Kevin Kline explores his masculinity in In 6- Out.

_Restrucitians are suggest

onlg at our 'Detroit location)

Rita Jerome and Staff
Extend Best Wishes For A
Joyous and Healthy New Year

4004111.11

11111111I

25270 Greenfield, Oak Park • 967 1161

-

Simcha with Simone

Our Entire Staff
Heartily Wishes
It's Clients and Friends
A Very Healthy & Happy New Year

Call Simone for the best personal service in town, with
an exciting night of dancing and fun at your party.

33/./ 71 °71

B

LUNCH BUFFET

Saturday & Sunday

A

N

4) (248) 544-7373

LUNCH PLATTERS

$5.95 Vegetarian
Non-vegetarian

$3.50
$3.99

• Top quality catering and party planning is Salaam Bombay's main specialty.
• In-house catering holds up to 40 people. • Competitive catering prices for
banquets,weddings, graduations, family events, and other occasions.

9/26
1997

166

Happy New Year!

.

TUES.-SAT. Noon-9 p.m • SUN. Noon-8 p.m. • MON. Closed

5564 DRAKE ROAD • WEST BLOOMFIELD 48322 • 248-788-5131
.

incident: When Tom Hanks accepted
an Oscar for Philadelphia in 1994, he
thanked his former drama teacher,
who was openly gay.
The movie takes this premise a few
steps further: The teacher, Howard
Bracken (Kevin Kline), hasn't even
admitted to himself that he's gay. To
top off the wackiness, it's the week of
his wedding. Kline is a natural as the
prim instructor at an Indiana high
school, reciting Shelley to a less-than-
rapt class as the film opens. He could
convince without quite so much
mincing, but Kline has the right
tweedy tone.
He's helped by a cast that further
burnishes In & Out's sharply scripted
wit.
Debbie Reynolds plays Howard's
mother, a Midwestern matron with a
golden heart and a razor tongue.
When the young daughter of an
acquaintance blabs to her at the wed-
ding, "My mom says it won't last,"
Reynolds answers sweetly: "Your mom
is an alcoholic."
As Emily, Howard's seriously con-
fused fiancee, Joan Cusack spends
much of her screen time blubbering
and bewildered. To Cusack's credit,
she gives her id a very long leash.
When the fumes of her confusion
ignite into five-alarm ire, it's in perfect
tune with the movie.
Then there's the ever-dependable
Bob Newhart as Howard's backbone-
free boss (no one does invertebrates
like Newhart), and Wilford Brimley as
Howard's I'm-just-a-farmer father, and
Tom Selleck as the oily
"Entertainment Tonight"-type, out to
make Brackett his big story.
Add to this mix a bottle-blond
Matt Dillon, the small-town kid

whom fame has grabbed by the goatee
hairs. As Howard's ex-student,
Cameron Drake, he exudes the prac-
ticed slacker-ness of an eager neophyte
striving to be vapid, Hollywood-style.
Former Muppeteer Frank Oz (What

About Bob?, Little Shop of Horrors)

directs with pacing just this side of
dizzy; he is helped a heap by the ster-
ling cast and by novelist-playwright
Paul Rudnick's comic dazzle. The
movie sometimes spills into sheer silli-
ness, its main (though minor) liability
(Also, Barbra Streisand gets heavily
dissed. But isn't it about time?)
And yes, Selleck and Kline do kiss.
Actually, Selleck kisses — in a bid to
convince Howard that he, like
Selleck's character, is gay. Howard
gasps and goes goggle-eyed, and then
sputters: "This isn't Los Angeles!" It
sure isn't Kansas. PG-13.

* * *

Reviewed by James Hebert

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
L.A. Confidential has enough ener-

gy and bare-knuckled force to make
most current movies seem droopy. But
the energy can barely stay ahead of the
crazy load of plot and the rising tide
of cynicism.
Curtis Hanson, whose pulp creden-
tials include directing The Hand That
Rocks the Cradle and co-scripting Sam
Fuller's White Dog, also wrote this
(with Brian Helgeland) from James
Ellroy's novel. Ellroy is the current hot
gun among the neo-noir pulp writers,
a consciously retro stylist of L.A.
toughness. He knows the city and its
myths and eagerly exhibits its glam-rot
image in his books and even his per-
sonality (he talks in noir deadpan).
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL on page 168