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| Miranda’s moment |
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
Directed by Miranda July, Certificate 15
DESPITE what you may have heard about this independent production
– a wry, quirky comedy that verges on being too weird for words
– this is an oddly beguiling tale where things go lightly haywire,
odd events happen and no one really notices: they just sail on.
Director Miranda July (who also stars) won awards at all the top
festivals for this unusually upbeat story of divorce, misunderstanding,
flaming hands, possibly paedophilia and heartfelt loss. A conceptual
artist (played by July) can’t make ends meet by being an artist,
so she drives students around town on errands to pay her way.
When on one of these journeys she meets a shoe salesman, the freshly
divorced Richard (John Hawkes, pictured) she falls hard and mystically
in love and in her own inimitable way attempts to woo him. Her shy,
unassuming manner hides a fierce character which does not take no
for an answer.
Meanwhile, Richard sets his hand on fire to impress his children
– children who are too busy making meaningless sexual comments
to people in chat rooms. It may be all much of a muchness, but this
is a film that will hypnotise and amuse, challenge and endear audiences
to it for years to come.
Tragic – not magic – movie,
will fail to cast a spell on you
BEWITCHED
Directed by Nora Ephron, Certificate PG
AFTER Scooby-Doo, the Beverly Hillbillies, the Brady Bunch and
numerous other movies based on television shows, comes Bewitched.
This movie heralds one hope and one hope only for the movie industry
– it is so bad that perhaps, at last, now Hollywood will stop
taking old sitcoms and turning them into movies.
Even the producers seem to realise that TV spinoff movies are played
out, judging by the way they tackle the subject. Nevertheless, an
idea as ripe as Bewitched cannot stay from our big screens for long
and this is why Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell star in the Bewitched
of director and writer Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, You’ve
Got Mail, etc), arguably one of the funniest and most successful
females ever to have worked in Hollywood – until now.
For those who don’t remember seeing the 1960s’ American
sitcom called Bewitched, here is a catch-up.
A wife who is a real witch promises not to use her powers so she
can live like a mortal with her advertising executive husband. Why
she doesn’t want to use her powers is akin to those arguments
where God doesn’t look after us and protect us from evil because
he wants us to have free will.
But this Bewitched not only fails to answer that question but also
staggers into a fit of post-modern nonsense so enormous that the
original is swept away.
The new Bewitched sees Samantha the witch as a stupid, easily manipulated
witch who comes to LA to be normal.
That should clue you up to how smart she is: no one in LA is normal.
She gets the role of a TV sitcom witch/wife and becomes a big hit,
but she also has to deal with her ditsy co-star Will Ferrell.
Even worse than Ferrell’s career virtually having ‘jumped
the couch’ with Anchorman, Samantha’s father is Michael
Caine. Need I say more? Between Ferrell’s overacting and Kidman’s
asthmatic vocal delivery, this much-anticipated comedy has little
to recommend it.
But even worse, the thing doesn’t really start with a proper
plot until about an hour in – and then you wonder.
Bewitched should
have been a great comedy; it is barely even good.
Also showing
Heidi
This new British remake is a sweet return to the original best-selling
book. With its wholesome setting, charming outcome and breathtaking
scenery it also proves that Max Von Sydow is one of the best actors
of all time.
A young orphan (Emma Bolger) is given to her hermit grandfather
(Von Sydow) by her aunt (Pauline Claridge).
Despite her simplicity, Heidi manages to charm everyone who meets
her and changes the lives of everyone in her path. A new family
must-see.
The Perfect Man
A romantic comedy which is memorable in a bad way, this flaccid,
appallingly written and predictable single parent dating drama at
least shows us that Heather Locklear is still looking good as the
loser mom of winning child Hilary Duff.
Unleashed
Martial artist Jet Li’s new film with Bob Hoskins was previously
called Danny The Dog for good reason: Li plays a Danny, a mobster’s
tough – trained from childhood to be a human attack dog.
But when things go awry, Danny discovers joy with blind piano tuner
Morgan Freeman and his daughter. Can his happiness last? Only Hoskins
knows for sure.
Beautifully choreographed Yuen Wo Ping, this is a charming if naïf
cinematic curio.
Pick of the indies
Primer
This American independent movie was made for $7,000. No, that’s
not a misprint. The entire movie cost as much as Tom Cruise’s
sandwich tab on War Of The Worlds.
Cynics would probably deduce from this statistic that Primer is,
as the name suggests, a bit like watching paint dry. In fact, it’s
a brilliant slow burn of a film.
After a slightly confusing opening, where a bunch of nerdy engineers
discuss a mysterious project in mumbly voices, the story kicks in
and suddenly you are caught up entirely in Primer’s world.
Shot as if you are part of the team of engineers who are building
a mysterious machine, this challenging, beautifully crafted no-budget
feature is the world of Shane Carruth, an engineer who taught himself
filmmaking. What is the machine they are building?
Well, a time machine of sorts but imagination overcomes budgetary
restraints, and this machine is somehow much more real and sophisticated
and exciting than anything you’ve seen before.
And the story becomes genuinely claustrophobic and, frankly, scary.
Like Pi, the film it resembles the most, it is tight, intense and
doesn’t stop to make sure its audiences are keeping up. Sheer
genius this one.
A real surprise.
Ica, Curzon Mayfair, UGC Shaftesbury Avenue. |
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