A laughless, brainless, styleless, and clueless comedy about a hairdresser from Glasgow (cowriter Craig Ferguson) who winds up in Los Angeles to compete in an international competition. (Guess who wins.) But it has at least two limited virtues: it’s good-natured, and it has a cameo by Russ Meyer axiom Charles Napier. Somebody must have had some other reason in mind for making it. Directed by Kevin Allen, cowritten by Sacha Gervasi; with Frances Fisher and Mary McCormack. (JR) Read more
Set in the Kingston ghetto, this 1997 reggae crime musical is reportedly the highest grossing movie in Jamaican history and the first to be shot on digital video. Its heroine, a street vendor and single mother, comes into her own after entering a dance-hall contest in hopes of keeping various thugs and potential protectors from controlling her life. The narrative isn Read more
D.W. Harper directed this 1996 feature about the infamous Charles Whitman, who climbed a Texas tower in the mid-60s and shot people at random. Screenwriter Stephen Grant (who also plays the crazed killer) updates the story to the present and tries to milk it for absurdist humor, telling it from the bemused viewpoint of the killer’s nerdish roommate. Ambitious and inventive, but unevenly acted and overextended, this will certainly hold one’s interest, despite its hit-or-miss qualities. (JR) Read more
A penniless musician wins a lottery in a 45-minute film by the late, highly talented Djibril Diop Mambety. This 1994 release isn’t up to the level of his extraordinary Touki Bouki or Hyenas, but it’s highly distinctive and creditable all the same. (JR) Read more
