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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2003)
don’t see them in any of the shots. Either way, it’s a royal pain in the ass. As for plot: Intelligent gay teen-ager Dean Page (Matthew Leitch) wants to go to college, hut his severely abusive, working-class father won’t have any son of his becoming a learned snob. Dean’s mother, who is portrayed with great affection by British TV actress Lindsey Coulson, finds it better to lock Dean out of the house than be at the mercy of her rat-bastard husband. Dean manages to eke a job exit of local society dame Lady Franc ine Gryffoyn. He integrates him self into the Gryffoyn home, althexigh there are complications—particularly in her nasty son Alexander. Dean eventually flees to Paris, posing as Alexander—a la Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley (albeit with far less psychosis)—and holding a minor up to the cruelty of class distinctions. It’s the experiment in filmmaking, really, that makes A .K .A . worth recommending. Because, althcxigh the story ckxis take on an added passion knowing it’s reflecting the director’s truth, most of its full two hours are passionless for viewers. Notably, portions of the film before Dean leaves home and after his climactic return are dramatic and intense; it’s all that hour and a half in the middle that will leave viewers bored and restless. Although Dean’s hapless bumping around from place to place at the whim of his privileged acquaintances seems normal considering his age and situation, it also does nothing to elicit a feeling of sympathy. And all the quirky charac ters he meets, frankly, seem a bit too quirky. Still, A .K .A . is visually beautiful, ultimately powerful and adept at skewering the rich. If this is the first attempt at feature filmmaking, we should hxik with great anticipation for more from Duncan Roy. — LB Mere! Docteur Rey O r, rather, merci Andrew Litvack for making this amusing vehicle for the limitless talents of Dianne Wiest and French singer/actress Jane Birkin. Litvack was bom and raised in New York but has lived in Paris for the past 16 years, working as a subtitler and on Merchant-Ivory sets before directing this first feature. His cross- cultural consckxisness is in full play in this black comedy in which achingly cute expat Thomas (French actor Stanislas Merhar) must endure an extended visit from his American opera singer mother (Wiest), to whom he has never come out. Wiest and her lesbian comrade are too hilar ious to hate as the Big D vas on Campus, but Thomas does his best. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to murder after answering a kinky personal ad, he finds it harder to keep secrets from Mom— and she has a few skeletons in the family closet to unleash, too. Understandably, Thomas visits a therapist, the elusive D x teu r Rey, to help sort exit his quickly crumbling young life. There, he finds and befriends nervexis patient Penelope (Birkin), a film dubber plagued by an unhealthy obsession with Vanessa Redgrave. Showcasing one of the best ensemble casts of the festival and set against a Paris perfectly balanced between sordid lust and glimmering beauty, Merci Docteur Rey pays homage to clas sic film, opera and the divine histrionics of divas, even when a critical eye is cast (“Divas make me puke, literally!” exclaims Penelope). Although one might argue that at the end of the film this kxiny family of sorts is no closer a bicycle ride through heavy traffic; schoolyard scenes of students eerily turning in unison to pay tribute to the amplified Chinese national anthem; Ke-rou admitting to Shi-hao that she doesn’t know how to swim just before confid ing what she considers to be her other short coming— liking girls. As young Ke-rou, Chen Bo-Lin gives her Blue Gate Crossing absolute best on all counts— from her touching depiction of a tomboy learning the full human capacity for love, to her facing the daunting n Blue Gate Crossing, Taipei classmates Ke- mu and Yueh-chen share the kind of friend confusion of both a tabtxi love in modern-day China and a love triangle of teen proportii>ns. ship that requires only one bicycle to get Ke-rou is able to transform from a moody, wistful both of them around town until a dare posed by yixing girl with an unrequited and heartbreaking tine to the other comes to unexpected fruition crush to a multifaceted, exploratory yixmg and one boy suddenly changes everything. woman. She is able to simultaneously battle Crushes abound in this cinematic breath of fresh air, but the problem is that there are what she has been taught and revel in what she three instead of two: While Ke-rou has her eye has learned about love. The character develop on Yueh-chen, Yueh- ment in the film is revo lutionary in that the most chen has her eye on typical character is the Shi-hao, the school's swim star. After a few straight girl who main tains her illusions akxit secret notes passed ideal relationships while and a few tricks the dynamic characters played, Shi-hao flow thrixigh conversa develops his own spe tions about sexuality and cial liking for Ke-rou, possibility as gently as a who, in fierce loyalty stream. to her beloved Yueh- chen, signed on as Blue Gate Crossing is a stunning debut from this only a messenger in new director and a prime the game. example of how very lit Director Yee tle is lost in translation Chin-yen reveals when it is said accurately both the inntKence Blue Qate Crossing captures the delicate and beautifully in its and chaos of the mother tongue. changes of youth with relationship of a girl who likes a boy who — Mane Fleischmann symbolism as subtle as likes a girl who likes girls to proving its theme— “To learn to love is to divest oneself of one’s narcissism”— as they are at the beginning, it’s still a rollicking good time watching them try. — LB I jn simple, delicious, affordable W e ’ve M oved !!! la buca • casual italian dining • O ve r 24 years of helping people locate the right home...Now it’s our turn. 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