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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2004)
44 j U S t O U t » üecemcer 17.2004 ▼ For All You Naughty Boys and Girls... The Portland Spirit presents ^STORM LARGE & THE BALLS Join us aboard Portland’s only floating nightclub with one of the city’s most outrageous acts. lié?? a :S - m tm ¡tillill I -já fe Storm Large and The Balls ~ 12/17 hmlaod Boarding at 10:45pm/Cruising 11:00pm to 1:30am l?TT $16 advance/$20 at door (Adults 21+ only) *8 one-time hors d’oeuvre buffet C all (8o o ) 224-3901 or (503) 2 2 4 - 3 9 0 0 Visit www.portici nclspirit. com CENTER THE S A N T A L A N D STAGE DIA Rl E S DAVID SEDARIS THEATER ^ A CHRI STMAS ME MORY k’ T R U M A N C A P O T E L I V E not s u i t a b le for youn g c hi ld re n Photographic memories Bad is best for Pedro Almodovar; Brother to Brother recalls Renaissance Bad Ed u c a tio n B r o th e r to B r o t h e r rather to Brother opens with the lead char edro Almodovar is up to his old tricks, but acter on a subway. This setting isn’t acci in an inspired new way. The Spanish dental; Perry Williams is a young man in auteur, who’s been a queer icon for traasit—emotionally, artistically, sexually. decades, follows his relatively somher but increasingly masterful recent work (All About A budding artist who’s also black and gay, he My Mother, Talk to Her ) with the sexy-verging- doesn’t seem to fit in anyplace. His parents on-raunchy, irreverent, cinephilia-steeped, throw him out when they catch him kissing quasi-autobiographical Bad Education, and it’s another guy. He’s dished (and later hashed) by an unequivocal success. fellow students of a black history class when he The new film recalls his late-’ 80 s break brings up James Baldwin’s homosexuality. His throughs (the naughty homoeroticism of Law quasi-boyfriend seems more straight than gay and insults him by talking about of Desire and his “sweet black ass.” And he’s so the vivid, wound up that he can’t respond melodramat even to a gallery owner who seems ic despera tion of genuinely interested in his art. Women on Lo, a guardian angel appears— the Verge of a and no ordinary one. An old man Nervous who seems like just another Gael García Bernal has an unforgettably Breakdown), anonymous street person turns out ravishing drag turn in Bad Education hut that to he Bruce Nugent, one of the newly serene mastery of the medium remains. Harlem Renaissance’s major figures, now broke Almodovar has always had an eyeball- and forgotten. Despite the gap in their ages and their different stations in life, each has pleasuring style, but Bad Education’s confidence and fluidity reach exhilarating levels. something The film offers one imaginative special to composition, stirring camera move offer the other. Perry ment, 'evocative color scheme and brilliant editing stroke after another, reminds Nugent of not to mention Gael García Bernal (the rising Mexican star of V Tu his own Mama Tambien and The Motorcycle vibrant and Diaries) looking several different troubled past kinds of gorgeous. as a gay The story concerns the intermit artist, and tently converging lives of two men Nugent con who, during their beleaguered, jures up for Perry the repressed Catholic schixilhoy days, Daniel Sunjata (Tony Award nom inee for were each other’s first loves. An classic world Take M e OuO and Aunjanue Ellis (Image unexpected meeting decades later, of Langston Award nominee for M en o f Honot) star as after one of the hoys (Fele Martinez) Hughes, Langston Hughes and Zora N eale Hurston Walter has become a famous filmmaker and in Brother to Brother the other (Bernal) a floundering Thurman, writer/actor, provokes a barrage of memories Zora Neale Hurston and other luminaries of we’re made privy to via progressively revelatory that rich period of the 1920 s and ’ 30 s. flashbacks, with the tragic erosion of the hoys’ Nugent’s vivid stories— shown in extended connection at the hands of church, family, black-and-white sequences— entrance and time and ambition the recurring theme. inspire his young friend. Almodovar brings an exquisite relish to the The actors excel in this beautifully shot storytelling. A film within the film involves a drama. Anthony Mackie is especially effective Hitchcockian case of mistaken identity (like a as the rock-solid center, masterfully withhold gender-reversed Vertigo), the unfolding of a sur ing his emotions until just the right moment. prise film noir murder mystery and the first (This makes up for his appearance Spike Lee’s stirrings of youthful sexuality finding mutual appalling She Hate Me.) And Roger Robinson release at the cinema. And those are just the is wonderfully authentic as the mysterious, most memorable bits; this is a movie in which playful Nugent, who starts as a ghostly pres literally every scene gives us something new, ence in the background of Perry’s stmggle and narratively or visually, to enjoy. develops into a life-changing friend. With its unhurried, unabashedly graphic Writer/director Rodney Evans spent six and lustily idealized sex (all gay), Bad Educa years working on this script, inspired by the tion earns its N C -17 rating, hut, as in David real Nugent, who died in obscurity in 1987 . Lynch’s M ulholland Drive, the same-sex softcore The film seamlessly shifts between his past and scenes are simultaneously a yummy turn-on Perry’s present without losing the drama or the characters. and indispensable. They’re only the most explicit manifestation of a nostalgic yearning, a W hile some viewers may find the pacing lihidinal tenderness that permeates and pro too leisurely, this is one drama about vides the heart of the entire film. activism and artistic struggle that can’t he Bad Education is a career best for accused of preachiness. Nugent captures the Almodovar, a truly great film and priority charms of the film in a beautifully rendered viewing for all dedicated filmgoers. A toast to a friend: “ Here’s to lost beauty. May seductive, highly satisfying, transporting it always he nearby with the potential to cinematic experience awaits you. keep you warm." —Christopher McQuom — Gary Moms J H
