Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 153

Chicago Tribune, Friday, September 2T, 1991 Section' 7 6 Friday Siskel's Flicks Picks By Gene Siskel Class menagerie 'Sex a showcase but not quite a film Acting her age, Hawn is effectively 'Deceived' ur Flick of the Week is the domestic thriller "Deceived," which recycles many familiar elements the screeching cat that leaps out of the darkness, the killer on the fire escape, the dangerous elevator shaft but is enlivened by a strong performance by Goldie Hawn as a married woman who discovers that her husband (John Heard) is not the man she thinks he is. For the last 11 years, following her success in "Private Benjamin," Goldie Hawn has regularly fallen back on her whining-dingbat persona. In "Deceived," however, she acts her age as a woman who is genuinely shocked when she realizes that her caring husband is a poseur with a ruthless agenda. The film takes too long to wrap up its inevitable conclusion, with Hawn being chased down far too many corridors of her apartment building, but first-time director Damian Harris has a quiet touch with this familiar material that is effective. "Deceived" is playing at the Water Tower, Webster Place and outlying theaters.

Rated PG-13. Flicks Picks guide Eric Bogosian stars in "Sex, Drugs, Rock 05 i ex, Drugs, Rock Roll" is a canny adaptation, by Chicago filmmaker John McNaughton Portrait of a Serial of a long-running one-man show by performance artist Eric Bogosian Alone on stage at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, Bogosian moves through a repertory of 10 characters, carefully modifying his speech patterns, stance and range of gestures to capture a collection of contemporary, largely unpleasant urban types. It's a bravura turn, one that displays a very fine eye and a dazzling mastery of stage technique on Bogosian's part, as well as an extremely resourceful approach from McNaughton, who has tried to escape the confines of the concert film by finding a different, distinctively expressive visual style for each ol the 10 segments. And yet, "Sex, Drugs, Rock Roll" doesn't function entirety well as a film, chiefly because the character segments are toe short and too many to allow the audience to build any real bond: of identification or dramatic interest. The necessary movie rhythms overarching and unifying just aren't present in the stagebound material.

Bogosian is not so much a storyteller as a big-game huntei who returns from the urban ungle with a collection ol rightful beasts to put on dis play a menagerie. Among the characters he plays are an arrogant British rock star, a manipulative New York entertainment lawyer, a smug New Jersey suburbanite and a whole assortment of street types, each with his own distinctive rant and paranoid manner. As in a menagerie, the point seems to be to place these creatures safely behind bars the protection offered by Bogosian's satiric stance and his occasional out-of-character one-line asides so that the paying customers can simultaneously thrill to the danger they represent and feel snugly safe and superior to them. Bogosian is fascinated by appetite the prodigious amounts of drugs and booze consumed isn't much interested in the nuances of character, of needfulness and desperation, that lie behind the bullying facades. His sketches don't so much help us to understand these people as they give us convenient excuses to dismiss them to hold them in contempt.

The menagerie might seem more impressive and representative if it included a few less ferocious species. The dark, fouled urban environment summoned up by Bogosian lies close by the city settings of McNaughton's previous, more personal films, "Henry" and "The Borrower." And yet McNaughton's universe is more developed and, as a result, more frightening than Bogosian's precisely because it can contain a notion of innocence that Bogosian seems almost at pains to deny. "Sex, Drugs, Rock Roll" will someday be seen as a footnote to McNaughton's film career but will almost certainly remain the climax of Bogosian's. Despite his immense gifts, Bogosian is a talent best appreciated on the stage, where the patchiness of his material can be compensated for by the authority of his physical presence. "Hangin" With the Homeboys" Va Directed and written by Joseph B.

Vasquez; photographed by Anghet Dacca; edited by Michael Schweitzer; music produced by Joel SHI and David Cheekier; produced by Richard Brick. A New Line Cinema release; opens Sept 27 at the Broadway, Burnham Plaza, Chestnut Station and outlying theaters. Running time: 1:29. MPAA rating: R. Strong language, adult situations.

THE CAST WHIle Doug E. Doug Tom Mano Joyner Johnny John Legulzamo Vlnny Nestor Serrano Vanessa Ktmberty RusseH to support his ambitions as an Spc 'Hmrteboys, pap 9 New this week AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (Piper Aley and outlying). Jane Campion a extraordinary second feature, following her debut dm, "Sweetie." Again she deals with a lonely young woman, but this time (here is an epic quality to the material, telling the He story of New Zealand novelist Janet Frame, who conquered shyness and years of a misdiagnosed stay in a mental hospital to become an award-winning writer. Campion includes many shots of the heroine amid the natural landscape, making her victory emblematic of the human condition. This film is the equal of "My Left Foot," telling a similar story in a more subtle manner.

Not rated. BARTON FINK (Fine Aits and outlying). The latest film from the adventurous Coen brothers is the grand prize winner of this year's Cannes Film Festival. It's easy to see why an international film jury would embrace its story of a seeming innocent in venal Hollywood. But what Is exciting about this movie, aside from Its compelling visuals, is the Coens' point of view that those who complain about It being some sort of amorphous evil have only themselves to blame.

The story is told through the experience of Barton Fink, a social realist dramatist patterned after Clifford Odets. Fink (John Turturro) writes a hit play in New York and immediately is besieged with offers to go West and write movies. Once In Hollywood Fink tries to maintain his common man quality by staying in an enormous, rundown hotel that Is one of the film's best characters. And then there Is the man next door, a beefy salesman fufl of mystery played by the underrated John Goodman. Another memorable character Is a studio boss' tottering lackey (John Polito).

