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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2005)
Saturday Night June 1 Sth, 2OO5 Nathalie Press (left) spends My Summer of Love with Emily Blunt. trying on each other’s clothes and passing out. quickly leads to uninhibited passion. The pansexual Tamsin is manipulative and But if Wil’s widowed mother can at age 48 beguiling, and Mona, who recently suffered a incur the unequivocal wrath of her own par humiliating breakup with a married man, is ents—Wil’s grandparents, survivors of China’s quietly desperate for the attention Tamsin lav cultural revolution—when she announces that ishes on her. she has become pregnant and will not name The acting and the camera work in My the father, how could Wil be open about the Summer of Love (which received awards from even less conventional romantic and sexual the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festi dimension of her own life? Wil is forced to val, the London Film Critics Circle and the answer that question when her mother, dis British Academy of Film and Television Arts) owned by her parents, moves in with her, and are what give it an intensely alluring quality. maternal intrusiveness compounds the compli Ultimately, though,the love affair between these two characters, while believ able, is a shiny, Hollywood, straight man’s fantasy of what two young women in love looks like, namely: perky, nubile breasts being nuzzled by wine-stained, Lynn Chen (left) and Michelle Krusiec star in Saving Face, summer 2005’s bee-stung lips must-see dyke date movie. while their owners roll around in various states of undress cations of juggling her demanding career and kx>king seductive and irresistible. closeted love affair with the out and increas The ending provides the audience with an ingly impatient Vivian. artificially tacked-on twist (a la Su'imming Wu wryly, gently acknowledges the occa Pool), which you will either love or hate. sionally suffocating complexities and conflicts Regardless, the whole of this film (opening of ethnic and sexual identity, and she sets Wil June 17 at Fox Tower Cinemas) is greater than ! and Vivian’s romance against a beautiful Man the sum of its parts and is certainly worth hattan backdrop, calling to mind When Harry checking out with a lover on a languid summer Met Sally... and the lighter side of Wixidy day in between two glasses of wine. Allen. As a downside, this can have the effect —JB Rabin of denying full gravity to the film’s serious moments, but Wu’s instinct is more for easy going, humanistic, humorous storytelling than any rigorous sort of depth, and scenes such as Wil’s quietly momentous coming out are writ With Saving Face (opening June 24 at Fox Tower Cinemas), first-time writer/director ten and perfonned with enough insight that Alice Wu has made a Chinese-American les they can peacefully coexist with the film’s farci bian sitcom, but it’s a good Chinese-American cal climactic wedding scene without either lesbian sitcom. I ler light but deft touch brings piece feeling out of place. Despite its nontraditional characters and sit everything off without ever veering into the preachy or maudlin, and the film offers enough uations, Saving Face is for the most part a rather even, neat and tidy film. It more or less dutiful unforced charm, laughter and warmth to pre ly follows the expected formulas, but it follows vent the romantic comedy souffle from falling. Wil (Michelle Krusiec), an ambitious young them proficiently enough, and in enough of the New York City neurosurgeon, meets Vivian right spirit, to earn its place as an actually (Lynn Chen), a ballet dancer and, coinciden enjoyable (read: not dumbed down) crowd tally, the daughter of Wil’s boss, at a Chinese- pleaser and summer 2OO5’s must-see dyke date American social gathering in Flushing, movie (along with the more desperately roman Queens, where they were both raised. Roman tic girls-in-love thriller My Summer of Love). —(Jhristoffher McQuam JF1 tic sparks fly, and they begin a flirtation that Saving Face Featuring: Rascal Video Exclusive "BRANDON EEE" I Jghts go out & glow sticks come on at I ():()() p.m. Join us lor the hottest A wildest men-only experience in Portland! www.steamportland.com Portland just got a whole lot sexier 2885 NE Sandy •/ Blvd., Portland, OR 97232 Must be at least 18 years of age. Valid membership required Arthouse ★ Foreign * Cult Classics ★ Gay & Lesbian Documentaries ★ Asian Cult ★ The Latest Chart Busters POP IN! ALL RENTALS-5 DAYS 2310 N Lombard 11136 NW Lovejoy i 1990 SE Ladd 503-289-8408 I 503-796-2825 503-231-1181 I 7522 N Lombard I 2640 NE Alberta 503-288-4067 503-247-3433
