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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
»açitamhar ñ ?M? » 1 R eviews îtERES WflAT WE TWOUCWT OE fl SMATTERinC OE EESTIVflL EILflS. ( weck out P ace 27 eoa previews oe twe pest oe twe schedule . The Trip’s people are pretty; the film isn’t T he T rip 9 :3 0 p.m. Sept. 20 but Swain doesn’t seem to have a clue. It wants to be a vibrant realist epic o f gay life in the late 20th century, hut, as it stands, it’s one o f the least organic films you’ll ever see. — Christopher McQuain he Trip, a film by ex-Portlander Miles Swain and the opening night selection of L a n Y u Sensory Perceptions’ film festival, begins 7 p.m. Sept. 21 in 1973 and ends in the mid- to late 1980s. It recounts the rise and fall o f two young irector Stanley Kwan is a rarity in Hong men— one a conservative named Alan (Larry Kong cinema— a master of the weepy genre Sullivan) who’s writing a book about the evils and queer to hoot. His early successes were of homosexuality, the other an activist named atmospheric women’s pictures like The Actress and Tommy (Steve Braun) who’s involved with the Rouge, hut increasingly he’s been making queer burgeoning, struggling gay rights movement. variants. The exceptional Lan Yu is the latest. T h e two become unlikely lovers and Alan T h e title character (Liu Ye) is an impover renounces the book, hut their idyllic relation ished country hoy who’s come to Beijing to ship is destroyed when his publisher decides study architecture. Forced to prostitute himself, that, in the time o f A nita Bryant, homosexual he hooks up with Handong (Hu Jun), a hunky, ity is a “hot topic” and releases it anyway. slightly older businessman who prefers a fuck A second act buddy: “W e’ll involving a jealous, stay together as sinister, closeted long as it feels older gay man (Ray right.” Baker) feels like all Over a peri of the characters od of eight have stepped into a years, Handong very complicated hut gives Lan Yu a entirely unbelievable villa (and lots soap opera. The of money), film’s final third, cheats on him, wherein Tommy and gets married, Alan take an divorces and is impromptu road trip threatened with through Mexico and jail for corrup are beleaguered hy tion before the Can the young Lan Yu find love with a married, corrupt thieving peasants two of them businessman? Should he want to? and corrupt lawmen, reconnect. is st) unreal, 1 was rubbing my eyes. If this sounds like an old Hollywood melo If The Trip fails artistically it’s because of a drama, it should— at least on paper. But Kwan’s certain ill-conceived, careless overamhition treatment makes it something else entirely. and a manic, distracted tone that leaves the T h e film is beautifully shot as a scries of viewer exhausted and ungratified. Maybe this intensely intimate tableaux that’s both roman hodgepodge could have been pulled off hy film tic and sexually frank. Hu Jun (an eminent makers of a certain com ic, consciously artificial stage actor in C hina who also played the sexy sensibility (the C oen brothers come to mind), cop in East Palace, West Palace) and Liu Ye T Auto, Home, Life & Business "Your Independent Insurance Agency" B B LEÜ lElliott, Powell, Baden & Baker, Inc.l expertly convey the complexities of characters who bring such different agendas to a seeming ly hopeless affair. Based on the 1996 Internet novel Beijing Comrade (slang for “Beijing Gay”), Lan Yu was shot illegally in Beijing, as homosexuality remains a criminal offense in China. — Gary M orris his uneven documentary follows filmmaker and gay seminarian Macky Alston in his search for religious belief after his friend and fellow future preacher A lan Sm ith dies of A IDS-related complications. T his leads him through a number o f encounters o f varying interest, from Sm ith ’s still-grieving m other to A lston’s feisty, atheist grandma to a country preacher who spends equal time making bizarre artwork and studying the Bible. These encounters offer a variety of responses Sweetly comic moments in Daddy & Papa to Alston’s question of how to reconcile belief in D a d d y & P apa God with such traumas as A ID S, but mostly 4 p.m. Sept. 28 they’re not all that enlightening, being too often of the “You can’t question God" variety. Part of Jp * or my gay friends and me, kids were an the problem is Alston’s somewhat grating pres ence throughout the film. Much of the energy alien concept,” says Daddy & Papa director and star Johnny Symons. But here is spent on shots of “Macky” looking wistful that didn’t stop him from adopting a son. ly at a picture of Jesus or hyperdramatizing (“And This one-hour documentary, which deserves yet look, behold! A senseless tragedy!”) or literal the accolades it’s received at other festival ly begging irritated strangers on the street to talk with him about his quest. screenings, explores a pocket of gay life that’s received mostly T h ere’s a very intriguing unwelcome attention via right- story in here, though, that sur wing attacks and, surprisingly, a vives the filmmaker’s ego trip queer community that remains ping, particularly in powerful skeptical of gay parenthood as •sequences devoted to a teen an unappealing mirror image of age girl who turns to Buddhist heterosexuality. rituals to escape unbearable Symons compounds the violence in her life as well as a complexities by being white woman who survives brain with a biracial lover and adopt surgery partly through an ing a black child. T he doc paints Gay seminarian Macky Alston unshakable faith. j n a warm picture of this loving — GM is Questioning Faith T paid sprancs CONDOS 503-224-6611 CRÉG C ray Practical Guide ( q • Schedule a FR EE 30 minute consultation to discuss your personal estate plan. Ilpive with Pride Serving your real estate needs fo r... Call the Law Office of James D. McVittie E state Planning. family along with several others who are not only helping themselves and the kids but also performing a public service in adopting children who might otherwise be lost in the gulag of fos ter homes. These guys’ obvious deep caring wins over doubting grandparents, Christian foster moms and biological parents, one of whom turns over a second child to Symons when she sees the kind of life he and his partner can offer her baby. There are some sweetly comic moments here, as when one dad laments a future of sports events when it becomes clear he’s raising a little jock. And the beginnings of a gay male parent ing community can be seen in events like a sub urban picnic for gay dads and their kids. But Daddy & Papa isn’t unrealistic about the hurdles in these unconventional families. Nine-year-old Fanny suffers visibly when her two dads break up, but, as one o f them points out, “Being divorced is a bigger deal for her than being gay.” — GM Q u e s t io n in g F a it h 3 p.m. Sept. 29 Protect Your Assets Through Estate Planning • To Receive Your FR EE Booklet A James D. McVittie Attorney at Law 2310 N W Everett Suite 200 Portland, Oregon 97210 503.224.6611 — ( 760 ) 833-5434 V a c a t io n H o m e s H o t e l P r o p e r t ie s A p a r tm e n t B l d g s . Visit us online at: www.reyreece.com or schedule your appointment 503 - 256-3700 REY REECE DEALERSHIPS ISUZU-VOLKSWAGEN-USED 211E. Palm Canyon Palm Spring», CA 92264 122nd & East Burnside www.reyreece.com 125
