- New York, 4 January: Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction emerged yesterday as the overwhelming critical favorite of 1994, scooping up best film, director and screenplay honors at the National Society of Film Critics' annual award ceremony. Voting at the Algonquin Hotel, where Dorothy Parker and her literary set convened during the swinging 20s and 30s, the 42 critics appropriately named Jennifer Jason Leigh best actress for her portrayal of the causic writer in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Paul Newman was chosen best actor for Nobody's Fool.
- Paris, 4 January: Suspending a strike that has lasted since mid-October 1994, France's dubbing artists returned to work yesterday pending the outcome of a new round of negotiations. The dispute centers on a claim by some 600 performers that they should be paid residual fees. Apparently, 90% of French audiences prefer dubbed rather than subtitled versions of foreign films.
- London, 6 January:
 Danny Boyle's impressive debut feature, the award-winning Shallow Grave, give British (actually Scotish) cinema a left with its uncharacteristic venture into noir territory. A journalist (Ewan McGregor), an accountant (Christopher Eccleston) and a doctor (Kerry Fox), twenty-something flat-sharing friends in Edinburgh, get into dark concealment and bloody corpse dismemberment with great style. A sharp-edged, talented black comedy that promises international appeal.
- Los Angeles, 10 January: John Dahl's icy noir drama, The Last Seduction, and its star, Linda Fiorentino, are the latest casualties in disputes over the coming Oscars®. An L.A. Superior Court judge yesterday upheld a previous court ruling that the film is ineligible for nomination because it had its initial screening on HBO cable TV.
 - Chicago, 13 January: Released nationwide today, director Edward Zwick's film of Jim Harrison's novella, Legends of the Fall, was seen in L.A. and New York last month so as to enable an Oscar® bid. Whether or no honors come its way, it's a handsomely mounted, engrossingly entertaining epic of complex emotions and disintegration in the ranching Ludlow family as World War I approaches. A mite sprawling and melodramatic perhaps, but performances are terrific, with Anthony Hopkins as father to brothers Henry Thomas, Aidan Quinn and heart-throb Brad Pitt, a charismatic hero figure whose star rating is still clearly on the rise.
- Los Angeles, 27 January:
 Following on his hat-trick of blockbusters that started 12 months ago with >Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, took in The Mask, and culminated in Dumb and Dumber which has hit the $100 million mark in its first 43 days of release, the industry is dubbing the actor with the cosmic grin "Cash and Carrey." Peter Farrelly's Dumb and Dumber, the latest vehicle for the unstoppable Jim Carrey, is scatalogically inspired and unapologetic in its celebration of stupidity. The goofy, good-natured road movie is driven by the infectious chemistry of Carrey, who seems to have cornered the market in wholesome zaniness (here aided by Jeff Daniels). A Canadian who conquered the comedy circuit by the age of 19, Carrey moved to the movie capital in 1981, playing a number of zesty bit parts (Peggy Sue Got Married, Earth Girls Are Easy) over 13 years, as well as outrageous head-turners on TV's "In Living Color," before his rubbery, cartoonesque features became a national phenomenon -- most notably in the hilarious marriage of effects both digital and human in The Mask. New Line originally offered Carrey $750,000 for Dumb, before Ace Ventura opened. As the movie climbed the charts, joined by The Mask, so did the actor's asking price, forcing New Line to capitulate to $7 million. It looks as though they won't regret the investment. Meanwhile, audiences eagerly await Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls later in the year. Before that, however, they are anticipating the sight of the much-loved grin twisted to menacing effect as The Riddler in Batman Forever this summer.
 - Los Angeles, 1 February: Since announcing their plans to found a new studio, latter-day moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, predictably dubbed the Dream Team, look set to realize their ambitions. Challenging the old-established majors, DreamWorks SKG aims to be a multimedia empire, equipped with the latest digital technology and servicing the TV, video, music and CD-ROM markets, as well as making 24 features by the year 2000. The massive financial resources needed far outstrip the personal $33.3 million stake from each partner that billionaire Geffen and multimillionaire Spielberg can well afford, but which puts Katzenberg, Disney's former production genius, at serious risk. But the skepticism that greeted their initially vague statements is disappearing as they reveal details, and promised of backing, notably from Paul Allen of the Microsoft empire. While many wish them well, others fear the threat.
