Arts/ Reviews _ Maybe too cute, but Glick has warmth, wit THE OUTSIDE CHANCE OF MAXIMI- LIAN GLICK. Starring Saul Rubinek, Noam Zylberman, Fairuza Balk. Directed by Allan Goldstein. Based on the book by - Morley Torgov. At Cineplex-Odeon thea- tres. There are times when, watching The Out- side Chance of Maximilian Glick, one is too aware that this is a movie about growing up Jewish in a small community in Manitoba. Maximilian Glick (Noam Zylberman) is a talented, intelligent 12-year old trapped in the paradoxes of his community within the community of Beausejour, Man. Within the confines. of a predominantly Christian world of francophones and Ukrainian- Canadians, the Jewish minority must be both cloistered and broad-minded. Max, a precocious child with musical tal- ent, is aware of the contradiction from the moment the ceremonial knife removes his foreskin — an event he claims to remember — until the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, when his grandfather presents the boy with a trea- sured prayer shawl. To survive as a people, Jews must preserve the faith and honour its traditions. But in rural Manitoba, invisibility is also a desired trait. The thoroughly modern Jew- ish community — bearing in mind the set- ting is the early Sixties — is aghast when they discover the new rabbi sent to adminis- ter the flock is Orthodox, with a manner and dress that is anything but invisible. This tension sets the scenes for The Out- side Chance of Maximilian Glick, based on the 1985 bestseller by Morley Torgov. The film makers, the National Film Board and the CBC, and screenplay writer Phil Savath, have moved the setting from Ontario to big sky country and the time from the present to 1963. Max is a piano-playing prodigy with par- ents and grandparents who dote on him. But those same individuals hold him a kind of cultural prisoner, by forbidding his con- tinued relationship with Celia (Fairuza Balk), a Polish-Canadian girl. Max and Celia, encouraged by their music teacher Mr. Blackthorn (Nigel Ben- nett), want to enter a national four-hand piano competition. They are also undergo- ing a first-love relationship, but to continue it, Max must visit his friend clandestinely. As if life’s impediments weren’t already overwhelming, into Max’s life comes the new rabbi who is prepare him for his Bar Mitzvah, the rite of manhood for boys turn- ing 13. Rabbi Teitelman (Saul Rubinek) is Hasidic, the most orthodox group within Judaism and a walking symbol to Max of all that will keep him from relations with the wide world. But Teitelman turns out to be something | different than perceived. A would-be stand- up comedian, the rabbi uses wit and warmth to offer a window on both cultural preservation and universality. Max has other role models, including Mr. Blackthorn and his Japanese-Canadian wife, whose very home — with walls fes- tooned with Japanese prints and including a Japanese tea room — is a living demon- stration of how people of different back- grounds can transcend alienation and prejudice and live in harmony. Zylberman as Max narrates the film. Unfortunately, his clever observations sometimes sound recited when they should come from the heart. And they can over- whelm, when the film itself should offer enough explanation. But The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick compensates with a strong support- ing cast and some memorable scenes. One in particular has Max and his non-Jewish friend introduced, through Teitelman, to Klezmer music in an impromptu party at a friend’s house in Winnipeg. The camera work is uneven, sometimes mundane but suddenly surprises us with a Rekindling the TRUE BELIEVER. Directed by Joseph Ruben. Written by Wesley Strick. Starring James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Yuji Okumoto. At Cineplex Odeon Theatres. There are few actors today quite like James Woods, who can sink into the gritti- est depths of dissipation and despair, then rise up in a fierce and fiery rage to denounce the criminal practices of the U.S. govern- ment. The lead character in the anti-imperialist Oliver Stone flick Salvador, Woods returns for a rematch in True Believer. He’s in top fighting form, in both action and activism, against a system riddled with injustice and racism. In True Believer, Woods plays a New York lawyer who once shone as a Sixties Saul Rubinek dances to Klezmer music. sweeping winter prairie vista — a symbol perhaps of both traditional Canadian isola- tion and simultaneously of broad vistas ' beckoning — and several clever sociologi- cal vignettes: children at a Saturday matinee munching popcorn while fixing the screen with a single wide-eyed gaze; a travelling pan of the houses along a street with a 60s spirit for legend defending activists. Imprisoned in the Eighties political time warp, Woods, a lost soul succumbing to bitterness and self- hatred, thumbs his nose at the system self- destructively, defending drug dealers on constitutional grounds while drowning in reefers in his spare time. Robert Downey Jr. comes on the scene as a young, idealistic lawyer who becomes an assistant to Woods, and who looks up to him and his heroic past. Downey urges the reluctant and pessimistic Woods to take the case of Shu Kai Kim (Yuji