aprii 18.2003 • j M t a a t j 47
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ike her first feature, 1998’s High Art (for
which Ally Sheedy received raves for her
starring role as a drug-addicted lesbian
! photographer), Lisa Cholodenko’s Laurel
Canyon, which opens April 18 at Fox Tower
Cinemas, is painstakingly true to its themes of
sexuality, boundaries, creativity and responsibility.
The writer/director makes every
effort to avoid using her characters as
easy-to-pinpoint examples or as role
models. This must be why they seem so
real, so vulnerable— why we, like their
creator, come to feel protective of
every last one of them.
Laurel Canyon is an area of Lis
Angeles that, from what Cholodenkos
camera shows, is the domain of rich
bohemians: big (yet strangely ram
shackle) houses with swimming pxxils
and sun-dappled views, set hack from
dusty roads, with an air more demure
than regal. It’s in one of these that East
Coast psychiatric med student Sam
§
(Christian Bale) plans to stay with Alex |
(Kate Beckinsale), his aspiring geneticist ^
fiancée, on a working vacation of sorts, z
T he house belongs to his mother, £
Jane (Frances M cDormand, shining as |
Resting on her laurel
album in the pantheon of bemused, quasi
objective Californian myth exploration.)
She isn’t afraid to find the humor when it’s
there, and for a movie that engages on the
cerebral level, it’s remarkably sexy. W hen Alex
by C hristopher M c Q uain
joins Jane and the rock ’n ’ roller in the pool
and passionately kisses them both, you can feel
the lightness and freedom of
the moment— you can under
stand how negative repercus
sions would seem impossible,
and why Jane clings to the
illusory belief that everyone
can get what they want with
out anyone getting hurt.
Cholodenko realizes that
the erotic conversation a
character engages in can quite
effectively reveal something
essential about them, and
McDormand proves beautiful
ly that the lack of self-con
sciousness— ease in one’s own
skin— is powerfully sexual
regardless of age.
The question Laurel
Canyon asks is, “How can we
acknowledge the stickiness—
the complexity and frustra
usual), a legendary record pr°ducer of Left: D yke director Lisa C holodenko on the set w ith Kate Beckinsale and C hristian Bale. R ight: Frances “ too h o t”
fluid and irrepressible sexuality (she s
w r\
j i * i
.
b
tions— of these things every
,
i l
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r
i
j
M cD orm and likes young boys and girls in Laurel Canyon.
been through a number of male and
human being deals with
female lovers) with whom he, a buttoned-
ered by her being with women, but it’s hard to
endemically relaxed and pastoral in the geo
(desire, sex, emotion) while celebrating their
down type if ever there was one, hardly sees
imagine something more hurtful or unhealthy
graphic setting, lets things unfold in a way that,
innate value, their necessity and goodness?”
eye to eye. M other and son comprise a mutual
than a parent who seduces your betrothed.
soaked in so much natural light, is less momen
Her answer: with as much respect and empa
toleration society at best.
It’s a tinderbox of battling emotions and
tous than organic. (This movie belongs with
thy as we can muster, coupled with a staunch
Mom isn’t supposed to be there when they
values, but Cholodenko, capturing something
Joan Didion’s essays and Hole’s Celebrity Skin
refusal to judge, diminish or simplify. J H
arrive, but due to a delay on the album she’s
producing with an up-and-coming English
band in her home studio, the self-serious prep-
pie duo are exposed upon arrival to a group of
shaggy nx:k ’n ’ rollers pouring liberal amounts
T r e a d in g W a t e r
Himmel’s story, co-written with
Alex’s role is further complicated by her pro
of wine, wearing what look to he yesterday’s
Wolfe Video
Julia Hollinger, is a stoic look at the
fessional relationship with Casey’s younger broth
clothes and getting high.
push and pull of everyday life, rela
er, who has been caught dealing drugs at his pri
While Sam is tortured by his attraction to a
ike so many low-budget indies
tionships and familial conflict cen
vate boarding school. The brother doesn’t know
fellow resident (Natascha McElhone), Alex tries
that come from and are mar-
tered on a young New England lesbian about Casey and Alex, nor does Casey know
to concentrate on her thesis. But something
iketed to the queer communi
couple, Casey (Angie Redman) and
about his criminal activities.
from outside the makeshift study r<xim beckons
ty, Lauren Himmel’s Treading
Alex (Nina Landey of Guiding Light),
Interjecting some much-needed levity is
her. Maybe it’s the steam coming off the swim
Water, which played at last year’s
who reside on a modest but cozy boat
Alex’s friend Carm en (Lysa Apostle), visiting
ming pcxil, where Jane and the hand’s lead
Portland LGBT Film Festival,
docked not far from the palatial shore-
from the city. Carm en, bless her, is all leopard
singer (Alessandro Nivola) frolic in the nude—
existed almost solely on the festi
side house of Casey’s family.
prints and lustiness; she’s bemused and exasper
or just the casual insouciance, disregard for rules
val circuit before recently going
Alex, a social worker, wonders
ated by these strange, tense, fraught people she
and perpetually fulfilled appetite they represent.
to video and DVD without an
why Casey won’t bring her home to
finds herself among.
“ofFicial” theatrical release.
In the canyon the always-shining sun can fcx>l
her staunchly Irish Catholic family’s
Fully a third o f Treading Water reveals Him-
you into thinking all rules are petty and anything
Unlike many of those movies, this
Christmas gathering. Casey, who defies her fami
m el’s reach exceeding h er grasp, relying too
is possible. The young couple find themselves
writer/director's effort deserved a better fate. To
ly’s bourgeois parameters by living out her dream
heavily on contrivance and cliché. T he rest is
tempted in ways they assumed they couldn’t he.
put it in terms of recent cinematic movements
to be a longshorewoman, can’t convince Alex of
a dignified post-closet acknowledgment of the
In turn, the presence of Sam and Alex—
of interest, Trending Water is akin less to works
the complicated hostility of her mother (Annette
pain and disruption being honest about your
with whom Jane and the singer begin a lusty
of far-reaching, sometimes-skewed imagination
Miller, oddly sympathetic despite her character’s
self can trigger, and a celebration of the
(Far from Heaven, Adaptation) than to solid,
flirtation— forces Jane to ponder the viability
grim, destructive stubbornness), which extends to
chances for true contentm ent that come from
of living her life as if no limits exist to her
low-key, realist achievements of clarity (The
both Casey and Alex but also to her husband and
a life lived openly.
Son’s Room, You Can Count on Me).
desires. Her son has clearly never been both
other children.
—CM jn
High A rt director’s second film is as good as the first
OUT ON VIDEO/DlfD
Li
A C la s s A c t 2 0 0 3
Friday, April 25th
8:00 p.m.
The Old Church
The 9th annual classical music and decadent
dessert revue benefitting the Bill and Ann
Shepherd Legal Scholarship Fund of Equity
Foundation. Helping 3rd & 4th-year law
students dedicated to fighting bigotry and
discrimination.
Tickets
BACK B Y POPULAR D EM A N D !
$25.00 In advance
$30.00 At the door
SKIP ELLIOTT BOWMAN & FRIENDS
CLASSIC JAZZ
Ticket Locations
Proudly sponsored by:
1422 SW 11th
Portland, Oregon
In f o r m a t io n
( 503 ) 286-1752
Balloons on Broadway, 617 SW Washington
Gai-Pied, 2544 NE Broadway
Christopher D. Wright, PC.
Attorney at Law and C.PA
I