Time Out Reviews VIII
Lesbian dating rituals - the sweet nectar
of our culture. Let me see if I've got this right. The scene: a bar in Los
Angeles. Enter Loretta, the pinch-waisted scriptwriter for the cartoon "Heavy
Murtle" who has "been through more women than a speculum." Loretta spies
Rachel, a homey from the Bronx. She wants her, and I mean pronto. But she
has to shake off her current shackle, Annie the psycho-athlete. No problem,
Annie can flex her pecs with Sandy, Rachel's ex-bed mate. Loretta and Rachel
decide to share the flannel in their new home. Back at the bar, the barmaid
is "dying to feel the flesh of another chick's breasts" and Veronica yearns
for Tracey to whisk her away on her Harley. Assorted barflies buzz around,
including none other than Chastity Bono, who gets to utter three whole words.
Enter JR, the rookie police officer with a mean jaw and a mane of hair. She
wants Rachel but ends up humping someone else...
"Mega-pouting" all the way, "Bar Girls" is a sleekly produced film that grapples
with non-monogamy, jealous rage and abandonment blues in an almost laconically
droll way, lit periodically by sparks of candour and wit. Don't bother if
you want to peek upon their sexual exploits - there's only one scene, liberally
doused with tinkling piano and swathed in chiffon.
"Bar Girls" is rather stylish and as soapy as you can get. You can forgive
the fact it's a mite twee and a tad slow in places. The offical programme
describes it as a "hilarious romp" but it's more an amusing stroll: a few
rib-ticklers, some brief moments of angst, a handful of stereotypes and lots
of heartfelt hugging. Treat yourself to something sweet.
Ever seen "Times Square"? Seen "Heavenly
Bodies" yet? Mix them up, sprinkle in some psychological trauma, a pinch
of murder and what you get is "Fun". Described as "the return of the repressed",
it is the story of two fourteen year-olds, Bonnie - a hyperactive, stroppy,
sassy lil' thing - and Hilary, her lethargic but bolshy friend.
The film opens two days after the girls have been sentenced for murder. The
prison psychiatrist (a chain-smoking, prissy-faced woman) tries to unmask
a deeper motive, while battling against a "scum" tabloid reporter despatched
to weedle out the real reason for the girls' crime - an obscene style of
Knock-down Ginger that ends with a brutal stabbing.
The script is terribly lean, and drips with that style of lesbian subtext
that is so loved and so interminably analysed by critics. The cast just as
tight with striking performances by Alicia Witt and Renee Humphrey, who make
"Fun" a rather intense, if slightly uncomfortable, experience.
Might be worth a gander at the Sweet Romance programme of shorts (Sun 19th
6pm NFT2 and Thu 30th 6.15pm NFT2) which includes Heatwave (Dir: Kathy Stephens,
UK 1994), the charming but sultry tale of teen obsession with a fab 70's
feel (flares, hot pants and Mk I Escorts) and a touch of romantic symbolism
thrown in for good measure. Object/Subject Of Desire (Dirs: Lorri Millan
& Shawna Dempsey, Can 1994) on the other hand is a puerile piece with
a cynical bride in a puffball dress who swaps tales of failed romances, backed
by floating clouds and railway tracks. Nightwork (Dir: Jane Schneider, Aus
1994) is a cautionary fable about the promise of monogamy with an Australian
biker and her European partner, while Cross Your Heart (Dir: Suzy Richter,
Can 1994) has a new-wave ambience, with a grainy and blurred yarn of urban
obsession between a woman with quiff-coiffure wandering around Canada making
protracted and inaudible phonecalls. Made no sense to me either.
©Megan Radclyffe Publ. Time Out 1997
Work
is set in the town of Liberty, this is the tale of Jenny, a thoroughly
frustrated and exceedingly bored housewife who is passionate about her next-door
neighbour, June. The pair mooch down main street, having tedious conversations
about dreary subjects. Jenny spends endless days fixing her husband's ailing
truck and lying about her CV to potential employers. She alleviates this
(and our) languor by playing chase me with her beloved in the woods by
torchlight. She goes absolutely nowhere, and as a consequence, neither does
the film. It only picks up twice: once when she meets some real dykes (they
have a computer, some dope, house music and monochrome furnishings) and again
when June buggers off to New Mexico (can't blame her) and Jenny ends up as
a bobble-hatted bullshit shifter in a garden centre. It's no wonder 'Time
Out' are giving tickets away. It's doubtful the NFT have sold any.
Loose Ends (Unbeständig Und
Kühl)
has a fair smattering of heterosexual
angst involving a bride-to-be and her intended, their celibate best friend,
her bastard ex-boyfriend and his brother. There's also a dyke called Nina
who shags 'em, bags 'em and throws 'em away on a nightly basis. She can't
pay rent and she drinks like the proverbial fish Nina does meet a cab driver
called Ella, who rings her bell but it's too late. All of her buttons are
locked on Self Destruct and she literally turbines herself to oblivion. It's
all a bit cliched really but trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds. Well
worth a gander.
FEMALE PERVERSIONS
Set Stateside, and trying to be stylish
on a shoestring, 'Female Perversions' is the sorry tale of Evelyn (Tilda
Swinton) a painfully pale and skinny, thin-lipped attorney who is praying
for promotion as a high court judge. Shove coal up her arse and a week later,
you'd have a 24ct diamond. Like every woman who ever wants to smash the glass
ceiling, she's got a closet, and this one's fucking huge. Not only is her
sister a kleptomaniac, her father abused her mother and she is having an
affair with a female doctor of psychiatry. She even gets her boyfriend to
shave her and we're not talking about a fuzzy upper lip here.
Evelyn lives on a stratosphere of utter paranoia that even a ton of cocaine
couldn't sustain. She hears voices. She is plagued by strange dreams of ropes
(don't get your hopes up, it's just symbolic crap) and even imagines she
is attacked by harbingers of doom. I can't give away the plot. There isn't
one, as such. This film is as anally retentive as a brawl of straight rugby
players who mistakenly ventured into Gummi. The boom operator's arms were
not powerful enough as I noticed the microphone in shot more than seven times.
Come to think of it, that means the editor's shit as well. If this is the
flagship of the 1997 festival, then the RNLI should be on hand. Sorry Tilda,
I think you're fab but you should have a stern word to your agent.
MUM'S THE WORD (MAMAN ET EVE)
A gigantic retrospective of queer history
is soon to be screened on TV entitled 'It's Not Unusual'. The same title
should have been selected by the producers of 'Mum's The Word' because it's
perfectly precise. This bog-standard forage through dyke life centred on
the lives of four French-Canadian women (ooh, subtitles!) who 'discovered'
their latent lesbianism in their late 40's (well actually, three bisexuals
and one dyke). With prosaic use of home cine film and photograph albums,
these women ran the entire gamut of experience from 'I was married' to 'Now
I'm not' ridden ever since with angst, guilt and regret while daughters swung
from 'I used to identify with her' to 'Now I don't' and espoused despair,
rancour and prejudice.
After the exuberant mood of 'Forbidden Love' this film could well be described
as a counter-balance: jolly women who cherish their lesbo life versus with
women seething anger and repressed vexation. Call me sniffy and cynical if
you wish, but I'm thankful I didn't have to pay money to support a lesbian
and gay festival and suffer confused women fawning and bawling over their
ex-husbands. And can anyone, anyone, think of a different way to present
lesbian history on celluloid? Please!
©Megan Radclyffe Publ. Time Out 1997
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