drella-2 Reviews

Babycakes (1989 TV Movie)

OK, but see the original

[21 October 1999]

Babycakes is a sweet film, but not nearly as good as the German movie upon which it is based, Percy Adlon's Zuckerbaby (1985). Why does Hollywood persist in making limp retreads of European gems? City of Angels, Three Men & A Baby, Pennies From Heaven, Blame It On Rio, The Vanishing, The Birdcage... Even sitcoms like All In The Family, Sanford & Son and Three's Company are just inferior retreads of Brit originals. To be fair, the Brits tried to remake The Golden Girls, and an unholy mess they made of that too... Sylvester Stallone's forthcoming remake of Get Carter fills me with abject dread. Are there no original ideas in La La Land any more?

Bachelor Party (1984)

In context

[9 September 1999]

When Tom Hanks made Philadelphia, he was asked if his kids might be embarrassed that he was playing a gay man with AIDS. He said they'd be more embarrassed if they saw Bachelor Party. Which says it all really...

French Twist (1995)

Quintessentially French

[8 September 1999]

I know many people have a mental block about foreign-language films, but this is an excellent taster for the nervous. No portentous symbolism or moody gazes into the middle-distance - just a witty, sexy comedy of errors, where the audience's sympathies bounce back and forth between the three principal characters. Instantly accessible to monolinguists - and yet its panache and pace could only be French (yeah, I know Abril is Spanish).

Incidentally, I know we're not really supposed to respond to other comments from IMDb users, but it's interesting to note that the movie-loving community displays just as much intolerance and uptightness about sexuality as any other disparate group of people.

Clerks (1994)

A paradox

[3 September 1999]

Vast sums were spent on movies such as Titanic, Waterworld, Cutthroat Island, Phantom Menace, and all we were left with was vapid, plotless crap, aimed at a 13-year-old with an IQ of about 6 and just enough social graces to get the popcorn to his mouth without drooling too much.

Then Kevin Smith gets together a bunch of his pals and about 43 cents and makes one of the funniest, truest movies of the 90s.

Might this bizarre paradox indicate that Hollywood is run by a bunch of retards?

Discuss.

Love You Till Tuesday (1969)

Fascinating (space) oddity

[2 September 1999]

Before David Bowie became an international jet-set ski-bum megastar (and fixed his teeth) he was closely associated with the avant-garde Arts Lab-influenced side of experimental theatre. Heavily influenced by Anthony Newley and Lindsay Kemp, his persona was a sort of geek-pierrot, engaging in a bizarre multiple-death scenario in this 60s short. It's all a bit self-consciously pseudo-profound but it's an interesting oddity for Bowie fans, showing an early stage of the theatricality that would inform his most creative period (1972-78).

Leon the Pig Farmer (1992)

My life, already

[27 August 1999]

When even Woody Allen seems to have given up making overtly Jewish movies, Leon is a novelty. OK, some of the comedy borders on stereotype, but, I can tell you from experience, it's still true. The confusions of identity, culture, heritage etc are a ready source of sardonic wit. And it's not just a film for Jewish people either - anybody with experience of cultures centred around insane families will appreciate it. In my circle, Indians, Italians and the Irish seem to have a particular affinity. On a sadder note, the film features mark Frankel, whose untimely death was potentially a major loss to the Brit industry.

One Night Stand (1997)

A conversation piece

[26 August 1999]

The good thing about One Night Stand is that nothing is cut and dried. Nobody is a complete bastard or a total saint. People do wrong things for maybe understandable reasons. As in life. One of the refreshing aspects of the movie is that the male characters aren't perceived as the villains - the faithful, put-upon Ann Archer-type wife sterotype is absent. It's a long time since I left a movie with so much to discuss, so much to ponder, but no rock-solid messages or opinions. Maybe not a great movie, but certainly a good, worthwhile, and entertaining one. See it.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Dumb and dumbest

[24 August 1999]

In the early 90s Michael Medved wrote a book urging Hollywood to eschew sex and violence and make films that extolled the virtues of America, family, religion, apple pie, Thanksgiving, home-baked cookies blah blah blah. He was arguing from a 'moral' (read 'conventional Western family-oriented' standpoint) but his argument also had a bearing on the bottom line. He reckoned that more 'nice' films would encourage more people back into the cinemas.

Forrest Gump would appear to be the realisation of Medved's dream, to the extent that the movie also praises the virtue he left off the list, namely abject stupidity.

Because that's what MM and his cronies really want, isn't it? Movies that don't challenge, don't irritate, don't ask awkward questions. Movies with no toilets (see Pleasantville), movies that operate on the assumption that a fortune-cookie-spouting dullard who loves his mom is some kind of embodiment of the American dream.