- Park City, 2 February:
 Twenty-five percent of the 100 films at this year's Sundance Festival came with distribution deals, and featured such actors as Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. The limited facilities were stretched by distributors and agents crowding in to snap up saleable products, both in and out of the competition (won by Edward Burns' very low-budget drama The Brothers McMullen). There are complaints that the raw-talent spirit of America's most significant showcase has been lost in favor of more mainstream polish, but who can argue when Robert Redford's vision and commitment have advanced the like of Quentin Tarantino?
- Hollywood, 1 February: The Walt Disney Co. yesterday announced a revamped version of Fantasia, to comprise four segments of the original 1940 classic plus five new segments. Release is planned for 1998 but, meanwhile, according to Disney executives, 100,000 New Yorkers will catch a preview glimpse in June of the latest animated musical, Pocahontas, to be shown on four eight-story-tall screens on the Great Lawn in Manhattan's Central Park.
- Miami Beach, 2 February: Broadway's legendary George Abbott has died of a stroke at the age of 107. Last night at 8 p.m. the lights of the Great White Way were dimmed for a full minute in tribute. Abbott's uniquely productive career included variously writing, directing or producing movies, notably comedies such as Three Men on a Horse (1934) and musicals such as The Pajama Game (1957) and Damn Yankees (1958). Stage director Hal Prince, choreographer Bob Fosse and the multi-talented Gene Kelly were among his countless protégés.
 - London, 3 February: The French company Gaumont, the oldest in the world, celebrates the 100 years of cinema with an English-language movie, made in New York by one of its top commercial assets, Luc Besson, who makes his American directing debut. Successful in the U.S., where it was shown as The Professional, Léon arrives to divide British audiences. An orgy of over-the-top bloodletting, in the center of which reclusive hit man Jean Reno develops a close relationship with 12-year-old Natalie Portman, whose drug-dealing family has been murdered, the movie is as hollow and ambiguous as it is breathtakingly stylish and original -- all the usual Besson trademarks. Reno is superb, Portman uncomfortably beguiling, and Gary Oldman malevolently over the top in this film that has panache and some darkly humorous moments, but they fail to move it out of the all-too-familiar.
- Sweden, 3 February: Ingmar Bergman, who retired from filmmaking after Fanny & Alexander (1981), has chosen 11 of his favorite films by other directors to be shown at the Gothenberg Festival, which begins today. Among them are Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev, Federico Fellini's La Strada, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, Marcel Carné's Quai des brumes, Karl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc and Charles Chaplin's The Circus.
- Los Angeles, 13 February: Martin Scorsese's Casino, a 70s mob tale starring Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone has wrapped in Las Vegas after an indulgent 100-day shoot. However, this was less than half the time taken on Kevin Jackson's troubled Waterworld, still in production. The budget for this 26th-century aquatic adventure starring Kevin Costner is nearing an other-worldly $175 million.
- London, 17 February: Banned in India, Shkhar Kapur's Bandit Queen opens here today, the story of Phoolan Devi, married at 11, gang-raped by high-caste Thakurs and subsequently accused of murdering 22 Thakur men. Devi, released after 10 years in jail, cooperated on the making of the film, but is now denouncing the violence as misrepresentation.
- Los Angeles, 17 February: Gene Kelly, 81-year-old actor, dancer, choreographer and director, who suffered a stroke last July, is recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from another stroke.
- Berlin, 21 February: Festival audiences were surprised that Bertrand Tavernier's L'Appât (The Bait) won the Golden Bear for best film over Wayne Wang's Smoke. The latter had to be content with the special jury prize, and a special mention for Harvey Keitel's performance. However, Paul Newman was a popular choice for best actor for Nobody's Fool. Josephine Siao was best actress for Ann Hui's Nu ren si shi (Summer Snow, 1994) and Richard Linklater was best director for Before Sunrise. Vladimir Abdrashitov's Pyesa dlya passazhira (Play for a Passenger) won the Silver Bear.
