Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 36

rfJ DETROIT FREE PRESS FRIDAY, FEB. 15. 1985 4D A disturbing collaboration between reporter and killer ALONG WITH false leads, hoaxes and unexpected twists, "Mean Season" (named for Miami's most humid days, when its citizens get ugly) has real mystery. Is the whiny, greasy-haired vet in the heavy glasses who he says he is? Is the murderer someone we know? ing and sociopathic mug shots for an energetic film. With Miami's neighborhoods and the Herald's city room as background, augmented by the steady rumble of distant thunder and the threat of hurricane force, "The Mean Season" often has a scary, unbalanced heat that makes it fascinating.

(v flambeau i rr.aviss THE MEAN SEASON Trim 1 1 1 1 (8) Area Theaters Malcolm Anderson Kurt Russell Christine Connolley Mariel Hemingway Alan Delour Richard Jordan Bill Nolan Richard Masur Andy Porter Joe Pantoliano Phil Wilson Richard Bradford Raymond Martinez Andy Garcia Directed by Phillip Borsos. Screenplay by Leon Piedmont from John Katzenbach's novel, "In the Heat of Ihe Summer." Cinematography by Frank Tidy. Production design by Philip Jefferies. Edited by DuWayne Dunham. Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Produced by David Foster and Lawrence Turman. PARENTS' GUIDE: extreme violence, profanity, nudity. "The Mean Season," this year's attempt, was adapted from a novel by former Miami Herald crime reporter John Katzenbach and stars Kurt Russell as Miami Tribune crime reporter Malcolm Anderson. Like 1982's "Ab-STS sence of Malice," it was snot in Florida and at the Miami Herald. Anrfprsnn.

an I 1 oioht.upar hnt. shot, is considering moving to Montana with his girlfriend Christine (Mariel Hemingway) and tak Russell ing up newspapering there. But just as he's about to quit the Trib, a young woman is killed. Her killer calls Anderson, proving his identity by giving him murder details the police have not yet revealed. Then he kills again.

And again calls Anderson with another exclusive. Slowly, the reporter and the killer edge closer. Soon, Anderson himself becomes newsworthy, someone to be interviewed by his peers. Inevitably, ihe men must meet but when, and how? It -sff Crowe, who chose to use a pseudonym Leon Piedmont in the credits. In the course of the movie, questions are raised: Where's the dividing line between ambition and responsibility? What happens to a reporter who becomes the story? What kind of responsibility accompanies media power? As the killer, the reporter, the Trib's city editor (Richard Masur) and the rest of the media get caught up in the firestorm of publicity, only Christine and the killer understand what is happening.

"It's turned into a collaboration," Christine tells Anderson. "We work well together," the killer says. They're both right. HELD OVER EXCLUSIVELY AT Why is photographer Andy Porter (Joe Pantoliano) so icily detached, snapping pictures of a heartbroken mother, telling Anderson that he's getting better at manipulating his media peers. Two men who made "The Grey Fox" a critical success director Phillip Borsos in his American film debut, and cinematographer Frank Tidy have mixed newspaper report 7:20 9:20 10:55 "ONE OF THE YEAR'S 10 BEST!" -Catharine Rambeau, Detroit Free Press -Michael Betzold.

Metro Times "'BROTHER' IS JOHN SAYLES' BEST FILM YET." Carrie Rickey, Boston Herald HELD OVER EXCLUSIVELY AT 1:00 3:10 5:15 7:25 9:30 fj MM Detroit 4frcc Vxcss 222-5000 or Toll-tree fciflto mm THEY ONLY MET ONCE, BUT IT CHANGED THEIR LIVES FOREVER. They were five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls.

And touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible. Richard Jordan as the killer makes the movie crackle whenever he's around; his voice, the outline of his cheek against the telephone receiver as he pours out his sick soul to Anderson, manically tapping a screaming-pink rubber ball against a window, his voice a dead growl. He tells Anderson about a smell he will write about: it comes from bodies butchered and left to rot in a room milky with goosedown from the pillow used to muffle the shots, the stench so foul it makes the reporter cringe. RUSSELL "Swing plays Anderson as a self-cen-tered, manipulative workaholic, a closet macho man who, after getting a call from the killer at Christine's house, starts putting his notes together instead of wondering how to protect her, a guy who worries about deadlines instead of dead loves. Russell is terrific, 1-800-572-3670 A UNIVERSAL PICTURE 'Hi! Sound'rack MM4 UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIO.

NC It' too; you might hire him, but you sure wouldn want to be in love with him The film's tension is corrupted by false scares and a shower scene to remind us that Mariel Hemingway now has breasts. Hemingway "STAR has one of those parts Hollywood been writing forev er; she worries, she screams a lot, she freezes whenever there's any violence, and she forgives her man. One wonders just what parts of the script are really the work of screenwriter Christopher available on wf Jf THE BREAKFAST CLUB A JOHN HUGHES Film FILMSCHANNEL Production "THE BREAKFAST CLUB" EMILIO ESTEVEZ PAUL GLEASON ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL JUDD NELSON MOLLY RINGWALD ALLY SHEEDY HUGHES DEDE ALLEN. KEITH FORSEY co noKKt MICHELLE MANNING SSSSLQL FRIESEN and ANDREW MEYER and JOHN HUGHES -iiirwerto o- mil nonius co'vim 'im Records and Cassetles STARTS TODAY at these THEATRES STARTS I mm II JilW.lHil'lil"! II (tiittiib I mm Tin rnriAV i "ini ii nil)? ii a -m i 1:15 3:25 5:30 7:40 9:45 11:45 7:15 9:1011:05 1:00 7:15 9:2011:25 ir 5:20 7:20 9:251110 1:00 7:20 9:20 11:20 7:10 9:05 11:00 7:30 9:40 11:30 1:20 3:20 7:20 9:20 11:15 7:15 9:10 11:05 7:20 9:30 7:25 9:30 11:30 If 1:00 7:20 11:20 1:15 7:20 9:20 11:20 121:553:505:457:459:4011:35 7:20 9:25 5:45 7.45 9:50 1:00 7:25 9:3011:35 1.10 7:30 9:4511:50 7:15 9:10 11:05 fill 1 1 mm i 11 ISP.