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The less said about Melissa's hideously sappy theme song, the better. Carter's competent cinematography and Tommy Vig's shivery score are up to par. Shirley takes an utterly gratuitous, yet still much-appreciated shower and also goes skinny-dipping (don't worry folks, Shirley is clearly a good deal older than her underage character). As a yummy bonus, the comely and slender Mrs. John Morgan, Don Stroud as rowdy hell-raiser Billy Franklin, Don Shanks as tough Indian Jason Longshadow, Steve Antin as the jocular Hank Burke, Sharon Farrell as perky forensics expert Kathy Hopkins, Logan Clarke as racist jerk Jimmy, Michael Pataki as smarmy politician George Martin, Henry Wilcoxon as aged Native American Greyfeather, and Larry Storch as a bartender. Fortunately, the fine cast of reliable pros keep this movie watchable: Susan Strasberg as Melissa's friendly mom Joanne, Patrick MacNee as Melissa's uptight archaeologist dad Dr. While the strictly so-so script by Erwin Goldman provides a novel spin on slasher conventions by making horny dudes the key targets of the killer's wrath, the final explanation for the killer's bloodthirsty spree alas proves to be really far-fetched and thus dissatisfying. Director Jim Sotos adroitly crafts a strong rural backwoods hamlet atmosphere, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, and delivers a satisfying smidgen of mild splatter. After two boys with the hots for Melissa are murdered, both folksy sheriff Dan Burke (the always excellent Bo Hopkins) and his inquisitive wannabe Nancy Drew daughter Marci (an appealing portrayal by Dana Kimmell) decide to investigate. You don't care for him, like you cared for the boy in Kes.Sassy teenager Melissa (a nicely brash portrayal by fetching brunette Aleisa Shirley) stirs things up in a sleepy small Texas town. Liam's heart is in the right place, but his methods are dubious. Chantelle is a rock, but her sympathy does not stretch to criminality. Even Liam's best friend (William Ruane) has a screw loose. Liam's relationship with his grandfather is as bad as that with his mother's lover.
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For those unused to the West Coast dialect, it is not easy to follow. Laverty's script is so bare of sentiment, it hurts. The only way he can do this is by dealing drugs, which brings him into conflict with the real hard men who control distribution in the Port Glasgow district. Their mum is in jail and Liam's dream is to find enough money to buy a home for her when she comes out. He plays Liam, a 15-year-old scammer from a Greenock housing estate, who lives with his elder sister Chantelle (Annmarie Fulton) and her wee boy. In fact, Compston's performance dominates. Needless to say, they are utterly convincing. His lead actor is 17-year-old Martin Compston from the first team squad of Morton FC and Michelle Coulter - Martin's mother in the film - has worked in drug rehab for the past 10 years. He goes further in Sweet Sixteen and uses a predominately amateur cast. Now that the legendary Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski ( Dekalog, The Colours Trilogy) is dead, there are few exponents of the genre left, outside of Iran and China. Loach continues to follow in the Italian Neo Realist tradition ( Bicycle Thieves, Il Posto), which is beginning to look dated. The last time they were in Glasgow was for My Name Is Joe, with Peter Mullan, who won Best Actor at Cannes. Neither do their subjects any favours.Īfter a trip to La-La Land for Bread And Roses, the team of director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty is back on home ground. For a movie as uncompromising as this, the title has a pop tag to it, like Gillies MacKinnon's Small Faces.