OEUVRE UBER ALLES : GAY FILMMAKERS STRUGGLE TO CREATE BODIES OF WORK
By Michael Bronski

The independent contemporary gay film scene has a range of smart, inventive bright-spots -- Noam Gornick's 2001 Hey, Happy, C. Jay Cox's 2003 Latter Days-- as well as its share of clunkers -- fill in your own list of personal worsts. But what it does not have are writer/directors who are building a sustained body of work that grows with them. The great thing about the Hollywood studio-system, or the French New Wave, was that it sustained directors over time so that their work could mature, and change in surprising ways. It's a lot harder in the independent-film world of today.

Alright, Gus van Sant and Gregg Araki have managed to produce a sizable, impressive body of work, but they've moved out of small independent circles. Christopher Munch has made great films, beginning with The Hours and Times in 1991, and more recently Harry + Max in 2004. But few others have been able to sustain a career that develops and ripens over time.

That is why Everett Lewis is so impressive. His first film was the 1991 The Natural History of Parking Lots, and then he made the An Ambush of Ghosts in 1993. Skin and Bone was released in 1996. His themes moved from dysfunctional biological families to dysfunctional chosen families. Each of these films was dark and brooding, with Skin & Bone being downright depressing in its relentless depiction of squalid LA hustler life. (Unfortunately none of these films are available on VHS or DVD.)

In the last three years, Lewis has released two new films -- which are, luckily available on DVD from TLA -- both of which are departures from his earlier work and, each in a different way, is quite interesting.

Luster, released in 2002, is a comedy with somber undertones, or maybe a drama with comic overtones. It charts the complicated lives of a group of LA artists and faux-punks, both straight and gay, as they try to arrange themselves in satisfying, workable relationships. Jackson (Justin Herwick) is at the center of the group and is a poet, who works part-time in an alternative music store run by Sam (Shane Powers). Nothing much happens -- Jackson falls in love with his wild-child cousin Jed (B. Wyatt), but is loved by the more straightlaced Derek (Sean Thibodeau), and in the meantime is writing lyrics for closeted SM rock musician, Sonny Spike (Willie Garson), who has an ongoing violent relationship with Billy (Jonah Blechman), who ends up fucking cousin Jed after Jed has had a quick fling with lesbian Alyssa (Pamela Gidley). Confused? Still, the series of romantic couplings and physical copulatings weaves a dramatic tension that's a cross between La Ronde and "Dawson's Creek."

What's so emotionally persuasive about Luster is what we like about Jane Austin novels -- it presents characters who, even in their extremes, are emblematic of recognizable human traits. It's true that none of them are particularly likeable -- the same can be said of the characters in Pride and Prejudice -- but we can empathize with their needs and foibles. There's an elegant symmetry in Luster that appeals to our sense of aesthetics as well as romance. Luster feels a little lightweight next to the drama of The Natural History of Parking Lots and Skin & Bone, but that's more the cultural difference of genre than the emotional weight of the film.

FAQs, which has just been released on DVD, ostensibly deals with heavier material-- gay bashing, the institutionalized hatred of queers by straight society, the exploitation of young men by an uncaring pornography industry. But as it unfolds, it's clear that Lewis has other interests in mind. India (Joe Lia) is a young man from Colorado who has come to West Hollywood to be gay but runs into some trouble with a sleazy pornographer who takes advantage of him, and then meets Destiny (Allan Louis) a fabulous drag queen who adopts India into her own "family," which includes Lester (Minerva Vier), a butch young dyke. Destiny and India thwart a couple of gay bashers (like all fabulous drag queens, Destiny caries a gun at all times) and then India meets Spencer (Lance Lee Davis), another hustler, and they fall in love and India brings happiness to everyone-- even the homophobic attackers. The theme of FAQs is that gay love can conquer all, and even revenge withers before its warmth.

FAQs often feels schematic and obvious -- Destiny is a parody of the nurturing drag-queen, characters speak in pop-psychology clichés, the good people are all good, the bad all bad. But Lewis's genre here is not your standard gay drama film plot, but rather a parody of it -- a clever use of conventions and gimmicks that resonate beyond their original uses.

Both Luster and FAQs are helped immeasurably by Lewis's fine cinematography -- evident in the earlier films as well -- and natural acting of a caliber unusual in independent films. Neither movies are great, but both are consistently interesting and enjoyable. They're at least a partial fulfillment of the promise of Lewis's earlier work. Best of all, they make us eager to see what he'll do next.

- Michael Bronski

Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Email: mabronski@aol.com

CORRECTION FROM WEBMASTER: The Natural History Of Parking Lots is available on VHS through Strand Releasing, as well as Skin & Bone which is available on DVD. www.strandreleasing.com An Ambush Of Ghosts is not available on DVD or VHS... but if you'd like to know more about it click here.

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FAQS: EVERETT LEWIS TAKES ON A DIFFERENT KIND OF FAMILY

Director Everett Lewis has evolved forward. If “Luster” was a rough cut jewel, “Faqs” is a refined finely cut stone. The rougher edges that practically defined “Luster,” harsh lighting, sometimes rough direction and at times all of the hall marks of independent films, “Faqs” is a much more focused more developed film that has volumes to say about being gay in a straight world.

