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SoleJourney (Directors: Kate Burns and Sheila E. Schroeder): I’ve admired the work of Rev. Dr. Mel White and the Soulforce organization for years now and this documentary, partially funded by Soulforce, promised to shed some light on the organization’s continuing fight against the anti-gay agenda of Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization. Unfortunately, the film comes up short for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, it’s not terribly clear what the main focus of the film is. The title itself confused me until I realized it was referring to the 1000 Watt March, a Soulforce “action” in which GLBT families marched from Denver to Colorado Springs (home to Focus on the Family), a distance of 65 miles, in five-mile “relays.” But the march doesn’t even really enter into the film until about the halfway mark. For the first 30 minutes or so, we get something closer to a history of the beginnings of Soulforce, and its connection to the non-violent resistance philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Although Rev. Dr. White does appear in the film, I didn’t feel there was enough of him for this to be considered a real history of his organization. Instead there were lots of news clips emphasizing the media’s view that Focus on the Family is an influential and important organization. I found this unnecessary, and it seemed to unbalance the film and expose its lack of structure.
When we do get to the march itself, we simply get random shots of small groups of people walking along the highway, interspersed with some footage of their regular family lives at home. Although these families are definitely worthy of having their stories told, I wanted more of the at-home stuff and less of the anticlimactic “march” stuff. I even enjoyed the talking head interviews more than the coverage of the march, although none of it seemed to ever coalesce into a larger whole. I found the soundtrack cloyingly sweet, too, although it definitely contributed to the overall “inspirational” feeling I think the filmmakers were aiming for.
Soulforce’s mission is to combat “religion-based oppression” of LGBT people but there was very little about the religious basis of that oppression. In that respect, I found the film compared quite unfavourably with Daniel Karslake’s For the Bible Tells Me So (review), which even used some of the same footage of the demonstrations at Focus on the Family’s headquarters. That film also managed to feature some LGBT families in a sensitive way, and I’d hoped that SoleJourney might have built upon the earlier film. Instead, I don’t think it will have much appeal to anyone who doesn’t already believe in what Soulforce is doing.
Official site of the film
(6/10)
Tagged as:
christianity,
faith,
homosexuality,
humanrights,
religion
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984, Director: Rob Epstein): With all the publicity around Milk, Gus Van Sant’s biopic of pioneering gay political figure Harvey Milk, I’d been hearing on good authority that Rob Epstein’s Oscar-winning documentary, now almost 25 years old, was better in almost every way. So before seeing Sean Penn’s fictional portrayal (which even from the trailer looks powerful), I wanted to learn more about the man and his story.
Milk was the epitome of a local politician. He owned a camera store in the San Francisco neighbourhood known as the Castro and became involved in politics because of neighbourhood issues. He ran for the position of city supervisor (councillor) three times unsuccessfully, until a change in the rules allowed each neighbourhood to vote for its own supervisor. Buoyed by the gay vote, he was finally elected in 1977, but only served 11 months before he and San Francisco’s mayor, George Moscone, were shot and killed by one of their colleagues, Supervisor Dan White, who’d resigned and then been unsuccessful in getting his job back. Milk is regarded as America’s first openly gay politician, and he knew there was always a risk of assassination. In fact, Epstein’s film begins with an audio recording Milk made about a year before his death, stating that it should only be played in the case of his death by assassination.
The film itself is a combination of local news footage and interviews with his friends. The narration by Harvey Fierstein conveys the sense of sadness and loss that the gay community were still feeling. In fact, the film was made just six years after Milk’s death and the emotions of the interviewees are still raw, especially when discussing the subsequent trial of White, who served only five years for the murders. The gay community was outraged at the lenient sentence, and Epstein covers the “White Night Riots” that followed the verdict. White’s lawyers successfully argued that he was suffering from depression and didn’t intend to kill Milk and Moscone, despite the fact that he confronted them in their offices with a gun (and extra ammo) he smuggled into City Hall by climbing in a window to avoid the recently-installed metal detectors. This case was also the origin of the infamous “Twinkie defense”, in which his lawyers argued that he may have been suffering from the effects of eating too much junk food, and therefore had “diminished capacity” for thought, making him incapable of premeditation in the killings.
