Just out., January 19, 2001, Page 31, Image 31

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January 19.2001
431
The good, the bad and
B efo re N
ig h t
F a lls
Three new films for
your consideration
/
t is all too easy in our society to
become political and passionate, and
yet how inured we are to the realities
of true political passion. For some of
us, chaining ourselves to a building or
burning effigies is a strong statement,
risking the wrath of the police and the
legal system.
And yet, for any fear we have that
Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker will
turn his troops into jackbooted Nazis,
most of us never have seen firsthand the
astonishingly brutal realities of the world’s
political dissidence. Before Night Falls
opens that dark and harrowing window,
and the scene outside our comfy homes is
not a pretty one.
The film is adapted from the memoirs of
Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, horn in
squalor during the late 1950s. First shown
to us as a child playing in a mud pit—his
poor family’s version of a playpen—he is
always different from those around him.
Johnny Depp (right) helps Javier Bardem smuggle his writings out of prison
His stepfather beats him when a
teacher says he has the gift of poetry, but he
Another character says, “People who cre­
guage (“doll,” “babe” and, yes, “girl” ).
doesn’t run away to join the Cuban rebels until
ate art are a threat to any dictatorship.” As
Sure, in some contexts it can be appropriate
his teen years. During the mid-1960s he arrives
much as it might disturb your own sense of
and slangy for one woman to say to the other,
in Havana, where he gets a job at the National
self—social, political, sexual— there is no
“You go, girl!” And I can appreciate the ’90s
Library, and his first two lovers enter his life: a
denying that Before Night Falls is art. It is
spin of grrrl power.
man and a typewriter.
also beautifully filmed, splendidly acted and
But this series of four hour-long films made
As Arenas awakens his soul as a lover and a
depressing as hell.
—Andy Mangels
for Showtime doesn’t use it in any positive way.
poet, both elements become dangerous to him.
I don’t think you’ll find a woman younger than
His work is censored by the government, and
A G ir l T h i n g
30 here, although writer/director Lee Rose has
homosexuals are rounded up into concentra­
assembled an A-list cast. Too bad she’s wasted
tion camps and prisons.
first of all, I need to rant about the title. I’m
Allison Janney and Camryn Manheim, to
He eventually is imprisoned, but he devises
one of those old-time feminists who fought
name only a few, in these shallow pieces.
an ingenious way to smuggle out his writings.
hard for many years to educate mostly men
The whole thing feels like a rip-off of
The only way he ever can be released is to
about the correct usage of “girl” (for females
HBO’s successful series If These Walls Could
denounce his books, his friends and himself.
younger than 18).
Talk. The first installment features Kate Cap­
But once free, will Arenas be able to live
It took the better part of a decade, but we
shaw as a “career bisexual,” although she with­
with what’s left of his dignity and his world?
finally succeeded in making it poor form to call
holds that pertinent detail for quite a while as
And how much will he sacrifice to escape to
adult women "girls.”
she courts a first-
the United States?
But in recent years it
timer played by Elle
“I have never met a boy as authentic as you,
has seeped back into
MacPherson.
my son,” one character tells him. Spanish actor
our collective con­
Before they climb
Javier Bardem portrays him so realistically, we
sciousness like a toxic
into bed together
almost feel as if we’re watching a documentary.
spill polluting our
Elle asks her, “Do
Sean Penn and Johnny Depp make cameo
groundwater.
you think that les­
appearances, unrecognizable and all the more
Bill Maher is one
bianism and alco­
powerful for it.
of the worst offend­
holism are directly
Director Julian Schnabel ( Basquiat) deliv­
ers. On his other­
related?” This is said
ers a film full of stunning vistas amid crum­
wise entertaining
after a round of stiff
bling filth, steeped with casual nudity, casual
martinis, as if to ask,
program Politically
smoking and not-so-casual violence. Before
“Do you need to be
Incorrect (yeah, 1 get
Night Falls is raw and harrowing and real and
drunk to have sex
the irony) he greets
will tear at your emotions without once
his female guests
Kate Capshaw (left) and Elle MacPherson start with another
woman ?”
with demeaning lan­ out dating men— can you tell?
stooping to sentimentality.
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Kate responds, “Maybe.” End of scene.
Alcohol does, in fact, figure heavily into
many of the scenes in this series. Perhaps it’s
the upscale Manhattan setting; I certainly
drank more when I lived there.
Worst of all, it feels like the kind of les­
bian sex filmed for het men to drool over; I
never felt much authenticity shining
through. For a better film featuring M ac­
Pherson in a truly erotic role, find Sirens at
your video store.
Stockard Channing plays a therapist who
connects these storylines as she counsels vari­
ous women in each segment. But even she
can’t save the often turgid script.
Overall, this suffers from the format; an
hour just isn’t enough time to develop charac­
ters and a complete story. It forces the film­
maker to resort to quick fixes and pat endings.
—Oricma Green
C
h o co lat
lthough not a queer movie, Chocolat
does focus on two themes near and dear
to our hearts: a close friendship between
adult women and the consequences of being
outsiders among the dominant group. Set in
a small French village during the 1950s, this
is the latest from director Lasse Hallstrom,
an Oscar nominee for 1999’s The Cider
House Rules.
Juliette Binoche has never been more
appealing as the temptress with a spoon drip­
ping chocolate. Her heathen ways and kind­
ness to other outcasts— including Johnny Depp
as a wandering river rat— brand her as an
untouchable.
Then along comes Dame Judi Dench in a
most unladylike role as her unlikely ally. A
beautiful film to while away a rainy day with a
pocketful of truffles.
— OG j n
B efore N ight F alls plays Jan. 26 through
Feh. I at Cinema 21, 616 N.W. 21st Ave. in
Portland. Call 503-223-4515 for showtimes.
A GlRL T hing airs 8 p.m. Jan. 20 and 21 on
Showtime.
C hocolat is in wide release.
ANDY M angels , like any writer, has often
faced rejection from editors. He is thankful, how­
ever, that he has never been imprisoned for his
writings. You can write him at
AMangelsSW@aol.com.
O riana G reen would not choose to live in a
world without chocolate. She’s also the Entertain­
ment Editor of Just Out and can be reached at
oriana@justout. com.
www.inotherwords.orii
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