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Film Clips
NOVEMBER 9, 1998:
 BELLY. In response to the assertion that Black English
is drifting away from standard English, Linguist John McWhorter
has recently tried to make the case that Black English is a fairly
stable dialect that is about as close to Standard English today
as it was 30, 50 or 100 years ago. Perhaps he could get a job
subtitling Belly, a story of inter-state, international,
inter-gang rivalries which is, at times, as visually engaging
as it is hard to understand. This "gangsta" film is
so artfully shot that you'll forget how hard the convoluted plot
is to follow. It's first 45 minutes are dedicated to visual excess,
with director Hype Williams employing a delicious palate of alternating
monotone scenes. One of the most notable segments cuts back and
forth between a blue-tinted boudoir and an all-in-yellow suburban
living room to smashing effect. Oddly, all the half-toned shots,
beautiful compositions and Fritz-Lang-on-Ecstasy lighting vanish
about half-way through, and suddenly the story starts to make
sense. Maybe it's an either-or thing, but both halves of the film
work, first as psychedelic-noir eye-candy, then as a reasonably
engaging story of gangsters searching for redemption. Starring
Nas (who co-write the script with video director Hype Williams)
as Sincere, and DMX as his gangsta pal Tommy. --DiGiovanna
A MERRY WAR. I say, if you must get out of your flat because
there's nothing on the telly, perhaps you'd have a mind to pop
out and watch something so very English as this slow-moving film.
Sadly, itís a bit of a let down, entertainment-wise. Richard
Grant plays a poet who writes ad copy, but quits to lead a life
of starvation and artistic integrity. Helena Bonham Carter plays
the woman who has no rational reason for putting up with his behaviour
as he descends into drunken excess and poverty. Like all extremely
English films, this one is set in the past, tries for a dry wit,
and has an odd chastity about even its erotic scenes. If you like
PBS, but would rather pay $7 to watch it, do go to A Merry
War.--DiGiovanna
PRACTICAL MAGIC. Survey a bunch of witches about what they
want most, and nine out of 10 will tell you good, old-fashioned
love. The other 10 percent will insist that their true desire
is a soundtrack that masquerades as a script. Sally (Sandra Bullock)
and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) are sisters (but, really, aren't we
all?) who are witchy and cursed--if they fall in love, their men
will die. Sally resolves to beat it with normality (husband, kids,
etc.), while Gillian accepts it and pursues a good time. This,
of course, means that Gillian must be punished, so her boyfriend
returns from the dead to torture her. Sally exorcises him, then
falls in love with a cop (Aidan Quinn) and makes out. The more
interesting story--the one of their aunts (Stockard Channing and
Diane Wiest)--is unfortunately of lesser importance. But at least
Wiest gets to utter the line, "There's a little witch in
all of us." Gals, this is empowering stuff. --Higgins
THE SIEGE. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
(ADC) has expressed grave fears about the potential effects of
this film, which they believe could increase hatred and suspicion
towards members of the Muslim and American-Arab communities. The
Siege tells the story of a wave of terrorist bombings that
occur in New York City. In response, the U.S. government declares
martial law and imprisons all Arab men (which here seems
to mean anyone of Persian, Middle Eastern or North African descent)
between the ages of 14 and 30. The film does attempt to address
the issue of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice in the United
States; however, in its broad Hollywood way, it employs stereotypes,
simplifications and sometimes offensive misrepresentations of
Islam. Perhaps most egregious are the images of the terrorists
(who are only referred to as "Muslims" and "Arabs,"
as though those terms could constitute a cohesive identity or
a terrorist organization) performing ritual hand washing prior
to their attacks: the film implies that this is something specifically
done in preparation for acts of violence, when in fact this is
a daily ritual that Muslims engage in prior to prayer. When the
army places all of Brooklyn's young males of Arab descent in a
camp, the scene shows an unrealistically homogenous crowd of people,
all with the same pigmentation and clothing. The effort to mute
this effect by casting Tony Shalhoub as one of the FBI agents
in charge of the investigation is itself muted by having him play
sidekick and second-fiddle to leading man Denzel Washington. Still,
interesting issues are raised here: in several scenes, disembodied
voices point out that this kind of government action would not
be tolerated against Jewish or Black Americans; the army is definitely
portrayed as villainous in their treatment of the Arabic prisoners;
and there are (fairly awkward) assurances that "most"
Arabs are decent, law-abiding citizens. The very fact that the
film begins to question the prejudices against Arabs and Muslims
shows a radical leap forward in Hollywood thinking. In spite of
the very reasonable reservations of the ADC, the history of American
cinema shows that clumsy first steps like The Siege are
often signs of real progress.--DiGiovanna
TOUCH OF EVIL. Thirty years after its original release,
this version of Orson Welles' film is re-edited according to changes
the director requested after viewing the studio cut that significantly
altered his vision. A beautifully shot film noir, the story follows
the investigation of a car bombing in a small town on the Mexican
border. Newlyweds Mike (Charlton Heston) and Susan Vargas (Janet
Leigh) witness the explosion during their honeymoon, so Mike joins
a nasty American police chief, Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), in
the investigation. In true noir style, Welles creates a claustrophobic
world with a slippery definition of morality, where the cops are
sometimes as corrupt as the criminals. Though the murder is solved
by the end of the film, the most compelling question, why Heston
is playing a Mexican, remains unanswered.
--Higgins
VAMPIRES. Please benefit from my suffering and don't waste
two hours of your life hoping that director John Carpenter's (Halloween,
Escape from New York) latest effort will be bad-good rather
than bad-offensive. James Woods, showing his wood in particularly
tight jeans, and Daniel Baldwin, struggling to stay awake, play
vampire slayers who pursue the father of all vampires. Along the
way they pick up Sheryl Lee so that Baldwin can take off her clothes,
tie her up, call her a bitch, and eventually fall in love, and
a priest, so Woods can talk about his penis. Interesting ideas,
such as the mixing of the horror genre with the western and viewing
vampirism as a virus, surface, but only for about 30 seconds.
After that, it's back to Lee's rope burns. If you hate women,
this film could be for you, but I still think you'll be tripped
up by the bad dialogue, clichéd revenge plot, and hokey
music. Oh, and there's some homophobic stuff thrown in for extra
flavor. --Higgins
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