may 21.1999 » J u s t
Mat, 33
T
Pretty in pinq
In the new film Get Real, a gay adolescent wonders:
Why must he he a teenager in love?
by C hristopher M c Q u a in
Blood, sweat
and queers
by
C hristopher M c Q uain
H
allelujah! Ron A they. A Story o f Deliver-
once, a documentary from director
Catherine Gund Saalfield, is not a
film for everyone. Her subject is Los
Angeles-based performance artist Ron
Athey, who achieved infamy in 1990 when,
as part of his performance art piece Four
Scenes in a Harsh L ife, cuts were made in the
back of an HIV-positive performer. Subse
quently, “prints” were taken on paper towels
from the flow of blood and strung out on
clotheslines above the audience.
The film contains footage of Athey— a
gay, HIV-positive former heroin addict from
Pentecostal roots— and his troupe perform
ing various pieces in different cities around
the globe. Excerpts from Harsh Life and two
other Athey shows are interspersed with
interview footage of Athey and his perform
ers. There are many graphic, disturbing
images, including very extreme scenes of
scatology, bloodletting, genital mutilation
and torture.
Two things become quite clear in Hal-
lelujah!: Saalfield is a competent filmmaker,
and Athey is not a very good artist. It’s irri
tating to see Athey and company yammer
ing about how they want to be immortal
ized by their art, and then perform a piece
that strongly resembles the shows Goth kids
put on at the old City Nightclub. W hich is
to say, the pieces are blatantly pretentious,
amateurish, reactionary and full of anachro
nistic, clumsy ideas of religion and darkness
that could’ve come from the simplistic brain
of Marilyn Manson. Absolutely accept
able— and much more compelling— coming
from adolescents, but not from an adult
artist.
Nevertheless, the poorness of Athey’s art
doesn’t make Saalfield’s film any less fasci
nating, as she’s neither groupie nor syco
phant. She is to be commended for her
unflinching eye, and for having the courage
to use failed art to show us that art, good or
bad, and the people who make it are sub
jects worth exploring.
■ The Northwest Film C enter presents HAL
LELUJAH! R on A they : A S tory of D eliver
ance at 9:30 p.m. May 21 through 24 at the
Guild Theater, 829 S.W . Ninth A ve. in Port
land. Mature audiences only. For more m/or-
marion, call the N W FC at (503) 2 2 HI ¡56,
or visit its Internet site at www.nwfihn.org.
emember Pretty in Pink, the most perfect
teen film of all time? Molly Ringwald’s
brave lips never trembled so sadly before
or since, and I lay all the blame for my
never-ending infatuation with shy geeks at the
feet of Jon Cryer’s adorable, lovelorn Duckie.
Well, there may not be any prom anxiety or
exploration of class issues in the new British
film G et Reed, but in spirit it’s the (sorely need
ed) Pretty in Pink for gay kids. G et Real is set in
a comfortable middle-class suburb, where
Steven (Ben Silverstone) and John (Brad Gor
ton), two 16-year-old students, go to the same
high school.
Steven knows he’s gay and has been doing
some rather reckless sexual exploration in pub
lic restrooms and parks. On one of these
restroom excursions, by perfect coincidence,
the unseen boy with whom he’s flirting by pass
ing notes through a hole between two stalls
turns out to b e .. .John! ?
acceptance for his relationship with Steven,
and attempts to hang on to both by asking
Steven to keep their love hidden. Steven
acquiesces, but begins to feel lonely and reject
ed, feelings he’d hoped his relationship with
John would alleviate. This adversity brings
with it the realization that he has no choice
but to justify the unnaturally cheerful title of
the film and Get Real— that is, start living his
life openly despite the fact that his parents and
friends are hardly queer-positive, or that it may
cost him John.
In the climactic scene, Steven, accepting an
award for academic excellence at a school
assembly that conveniently includes everybody
who’s been in the film up to this point, makes
an impromptu speech announcing his homo
sexuality and rallying for acknowledgment and
understanding of gay teens. The speech, as per
the Pretty in Pink protocol, gets rather more
instantaneous, positive results than seem realis
wb en
mends tall b
ibout
real 1 estate,
friends tell
friends about
Donald.
Donald Falk, g «
A s s o c ia t e B r o k e r
Office (503) 335-9898 e x t 107
falkd@hasson.com
Working with you and making it happen!
2173 NE Broadway
Portland, Oregon 97232
♦
♦----------- ♦
John’s a jock, a dreamboat, and also the Big
Man on Campus. Steven, of course, never even
considered that John might be anything more
than a fantasy object. Steven is so shocked—
and mildly gratified— at meeting John in such
a compromising situation that he barely has
time to get a word in before John has made a
hasty, awkward retreat. Steven begins to seek
out John’s company both in and out of school,
and John soon reveals that he has also sort of
experimented, but isn’t entirely certain that he
likes boys. After much earnest discussion and
soul searching— earnest emotion being the
endearing native tongue of the teen-ager—
John decides he’s gay enough to fall madly in
love with Steven.
Their affair is, of course, dizzying in its
romantic perfection. Thankfully, director
Simon Jones isn’t afraid to expose us to the
undiluted sugar rush of teen-age love. They run
exuberantly through the trees with each other,
like you know you dreamed of doing with all
your teen-age crushes. I’m just surprised and a
little disappointed they didn’t have these guile
less youngsters make eyes at each other over a
one-glass, two-straw soda or share a plate of
spaghetti £ la Lady and the Tramp.
But then things go awry. In the films testa
ment to the hellish indignity that is high
school, John can’t sacrifice his popularity and
tic. Any classmates who’ve been depicted as
mean, petty or quasi-homophobic, as well as
the ignorant school administration, look
uncomfortable and ashamed of themselves.
The rest of the kids give Steven’s speech a
hearty round of applause; his mother is just
ecstatic that her son has decided to stop living
a lie; and even his manly-man father is at worst
mildly disgruntled.
It’s so very unlikely that any of this would
ever happen outside of this film, but the lost
cinematic art of effectively presenting life as it
should be is the joyful accomplishment of G et
Real. Idealism vs. real life is the paradox behind
any gcxxl teen film. Harsh reality starts seeping
in fast enough once you hit adolescence, and
queer youth are hardly excluded from that; this
is why Get Real can be excused— and lauded—
without reservation for its total lack of sophisti
cation, its insulin-shock sweetness, and its faith
that, if you believe in and stand up for yourself,
things will go magically right. It’s the film
equivalent of cotton candy: light and airy, bad
for you, and sure to please the kids and any
body who still dreams like one.
■ G et R eal opens May 21 at KO IN Cinem as,
Southwest Third Avenue and Clay Street in Port
land. C all (503) 225-5555, ext. 4608, for show
times.
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