emerges is a
wonderfully hopeful tale of redemption.

Close My Eyes
A brother and sister who were raised separately by their estranged parents
embark on an obsessesive, incestuous affair that continues unabated when
she marries a wealthy dilettante. The film's construction is a little
clunky, but the performances by Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves as the
siblings, as well as Alan Rickman playing the deceived husband, are fine.

Cradle Will Rock
Like the mural that Mexican commie painter Diego Rivera applied to the
lobby of Rockefeller's New York headquarters, and which figures large in
this movie, Tim Robbins' meditation on 30s American politics is a
sprawling, often reductionist work. Though it doesn't entirely work, its
immense ambition is to be applauded. In the manner of "Nashville", there is
a patchwork of overlapping stories and characters with an abortive WPA
musical at the center. Without some knowledge of the socio-political
atmosphere and the state of the arts in Depression-era America, viewers may
miss a lot of references at best, and be totally lost at worst.

Casualties of War
Based on a real incident recounted in a New Yorker piece, an American
patrol in Vietnam abducts, tortures and rapes a girl. Sean Penn is
sensational as an unhinged GI who has grown brutal and amoral in the face
of a bewildering conflict. Michael J. Fox plays the patrol's voice of
conscience in a remarkable, understated performance. There is no glory
here-just a dark commentary on the inhumanity bred by war.

Chappaqua
Viewers with limited patience for avante garde fare should probably give
this a miss. Conrad Rooks, heir to the Avon cosmetics fortune, wrote,
directed and starred in this semi-autobiographical account of an American
with multiple addictions going through a so-called sleep cure at a clinic
in Zurich. The 1966 film is obscure, sometimes pretentious, and always
bizarre. But cinematographer Robert Frank's psychedelic camera work, a
soundtrack that includes music by Ravi Shankar and The Fugs as well as
walkons by a cadre of Beat and hippy icons like William Burroughs and Allen
Ginsburg, contribute to what I find is a mesmeric if incomprehensible movie.

Faced with impending blindness resulting from a car crash while visiting
Australia, a French tourist (Isabelle Huppert ) grows close to a young man
who has been blind since childhood. He tells her, "When you're blind, you
stop living in front of things; you live with them." As her vision falters,
director Paul Cox's soundtrack, rife with bird calls and leder singing,
takes on the job of suggesting the shift in senses necessitated by her
condition. Like all of Cox's work, this is a challenging and uncommon
effort that will leave an indelible imprint in the memory of the
susceptible viewer.

This pleasant French comedy is in effect a remake of Spike Lee's "She's
Gotta Have It". A young woman who is pregnant is pursued by two lovers, one
the son of an African diplomat and the other a scrabbling, Jewish bike
courier, one of whom is the father of the child. All three characters have
their liabilities and foibles, but each is ultimately likeable. Directed by
Matthieu Kassovitz whose later "Le Haine" (reviewed earlier) shares with
that other movie a fascination with American hiphop culture and a sparkling
soundtrack that includes French rap and songs by Zap Mama of Zaire.

Tim Roth is a small time crook locked up in a tough British prison who is
looking forward to release so he can become a computer programmer. To that
end, he is taking some classes outside the slammer on a special release
program. Julia Ormond is a recently divorced dentist who takes a job at the
prison where she becomes attracted to Roth. (Though initially we are struck
by the unlikeliness of this coupling -she's smart, affluent and beautiful;
his prospects are dim, he's unattractive and has some of the worst teeth in
pictures, we somehow buy the connection thanks to the primal chemistry the
stars throw off.) The plot unfortunately takes a perilous detour toward the
mundane with a drug smuggling subplot, but the magnetism of the stars and
the originality of their story saves the day.

The video box of this charming import from Australia, copping a quote from
Roger Ebert, calls it this year's The Full Monty. Actually its lineage
derives from a long line of films that deal with the little man fighting
city hall, and by its own modest, low budget terms, it succeeds
magnificently. The Kerrigans are a loving, slightly wacky family who live
in their ramshackle tract house that sits at the edge of the Melbourne
airport upon a former toxic waste dump. The dad, Darryl, marvels at his
luck in buying their place for a song and can't fathom why others haven't
flocked to this suburban Valhalla. When a giant corporation attempts to
force them off the property to expand the airport, the Kerrigans fight back
in a plot that's both perfectly predictable and altogether charming.