Wake up, America. You managed to elect one Hollywood simpleton with a tenuous acquaintance to reality. Now you make movies about them. In the words of the greatest American philosopher, D'OH!

This is a dumb movie, made by clever, cynical people, for other people who want to feel all warm and fuzzy and not worry about the fact that they lost all form of intellectual discrimination the day they took out that subscription to Reader's Digest. It sucks like an industrial vacuum cleaner on amphetamine sulphate. Yuk.

Tampopo (1985)

The Bare Necessities

[17 August 1999]

Food. Sex. Laughter. What more could you ask for? One thing (among many) that I love about Tampopo is the way the story keeps peeling off from the central plot into crazy blind alleys like the man with toothache and the downtrodden salaryman who knows more about food than his stuffy bosses. There's also the single most erotic scene in cinematic history. No spoilers, but it involves an egg yolk. Not to be confused with the egg scene in Ai No Corrida, of course...

The Tribe (1998)

Against my better judgement

[2/10 · 16 August 1999]

Normally I'd regard the critical mindset that a film is crap, but at least actress XYZ gets naked in it, as prehistoric, sexist bilge. But, for this one, I'll make an exception. Talented people (Eve, Costigan, Richardson) ambling about like zombies for two wasted hours. The BBC sat on this for about two years, then marketed it in a cold, calculating manner with tantalizing shots of Ms Friel about to disrobe. And disrobe she does. Pert, firm, frisky, if a little skinny for my tastes. Sorry, but if the script and/or direction was any better, we might not have had to go down this alley... Was Jeremy Northam actually PAID for his performance?

The Fifth Element (1997)

Stick to what you know.

[12 August 1999]

It's like a film-school attempt to pay tribute to Terry Gilliam. But then Terry Gilliam's gone pretty cruddy these days as well. [SIGH]. Plus point: Ian Holm. This criminally underrated actor is unobtrusively brilliant in whatever he does. Check out Brazil, Madness Of King George, Hour Of The Pig etc etc.

Suite 16 (1994)

Desperately poor

[12 August 1999]

Let me say from the outset that Pete Postlethwaite is one of our best character actors and that Charlea Higson is a fine writer of skewed noir thrillers (read 'Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen' if you appreciate grim, black farce). But what the hell went wrong here? A blond g*t who couldn't act his way out of a wet Kleenex, characters who've stepped out of a bad student improvisation project and sex scenes as erotic as Spam that's been left in a warm place for three weeks. I think there's some statement about voyeurism, sexuality and control trying to slip out here, but I'm too dumbfounded by the abject crapness of the entire project to remember. Are we allowed to give minus points?

Arlington Road (1999)

The truth?

[9 August 1999]

Those who say this movie is implausible have a touching faith in the 'reality' which is rammed down our throats by the media. Terrorists are no longer just fanatical Arabs or psychotic Irishmen. The Christian Right/militia/family values axis is the biggest threat to democracy at the moment.

And Tim Robbins is one scary mother when he wants to be.

Titanic (1997)

as a film, it's irrelevant

[9 August 1999]

We should be reviewing the hype, because it was more creative, more interesting and says more about our warped society than this turgid drama ever could. The movie was a triumph of clever fx and the manufactured yearnings of hormonally-confused 14-year-olds over such irrelevancies as acting, script etc.

Cynical product for a dumbed-down, undiscerning consumerati. Repulsive.

The Celebration (1998)

Forget Dogme

[6 August 1999]

I only went to see Festen because I was interested in the Dogme concept, even though I thought this might be a self-indulgent bit of hype - trying to create a sort of Cahiers du Cinema ethos for 90s Denmark. Within five minutes, I'd completely forgotten all about Dogme. This is one of the most startling, involving, terrifying films I have ever seen. People were leaving the cinema either dumbstruck or shaking in disbelief. It's Ingmar Bergman gone punk, with a heavy dollop of Strindberg and Sartre (Hell is other people). I saw The Idiots a few weeks later - it was good, but Festen is truly GREAT film-making, up there with the greats - Renoir, Welles, Kurosawa, Ray, Jerry Bruckheimer...

Big Train (1998–2002)

Misunderstood, but worth the effort

[3 August 1999]

Unfairly written off as an attempt to replicate the cult hysteria of The Fast Show, Big Train dared to push the boundaries of a genre (the comedy sketch show) which thought it had seen it all. No, not all of it worked, but the same was true of Python, Vic&Bob and all the other groundbreakers. When it did - the manager who distracted his mutinous staff with juggling displays, the Jekyll & Hyde-type scientist, the staring competitions, Mao Tse-Tung as Bryan Ferry, it was painfully, inexplicably funny. Stick with it.