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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2003)
novem har 2 1 . 2QÜ3 FILM ......... ▼ ........... I biza D ream Strand Releasing La bella tierra I9IZA M í A M f t 44 y * he Spanish island/tourist spot Ibiza is famous for its nightlife and polyrhythmic house music, which launched a giant (and, if you ask me, unfortu nate) international music trend more than a decade ago. It’s Europe’s ver sion of Palm Beach— a playland where hard- hodied, empty-headed young adults can “go wild,” as those videos they sell on T V put it. W ith this in mind, the title of Igor Fioravan- ti’s film is misleading, which is probably for the best, since that means it’s not a movie about frolicking, Ecstasy-soaked disco/heach bunnies. Instead, the yearning and ennui-ridden twen- tysomethings of Ibiza Dream — spiritually seeking straight (in all senses of the word) guy Nacho; hedonistic, bisexual Carlos; and restless, also bisexual Chica— experience the island as the same sort of existentialist backdrop the French found in northern Africa: a vast, beautiful land scape where anything goes and where one can get a clear view of exactly what place human beings have in the universe. (Hint: Foreground ed against deserts, mountains, and oceans, we homo sapiens can appear awfully tiny and lost.) It all looks more compelling than it actually is. There are few things more cinem atic than diximed, beautiful young people indifferent to imposed sexual, societal and interpersonal boundaries, hut Fioravanti’s style is too glib, his characters too flat and mechanically drawn. Our three protagonists spend a lot of time posing for sore-thumb slo-mo and fast-mo whims, which feel like nothing more than cynical con T Spain (an d its people) on dazzling display in DVD releases by C hristopher M c Q uain cessions to the M TV generation, and Fioravanti’s loud camera and editing tricks appear tacky once yixi realize he’s trying to philosophize with them. Scenes play painfully like a Michelangelo Antcv nioni film filtered through the Baywatch style. That’s not to say Ibiza Dream is a total failure. Fioravanti does have a good sense of composition, and that, along with cinematographer Miguel Leal’s crisp use of light and color, certainly gives the viewer something interesting to lixik at. Ibiza Dream is, however, exactly the sort of halfway-there film that can make one wonder, even while admiring the visual proficiency, if that’s really enough. — Christopher McQuain A mor oe H ombre TLA Releasing speranza, a preschool teacher, is the only woman at her 40th birth day party; every last one of her friends is a gay man, including her closest confi dante, Ramon. T h e two have an ongoing, affec tionate discordance: Esperanza believes in true love but has no love life, while arrogant Ramon has an endless parade of lovers, whom he finds ever more petty reasons to dump. T h eir friendship is com plicated by E R am on’s obsession with Roberto, a P.E. teacher who works with Esperanza, looks like Russell Crowe and is such an asshole, he actu ally makes you feel sorry for Ram on. Suffering R am on’s Ram on and Esperanza traverse the rocky roads of love and friendship neglect, Esperanza in the worthy Amor d e H om bre decides it’s tim e she Hombre is just another gay-romantic-comedy started being there for herself, not just for her hunk parade (supremely tacky DVD cover), so it’s increasingly unreciprocating friend. a pleasant surprise that it’s not just a throwaway. That Ami>r de Hombre was co-written and Serrano and Iborra unwrap Esperanza and directed by a woman and a man (Spanish film Ramon’s conflicting, evolving needs and desires makers Yolanda G arcia Serrano and Juan Luis with an earthy, grounded astuteness, all while Iborra) may explain why it transcends its ho- maintaining a lighthearted tone. hum concept. W hat sounds like a Will & G race The underlying human frailty and complexity episode (Ram on is even a lawyer!) is given are smoothly alluded to, without breaking pace. added dimension through little glimpses of per No revelations are spilled out in big speeches, spective in Esperanza’s sympathetic but impa and the world dix?sn’t stop for our characters to tient relationship to her milieu, and the film arrive at earth-shattering resolutions. makers manage to avoid shallow caricaturing It also dixísn’t hurt that Loles León, who by giving her group of gay friends an unusual plays Esperanza, has the put-upon, likably vul diversity. In addition to Ramon, there’s a bick gar presence of a Spanish Bette Midler, or that ering couple at a 10-year crossroads, a doctor the film visually pops with primary colors, whose sexual bravado is all talk and a Catholic reminding us that Spain is, after all, the land of who becomes indignant when friends mix:k his Almodóvar. devotional celibacy. — Christopher McQuain J H Appearances would «.'em to indicate Amur de imagine & lots o f really good wine. K Wim&m \7