"Barton Fink suffers only when the contrivances of its story overwhelm its characters. It's at its best when young Barton Fink simply stares at a picture of a bathing beauty contemplating the ocean a Hollywood dream. H. Vi CITY SLICKERS (Water Tower and outfying). An amusing and sometimes surprisingly thoughtful comedy about a bunch of 40-year-old New York Yuppies, led by Billy Crystal, who re-examine their Ives on a cattle drive out West.

Women get the short end of the stick In the story, but there are big laughs mixed with some pain about growing up privileged. PG-13. THE COMMITMENTS (Btograph, squire and outfying). Alan Parker's movie is a Joyful but empty mixture of Irish kids and black American soul music. The gimmick here Is that a bunch of amateur musicians want to put together their own band, and their de facto leader is In love with the Motown sound.

Along for the ride Is a mysterious grizzled veteran who claims to know and have played with Wilson Pickett. The music Is good enough, but why shouldn't It be? The problem is that few of the characters stand out, the maor exception being the lead singer played by charismatic teenager Andrew Strong. The rest of the band is composed of ciphers. It looks like director Parker, who can be quite ambitious Burning," "Come See the is coasting this time, merely reworking his big hit. Tame." R.

DEAD AGAIN (Water Tower, Webster Place and outfying). Kenneth Branagh proves to be a big showoff in this melodrama in which he and his wife, Emma Thompson, each play double roles as Investigators of their past relationship as a troubled couple torn apart by apparent murder. Branagh's contemporary American accent is annoying, and the film's constant inter-cutting or past and present lives becomes laughable. R. Vi DECEIVED (Water Tower, Webster Place and outlying).

This week's FUck of the Week. See above. Rated PG-13. DEFENSELESS (900 N. Michigan).

Barbara Hershey stars as an attorney caught up in a tryst with a kinky, powerful, married man whom she really does not know that wed. When he Is killed, Hershey is suddenly both investigator and suspect, pursued by detective Sam Shepard. the story is needlessly contrived and salacious, but the surprise ending does have some emotional Impact R. DOC HOLLYWOOD (McCturg Court and outfying). A thoroughly winning romantic comedy that is completely unlike the high-concept laugher that you might expect based on TV ads and movie trailers.

The three writers (Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman and Daniel Pyne) have fashioned a clever, at times sophisticated romance involving a yuppie doctor (Michael J. Fox) who dreams of cashing big checks as a Hollywood plastic surgeon but is derailed in Ms journey to California because of an automobile accident in a small South Carolina town. He's sentenced to work there to pay for his accident His interest In remaining Is heightened when he meets a pretty young law school student (newcomer Julie Warner) who doubles as the town ambulance driver, assisting him In medical emergencies. Fox and Warner have a genuine chemistry together as a romantic couple, and individually each is a deft comedian.

Also appealing Is Bridget Fonda as the town sexpot who looks upon Fox as a ticket to ride to Hollyvvood stardom. PG-13. Vi THE DOCTOR (Water Tower and outfying). A medical version of the "Regarding Henry" story an obnoxious practitioner becomes enlightened when faced with his own mortality but It's miles apart quality because of a smart script and an Oscar-caliber performance by William Hurt as an accomplished heart surgeon. A cancerous tumor is found In his throat, and Hurt a forced to go through many of the same Indignities and Inconveniences that afflict more routine patients at his hospital.

You actually believe you are watching a practicing surgeon, and the way Hurt deals with cancer is credible too. Quite simply, he Is one of our very finest actors, and you can see that In his scenes with his wife (Christine Lahtf) and with another cancer patient (Elizabeth Perkins) who becomes See Flicks Picks, page 1, l. A ll Dave Kehr "Sex, Drugs, Rock Roil" A one-man show with Erie Bogosian; directed by John McNaughton: written by Bogosian; photographed by Ernest tXckereon; edited by Elena Magentnt production designed by John Arnone; produced by Frederick ZoUo. An Avenue Picture! release; opens Sept 27 at Pipers Alley. Running itme: 1:36.

MPAA rating: fl. Strong language. by a Brooklyn kid at a bachelor party, the sexual hunger of a singles bar stud, the mountain of fried calamari devoured by a Mafia type. And he is also fascinated by power not just that wielded by the rich and successful (the lawyer, the rock star), but by the creepily disenfranchised, such as the junkie who keeps a subway car in uneasy thrall while he begs for money for his fix. But while Bogosian is brilliantly able to capture these shadings of threat and cajolement, he Movie review By Dave Kehr spired by John Cassavetes' "Husbands" four men without women who, prompted by a night of drinking and carousing, are led to discover some sad truths about their lives.

Willie (stand-up comic Doug E. Doug) is an unemployed teenager who automatically blames all of his troubles on racism. Tom (Mario Joyner) is an energetic overachiever who works as a telephone salesman" Subtlety drives home 'Homeboys' message By far the best of this year's run of ethnic independent films, "Hangin' With the Homeboys" transcends its drive-in title to become a compelling Cassavetes-like study of male friendship. Directed and written by Joseph B. Vasquez "Homeboys brims with wit, emotion and authenticity, as it follows its four main characters, two black and two Puerto Rican, through one long night that begins in the Bronx, strays into Manhattan and ends back home in the cold light of dawn.

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