A friend teased me once for inadvertently selecting gay films from the shelves. This has been proven correct once again.
jumped out at me because it talks about being an unusual kid growing up in small town New Zealand. The cover mentioned a kid who cross-dresses a little out of pubescent gender confusion, and I thought my liberal sensibilities could cope with that. But, I’d never heard of the film, which surprised me because I like to keep track of New Zealand titles.
What the cover did not warn me about was a scene with two 13 year old boys mutually masterbating. That pushed both my homophobia and anti-pederasty discomfort ratings through the roof, and said film was stopped.
And that’s a pity, because it was shaping up to be a good film. The acting by the young stars is both convincing and great, and the story seemed to be both challenging and very much like the New Zealand of 1975 I remember. But with less guy on guy action.
So, if you’re wanting to watch be warned about the content. If you’re comfortable with, or identify with, slightly graphic depictions of the struggles of being a gay boy in a small town New Zealand then hop to it.
11 Responses to “Review: Fifty ways to say fabulous”
Wait, you happily sat through a film with 300 muscular oiled up Spartans filled with violence (including violence to minors) but can’t sit through this?
Nah, seriously, I understand. I could hardly bear to watch Saturday Night Fever. And not because of the disco but because of the rape scene.
you did watch the one with john travola didn’t you?
and 300 muscular guys *not actually tossing each other off* is completely different to a very believable scene with two boys huddled in a corner helping each other out…
Yeah, I know the first comment was more tongue in cheek.
SNF has a rape scene right near the end. It’s kind of bad. In fact a lot of that film is pretty dark. I can’t believe people view it as “quirky”.
It is quite strange how sex in films is far more uncomfartable than violence. If I was going to try and weird-out an audience I would put in a slightly strange sex scene (like the one you’re talking about) before a death scene.
as for violence, i think that you can see violence in real life pretty easily. but you don’t often step out of the pub and see people engaging in something ‘private’.
maybe it’s some kind of instinctive drive to give others privacy?
I dunno, regular sex scenes aren’t so bad (unless your Mum is in the room). I think it’s the sex scenes that aren’t “normal”. Craig might have me up on this.
1-1 Hetero sex scenes in either missionary or girl on top positions are fine. Take any part of that away and suddenly the scene becomes uncomfortable, people squirm a bit. Even oral sex is a bit weird in movies.
Maybe they just don’t know how to film it.
In Julia Roberts’ character is forced into telling her partner (Clive Owen) the details of her affair. Even the description of the sex (where she says how he was behind her) makes the scene intense and strange.
22 April, 2007
Review: Fifty ways to say fabulous
Posted by Che Tibby under ,[11] Comments
A friend teased me once for inadvertently selecting gay films from the shelves. This has been proven correct once again.
jumped out at me because it talks about being an unusual kid growing up in small town New Zealand. The cover mentioned a kid who cross-dresses a little out of pubescent gender confusion, and I thought my liberal sensibilities could cope with that. But, I’d never heard of the film, which surprised me because I like to keep track of New Zealand titles.
What the cover did not warn me about was a scene with two 13 year old boys mutually masterbating. That pushed both my homophobia and anti-pederasty discomfort ratings through the roof, and said film was stopped.
And that’s a pity, because it was shaping up to be a good film. The acting by the young stars is both convincing and great, and the story seemed to be both challenging and very much like the New Zealand of 1975 I remember. But with less guy on guy action.
So, if you’re wanting to watch be warned about the content. If you’re comfortable with, or identify with, slightly graphic depictions of the struggles of being a gay boy in a small town New Zealand then hop to it.
11 Responses to “Review: Fifty ways to say fabulous”
23 April, 2007 at 9:06 am
Wait, you happily sat through a film with 300 muscular oiled up Spartans filled with violence (including violence to minors) but can’t sit through this?
Nah, seriously, I understand. I could hardly bear to watch Saturday Night Fever. And not because of the disco but because of the rape scene.
23 April, 2007 at 10:30 am
there’s a rape scene in SNF?
you did watch the one with john travola didn’t you?
and 300 muscular guys *not actually tossing each other off* is completely different to a very believable scene with two boys huddled in a corner helping each other out…
23 April, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Yeah, I know the first comment was more tongue in cheek.
SNF has a rape scene right near the end. It’s kind of bad. In fact a lot of that film is pretty dark. I can’t believe people view it as “quirky”.
It is quite strange how sex in films is far more uncomfartable than violence. If I was going to try and weird-out an audience I would put in a slightly strange sex scene (like the one you’re talking about) before a death scene.
23 April, 2007 at 1:33 pm
shit. “uncomfortable”
23 April, 2007 at 1:33 pm
aaaaand…
300 muscular guys *not actually tossing each other off*
Just wait for the Director’s Cut
23 April, 2007 at 1:56 pm
“uncomfartable”… wrong on a couple of levels.
but, i can’t break wind when i’m nervous either.
as for violence, i think that you can see violence in real life pretty easily. but you don’t often step out of the pub and see people engaging in something ‘private’.
maybe it’s some kind of instinctive drive to give others privacy?
23 April, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I dunno, regular sex scenes aren’t so bad (unless your Mum is in the room). I think it’s the sex scenes that aren’t “normal”. Craig might have me up on this.
1-1 Hetero sex scenes in either missionary or girl on top positions are fine. Take any part of that away and suddenly the scene becomes uncomfortable, people squirm a bit. Even oral sex is a bit weird in movies.
Maybe they just don’t know how to film it.
In Julia Roberts’ character is forced into telling her partner (Clive Owen) the details of her affair. Even the description of the sex (where she says how he was behind her) makes the scene intense and strange.
23 April, 2007 at 3:50 pm
i’d say there’s something in that.
probably a case of victorian morality having been so tightly screwed down into our culture it’s taking generations to work its way out.
23 April, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I think it’s going to take a few more American Zoetropes. Actually, as a writer, I’d prefer the status quo, it’s much easier to illicit a response.
23 April, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I just read the IMDB page for Fabulous. On it they say: “If you enjoyed this title we recommend…Nine and a Half Weeks”!
24 April, 2007 at 11:35 am
indeed, if discussing fellatio gets an emotional response from an audience, good.
it’s a sad day when we have to escalate our drive to get responses to S&M or something…
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