The Boston Phoenix
Review from issue: September 17 - 24, 1998

[Boston Film Festival]

| reviews & features | by movie | by theater | by time and neighborhood | film specials | hot links |

Bandits

Looking for a German-language film about women in prison who form a rock band? Bandits might just be for you. Director Katja von Garnier's second feature -- about the adventures of four women who escape from prison while en route to a command performance at a policeman's ball, then flee the cops while their single rockets to the top of the charts -- maintains enough energy to let you forgive the many clichés. And cliché'd the film is: Bandits borrows heavily from Thelma & Louise, and it suffers from the confess-and-you'll-be-cured shtick. Even so, the English-language original songs (most were written by Jasmin Tabatabai, who plays Luna, the lead singer/armed robber) are infectious and the musical scenes kinetic and fun. This is the kind of movie in which escaped prisoners flee in spike heels, crowds burst into spontaneously choreographed dance numbers, and Heaven involves sequined red dresses. You'll enjoy the chase, even if the murky ending leaves something to be desired. Screens at the Copley Place Sunday, September 20 at 7:30 and 9:15 p.m.

-- Kiersten Conner


Film Festival Feature Films

| The Witman Boys | The Cruise | Confessions of a Sexist Pig | Melting Pot | Pleasantville | Clay Pigeons | Waking Ned Devine | Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane | My Name is Joe | Six Ways to Sunday | The Theory of Flight | A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries | Down in the Delta | Children of Heaven | I Married a Strange Person | 20 Dates | Bandits |


More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times



[Movies Footer]

| home page | what's new | search | about the phoenix | feedback |
Copyright © 1997 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group. All rights reserved.