Friday, May 15, 1998
Screenscene
FILM
"Bulworth"
Directed by Warren Beatty
Starring Warren Beatty and Halle Berry
While the image of Warren Beatty donning gangster-rap clothing
and rapping during a fund-raising speech may sound like the set-up
to a generic screwball comedy, Beatty’s new film "Bulworth" manages
to say a great deal about our country and still maintain the tone
and feel of a rambunctious comic adventure. The film conveys
Beatty’s admittedly liberal viewpoint in a surprisingly
straight-forward manner, while never failing to be entertaining and
genuinely funny.
Beatty portrays Democratic incumbent candidate Jay Billington
Bulworth, running a campaign for his Senatorial seat while
simultaneously having a nervous breakdown. During a moment of
weakness, after three solid days without sleep, Bulworth decides to
end his life, arranging his own assassination through a connection
to the Mafia. His newfound freedom from responsibility (after all,
he’ll be dead in 48 hours) allows Bulworth the opportunity to act
out in any way he wants – and to tell the truth to his constituency
after years of lies and deceit.
Following this premise, the film launches into a series of
incredibly clever and intertwined escapades in which the Senator
becomes romantically involved with a radical, young, African
American activist (Halle Berry), discusses the condition of the
African American community with a South Central-based drug kingpin
(Don Cheadle) and freaks to 2 Live Crew in a raucous nightclub.
All of these set pieces are very funny, and the image of Beatty
walking around Watts late at night donned in full gangster-gear
never ceases to be amusing.
However, the film has an intelligence underneath its surface –
an intelligence which is unparalleled in just about every other
recent comedy.
Even recent, intelligent political satires (including "Primary
Colors" and "Wag the Dog") failed to be half as entertaining or
resonate quite as deeply as "Bulworth."
The success of "Bulworth" can really be credited to the vision
of Beatty, who has a reputation for making entertaining films with
a definite political outlook.
Here Beatty has crafted a character who, despite being
certifiably insane for the entire film, is genuine and real – and
who is not afraid to say things that no one else would ever dare to
say.
To be truthful, most of the films biggest laughs stem from
Bulworth’s basic honesty: he is not afraid to tell an interviewer
that her questions are ludicrous, or to insult a gang leader in his
own hideout.
Thankfully, Beatty too is not afraid to tell American audiences
what he believes, and his collective thoughts on the state of our
society has been coalesced into one of the most entertaining films
thus far this year.
Lonnie Harris
Grade: A
"Quest for Camelot"
Directed by Frederik Du Chau
Featuring the speaking voices of Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes and
Gary Oldman
Featuring the singing voices of Andrea Corr, Bryan White and
Celine Dion
Hey batter batter batter. Swing.
Well, the next Hollywood player in the competition of
feature-length animated films is up to the plate. Following
Twentieth Century Fox’s success with "Anastasia," Warner Brothers
is reaching for their piece of the pie with "Quest for Camelot," a
new musical animated film based on Vera Chapman’s novel, "The
King’s Damosel."
With a studio famous for their toons and a mile long list of
celebrity voices (Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Celine Dion, Sir
John Gielgud, Don Rickles, Jane Seymore and even UCLA’s own Jaleel
White, just to name a few) behind this film, one would expect
"Quest for Camelot" to be a sure hit.
But the film’s less-than-original plot lacks any real emotional
progression and connection with the audience. The tale follows
tomboyish Kayley’s (Gilsig) quest to recover the Excalibur from the
depths of a treacherous forest and help King Arthur (Brosnan) save
Camelot.
Along the way she meets up with Garrett (Elwes), a blind hermit
living in the magical forest. They end up working together and –
big surprise – falling in love.
The plot is shallow and the story moves with no purpose. The
animation, while not bad, isn’t eye-catching either, with grassy
hills of flat two-dimensional green.
On top of that, none of the songs are particularly memorable.
Full of unexciting melodies and easy rhyme schemes, the songs are
short bursts of musical nothing that are forgotten as soon as the
film ends.
