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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2006)
42 JUStjOUt APRIL 21. 2006 film The Perfect Storm? Kimberly Shute Marvin Salles Team Manager licensed Assistant Hardly...but at least it beats most summer camp movies Rex Buchanan Broker 1950 s SE Ranch - $319,900 Quiet hood. Al schls w/m wakg Hawds thru-oui man. iwr wall to wal cpt. 2 frph Cvrd tmt & bck porches. Fenced yard. Fully remdled hm. Modem kitch w/ss appt b tile cntrs. Multnomah Day Ranch - $389,900 Get schls. remdld kitch, Irq fenced yrd, near city 2 fpl ft 460 addl si can be finished for 2542 total sf Could be mt sp ar grt shop - RV pdtg ideal 4 the family1 View ot trees & hood. Beaumont Wilshire Neighborhood ■ $429,900 Head of the nlage11924 remodeled to studs in 06. Pie* wit be a real $$$ mkr or prfet for owner occ. New hardwds, erpt. drs, wndws. furnace, elect, ft plumb. (503) 484-8739 0? & www.marvinsalles.com Coventry Cycle (/Works Profeddional Service Comfortable Bikeo Recunibento a Specialty/! Open Tuesday-Sunday (503) 230-7723 2025 SE Hawthorne AUTOMOTIVE Mechanics that fix everything. Including your conscience. Domestic & Import 5934 NE Halsey • Portland, OR 97213 503.282.3315 • www.pdxauto.com «■fir PDX Automotive is a proud member of the Ecological Business master TECHS Association since 1998. ' Kinky Boots Summer Storm Opening April 28, the new British comedy Kinky Boots Tobi (Robert Stadlober) pins the object of his affection, Achim desperately wants to take you for (Kostja Ullmann), in Summer Storm. a walk on the wild side. But “positive” ones. The writer/director/star went on to these bixits are not made for walking. Well, rfot to posit that his new gay romantic comedy was an anyplace interesting, anyway. attempt to remedy this allegedly unbalanced state Granted, there’s some fun cross-dressing action of affairs. (He somehow must have missed Jeffrey, in a queer cabaret and on a fashion runway, and Trick,’ The Broken Hearts Club, Gypsy Boys, etc., Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things) delivers a etc.) And then rhe lights went down. playful and soulful performance as a drag queen Chester plays Adam, a lonely ex-Goth and named Lola. But these gixxJ bits are squandered by present-day Central Park bird-watching tour guide a script that lacks rhe wit and insight that made approaching middle age alone. Gay actor Malcolm drag queen classics like Torch Song Trilogy and Some Gets (Caroline in the City) is Steve, a lonely, in Like It Hot so memorable. securely promiscuous ex-modem dancer and present- In the tradition of The Full Monty and Calendar day successful psychologist. In the late 1980s, Adam Girls, this is a story about quaint British folk who and Steve had a horrendously aborted one-night go out on a naughty limb to make money. Like stand involving cocaine cut with baby laxative. Calendar Girls, it’s based on real events. Seven years later, xhey meet and, without rec Charlie Price (Jixel Edgerton) is an emotionally ognizing each other, fall in love. When the reality reserved young man who plans to move to London finally dawns on them, it’s enough to threaten their with his fiancée. His father dies, however, leaving burgeoning romance. In a dovetailing dysfunction him in charge of a struggling shoe factory in a drab al heterosexual storyline, Rhonda (Parker Posey), industrial town. The dismal situation starts looking up when Charlie meets a sassy drag queen (Ejiofor) who inspires him to manufacture outrageous stiletto-heeled Ixxits that are strong enough to supporibig and brawny male transvestites. This just might be the niche market that will save the factory. Much of rhe predictable plot centers on the conflict between Lola and Charlie, who’s embar rassed to be seen in public with a drag queen. Charlie is a well- mannered and generally kind bloke, but like some of his pig Craig Chester (left, with Malcolm Gets) wrote, directed and stars in the gay rom-com Adam ft Steve. gish male employees he believes that one can’t possibly be a real Adam’s aspiring-comedian best friend, and man and dress in a frock at