CCREEN
(Continued from [taw ~r)
women set oul to be world beating track perfor
mers in the first place
It's not hard to figure out why Towne chose
the topic, though Besides the inherent drama in
unexplored, taboo territory , the filmmaker obvi
ously has an aesthetic/erotic attraction to these
particular women li s betrayed by his camera s
lavish attention to muscles, by one-too-many
crotch shots, and by a comment that Moore's
character — in Townes voice, perhaps1 — makes
to Hemingway What do you think of that1 asks
Hemingway warily, after learning Moore knows
of her lesbian affair
I think we bcxh like great-looking girls.'' he
replies
Michele Kort
Death Valley
\tarnnR Paul le Mat, Catherine Hicks, Stephen
McHattie written h\ Richard Rothstein directed
h\ [tick Richards
V\eath Vallei is not a bad film it is four bad
films a boy's view of his parent s divorce, a
conflict between technology and cowbc r, life, a
pseudo-psychological study of twins, and a hor
ror movie Death Valle) has been backed by the
bucks of Universal, has beautiful cinematograpc
and a not unknown cast, but it fails to achieve
even the satisfving campiness of a B movie
Stephen McHattie plavs a set of twins who
murder people for no particular reason (there is
vime vague reference to the fan that their father
was a goldminer — 1) Vagueness whips through
the film like a sandstorm, tearing gaping holes in
the plot There is no basis for the previous mar
riage of Salic (Catherine Hicks), an airhead coun
try girl, to Haul Stanton (Edward Herrman), a col
lege professor And their son Billy, the pro
tagonist, turns from boy genius discussing elec
tronics to little brat placing cowboy: even though
he hates his mother s boyfriend (Paul Le Mat), he
seems to want to please them
Death Valley's only suspense relies on the
murders and the twin(s)' attempt to catch up
with Billy but we don't care about the victims
(five slobs and slobbettes), and there is no rea
son to chase after Billy since he had no personal
interest in the murders He just wanted to get to
the Grand Canyon (they re on vacation, see1)
Neither fun, nor campy, nor scary, Death Valiev is
itself a fall down the Grand Canyon it hits rock
bottom
Jody Et<e (Irani
Lrgh!
with 10 rr,tk groups, jnxxiuced (n Mtcheal Write,
directed b\ iJereh Hurbtdne
WTryh' is to movies what sampler albums are to
C/ musit a little taste of many flavors with no
garnish, no spicy interviews, no salty social com
mentary Just live music, neatly packaged, with
minimal production costs
Die groups, in order of appearance (with one
song each) are Police, Wall of Voodoo, Tovah
Wilcox, Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark.
Chelsea, Outgo Boirtgo, Echo and the Bunnymen,
jools Holland, XTC, Klaus Nomi, Go-Go's. Dead
Kennedy’s, Steel Pulse, Gary Numan, Joan Jett.
Magazine, Surf Punks, Au Pairs, Cramps, Invisible
Sex. Pere I bu, Devo, Alley Cats, Gang of Four,
999. Fleshtones, X, Skahsh, UB40, and Police
again Much of the music is simple-minded, some
simply awful, with an occasionally fascinating
group that stays in the mind long after the movie
ends Klaus Nomi is outrageous, in white face,
black lipstick, patent leather tuxedo and bombas
tic falsetto My personal favorite The Cramps,
alas, are just ludicrous, the most interesting thing
a(>out their performance is wondering whether
singer Lux Interior will lose his pants or gag on
the microphone
Unlike most films, Ur%h! has a practical func
tion for those who have not yet embraced this
music, I rgb' lejs them decide which artists they
never want to see again, and which ones they'll
pursue further
And besides, it's relatively painless fun; just
when 1 was ready to heave my seat (or my guts)
at the screen, along came another group to dis
tract, amuse, enrage or impress.
Judith Sims
Tag
starring Robert Carradine and Linda Hamilton,
and introducing Bruce Abbott Written and di
rected by Sick Castle
A group of UCLA students embark on another
round of extermination by rubber dan. Pre
dictably, one student cracks under the pressure
to win the popular campus assassination game
and becomes a real murderer — a music major
with a cache of decaying bodies in his dorm
room Left at that, TAG would be a passable
movie of the week, but writer-director Castle
adds depth, playing the drama against some very
funny material Hamilton plays a jaded but not yet
cynical Beverly Hills cupcake who tries hard to
be torchy. practicing steamy stares meant to fry
male circuitry. And she succeeds' She is a Chan
dler female, confounding, pneumatic and vulner
able Carradme is appealingly awkward with an
occasionally stiff delivery
The fun is that the characterizations aren't
taken too seriously. From the game director, who
fancies himself a G-man, to the campus news
editor, a downy cherub as crusty as Walter
Matthau, the laughs are there Castle does miss
on a few minor points There apparently is not a
locked door on the whole of the I QA campus, a
glaring assumption in this security-conscious
time Also, the students have a curious penchant
for tossing textbooks into hedges when they are
finished with them His major offense, however,
is the romantic clinch following the murderer's
grisly death They find it arousing? Better they
should hug each other in relief But despite occa
sional awkwardness, the film is entertaining, truly
suspenseful. genuinely funny.
Darlene Guildner
Missing
starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Sfxtcek, written
by Costa Cairas and Donald Stewart, directed by
Costa (iairas
Costa-Gavras previous political films—/, Spe
dot Section and Stage of Siege —combine the
rage and commitment of his political point of
view with the wham-bam technique of a cine
matic thriller These three films almost created
a genre of their own, based in fact but exe
cuted like fiction
Missing, like these earlier films, is based on a
true story: as a result of the U S. CIA's involve
ment in the 1973 assassination of Chile's Marxist
president Allende and the subsequent military
coup, an American citizen was killed; his father
sued the U S government for complicity in his
son's death, but the suit was eventually thrown
out of court Missing deals with the father's
search for his son, and his eventual realization of
the circumstances of his death
Lemmon plays the stalwart America-right-or
wrong businessman who travels to the uniden
tified Latin country to find his son. The son’s wife,
Sissy Spacek, is, like her husband, a hippie of
sorts, estranged from Lemmon Most of the film is
taken up with useless Lemmon-Spacek arguments
and their equally useless attempts to find the
son/husband — who is, of course, dead, presum
ably murdered because he was privy to CIA se
crets babbled by an agent in a restaurant
While I readily concede that it’s better to see
even this relatively timid (compared to Costa
Gavras' previous credits) expose of our shameful
Chilean episode than to see nothing at all,
Missing is still disappointing It should have been
tougher It should have hit us with a slam, not a
dull thud.
Judith Sims
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