a good film that could have been
great by FastFreddy
Oct 26th, 1999 12:28:00 AM
The story of Brandon Teena/
Teena Brandon was one that
fascinated me when it came out
about five years ago. The
best coverage of it appeared
in the Village Voice -- they
don't have it on their website
but if enough people request
it maybe they'll post it.
Anyway, if I hadn't read so
much about the REAL
Teena/Brandon I would love the
movie without reservation.
The film pulled its punches in
one huge way: the film's Teena
was a very sympathetic even
loveable character where the
real-life version was a career
scam artist whose greatest
deceit was passing as a man
-- and doing very well at it.
The real Teena/Brandon stole
from just about everyone who
had the misfortune to get
within 10 feet of her. That's
how she supported herself.
A more realistic Teena/Brandon
would pose a problem for the
filmmaker -- how to make it
clear that in spite of her
parasitic lifestyle, she
didn't deserve what she got.
It would have made the film
more complex and even
independant distributors don't
like too much complexity.
Also, for a spirited
discussion (by some articulate
and ultra-PC hipsters) of
which pronoun to use for
Teena/Brandon got to
www.villagevoice.com, type in
"Brandon Teena" in their
search engine and first read
the piece by Amy Taubin then
the angry letters which
follow.
I've seen the movie.... by 20th Century Fox
Oct 26th, 1999 11:47:16 AM
And it was pretty good and
EXTERMLY well acted...I just
have one quiblle though...It
seems that the first 2/3rds of
the flim has no forward motion
whatsoever....I'm not saying
its bad its just that things
dont move forward to the last
1/2 but the acting was amazing
you relly felt those
characters were real....
oh jesus please-us. by iolokus
Oct 26th, 1999 10:06:26 PM
look, i've read about six
universally good reviews of
this movie. lesbianism is,
yes, a prevalent issue but the
movie doesn't get preachy or
anything.
as for "fight club" being
homoerotic, i think that's a
bunch of people who wish they
were freud making something
out of nothing. the movie is
a banner for the american
majority,
white-straight-anglo-guys who
don't have it as good as we
think. the movie plays at
their demasculinization, a
homosexual subplot would be
oxymoronic and destructive to
the theme. plus, without
giving any spoilers, any
sexual connection would be
somewhat masturbatory,
wouldn't it?
deceive, inveigle, etc,
~lolita
iolokus
