Colin Roth Reviews

Chop Suey (2001)

A wonderful experience

[10/10 · 21 September 2002]

This is a wonderful, moving assemblage of fragmentary experiences which, held together only by the voices of Bruce

Weber and his friends, gently carries you into the heart of the

deepest aesthetic wonder. More than any other film I have seen,

this one embodies, 'here is the glory of art, the sheer white heat of

its passion in making and feeling'.

Perhaps you need to be a Bruce Weber afficionado to be this

turned on; perhaps you have to share his wonderful obsessions -

but I don't think so, because the whole point of the film is that

*everyone* has the capacity to feel this strongly, to be this in touch

with the way they feel. We may not all be able to take a great

photograph to record the experience, but we can treasure the

intensity of feeling it.

As he always has done, while he tantalises me with beautiful

images, he also introduces me to something - this time the

singing of Francis Faye - that I hadn't experienced before. And as

with Chet Baker (in Let's Get Lost), I'm looking forward to having

my musical life enriched by the introduction when I go and find

some of her recordings.

What worried me? That passage near the beginning on Tower

Bridge with La Traviata's 'life is passing; you can live it to the full if I

am strong and leave you to live without me'. This film is a

wonderful gift from BW, and I hope this (and the other little clues

he drops on the way) aren't hinting that he thinks he's moving on,

because Bruce Weber has brought a light into my life that I'm not

ready to lose just yet.

Oh, and if you've seen the book and Peter Johnson, you'll wish

there was more of him; for he seems a really nice (sorry, this is a

UK way of putting it) bloke, someone you'd like to meet and make

friends with, not just the most beautiful man you've ever seen. I

wish there was more in the film of Peter too, but more than that, I

want more of BW's obsessions, more of his capacity to see and to

show.

This is a seriously beautiful film. Go see, and then go look at your

own world. Bruce Weber will have helped you to see more of it.

A Walk to Remember (2002)

Pompous poop

[11 July 2002]

It's clear from the commentaries on the dvd that everyone working

on this film really tried hard and meant well; but, oh dear, the result

is sentimental and lightweight, so completely cut off from the

realities inherent in its story that it's just hopeless.

It's a measure of just how far it is from narrative credibility that this

movie makes 'Here on Earth' (Chris Klein, Josh Hartnett, Leelee

Sobieski), which has a nearly identical storyline, look like it's a

well-acted and well-written drama. If you haven't seen 'Here on

Earth', you'll have to take my word for it that I'm being rude about 'A

Walk to Remember'.

I've no idea whether Mandy Moore fulfils her potential here, but

Shane West has done much better in 'Once and Again', even in

'Whatever It Takes'. He promised a while ago that he wasn't going

to do any more teen movies, and on this evidence, the sooner he

takes on a role that really stretches him instead of just relying on

looking cute or mournful, the better. He has shown signs that he's

going to develop into a really good actor - but you have to look hard

to see it here.

This film does have one merit: it can be an object lesson in film

schools, to show why sweetening a story too much and lightening

the story's elements to avoid upsetting anyone at all, in the

process losing all contact with the value and emotional core of the

original story, leave you with a film that's worth a lot less than the

effort that's gone into making it.

Swordfish (2001)

Vroom, vrrooom?

[29 July 2001]

Vroom, vrrooom?

If that's all you want from a film, maybe Swordfish won't be too

much of a disappointment. If you're looking for human drama and

emotion, a challenging plot or even reasonably competent acting,

then forget it. This is a disappointment in every sphere except the

visual, and even there its imitative relationship to the genres it

self-consciously acknowledges as sources makes it less than

interesting.

I went to see Swordfish expecting John Travolta to leave me

unmoved, so I wasn't surprised to find that expectation entirely

fulfilled. I didn't expect Halle Barry, who might turn out to be quite a

good actress in another film, to have much of a chance here. But I

had hoped to see better from Hugh Jackman, who used to

manage a lovely light touch in the reluctant hero role in which he

first came to notice (in Snowy River, an Australian tv drama series

that had begun with Guy Pearce from Neighbours; Hugh Jackman

joined to replace him as the male tottie).

