Just out., January 23, 2004, Page 35, Image 35

lanuary 2 3 .2ÍXM ' | M t m ^
F I L M
▼
Snowbound
Yossi <&? dagger exposes hot love In a cold world of war
by
Y
L isa B radshaw
ossi & Jagger is an easy movie
to like.
Set on the border of Israel
and Lebanon against the stark
white-and-grecn checkered backdrop of
a winter military base, Yossi and Jagger
are young, cute commanders beholden
to mandatory service in the Israeli army.
They’re in love, and the sexy tension
between them stealing moments on
base, sneaking away to get half-naked in
the snow, is one bright promise in an
otherwise disparaging landscape.
The movie, which played at Port­
land’s queer film festival last fall and
opens Jan. 23 at Cinema 21, has been
a huge hit in Israel, which may seem
surprising until you learn gay men and
lesbians have been allowed in its mili­
tary for more than 10 years. Gay stig­
ma certainly exists, as evidenced in
the film, and yet (or maybe because of
it) soldiers and civilians alike have
flocked to screenings, including one
with combat fighters fresh from the
West Bank engaging in a thoughtful
post-show discussion with filmmakers.
Gay director Eytan Fox, whose
first film was a short about sexual
identity in the Israeli army, is doing
for Israel in the world what he’s doing Soldier on soldier in a beautiful little movie from Israel that opens Jan. 23 at Cinema 21
for homosexuality in Israel— putting
a human face on it. His shorts, fea­
M *A *S *H reruns. The actors have created a
Ohad Knoller as Yossi is a more interesting,
ture film Song of the Siren and televi­
passion that leaps from the screen, and when
complex character— balancing the responsibili­
sion series Florentine, most with queer charac­
Fox begins covering the army base in a blanket
ty of keeping his soldiers alive and well in
ters, are precious pieces of art available to the
of
tension, he never lets up. The ending is
rather desperate conditions, his tightly
Western world that illustrates life in Tel Aviv
haunting and sweet without being maudlin.
controlled passion toward his lover and the
away from the barrage of war images we see as
Jagger at one point is trying to get Yossi to
confusion of what might come next. To Jagger,
the only representatives of his small country.
make some kind of promise for the future, to
military service will soon be over, and life is a
Strategically, Fox cast “the Israeli Tom
tell him he loves him. “Sorry this isn’t some
cabaret; to Yossi, the military is life.
Cruise,” Yehuda Levi, as Jagger. The national
fucking American movie,” Yossi spits.
At a scant 70 minutes and with a soundtrack
heartthroh stars in a soap opera, and teen-age
No, no, it isn’t. It took a troubled country
that often drifts into the elevator music genre,
girls apparently lined up to see Yossi & Jagger
with a citizenry embroiled in conflict over
Yossi & Jagger sometimes feels like a Lifetime: TV
without even knowing what it was about.
which they have little control and a film indus­
for Men entry. And certainly there’s no new
Levi delivers as the outgoing platoon com­
try with few resources to deliver a movie to the
army-movie material here. The company cook is
mander Jagger, singing along with gay club hits on
U.S. about gay love and sex in the military.
the comic relief, the colonel who shows up unex­
his little transistor radio, teasing his more serious
Yossi & Jagger is the little movie that
pectedly is grouchy and sexist, the men are tired
company commander boyfriend— a sexy power
could.
and nervous, the two women in the film are
play both characters (and certainly viewers) seem
pretty—one is, of course, shyly attracted to Jagger.
to enjoy. In Jagger’s hopeful, upbeat demeanor is
LlSA B radshaw is the Arts and Culture Editor at
It’s the gay element at the heart of the film
the reminder of what he would be doing— what
Just
Out.
that lifts Yossi & Jagger from the dusty shelf of
they all would and should be doing— but for their
generation’s political circumstance.
in
OUT ON VIDEO/DVD
U nconditional
L ove
New Line
A
ustralian director
P.J. Hogan’s U.S.
breakthrough
was 1994’s spry
M Uriel’s Wedding, hut
don’t let that fool
you. His latest,
Unconditional Love,
which premiered last
year on the STARZ! cable network, continues
the downward trend of his last film, 1997’s My
Best Friend's Weddmg, a bland romantic comedy
containing the intended comfort that some­
where, some very sheltered moviegoers were
learning that, hey, a gay person (Rupert Everett,
in a neutered role) could be Julia Roberts’ pal!
Unconditional Love is the story of a Chica­
go housewife (Kathy Bates) abandoned by her
husband (a comatose Dan Aykroyd) on the
same day her flamboyant, Liherace-like pop
idol (Jonathan Pryce) is murdered. Her
daughter-in-law (Meredith Eaton), a con­
frontational little person who refers to herself
as a dwarf to shock people, tries to talk her
through the trauma, but she has her own
neuroses to deal with.
S o Bates travels to the English country­
side home of her dead idol, where she
encounters his siblings (including stuffy sister
Lynn Redgrave) and his bereaved, crabby
“valet” (Rupert Everett), who seems a hit
more emotionally distraught over the demise
o f his “boss" than any servant should be.
Eventually Bates and Everett team up against
the singer’s closed-minded family and their
staid, closeted funeral plans.
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Unconditional Love is being released into a
post-Queer as Folk culture in which many
middle-aged Midwestern women (like Bates’
exaggeratedly fragile character) are at least
worldly enough to watch Sex and the City. In
that context, the movie is anachronistic and
uninspired. I actually imagined large, slosh­
ing buckets labeled “Whimsy” and “Pathos,"
with Hollywood technicians ladling copious
amounts of each over Hogan’s very soft
skeleton of a script— and that was even
before the arbitrary, ill-conceived action-
adventure climax and self-impressed cameos
by Julie Andrews, Barry Manilow and Sally
Jessy Raphael.
Bates is game but is given nothing to work
with. Everett does what he’s best at: being
strikingly handsome and non threateningly
English, like Hugh Grant with a nicer body.
—Christopher McQuam JH
H e p a t i t i s A and B. I he ( Centers
for 1 hsease C Control (CT X !) and
the ( i.iy and Lesbian M e d ic a l
Ass ociation ( M i M A ) r e c o m m e n d
a pr eventative va cci nat ion .
Monday Nights 5:30-7:30
W a s h in g to n ( .oiin tv H e a lth ( I i i i k -
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lo r more infonnotion, please call
W \X 4()\a~U .
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