PSA :: Prick Up Your Ears

PSA

If you liked the LJ web update interface the way it was before, you might try the portal page.

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Prick Up Your Ears

Thanks to noblerot, I was finally persuaded to see Prick Up Your Ears, otherwise known in fandom as the one where Gary Oldman makes out with guys. (Had it been explained to me in the first place that one of the guys he makes out with was Alfred Molina, I doubt I would have waited so long.)

If you want to see a young Oldman making out with guys, in bed with guys, going out for rough trade, and smirking in an appealing fashion, the film certainly delivers that. It's also (and no one bothered to tell me this, either) a very good movie.

It's humanistic and mostly episodic, which of course is just the sort of thing I like. It comes to a gruesome end, but it's a true story, so you know that going in... it spends far more time on how these people lived than how they died. Despite the lurid qualities of their lifestyle, the structure of their relationship is strikingly ordinary-- a marriage that goes south.

The movie is rather cruel to its main characters, in differing ways. Ken is nakedly pathetic; at times one cringes at the humiliation to which the character is subjected. Joe is simpering and vulgar, and very difficult to read. Is anything that comes out of his mouth sincere? Is there a "real" Joe (John) Orton beyond the relentlessly coy façade?

These are not nice people. Joe is initially attracted to Ken on a nonconformist whim, simply because Ken is strange and morbid and unpopular (watch Oldman's face during the "cat" exercise in the acting class). Yet, a real friendship is present, visible when they're brought up on charges for defacing library books together, or when they fall down laughing at a private joke. It's that friendship that makes them interesting and... well, bearable.

One thing that threw me out was that it wasn't as sexually explicit as I thought it was going to be, or should have been to be entirely effective. These are indeed very vulgar people, and it seems strange to modestly cut away, particularly since this is all meant to be based on Joe's diaries, and we know what's in there. Also, I think being in fandom has accustomed me to a style of storytelling that understands that the way people have sex tells us a great deal about who they are and how they relate. I would have been very interested to see how these people fucked, just as we see how they did nearly everything else.

I wasn't enthused about the framing device, which didn't seem to add much or go anywhere. I also thought they pushed too hard at the end to "explain" the murder-suicide, breaking the show-don't-tell rule that had been followed so beautifully until then.

Nonetheless, I'd recommend the movie. The performances are excellent, and it ends up being a pretty raw portrayal of human jealousies and desperation. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I ended up having to buy the DVD to see it, and I'm not sorry I did.


I was going to discuss Boogie Nights in this post as well, which I also saw recently and actually liked better than Prick Up Your Ears, but I think I've already rambled on enough. Another time.

PSA :: Prick Up Your Ears

PSA

If you liked the LJ web update interface the way it was before, you might try the portal page.

---

Prick Up Your Ears

Thanks to noblerot, I was finally persuaded to see Prick Up Your Ears, otherwise known in fandom as the one where Gary Oldman makes out with guys. (Had it been explained to me in the first place that one of the guys he makes out with was Alfred Molina, I doubt I would have waited so long.)

If you want to see a young Oldman making out with guys, in bed with guys, going out for rough trade, and smirking in an appealing fashion, the film certainly delivers that. It's also (and no one bothered to tell me this, either) a very good movie.

It's humanistic and mostly episodic, which of course is just the sort of thing I like. It comes to a gruesome end, but it's a true story, so you know that going in... it spends far more time on how these people lived than how they died. Despite the lurid qualities of their lifestyle, the structure of their relationship is strikingly ordinary-- a marriage that goes south.

The movie is rather cruel to its main characters, in differing ways. Ken is nakedly pathetic; at times one cringes at the humiliation to which the character is subjected. Joe is simpering and vulgar, and very difficult to read. Is anything that comes out of his mouth sincere? Is there a "real" Joe (John) Orton beyond the relentlessly coy façade?

These are not nice people. Joe is initially attracted to Ken on a nonconformist whim, simply because Ken is strange and morbid and unpopular (watch Oldman's face during the "cat" exercise in the acting class). Yet, a real friendship is present, visible when they're brought up on charges for defacing library books together, or when they fall down laughing at a private joke. It's that friendship that makes them interesting and... well, bearable.

One thing that threw me out was that it wasn't as sexually explicit as I thought it was going to be, or should have been to be entirely effective. These are indeed very vulgar people, and it seems strange to modestly cut away, particularly since this is all meant to be based on Joe's diaries, and we know what's in there. Also, I think being in fandom has accustomed me to a style of storytelling that understands that the way people have sex tells us a great deal about who they are and how they relate. I would have been very interested to see how these people fucked, just as we see how they did nearly everything else.

I wasn't enthused about the framing device, which didn't seem to add much or go anywhere. I also thought they pushed too hard at the end to "explain" the murder-suicide, breaking the show-don't-tell rule that had been followed so beautifully until then.

Nonetheless, I'd recommend the movie. The performances are excellent, and it ends up being a pretty raw portrayal of human jealousies and desperation. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I ended up having to buy the DVD to see it, and I'm not sorry I did.


I was going to discuss Boogie Nights in this post as well, which I also saw recently and actually liked better than Prick Up Your Ears, but I think I've already rambled on enough. Another time.