VIDEO REVIEWS
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Your support makes all the difference.Kissed (18)
Mosaic, retail HHHH
Who says romance is dead? Well, Molly Parker does as Sandra Larson, the young necrophiliac in Lynne Stopkewich's discreet film, which in spite of the chilly nature of its subject, achieves a surprising warmth. Filthmongers and puritans will be disappointed by the film's refusal to sensationalise the young girl's activities. Instead, Stopkewich sensitively catalogues Larson's fascination with dead animals, her mortician's training and her endeavours to "pass over to the other side" by having sex with corpses. There are some queasy moments and some heartfelt scenes as her boyfriend (Jay Brazeau) struggles to meet her singular sexual requirements. A moving dissection of a grim and lonely perversion.
Lolita (18)
FilmFour, rental HH
The theme of forbidden lust continues in Adrian Lyne's version rendering of Vladimir Nabokov's novel. Its cinematic release was delayed due to the controversial nature of its subject - a middle-aged man's infatuation with a 12-year-old girl - but Lynne has at least secured himself a get- out clause by ensuring that our anti-hero, Humbert Humbert, is destroyed by his desire. We watch Humbert's remorse at having raped a girl and his murder of a man whose deviancy mirrors his own. Where the film really fails is in gauging our sympathies. Nabokov cunningly tricked us into liking Humbert, but Lyne's casting of creepy Jeremy Irons in the lead role ensured that we would never forget his fundamental lecherousness.
This World, Then the Fireworks (18)
First Independent, rental HH
The opening reel of Michael Oblowitz's noir thriller brings together sex, murder, adultery and incest in a frenetic scene which the rest of the film can never surpass. Featuring Gina Gershon and Billy Zane, this dark tale follows the fortunes of two incestuous siblings. Zane's Marty returns to his hometown and reignites his relationship with his prostitute sister, Carol. Though the sentiments expressed in Zane's narration can be trite, he delivers each phrase with a chilly knowingness, while Gina Gershon's Carol exudes trashy allure. Oblowitz employs a seductive palette of browns and blood-reds to achieve a retro-noir feel. But such attention to detail cannot make up for the movie's main weakness - the story.
Armageddon (12)
Buena Vista, rental H
The United States saves the world yet again. Bruce Willis and his rough-tough team of deep-core drillers are dispatched into space to try to divert a giant rock on a collision course with Earth. As usual Willis is forced to operate under extreme duress - there are casualties, heroes are made, the special effects explode. To give the picture a seam of sensitivity, Liv Tyler, playing Willis's daughter, passes her time at NASA's headquarters shouting things like: "That's my father up there!". The film doesn't make a lot of sense, but since the whole plot is a contrivance to promote Tyler's romance with her driller fiance Ben Affleck, there is little point applying logic to this fiasco of a film.
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