"Relax...It's Just Sex" A Film Review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL I'm going to be out of the country for the next two Saturdays, so before I go I want to get in one more review/preview of a film that's coming up in this year's Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, October 2--11. The one I want to tell you about today is the closing night film on Sunday the 11th at 8:45 p.m. and I think it is a great film to close with. It has appeal for both lesbians and gays and even non-narrow straight folks as well. It is very funny and very touching at the same time. Though it's clearly a very low budget independent film (that was reportedly a great favorite at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival) and was made in something like fifteen days, it works very well and I was not distracted by the kinds of things that frequently mar one's appreciation of low budget quickies. For one thing, the writer/director, P. J. Castellaneta is not a rank beginner as a filmmaker; though he works at one of the major studios in a less exalted capacity than director, the word is his bosses are thinking, after the success of this film, of giving him a chance to direct a for the studio. For another thing, his cast is one of highly experienced professional actors, some of whom you may even have heard of: Lori Petty (who starred in A League of their Own and Tank Girl), Meg Tilly (whom you'll remember from Bound) and Mitchell Anderson (a regular on the tv series Party of Five), not to mention a cameo appearance by Paul Winfield. I suppose I should issue a warning. As the title implies, this film is filled with sex scenes. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a film with so much sex in it that wasn't just pure porn--which this definitely is not. It has gay male sex of various kinds, it has lesbian sex done many ways, it has straight sex, it is a virtual compendium of sex. But you know what, the film isn't really about sex. And the sex is not at all prurient or particularly there to arouse the audience. Often the purpose is to show its funny side--or its desperate side, its romantic side, its hollowness, its meaningfulness. The film is really about a group of close friends and relatives, who live in what appears to be the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. Tara Ricotto is a straight woman who lives with her lover Gus and is perishing to have a baby, but Gus is afraid of settling down before he has gone out and seen the world and gotten his fill of adventure, so he's sometimes a reluctant lover and always antsy about the possibility of fatherhood. Gus's brother Javi is a gay man who has just found out he's HIV positive and so the film begins with the family and friends gathering around to give him love and support. Central among the friends is Vincey, a gay man who can't seem to find "Mr. Right" though he tries very hard. He thinks he might have found him in an artist he meets and brings to the party, but--wrong again--and Javi walks away with him no doubt attracted in part by the artist's uncommon views about HIV and AIDS. Meanwhile, the handsome, clean cut, All-American gay Christians, Diego and Buzz, are always around, trying to be an upstanding monogamous Christian couple. Meanwhile, Serena knows when Megan, her partner of nine years, returns from a business trip that she's had a fling with someone; but she doesn't know right away that someone is her (male) cousin by marriage. But she finds solace in the arms of Robin, a friend who is in love with her but never thought Serena would leave Megan. The film follows this core group and some of their other friends and relatives over a period of several months chronicling their ups and downs, the forces that are pulling them apart and those that keep them together as loving friends. The ensemble acting is very good, the script is, as I said, often funny, and I think that a good time will be had by all. For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1998 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or reproduce this review without the permission of the author: mcalister@chuma1.cas.usf.edu . Linda Lopez McAlister, Chair||| Dept. of Women's Studies, HMS 413 University of South Florida|||e-mail: mcalister@chuma1.cas.usf.edu Tampa, FL 33620