4
* ’
FILM
Haiku
Tunnel
ig Eden relates the case of one Henry Hart
(Arye Gross of the original Ellen cast), an
up-and-coming painter who, after receiv
ing an urgent call back to his idyllic
hometown to care for his ailing grandfather,
frets about the problems he left behind when
he moved to the big city.
Will he finally he able to tell his grandfa
ther he’s gay? Will the torch he’s been carrying
for star football player Dean Stewart (Tim
DeKay), with whom he had a discreet fling in
high school, finally blaze forth from the closet?
Further complicating matters is the presence of
Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a quiet but solicitous
Native American who runs the local convenience
store. Pike’s crush on Henry is apparent to every
one hut Henry, who’s too busy attempting to re
kindle things with Dean—now the divorced father
of two and still merely flirting with homosexuali
ty—to notice all the random acts of kindness and
senseless beauty Pike subtly is directing his way.
Before this foray into filmmaking, writer/direc-
tor Thomas Bezucha was, according to the pro
duction notes, a corporate image consultant and
“visual director” for Ralph Lauren boutiques. This
is telling. His vision of small-town life and inter
personal relationships unmistakably reflects the
best-case-scenario reasoning one would expect to
find in a Polo print ad campaign set in someone’s
elaborately idealized, freshly-ironed-flannel fanta
sy of “small-town America.”
Despite several technically present conflicts
(Henry’s painting career vs. his commitment to
his family and hometown, his delusional near
obsession with Dean vs. Pike’s genuine, undilut
ed feeling toward him), the almost relentlessly
serene (read complacent), well-intentioned
tone of the film never allows us to feel like any
thing is on the line, like anything ever really
B
Where the boys are
of whom are given enough shading to push
them beyond mere “types.”
Haiku Tunnel fails to be as incisive as the
Kombluths obviously pictured it; more funny
and perceptive cubicle-bound comedies, like
1996’s Clockwatchers and 1998’s Office Space,
come to mind. The brothers do, however,
have a smart ear for comically banal work
place dialogue, providing enough sufficiently
amusing moments to make the film a modest
pleasure.
Gay men pop up In three new films
by
C
h r is t o p h e r
M
c
Q
u a in
could go wrong for these people.
Although Big Eden has a few very nicely
acted and well-written scenes—particularly
the ones with the grandfather and an emo
tionally charged confrontation between
Henry and Dean— it has a palpable lack of
tension or anticipation throughout. N oth
i
ing lends the obligatory happy ending a
sense of genuine relief or satisfaction.
It would he unfair to insist Bezucha
if*
include, for verisimilitude, the fundamen
IF
talism, racism, homophobia or simply iso
* JSSb
lation faced by many gay citizens of small
towns. This is fiction. (Escapist fiction,
given every resident of Big Eden, Mont.,
seems to consider gay romance beyond
reproach and exactly comparable to the
Big Eden
straight variety.) But in creating an unrec
at once oh-so-knowing about corporate hierar
ognizably just, imperturbable world, Bezucha
chy and neutralized by its overly insular, benign
sacrificed too much momentum and interest to
take on it. A trace of undeserved smugness
let the film develop into anything more than a
cheerful, perfunctory greeting card.
manifests in Kombluth s occasional descent
into pedantic, self-impressed mugging.
He and his brother Jacob (the other half of
he indie comedy Haiku Tunnel makes much
the writing/directing team) more adeptly strike
self-referential ado of the fact that
writer/director Josh Kombluth is playing a
the funny hone when they’re exploring the exag
gerated peculiarities of the characters who popu
professional temp named Josh Kombluth.
Tongue-in-cheek autobiographical overtones
late their movie: the clueless attorney boss; the
middle-aged, icily pleasant office manager with a
aside, the film’s overconfident conceit that it’s
robotic personality; and Josh’s fellow secretaries (a
astutely satirizing the typical temping experience
ditz, a curmudgeonly realist and a chatty, helpful
and the world of office anxiety is a major flaw.
gay man who’s attracted to security guards), most
Like the Dilbert comic strip, Haiku Tunnel is
T
s some friends and 1 left a suburban
showing of Zoolander recently, where
we had laughed considerably louder
and longer than most of our fellow movie
goers, we idly speculated the film might get
more mileage from a gay male audience
than the (presumably) mostly straight audi
ence present that night. Is it overgeneraliz
ing to postulate that a gay viewer would
find Zoolander's fashion world and Frankie
Goes to Hollyu'ood references more amus
ing than a straight one? N o matter.
Although trailers make the film seem dull-
witted at best, writer/director/star Ben Stiller
brings an entertainingly manic absurdity to the
story of Derek Zoolander, a vapid male model *
saddled with saving Malaysia’s underage sweat
shop employees from an evil fashion industry
plot to forestall international child labor laws
forever. Some wearisome bits are broad and over-
long, but zesty, inspired direction and skewed
parody, not just of the fashion biz but of our
entire celebrity and consumer culture, make
Zoolander more worthwhile than it looks. j n
A
C h r is t o p h e r M c Q u a in
is a Portland writer and
filmmaker.
J
(J o Ù
/k
H “ V S a e t m
u r d M a y W
V“ - « 4
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i m
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