DVD REVIEW: INSPIRED THE VOICES AGAINST PROP 8

A scene from Inspired: The Voices Against Prop. 8.

Frogs out of hot water

By John Esther

Exactly four years and one month ago, a majority of California voters passed Proposition 8, thus revoking the short-lived marriage rights for same sex couples. As a result, members of the GLBT community who, often, widely overestimated the intelligence of the California voter, were galvanized to action.

Days and weeks later, the community, along with their non-gay allies, took to the streets throughout Los Angeles County -- from Long Beach, Pasadena, East Los Angeles, West Hollywood -- and beyond to protest this dismantling of civil rights.

Capturing the lives of these activists -- both old and new -- in the wake of Prop 8., director Charlie Gage's Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8 is a sweet and speedy jaunt through a small piece of California history pro-civil rights viewers will enjoy.

Although unified in their opposition of "Prop H8" different factions along geopolitical grounds took different approaches. West of downtown Los Angeles, protests consisted of predominately white people occupying the streets of largely GLBT-friendly communities or stayed indoors to do a little phone banking. Meanwhile, the predominately "Sí, se puede" pro-GLBT Latino elements east of Los Angeles took on a different approach in considerably more difficult terrain where race played a factor, albeit not the way mainstream media reported. (Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly, as usual, comes of as ill-informed jerk in one segment.)

These different approaches caused quite a bit of friction amongst like-minded people. There is also a segment where people debate whether the boycott against El Coyote restaurant in Los Angeles was a good thing (it was), thus illustrating that the GLBT community is not some monolithic entity but consists of people with various points of views.

Featuring talking heads mixed with foot-age footage, the film interviews several important Los Angeles activists, such as noted protester Jimmy Chen, political whiz Sergio Carrillo, L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center Activities Coordinator Dahlia Ferlito, Los Angeles attorney Tim Lykowski, and Vanessa Romain of Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Inc., today's release of the DVD and VOD of Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8 coincides with many Californians (and Americans) waiting to hear if the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on Prop. 8.

DVD REVIEW: SENTIMENT OF THE FLESH

Héléna (Annabelle Hettmann) and Benoît (Thibault Vinçon) in Sentiment of the Flesh.

One to (se)x-ray you

By Don Simpson 

Love makes people -- especially characters in films -- do some really crazy things. In the case of Héléna (Annabelle Hettmann) and Benoît (Thibault Vinçon), they decide that attraction to each other's external features is not quite enough; they want to delve deeper into each other, and not metaphorically either, they literally want to peruse each other's innards, bones, muscles, organs, every nook and cranny.

Their mutual interest in the human anatomy stems from different perspectives, Héléna is pursuing a degree in anatomical drawing, while Benoît is a medical doctor and professor. Héléna and Benoît meet while Héléna is getting x-rays in an attempt to diagnose a lower back pain. In addition to the x-ray of her back, Héléna discovers that Benoît has inexplicably taken an x-ray of her thorax as well. From there, the duo delve into a discussion about how every human being is unique; their individual quests to acquire absolute knowledge about human anatomy (according to Benoît, "1000 painters died not knowing the sentiment of the flesh. Many more will die not knowing...") are fatefully (or fatally) intertwined. When a date in the MRI lab does not totally quench Benoît's thirst for completely penetrating Héléna's intimacy, their desire to continue down this path spirals totally out of control.

I am not quite sure I believe that Héléna and Benoît would have free reign of a hospital to use x-ray and MRI machines as their sex toys. The most unfathomable scenes, however, are when Benoît and Héléna are each caught red-handed on separate occasions, yet no punishment in enacted upon either of them. Then again, I do not work in a French hospital, so maybe security is much more lax than I would expect.

David Cronenberg comparisons are unavoidable, as writer-director Roberto Garzelli's feature-length debut The Sentiment of Flesh reveals a certain kinship with the erotic perversity represented in Dead Ringers and Crash. The primary difference is that Garzelli revels in the eroticism while Cronenberg amps up the perversity. 