Although the film does succeed in portraying Milk as part of a movement, rather than just a saintly crusader, I would have liked a bit more detail about him and his life. There was very little mention of his partner Scott Smith or his life before he came to San Francisco in 1972 at the age of 42. Interviewers hinted at his bursts of temper, but I would have liked to hear more about his volatile personality. Archived recordings show that he was a powerful speaker, but his battle to get elected shows that he wasn’t able to win over everyone. He had many political rivalries, even with other gay activists, and although it would have made the film longer, it would have also made it more nuanced. As well, I found out that Dan White had been a Vietnam vet, a police officer and a fireman before becoming a city supervisor, and I think more exploration of his background would have made the film stronger, especially in light of the fact that he committed suicide in 1985, less than two years after his release.
Overall, Epstein captures the spirit of the times, and the sense that Milk was carried along on the changing political current. He was not only America’s first openly gay politician, but its first gay martyr. In the light of the popularity and critical acclaim for Van Sant’s film, I would love for Epstein to revisit the subject in another film someday.
Official web site of the film
Telling Pictures, director Rob Epstein’s production company
Wikipedia entry on Harvey Milk
(8/10)
Tagged as:
assassination,
homosexuality,
politics
En la ciudad de Sylvia (2007, Director: José Luis Guerin): When Guerin’s film played at TIFF last September, I remember being lured by the stills of a beautiful woman being tailed by a rakish young man, but what a strange little film it turned out to be. With long, almost dialogue-free shots, Guerin seems able to both distance us and draw us into what at first seems to be a simple, even romantic story. The handsome young man (Xavier Lafitte, looking vaguely like both David Bowie and Orlando Bloom) is a tourist in an unnamed French town (it’s Strasbourg, in Alsace, on the border with Germany), where he appears to be searching for someone. Day after day, he sits at a café near the School for Dramatic Arts, sketching in his notebook and people-watching. Well, truthfully, he’s girl-watching, and Guerin’s camera lingers over many a beauty. As a man, I can say with confidence that Guerin captures the sheer joy and pleasure of just looking at a beautiful woman. But our protagonist isn’t content to just glance. He stares, and it’s obvious he’s searching each face for some memory.
All at once, he sees the one he’s been looking for, and jumps up, knocking over his beer. For the next half an hour, we follow him, in real time, as he pursues “Sylvia,” the name he’s written in his sketchbook. At first, the woman seems unaware of his presence, but at one point he comes dangerously close and calls out to her. From then on, it appears that she’s half-aware of his presence. He loses her, and we begin to wonder what’s going on. And then he finds her again, and by now it’s starting to feel just a little bit creepy. Is he just a garden-variety stalker? I often tease some of my female friends that the only difference between a romantic gesture and stalker behaviour is whether the woman is at all physically attracted by her suitor. In this case, our man’s good looks have had us on his side up to now.
Note: Possible spoilers in the next paragraph. Although this is far from a plot-driven film, I’ve coloured the text white so you’ll need to click and drag your mouse cursor over the paragraph to read it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
When he finally gets on a tram and speaks to her, we’re almost 50 minutes into the film. Up to this point there has been very little in the way of dialogue, and so when our protagonist speaks, he sounds a little desperate. He asks her if she’s Sylvia, the girl he met at a bar in the city six years ago. She tells him he’s mistaken. He’s crushed, and embarrassed, or claims to be. We begin to wonder if his story is even true. Who would return six years later to find someone he chatted up in a bar? As she gets off the tram, the tension winds down again.