The only highlights are the occasional laughs provided by the
two-headed runt dragon that cannot fly or breathe fire, voiced by
Eric Idle and Rickles. For example, when asked by Garret, "What are
you?" they respond, "We are the reasons cousins shouldn’t
marry."
When all is said and done, "Quest for Camelot" doesn’t exactly
give the other contenders a run for their money, leaving film-goers
waiting for the next bid for a home run.
Stephanie Sheh
Grade: C
"The Horse Whisperer"
Directed by Robert Redford
Starring Redford, Kristen Scott Thomas, Sam Neill and Scarlett
Johansson
Who knew that "Ordinary People" would one day be considered
director Robert Redford’s grittiest piece of work? But it’s true –
what we notice in "The Horse Whisperer," the adaptation of Nicolas
Evans’ best-selling novel, is Redford’s increasingly worshipful
idealization of the American landscape, his camera lens so polished
that he seems almost compulsive. Edward Zwick ("Legends of the
Fall" and "Glory") is perhaps the only director working today who
can still give Redford a challenge when it comes to the aesthetics
of perfection, but clearly no one can clean our house better than
Redford.
Redford’s prissy panoramas doesn’t only encompass mountains and
meadows; he can dote lovingly on a cultural scenery too, like the
one found in "Quiz Show." But there’s an undeniable continuity
between Redford lassoing a horse and Brad Pitt catching a fish in
"A River Runs Through It": in both instances nature surrenders to
man, but only through the ritualized observances which nature
demands. There’s a gooey sort of pastoral spirituality in those
observances, and if Redford shows a fall from grace, he does so
with an overriding concern that there was grace to begin with.
So when Grace (Johansson) falls off her horse Pilgrim – in a
horrifying, extremely well-crafted sequence better left for the
film to describe – Grace loses her leg and a messed-up Pilgrim, so
rattled by the accident, won’t come near her. Grace’s urban
professional mother Annie (Thomas) takes them both to Montana,
hoping that this "horse whisperer" named Tom Booker (Redford) can
mend what’s broken. Soon Pilgrim’s placed in horsey rehab – but at
the same time, Grace’s spirit goes through its own twelve-step
program and Annie slowly falls for Tom, despite her loving husband
(Neill).
This high-class weepie is standard Redford territory – except
that there’s a romance at its center – and pretty standard for this
curious era of Madison County bridge-dwellers who crave this sort
of stuff. But perhaps more interesting than Redford’s obsessive
search for honey in WASP-ridden hives is the gradual weakening of
Redford’s complexion, disguised for the most part beneath the
film’s forgiving warm-light photography. But maybe that sad time
has come for someone to whisper those words none of us want to say
into Redford’s ear.
Tommy Nguyen
Grade: C+
"Clockwatchers"
Directed by Jill Sprecher
Starring Parker Posey, Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow and Alanna
Ubach
Iris (Collette), the newest inductee to the world of temping,
sojourns to a credit corporation which introduces her to a group of
seasoned seasonals: the infectiously obnoxious Margeret (Posey),
the insecure faux-actress Paula (Kudrow) and Jane, who’s about to
marry her rich and womanizing fiance. Each day from nine to five
these "corporate call girls" go through the motions –
simultaneously with the drudging motions of the clock’s hands. They
are clockwatchers and, as Iris narrates, "all killing time, waiting
for something to happen, anything."
Something does happen: someone from the office steals the money
from office change jar. Soon everything turns up missing, and
everyone at the office naturally believes the thief resides among
the temps – their transient lifestyle caters to that type of social
degeneracy. The fascist brasses at the company begin to heat up the
temps by putting them in a hot pot of Big Brother scrutiny. One by
one we see them fold beneath the heat, each of the actresses’
respective performances both typecast and absolutely wonderful –
especially Posey, whose slowly verging upon the moment of becoming
a goddess – in first-time director Jill Sprecher’s eerily stylized
labor of love. It’s being somewhat marketed as a comedy, but you’ll
be hard-pressed to find anything more morbid.
Tommy Nguyen
Grade: B-
Oliver Platt is Murphy and Warren Beatty is Senator Jay Bulworth
in "Bulworth".