Toronto's Lesbian/Gay Film Fest 08
Out at the Wedding and Savage Grace Reviewed
From May 15-25, 2008, Inside Out will bringing audiences the best of gay and lesbian cinema in Toronto, Ontario. Here are early reviews of 2 of the films to be screened.
Out at the Wedding
Directed by Lee Friedlander
Rating - 7/10
Initially off-putting, Out at the Wedding sneaks up as an endearing and campy romantic comedy of errors and misunderstandings. Several laugh out loud moments and impressive performances are able to ameliorate the flimsy late-night cable porn direction and production values. Eternally afraid of conflict and disappointing those around her, Alex (Andrea Marcellus) has a tendency to lie to everyone, including her new fiancé Dana (Mystro Clark), who believes that her entire family is dead. This is why Alex decides to take her flamboyant gay best friend Jonathan (Charlie Schlatter) to her sister Jeannie’s (Desi Lydic) wedding down south. Through a series of misunderstandings, everyone at the wedding comes to believe that the very straight Alex is actually a lesbian. Afraid to tell her family the truth, she leaves the lie in the air, only to have it come back and bite her in the ass when her bubbly sister comes to visit her in New York. Rather than tell the truth, Alex decides to hire a lesbian (Cathy DeBuono) to pretend to be her girlfriend. What really holds the film together is Andrea Marcellus’ solid portrayal of a mildly misanthropic and neurotic pacifier with a tendency to push everyone close to her away. She handles both comedy and drama effectively, adding a layer of credibility to the film as an accessible character. Her comic sensibility in the film is matched by the camera friendly Desi Lydic who nails the helpless, flirtatious blonde role. Additional humour is found in random Star Trek references and a lesbian with a tendency to get hit in the face with balls. It’s all highly entertaining, but loses steam as it trudges into the third act. Necessary resolutions are predictable and uninspired and devoid of the same comic sensibilities of the proceeding. Wedding is highly recommended to fans of camp humour and anyone who finds the notion of Reginald VelJohnson (Family Matters) being married to Mink Stole (John Waters’ Mink Stole) amusing.
Savage Grace
Directed by Tom Kalin
Rating - 4/10
Ever the risk taker, Julianne Moore has again taken on a role that few other actresses would even consider. From her bottomless stint in Short Cuts, to her depressing stint as Amber Waves to this, her most audacious role yet, Moore has proven she fears nothing taboo when it comes to the world of acting. Unsurprisingly, she is amazing in Savage Grace, but the film itself isn’t particularly strong, glossing over necessary character development choosing to instead focus on shock. Based on the true story of the heirs of the Bakelite plastics fortune, Grace follows desperate socialite Barbara Baekeland (Julianne Moore) who has married into her riches via Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane). In an effort to overcompensate for her middle-class upbringing, Barbara overplays her role, which only exacerbates the distance felt by her distant and bemused husband. Despite Brooks’ preference for sodomy over old-fashioned vaginal intercourse, the pair manages to produce an offspring, whom they name Tony (Eddie Redmayne). With her husband all but ignoring her, Barbara substitutes her feelings of inadequacy, instability and romance over to her son, whom she molds in her image. It becomes clear early on that Tony is gay but given the times he is inclined to bring home a foxy female conquest named Blanca (Elena Anaya), who eventually gets pelvic with Tony’s father. With Brooks out of the picture, Tony is left with his increasingly erratic mother, with whom he shares everything; including lovers--simultaneously. While Stephen Dillane gives some complex emotion to his underwritten character, the real standout of Grace is undoubtedly Moore. She ranges from charming, to hypomanic, to batsh*t insane with complete ease. She manages to never come across as over-the-top or unbelievable, which is impressive considering the melodramatic and touchy subject matter. It is one of the best performances of her career and certainly one of the best of the year, but is unlikely to be acknowledged considering that the climax of the film involves her screwing her son and giving him a hand job. It’s really quite revolting. The film itself is beautifully photographed, but suffers from empty and listless direction that exists only to frame a series of weakly connected vignettes. Savage Grace is a disappointing and nausea inducing film that doesn’t succeed in conveying the emotional impact it desperately aims for.
Read reviews of She's a Boy I Knew & Saturn in Opposition.
