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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2005)
32jU>t OUt ’ fetruary 18.2QÛ5 FILM World Beat Soul MUSIC MILLENIUM Rock Women's Oldies Jan Folk Gospel Cajun Country New Age Bluegrass Soundtracks Musicals Lounge Big Band Comedy Reggae Spoken Word and more... & E Burnside St. • 231-8926 MILLENNIUM GHB« r NW PORTLAND • 23rd & NW Johnson • 248-0163 OREGON BALLET THEATRE CHRISTOPHER STOWELL. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DY MIND SPIRIT Keeping a straight face Campy cackles comedy at closeted screen idol; Finnish film floats the feeling that female sexuality is mutable Straight-Jacket Producing Adults What to make of this movie? Writer/ director Richard Day’s previous outing was the hilariously brittle drag comedy Girls Will Be Girls. There, Day’s popish visuals and zingy one-liners found a happy home. Straight-Jacket aims for something more seri ous, with decidedly mixed results. The setting is early ’50s Hollywood, a time of red-haiting and gay-hashing. Hunky, slutty Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) is the dreamy idol of millions of women, hut he has a secret that could capsize his career. When he’s caught leaving (stampeding out of) a gay har, his savvy manager (Veronica Cartwright) gets him hitched, a la Rock Hudson, to a ditzy secretary who has no clue he’s queer. Guy expects to go back to his promiscuous ways but unexpectedly falls in love with a lefty screenwriter, Rick (Adam Greer). When the two are caught naked in bed, Guy’s career is again threatened—unless he agrees to “name names.” A simple plot sketch makes this sound like a serious film, and it does seem to have preten sions along these lines, particularly in the last At the 28th annual Portland International Film Festival, queer men can get their kicks during a deliciously naughty gay sex discussion in François Ozon’s 5x2. (See review on Page 33.) Ladies should make a beeline for the lesbian-themed Producing Adults, Finland’s sub mission for this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar. This smart, bittersweet film by Aleksi Salmenpera is equal parts comedy and drama. It is always entertaining, thanks to a lively, convincing cast and a plot that moves swiftly from start to finish. The story falters, however, in a few scenes where the intelligent lead characters inexplica bly lose two dozen IQ points and land them selves in ridiculous slapstick situations. These scenes are funny; they’re just not believable. The movie opens on a decidedly unqueer note. Venla, a comely young blonde, works as a psychologist at a fertility clinic. She’s trying to conceive with her speed-skating fiancé, Antero, but little does she know that he has cold feet about becoming a father. First he slips drugs into her drink to induce her peruxi. Then, to make sure that all bets are off, he gets a vasectomy behind her back. Venla has no idea what’s preventing a preg nancy, so she enlists the help of Satu, a free- spirited female dixztor who works at the clinic. Thus begins a giddy romance that forces the women to sneak behind their boyfriends’ backs. Thanks to some indiscreet lovemaking, their affair gets exposed and they’re faced with the million-dollar question: Are they willing to ditch their familiar lives to keep their flame alive? A ditzy secretary has no clue her hubby is queer in Straight-Jacket § § g S World Premiere THE IMPENDING HOUR Ravel/C. Stowell CONCERTO GROSSO Handel/ Czamv www.oM.org TICKETS $ 1 7 $90. Call 503.2.BALLET or Toll Free 888.9.BALLET Mon-Hi 9am-6pm. Discounts for groups of 10 or more at 503 227.0977 ex* 207. Tic he is ate also available through Tick eti’iaste; 503 /90 ARTS or at the PC PA bo» office third or so. But the first hour of the film is played with such camp that it’s practically a cartcxin: musical interludes; montages of maga zines with titles like Worthy Woman showing the “happy couple”; and Guy’s mansion, a tacky CGI creation that looks like an outtake from a 1950s Disney film about “the world of tomorrow.” The intermittently funny dialogue also has a sharp camp edge. Commenting on being cast as Ben-Hur, Guy remarks, “Make sure 1 get slaveboy approval.” On stardom? “I always say about my fans, without them I’d be no better than they are.” Day even throws in pratfalls and some over-obvious satire of Hollywcxxl production styles with a papier-mache G<xlzilla- like monster that can’t move. But the detour to Real Issues late in the film seems more confusing than compelling, with Guy unconvincingly contemplating a noble transformation and his boyfriend pontifi cating about communism and closets. A film that spends so much time asking us to laugh at the antics of Guy and Sally and then wants us to take it all seriously can’t be, well, serious. —Gary Morris Engaged Venla (right) connects with free- spirited Satu in Producing Adults Like Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art, Producing Adults posits the liberating theory that female sexuality is a mutable thing. A woman may be content in a straight relationship, only to real ize that she’s even happier in the arms of a woman. Venla finds sexual gratification in her relationship with Antero, but she’s both physi cally and emotionally fulfilled with Satu. Producing Adults offers nothing in the way of hot and steamy lesbian sex. But it’s filled with tender moments between Venla and Satu, from their sensual kisses to a sweet, but non explicit, bedroom scene. Screens 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at Guild Theatre and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at Broadway Metroplex. Visit www.nwfilm.org for details. —Stephen Blair jTl