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has subscribed to Dogma 95, a pact among
several directors committed to a purist school of filmmaking which eschews
artificial lighting, dollys, makeup, sets-pretty much all of the bells and
whistles used in the craft today-other than the camera itself, which in his
case, is mostly handheld. A family reunion is called to celebrate the 60th
birthday of its wealthy patriarch. Very quickly, dirty laundry of the most
vile sort comes tumbling down the chute as revelations of dark family
secrets are brought to light. This is an uncomfortable film. Often laughter
dies on our lips as what appears to be an archly comic moment descends into
tragedy. Echoes of BuÃ±uel's "Exterminating Angel" are sounded when a
drunken chef hides the guests' car keys so everyone is trapped at the
remote family inn during the emerging horrorshow. Varying film stocks are
used to suggest the emotional climate of these proceedings while
hyperkinetic editing and jittery camera work contribute to the discomfiting
ambience.

Following their divorce, an uptight school teacher, Robin, (Judy Davis)
and her would-be lothario and screenwriter ex, Lee, (Kenneth Branagh)embark
on new career and romance paths leading to a number of hilarious
situations. Woody Allen's latest employs the British actor as his alter-ego
with Branagh doing a credible sendup of Woody-esque schtick replete with
stammering, tics and obsessions. But somehow these mannerisms don't fit the
burly actor; perhaps we're too immured to Woody doing his own thing to
accept another's imitations. Lee searches for sex and success by
ingratiating himself with a collection of celebs including Leonardo
DeCaprio in a cameo as a narcissistic, hedonistic star (not much of a
stretch, huh?) while Robin ditches her teaching career and winds up as a TV
talk show host. Not Allen's best work, but fans will want to see this one
all the same.

The sobering story of a Korean War veteran (Gary Oldman) suffering from
post-combat stress who winds up in a draconian Florida mental institution
where he is treated horrendously. He forms a strong alliance with a fellow
inmate played by the inimitable Dennis Hopper. Unrelentingly grim but
worthwhile if you find this sort of thing interesting. Frances Mc Dormand
("Fargo") is terrific as Oldman's wife.

Though the film is somewhat poorly edited and mounted, the story of this
black man who carries off a series of impersonations-journalist, doctor,
lawyer, foreign exchanges student-is compelling enough to rise above these
flaws.

This Dutch film is an Horatio Alger tale with a very dark underbelly. A
heartless court bailiff forces himself upon a maid then disavows the son
that results after his mother spurns his curt offers of marriage and
support for the boy. The son grows up hating and resenting his father and
becomes determined to succeed just to spite him. The bailiff, through the
power of his office and his sideline as a loan shark, sets his son up to
fail at every turn. Despite this interference the son manages to become an
important lawyer to the chagrin of his father. Set in Amsterdam early in
the century, the city is depicted as a grim, brooding place reflecting the
taciturn subject matter. The screenplay has a highly literary tone and
comes across, like a blurb on the video's box suggests, as a melding of
Dickens and Kafka. "Character" justly won the '97 best foreign film Oscar.

The touching but realistic story of a rough-edged sailor who falls in love
with a hooker and her illegitimate son. Marsha Mason and James Caan are
terrific in the leads while the movie never goes for the cheap emotional
shot.

This was the debut for the effervescent English actress Minnie Driver who
plays a vivacious Irish girl from a small village who goes off to
university and falls in love with a premed student. Their romance quickly
encounters obstacles in this simple yet compelling story.

Loosely based on Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" with a nod to "The Man Who Came to
Dinner", the story is set on a WWI-era Australian sheep farm. When
Alexander, who has been in Europe returns to the family manse with a
cultivated set of Continental sensibilities, he clashes with his more
roughspun kin leading to uproarious results.