DVD REVIEW: BEDWAYS

 Hans (Matthias Faust) and Marie (Lana Cooper) in Bedways.

Here we come

By Don Simpson

In a dilapidated and sparsely furnished Berlin apartment, an aspiring director named Nina (Miriam Mayet) and her two thespians -- Marie (Lana Cooper) and Hans (Matthias Faust) -- screen test for a yet-to-be-scripted film. The video project is is based upon a simple premise: Nina intends to capture authentic feelings, authentic love and authentic sex.

Nina attempts to maintain full directorial control by maniacally manipulating her actors as if they are puppets and she is pulling their strings. The borders between fiction and reality are promptly blurred as Marie and Hans try to decipher what their director really wants from them. According to Nina, Marie and Hans should not play themselves or anyone else -- but what does that mean?

The sexual histories between Nina and both of her subjects further complicates the on- and off-camera scenario. The project quickly evolves into a warped seduction in which Nina pushes everyone’s emotions, including her own, to the limit. Nina, Marie and Hans experience a titillating tilt-a-whirl of emotions and desires, a disorienting ride that thrives off of jealousy, grief and anger.

Can cinematic authenticity be faked? Do Marie and Hans really need to fall in love with each other in order for Nina’s film to succeed? Can two people fall in love in front of the unblinking kino eye and an authoritative voyeur?

Nina is not the only voyeur in the equation as German filmmaker RP Kahl often positions the camera statically at distance in order to form a voyeuristic perspective for the audience. The camera does occasionally venture in for a closer view of the sexual encounters as if to verify for the audience that the penetration is authentic -- like Nina, his onscreen avatar, Kahl is incredibly fascinated by cinematic realism.

By utilizing the film-within-a-film narrative format, Kahl creates a world in which it is practically impossible to decipher when the actors are acting for Nina and when we are witnessing the actors’ reality. In doing so, Kahl discusses how cinema blurs the identities of its actors and contemplates the relationship between their on- and off-screen persona.

Bedways is an experimental chamber piece that concentrates on three actors encased for the most part in one location. This incredibly intimate narrative technique is cleverly juxtaposed with the mental and spacial distancing of intimacy and sex. One of the more telling scenes -- that purposefully bookends Bedways -- is when we witness Hans and Nina masturbating in separate rooms while observing each other via monitors; eventually they reach their limits of torture, the separation becomes too much, and Nina commands for Hans to come to her.

A worthy attempt to merge the worlds of art house and erotic cinema (a la Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience; Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs; Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and Chloe; the films of Joe Swanberg; etc.), Bedways aptly blurs the definition of erotic cinema by giving us a well-crafted and incredibly dramatic film with some penetrating sex thrown in.

DVD REVIEW: BRIAN ENO 1971-1977

The cover for Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Brain One

By Don Simpson

Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell To Earth is, surprisingly enough, the first documentary film produced about, but not authorized or sanctioned by, Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, otherwise known as Brian Eno, or simply just Eno. The documentary captures what are arguably the most important years of Eno’s fruitful career in 154 minutes. This would be 60 minutes too long for most music documentaries, but considering Eno’s countless seminal contributions to music as a musician, arranger, producer, innovator and theorist during those eight years, even 154 minutes seems all too brief of an overview. For better or worse, Eno is probably best known today for his production duties for U2 and Coldplay. The purpose of Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell To Earth is to school the uniformed on Eno’s golden years.

Eno studied at art school and considered himself to be a non-musician when he joined Roxy Music as their keyboards and synthesizers player in the early 1970s. As with everything else he touched from here on out, Eno’s unique influence, otherwise known as “treatments” or "Enossification," on Roxy Music’s first two albums -- Roxy Music (1972) and For Your Pleasure (1973) -- is undeniable.

