Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 41

THURSDAY 14SEPTEMBER 1895 41 sun in the work LUE JUICE (Cert 15 98 of a this case that surfing mins) has the endless restlessness message: which seems to be in stops you having to grow up and British-made and set in Cornwall though partly filmed for dlmacticclimatic necessities in Lanzarote an over-crammed comedy about a trio of stressed-out London layabouts techno DJ (Steven Mackintosh) drug dealer (Ewan McGregor) and beer-bellied publican (Peter Gunn) who drop in on their thirtysomething pal (Sean Pertwee) Nerd superstar From Page 27 more about human endeavour and the way people pull together in a crisis" As for his cry-baby histrionics at the Academy Awards he is rapidly becoming America's answer to Dickie Attenborough he is shamelessly unrepentant thing is that both Philadelphia and Forrest Gump were very particular roles and I wanted to say something about them to put them in context The Oscars is the best place to do that because you have a global audience But what happens is you get swept away with the emotion of the event easy to forget exactly what you want to say under the circumstances" As for his status Hanks Is very sure of why he is movie do what Gibson and Costner do But they bring to their roles what I can bring People relate to me as a regular guy If Costner had played Jim Lovell (he was considered) it would have put a completely different focus on the story It would have been about him I am just one of the three guys in the pod how it was" And he is absolutely right ego is quiet less obvious than But there He be Mr America without a healthy respect for his God-given talent Apollo 13 opens on 22 September More happens than the film bly squeeze in Even Jenny Agutter is granted a look-in moment Yet it all seems terribly tedious Watching an unattractive bunch of slobs endlessly chasing their own blue touchpaper tails with nothing in their heads except to check out the best places to rave may please some Others will find it infinitely wearisome I need is a job to get my life sorted" one of them proclaims but characteristically from a prone position Directed in fits and starts by Peter Salmi and written by him and Carl Prechezer in a manner that recalls the spur of the moment a pretty dire production Surfheads think enough action on the water Acidheads will find it a very old-fashioned trip And what Channel 4 heads were thlnking of when they decided to help finance that production company seems to have lost its way lately readily visible on land or sea Demons on campus can possibly or comprehensi a responsible individual free you from being black" The pressures this director feels between his race and his responsibility are uncomfortably apparent in Higher Learning Similar cross-pressures are stunting the development of quite a few black talents The future for them surely be confined to race subjects Otherwise their aspirations will be imprisoned in a more insidious kind of ghetto than city streets provide Black directors particularly should feel free to tackle any subject and if I dare suggest it preferably any subject but black issues Once made their first film and exhausted their ethnic autobiographies they appear to have nothing new to say see what black talent does with films that reflect white America 4 0 NOW SHOWING NOW SHOWING GIBSON MARCEAU BRAVEHEARTm LEICESTER SQUARE 0171-930 3232 PROQS (MON-THUR ONLY) 7 JBO (FRI-SUN ONLY) 1210 L5S 7A0pm MARBLE ARCH 0171-7232011 PROGS 1210 (NOT 8UN 17THV S50 745pm FOR FURTHER DETAILS SEE 0PE0N KATHY BATES JENNIFER JASON LEIGH DOLORES CLAIBORNE HAYMARKET 0171-8397697 PHOGS 200 Bsaaaopm CINEMA IISTINGST0M0RR0 GD3SS3 LEARNING QBffll 50303-6 ICCADILLYCIRCUS CINEMA Higher learning (Cert 15 128 mins) is another disappointment from John Singleton His first film Boyz the Hood was a powerful plain-speaking sermon reminding black youth of who their chief enemy was themselves His new movie is set on the fictitious campus of Columbus University: plainly an allegorical co-ed establishment thimgii an unlikely name for one given the bad odour that currently assails the politically incorrect discoverer of America In this place the enemy is just about everyone who registers The demographics are demonised by Nazi gklnhMila mwlimns Wark Power patrols impulsive date rapists lesbian feminists and the predictable psychotic who goes ballistic and tries to gun everyone down The film's problem though in it so much as not: law order and authority still have their place in America but play little part in this curriculum The allegory gets in the way of authenticity The only person willing or able to go in for straight talking is Lawrence black law prof Even he is so cynical and detached from his needs that if he were a white academic be stigmatised as a closet racist Odd too to find no Jewish resistance groups forming on a campus dominated by swaggering Nazi bullies with swastika tattoos This much like America either Singleton occasionally talks good sense through the profi black free you from being a responsible indivlduaL" But a deeper immediately compels him to put the opposite case: A (5 (5 (Du EDllffl I TP 0171 737 2121 he Bridges of Madison County ork CALL 0171-737 2121 for more information il contempt for his fellow 1920s fs don't seem like English is if being reported eyes No accident per is an Anglo-German to all things hideous azing imparted to every- Anglo-French film of a tale Ian McE len Heartless perhaps its very malevolence 0 0j mrw.