I like suspense movies where women call the shots rather than merely
screaming and awaiting rescue by testosterone-drenched heroes. Genevieve
Bujold is a doctor in a big city hospital where patients are dying under
strange circumstances. Going against her superior's orders she tried to
discover what's going on in this original and tense movie that blends the
medical flick with a crackerjack suspense drama.

Though the adaptation of Graham Greene's novel isn't completely successful,
a great cast with Liz Taylor and spouse Richard Burton together with a pack
of fine character actors partially salvage this story of political intrigue
in Haiti. It is sad to note that little has changed in this tragic country
during the ensuing years since this film was made in '67. Look for the 148
minute version-there's a badly chopped up shorter cut also available on
tape.

A touching and original comedy by Bill Forsythe who also directed the
excellent "Local Hero". This one involves a Scots radio personality whose
girlfriend suddenly dumps him. Unwittingly he manages to find himself
interspersed as a go-between in a crosstown war between two rival ice cream
companies delivering messages from both sides on his radio program.

Anyone who enjoyed "The Full Monty" is sure to be pleased with this story
of an enterprising young Dubliner who decides to put together a band that
plays 60s soul music. Director Alan Parker cast a collection of Irish
unknowns, mostly from local bands who collectively are wonderful and who
actually came together as a band during the production of the film. This is
perhaps what provides it with the ring of truth that's so evident: at first
the band is awful, then slowly they begin to get it together musically. In
most music biopics, we don't see the hard work and interactions that lead
to musical maturity. Here, each difficult step of the way is documented.
Especially fine is an early montage in which a series of hopelessly inept
and inappropriate wannabes try out for the band.

Cutter is a Viet Nam vet who has lost an arm, a leg and an eye, but not his
overwhelming joie de vivre coupled with a healthy suspicion for the rich.
He and his beach bum buddy, Bone, become immersed in a fascinating whodunit
richly textured with well-observed details. Standout performances by the
two leads played by Jeff Bridges and John Heard.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this lavish film is the fact that it was
produced in Paris during the Nazi occupation and involved a cast of
thousands. It's the lovingly-told tale of a carousing company of musical
theatre artists in 19th century Paris and in particular the love of a mime
for a virginal young woman. The film offers a cornucopia of delights, many
in the form of performances from the down and dirty milieu of this people's
theatre that has its correspondences with the hurly burly atmosphere of
Shakespeare's Globe from an earlier era.

Another quirky Aussie comedy-drama that's not as entirely successful as the
foregoing flick but certainly has its moments. Its the story of a rabidly
pro-communist woman who sends mash letters to Papa Joe Stalin who finally
invites her to visit Moscow where he, or perhaps a double KGB/Aussie agent,
knock her up. Returning to Australia she has enough sense of propriety to
marry a loyal fellow traveler who has had a crush on her for years. The son
they rear turns out to stray very far from the family political tree.
Unfortunately, the movie strays a bit far from the elements that work
during the last third, but Judy Davis' portrayal of the Commie Mommy never
flags.

In tone and subject matter it is similar to Five Corners (above). This is a
big-cast collection of inner city stories that slowly come together much in
the manner of "Short Cuts" and "L.A. Story". The director, John Sayles,
gives himself a particularly slimy character to play who is at the heart of
a lot of the film's grief. It probably would have been a little tighter had
it run perhaps 10-15 minutes shorter, but it is a convincing picture
nonetheless.

The video's box warns "Dare To Watch It", which is an appropriate caveat
given the disturbing nature of this edgy story of a psychotic who has
escaped (been released?) from a mental institution and who goes in search
of his young daughter. Meanwhile, a detective investigates a series of
child murders that seem to point toward the protagonist. The jangling
soundtrack and minimalist production values enhance the film's perspective
as an interiorized view into the psychotic mind. Fair warning: there are
some scenes, one involving self-mutilation, that are very difficult to
watch.

A Russian truck driver stranded near the Russian/Chinese border forms a
friendship with a Mongolian family who live in a yurt and enjoy a largely
traditional lifestyle. The Mongolian title refers to the lasso on a pole
used to capture horses and lovers in a ritualized mating ceremony. The film
examines themes of friendship, lost culture and cultures in collision.