Except that by the end, we’re not quite sure what he’s going to do. He seems unable to shake his fixation with her. For a film so filled with beautiful people, sunshine, and cobbled streets, I found myself more than a little disturbed by the film’s conclusion. In the first half hour, I was praising Guerin’s ability to capture “the pleasure of looking” but by the time we reach the open-ended conclusion, that phrase holds a decidedly more sinister resonance.
I loved the film’s formal construction. Guerin lets his camera run before his characters enter the frame and long after they’ve left it, grounding us in several locations, to which he returns throughout the film. We see many of the same people several times in the film, although they don’t have speaking roles. It captures a certain claustrophobia, even in a beautiful European town like Strasbourg. The sound design really captured for me the feeling of traveling alone to a new place. The man hears music, but doesn’t really overhear conversations. His interactions with everyone are perfunctory. The whole film feels carefully put together as a kind of puzzle, and although I’ve been thinking about it for some time, En la ciudad de Sylvia made me even more eager to study film theory. It’s the sort of film that doesn’t give up its secrets too easily, and which will reward repeat viewings, even if it is only to look at the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Pilar López de Ayala. Perhaps there’s a little stalker in all of us?
(8/10)
Tagged as:
france,
spain
Bottle Rocket (Director: Wes Anderson): I’ve seen Wes Anderson’s feature debut three or maybe four times by now, but it’s a film I enjoy more and more with each viewing. My first exposure to Anderson was seeing Rushmore at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival and it just knocked me out. When I sought out Bottle Rocket a few months later, I was underwhelmed. It was much more subtle than Rushmore, from the characterization to the art direction, but over the years my estimation of the film has risen considerably. Criterion’s recent release of the film on DVD gave me another opportunity to evaluate it, and it was great to see all of the Wes Anderson touches there, even at the beginning. Critics of Anderson’s work often point out that he hasn’t really changed much as a director, and that even with bigger budgets and larger canvases with which to work, he still ends up telling the same stories. Even as a huge fan of his work, I’d have to say that there’s a lot of truth in that criticism, especially after watching Bottle Rocket again.
The film begins with Anthony (Luke Wilson) being released from a mental hospital where he’d been treated for “exhaustion.” His friend Dignan (Owen Wilson) has come to “break him out,” not realizing that the hospital is voluntary, and that Anthony can leave anytime he wants. In the first of many examples, Anthony plays along with the ruse to make his friend feel better. Dignan is a hyperactive guy with big plans. Although he was fired from his landscaping job with local entrepreneur and smalltime hood Mr. Henry (James Caan), he’s eager to impress him and get his old job back. He recruits Anthony into his “gang” along with their rich friend Bob (Robert Musgrave), the only one who owns a car. The plan is to pull off a daring heist to impress Mr. Henry, thus gaining them entry into his criminal circle (which is fronted by his landscaping business, the Lawn Wranglers).
Their meticulously planned robbery, of a bookstore(!), goes well enough, but their plan calls for them to go “on the lam” so they drive out to the middle of nowhere to hide out in a motel. This middle section of the film is particularly charming, as Anthony falls completely head over heels for Inez, a Paraguayan housekeeper at the motel, in spite of the fact that she speaks no English and he can’t speak Spanish. Anthony seems so desperate to make a connection outside of his social class that this should feel creepy, but thanks to Luke Wilson’s winning performance, it actually manages to feel romantic. A family situation results in Bob taking off in the middle of the night with his car, leading to one of the film’s most memorable lines, from Dignan: “Bob’s gone. He stole his car!” The now-carless gang (Anthony and Dignan) try to keep their flight from the law going, but it soon turns sour and they end up returning home separately. Weeks go by, until Dignan turns up to invite Anthony (and more reluctantly, Bob) into a big score with Mr. Henry’s gang.
I won’t say anymore but I was delighted to discover that the film seems just as fresh as it did the first time I saw it, almost ten years ago now. I love Anderson’s by now trademark use of single-minded and eccentric protagonists, as well as his tendency to portray multi-cultural and multi-generational friendships. It’s a joy to see the debut of Owen Wilson, playing one of the more memorable characters in recent American cinema, and to see him acting with both of his brothers (older brother Andrew plays Bob’s bullying older brother, whom they oddly call “Future Man”.) The film has that feeling of being made by a small group of friends, or in this case, a family.
