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cappyboy
Reviews
Nunzio's Second Cousin (1994)
obscenely twisted homophobia (spoilers in comments)
I read a review that found this short film amusing so I watched and waited for the fun to come. It never arrived.
*** Spoilers in this review *** What came was a seventeen minute trip via ignorant and homophobic characters. Since Tony, the main character is gay you'd think this would be uplifting. What it turns out to be is a shameful display of internalized hate for himself that gets acted out on a teenage boy struggling with his own fears that he's a homosexual too.
Tony turns the tables when a group of teenaged gay bashers attack him and his black date for the evening. At first there's a feeling of empowerment, knowing that as a police officer he puts the would be thugs in their place. The method may be questionable but the emotions are probably quite valid. They're committing a true hate crime, they deserve to be humiliated. Possibly even more since if he hadn't stopped them they could have even killed in their gleeful attack.
Tony is clearly saddened in a humane sort of way when a neighbor of his mother makes an extremely racist remark to him. It's obvious that Tony understands and is repulsed by the unfair and ingrained bias of the senior citizen that makes the awful statement with the implicit intent that Tony will enjoy it. That's what makes the next part of the video so surprising.
What's not right, not fair not even understandable is that when Tony manipulates Levon into coming to dinner at his mother's house he knows what's going on in the boys head. He not only continues the cruelty of his remarks and innuendos but accelerates the twisted behavior. Over dinner with his mother as an unwitting accomplice, Tony forces Levon to admit that they might have more in common than would appear on the surface. The implication is clear that Levon is suppressing his own homosexual inclinations and uses the gay bashing to cover them up.
When dinner is over, Mrs. Randazzo is pleased and delighted to send Levon off with leftovers and the promise of a return visit. Tony is nothing short of brutal when he humiliates Levon once his mother is out of sight. It's cruel of him in the worst of ways to treat the younger and conflicted Levon this way. It's understood that Tony has been the target of homophobic behavior and it's painful in a very personal sense. What we see is very much the victim becoming the victimizer and a horrible lesson in behavior from anyone and especially an Officer of the Law.
Eileen Brennan plays the part of Mrs. Randazzo with a maniac intensity and does it in such a way that you can't help but see the love and devotion she feels for Tony. Her character is equal parts crazy and loving but entirely solid from start to finish. Look for Seth Green as one of the gay bashing boys. Though he has little enough dialog his facial expressions are nothing short of entertaining in the midst of an awful scene.
This video should have been a powerful and moving experience, what it became was less than, and a truly mixed message. Not ambiguous in the way of leaving it up to the viewer to figure things out, it just never gets it's own head straight.
Touch of Pink (2004)
mildly amusing but cliché' and light
As a story this one tries hard. That's the best I'll say for it. I never found a way to really like the characters. Each of them is self involved and absorbed to a degree that makes them stereotypical and ugly. While the main character has an all too common and real dilemma, and his mother's obtuse denial is nothing out of the ordinary, they simply aren't handled in a way that makes the viewer sympathetic towards them. I quite disliked them both at certain points while hoping that I would find them warm and fuzzy.
The saddest thing is the boyfriend and how he's treated. He is perhaps the nicest on the bunch but the plot and development leave him starched and angry more than genuinely loving and kind.
This film was also a coming out film, and though that's often painful and dramatic this one wasn't. It wasn't often funny or dramatic and though it wasn't the oft repeated teen-aged angst fest that many coming out movies are, it wasn't much different except for giving the main character an ethnic spin.
The film did try to get there, but emotionally left me flat. As is sometimes the case, gay themed means poorly done. I hate that, but the market is somewhat starved and often simply having a gay theme gets a movie made that shouldn't or wouldn't get made on it's own merits. I think there should be tons more gay themed movies, but I think they need to be good movies that are gay themed not simply expect to be good because they're gay themed. In the same way that simply seeing Disney on a label doesn't guarantee a truly fine film, seeing the word gay doesn't mean a movie is relevant or meaningful to gay people.
Though it had good intentions I don't think this was a relevant or meaningful movie to gay/lesbian audiences. It might be more to the point to say it could entertain those not in the community in the same way shows like Will and Grace do. By being over the top parodies of real life, they entertain but never enlighten and never really touch the people they are supposed to be about.