- London, 24 February:
 Slick, intriguing and, thanks to the lurid media it implicitly criticizes, ludicrously over-hyped, Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers has opened here. Its single showing at the London Film Festival in November was the season's hottest ticket, but the British censors then turned squeamish and considered a total ban. The controversial saga of a couple (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) whose cross-country killing spree make them media darlings and role models, intended by Stone as a satire on the horrors of tabloid culture, misses the mark. Instead, it comes across as a morally dubious excursion into grotesque violence, filmed with breathtaking expertise.
- Marin County, CA, 24 February: With over a decade elapsed since the last installment of his Star Wars trilogy, producer, director and technology wizard George Lucas is taking a year to write a three-part sequel to the series. Lucas may have to sell part or all of his empire, including the Industrial Light and Magic Company, said to be worth $350 million, to finance the state-of-the-art technology needed to realize his vision.
 - Hong Kong, 24 February: After another run-in, this time over Yao a yao yao dao waipo qiao (Shanghai Triad), with the Beijing authorities who announced a ban on him last October, Yimou Zhang has wrapped the shoot -- and his association with Li Gong. The eight-year collaboration between this distinguished 44-year-old director and the luminous 29-year-old actress yielded seven memorable films, including 1991's Da hong deng long gao gao gua (Raise the Red Lantern) and last year's Huozhe (To Live), and made Li the first Chinese actress to become an international star. Off-screen, too, it was an intimate relationship that, with Yimou until recently married, scandalized conservative China. He is to film Empress Wu for the French company Ciby 2000, and it is not known whether Li Gong, who is to make another with Kaige Chen, will star. Yimou's series of troubles began when his recent masterwork, Huozhe, about life in the Communist Revolution seen through the eyes of a village family, was shown at Cannes against the wishes of the authorities in Beijing.
- Paris, 26 February:
 At the 20th annual César Awards, the jury voted Four Weddings and a Funeral the best foreign film, echoing American enthusiasm for this British hit comedy. The homegrown winners, important to the French industry, saw the matchless Isabelle Adjani receive her fourth César for best actress in Patrice Chéreau's upmarket bodice-ripper La Reine Margot (Queen Margot), while Gérard Lanvin was voted best actor for Nicole Garcia's Le Fils préfere (The Favorite Son). The best director, screenplay and film awards were swept up by André Techiné for Les Roseaux sauvages (Wild Reeds), a sensitive account of adolescent relationships at the time of the Algerian war.
 - Paris, 1 March: Film and fashion fans, not to mention anxious Miramax execs, are awaiting reation to Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear), opening here today after a critical lambasting in the U.S. What the world's fashion capital will make of the much talked-about nude grande finale is anybody's guess, though the French might get the joke. But the shallow characterizations in which Robert Altman's huge, glitzy, international cast (Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Kim Basinger, Stephen Rea, Anouk Aimée, Forest Whitaker, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Lauren Bacall, Lyle Lovett, Tracey Ullman, Sally Kellerman, Linda Hunt, Teri Garr, Danny Aiello, et al.) are trapped, the risible threads of story that pass for plot, and the undisguised contempt visited upon the denizens of the showroom are likely to be less well received. The movie looks good, though, and has atmosphere and some fun moments.
- London, 4 March:
 Barry Levinson's Disclosure, from the novel by Michael Crichton, in which Demi Moore sexually harasses her office subordinate Michael Douglas, is causing a storm under bus shelters throughout the U.K. Reason for all the excitement is the movie's provocative poster, that includes hands on Demi's rear and the slogan 'Sex Is Power.' In the U.S. the ad featured a benign close-up of the stars' faces.
- Los Angeles, 7 March: The Walt Disney Co. yesterday announced record-breaking sales in excess of 20 million copies of the video of The Lion King. The film has so far grossed a stratospheric $740 million in theaters worldwide.
- New York, 13 March: Before Val Kilmer flies into 2000 theaters in June as the new Batman, he will appear in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Wings of Courage, the first filmed drama to use IMAX 3-D technology. The 40-minute, $15 million-plus story about French aviators opens 21 April at New York's Sony Lincoln Square, one of only 120 theaters worldwide capable of screening the process.
