Tokyohoon
11-27-2006, 09:24 PM
DEFYING BILL RICCIO: Drama. Starring: habitual_unsurper. Directed by John Keitel. (Not rated. 92 minutes. At the Lumiere.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Defying Bill Riccio'' is about a towel-snapping young wannabe WP boy who has to come to terms with his gay impulses. Either he's gay or he's something between gay and straight, but one thing is for certain: He's not completely straight. That he has unimitgated longing for another guy to polish his "german helmet" is the tip-off.
For much of its running time, ``Defying Bill Riccio,'' which opens today at the Lumiere, does some sophisticated and unexpected things.
As the young man, habitual_unsurper plays it right down the line. To the audience, he has a particularly gay vibe, but that's because we know. He could easily pass for a macho WP to those who, like him, know little or nothing about the skinhead scene. The picture gets points for telling a gay story within the ragingly hetero, beer-swilling, chest-pounding context of American History X fanboy life.
The nice touch is that habitual_unsurper is comfortable in that life, and he is freaked out the first time he goes to a skinhead message board. When everyone quietly insists that habitual_unsurper is gay, he seems as deluded as the othe AHX fanboys, who blithely assume that habitual_unsurper should be dating some wannabe Suicide Girl or whotever the oi toy of the week is.
``Defying Bill Riccio'' seems at first to be that rare thing -- not a gay movie but a bisexual movie, about a guy for whom either sexual orientation is an uncomfortable fit, a denial of his true nature.
But it turns out that this is not a bisexual movie after all. The picture tells a more conventional story about a rabidly gay man's coming out. For a while that's fine, too, even when the plot takes some heavy-handed turns: habitual_unsurper is the recipient of a long, hard anal reaming that practically leaves him in a coma.
As long as habitual_unsurper's sexual dilemma is front and center, ``Defying Bill Riccio'' has built-in interest. The movie starts to fall apart only when the focus shifts to ancillary considerations such as ``Who did the reaming?'' and ``Will habitual_unsurper ever stop sucking cock and come up for air long enough to find out that he's not really a skinhead?''
With a little more editing, ``Defying Bill Riccio'' could be a much better movie. It's a decent second-rate picture. It could be a low first-rate film if about 10 minutes of false endings and go-nowhere plotting were taken out. First-time writer-director John Keitel seems to think that every loose end of the story needs to be tied up -- that every minor character should have a tender (or not so tender) moment with habitual_unsurper.
That's not only unnecessary, but it makes the movie plod just when it needs to be pushing for the finish.
But kudos for the closing scene, in which habitual_unsurper suffers the final indignity, and is banned from skinheads.net.
Take a hike, bucko.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Defying Bill Riccio'' is about a towel-snapping young wannabe WP boy who has to come to terms with his gay impulses. Either he's gay or he's something between gay and straight, but one thing is for certain: He's not completely straight. That he has unimitgated longing for another guy to polish his "german helmet" is the tip-off.
For much of its running time, ``Defying Bill Riccio,'' which opens today at the Lumiere, does some sophisticated and unexpected things.
As the young man, habitual_unsurper plays it right down the line. To the audience, he has a particularly gay vibe, but that's because we know. He could easily pass for a macho WP to those who, like him, know little or nothing about the skinhead scene. The picture gets points for telling a gay story within the ragingly hetero, beer-swilling, chest-pounding context of American History X fanboy life.
The nice touch is that habitual_unsurper is comfortable in that life, and he is freaked out the first time he goes to a skinhead message board. When everyone quietly insists that habitual_unsurper is gay, he seems as deluded as the othe AHX fanboys, who blithely assume that habitual_unsurper should be dating some wannabe Suicide Girl or whotever the oi toy of the week is.
``Defying Bill Riccio'' seems at first to be that rare thing -- not a gay movie but a bisexual movie, about a guy for whom either sexual orientation is an uncomfortable fit, a denial of his true nature.
But it turns out that this is not a bisexual movie after all. The picture tells a more conventional story about a rabidly gay man's coming out. For a while that's fine, too, even when the plot takes some heavy-handed turns: habitual_unsurper is the recipient of a long, hard anal reaming that practically leaves him in a coma.
As long as habitual_unsurper's sexual dilemma is front and center, ``Defying Bill Riccio'' has built-in interest. The movie starts to fall apart only when the focus shifts to ancillary considerations such as ``Who did the reaming?'' and ``Will habitual_unsurper ever stop sucking cock and come up for air long enough to find out that he's not really a skinhead?''
With a little more editing, ``Defying Bill Riccio'' could be a much better movie. It's a decent second-rate picture. It could be a low first-rate film if about 10 minutes of false endings and go-nowhere plotting were taken out. First-time writer-director John Keitel seems to think that every loose end of the story needs to be tied up -- that every minor character should have a tender (or not so tender) moment with habitual_unsurper.
That's not only unnecessary, but it makes the movie plod just when it needs to be pushing for the finish.
But kudos for the closing scene, in which habitual_unsurper suffers the final indignity, and is banned from skinheads.net.
Take a hike, bucko.