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Big Eden (2000)
What if we could just wish homophobia away?
The small Montana community of Big Eden isn't just a picture-postcard paradise, although the forests, lakes and mountains of the Glacier National Park do form a gorgeous backdrop to the movie. The main reason Big Eden is a paradise isn't the scenery. Folks in Big Eden really care about each other. A lot. They even care about the queers and the sexually confused among them.
"I just want things to be nice for him," says shy Pike Dexter (a wonderful performance by Eric Schweig). He's surrounded by a bunch of red-necks who pass their time in his general store drinking his coffee and enjoying other folks' business. "Thing is, Pike, we want things to be nice for you, too, buddy," replies Jim, a character who in many another movie might be expected to be burning crosses outside the queers' front door.
The big idea behind "Big Eden" is very simple -- imagine a world where homophobia isn't an issue. Folks don't much care who you do it with, just that you're happy about it. Do we get, as first-time writer/director Thomas Bezucha hints in his DVD commentary was his objective, a Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant style romantic comedy, but gay all of a sudden? Or do we get something more unexpected?
Homophobia is a reality every lesbian and gay man has to cope with every day. It's so constant it's almost as though being gay or lesbian is defined by the reaction it provokes in "straight" society. There are lots of lesbian and gay movies where homophobia isn't the main issue, but "Big Eden" is the only movie I know of where the central issue is the absence of homophobia.
Whatever you do, don't come to this movie expecting it to be a realistic portrayal of what it's like to be gay in Montana even in 2005. Remember the Missoula lesbian couple who were nearly killed with their children in a fire-bombing attack in February 2002? "Big Eden" isn't contemporary realism it's an imaginative attack on homophobia.
For this to work in the movie, the queers have to be realistic and credible. Dean (Tim DeKay) is the high-school quarterback type. He's been married and has a couple of kids, but has always been very close to Henry Hart. He loves Henry but is terminally confused about his sexuality. Henry (Arye Gross) is the only obviously gay man in the movie, but in a restrained way he certainly isn't your Sean Hayes New York flamer type. Henry grew up in Big Eden and has family there. He's sensitive and needs loving, and Arye Gross gives him just the right mixture of annoying passivity and ageing puppy dog appeal. It's easy to understand the folks of Big Eden wanting Dean and Henry to get sorted out. But the key role is that of Native American Pike Dexter. He's strong, shy, sweet-natured and few in words, and Eric Schweig manages to make it absolutely credible that even the toughest lumberjack would want Pike to be happy. It's a wonderful performance using body language more than words to convey longing, shyness and tenderness. For me it's worth the price of the ticket or the DVD just to see this performance. But there's also the point that most romantic comedies focus on the conflicts between the two lovers without giving any real feeling for why they should get together in the last reel. In the scene between Pike and Henry when they finally have a meal together and talk, you see with crystal clarity what they have to offer each other, and Eric Schweig and Arye Gross play it to perfection.
Yes, "Big Eden" is definitely a must-see gay movie. But is it the gay movie I've waited so very long for? Sadly, not quite. Rather like "Desert Hearts", which is deeply annoying precisely because it almost, almost makes it, "Big Eden" comes across as a lovingly made movie that isn't quite tightly written enough, doesn't have quite enough clarity and finish. And it's such a shame. The premise is great, the acting is pretty damn good George Coe, Eric Schweig, Veanne Cox and Arye Gross are excellent, and Louise Fletcher does an amazing job in making an impossibly nice woman seem genuine and the production values are astounding for a small-budget, indie movie the people who made this film wanted to do the absolute best they could. I just wish this had been Thomas Bezucha's fifth film not his first, is all, I guess.
And there's also a tiny reservation niggling at the back of my mind about the premise. None of the queers in this movie push the boundaries of diversity to put it mildly. And they are born and bred in Big Eden they belong. It's surely not an accident that Big Eden works partly because it is placed in a narrow small-town community. There's a long sentimental tradition centred round small-town particularly frontier small-town community. It makes "Big Eden" work because it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine these folk wanting to look after their own. But it also makes me recall the opening ten minutes of "The Laramie Project", where many of the townsfolk express shock not so much that a young gay man has been horribly murdered in their town, but that the killers were born and bred there. Nonetheless, the fact that it provokes these considerations is a plus, not a minus. It's a simple premise, but it forces you to confront the issues of homophobia in novel ways.
This is a must-see movie, but be gentle with it. Treat it in the way the good folks of Big Eden treat the queers among them, with thoughtful tenderness. And it's worth being patient with it just for Pike's smile at the very end of the movie. It's like the sun rising over the mountains.
It's in the Water (1997)
Gentle comedy with its heart in the right place
This isn't the best gay and lesbian comedy around, but it certainly isn't the stinker that some of the other IMDb user comments claim it to be.
It's camp and extravagantly acted -- okay, maybe a bit overacted -- in the way, say, "But I'm A Cheerleader" is. But it more than makes up for that in its upbeat and affirming ending and particularly through its gentle treatment of the two main characters. It's very unusual that these two are a gay and a lesbian. Most LGBT movies stick to one group; "It's In The Water" shows a lesbian discovering what she is from out of a loveless marriage and a "cured" gay guy finding love with an unashamed gay decorator. If only more LGBT movies were as inclusive...
Sure, this isn't one of those LGBT movies that could be claimed to be in the same league as mainstream Hollywood movies. But frankly, even so, I'm happy to give this one a "7". And hell, I'd watch this anytime rather than some of the "gay" tripe that the "mainstream" serve us up, such as "In & Out" or "Three To Tango".
Don't expect a masterpiece, and don't expect the raving farce that the blurb promises. But do sit back and enjoy a good-hearted, sweet, story.
Baise-moi (2000)
Bad art, bad porn...
This film doesn't even have anything to say about the only thing which makes it different -- the use of "real" sex acts rather than "simulated" ones.
My advice is if you want to see a film that has something to say, well, even "Thoroughly Modern Millie" has more intellectual depth than this travesty, so go watch that instead.
And if you want to see "real" sex, save yourself the trouble of having to ignore iffy subtitles and just rent a porno video.
I'm a fan of French movies, but this one is just nasty and empty.