- Chicago, 14 March: Steve James' 170-minute documentary, Hoop Dreams, about teenage pro basketball aspirants, superseded its category yesterday to be named best film of 1994 by the Chicago film critics. This follows its Golden Globe win as best documentary, a special Producers Guild award, and the National Critics' documentary vote. All of which severs to emphasize the snub to this $6 million grosser when it failed to gain an Oscar® nomination. Protests by outraged filmmakers have brought an Academy pledge to re-examine documentary nomination procedure.
- Los Angeles, 24 March:
 Although coinciding with the international fervor for the 100 years of cinema, last night's Oscar® ceremony disappointed. All the usual suspects were present, and the Academy's Arthur Hiller made a welcome plea for film preservation in light of funding cuts, but the only surprise was TV's David Letterman replacing Tinseltown's Billy Crystal to underwhelm as MC. The evening's theme, comedy, misfired in a series of clumsy, lackluster compilations, while the winners were predictable to the point of anti-climax. Academy members clearly shared the nation's enthusiasm for Best Picture winner Forrest Gump, also crediting Robert Zemeckis as Best Director, but it is hard to swallow the second win in a row for Tom Hanks in view of the quality competition. He accepted his award with another embarrassingly lachrymose display. Jessica Lange's anticipated Best Actress Oscar® for the barely seen Blue Sky, the late Tony Richardson's last film made three years ago, was well-deserved, while the supporting awards to Martin Landau for his brilliant Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood and Dianne Wiest for her skillfully funny egomaniac actress in Bullets over Broadway were genuinely popular and accurate choices. The night's grace note came from Italy's veteran director Michelangelo Antonioni, accepting his honorary statuette with a simple "Grazie."
 - Los Angeles, 28 March:
 There can have been few Academy Award ceremonies to present as many undeserving losers as this year witnessed. British Nigel Hawthorne's unhappy monarch in The Madness of King George, a portrayal of depth and distinction, and John Travolta's striking Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, combining casual thuggery with unnerving niceness, might account for the favoring of Tom Hanks -- and there was always a chance that the marvellously aged-in-the-wood Paul Newman (already honored this year) would steal away with the Best Actor statuette for Nobody's Fool. The Shawshank Redemption got less than its due; at least the splendid Tim Robbins could have expected joint nomination with his co-star Morgan Freeman, who lost the Best Supporting Oscar® to Martin Landau. Relief that Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which, in another year, could have swept the board, at least won for its screenplay. And spare a thought for Winona Ryder (Little Women) and Susan Sarandon (The Client), losing but worthy contenders for Best Actress honors. In the always badly neglected Foreign Language Film category, Nikita Mikhalkov's Utomlyonnye solntsem (Burnt by the Sun) unaccountably ousted the highly popular Yin shi nan nu (Eat Drink Man Woman) from Taiwan's Ang Lee.
- New York, 7 April:
 Michael Caton-Jones, after successes with Scandal (1989), Memphis Belle (1990), Doc Hollywood and This Boy's Life (both 1993), turns to costume action-drama with Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange. Set in 18th-century Scotland, "Rob Roy" MacGregor is forced to turn to a Robin Hood life style after the money he has borrowed from local noble John Hurt to buy a cattle herd is stolen by Tim Roth, who proves a worthy villain as the foppish, lecherous Archibald Cunningham. Filmed on location in Scotland, Caton-Jones' film has scope, grandeur and magnificent swordplay, making it a contender with the soon-to-be-released Braveheart as the best of its genre to hit theater screens in recent memory.
 - Los Angeles, 3 May: Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas were recognized in 1984 for their screenplay for El Norte, which Nava also directed. Now the husband-and-wife team turn their focus from the plight of immigrants from Mexico and Central America to life in the United States as lived by Hispanic citizens. Three generations of dreams -- from the 1930s to the present day -- are traced through the Sanchez family, from Maria and Jose (Jennifer Lopez and Jacob Vargas), the first generation, as they come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930's. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 50's. As the parents (now played by Jenny Gago and Eduardo López Rojas) watch the second generation become adults in the 60's (Esai Morales, Edward James Olmos, Enrique Castillo, Lupe Ontiveros, Constance Marie and Jimmy Smits), the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee, played by Elpidia Carrillo), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.
