▼
Sip D’ V in e
J
i o
It's good
to be king
...not y o u r stuffy wine »hop..
C R Y S T A L ’S
GAT & LESBIAN
SPINE-TING LING
HALLOWEEN
BASH!!!!!
Re I ax with friends
while enjoying N W wine»
bij the taste, glass, and bottle
N ovice» welcome.
QJnique picnic ¿vgift items
Two great performances
highlight cluh kid biopic
by
-O p e n —
Don’t miss this Ghoulish
Costume Party! You’ll never
know who’s behind the mask!
Fun Door Prizes! Costume
Contests! Full Service Bar! And
Non-Smoking Dance Floor!
T u e s -^ u n l2-3pm - f'ri ¿v 5 a t ‘til 9p m
L o o k for us next to the bridee
in M * »to ric M u ltn o m a h V'H aee
7&&7 5 W G a p ito l f 1wi), Portland, O K 977*9
JO V?77-WINE. (?+<>)
I
Write ms
Dais:
October 31, 2003
Tims:
9:00p-1:30a
Location: Portland Motro Club
(formorly PPAA)
618SE Aldor
Co von
$7.00
ju s tn ia
Welcomes letters
Tickots Available at:
It’s M y Ploasur*
Corner of Sandy
Blvd. A NE 64th
503-280-8080
Or
Touchstone Coffee
7631 NE Glisan
503-262-7613
Letters must be
oaompanied
by a phone number
for verification purposes.
Anonymous letters and letters without
sufficient contact information
www.justout.com
will not be published.
CME PRODUCTIONS
ell, certainly, we’ve all been waiting
with hated breath for little Macaulay
Culkin’s comeback, but who’d have
m i ever thought it would be in one of the
most hotly talked-ahout queer films of the year!
What better way to hurst into grown-up movies
than as a queeny, murderous, drag-addled New
York cluh king/ Way to go, Macaulay.
Popular opinion makes fun of the pixx little
Home Alone chap in a big vyay. I mean, this situa
tion is rather rich for abuse, isn’t it? Rut I disagree
with them. Yes, I may stand alone, hut stand 1 do:
Macaulay Culkin is kick-ass in Patty Monster.
This lively if heavily flawed film, which
makes its Portland dehut O ct. 17 at the Les
bian &. Gay Film Festival before opening at
Cinema 21 on O ct. 24, is based on the true-life
drama of Michael Alig, the late ’80s/early ’90s
“king of the cluh kids.” Club kids were in
famous in the New York night scene for their
wacky, underground parties, excessive dnig use
and extravagant costumes.
Eventually, bisexual M ichael’s fantasy
world comes crashing down after a vicious
murder he brags about to his friend and m en
tor James St. James (Seth G reen, in the film’s
best performance).
Party Monster is based on the book Disco
W
Precious moments
2 Gy Hz Performative Arts presents
I Enteractive £ SECo;D
.ANNUAL■
Language festival
He’s here, he’s queer, he’s Italian—holy cannoli!
by J im
30 OCT - 29 NOV
David Eckard performs Friday 07 N O V
_hall st. gallery 630 SE 3rd Ave.
Look for listings in Just Out, Full Calendars around town, &
2 Gyrlz hotline #503.234.4950 | www.2gyrlz.org/festival
Special thanks to our Q ueer friendly sponsors:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¡U S ir m
m
Equity Foundation, Th e Heathman Hotel, Just O u t,
hip C H IC K S do W IN E , and Th e M ark Spencer Hotel
R adosta
efore I slam on
this movie, it’s
only fair that I
disclose a pre
existing condition: 1
can’t stand precious
films that exaggerate
cultural stereotypes in
the gixxl-natured
pursuit of “comedy."
T he French had
their moment in the
criminally Oscar-
All hell breaks loose when
nominated Chocolat,
family in Mambo Itidiano
Portuguese people
were portrayed in Passitmada, and then there’s
My Big Fat G reek Wediling, the template that all
other wannabes will follow. Queer cinema has
had its share of these cutesy groan-inducers,
too: The Broken Hearts Club and Big Eden
immediately come to mind.
Well, now it s my turn. As a gay Sicilian, I
should’ve been delighted to see my peeps on
the big screen in Mambo Italiano, which opens
O ct. 24. Perhaps 1 entered the wrong theater,
because I didn’t recognize much of anybody or
anything on display here.
Tire film revolves around Angelo (Luke
Kirby), an aspiring writer raised in Montreal hy
a zany clan of immigrants who end conversa
tions hy slapping each other on the head.
(T h at’s a spicy meatball!)
Maria and G ino (Ginette Reno and Paul
Sorvino) expect Angelo and his sister, Anna
(Claudia Fern), to live at home until they get
married— or until they die. So when Angelo
B
Come Out and Engage
performance, music,
& visual arts
throughout Portland!
L isa B radshaw
Bloodbath, penned
by none other
than St. James
("th e original cluh
kid”) at the sug
gestion o f the
film ’s gay directors,
Fenton Bailey and
Macaulay C ulkin pulls off
Randy Barhato
costumed queen in Party
( T he Eyes o f
Mores ter
Tammy F aye), who
also made a documentary about the incidents.
Although the film Imks beautiful— a testa
ment to having been produced by Killer Films
(Hedung and the Angry Inch, Far from Heaven) and
to the use of 25 of the original cluh kids in their
own costumes— it’s a hit of a directorial mess.
Railey and Barhato seem to want to make
audiences sympathetic to Michael, hut that, as
well as immersing you into the world of the
cluh kids, is a tall order, and the film fails at
both. Its attempts at sptxtf often work when
Culkin and G reen are onscreen, hut other
times are an embarrassment, as are Natasha
Lyonne and Dylan M cDerm ott as way-too-
eamest cluh owners.
T he only reason to see the film is the ir
repressible performances of Culkin and
G reen— trading quips (“I’m getting away with
murder; you’re just jealous!”) and bitchy ltxiks
in a constant love-hate relationship, desperate ’
for money, success, fame and glamour.
decides to move in
with his childhtxxl
buddy Nino (Peter
Miller), the ultra-
traditional family flips
out. (Mamma mia!)
You can only
imagine how things
escalate when Ange
lo reveals that he’s
taken Nino as his
lover. An upstand
Angelo comes out to his ing cop, Nino freaks
out when co-workers
clue in, and his
mom rries to convert him hy hixtking him up
with a hig-haired slut. Meanwhile, Angelo
inches out of the closet hy volunteering as an
operator at a gay hot line. (Captsce?)
M am bo Italiano was directed hy Emile
Gaudreault, who co-wrote the script with
Steve Galluccio, on whose play the film was
based. Their characters, for the most part, are
extremely likable, especially Anna, a couch-
surfing therapy junkie who switches shrinks
after each visit. And Sorvino gives a strong
performance as the conservative dad who
eventually accepts his gay son. (Grazie!)
Still. 1 have a hard time finding the humor in
homophobia. If this film had found a consistent
tone between the dark humor and the marshmal
low fluff, it might have worked. Instead, the end
ing is so abmpt and dubious (Nino makes an
unfortunate decision that seems highly improba
ble for an urbanite in 2 0 0 )), not even the most
eager-to-be-pleased crowd will leave satisfied. IH