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Show The Park Record D Section B Thursday, January 26, 1995 fl Page B3 Walking the wild side of the Sundance Film Festival VICTORIAN by MARY BETH GELBUDA Z" Record guest writer ; It seems as if there are two ways to see films in the Sundance ' Film Festival. ' You can elbow and scrunch ' your way into all the premieres ! and hot picks, happily seeing ' them months before all your : friends and basking in the brief exclusivity of these golden days in ; Park City. ; V Or, you can delve into the ran-; ran-; dom flicks, the obscure documen-; documen-; taries and VERY un-Holly wood ; films, finding yourself playing hit-;or-miss with topicSybli know nothing about, watching films that ' will probably not cross your path -again. ! It's that sense of brevity and ! proximity which has me checking ; into the horror flicks, shorts, and documentaries. I may have to ; wait and pay for Miami Rhapsody when it comes to the Holiday Village Cinema, but I know that eventually, it will come. Meanwhile, there is a feast for the imagination going on in the off-beat films of the festival. Parallel Sons Starring Gabriel Mick, Laurence Mason, Murphy Guyer Directed and written by John C. Young USA 1994 Parallel Sons, one of the more provocative films that I've seen so far, discusses issues of race, sexuality, sexu-ality, and cultural stereotypes with extreme sensitivity and insight. Writer and director John G. Young explains his motivation as working work-ing with the ideas of cultural liaison. liai-son. "I wanted to make a film about crossing the invisible boundaries that separate people," he said. "Seth is this gangly white kid from the sticks, and Knowledge is all sharp edges, hardened by his experience in the inner city. At first, they appear polar opposites. ' .But beneath all their outward defenses, they share this incredible incredi-ble peed for human contact. ." ;. : r Parallel Sons is not an easy film it asks the viewer to ' - empathize with unusual, complex characters dealing with multiple issues in their lives. But within its framework, one may begin examining exam-ining the desire to be something .or someone else at a given time in 'one's life, and why. And most importantly, viewers may start to consider how the events which seem to just fall into their lives can shape the people they become. (As a sidenote: the short before Parallel Sons, Trevor, is a brilliant and light-hearted film w,hich leads us through the emerging sexual issues of a 1 3-year-old boy, by way of his journal entries. The funniest thing I've ever seen at Sundance, Trevor makes you laugh heartily at things that might normally make you a bit uncomfortable. uncom-fortable. (Do not miss his lip-sync of the Diana Ross and Lionel ; Richie duet, "Endless Love.") Z-Angela Z Starring Miranda Stuart-Rhyne, Z Charlotte Eve Blythe, Anna I Thompson, John Ventimiglia ; Z Directed and written by Rebecca Miller USA 1994 Angela is a strangely moving . and curious film about two sisters who find themselves caught up in their own mythology a mix between recent exposure to Christianity and the normal mon- ster-under-the-bed-fears. Angela creates a series Of ritu- als for her younger sister Ellie and ' herself to follow in hope of heal-, jng their manic-depressive mother, Viewers watch the girls traipse , around the countryside, with Angela full of authoritative but ; misguided leadership to the young i and trusting Ellie. The images ; vary the girls are burning down ; the house one moment, riding a " found pony the next, happening upon a river baptism with more metaphorical meaning than realism real-ism transpiring in the adventurous segment of the film. ; Their lack of supervision and parental discipline is attributed to the family's prevalent concern for Mae, their faltering mother, played by Anna Thompson. John Ventimiglia as Andrew, their father, tries his hardest to create some normalcy for the girls, but cannot quite stabilize the family. Although he is, doing what he . knows is best, it is when Mae is taken out of the situation that the girls' plight becomes most desper ate. - The direction and writing by Rebecca Miller (daughter of play-- play-- wright Arthur Miller) is tight to the economic class and early '70s cultural setting of the film. Miller's choices of religious symbolism sym-bolism are thought-provoking and sensitive. Her direction, along with acting by the girls, Miranda Stuart-Rhyne and Charlotte Blythe, aged 10 and six, is honest and eerie in its reconstruction of childhood games, relationships, and magic, bringing back memories memo-ries of a time, when religion was undiluted by intellect and the friend or sibling closest nearby was one's best friend. The Young Poisoner's Handbook Starring Hugh O'Conor, Antony Sher, Ruth Sheen Directed by Benjamin Ross Great BritainGermanyFrance 1994 The Young Poisoner 's Handbook and The Addiction were hand in hand as far as disturbing dis-turbing on-screen premeditated violence goes. Perhaps I expected Young Poisoner to be a campy expose of the psyche behind a mad poisoning poison-ing teenager. Instead I watched the serious and truly worrisome development of Graham the poisoner, poi-soner, (played by Hugh O'Conor) a young man whose chemistry experiment went wrong, and who, in turn, started horrifically killing or maiming his family with slow and painful poisons. It was when I witnessed his stepmother writhing in pain in the grass of his yard, her hair fallen out and mouth drooling, that I began to consider this film a little too much for me. I started worrying worry-ing about underpaid (disgruntled?) cafe workers when he started poisoning poi-soning the tea of rude acquaintances acquain-tances at his workplace. Maybe it was too late a screening, maybe the unfortunate last in a long line of shows for one day but Top Videos What's Park City watching? January's top 10 videos at Park City Home Video 1. The Mask 7. Renaissance Man 2. The Client 8. I Love Trouble 3. True Lies 9. When a Man Loves a 4. Blown Away Woman 5. Maverick 10. Four Wedding and a 6. Speed Funeral ' f ... h (''4 W (Ed "ft ' Vl v (if although beautifully made and rVery well acted, this film was very, very unpleasant. The Addiction Starring Lili Taylor, Christopher VValken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco Directed by Abel Ferrara USA 1994 As was The Addiction. Writer Nicholas St. John and director Abel Ferrara present a twist on the popular vampire genre of late. By paralleling metropolitan vampire culture with horrific war atrocities, atroci-ties, this film explores the real capabilities of the violent side of human nature. Lili Taylor is convincing and hypnotic as Kathleen, the reluctant reluc-tant inductee into the world of urban vampires. (Finally, an attack victim who goes to the hospital, files a police report...) Her changes in appearance and demeanor are wrenching and believable. This is the first vampire vam-pire film in which I thought, "OH, that's how it happens." Roles of other vampires played by Annabella Sciorra and the unflappable Christopher Walken left me chilled and nervous. They fill in the holes of the net of mystery mys-tery which befalls Kathleen, and give the film an extra touch of sophistication. This is good-movie-frightening, in both its black and white realism and modern setting. It is also strikingly violent and graphic. graph-ic. (I mean, you SEE those teeth going in.) Although not for the queasy or supersensitive, this film is unique and intellectually stimulating. stimu-lating. Ferrara works on several levels which, let's face it, isn't the norm for blood-and-gits thrillers. You might not like The Addiction, but you will think about this film for a long time. See it so you'll be able to talk about it when it comes up in conversation. m CMP ammi w if i t -ff' f Free lXCU) Director We are proud Your best investment for n fine furniture and playability. v " , i it Delivery To American Zoetrope Post congratulates Gregory Nava on t My Family. to have contributed to such Park City Production his powerful film, an original achievement. |