- Los Angeles, 19 May:
 Another film full of kilt-clad Scots premieres tonight. Following the tartans of the recently released Rob Roy, Mel Gibson's Braveheart tells the tale of William Wallace, a commoner who united the 13th-century Scots in an effort to overthrow English rule. Gibson stars as Wallace, and his performance and direction show his remarkable eye for detail and his understanding of human emotion. What will probably be remembered, though, are the battle scenes -- filmed with a gory realism that shows the sound and fury of every blow. Perhaps lost in the grandeur and spectacle are the fine performances of Patrick MacGoohan as King Edward Longshanks of England, Angus Macfadyen's Robert the Bruce, a pawn in the struggle for an independent Scotland, and Ian Bannen as Robert's father, the leper Robert Bruce Sr. There is such enormous scope to this story that it works on a smaller, more personal scale as well, essaying love and loss, patriotism and passion. Extremely moving, the film is three hours long and includes several plot tangents, yet is never dull. This movie resonates long after you have seen it, both for its visual beauty and for its powerful story. It should be well-rewarded come Oscar® time next spring.
 - New York, 14 June: Michael Radford brings Il Postino to the U.S. Made last year in Italy, and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 14 September, this lovely film concerns the fisherman Mario (Massimo Troisi), whose life changes dramatically when the famous Chilean writer Pablo Neruda (Phillipe Noiret) settles on his little Italian island. Living in exile becuase of his political beliefs, Neruda needs a postman to deliver the huge quantities of mail sent to him by his admirers and Mario takes the job since he hates fishing anyway. The two become friends and Neruda helps the shy and clumsy Mario to win the heart of Beatrice (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), the beautiful waitress at the village's inn, by showing him the beauty and power of poetry. Radford, Troisi and Anna Pavignano wrote the screenplay from a story by Furio and Giacomo Scarpelli. Troisi was so devoted to the project that he postponed essential heart surgery so that he could complete the film. The day after filming wrapped, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
- Los Angeles, 30 June:
 Practically growing up on screen in front of the American people in TV shows like "The Andy Griffth Show" and "Happy Days," Ron Howard has been in the public eye since he was 10 years old. In 1969, at the ripe age of 15, he directed his first short film, Old Paint, starring himself and his family. Since then, he has directed of a number of films that have proved popular with audiences: Night Shift (1982), Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985), Gung Ho (1986), Willow (1988), Parenthood (1989), Backdraft (1991), Far and Away (1992) and The Paper (1994). Now he turns his considerable talents to the American space program with Apollo 13. It is 1970, less than a year since man first walked on the Moon, but as far as the American public was concerned, Apollo 13 was just another "routine" space flight -- until these words pierced the immense void of space: "Houston, we have a problem." Stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft, astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise), flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and a heroic ground crew race against time -- and the odds -- to bring them home. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, which include actual footage shot by NASA and by news organizations, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and what will surely turn into one of the biggest box-office hits of the year.
 - New York, 28 July: Like sharks sniffing blood in the water, Hollywood loves a film that's in trouble. Whether it's Griffith's Intolerance (1916), the Mamoulian-Mankiewicz Cleopatra (1963) or Elaine May's Ishtar (1987), when a film begins to go severely over budget, Tinseltown touts' tongues start wagging and the buzz begins. The latest installment in this interesting cultural phenomenon is Waterworld, starring Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Roberts, already being referred to as "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate." Production woes have pushed the budget to the $200 million mark, making it the most expensive production in Hollywood history. The movie arrives in theaters with so much controversy and negative gossip that it's an easy target for ridicule. But, let's be honest: this epic isn't nearly as bad as that negative publicity has led us to expect. The movie itself, a flawed but enjoyable post-apocalypse thriller, deserves better. Costner is Mariner, a lone maverick with gills and webbed feet who navigates the endless seas of Earth after the complete melting of the polar ice caps. He has been caged like a criminal when he's freed by Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and enlisted to help her and a young girl (Tina Majorino) escape from the Smokers, a group of renegade terrorists led by Dennis Hopper in yet another memorably villainous role. It is too bad the predictable script isn't more intelligent, but as a companion piece to Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), this seafaring stunt-fest is adequately impressive.