Genevieve Bujold plays an L.A. talk radio sex advisor who can't deal with
any intimacy in her own life. She moves into an apartment she shares with
the owner of a garishly lit downtown bar who is a regular caller on the
program. Neither woman realizes who the other is. Keith Carradine enters
the picture as a nuthouse escapee who perhaps was a CIA agent, jet pilot
and a variety of other things in the past. He becomes involved with both
women. A very stylishly told and unusual story with a look all its own.

A quiet recollection of a young girl growing up in French West Africa at a
time when the Europeans run the show and the Africans are all subservient.
Told in episodic fashion, there is a well developed sense of place and
time.

Another French film with an African setting, this is a troubling black
comedy based on a story by American pulp fiction writer Jim Thompson. A
colonial policeman with an easygoing manner is exploited by everyone around
him with ultimately dire, vengeful results. Though the movie eventually
goes a bit over the top, Philippe Noiret's lead performance is a thing of
beauty that more than compensates.

An hallucinogenic fairy tale for big children crafted by the Belgian
directing team of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro who filmed the highly
creative "Delicatessen" reviewed here earlier. I've seen "City" a couple of
times and I am still hard pressed to offer a comprehensive plot synopsis.
Very roughly, it's about a crazed scientist who is unable to dream and who
sends out cloned henchmen to kidnap children whose dream lives he then
invades. A circus strongman whose young sister becomes one of the madman's
victims sets out to find and destroy the villain. Through remarkable
computer animations, elaborate makeup and fantastic sets this emerges as
one of the most imaginative productions I've seen, even if I don't always
get what's going on. If you liked "Brazil" or similar fare, you should be
satisfied. If, on other hand, the notion of a Maurice Sendak book on acid
doesn't whet your appetite, you are best advised to stay clear. It's also
definitely not for young, sensitive children.

It's hard to imagine that a glue-sniffing unwed mother who becomes the pawn
in a battle between pro-choice and anti abortion forces could offer the
makings of a winning comedy, but it does. Burt Reynolds has a great role as
a fundamentalist preacher who tries to pay off the despicable mother (Laura
Dern) who you come to love and hate all at once. A razor-sharp social
satire.

A curious little comedy from early in Jonathan Demme's ("Silence of The
Lambs") career which uses the citizen's band craze of the 70s as a vehicle
for some remarkable character studies. As a radio vigilante tries to stamp
out the misuse of the emergency channel we become acquainted with an odd
assortment of personalities in the community including a bigamist truck
driver who also is financing a motorhome-based hooker on the side. Quite
original.

The riveting account of an actual Russian decade-long hunt for a serial
killer, this also is a fascinating character study and serves as a synopsis
of recent Russian history. Steven Rea is a forensic scientist who becomes
the protegÃ© of a police colonel, Donald Sutherland, in a well-measured
performance, and is, for a time, put in charge of the investigation. He is
sickened by the immense brutality of the crimes and works tirelessly to
apprehend the killer despite enormous roadblocks and frustrations produced
by an idiotic police hierarchy. Only during glaznost does he get the
support he needs. Though we know early on the identity of the killer,
tension is generated by the many hoops Rea must jump through in dealing
with stupid superiors who won't acknowledge the existence of a sociopath in
their Communist state, and who insist that Rea round up homosexuals though
it is clear the perpetrator is not one. There are some graphically violent
scenes-squeamish and sensitive viewers should probably give this one a
pass.

Another minimalist cult film shot on practically no budget, but full of
laughs. A day in the life of a convenience store clerk and his slacker pal
who works at the video store next door-it's full of wry humor. Here again,
not much plot- just two Gen-Xers trying to pass the time in the least
painful way .

