Fall Film Reviews
Film reviews by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1994 Michael John Legeros
Contents -------- i. EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN ii. MY LIFE'S IN TURNAROUND iii. PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT iv. SPANKING THE MONKEY v. THE RIVER WILD vi. THE SCOUT
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN -------------------
Delightful culinary comedy from Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee (THE WEDDING BANQUET) about a master chef and his three grown daughters and their difficulties in communicating at any other time than during Sunday dinner. Real characters and real situations are just two of the reasons to see this handsome (and often hilarious) film. Easily one of the best films of the year.
Don't forget your bib.
Grade: A
MY LIFE'S IN TURNAROUND -----------------------
Super-cute, ultra-low budget comedy about two losers-who-know-it who want to make a movie just because. One drives a cab, the other tends bar, and neither knows the first thing about filmmaking. The joke, of course, is that these two New York slackers (Eric Shaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward) really *did* make a movie, this movie, without even knowing what it would be about.
Watch for a handful of cameos, including Phoebe Cates who had the fortune/misfortune of hailing Shaeffer's cab. In real life and in the movie.
Hilarious.
Grade: B+
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT ------------------------------
Mildly diverting road-comedy stars Terence Stamp (BILLY BUDD, SUPERMAN II) as one of three drag queens traveling across the outback in a bus named Priscilla. Aussie filmmaker Stephan Elliott doesn't pace his film fast enough to keep your seat from squirming--that is, unless you find the idea of men dressed as women dressed as Abba hilarious.
Lip-synching aside, the scenery is good and Terence Stamp is always worth watching. Especially when delivering droll lines like "what is this, outback with Benny Hill?" Stay through the closing credits.
Grade: B-
SPANKING THE MONKEY -------------------
Holy Oedipus Rex! This hilarious dark dark dark dark comedy won the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival and with good reason. No summer has ever been tougher (or funnier) than what 20-year-old Ray (Jeremy Davies) goes through while taking care of Mom (Alberta Watson) while home from college.
Low-budget to be sure, be redeemed fourfold by a super script and sharp performances by Davies, Watson, and Benjamin Hendrickson (as the father). Title refers to masturbation, one of the many taboos blithely broken by first-time writer/director David O. Russell.
Move over, Mrs. Robinson!
Grade: B+
THE RIVER WILD --------------
So what if Meryl Streep wants to play Linda Hamilton? THE RIVER WILD is one of those pulse-pounding, preposterous thrillers that works best with your brain almost entirely on hold. That way you can sit back and smile and think of all the ways that you'd do things differently if *you* were the person on the raft with your family and a killer and not a banjo in sight.
The photography of the trip is quite good and the river certainly looks wild. Too bad bad guy Kevin Bacon never really gets into the act. He can be creepy when he wants to be. Streep and (David) Strathairn are both fine. From the director of BAD INFLUENCE and THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE.
What you get is what you expect.
Grade: B
THE SCOUT ---------
KING KONG remade as a baseball comedy!? Feel-good film stars Albert Brooks as a veteran scout (for the Yankees) who discovers "the greatest player he's ever seen" pitching 100mph fastballs in Mexico. Too bad the talent (AIRHEADS survivor Brendan Fraiser) needs to play with a shrink before he can play ball.
Though the tone veers a little too close to drama at times, the jokes are strong and the leads are good. Fraiser's a charm, while Brooks overacts to the max. And who'd he steal that straw fedora from? Darren McGavin? Walter Matthau?
Cameos include Bob Costas, Tony Bennett, and George Steinbrenner.
Grade: B
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