OCTOBER
18-27, 2002

Introduction
Index of Films

10/18, Friday
10/19, Saturday
10/20, Sunday
10/21, Monday
10/22, Tuesday
10/23, Wednesday
10/24, Thursday
10/25, Friday
10/26, Saturday
10/27, Sunday

Print Version

CPArts

Queer Notions
Reel Affirmations Festival

18FRIDAY

His Secret Life
First shown locally under the title Ignorant Fairies, Turkish-Italian director Ferzan (Steam) Ozpetek's dramedy is an upscale, socially conscious soap opera about a suburban woman who discovers that her recently deceased husband was having an affair. Tracking the available evidence including an "ignorant fairy" inscription on a piece of art to a downscale but hip neighborhood south of central Rome, Antonia (Margherita Buy) discovers that her husband's longtime lover was a man, Michele (Stefano Accorsi). After overcoming the initial shock, Antonia is accepted into Michele's extended family, which includes transsexuals, AIDS patients, and Turkish refugees. The film is a little glib, but it should warm the hearts of people who believe that urban outsiders are really more normal than the suburban bourgeoisie.
—Mark Jenkins
At 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

All the Queen's Men
The latest by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky does not have the markings of a good movie. First of all, it stars Matt LeBlanc, who hasn't exactly garnered critical acclaim in previous turkeys such as Lost in Space and Ed. Second, the story is about a group of Allied soldiers who are ordered to infiltrate a women-only factory to steal one of Hitler's Enigma code-writing machines while dressed in drag. Surprisingly, however, All the Queen's Men is rather engaging, often entertaining, and occasionally even poignant. LeBlanc, though forever Joey, is a likeable leader of the gang of bickering misfits, and Eddie Izzard is compelling as "a bisexual lesbian in a man's body but it's more complicated than that." Their schemes are smart and their eventual bonding touching, and a scene in which the bombs unexpectedly drop on an innocently bustling town is skillfully directed and hard to forget.
—Tricia Olszewski
At 9 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

Showgirls
This seems a merely functional title for American director Paul Verhoeven and scripter Joe Eszterhas' meditation on women who kiss other women and brandish sharp implements, but then this is a merely functional movie. The film provides a smorgasbord of NC-17 flesh, but the effect is more picturesque than erotic. Heroine Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) is so concerned that her career as a pole- and lap-dancer not be confused with prostitution that she refuses nearly everyone's advances; when she finally gets a gig in a big Vegas revue, both the entertainment director (Kyle MacLachlan) and the star dancer (Gina Gershon) want to get her in bed well, it's the pool, actually but only one succeeds. Showgirls is the story of a young woman's education: Nomi learns, basically, that Vegas is sleazy. Because Berkley's performance is more acrobatic than emotive, however, it's hard to discern that anything has registered behind her stubbornly intent, heavily made-up face.
—Mark Jenkins
At 11 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

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