Long Strange Trip
The festival concludes with an ambitious romance, The Trip, a U.S. premiere that leaves no doubt about its gay-cinema pedigree. Writer/director Miles Swain's feature debut not only offers a central gay relationship, its narrative sweep also takes in the history of the gay-rights movement and a pointed political struggle between out-and-proud gay righters and closeted conservatives. Though this Trip suffers from an erratic script and directorial inexperience, it is a bold, inventive film that's an excellent choice to close this year's program.
From Germany to Uzbekistan, Nina Petri and Jeanette Hain discover more than landscapes
Pia Zemljic: Out of the closet and into the Slovenian woods
Details
Guardian of the Frontier screens at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach.
Journey to Kafiristan screens on Saturday, May 4, at 7:00 p.m. at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach.
Treading Water screens at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, at the Colony Theatre.
The Trip screens at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, 174 E Flagler St.
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Swain's tale begins in the early 1970s when a young conservative journalist, Alan Oakley (Larry Sullivan), plans on writing an exposé of homosexuality in America. Earnest, awkward Alan attends a party at the home of wealthy, closeted lawyer Peter (Ray Baker), who is intent on seducing him. Instead Alan meets handsome, wisecracking Tommy Ballenger (Steve Braun), a gay activist who takes an immediate shine to him. But Alan refuses to admit that his interest in Tommy may be anything more than research. Pretty soon, though, romance starts to bloom, driving Tommy crazy since Alan's both on the fence and in the closet. Eventually love triumphs and the pair start a passionate romance.
Cut ahead to the late Seventies and the Anita Bryant/Miami gay-ordinance conflict. Alan and Tommy are living in bliss, but it's soon destroyed when Peter orchestrates a publishing deal for Alan's old anti-gay book. As Peter had hoped, this crisis drives Tommy away, and Alan, unaware of Peter's perfidy, turns to him for solace. Seven years later Alan chafes as Peter's live-in boy toy. After another disastrous dinner party, he discovers Peter's betrayal and decides to go find Tommy, now living in Mexico and suffering from AIDS. When Alan reaches him, the pair head out for an extended road trip, trying to recover their past love before Tommy's health fails.
Though its central romance is essentially dramatic, even tragic, Swain injects plenty of humor into the proceedings. Tommy's a wit, tossing off droll one-liners every which way. His requisite man-hungry roommate Michael (Alexis Arquette) is never at a loss for a sexual innuendo. Several gay-comedy set pieces pepper the plot, as when Tommy and Alan loll in bed after their first night together and whoops! Alan's conservative parents pop over for a surprise visit. A jog through Griffith Park in L.A. ends with Michael chasing a hunky prospect into the nearby bushes. Swain plays with these conventions effectively and shows an assured hand at appropriating classic cinema archetypes for his own uses. Alan and Tommy's final journey echoes several classic road-trip films, including Five Easy Pieces and Thelma & Louise. And Swain sets up Tommy as a saintly seriocomic gay icon, deliberately associated with an array of cinematic heroes from Wayne's World's Garth (check out his goofy hippie wig) to James Dean from Giant.
The novelistic narrative is mostly about Alan and Tommy's tempestuous relationship, but it's also about the historical context of modern gay life. Using extensive video news footage, director Swain paints a broad canvas, using gay history from the 1970s and 1980s -- the gay-pride movement, the Miami ordinance furor, the assassination of Harvey Milk in San Francisco -- as a backdrop for his central tale. It's a welcome context, adding both a sense of pride and importance and, equally, a lighter-hearted tongue-in-cheek style as the story careens through the wacky fashions of several decades.
It's this alternation between emotional honesty and camp that ultimately upends The Trip.Several characters and scenes are played for cheap laughs, and the cartoonish portrayal of several straight characters throws the film toward satire. Swain lands some punches with this approach but pays for it dearly when the narrative then reverts to the romantic throughline. A similar hit-and-miss effect is apparent in the script itself, which achieves a certain poetry in one moment only to crash and burn with histrionic dialogue the next. Like many a writer/director before him, Swain has sabotaged his own talents by failing to put more effort into his script before he shot.
Nevertheless Swain makes an impressive directorial debut here, combining a strong visual sense with effective narrative clarity and pacing. His production support is outstanding, notably some lovely cinematography from Charles Barbee and Scott Kevan, who achieve a real Seventies look using vintage filmstock and a dark, richer feel for the Eighties scenes; Seventies and Eighties pop music standards give an authenticity to the story, well supported by Steven Chesne's evocative musical score. In closing, it's a good way to go. -- Ronald Mangravite
