scanlines

D: Gregory La Cava; with Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C.
Henry Gordon.
VHS Home Video
Vulcan Video, 609 W. 29th

Not getting your recommended daily allowance of drama from the presidential
race? Want a B-12 injection of White House intrigue from a political roman
� clef by an anonymous author? No, the film of Primary Colors
isn’t out yet. But 60 years before Joe Klein did his incognito number on
the Clintons, another Anonymous penned a novel mixing thinly-disguised celebs
and the presidency. Gabriel Over the White House (1933) concerns a
William Randolph Hearst-like figure who snags the Oval Office in 1932 and is
about to slather it in sleaze — getting in bed with all his bidness buds
and a mistress — when a near-fatal car accident (which he causes
himself) brings about a conversion. El Prez awakes from a coma obsessed with
Reform and uses his executive powers in ways FDR never dreamed to defuse the
Depression (!) and blackmail other nations into world peace (!!). It’s a wildly
offbeat story, made downright eerie by the half-century of history since and
the supernatural intensity of Walter Huston, who seems like some weird amalgam
of Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. Stale and predictable it ain’t. — Robert Faires

Paris Is Burning

In her seminal 1964 essay “Notes on `Camp,'” Susan Sontag expresses how
embarrassing it is to write solemnly about the appreciation of mannered style.
Though not a treatise on the subtly humorous concept, Jennie Livingston’s
documentary about black and Hispanic drag queens in Harlem is an equally
complex, engaging work. Paris Is Burning is so fierce and yet has
such great insight into the complex interweavings of its subjects’ lives and
dreams that to do it justice by trying to explain each performer’s persona is
nearly impossible. From wizened commentator Dorian Corey to the legendary
housemother Miss Pepper LaBeija, the film’s subjects tell their own story,
inherently aware of the power of their self-created images. Full of pathos yet
hilarious, Paris Is Burning is that rare documentary that unearths a
subculture and subtly comments on the culture at large. — Clay Smith

Gene Wars

Bullfrog is renowned for its quirky titles like Populous and Magic
Carpet, and this most recent offering can also be described with similar
comments. A mystical race of super-beings has forbidden man (and the three
other alien races) from using violence to resolve their disputes. Instead, each
species must prove that its own genetic science is the best way to populate the
galaxy. You land on a planet and terraform it with animals and plants, each
mission more complex and challenging than the previous. The game is
interesting, but lacking in depth and polish. Some features don’t appear to
work properly and once you set up your production site on the planet there
isn’t really very much to do while your equipment, flora, and fauna hum along
automatically. — Kurt Dillard

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Aquanaut’s Holiday

Aquanaut’s Holiday is like no other game currently available. There are
no urgent goals, nothing to kill, in fact, no opposing force of any kind to
conquer. The player simply cruises beneath the waves, exploring the ocean and
communicating with its inhabitants. A variety of underwater curiosities, such
as pyramids, gravity-defying rock formations, and strange pylons dot the vast
seascape. The hundred-plus varieties of fish and other sea creatures, many of
which are beautifully rendered, respond to the player’s audio signals. The
graphics in Aquanaut’s Holiday are otherwise rather standard, and the
sub-sea sounds are limited. Still, PlayStation owners tired of manic
button-mashing might want to check out this offbeat title. — Bud Simons

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War of the Buttons

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names mean war! After Gorilla
(Batt), who comes from the wealthier side of the tidal water, calls Little Con
(A. Cunningham), who comes from the Ballydowse village, a “tosspot” (while
hanging him upside down over the bridge), opposing child gang leaders Fergus
(Fitzgerald) and Geronimo (Coffey) plot a rivalrous clash that takes place
throughout the emerald meadows, abandoned Gothic castles, ancient ruins, and
stark oceanside cliffs of Southwest Ireland. Roberts’ feature-length
directorial debut offers a refreshingly realistic peek through the window of
childhood. Creativity, ingenuity, respect, and compassion circulate through the
battles whose tactics escalate beyond pine cones and slingshots but never
become streetwise or deadly. Without smacking of either the harsh realities of
modern Irish terrorism or of sweetened idealism, the film touches reverently on
the integrity and growth that can evolve from actual conflict — ultimately
costing only a few buttons of humiliation.

— Stephany Baskin

This article appears in November 1 • 1996 and November 1 • 1996 (Cover).