Okumoto), a young Asian-American convict in Sing Sing prison, charged with killing a neo-Nazi inmate in what was an act of self-defence. Woods, however, becomes more inter- ested in seeking a retrial for Kim on the original eight-year-old charge of killing a It’s been another successful year for Canada’s Tools for Peace campaign. The organizers report that “across Canada, more than 120 Tools for Peace groups collected vital supplies for Nicaragua, including farm tools, safety equipment, notebooks for schoolchildren and rubber boots to protect farmworkers from pesti- To celebrate, Tools for Peace is hosting a “Warehouse Fiesta” replete with enter- tainers, Latin American food and refresh- ments, along with an auction and a brief report on the organization’s goals during its eight-year history. Ald. Libby Davies of Vancouver city council is one of the speakers, along with a national Tools for Peace representative, at the event which runs 2 p.m.-8 p.m., Sun- day, April 2 at the Tools for Peace ware- house in Vancouver. Getting there is basically easy. Follow Main Street to its south foot, two blocks south of S.E. Marine Drive. Cross the railway tracks at the foot and turn right on Tools for Peace hosts major ‘fiesta’ the dirt road just beyond. It’s only a short drive to the city-owned warehouse. Entertainment includes Bob Bossin (host), Aya, Phil Vernon, the Gumboot Dancers (South African miners’ style), Sylvi (singer, guitarist and clown), Chilean group Ay Muray and two dance bands. Participants can sign a giant banner displayed at the event. The banner will be shipped along with the goods to Nicara- gua, eee aS A reminder that the El Salvador Refu- gee Association holds its Going Home Dance on March 31, 7 p.m., at the Mari- time Labour Centre in Vancouver. * * * Fans of the rogue folk scene — that delightful blend of new wave and folk that sends rhythmically inclined politicos into ecstasy — will be happy to know that Bri- tain’s The Oyster Band and the Toronto- based Rare Air appear on a double bill at the Commodore ballroom in Vancouver ledge Network presents War Brides, a April 7, 8 p.m. Tickets are $14 and can be obtained at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival office, 3271 Main St. Mr « Lye KCTS public television in Seattle pres- ents The Making of Mankind, a series beginning April 6, 10 p.m. and running every Thursday thereafter. Hosted by the eminent paleontologist and anthropolo- gist Richard Leakey, the series takes view- ers around the world to examine the bio- logical and sociological evolution «of humankind. A ae Also on the couch potato beat, Know- drama on four women who came to Can- ada with their husbands, returning ser- vicemen from World War II. It’s on April 1, 9 p.m. Also on is the National Film Board’s Daughters of the Country, a four- part series on Canada’s Metis beginning with “Ikwe” on April 3, 8 p.m. and again on April 5, 10 p.m. 10 + Pacific Tribune, March 27, 1989 voice-over of the occupants in animated discussions, in several languages. At times it’s a bit too cute for its own good, but Maximilian Glick has humour and tight socio-cultural close-ups to provide an original perspective of our ethnically diverse, fragmented country. : — Dan Keeton a new decate Chinatown gang leader. Woods is struck not only by the young man’s aura of inno- cence and victimization, but also his stoical submission to his fate, which mirrors Woods’ own decades-old sense of hopeless- ness and resignation. This revelation fans the old flames of idealism and fightback in the jaded lawyer, jolting him back to life, as he pursues with manic intensity what turns out to be a cor- rupt network involving government fra-_ meups and coverups. The film takes the © audience along on this breathless and fren- zied pursuit of truth, intercepted by blind spots and dead ends, but one that finally — exposes the dishonest and blatantly racist — tactics and theatrics of the judicial system. — True Believer is not without some basic — flaws, especially regarding the many spaces: that should have been filled with the events the movie is based on. We could term this “Hole-ywood” omission of history. Though the film is supposedly based 0 the true story of Korean-American Cho Soo Lee — whose racist imprisonment @ San Quentin was reversed after U.S. nation wide protests by Asian-Americans and successful defence by famed lawyer J. Ton Serra — none of this is acknowledged i the credits. Missing as well is the entire political legacy of the Sixties which supposedl shapéd the lawyer. His past is only hinted @ by news clippings hanging on the office w and a few lines from period songs. But what makes True Believer so uniqu' urgent and compelling is its portrait of ideal ism and struggle as traits that can bring personal and social redemption to humat beings, forging a path and giving renew! meaning to life. This thrust of the film, which calls out fot a resurrection of the passionate political res~ istance of the Sixties to meet the challenges — of the next decade, in effect uses the court: — house genre to put the system itself on trial. _ The subject could not be more relevant now, at a time of secret “anything goes ~ government practices and abuses. __ — Prairie Miller — People’s Daily World H