FILM / Critical Round-Up

SAVAGE NIGHTS

'The effect is of tremendous vitality rather than morbid desperation; and Collard's Jean . . . is charming and irresistibly sympathetic as we watch him growing in awareness of himself.' David Robinson, Times.

'There are no real characters save Jean in this movie . . . And though the film sometimes feints at foregrounding the subject of Collard / Jean's egotistic failure of emotional reach, that failure becomes the failure of the movie.' Nigel Andrews, Financial Times.

'It puts feeling on to the screen in a more powerful way than a slicker, more cinematically efficient approach might have done.' Derek Malcolm, Guardian.

MATINEE

'In the tradition of Dante's Gremlins or Explorers this pours parody, social comment and grand guignol into its aesthetic cocktail-mixer; then gives it a shake and waits for it to froth over.' Nigel Andrews, Financial Times.

'Even if Matinee attempts too much and ends up a chaotic muddle . . . it is both intelligent and endearing.' David Robinson, Times.

BOXING HELENA

'The film is not a sucess, to put it mildly . . . The screenplay is often terrible, so that Bill Paxton, so good in One False Move, is made to look hopelessly inadequate.' Derek Malcolm, Guardian.

'Sadly, this is not as the title suggests, the story of a lady pugilist, but a risibly awful piece of Grand Guignol which just might have passed muster as a 15-minute film-school gag.' David Robinson, Times.

SOUTH CENTRAL

'The film is no Boyz N The Hood or Malcolm X but tries hard and successfully for sincerity even when relapsing into what is now becoming much like cliche.' Derek Malcolm, Guardian.

'This is elemental, popular story-telling.' David Robinson, Times.