Film Screening 4th March, 2000

Poster for American Pie

American Pie 

8:00 PM, 4th March, 2000
No Guests

  • MA
  • 95 mins
  • 1999
  • Paul Weitz
  • Adam Herz
  • Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne

It's about four boys in their last year of high school who make a pact to lose their virginity before the end of the year. It's full of hideously embarrassing, hilariously funny moments, including the famed apple pie incident. But it is not, as some would have you believe, a Porky's for the '90s.
The difference is that there is something under the comedy. In reality, American Pie is less a teen flick and more a rite-of-passage movie. Underlying the desperate attempts to get laid are a clever script and an emotional journey. Unlike most teen flicks, there is a warmth rather than a meanness to the characters.
There's Kevin, who is the only one with a steady girlfriend, but she doesn't want to have sex until the time is perfect, whilst he doesn't want to tell her he loves her until that moment is perfect. Oz is the jock who can't pick up women the way he used to, and is told to learn to be sensitive - so he joins the choir. Jim's character represents everyone's awkward and embarrassing relationship with parents who only want to help, and Finch is the eccentric who has never gone to the toilet at school.
American Pie is one of the most cringingly funny films you will see, but it's the underlying heart that makes it a good movie.

Alan Singh

Poster for Siam Sunset

Siam Sunset 

9:35 PM, 4th March, 2000

  • M
  • 92 mins
  • 1999
  • John Polson
  • Max Dann and Andrew Knight
  • Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack, Ian Bliss, Rebecca Hobbs

In the battle between man and the universe...back the universe.
Yup. Wonderful tagline. Linus (Priest, Wings of the Dove) Roache plays Perry, a British design executive whose life is changed when his wife is killed by a refrigerator falling from a passing aircraft. Try calculating those odds. He should have bought some lottery tickets. Trying to get away from it all, he takes a trip to Terra Australis and meets a bunch of eccentrics including Grace [Danielle (Ephiny, from "Xena: Warrior Princess", Topless Women Talk About Their Lives) Cormack], who is on the run with money stolen from her drug-dealing boyfriend. As the movie moves along, we learn that the executive is constantly accident- prone and drawn into unlikely situations. Sounds amusing, yes?
Not, despite the description, just another weird-Australian-customs film, it has some beautiful photography, more-than-competent performances, and an unexpectedly funny and touching script that together make this a most appealing and enjoyable film.
Of course, you may still be asking yourself, what colour is a Siam Sunset?

Matthew Last