The pragmatist-winners live with this, kidding themselves that the good they'll accomplish with their new power outweighs the bad they've done or tolerated. But when genuine idealists face that contradiction, they can be shaken to the core. Like cloned sheep, the season's major films are almost genetically identical to their predecessors and each other. You have to look hard to find anything fresh.
Sequels have sequels.
It was tuxedoes and gowns and champagne in the lobby of the Showcase Warwick Cinemas last night as more than 600 people turned out to see writer-director Dawn Radican's Code of Ethics which was filmed around Rhode Island last spring. The petite Radican arrived at the benefit for the Rhode Island chapter of the American Lung Association in a floor-length gold lame gown. Physical cruelty to children and the appalling psychological damage it inflicts creates such revulsion in normal adults that directors are understandably wary of the many problems in choosing it as a theme. Give Pope points for courage in addressing the issue head-on, and sit back and admire the depth and compassion with which she considers the repercussions on an already shattered family. Neither is sex, despite the fuss stirred up by its NC-17 rating.