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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2002)
may 17.2002 » ju st out 39 FILM T B o rsta l B Compromised oy Hollywood Theatre, May 17 to 23 Filmmakers stumble on new adaptations ased (rather loosely, apparently) on the teen-age journal o f Brendan Behan (Shawn Hatosy), an Irish writer who joined the Irish Republican Army before the age o f 10, Borstal Boy begins with Behan’s apprehension in 1940 by English authorities as he enters the country strapped with explosives. After a brutal beating, he’s sent to a rural “borstal” for underage offenders. He initially resists the kind, helpful overtures o f the head master (M ichael York o f C abaret fame) and of Charlie (Danny Dyer), a fellow inmate who is unabashedly gay. But Behan’s m ilitant nation alism undergoes complex shifts as he plots a jailbreak and finds him self developing roman- tic/sexual feelings toward two of the English B as they fix up a studio for her painting; Behan tactfully encourages a quasi-illiterate mate in a halting attempt to read; the soft-spoken prison librarian suggests Behan read the work of his fellow Irishman Oscar Wilde, and later, when pressed to fill one of the female roles in the borstal production o f The Importance o f Being Earnest (an improvement over Oliver Parker’s new film version), he confesses, “I always felt I was bom to play a great lady.” However, if the casual interactions between characters seem loose and natural thanks to the ease o f the performers, it also points out the general badness o f the big moments. W ith the exception of a violent con frontation toward the end, they seem nothing more than empty, bombastic distractions from the movie we really want to be watching. Obviously, most of the events depict ed actually occurred in some way, but it’s doubtful they happened with composer Stephen O ’C onnell’s loud, high-strung score constantly undermining them. On-screen emotion is often more effec tive without music— certainly without this sort of meretricious, manipulative A home for underage juvenile delinquents is ju st what drivel— instructing us how to respond. cute, bi Shawn H atosy (right) needs in B orstal Boy Borstal Boy is laudable for its assort ment of good performances and realistic, open- “enemy”: the headmaster’s daughter, Liz, sent ended blurring of sexual orientation. Like Y Tu home from Paris because o f the Germans, and, Mamá También, it boasts a remarkable (bi)sexual to his own surprise, Charlie. sophistication. If only it also had the unflagging T he film is engaging in its unobtrusive smarts, humor and integrity. As it stands, the sequences: T h e boys joke irreverently with Liz HIDED REVIEWS T he W eekend Strand Releasing ew Queer Cinem a was bom in the early 1990s and, according to some observers, died at the end of that decade— buried under an avalanche o f mediocre cofning-out stories, sitcomish gender-bender comedies and sappy A ID S dramas. Into the final category falls Brian Skeet’s The W eekend, a m ock-Chekhovian drama adapted from the novel by Peter Cameron. This maudlin mess o f a film is a close-up look at a group o f friends and relatives o f hunky Tony (D .B. Sweeney) “relating” to each other N for two excruciating days on the one-year anniversary of his death from A ID S. T h e characters are all “types” with a nobili ty that verges on the nauseating. They’re rich and bored and hurting', their lives just aren’t the same without Tony. (It doesn’t help that in flashbacks, seen through a precious blue filter, show he wasn’t even interesting, much less charismatic.) Everybody speaks in homilies and clichés that might have worked on the printed page but sound silly on-screen. It’s hard to take seri ously lines like “T here are things you lose you don’t ever get back. You can never have them again except in the smudgy, carbon copies o f memory.” And you know how smudgy carbon copies o f memory can get. T h e film is awash in this kind of fake insight, which, combined with self-consciously autumnal movie is intermittently enjoyable, but, as a whole, it feels like a thor oughly compromised piece of work. — Christopher McQuain T he B u s in e s s o f F a n c y d a n c in g Northwest Film Center, May 31 to June 6 (filmmaker in attendance May 31) et it hereby be known: Just because Evan Adams’ fine acting cannot save T h e B u sin ess o f you are a brilliant writer does not F an cydancin g mean you are a brilliant director. screaming, “Move around or something!” The Business o f Fancydancing is rich with Adams does his absolute best to add some promise. Loosely based on Sherman A lexie’s heart to Polatkin, but, in the end, h e’s as mys acclaimed book of poems and short stories, it terious and irksome as he is in the beginning. follows one Seymour Polatkin (Evan Adams), Fortunately, Adams can at least act, which is a young, gay, Indian poet who left the Spokane more than can be said o f the rest of the cast. reservation for college and never looked back. Making the experience less excruciating is T hat is, he never went back; nearly every the sound quality, editing and soundtrack. A lex word he pens is about the “rez,” which rather ie wrote some of the tracks, which is not surpris irks his old chums: “a little public relations war ing. T h e beautiful and completely appropriate rior,” his former best friend spouts bitterly. musical forms— chants, songs and poetry— fall W hen Polatkin must return to the rez upon over the scenery like a comfortable blanket. It hearing of a friend’s death, all his worlds collide. makes you wish whoever was in charge of the W ith this kind of identity crisis and cross- sound had control over the entire production. cultural issues at the heart of your story, the pos The nicest bits of the movie come when sibilities for fascinating and provoking film are Polatkin reads his (Alexie’s) poetry for bookstore endless. Alexie, however, wastes the opportunity. crowds. The work is so riveting, it makes you gasp. Somehow the writer’s beautiful prose got Do yourself a favor: Skip the film and buy dazed and confused when he adapted it to script the book— or any A lexie book. He’s a magnifi and screen. T he dialogue is short and choppy cent writer, and, really, that’s enough. and laughable, and characters stand in one — Lisa Bradshaw j n place delivering it to the point where you’re L cinematography and lifeless performances, make for two hours o f cinema that seem like, well, a weekend. Recommended only for fans o f quiet suffering and Queer Cinem a completists. — Gary Morris S peedway J unky Wolfe Video his predictable, low- rent-boy flick likely would attract a larger audience with a more accu rate title— say, My Own Private N evada or M idlite Cow boy. It’s hard to fathom why executive pro ducer Gus Van Sant backed this project. Jesse Bradford— so adorable and likable since his breakthrough performance in 1993’s Kmg o f T the Hill — here is reduced to nothing more than a small-town buffoon. Johnny thinks he can make it big as a race-car driver because— get this!— he’s really good at playing Pole Position. So off he goes to Las Vegas, where he co n nects with Eric, a gay hustler who falls for the ' unbelievably naive straight hick. Newcomer Jordan Brower shows promise in the film’s only ! dynamic role. But what little heat his character generates is doused by cliché: Jonathan Taylor Thom as (Home Improvement) chewing the scenery as •Steven, a streetwise kingpin who shows Johnny the ropes; Daryl H annah ( Splash ) slumming it as Eric’s mother figure; and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen (Savèd by the Bell ) living up to my low expectations as a hom y newlywed. A ll that’s missing is the narcolepsy. — Jim Radosta JT1 Su n days Sw in y ABOARD P ORTLAND S P I R I T America's most treasured art form returns to the city's only floatin g venue. Portland Spirit launches its 2 * annual Jazz Brunch senes. Beginning June 2 nd. the area s fin est musicians send notes sailing exery Sunday. D ifferent artists an d sounds will be explored weekly. Join us fo r one, multiple, or all eighteen performances. Portland Upcoming Cruise Events: C all (503) 224-3900 or (800) 224-3901 • Live Jazz Brunch Series - Every Sunday, June 2n d ~ September 29th book online now at www . portlandspirit . com
