kingsley-ervin Reviews

Yossi & Jagger (2002)

A much more informative and revealing picture that the gay theme suggests.

[8/10 · 13 December 2006]

Yossi and Jagger is really a short story of a movie: one climactic incident, no development of character, a lack of narrative dimension. But it's a very interesting picture, for two reasons beyond the usual interest in a movie about gay life in the Israeli army. The first is the amazing sense of transience about the military effort there -- you don't feel it's an army defending a homeland. Even Jagger's house seems recently set up. And there's a palpable feeling of some world more permanent and hostile beyond the range of field glasses. The military action and people are entirely credible (I've had a lot of experience of action) but the action is that of invaders. Second, the relations among the men and women are striking. Everyone pretty clearly knows or suspects about Jossi and Jagger's affair, but they're willing to leave it private, and to deal with individual feelings as personal and of value. In this sense I found the picture to give an interesting contrast with "Brokeback Mountain", whose protagonists are somewhat similar, but which presented a sense of alienation and hostility to homosexuality quite lacking in Yossi and Jagger.

O Fantasma (2000)

An original and consistent fantasy

[7/10 · 28 November 2006]

What no one seems to find in the film is the gradual regression of the hero to a canine level. We begin with his attachment to his dog as the only keen affection in his life -- they kiss, fondle, etc. Like the dog, Sergio tends to judge and eventually express his erotic energy through smell (e.g. the scene where he licks the shower wall), and at the end he is wandering the heaps of refuse poking and smelling at random, as the dog does.

His sexual hunger is probably to be passively possessed, but his culture and friends may demand a more active role. Yet he never finds satisfaction in such a role -- he rebuffs the fellow who's going down on him in the toilet -- and one imagines that what he really wants from the hunky motorcycle driver is to be assaulted and possessed by him. His loneliness and social anomie, as well as his undefined erotic drives, send him down a spiral of dehumanizing impulses until he seems to have forsaken any recognizably human responses.

It's an interesting and original film fantasy (I agree with the comment that "eye candy", perhaps the editor's addition,indicates a pornographic intent) but too simply developed to challenge your imagination.

The Yards (2000)

A much more complex and interesting film noir than it seems.

[8/10 · 15 November 2006]

What is interesting about Grey's picture is the use of understatement to emphasize the complexity of negotiated relationships in the New York world where mob business and city administration intersect. Wahlberg's comparative lack of expressiveness suits his role as a minor crook out of jail and wanting to go straight; it's echoed in his mother's passivity, and her statement that the two of them have this in common. He's not stupid, but he's tentative as he emerges from jail back into the world; his uncle is willing to help, but has complex and risky operations that make him cautious. In any event, Wahlberg's tentativeness leads him instead to his old and apparently warm friend, who's grown into slack opportunism (as his uncle clearly knows, and would like to keep his nephew away from). When the friend stupidly kills the yard manager, he tries to spare his pal, but finally lets the latter take the rap and run off (in violation of his parole). The film gets interesting at this point: one expects Wahlberg to be the victim, but he has figured out that he's been set up, that even his uncle is willing to have him killed to cover up the crime, and that he's got to drop his earlier loyalties and figure out a way to clear and protect himself at the same time. The solution is a real New York compromise between truth and justice: the identifying cop is paid off, the real crook kills his true love inadvertently and, crushed with anguish, is taken. Wahlberg has set himself right with the law, probably will be used by one side or the other of the warring tracks manufacturing moguls, crime and bribery continue as always in the Big Apple. What's refreshing about the picture is its calmness of tone -- the violence is justified but not overdone, the acting has the assurance of real people doing what they must. Poor photography at times -- confusing shots which add to the difficulty of following a complex plot. But it's a better picture than comments suggest.