After one too many clashes with Roxy Music frontman Brian Ferry, Eno began a solo career releasing four groundbreaking “vocal” albums (all of which would be “desert island” picks for me): Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974), Another Green World (1975) and Before and After Science (1977). Eno also began releasing instrumental albums, which eventually became his forte as a solo artist, such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978), thus laying the groundwork for ambient music.

Eno simultaneously began involving himself in many collaborative projects such as No Pussyfooting (1973) and Evening Star (1975) with Robert Fripp (King Crimson); The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) with Genesis; End (1974) with Nico (Velvet Underground); Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy (1974) with Kevin Ayers (Soft Machine) and poet June Campbell Cramer; Diamond Head (1975) and Listen Now (1977) with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music); Fear (1974), Slow Dazzle (1975) and Helen of Troy (1975) with John Cale (Velvet Underground); Cluster & Eno (1977) with Cluster; and Low (1977) and "Heroes" (1977) with David Bowie. Also by the close of 1977, Eno had produced Ultravox’s Ultravox!, Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food and Devo’s debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!.

And that is -- literally -- only about half of what Eno did between 1971 and 1977. Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell To Earth touches upon even more Eno-related projects than I just did, dedicating a few minutes to each release and spending a bit more time on the major milestones in Eno’s career. Archive footage of live performances and studio recording sessions is interspersed amongst interviews with music journalists, colleagues, collaborators and friends; and of course there is a healthy dose of Eno’s music (most of which is matched with visual accompaniment).

Eno is debatably one of the most influential individuals to have ever worked in the music industry. As one of the more innovative musicians and producers in the history of rock music, no matter what role Eno plays during the recording of a song, he approaches the studio as a painter approaches a blank canvas. His specialty is adding more dimensions to the music, highlighting aspects of the song structure to make it stand out more, while morphing other aspects in order to blur them into the background. Everything Eno has touched during his 40+ year career has been gold to my ears.  

Now available on DVD, Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell To Earth suitably represents Eno’s genius, though I would argue that his golden years continued through the 1981 release of his collaboration with David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

DVD REVIEW: COME UNDONE

Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) in Come Undone.

Unraveling at the sheets

By Don Simpson

Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) and Alessio’s (Giuseppe Battinston) relationship begins to come undone when a charming waiter named Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino) enters the picture. Prior to Anna’s first interaction with the talk, dark and handsome Domenico (he is from the south), we sense that her relationship with Alessio is friendly and comfortable but there is nothing sexy about it. Even their body types — Anna is attractive and petite, Alessio is frumpy and rotund — signal that they might be romantically incompatible. I often found myself wondering how Anna and Alessio became a couple in the first place.

The affair between Anna and Domenico is clumsy from the get go, as they not so clandestinely exchange each other’s digits outside of the insurance office where Anna works as an accountant. At their first rendezvous, Anna crashes into Domenico as she frantically rushes out of the cafe; she is intending to chicken out, but instead she has to lie about having to go to her office to send an email. The sexual chemistry between the two of them is incredibly magnetic, but it seems as though whenever they have an opportunity to see each other, they are unable to consummate their relationship. They stop the charade before it even begins, but then they decide to try again…and again. Eventually they develop a plan: every Wednesday evening, while Domenico is supposed to be snorkeling at the pool, they will meet in a sleazy motel room (with red walls and lots of mirrors) to have incredible sex.

The situation between Anna and Domenico becomes incredibly complicated because it is based upon a web of lies and deceptions. Domenico is married to Miriam (Teresa Saponangelo), with whom he has two young children. When Miriam becomes suspicious that Domenico is having an affair, suddenly Wednesdays evenings are no longer a convenient time for Domenico’s sexual forays. Anna, on the other hand, decides to be honest with Alessio, but she fails to confide in her family, friends or co-workers.

