High Fidelity
UK/US 2000, Cert. 15
Director: Stephen Frears
Showing at: Odeon & UGC Marina from July 21)
Star rating * * * 1/2
Rob Gordon (John Cusack) runs a
record store in Chicago where he sells music pressed the
old-fashioned way - on vinyl. A self-professed music junkie,
he spends his days at Championship Vinyl bantering with his
two employees, Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black). The
three have an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and are
consumed with constantly creating their all-time favourite
top-five lists of tracks, but Rob is down in the dumps because
his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) has walked out on him. In
flashback, Rob examines all his failed attempts at romance and
happiness in an attempt to discover where he went wrong.
In this UK/US co-production,
based on Nick Hornby's bestselling novel the setting has been
moved from England to the US, doubtless to attract financial
backing/Cusack/a wider audience. Moving Nick Hornby's British
humour across the Atlantic was a risk but one which has paid
off, chiefly due to the ability of John Cusack (Grifters,
Being John Malkovich), who carries off the lead role with
charm and confidence. Cusack has described High Fidelity as
"a comedy about men and their relationship to women and
themselves. It is really a sort of male confessional".
This just about sums it up. And, unusually for a mainstream
film, common male insecurities are portrayed with honesty as
well as humour. Rob's struggle with self-examination is funny
yet full of integrity. As befits a film set in a record shop,
there's a lively soundtrack, and Rob's two music geek
sidekicks are as engaging as Laurel and Hardy.
A great quirky comedy, it's destined to be a classic let down
only by the miscasting of the Danish actress Iben Hjejle in
the female lead. There are some interesting cameos from Tim
Robbins, Catherine Zeta Jones and Bruce Springsteen.
Chicken Run
UK 2000, Cert. PG
Directors: Peter Lord & Nick Park
Showing at: Odeon and UGC Marina
Star Rating * * * *
Down on Mrs Tweedy's chicken
farm, trouble is brewing. Ginger, dubbed by Julia Sawalha, is
a chicken with a mission. She and the rest of her flock are
determined to escape the prison-camp confines of the farm,
where any chickens who don't make their egg quotas meet a
'fowl' fate. Time is running out as Mrs Tweedy Miranda
Richardson, the greedy owner of the farm, attempts to boost
her profits by producing chicken pies. The jailbirds are all
a-flutter when an American rooster named Rocky Mel Gibson
lands in their midst and promises to teach them how to fly and
so escape over the fence.
This, the first feature-length
animated film from Aardman Studios, has been a long time
coming. As you'd expect from the makers of Wallace and Gromit,
the characters are eccentric and typically British, including
Mac : voice Lynn Ferguson, a Scottish engineering chicken,
Babs: voice Jane Horrocks, a kind-hearted but bird-brained
knitting chicken, and Fowler: voice Benjamin Whitrow the
farm's elderly cockerel, who constantly reminisces about his
wartime exploits in the RAF. The stop-motion animation used
3500kg of plasticine and is impressive, with many visual jokes
adding to the film's sustained and idiosyncratic humour. Look
out for a multitude of film and TV references - Star Trek
included - and have fun groaning at the silly puns. Poultry in
motion. www.chickenrun.co.uk
American Movie
USA 1999, Cert. 15
Director: Chris Smith
Showing at: Duke of York's from July 21
Star Rating * *
American Movie is a documentary
about Mark Borchardt, an ordinary - and it has to be said, not
terribly bright - American from hicksville Wisconsin, and his
zonked-out friend Mike Schank. Mark is struggling to follow
his dream and make a movie. Two sharp young film-makers,
producer Sarah Price and director Chris Smith, followed Mark
for two years and recorded much of his intense and
single-minded struggle to make his movie. Bizarre, comical,
sad and more than a tad exploitative, this documentary account
of a man's life premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in
1996 and is apparently very popular with sophisticated
American audiences. Most US reviews described this film as a
comedy. The producer and director may well be laughing all the
way to the bank, but Mark Borchardt still hasn't finished the
movie he seemed so determined to make. Whether you find it
hilarious or in bad taste, or both, is down to your own
sensibilities. Additional footage and information is available
on the website, with new out-takes from American Movie being
posted every couple of days. www.americanmovie.com
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