Four young women working as temps in a stultifying office where Muzak
unremittingly saws away in the background form a bond that arises out of
their mutual loathing for the work. Though that slight premise teeters
perilously close to sitcom fare on occasion, there's a dark undercurrent
running through this comedy that gives it teeth. Especially good is Parker
Posey who may or not be the culprit behind a series of petty thefts that
undermines the quartet's friendship. This is an interesting take on the
fate of so many clerical workers today, forced into the uncertainties and
mind numbing life of a temp. It also offers an engaging counterpoint to
last year's "In the Company of Men" reviewed earlier that deals with office
politics in a rather different way.

This eccentric comedy was made for the BBC and is based on a 30s novel
which tells the story of a penniless but refined young woman who, after the
death of her parents, is forced to go live with distant relations at the
title farm. She promptly sets about utterly changing things at this dark,
dank and very strange rural backwater. A terrifically eccentric cast of
characters is what keeps this one chugging along.

Reminiscent of some Jim Jarmusch movies, this one revolves around the theme
of a stranger in a strange land. A Japanese man foregoes his Hawaiian
vacation in order to travel to Iceland where his tourist parents were
killed in an accident. Shinto tradition requires a ceremony to ensure their
souls will enter heaven. A charming little movie that recounts all the
strange happenings that occur to him set against the stark beauty of the
location.

The first film was released in 1961 and stars Paul Newman as the cynical
Eddie Felson, a pool shark whose one abiding passion is to beat Minnesota
Fats, a rival played perfectly by Jackie Gleason. His demonic manager
(George C. Scott) and defeated girlfriend (Piper Laurie) each try to steer
him, each for their own reasons, from the self-destructive track that he
takes. All four leads are brilliant, but it is the cheap cigar-reeking
ambience of the pool halls that makes the most indelible impression. "The
Color of Money" came out in 1986 (perhaps a record in terms of time between
an original film and its sequel) and portrays Newman as the now washed-up
pool player who sells liquor to bars and taverns. On his salesman rounds he
discovers a young pool shark who reminds Eddie of himself as a young
hustler. The young shark, played effectively by Tom Cruise, is bankrolled
by Eddie who wants him to raise his sights from nickel and dime scams to
compete in a national pool tournament. The last half of the film lacks a
certain punch owing to a telegraphed climax that never actually happens but
it is still well worth seeing, especially in conjunction with the original.

A weird tale set in Venice stars Christopher Walken in the quirky persona
of a wealthy Italian who attaches himself to a pair of British tourists.
Though the finale is sort of hard to swallow, the dark and shadowy settings
and ambience draw you in nicely.

Unlike most of Robert Altman's work, this is one film where what you see is
what you get. There are none of the director's trademarked metamessages,
ellipticism or sarcasm. This is a bright, cheerful movie about a collection
of citizens in the near-idyllic town of Holly Springs, Mississippi and a
curiously touching suicide which leads to a murder investigation. Casting
is masterful with Glenn Close especially terrific as a loony, conniving
spinster and Julianne Moore beguiling as her seemingly slow witted sister.
Charles C. Dutton also turns in an uncharacteristically subdued and
ingratiating performance as the target of the murder investigation. Ned
Beatty too shines as deputy sheriff. "Cookies Fortune" is not great
filmmaking, but a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours bathed in
the ambience of a townscape that's part Mayberry, part Tennessee Williams
territory.

My favorite Bernardo Bertolucci movie about a morally flexible guy who
plays both ends against the middle in fascist Italy of the 30s. It is both
a look at a historically tumultuous time and a personality study of a man
dealing with his repressed homosexuality. Try to get the '94 video reissue
which restored some missing footage and is a much crisper print.

Honore de Balzac's novel is brought to the screen with a great dollop of
wicked fun. Jessica Lange, in a well-nuanced performance plays the poor
cousin in an aristocratic French family which is rapidly going to seed (and
bankruptcy) at the profligate hand of the head of the family. When she is
treated cruelly by her wealthier kin, Bette devises a Machiavellian plot to
exact her revenge. And so she does. Were it not for its innate
intelligence, the storyline could easily keep a soap opera going for weeks.
This much gleeful nastiness hasn't been seen on the silver screen since the
machinations of Glenn Close and John Malkovich in "Dangerous Liaisons"
subsided. There's a first rate cast that includes Bob Hoskins as a wealthy
merchant and, unfortunately, a terribly miscast Elizabeth Shue as an
actress cum courtesan-the film's only weak spot. Costumes, sets, music and
atmosphere are all exceedingly well handled.

