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curthicks
Reviews
Ixe (1980)
To Live!
Ixe is an immersion into visual and auditory experience without plot or dialog, expressionistically conveying how it feels to be young, French and alive. The viewer cascades through 48 minutes of rapidly cut shots of handsome young men and adorable women, , urbanscapes, religious, commercial and Hollywood icons, sex, dancing, television programs, farming, exercising, boxing, rioting, swimming, religion, politics, war, playing, drugging, the galaxy, crime and punishment, and recurring pans across the word, "Vivre," to live. This visual barrage is scored with rock 'n roll, musical theater numbers, maniacal laughter, electronica, disco, the Singing Nun, and symphonic clips.
While the juxtapositions sometimes seem random, often the interlaced scenes suggest a wry commentary by the filmmaker, such as images of two men boxing interlaced with two men screwing or the pope's face inter-cut with close ups of individual penises. Playful, provocative, ribald, experimental film buffs prepared for a bizarre, experiential roller-coaster ride may find the trip stimulating. Plot-dependent viewers beware!
Silom Soi 2 (2006)
Thai Love in the Age of AIDS
Silom Soi 2, named after Bangkok's gay club district, is a sweet, if formulaic, cautionary tale about Thai love in the age of AIDS. Boy meets boy. Boy gets boy, i.e., gets him away from getting a lot of other boys. Boy settles down with boy. And then wild seeds, sewn and long forgotten, germinate into cruel thorns.
The story unfolds through a series of brief scenes, each introduced with a single English word title, presented in alphabetic order (A-Art, B-Background, C-Click...). Why English chapter titles sequenced in Roman alphabetic order were used to organize a Thai language film is unclear! Perhaps the film was written with a foreign market in mind. Or these vignette titles may have been retrofitted for the English subtitled version.
The leads are beautiful young men. Their pas de deux of attraction, flirtation, passion, hurt, distancing, re-engagement is endearing and believable. Direction occasionally errs in its use of over-lingering facial reaction shots that skew momentarily melodramatic. The original musical score is lovely and initially quite effective, though extensive repetition of key themes taxes them past their initial effectiveness. Possibly the greatest strength of the film is the melding of its cinematography and art direction, creating vivid images throughout the film, striking in their use of color, line and human form. Visual artfulness elevates this simple, sincerely conveyed story,
Green Plaid Shirt (1996)
Beauty and Meaning visit Stupidland
Rather than move linearly from beginning to end, this story line of a gay couple impacted by AIDS "orbits" in time around their "perfect day." The film is organized as a life remembered in asynchronous fragments rather than in a sequential flow as one directly experienced.
The narration has its lyrical moments, particularly in describing the impact of loss anticipated or experienced. The dialog unfortunately lacks such grace. The script frequently compels the actors to say startlingly stupid or insensitive things that seem utterly out of character at the moment. On their second accidental encounter, clearly smitten with each other, sensitive Phillip encourages a reluctant Guy to tell him about his difficult week. But the moment Guy begins to open up, Phillip, an English Major, blurts out "You're not a Crisis Fairy, are you?" Later, watching his lover's naked, chiseled body stride across the bedroom toward him, our young Shakespeare in love begins to render the beauty of the moment in words, "The way you cut through space....I can't even describe it"--but lacks the verbal skills to complete his thought. This kind of drivel continues through the AIDS Hospice scenes, bejeweled with lines like, "What made me think death would be all neat and tied up with ribbons?" and "You make Florence Nightingale look like Nurse Ratchet."
The film often suffers from a bruising lack of subtlety. Unlikable characters are far more jarring and steamroller-flattened than they need to be. Phillip's thoroughly annoying friends--an arrogant trust fund brat and a whining, needy dweeb--maintain a running caustic diatribe about every one crossing their path. Such patter could offer a writer a wealth of opportunities for clever social commentary, but sadly, their remarks are merely unpleasant, ungraced by wit or insight. It's hard to know if our scriptwriter intentionally crafted intellectually limited characters or if he was simply running his tether's perimeter.
The plot may be what most appeals to and resonates with those who praise this film. It does seriously explore 1980's US middle class gay life: first encounters, courting, coupling, nesting, the complexity of open relationships, friction and fracturing, dissolution, physical abuse, rapprochement, forgiveness, terminal illness, death and survival. Leads Phelan and Spirtas give fair to good performances rendering complex characters over time. Their fetching good looks help explain both the chemistry that held these two together through insensitivity and selfishness as well as the chemistry that helped some some viewers overlook this film's painful weaknesses. The decision to chop the plot arc into tidbits and present them in out-of-sequence flashbacks added complexity without any evident dramatic utility, and in several cases left the sequence and thus the implications of a given event unclear.
Could I recommend the film? To sticklers for literary and technical quality, absolutely not! For easy going viewers in serious need of an AIDS survivor catharsis or in the mood for a guilty-pleasure tearjerker with a little eye candy thrown in, maybe. But better written alternatives exploring the impact of AIDS on relationships of that era include: Philadelphia, And the band played on, Longtime companion, Angels in America, An early frost, Parting glances, Love! Valour! Compassion! and even Jeffrey.
Between the Boys (2004)
A charged relationship deftly rendered
This little jewel of a short film demonstrates that Director Jake Yuzna is capable of a project of much greater scope. He works masterfully within the limits of this genre, instantly setting a tone with images of a stark Midwestern winter day, visually echoed with clean interior shots, all beautifully filmed with a fine still photographer's sensibilities. A charged and complex relationship between two young men is unveiled quickly, almost wordlessly, in glimpses, their energy accentuated in contrast to the cool settings which frame them. The film does not so much tell a story as paint in a few deft strokes a picture of a relationship potent with possibilities. My harshest criticism is also my highest compliment: I wanted more.