HOOLET AT THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

By Josie Inwood
Contact the author via Chris Johnstone by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

American Splendour
This is the story of Harvey Pekar, a lonely guy in a dead end job whose only interest in life is collecting jazz records and old comics. (Hey, Chris, does this sound familiar?) One day it dawns on him that all the comic book characters he reads about are superhuman – he has nothing in common with them. He sets about creating a comic strip in which he is the star. This comic strip is about ordinary life and the kind of disappointments and frustrations that beset him and probably hundreds of other people just like him. It’s a success. His readers are the kind of people who look in the mirror in the morning and see their reflection as ‘a reliable disappointment’.

The story flits between documentary style interviews with Harvey talking to camera about the comic he has created, actors acting out scenes from his life and the comic itself, complete with speech bubbles. In his own words, Harvey is a pretty gloomy guy – an outsider, a loner. But his comic book hero lends an air of dignity to the mundane things in life and proves, through the success of the comic, that he is not alone. American Splendour now has a cult following around the world.

Clips of the real Harvey appearing on the David Letterman Show to talk about the surprise success of American Splendour seem an early warning of the trend towards so-called Reality TV where the programme makers poke fun at those taking part. Harvey seems impervious to Letterman’s attempts to ridicule him. Indeed he plays on it so well that he is asked back again and again, raising his profile and that of his comic. As befits a comic book hero, he gets the last laugh. An ingenious and very moving film which is also great fun. Dir: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
USA 2002

Laurel Canyon
Frances McDormond is magnificent as Jane, the middle aged rock chick, a successful record producer whose walls are covered in photographs of her with David Bowie, Joni Mitchell and The Rolling Stones. Her ultra conservative son, Sam, (Christian Bale) finds her embarrassing. He is ashamed of her. But he brings his high achieving girlfriend, Alex (Kate Beckinsale) with him when he travels to LA to stay in his mother’s house. He spends the days out working as a resident in a nearby hospital and Alex is supposed to be working on her dissertation about the reproductive habits of the fruit fly.

Instead she drifts into the recording studio, picks up a whisky sour and smokes some dope with Jane and the band whose album is being recorded. The fine upstanding Sam, meanwhile, is manfully resisting the overtures of a beautiful colleague (Natascha McElhone), but only just. This is a fairly hackneyed tale of two worlds colliding, after which things can never be quite the same again. However it is a well told tale, with some wonderful music from Sparklehorse, who are the fictional band in the studio, and featuring the excellent voice of Alessandro Nivola, who plays the singer in the band.

Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

Dir: Lisa Cholodenko USA / 2002

Young Adam
Don’t be like me and spend the film waiting for the appearance of “Young Adam” – he never appears. The film is about a young man whose troubles all seem to stem from the women in his life. It is the second film from David Mackenzie who directed The Last Great Wilderness, and is clearly angling for the title Misogynist of the Year.

Set in Glasgow of the 1950s Young Adam is the tale of Joe (Ewan MacGregor), an angry young man who is working on a coal barge for Les (Peter Mullen) and his wife Ella (Tilda Swinton). Les and Ella have a son James (Jack McElhone) who lives on the barge when he’s not at school. Emily Mortimer plays an old girlfriend of Joe’s.

In the opening scene Joe finds the corpse of a young woman, clad in only a petticoat, floating past the barge. The unravelling of the mystery surrounding the corpse forms the framework for the film – a circular tale of disappointment, sexual frustration and betrayal sprinkled with the odd dash of mystery, friendship and sexual excitement.

Barge life is captured in all its grimy tedium in long shots of the river, the coal heaps, the docks and skyline of industrial Glasgow. Tilda Swinton plays the Glasgow wifey brilliantly, brittle, scathing and disappointed. Her life on the barge is a round of washing and cooking, claustrophobic and dull. When she and Joe embark on a series of snatched sexual encounters, which ultimately changes the lives of everyone aboard.

This is a wonderful film with fine performances from all. However I wonder if it is possible to look at Ewan MacGregor anymore without looking round for his light sabre? And will custard ever be the same again?

Dir: David Mackenzie Scotland 2003

Our thanks go to Josie Inwood for reviewing the films for hoolet, an onerous task of having to sit through early morning showings in the presence of the great and the good. For more reviews of Swimming Pool, Spng for Raggy Boy and many more, log on to hoolet web extra.

Other hoolet online articles by Josie Inwood can be found at:
hoolet edition 50 - EIFF 2006
hoolet edition 46 - EIFF 2005
hoolet edition 42 - EIFF 2004
hoolet edition 38 - EIFF 2003

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.