STN Entertainment
'The Whole Wide World'
PHOTO BY DAN ZAITZ
Rated PG
I
'The Beautician
And The Beast'
n the mid-1970s, No-
valyne Price Ellis
ton), hereditary ruler of Slovet-
Rated PG
was a schoolteacher,
ven if you love Fran Dresch- zia. And although he's a ruthless
married and raising
er's nasal voice, flashy fash- dictator, abrupt, with no time for
a family in Texas. She
ion sense and Yiddishisms on his children, dissent or Joy, we
began noticing a resur-
"TheNarmy," stay away from soon see he's really a nice guy un-
gence of interest in sci-
The
Beautician and the Beast. derneath.
ence fiction and fantasy
So Joy meddles, first in the
She's pretty much the same; but
literature: the "acade-
kids'
lives, then in the father's.
there
are
fewer
laughs,
much
micising" of "pulp" fic-
She
convinces
him to spend time
more boredom and a lot less
tion.
with
his
kids.
She
convinces him
sense.
Scholars, of course,
to
say
hello
to
the
peasants. She
Drescher plays Joy Miller, a
ultimately turned to the
beauty school grad teaching an convinces him he can get badly
works of Robert E.
evening class inside a local high needed Western aid by throwing
Howard, author of,
a diplomatic party and shav-
school. When her students
among other dime-store
ing his mustache.
start a fire in the science
fanzine characters, Co
Joy, however, is op-
MOVIES
classroom, and Joy per-
nan the Barbarian. But Vincent D'Onofrio and Renee Zellweger in The Whole Wide World, based on a true story.
posed
by Kleist (Patrick
sonally rescues all the lab
Novalyne Price Ellis be-
Malahide), Pochenko's evil ad-
animals,
she
gets
her
picture
in
came angered by the
Zellweger, as Howard and Ellis comes off slightly less than per-
viser, who turns out to be behind
the paper as a "hero teacher."
discussion of this man; people respectively, take an enor- fect.
most of the president's more
This
attracts
the
attention
of
were forming opinions of him mously passionate and en-
The Whole Wide World,
heinous decisions.
"Ira"
(Ian
McNeice),
who
thinks
that she knew to be wrong. Be- veloping story and seem to feel though, is a film to see, if sim-
Of course, all works out in the
he's
found
a
science
teacher
to
ed-
cause she had known this
obligated to act accord- ply for the rare story it presents.
end
in true (though unbelievable)
ucate
the
children
of
the
presi-
man more intimately
ingly. In their "playing And, as far as the acting goes,
fairy tale fashion, after nearly two
dent
of
Slovetzia,
an
Eastern
M o VIES
than any other person
it up," the viewer is left those were some big shoes to fill
European dictatorship. "It's like hours of over-earnest drivel, punc-
ever had.
feeling almost self-con-
Paris ... 50 years ago," Ira tells tuated by Drescher's Lucille Ball-
So, in 1985, Ellis wrote a book scious about the actors' perfor-
Joy. 'There were Nazis in Paris esque actions.
about the man whom she called mances.
While Drescher gets some good
50 years ago," Joy's mother tells
"the greatest pulp fiction writer
D'Onofrio (Mystic Pizza, Full
jokes,
the rest of the cast is re-
her.
in the whole wide world," and Metal Jacket) imbues his char-
But Joy takes the job, and lack duced to straight-man roles. The
she called that memoir One Who acter with all the heaviness and
of educational credentials doesn't script by Todd Graff fails to
Walked Alone. Now, 11 years af- energy of Howard the man, yet
stop her from charming the sons amuse or move; and so with the
ter the book was published, El- there is something that is just
and daughters of Pochenko (for- exception of Drescher and a piti-
lis' story has been made into a not quite believable. And Zell-
mer James Bond Timothy Dal- ful few moments, there's nothing
film, The Whole Wide World.
weger — to whom audiences
to look forward to except the end
Robert E. Howard was a leg- have flocked recently, with some
credits.
end in his small Texas home- help from Tom Cruise, in Jerry
is
the
former
Stephen Bitsoli
112 Qt)
town in 1934, well before his Maguire — seems to be so in
entertainment editor of Detroit
— Lynne Konstantin and
pulp/science-fiction tales of Kull awe of her role, that she also
—
Stephen
Bitsoli
Jeffrey Hermann
Monthly magazine.
and Conan brought him fame
qraattigainfiltkAUSWERAMMZI:M
many years later. To his neigh-
:.:oammr
bors, he was a strange, brash
young man who could be heard
acting out his "yarns" of sav-
agery, survival and sexuality as
nicely ironic end-
drug supplier with
Rated I?
he wrote them. A societal out-
ing.
a
grudge,
whom
sider and an imposing physical
e late rapper Tupac Shakur
Both leads give
they
know
only
by
presence, Howard seemed more
co-stars. with Tim Roth
great perform-
his
personalized
li-
suited to his imagination than
(Resermi,r Dogs, Rob Roy) in
ances, but Shaktir
he did to his quiet Depression-
the Sundance hit Gricllock'cl. cense plate: "I)
is probably more
Reper"
(the
film's
era surroundings.
Set in Detroit, the entertaining
impressive be-
Given his reputation, an un-
film succeeds in making two in- director and screen-
cause ahas the
writer
Vondie
Cur-
likely thing happens: Novalyne
credibly stupid drug addicts lik-
leSs ly part.
tis
Hall).
Price, a curious and intelligent
able.
ane Newton
Th
But
Gridlock'd
young schoolteacher and aspir-
The story follows the travails
but
'4*
doesn't
pretend
that
ing writer, becomes drawn to
of Spoon (Shakur) and Stretch
es,. you
Spoon
and
Stretch
Howard and those same quali-
(Roth), two musicians on the
ties most others have found re-
verge of signing a record deal, as are just victims.
6 6 §
When Stretch blows Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth star in the Vondie Curtis Hall film Gridlock
pellent. Attracted by his
they try to get into a' drug
tt, seems
at
one
up
creativity and passion for writ-
rehab program The rea-
callously, and stupidly, raid his to be marketed at 'Pupae
man
when
he
won't
sign
ing, Novalyne begins to see
son: Cookie (Thandie
them up immediately, the stash and shoot up there, just a Shakur fans,. 4thiSs no' hood
something gentler behind his
Newton, the third mem-
day
worker:replies; "Just be- few feet from where the body lies movie. It's ria410::*e Pulp Fic-
bravado, and the two begin a
ber of the group and Spoon's girl-
cause
you've
decided that today's in a pool of blood. They don't even tion vein, with very dirk humor,
stormy three-year relationship
friend) is in an overdose-induced
the
day
you
stop being a dope have the sense to take the drugs sharply written dialogue and
that seems always fatefully bal-
coma.
fiend,
the
whole
world's supposed and go somewhere less likely to sometimes, graphic violence.
anced just short of romance.
Soon the pair has another rea-
be visited by the cops or the Vondie Curtis Hall is a film-
to
come
to
a
halt?"
Vincent D'Onofrio and Renee
son to disappear for a while: a
killers. maker to watch.
E
ck)
Lynne Konstantin and Jeffrey
Hermann aspire to be the nee
Siskel and Ebert.
Stephen Bitsali is the former
entertainment editor of Detroit
Monthly magazine.
Spoon and Stretch lose still
more sympathy when, upon find-
ing a pusher (and friend) shot to
death in his own apartment, they
They soon stop worrying
about Cookie as well: Her fate
isn't revealed until the film's
—Stephen Bitsoli
ti
cs)
cs)
N-
>-
cc
<z
cc
co
U-
9
3