Come Undone is just as much about the working-class struggle to put bread on the table as it is about Anna and Domenico’s affair. Both Anna and Domenico’s households are struggling financially. The only reason Anna and Alessio are able to enjoy a middle class existence is because they are childless, otherwise they would be stuck in the very same dire financial straits as Miriam and Domenico. According to Domenico, everything comes down to money; and given Domenico’s limited working class income, every expenditure comes with a painful choice (such as: ballet lessons for his daughter or a secret vacation with his lover)? When Anna and Domenico are together, however, money is not part of the equation, which is probably why they are so happy together.

Writer-director Silvio Soldini (Agata and the Storm, Days & Clouds) often allows the most minute gestures and actions to speak for themselves (fleeting glances, unconscious smiles, furtive flirtations, nervous conversations, etc.). Soldini also opts to focus on the more mundane and arbitrary aspects of life within the structure of his narrative, delegating very little time and attention to the traditionally important moments, such as the birth of a niece. These non-traditional storytelling techniques promote an impressively organic atmosphere in which scenes and dialogue develop (or come undone) naturally and flow at the normal speed of life.

Come Undone is now available on DVD. For more information: www.filmmovement.com

DVD REVIEW: THE TAQWACORES

Yusef (Bobby Naderi) and Jehangir (Dominic Rains) in The Taqwacores.

Rock the Casbah

By Don Simpson

For a brief period of time, during high school, my love for punk rock and my Christian upbringing were brought together with Christian punk. From the moment I discovered the Christian punk movement, it seemed like a rocking contradiction in terms. There was little or no common ground between the two cultures, and in my ears it just sounded like the Christians were co-opting the punk subculture in order to become hip. It was not long before I went back to happily listening to the Dead Kennedys, leaving Christian music behind.

Before Michael Muhammad Knight’s novel The Taqwacores was published in 2004, there was not much of a Muslim punk scene in the United States; but soon thereafter, a Muslim punk scene began to grow. Eyad Zahra’s film, The Taqwacores, is adapted from Knight’s subculture defining novel. In it we follow a Pakistani Muslim named Yusef (Bobby Naderi) as he moves into a group house filled with young Muslim punks including: Umar (Nav Mann), a straightedge Sunni; skateboarder, Amazing Ayyub (Volkan Eryaman); pink-mohawked guitarist, Jehangir (Dominic Rains); Rabeya (Noureen Dewulf), a riot grrl who wears a patched burqa; and a flamboyantly gay Muslim, Muzzamil (Tony Yalda). Some of them drink or take drugs, others tear pages out of the Koran if they disagree with the doctrine, and they all listen to punk rock.

Yusef’s new “unorthodox” housemates immerse him into the Taqwacore scene. Their living room evolves into a mosque during the day and a punk club at night. Eventually their west coast comrades come to party with them and all hell breaks loose.

Like his Taqwacore cohorts, Yusef begins to challenge his own faith and thus The Taqwacores is about the discovery of oneself within the confines of religion and traditions. Muslims say that Taqwacores are not really Muslims, and the punks say that Taqwacores are not really punks. And that brings me full circle to where I began. Taqwacores see their movement as a mishmashing of disenfranchised subcultures, but is it truly possible to identify yourself as both punk and Muslim (or Christian)?

Different people have different definitions of punk, just as different Muslims (or Christians) have different perspectives on what it means to be Muslim (or Christian). As far as I can surmise from The Taqwacores, though, these young Muslims seem to have adopted a clichéd notion of punk. There is much more to punk than hairstyles, clothing and music — and that is really all these Taqwacore kids seem to have. It probably does not help matters that Zahra portrays all of his characters as one-dimensional caricatures of specific “types” of people in the Taqwacore subculture, and they all wear their personality traits on their sleeves. So I am not saying that Taqwacore is not punk rock; I am saying that Zahra’s cinematic representation of Taqwacore is not punk rock.

The Taqwacores is currently available on DVD. For more information go to Strand Releasing: www.strandreleasing.com

DVD REVIEW: BLACK SWAN

Nina (Natalie Portman) in Black Swan.