- Los Angeles, 4 August:
 From Australia comes Babe, a charming major feature debut for Chris Noonan, who learned his craft in Australian TV. Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdianad the Duck (who thinks he's a rooster) and Fly the border collie (whom he calls "Mom"), Babe realizes that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time. And friendly Farmer Hogget (James Cromwell) knows it, too, sensing that he and the pig share a common destiny. With the help of his friends, Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be. Filled with a supporting cast of talking barnyard animals and a chorus of singing mice (courtesy of computer enhancements and clever animatronics), this frequently hilarious, visually imaginative movie is certain to become a family classic.
 - Los Angeles, 16 August: Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie's The Usual Suspects premiered at last May's Cannes Film Festival, and it's now ready for general release. In what is one of the most imaginatively and intricately plotted stories to hit the screen in years, we are introduced to Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), hauled in by Chazz Palminteri and Dan Hedaya after they discover a burnt-out ship and a harbor full of floating bodies. As Kint recounts his story, we go back six weeks to the time when five criminals (Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak and Benicio Del Toro) are dragged in by the NYPD, who are desperate for suspects on a hijacked truck. As one part of Verbal's story leads to another, we discover the possible identification of Keyser Söze, an international criminal mastermind. Although set in the present day, Singer's film smacks of film noir as he and McQuarrie pay tribute to the B-thrillers of the past. The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors.
- Los Angeles, 22 September:
 Elizabeth Berkley stars in Showgirls, a sleazy, stupid movie, that uses its $45 million budget to mix soft pornography with the clichés of backstage dramas. It's the kind of project an aspiring actress would have to put well behind her to keep a career going (though co-star Gina Gershon could benefit from her, uh, exposure in the film.). Berkley plays a drifter who hitches a ride to Las Vegas, becomes a lap dancer and then a performer, and discovers -- gasp! -- there's a whole world of sex and violence involved with these things. Gershon is probably the best element in the film, playing Berkley's bisexual rival for the big spotlight on stage. Joe Eszterhas was well overpaid for writing this howler, and director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) should have known better than to take it seriously.
 - New York, 29 September: In John Roberts' War of the Buttons, rival gangs of young Irish kids enjoin in constantly escalating battles that ultimately entail the removal of the buttons from the clothes of captured losers. While the shenanigans cause obvious problems, the two leaders of the groups nonetheless develop a grudging admiration for the other and an estranged friendship. Benefitting from on-the-nose casting of a largely non-professional company, a quirky story and stunning Irish locations, this film (a UK-France-Japan co-production) can be summed up with a quote from Fergus, the leader of one of the gangs: "For Ballydowse and Ireland... Charge!"
- New York, 27 October:
 Last month's Toronto Film Festival saw the premiere of two contrasting features from the U.S., Leaving Las Vegas and Mighty Aphrodite. The former, going into general release today, is directed by Mike Figgis, who adapted the screenplay from John O'Brien's novel. The story concerns Ben Sanderson, a hard-core alcoholic played with excruciating veracity by Nicolas Cage, who drives to Las Vegas after being fired from his film production job and divesting himself of all possessions. He plans to drink himself to death within four weeks. He meets Sera, a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue; they fall in love and he moves in with her. They accept each other as they are, with no attempts by one to change the other, and this unconditional love turns Leaving Las Vegas into a somber yet quietly beautiful love story. The film may strike some as relentlessly bleak and glacially paced, but attentive viewers will readily discover the richness of these tragic characters and the exceptional performances that bring them to life. (In a sad echo of his own fiction, novelist John O'Brien committed suicide while this film was in production.)