Here in Swordfish, though, Hugh Jackman is almost always

self-conscious, actorly, visibly gurning (manipulating his facial

muscles) to suggest emotion, in a way that entirely undercuts any

credibility his character could have had if played more gently. One

scene that does work well is the set piece, 'let's make working at a

computer terminal look lively and interesting': it's choreographed

and cut in a way that manages to seem credible, even though it's

actually laughable as a representation of a hacker's demeanour (I

take Eddie in First Wave as my model here). For the rest, this is

disappointing, and Jackman's Wolverine remains his best hero on

screen to date. Even Paperback Hero is better than Swordfish. If

you're determined to see more (really quite a lot more, though at a

distance) of Hugh, you'll need to find the episode of Halifax,

Forensic Psychiatrist (another Australian tv drama) that he

guest-starred in some years ago.

I wonder when a casting director will have the courage to drag his

or her eyes off the man's body and see who he really is: cast

closer to home as a sensitive middle-class intellectual, in the sort

of roles that Robert Downey Jr's been cornering recently, Hugh

Jackman might, after all, be as good as he's been looking for

years.

The Specials (2000)

The Specials don't travel well

[13 April 2001]

I remember being told that there were two kinds of funny: funny ha-ha, and funny peculiar. This film is the second kind.

I've admired Rob Lowe as a comic talent since Illegally Yours, and there are signs here that he might have done better with a better script, better direction with more pace, and less self-conscious rattling away at the 'ha-ha' kind of funny; but he's not helped by a lack-lustre cast and jokes that just don't cross the Atlantic successfully. Perhaps it's the parochialism of the humour that makes this film feel so slow, but I'm afraid I was very disappointed, and will have to wait longer to see one of my favourite actors achieve the success he deserves in comedy.

The Magical World of Disney: Ballerina: Part 1 (1966) Season 12, Episode 19

This should be available to buy!

[10/10 · 10 September 2000]

I haven't seen this film since seeing it in a shabby little cinema in London in 1965, as the second feature to Lady & the Tramp! But its wonderful, sentimental portrayal of a child's longing to be a great dancer has remained in my memory all these years. What's far more important, though, is that it captured fragments of dancing by the Royal Danish Ballet, one of the world's greatest companies, at one of their moments of glory (they're having another one now, in 2000!). Kirsten Simone, for example, was a little girl when the film was made and is now one of the company's greatest character dancers, still entrancing on stage as well as a dancer of the most impressive technical command. This film should be available to buy - ideally as a dvd, with a documentary, please. Disney, are you listening?

Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)

A peach of a movie

[10/10 · 8 September 2000]

In the UK, we're lucky enough to see Helen Mirren regularly on tv, especially as the lead in a crime drama series called Prime Suspect. In Teaching Mrs Tingle, she offers us a splendidly embittered bitch, teetering on the edge of caricature but always just - only just - on the stylish side of the thin line. The supporting cast of young actors, Barry Watson, Katie Holmes and Marisa Coughlan, are sexy and sassy - as the film is itself - and are good enough to suggest that in a few years time we'll all be watching this wondering why we didn't realise how good it was when it came out. The narrative's carefully managed by the writer (with none of the dreaded Dawson Creek verbal diahrroea), the photography and lighting are cleanly and sometime imaginatively done, and the dramatic thrills generate emotional excitement in a way that many so-called thrillers would like to emulate. Someone making this film was absolutely first rate at getting the best out of their team: maybe not everyone involved is going to do better later, and maybe this will turn out to have been their finest hour - but if you want to see a really enjoyable comedy thriller, then try this excellent movie.

The Tribe (1998)

Intelligent and thoughtful

[29 May 2000]

Intelligent and thoughtful, this tv play tackles the difficult and complex problems raised by religious and other cults, the way they isolate their members from the outside world and build barriers around themselves to prevent intrusions. It's subtle, especially in comparison with a recent film with Kate Winslett on the same subject, perhaps too subtle in its ironic substitution of material goods for spiritual: this cult is capitalist, selling electrical goods rather than religious dogma. But although the comments here already show that this is a provocative and controversial film, I wanted to record my own positive reaction to it: I found it valuable and challenging - and it's not only the lovely Anna Friel who disrobes; there's an early sighting of all of the increasingly splendid Jonathan Rhys-Myers to enjoy. If you can get sight of it, I think this is worth viewing.