0 MARCH 1988 Life and Art U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 15 MARH 188 Lie nd rt . T E N TINALCOLE(~" N A1%F 1 I M OVIE R EVIEWS 'Sammy and Rosie': London s new cult flick By Richard Weis The Daily Targum Rutgers U., NJ Writer Hanif Kureishi and director Stephen Frears, who collaborated on My Beautiful Laundrette, have done it again. Like their previous effort, Sam- my and Rosie Get Laid is set in the exo- tic slums of Margaret Thatcher's Lon- don and brings up issues of class, race and sex; treating each with equal con- cern and wit. A number of provocative 1 questions are asked and no easy answers offered. The film opens with Sammy's father Europe." Rafi's (Shashi Kapoor) unexpected The film is richly textured-winning arrival. The couple could handle this characters keep turning up. And none invasion if Rafi wasn't notorious as the more than Danny (Roland Gift, lead sin- formerly influential leader of a fascist ger of The Fine Young Cannibals), a regime. Though Rafi's torturing youngblack squatter who has admired methods are well-documented, Sammy Rosie from a distance and is delighted to can't be reconciled to his father's crimes. find that she is "downwardly mobile." Rosie has a slightly easier time of it Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is perfect- which makes for something less than ly cast. Din and Barber have a way of marital bliss. Though it actually seems fleshing out Sammy and Rosie's feelings their relationship was a bit strained be- with the slightest gestures, and Kapoor fore Rafi entered the picture. manages to make Rafi, despite his arro- The marriage is based on "freedom gance and probable atrocities, the most plus-commitment," but Sammy clearly sympathetic character in the film. And wants Rosie for himself and looks abso- Gift's Danny has a sly, comic side that lutely forlorn when she goes out to meet takes you by surprise. The film is a her boyfriend. Sammy has a lover too- knockout. When it's over, you'll know an American photographer who is that you've seen something that you've trying to capture "images of a decaying never seen before. The slums, full of squatters-some rioters, some musicians, some both- are volatile, incendiary and seductive. This is a natural niche for Rosie (Frances Barber), a liberal, young Brit and social worker. Though Sammy (Ayub Khan Din), her Pakistani lawyer husband, isn't quite as devoted to their working class neighbors. Ireland only casualty in Huston's 'The Dead' By Erik Reece Kentucky Kernel U. of Kentucky For an audience that thought it was preparing to see the latest teen-slasher pulp, John Huston's The Dead is an understandable disappointment. The movie stays painfully true to James Joyce's short story, which portrays one woman's remembrance of a dead lover. The story is the last in the collection Dubliners, which paints the slow metaphorical death of Ireland. Argued by many to be the best short tory ever Written, The Dead is meticu- lous in its pacing, Joyce being a master of lyrical cadence. The scenes take place on the day of Epiphany, 1904, in Ire- land. Two elderly aunts and a niece are holding a dinner party for their closest friends, full of waltzing and idle chatter. Gabriel (Donal McCann), a guest at the dinner party and the film's narra- tor, is the archetypal narcissist, strug- ling against self-doubt to secure his wn social identity. He is constantly seen fidgeting with preparatory notes for a post-dinner speech. The irony of this is that Gabriel, the word man, is unable to communicate with his wife, Gretta (Angelica Huston). This tense dichotomy is implanted ear- ly, culminating in a shattering of Gab- riel's misconception that he is the most important element in his wife's life. Gabriel learns that when Gretta was a teenager, a sick young boy lost his life trying to see her before she left for a convent education. It is a passion Gab- riel understands, but one he himself cannot muster. While Gabriel can ar- ticulate his observations, he is unable to conceive of the passion that consumes his wife. Running about 80 minutes, The Dead concentrates on one pivotal incident in a P arriage that gives the relationship an unrecognizable turn. The Dead, if nothing else, succeeds in throwing a chink in the chain of formu- laic romantic thrillers and romantic comedies that Hollywood is presently churning out like packaged luncheon meat. Instead, The Dead immerses it- self in poetic nuance. It is a quiet farewell from an American film legend.