The only thing I was left wondering was what happened to Robert Musgrave, whose performance as Bob was excellent. In the “making of” included on the DVD, he appears wistful as he revisits some of the locations, some now torn down. I wonder if he ever feels like he was the only one left behind as the other players went on to fortune and fame, while his career has consisted of playing bit parts. Speaking of the “making of”, it was filmed in Spring 2008 and Luke Wilson doesn’t look good at all. Overweight and tired-looking, he really doesn’t come across as the man whom producer James L. Brooks insisted had to “deliver the romance.” I sincerely hope he’s okay.
Other treasures on this 2-disc set I’ve yet to explore include a commentary track with Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, who wrote the film together, and the original 13-minute black and white short, made in 1992, on which the feature was based.
Note: This film always reminds me of another indie film that came out around the same time about a group of hapless wannabe crooks. Palookaville (1995), directed by Alan Taylor, and starring Vincent Gallo, William Forsythe and Adam Trese was another enjoyable and eccentric film about a gang of lovable losers who really weren’t cut out for the criminal lifestyle. I always wonder about the timing of these two films, and why director Alan Taylor never went on to any measure of cinematic success (though he has had a lot of success as a television director, winning an Emmy and working on acclaimed shows such as Mad Men, Lost, The Sopranos and Sex and the City). It’s a good little film and is underappreciated, I think. Try Bottle Rocket and Palookaville as a double feature sometime.
Buy Bottle Rocket from Amazon.com
(9/10)
Tagged as:
coming-of-age,
crime,
criterion,
road-movie,
wesanderson
Tout est parfait (Everything Is Fine) (Director: Yves Christian Fournier): I’d read some strong reviews of this film a few months back and was looking forward to checking it out. The premise is intriguing: Josh (Maxime Dumontier) is a typical teenager living in a suburb in Québec. He has a group of friends with whom he skateboards and parties. Then one day he finds the body of his friend Thomas, who’s hanged himself in his room. The recent suicide of his friend Sasha still fresh in his mind, he’s sent reeling when he realizes that Alex and Simon, the others in his group of pals, have also killed themselves. He’s been left out of their pact, and he’s suddenly very alone.
His only connections to the friends he’s lost are Henri, Thomas’s layabout father, and Mia, the ex-girlfriend of Sasha. In the already insular world of teenage boys, he cuts himself even further off from his terrified parents, and stonewalls the counselor he’s required to see at school. Only with Mia does he seem to forget the inexplicable tragedy, indulging in the crush he’d harboured for a long time, though not without guilt. With Henri, he tries to bond over golf, a sport he doesn’t really like, but one with which Henri had always tried to interest Thomas, without success. Other than that, we don’t really get to know Josh at all, and even less about his friends, even though there are some flashbacks as he revisits old haunts.
The pace of the film is incredibly slow, and there is very little dialogue to help flesh out the characters. We see glimpses of Josh with each of his friends, but there is very little sense of what made them such a tight-knit group. The mystery of why Josh is still here is therefore not of as much interest as it should be, and when it is “solved” at the end of the film, it comes both too suddenly and too late. Even so, the senselessness of the suicides is never disturbed by any kind of explanation. The reasons the boys took their lives are in the end as unknowable as the boys themselves, which, combined with the glacial pacing of the film, made it a bit of a frustrating experience for me. The ending redeems the film a little, along with some fine cinematography and a great soundtrack.
Note: This DVD from Alliance Atlantis is primarily a French release. It does have English subtitles, though every sound effect and action seems to be subtitled as well, which made for some snickering each time the counselor was reduced to <sighing>. Additionally, the special features, including a commentary from the director and writer, are available in French only.
(7/10)
Tagged as:
adolescence,
canada,
quebec,
suicide