 In Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino plays a bubbleheaded hooker and porn star who happens to be the mother of a bright young boy adopted by a Manhattan couple (Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter). The story finds Allen's sportswriter character becoming curious about the identity of his son's biological mom, and he strikes up a relationship with her without revealing why. This 27th feature written and directed by Allen is a nice combination of smart comedy and some of the wackier energy of his earliest movies. (Between scenes, there's a running gag involving a Greek chorus -- actually filmed among some real Greek ruins -- who do song-and-dance interpretations of the script's events.) This isn't Allen at his best, but it is a fine minor work graced by Sorvino's spin on the cinema's archetypal dumb blonde. Mighty Aphrodite is scheduled to go into general release next week.
- Los Angeles, 22 November:
 There is greatness in film that can be discussed, dissected, and talked about late into the night. Then there is genius that is right in front of our faces -- we smile at the spell it puts us into and are refreshed, and nary a word needs to be spoken. This kind of entertainment is what they used to call "movie magic," and there is loads of it in this irresistible computer animation feature. Just a picture of these bright toys on the poster of Toy Story looks intriguing, reawakening the kid in us. Filmmaker John Lasseter's shorts (namely Knickknack and Tin Toy, which can be found on the Pixar video Tiny Toy Stories) illustrate not only a technical brilliance but also a great sense of humor -- one in which the pun is always intended. Lasseter thinks of himself as a storyteller first and an animator second, much like another film innovator, Walt Disney. Lasseter's story is universal and magical: what do toys do when they're not played with? Cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Andy's favorite bedroom toy, tries to calm the other toys (some original, some classic) during a wrenching time of year -- the birthday party, when newer toys may replace them. Sure enough, Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) is the new toy that takes over the throne. Buzz has a crucial flaw, though -- he believes he's the real Buzz Lightyear, not a toy. Bright and cheerful, Toy Story is much more than a 90-minute commercial for the inevitable bonanza of Woody and Buzz toys. Lasseter further scores with perfect voice casting, including Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head and Wallace Shawn as a meek dinosaur. The director-animator deserves a special Oscar® for advancing the art of the animated film. In other words, the movie is great. -- Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
 - New York, 20 December: Nixon, Oliver Stone's controversial drama about the 37th President's years in the White House stars Anthony Hopkins in a genuinely great performance as the scandal-plagued president. The film attempts to wed suggestions of Nixon's formative experiences as a boy to his political connections with shady movers and shakers and finally to his self-destructive tenure in the Oval Office. The Watergate scandal is revisited rather impressionistically -- it may be hard for viewers who weren't alive then to get a sense of what the crisis was about. The parade of stars playing figures in Nixon's orbit -- J.T. Walsh as John Ehrlichman, James Woods as Bob Haldeman, David Hyde Pierce as John Dean, etc. -- is fun if a tad distracting. Joan Allen deserves an Oscar® nomination as First Lady Pat Nixon, and Hopkins should get one as well. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
- Los Angeles, 29 December:
 Released in New York and Los Angeles just in time for consideration for this year's Oscars®, Dead Man Walking continues the on-screen collaboration between actor-director Tim Robbins and his leading lady and real-life partner Susan Sarandon. Beginning in 1988 with Bull Durham and running through The Player and Bob Roberts (both 1992), the pair relishes each opportunity to work with each other. Superbly adapted and directed by Robbins from the non-fiction book by Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking is a spiritually enlightened drama that is too intelligent to traffic in polemics or self-righteous pontifications against the death penalty. But in examining the issue of capital punishment from a humanitarian perspective, the film urges thoughtful reflection on the justifications for legally ending a human life. Although it features a fine supporting cast, the film maintains its sharp focus through flawless lead performances by Sarandon as the Catholic nun Prejean, and Sean Penn as the death-row killer she struggles to save. Robbins avoids a biased message, letting the movie examine both sides of the issue instead (R. Lee Ermey gives a fine performance as the grief-stricken father of one of Penn's victims). As the drama unfolds and Penn's execution deadline grows near, Dead Man Walking is graced by compelling depths of theme and character, achieving an emotional impact that demands further reflection and removes the stigma of piousness from socially conscious filmmaking.
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12 February - Petersfield, Hampshire, England, 
22 September - Los Angeles, CA, 
9 November - Pasadena, CA, 
