The surprising thing about the first English-language feature (1993) of Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi (The Runner, Water, Wind, Sand) is that it has nothing at all to do with Iran or Iranians. Rather, it tells the story of a laid-off American newspaperman (John Wojda), separated from his wife and child and at the end of his economic resources, traveling across New York City in an effort to find enough money by the end of the day to keep himself from becoming homeless. It’s a realistic, keenly felt, and richly detailed movie about American urban life in the mid-90s, but what’s most striking is its power as poetry as it delineates a landscape and the precise contours of a state of mind. This is a potent example of what Hollywood, which can’t seem to make movies about the world we’re living in, is studiously avoiding. The beautiful, original jazz score is by Gato Barbieri, the Brazilian musician best known for his score for Last Tango in Paris. (JR) Read more
A 22-year-old aspiring Chinese actress (Sandra Oh) living in a North American city with her parents and younger sister has to choose between her ambitions and traditional family loyalties. I wouldn’t call this 1994 Canadian comedy an unqualified success (some of the acting is uneven, for instance), but I learned a whole lot more about Chinese family traditions from this picture than from the middle-class crowd-pleasing The Wedding Banquet, and director Mina Shum kept me pretty amused and entertained besides. With Stephen Chang, Frances You, and Allanah Ong. 87 min. (JR) Read more
A 1966 yakuza gangster thriller with a pop-art look by the formidable B-movie director Seijun Suzuki, who’s generally much stronger in visual style than narrative coherence. With Tetsuya Watari and Chicko Matsubara. (JR) Read more
Oh dear, one of my colleagues remarked, and I know just how he felt. In this thoroughly unnecessary and profoundly unconvincing contribution to the King Arthur legend, written by William Nicholson and directed by Jerry Zucker (Ghost), Richard Gere is a semibearable Lancelot only when the character’s a footloose freelancer; the moment he has to pledge fealty to Camelot and the honor of Guinevere (Julia Ormond), the actor’s unquenchable narcissism and glibness make him seem the worst kind of hypocrite, which clearly wasn’t the script’s intention. Sean Connery fares better as King Arthur, but then he’s always been swell at playing amiable statues; by the time this movie’s over you may feel hard as rock yourself, and not so amiable about it. With Ben Cross, Liam Cunningham, and Christopher Villiers. (JR) Read more
Extraterrestrials contrive to persuade a beady-eyed American scientist (Ben Kingsley) to combine their own and human DNA to create a new being. This yields a dangerous female who grows from girl to woman in a matter of hours and then proceeds to Los Angeles, looking for a male to mate with. The funny thing about this scary SF thriller directed by Roger Donaldson from a screenplay by coproducer Dennis Feldman is that in spite of all its unexplained and semiridiculous plot premises it works surprisingly well as a genre exercise, perhaps because, like Alien, it knows how to exploit misogynist biological and sexual anxieties for all they’re worth. (It’s small wonder that the climactic chase takes place inside a sewer.) The cast is a lot of fun to watch, too; Kingsley seems almost as creepy as the lady monster (played by Michelle Williams as a girl and by Natasha Henstridge as a vamp), and the members of his crack monster-elimination team are played by Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, and Marg Helgenberger. (JR) Read more
Following his extraordinary debut Touki Bouki (1973)the first experimental feature in African cinemaSenegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety survived mainly as a stage and film actor, and naturally expectations for his second feature ran high. When Hyenas was released in 1992 I considered it a safer film, but on further reflection I find it more considered and mature than its predecessor, with ironies that may turn out to be even deadlier. It Read more
If there’s something a bit dilettantish about the career of former ace producer Barbet Schroeder (The Marquise of O, Celine and Julie Go Boating, The American Friend) as a director (More, Maitresse, Barfly), it can’t be denied that he’s been steadily picking up skill and craft. This 1990 drama about the celebrated case of Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons)the European aristocrat in Newport who may or may not have been responsible for his wife Sunny (Glenn Close) winding up in a permanent comais an extremely confident piece of filmmaking, with an able script by Nicholas Kazan, based on Alan Dershowitz’s nonfiction book about the case, and a terrific performance by Irons. Sunny’s periodically narrating the plot from her coma adds to the unresolved ambiguity, and the juxtaposition of liberal Jewish attorney Dershowitz (well played by Ron Silver) and von Bulow working together on the latter’s defense makes for some engagingly offbeat drama, with some interesting insights into the legal process. What it all adds up to is something the film never quite seems prepared to address, but this is a fascinating look at all the secondary questions. (JR) Read more
Set in China during the Japanese occupation, this 1990 Hong Kong soap about a female novelist’s romance with a collaborator has been likened to Doctor Zhivago, but for me that isn’t necessarily a recommendation; anyway, on the level of plot, the French episode in Hiroshima, mon amour may be a more salient reference point. What keeps this watchable despite the telegraphic, bombastic storytelling is the castespecially the expressive Maggie Cheung as the heroine’s best friendand the artful mise en scene of the underrated Yim Ho (The Day the Sun Turned Cold), who also plays a cameo as Cheung’s political boyfriend. In Cantonese with subtitles. 94 min. (JR) Read more
