LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 74

CALENDAR FILM hubby and the family dog into a raft and hightails it downriver But evil of the societal sort lurks in the form of Wade (Kevin Bacon) a fellow runner of the rapids who cozies up to Gail and her boy as their respective rafts play leapfrog along the scenic gorge All too soon Wade nefarious aims become evident, and The River Wild admittedly a feast for the senses succumbs to the obvious as well The only remaining suspense involves how Gail will fare in escorting her fractured party over a deadly run called the Gauntlet Director Curtis Hanson milked more sinister magic out of his last venture, The Hand That Rocked the Cradle Here, working from a script by fishing fa natic Denis 0 Neill, Curtis manages only a few shudders and relies on too many moments of bourgeois heroism (Does Tom really have to turn into such a Boy Scout?) At least Gail keeps the faith, growling like a drill ser geant as she shepherds herflock into uncertain territory, tightening the mental screws on that little worm Wade (Citywide)t?) THE SCOUT Director Michael Ritchie's protestations that The Scout has nothing to do with baseball are a little off-putting I mean, what's that guy doing in a Yankee's uniform then? Ritchie whose repertoire runs the sports gamut from Downhill Racer to The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom needn have sweated the concept so publicly The film stands, quite beautifully in fact, as a story about both baseball and friendship, a blend that relies far more on droll asides than on the usual metaphorical glop about summertime, family, home With the real thing long gone, and the somber thing played out on PBS, it's nice to watch a movie that reflects on the simple pleasures of rivalry and risk without dismissing (or moralizing about) the inherent violence in pro sports New York Yankees baseball scout Al is brought to life by Albert Brooks Lost in America with typical understated hilarity and the assist of a dead-on getup of polyester and a straw fedora Al, banished to Mexico for screwing up finds a pitching phenom named Steve Nebraska (Brendan Fraser, prettier than ever) inexplicably gracing the fields in deep nowheres-ville Al lures Steve north with the promise of a big league contract and a place to stay, the immature Steve complies happily, but may need more than a job offer to resolve his problems As the shrink who takes a crack at the mystery of Steve, Dianne Wiest is achingly swell, if a bit earnest, and cameos by sports figures Bob Costas and George Steinbrenner (among others) liven the backdrop The only false notes in the picture are the jingoism of the South of the Border sequence and the finale And I do mean grand (Del Amo, AMC Burbank mm SECOND BEST The ads for Second Best set you up for a cloy-ingly warm tribute to both family and the oxy-moromc "paternal instinct The film, though, is Sst IH St IISHDhK A Nl Clio I UM is." I ONE WEEK ONLY! OCT. 12-18 The Wedding Canopy An Award-Winning Film of Love, Survival, and Family Laemmle's SUNSET NOW PLAYING Daily Pan African Rim Festival in collaboration with Pediatricians Set in Havana in the early 1950's, the film centers on a strong rebellious woman whose temperament drives r. actually subversive, immediately swerving off into a dark, often crushing examination of the push and pull of father-son relationships When 42-year-old Graham (single, hetero, plain and played by William Hurt) feels the shuddering of his biological clock, he's spurred to adopt a child Informed by the child-welfare service that he only qualifies for an older, "troubled" child he signs on anyway Ten-year-old James (Chris Cleary Miles), sullenly handsome with huge dark circles under his eyes, has attempted suicide twice, scratches himself till he bleeds rou finely smashes himself in the forehead with whatever is handy, and is a smart ass to boot When the film opens he a 5-year old kid napped by his ex convict father and squirre'ed off to the woods for military drills and survival rituals that would make Robert Bly proud It an event that, in James' young mind sets his fa ther up as a flawless, almost mythic hero and makes the dweeby Graham seem all the more ineffectual What Second Best actually does is clash the fantasy of protective warrior father against the painfully human reality When the truth is finally revealed to James, it a oevastat ing moment, rivaled only by the scene where in flashback young Graham learns that a crucial male-bonding trip with his own father is contemptuously dismissed by the old man One of the film's many grace notes is the way it shows the foundation for James' budding misog yny and how that ties in with his unabashed worship for the hypermasculine without it self being misogynistic Second Best is also filled with many dryiv comedic moments courtesy of the wonderful, brash Jane Worrocks Life Is Sweet) Hurt's bland steeliness conveys a man who is keenly, even mockingly aware of his own repression and whose own pain is never far from the surface Miles, as James, is the anti-Macaulay that is, truly talented (AMC Fine Arts I (Ernest Hardy) THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Directed and written by Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption is a very big movie for something based on a short novel, even one by megameister Stephen King In brief, the film tracks the friendship between two long-term prisoners, one guilty and one not Ellis "Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) is the movie's narrator and deep soul, while Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is an accountant charged with the murder of his wife and her lover Over time, the two unlikely friends become the closest of intimates, although because this is ultimately a feel-good movie about prison, they don't get that tight Distinguished by attention to detail and an outstanding cast, The Shawshank Redemption spans some three decades and a couple of involved subplots In addition to the day to-day misery of prison life, various torments are inflicted on the reserved Dufresne, an aged lifer (James Whitmore) gets a reprieve, and the 20th century catches up with both the inmates and their prison Much happens, but unhappily the movie feels as if much happens Ambition can be a laudatory quality, but it can also be a terrible burden And Darabont, making his debut as a director, is swamped by ambition There is just too much here too much plot, too many particulars, too many prisoners vying for attention After a while, the temptation to streamline the narrative, to engage in "what if," becomes unbearable As in What if the movie were shorter? (It would be better What if Red were the center of the story and not Andy? (Better yet (Selected theatersj(W SPEED Speed is a hair-raising actioner with a low body count, a high helping of ham, and a middlebrow affection for laying its testicular potency on the table Talk of hard-ons, hairy cojones, boners and jerking off crosses the lips of all the manly men, while a one thumbed fellow (Dennis Hopper) aims to compensate for his inadequacy by detonating all sorts of projectile-shaped convey ances Be it one thumb or one arm, these summer film follies don't make us strain too hard for symbolic transcendence No complaint, really First-time director Jan De Bont and first-time screenwriter Graham Yost make rollicking good sport out of A 's commuter woes and the blessed Keanu Reeves perhaps Steve McQueen cloned? flaunts a close-cropped 'do, speaks in a muted deadpan, and nurtures a A Cuban film her lo commit on irreversible otl. An Absorbing look C. directed by Sefgio Giral j.