the same time. Michael (Chris Kattan), Steve’s obnoxious A series of interminable and awkwardly staged straight-dude roommate, are reluctantly drawn scenes proves—surprise, surprise—that Lola has attracted. more masculinity in her heavily glossed lips than Many things in Adam & Steve should work: Charlie has in his whole uptight body. Movies about transvestite footwear don’t strut The actors are appealing, and the flashbacks to our way every day. It’s a shame that director Julian Chester and the always-game Posey (in a fat suit) in their Goth heyday has hysterical potential, as Jarrold and company couldn’t find a way to convert this bizarre and endearing does the graphically scatological, John Waters-like premise into a rollicking gixxl sex-gone-wrong scene. But the film suffers badly time. from a desultory amateurishness. It’s all anxiety —SB inducing dead air and clumsy, awkward dialogue. Energy is what activates the charm of unskillful Adam & Steve execution, and Adam & Steve all too readily Craig Chester, an actor succumbs to its own torpor. once associated with the New Chester’s film is hardly addressing any dearth of ■ ; Ji Queer Cinema of the 1990s diverse, interesting, excellent queer film. Ponder (he had big parts in Swooa and for a moment how uniquely, refreshingly queer Frisk and a small one in I Shot positive or queer-centric some of the best post Andy Warhol), discussed Adam millennial films—from 8 Women to I’m the One & Steve at its 2005 Seattle That I Want to Far from Heaven to Bad Education to International Film Festival Heights to Mulholland Dr.— have been. In the screening, claiming there have context of that embarrassment of cinematic riches, been too many “heavy” gay Adam & Steve is merely an embarrassment. Kinky Boots is the true story of a sassy drag queen who rescues a —Christopher McQuoin © movies and not enough struggling shoe factory from financial ruin. Summer camp movies can he lots of fun, hut excellence is rarely one of their properties. Who can forget Bill Murray’s “It just doesn’t matter" rant in Meatballs, or Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol’s race to lose their virginity in Little Darlings? Not to mention rhe Camp Crystal Lake carnage in the Friday the 13th series. But let's face it: These flicks would he lucky to get half of a star in a reputable film guide. Opening April 21 at Hollywood Theatre, the gay German film Summer Storm is tar better than the aforementioned treasures, hut it still proves that summer camp movies are a breeding ground for hackneyed storylines and mediocre acting. It’s the perfect film for teen-age queers who are so busy defining their sexual identities that they don’t have time to he critical of second-rate filmmaking. More seasoned viewers will probably find the proceed ings entertaining but unenlightening. At least wnter/director Marco Kreuzpaintner indulges the prurient interests of gay viewers with some fairly explicit intimate moments, including a meeting of the groins that takes place between two beautiful naked teen-age boys on a raft. The film opens as two close friends named Tobi (Robert Stadlober) and Achim (Kostja Ullmann) prepare to leave for rowing camp. Tobi has a huge crush on Achim and is encouraged when they jerk off together after some arousing wrestling antics. Still, Achim is hot for his girlfriend, which is bad news because she’s coming to camp, too. At camp Tobi attempts to get it on with his girlfriend, but he’s increasingly distracted by Achim and by a team of gay rowers called the Queerstrokes. In the tradition of every gay coming- of-age film ever made, Tobi must decide if he’s going to hide his sexuality or be true to himself and come out of the closet. It might be cliched, but most of Summer Storm rings true. A few scenes, however, send a totally unrealistic message to young viewers. When Achim begins to fight off Tobi’s advances, Tobi instantly finds himself in the arms of a hot stud that comes to his rescue. It’s a ridiculous fantasy that suggests Tobi doesn’t need any time to recov er from that wrecking ball known as unrequited love. —Stephen Blair 1 E
