Review of Local Hero (1983) by Boob R — 16 Jul 2006

[font=Arial]Are my ratings affected by my gender? Possibly. Still, technically, I thought The Family Stone bungled until it finally came together, and Old Boy rattled along nicely for the most part. American Splendor and Local Hero, however, were thoroughly enjoyable. Splendor came out of the gate pretty slowly, almost failing to engage, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since I've never even heard of the comic. The one really sad part of Splendor was that no casting could ever make up for the gleam in Pekar's eyes (the film's format let itself down here, by giving us a glimpse of what could have been) - I thought Giamatti did a great job (in fact, the whole cast did), but there was something so unusual and arresting about the glint in the real Pekar's eyes - just about impossible to replicate. For me, it completely changed the kind of humour that should have come out of Giamatti. But how could I dock major points for that?[/font].

[font=Arial]Local Hero, although it seemed awfully long, was a bit like a Bob Dylan song in a passe point I tried to make many entries ago - stylistically it smacked of Repo Man and other films that get beaten up in school, but it was terrifically engaging. And, finally, I got to hear Knopfler's soundtrack, which came together delightfully in the skiffle band scene - some background counterpoints that were really interesting to me.[/font].

[font=Arial]A decent filmwatching weekend, around visiting the World of Dogs and Cats expo (I think I'm going to buy a chocolate spotted Bengal next time I'm...in a place where I can do that), watching the Springboks shoot themselves in front of thousands of people, and recovering from an illness that saw me in hospital last week. Thanks to Tim for coming to mind in the video store...[/font].

[font=Arial]Oh - George of the Jungle (caught on TV). I know it was a Disney and all, but... Jeez. Giamatti featured in this entry, so it's only right to speak of his his Sideways sidekick. But, what a bummer. There was a lion. In the jungle. Bye-bye.[/font].