Before Night Falls ***
Dir: Julian Schnabel
With: Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn
130 mins, cert 15
www.before-night-falls.com
Javier Bardem has received golden reviews for his portrayal of exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's lavish and emotionally generous biopic. And he is indeed excellent. Bardem shows the young boy Reinaldo growing into a fervent young Fidel partisan, a vivacious and handsome young writer betrayed by the revolution's ugly homophobia, imprisoned and finally deported in the notorious 1980 Mariel boatlift of homosexuals and other counter-revolutionary "undesirables" - finally ending his days in genteel bohemian poverty and illness in 1980s New York City.
But the film has curious flaws, notably a couple of bizarre vanity cameos from Sean Penn, as a Cuban mule driver, and Johnny Depp who - in the spirit of Ed Wood Jr - plays two roles: a prison drag-queen and an army lieutenant. It's also a curiously apolitical movie. Bafflingly, Arenas is never shown reflecting on the repressive nature of the Castro regime. One minute he is hanging on the words of a visiting Russian lecturer on collectivist economics, the next he is thrown in jail as a gay man.
So does Arenas have a political dark night of the soul? Did gays have more freedom under Batista? Have Castro's reactionary sexual politics cancelled out his achievements elsewhere? Or what? Arenas is never shown thinking or writing or talking about any of his experiences, despite his status as political prisoner. He just seems a bullied hedonist and - on the basis of this - a slightly vapid poet. But it's a winning performance from Bardem, none the less.
Like Father ***
Dir: Amber Production Team
With: Joe Armstrong, Ned Kelly, Jonathon Dent, Anna Gascoigne
95 mins, cert 15
www.amber-online.com
The Amber film collective's latest work is stoutly and robustly in the social realist tradition of Ken Loach. Ned Kelly is the cantankerous ex-miner, Walter, tending his pigeons on his allotment while his ex-miner son, Joe (Joe Armstrong), just about scrapes by and his grandson, Michael, becomes withdrawn and pensive after his parents break up. And all this without the prospect of a ballet scholarship for anyone.
In fact, the one who dreams of building a better life through showbiz is Joe, now a trumpeter and struggling talent agent. But then family and political betrayal - never far from drama like this - emerges. Joe's band is funded by the very government agency that wants to demolish his old dad's pigeon loft. These may be familiar themes, on the verge of cliché, but they make for engaging, intimate cinema and the dramatic north-eastern coastline is terrifically photographed by . . . well, there are no demarcations of this sort in Amber, though I suspect there must be some de facto individual responsibility for technical work. Never mind that. This is a warm, human film.
Another Life ***
Dir: Philip Goodhew
With: Natasha Little, Nick Moran, Ioan Gruffudd, Imelda Staunton, Rachael Stirling, Tom Wilkinson, Diana Coupland
101 mins, cert 15
Here is a spruce, neatly furnished and nicely acted true-life crime story about a London milliner, Edith Thompson, who was put on trial and executed in 1923 for the murder of her doltish husband. It is Dance With a Stranger in the 1900 House: a flesh-creeping domestic thriller with hints of grisly black comedy.
Natasha Little is a pert, coquettish Edith, and Nick Moran is tremendous as Edie's frightful husband, Percy - a Pooter-ish dullard, peevishly insistent on his conjugal rights to the very end. Some might find director Philip Goodhew's reconstruction of inter-war suburban life and manners a bit pedantic, but there are some unsettling sequences - and Kit Hesketh-Harvey contributes some clever pastiches of popular songs.
Autumn in New York *
Dir: Joan Chen
With: Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Anthony LaPaglia, Elaine Stritch
105 mins, cert 15 www.mgm.com/autumninny/index.html
Richard Gere is back in the old routine: that lovable, pewtery-haired, superbly preserved philanderer is about to have his whole world turned upside down by a beautiful, free-spirited young woman. This time, however, she does not hail from the picturesque, bohemian world of LA prostitution. She is an artist who makes hats and is played by the coltish, elfin-featured Winona Ryder. She is also dying of a heart condition. That alone made me want to laugh hysterically.
Gere's acting just seems to get worse with every outing. There is, as it happens, a long-ish debate in Neil LaBute's new play, The Shape of Things, about the extent of his cosmetic surgery. It would certainly explain the weird, tight immobility of his face, which he sometimes effortfully splits with a smile.He has a mannerism of leaning back from an intimate encounter, turning his head to one side, and laughing silently at some fascinating, funny and adorable thing that's just popped into his little head. It makes me want to reach into the screen and slap him.
Say It Isn't So *
Dir: James B Rogers
With: Heather Graham, Chris Klein, Orlando Jones, Sally Field, Richard Jenkins, John Rothman, Jack Plotnick
95 mins, cert 15
www.sayitisntsomovie.com
This film is a hogwhimpering disgrace for all concerned, chiefly its producers, the grossout nabobs Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Chris Klein and Heather Graham are the two actors whose natural charm is wasted on the roles of Gilly and Jo, two young people who meet, fall in love, do the nasty - then discover that they're siblings.
It's an idea for a tender, witty, well-crafted movie. This isn't it. Combining moments of emotion with toilet humour, in the manner of There's Something About Mary, is a delicate, almost alchemical, operation. This doesn't bring it off, and is just boring and embarrassing.
Dracula 2001 **
Dir: Patrick Lussier
With: Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Plummer, Justine Waddell, Gerard Butler
99 mins, cert 15
www.wescravensdracula.com
" Dracoooool-ya is real!" shouts Christopher Plummer as Van Helsing in this new twist on the vampire legend. "Not a myth, or the ravings of a mad Irish novelist!" Oh, cheers. I'm sure the ghost of Bram Stoker will be chuffed to hear his creative achievement characterised thus. Anyway - this time we are out for the Count in New Orleans. The befanged one, played by Gerard Butler, is looking to get a couple of puncture wounds into the alabaster neck of the gorgeous Mary Heller (Justine Waddell). In these days of Buffy and Angel, an ambiguity has crept into vamp-camp: these days, getting bitten doesn't necessarily mean permanent residence in the old satin-lined coffin. This is occasionally entertaining stuff, but deeply silly.