at the Yoruba religion, brought to Cuba by African captives and widely practiced on island today. Thursday, Qifjober 20- m. I Screening and Reception Laemmles Sunset 5 Theater 8000 Suiset Blvd. (at Crescent Height Ticket Price: $25 at the door. Group Rates available for blocks of lOpr more.

For more information about tickets, call 213.93? -694f Pediatricians and Parents for Peace (PPP) is a non profit medical project dedicated to Jelivermg medical aid to children in shortage areas. Funds fat this event will gl to the 't delivery of medical aid to a Children's Hospital in Cuba For more information about Pediatricians and Parents for Pead call 213.482.4400. 1 5 8000 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood (213) 848-3500 and Parents for Peace invite you to a A fascinating series of new and classic Japanese cinema will be presented. Los Angeles premieres will include Juzo Itamis new yakuza picture Minbo-Orthe Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion and Yoichi Sais multi-award winning story of a Korean Japanese taxi driver All Under the Moon. Benefit Showing of ana Tora-San, My Uncle from Yoji Yamadas world-record breaking series will be shown, and to celebrate his 40th birthday, Godzilla will be seen in all his big screen glory, directed by Ishiro Honda.

Closing the festival, two rarely-seen horror classics, Shiro Toyodas Portrait of Hell and Kuroneko by Kaneto Shindo, will be presented. Daily 1:15 3 20 Laemmles 8000 Sunset Blvd. 5 20 7 40 9.55 QTTNJQF'T West Hollywood 6 Fri-Sat midnight oUlMCycl (213)848-3500 74 LA WEEKLY OCTOBER 14-OCTOBER 20, 1994.