White out

By Allan Heifetz

The rock star called Pink in Pink Floyd’s The Wall had a great many reasons to go completely bazonkers. His soldier dad died when Pink was little, his mom smothered him, his wife left him, the drugs, the drink, the Nazi-flavored paranoia, etc. All of these nasty ingredients combine in the end to smash Pink’s sanity. Nina, the meek ballerina of Black Swan, is also a sensitive artist with a large handful of issues that threaten her mind and eventually her life. She lives in near seclusion with her creepy and resentful mother (Barbara Hershey) and dances for a prestigious NYC company that runs her ragged physically and emotionally. Her scary director, Thomas (Vincent Cassel, playing the President of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace), demands perfection from her as well as 24-hour-access to her emaciated booty.

Nina has a brief moment of elation when she wins the coveted lead role in Swan Lake in which she must dance as both the white and the black swan. Her triumph is snuffed out after word is spread that she’s sleeping with the director. Nina becomes an outcast as Thomas continues to bully her into melding with her inner Black Swan in order to unleash the sexual, amoral and dark spirit inside. Alas, Nina is severely blocked sexually and can’t even successfully masturbate. Lily (Mila Kunis), a pretty, sexually open and popular dancer, tries to befriend Nina, but Nina’s delusion and paranoia quickly snuffs out that relationship. Nina is soon convinced that Lily is out to steal her role and destroy her. Nina’s hallucinations ramp up as she spirals down the crazy hole. Which side will seize control in the end; the white or the black? Always bet on black.

Black Swan is truly a rare bird; an extremely bleak story about ballet that somehow became very popular with filmgoers. Even though Natalie Portman put people in seats with her super-tortured and Oscar-winning performance, it’s Darren Aronofsky’s playfulness and technique with a camera that makes this horror story watchable and even fun. This is a horror movie where even the jump scares are artistic and breathtaking and the CGI effects are subtle. Black Swan feels like a little sister to Repulsion (1965), director Roman Polanski’s ode to isolation and sexual psychosis. If Repulsion is the ultimate “Girl descends slowly into madness” movie, then Black Swan just might be the Princess ballerina of the sub-genre that I might have just made up.

As far as DVD extras, there is an interesting, 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary that leaves you wanting more. Unfortunately, that’s it.

The Blu-Ray extras reportedly offer the above documentary, plus three other behind-the-scenes pieces.

DVD REVIEW: SASHA

Sasha (Sasa Kekez) in Sasha.

Croatia coming out

By John Esther

Released today on DVD, Sasha tells a very familiar story about a gay teenager, Sasha (Sasa Kekez), who must hide his feelings for members of the same sex from his family while overexposing his feelings toward a mentor with heart of cold, Gebhard (Tim Bergmann).

The son of Croatian parents living in German, at the insistence of his mother (Zeljka Preksavec) Sasha has been taking piano lessons from Gebhard. Dad (Pedja Bjelac) is not too pleased with his son endeavoring in anything has effeminate and effete as artistic endeavors, but lets it slide because Sasha has a “girlfriend,” Jiao (Yvonne Yung-Hee), who is also a musician training for the same upcoming all-important audition.

Already unnerved by living in the closet, Sasha starts to unravel when Gebhard tells him he is leaving for Austria. Sasha, in his adolescence naïvete believed he and Gebhard would always be together, even if Gebhard never showed any type of emotional reciprocation to Sasha.

When Sasha relates his brother heart to Jiao, she has her own emotional panic as she has strong feelings for Sasha. Obviously she, like Dad and dimwit Uncle Boki (Jasin Mjumjunov) has no gaydar. But Sasha's mother and younger brother (Ljubisa Lupo Grujcic) do -- although they do not dare say the words out loud.
Written and directed by Dennis Todorovic, Sasha does not breaking any narrative frontiers. There are plenty of coming out stories these days and the ending here is quite conventional and some of the dialogue rings hollow. However, the fine acting, pace and score make it worthwhile viewing, not enough to buy the DVD (which does not seem to offer any bonus features), but catching it via cable or Netflix should work.