Red Meat

sure this flick is lite fare. definitely a guy movie. not really much too it. i'll leave the thin-edged plot for you to discover. for me, any movie that baits me to hate (a character) with a passion is time well spent.

Three guys sitting around a table recount their sexploits via flashbacks. This vanilla and simplistic no-brainer pseudodrama is just about as boring as it sounds. If there is anything worthy about this film, it's a few lighthearted moments and an ending which might actually make the viewer stop and think...for a couple of seconds.

A tremendous fan of actor James Frain, I am constantly on the lookout for his films and recently caught "Red Meat" on TMC. While I was extremely proud to see JF cast in the role of Victor, a complete contrast to the other two so-called "men" in the film, I was at the same time disappointed that there wasn't more to Victor and Ruth's story than the film had to offer. The utter beauty and depth of Victor's story and his flashbacks of his relationship with terminally ill Ruth ended too soon, too bluntly; I felt unfulfilled and emotionally floundering. Victor informs his listeners that he married Ruth and experienced happiness until she died 3 months' prior; sadly, there are no further flashbacks that give viewers access to his happiness, nor to his devotion to and caring for Ruth during her illness and helping her to prepare for the inevitable. Perhaps a storyline of this magnitude was considered too "mawkish", too "inappropriate" for a "sex comedy" of which 75% focused on the mysogynistic antics of two silly fools whose junior high mentalities degrade and disgrace any male worth his manhood.

As I was watching this, sundance channel at 2:30am, I find myself p***ed that the writer(s) of _Whipped_ so graciously ripped this one off. Sheesh, there was even the dark haired, outspoken wimp who turned out to be the golden one in the end. However, _Red_Meat_ does _Whipped_ one better in that it gets inside the hearts and minds of guys better than any other movie I've seen. Up until the end, I wasn't getting it. Then as Victor and Connie sit there contentedly in the end scene... I get it. This is not a movie about three guys. This is a movie about one guy - Chris. This movie is about what happens to weak people, those who fall through the cracks - and Chris is one of those. He's never going to get out from under Stephen, and he knows it. He wishes he could, but every time he tries, he always takes the weak path: the pussy of least resistance. Weak people never make it though the years of screwing around that are your twenties and make something of it. Stephen's never going to get out and he doesn't care. Victor has saved himself, and Chris will never get out but will always be couting the Nans that would have saved him.

This movie is a treasure, known by far too many people. I have seen almost a hundred thousand movies in my lifetime, and this one sits squarely in my top 10. For me, the fact that it is relatively unknown lends it a special grace.

This brave film explores, with insight and wicked humor, the darkest corners of the predatory male psyche and will be best understood by those who can view human weakness with compassion and wisdom and not mere judgment.

It is a small masterpiece shot for little money in just a few weeks. The cast is superb.

Start watching, and you will be hooked. The ending will leave you speechless.