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kathtea
Reviews
Straight Story (2006)
disturbing
As a Greek I have to say that if this is where Greek culture is heading, then Greek culture is in very serious trouble. The characters are wafer thin and the plot is a 95-minute extension of one joke that wasn't funny to begin with.
Yiannis is a straight man in a gay world, who secretly goes to straight clubs and has fallen in love with a gay woman. On the surface it seems the message of this film is that when you reverse the roles 'gay people are just like straight people', which would be perfectly fine if: a) it were true that all people are alike b) society was progressive enough to have reached such idealistic levels Equally objectionable is Yiannis' 'seduction' of Sofia. Basically he gets her drunk and sleeps with her and upon realising her confusion, kisses her until she 'turns straight'. Though this certainly isn't the first film whose would-be couples are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts with nothing in common, this oral assault sequence that uses 'love' as a justification is something I find frankly disturbing.
I can't begin to explain on how many levels this movie is wrong. Just because everyone is gay and the straight people are in the minority in this warped 'comedy 'doesn't make sick bigotry any more acceptable.
When you re-invert the premise, fundamental biases in the ideologies of directional/writing team become patently obvious. Is prejudice OK when the oppressed become the oppressors? Is being gay acceptable 'as long as you act just like everyone else'? That's what this movie is trying to assert and it's not a happy feeling.
Losing Gemma (2006)
Awful is too good
Why bother writing about such an obvious pile of crap? I consider my down time to be very valuable and as such am affronted by such made-for-TV tat eating up precious hours of my life.
It opened promisingly: the independent, inexplicably moody girl looking out for ditsy blonde on their big trip to the subcontinent as blonde gets the girls into more trouble than they bargained for. Mysterious fellow befriending them but turning out to be quite sinister. Even when the chick turns up dead there are possibilities for a Bangkok Hilton-type nail-biter, but no such luck: the acting is *woeful*, the characters bounce around in a series of inexplicable and unrelated incidents, the plot has more holes than a colander and the ending...
If, like me, you find yourself in front of the TV one night wondering whether to bother staying up for the end, I'm here to save you the agony. It really, really, really isn't worth it. The ending could only be less satisfying if it involved a sing-along in cowboy costumes. What a waste of a gorgeous set and a perfect opportunity to produce something decent. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Action (1999)
The original stuff
Peter Dragon picks up where Larry Sanders left off with the blackest of black comedies. Razor sharp script, perfect performances and many, many 'I can't believe they just said that' moments.
Dragon was the smartest, funniest, realest character to come out of a Hollywood spoof in years. Writer/producer/creator Chris Thompson slipped almost entirely off the radar after this production, quite possibly through choice, because if you can't celebrate candour and truth on TV, what's left to celebrate?
What seriously shocks me is that no one seems to remember 'Action' when heaping praise on lesser shows on a similar theme -- specifically the heavily watered down reincarnation that is 'Californication'.
Though referenced heavily over the last 7 years, no one dares to speak its name, which is a pity because its fiery death made a lot of modern TV moments possible.