A landmark 70s film dealing with issues of privacy and political paranoia.
Gene Hackman in a convincing performance is an acoustics expert who is
engaged in spying on people for what appears to be political purposes. When
death becomes part of the scenario, he starts to question his career
choices.

Despite winning a special award at Cannes for being the most original film,
or some such thing, this was mostly hated by American critics. It is based
on the novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard (who also authored the
autobiographical "Empire Of The Sun" about his internment in China as a
young boy by the Japanese). An adman is nearly killed in an auto accident
and becomes obsessed by the erotic aspects of car crashes and body
mutilations (really!). I liked it, but be forewarned, it is very twisted
and morbid. Ballard may well be one of the most subversive operators on the
literary scene today. If you find this film to your liking, you should
check out some of his books. A couple of recommendations: "Concrete Island"
and "The Kindness of Women" which is a sort of sequel to the
above-referenced "Empire of the Sun" which is his most conventional and
accessible work.

The title refers to two separate stories which ultimately come together in
this well-conceived comic tragedy by Woody Allen. Martin Landau is a middle
aged man who realizes that he must end an adulterous affair; Woody Allen is
a desperately unhappy documentary filmmaker who is making a movie about a
self centered bastard played with venomous glee by Alan Alda. Allen is
attempting to become romantically involved with one of Alda's underlings
played by then-wife Mia Farrow. The juxtaposed drama and hilarity that
ensue somehow work together seamlessly to create a singular film experience.

A fascinating little fable from Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro. A
gentle antiques dealer unwittingly activates the Cronos Device, a
mysterious mechanism that conveys immortality-but with a wicked price-a
vampire's life of a very non-traditional sort. A billionaire sends his
bizarre nephew on a mission to get the device with results that are filled
with horror, comedy and quirks in equal proportions. Very different and
ultimately creative.

Told in documentary style, though fictional, this is a the chronicle of a
British destroyer and its crew. With a first rate cast that includes such
stalwarts as Jack Hawkins, Denholm Elliot and Donald Sinden the film has a
pervading sense of realism that too many similar WWII epics lack; it avoids
all glorification of war.

A fascinating look at the underground comix artist who created cultural
icons such as Mr. Natural. In probing his history as a member of a highly
dysfunctional family, and as a world-class geek with a raging libido, we
come to understand how the artist has managed to transform his demons into
his idiosyncratic art.

Hidden meanings abound in this New Zealand film about jealousy, ambition
and treachery. After being seriously injured in an auto accident, a
literary critic's best friend begins impersonating her and seduces a writer
and his teenage daughter. Dark and disturbing with a fascinating
directorial style.

Alan Paton's novel about a rural black minister who comes to Johannesburg
to search for his prodigal son who has fallen in with totsi boys-urban
gangsters. Meanwhile a wealthy white grower has also come to the city to
claim the body of his son who has just been killed. Though it lacks the
subtlety of the original novel, it is still a very touching and
fascinating account of the early days of Apartheid.

An unusual buddy story-a devoutly Christian Scot and an ambitious Jewish
student meet at Cambridge University where they compete on the track team
leading up to their appearance at the 1924 Olympic Games. The film looks
subtly at the repressions and prejudices of the day; it is beautifully
produced with a fine feel for the period.

Meryl Streep delivers the goods in her role as an Australian mother who is
charged with murdering her child while maintaining that she was carried off
by a dingo in the Outback. Told in semi-documentary fashion, the film
attacks the process of trial by rumor, giving it great resonance today.

Mike Leigh's most recent film may not carry quite the punch of his previous
effort, "Secrets and Lies", but it has charms of its own. Two women who
shared a flat together in the early 80s while going to college, get
together in London for a weekend reunion. The movie constantly cuts between
then and now, and we see how the women have managed to come to terms with
their frailties even if they haven't completely overcome them. Very human
and realistic.

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