Armed with more sophisticated cinematography than “Luster,” along with tighter direction and some truly inspired performances, “Faqs” is technically a step above so many films in this genre. It also demonstrates the development of a director who has something to say.

The story line centers around India (Joe Lia). Coming to L.A. with no job skills and his body his only means of support, he winds up getting “stiffed,” no pun intended, when he is paid far less than promised to make a very sleazy porno in an equally nasty hotel. Frustrated, he goes out into the street only to be confronted by gay bashers.

Out of the night arrives a six foot plus African—American drag queen dressed to the nines holding a gun. Like some type of drag queen sequined crusader for justice, or a drag mother courage, she not only saves India from being hurt, or killed, she offers him a way off the streets into a more decent way of surviving.

Going home with the mysterious wigged crusader, we learn the name of the fearless hero, or heroin, Destiny. Taking in strangers is nothing strange to her. She has also rescued Lester (Minerva Vier), a young waif of a girl who wants to be considered a guy in every sense of the word. All looks good until India learns Destiny’s profession, an adult film director.

Complications arrive when India takes in another stray, Spencer (Lance Lee Davis), who is determined on literally blowing up his parents. Having been cast out of the house by his abusive parents, Spencer is angry and focused on hate and hating to the exclusion of all else.

In an attempt to save frustrated gays from their own self loathing, India, with Spencer in tow, goes out to find one of his bashers believing him to be a closeted gay in need of a rescue mission. A skeptical Spencer goes along taking a gun in case things go badly.

If India and company are about to find love and happiness, Destiny has her eye on a cop who has been eyeing her, and the unlikely combo of a hunky cop and lanky drag queen begins.

Working with an assortment of interesting characters and unusual situations, what pulls this all together is the sincerity of the direction, an interesting script and some solid performances. With several principles making their feature film debut, and a few of the others more seasoned, the ensemble is well cast and more than capable of making this unlikely story come to life.

If you can imagine Quentin Tarantino creating a gay message film, but with a little less violence than Kill Bill part two, that gives you a raw idea of what is taking place in this intriguing little film.

The central theme of Faqs is that family is less about biological ties than it is about people caring about each other in a cold indifferent world that is harsh, mean and brutal. As diverse as everyone is, the differences are put aside and the reality confronted. Much more a message film than “Luster,” Faqs is a statement about gay solidarity. It is also about individuals finding pride in themselves in the face of a society that desires conformity above compassion.

“When we kiss it is like a bomb going off,” or words like these, is the way India defines the simple act of one man kissing another in a society still at odds with homosexuality. As a definition of identity and a statement, it takes on a powerful meaning in a film filled with direct commentary and a socio—political message.

If you consider message films to be a hard thing to digest, Faqs turns rhetoric into the substance of an interesting film that says far more than its surreal plot can describe.

Elements of Faqs frequently come off as part metaphor and part parable. It is something that is increasingly appearing in films that have a gritty realistic feel merged with a more artistic ethereal sensibility. The mix of direct political discussion, unusual circumstances and connections, all of that makes for an arresting film.

- Kurt von Behrmann, Associate Editor Outlook Arizona
© Outlook Arizona LLC, All rights reserved
posted 3.16.06

 

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Let me say right away that FAQS is the most effective and heartfelt independent gay movie I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot over the years. Shot exquisitely on digital video by Gavin Kelly, this is an edgy, through-the-looking-glass parable about gay activism that asks what America would be like if gay people started taking revenge on homophobes. Movies about hypothetical revenge usually dispense with believable characters early on, but this movie is actually character-driven, focusing on an extended West Hollywood “family” of gay misfits headed up by the audacious Destiny, a militant black drag queen played with great gusto and aplomb by Allan Louis. The film operates on a “superhero” modality, resulting in archetypes, which I at first mistook for mere stereotypes. It didn’t matter—the acting is so good that I was quickly pulled deep inside the movie’s passionate universe. Especially marvelous are Joe Lia, who gives the most appealing and touching debut lead performance in recent memory, and Lance Lee Davis as his eventual lover, Spencer. They share a penultimate seven-minute scene shot entirely in tight close-ups that is as moving as anything I’ve seen in a long time. Director Everett Lewis goes to great lengths to make all the gay characters look as beautiful as possible, and there is an ample amount of lovely full nudity that conveys the utter lack of shame felt by the characters. Sex scenes feature quite convincing affection. This isn’t a perfect movie; some of the sound mixing is uneven, and the editing is a little odd here and there. But it really doesn’t matter. FAQS achieves what it sets out to do with whiffs of real greatness all along the way. The disc is outfitted with English subtitles for the hearing impaired, a Q&A session, and an unusually illuminating running commentary with Lewis and Lia. One caveat: You probably shouldn’t watch this movie with straight friends! (TLA Releasing)

- Tom Steele

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A REVIEW OF FAQs
by Guillermo Rodriguez (Writer/Director/Film Critic/Gay Person)