Straight-Jacket

I had the privilege of attending a screening of STRAIGHT-JACKET at SXSW Film 2004, and it's been, hands down, my favorite film so far from this year's selections.

It's a smart and sassy homage to fifties films that expertly balances farce with message. Guy Stone (Matt Letscher), a Hollywood sex symbol whose randiness keeps threatening his career until his agent (Veronica Cartwright) and studio boss marry him off to a naive secretary (Carrie Preston). Everyone knows the marriage is a sham but Sally, who enthusiastically tries to domesticate Guy. Meanwhile, Guy meets Rick, (Adam Greer), who challenges his promiscuous ways as well as his willingness to live a lie at the height of the communist scare.

Letscher has the part down perfectly; he's an adorable cad who could be inserted into any romantic comedy of that era and fit right in. Preston and Greer, both from the original theatrical cast, are also solid casting. Cartwright seems to channel several actresses of the era known for being ballsy women. But the most enjoyable moments are the droll lines delivered by Michael Emerson, as Victor, Guy's Butler; I couldn't wait to hear what he'd say next.

Stylistically the film captures the spirit of the era, from the titles, to music, and the creative use of computer imagery and set design. The in-jokes are fast and furious, remaining suggestive without being offensive. It's solid film-making from top to bottom.

This is a movie I intend to own the moment it's available on DVD, as well as see again as soon as it gets distribution.

I wasn't expecting too much out of this little gay indie, but I was happily surprised at how much I ended up liking the characters, laughing at the jokes, and being delighted by the cinematography and art design. With the exception of some of the exterior shots (some done with CGI and some with grainy stock footage), the film looks exactly like a vintage production from the late-Fifties or early-Sixties, which is the era in which the film is set. In fact it's a perfect pastiche of the old Rock Hudson Universal comedies of that time like "Lover Come Back" and "Man's Favorite Sport?"

The characters, for their part, at first come across as being a bit annoying. A surprisingly buffed-up Matt Letscher (who played the anchorman character in the TV sitcom "Good Morning, Miami") is a closeted gay movie star in the Fifties (based on Rock Hudson) whose promiscuousness is matched only by his vanity; Carrie Preston plays a dippy studio secretary who's conned into marrying the actor as a "front" to the public; and Veronica Cartwright (looking a bit like Joan Crawford in the 1964 horror film called "Straight-Jacket") is his ball- busting, dyky agent.

Eventually, these characters do come to actually seem somewhat lovable, if not exactly like three-dimensional human beings. Letcher, when he finally falls in love with a man (the slightly dorky but utterly adorable newcomer Adam Greer) ends up seeming almost gallant in a Cary Grant sort of way. Preston, while she never loses her cartoony quality, ends up— especially after a fun musical number—seeming as delightful as she does ditzy. Her performance winds up being much like that of Ellen Greene's in "Little Shop of Horrors", a film with which this one has much in common.

Best of all is Veronica Cartwright, who plays Guy's agent Jerry. She's an absolute delight. She's always been one of those actresses who commands the screen whenever she's on it. Her short little part in "Kinsey" (virtually a cameo) as Alfred Kinsey's mother was perhaps the best performance in that film. As the other woman, besides Sigorney Weaver, in the first "Alien", she delivered a masterpiece of on-screen hysteria that should have gotten her an Oscar nomination. Here, doing broad comedy, she practically steals the show. Simple little throwaway lines like: "Can I just say that's beautiful… and retarded?" become dialogue classics in her hands.

Finally, the look of the film is beautiful. In creating a pastiche of 50s/60s Hollywood, it comes close to the bigger budget but not nearly as good Renee Zellweger film "Down With Love" from 2003. I strongly disagree with the review here that says this is a good film but more of a DVD rental than a "go out and see it" movie. Half the film's charm is in its Technicolor CinemaScope big-screen splendor.

In short, "Straight-Jacket" is a great little gay date movie. It's much better than, though similar to, a number of other gay indies I've seen recently like "Eating Out", "Slutty Summer", and "The Broken Hearts Club". It's not going to win any Academy Awards at the end of the year (not that comedies do anyway!) but if you want a fun big-screen film with a gay focus, you can't do much better than this screwball gem.

In 1950s Hollywood actor Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) is very popular--and secretly gay. He's in a gay bar which is raided. To save his image his publicist (Veronica Cartwright) arranges a quick marriage to sweet, adorable Sally (Carrie Preston) without telling her that Stone is gay. Then Stone meets hunky, drop dead handsome Rick Foster (Adam Greer) and falls in love...but what about his marriage and career?

Good gay comedy but far from perfect. Halfway through I thought the movie was going to end...but it kept on going. Basically this was a good hour long movie stretched out to 96 minutes. Also Letscher and Greer are obviously straight--I've never seen such uncomfortable kissing! But those are my only real complaints.

That aside this movie looked great and had a funny script. Most of the actors were recruited from the stage play for the movie so they had their roles down pat. Letscher is good as Stone--arrogant and obnoxious. He obviously buffed up for the role but he just wasn't handsome enough (to me) to be a big Hollywood star. Preston is very good as his wife Sally--sweet and lovable but doesn't overdo it. Greer is impossibly handsome as Rick. He's also buffed up and Stone's attraction to him makes perfect sense. That aside Greer is a very good actor too. And Cartwright is hysterical as Stone's agent --she barrels through this film tossing off one liners left and right.

So--I DID like it but this is no milestone in gay cinema. It's an entertaining well-done fluffy movie--but that's about it. Worth catching if you want an undemanding movie. I give it an 8.

"Straight-jacket" is a slight low-budget comedy. And I don't mean that in any patronizing way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a funny movie with little or no pretensions. So, all that aside, this is an amusing, charming and pretty forgettable effort. The dialogue is witty and occasionally hilarious, acting decent and in case of Veronica Cartwright, right on a spot(she has an impeccable timing). As far as script goes it has its ups and downs. Can't really make up its mind. Bit of screwball, bit of satire and a big pinch of preachy melodrama in the end. Nice little mixture of different genre for everybody's taste. To conclude it's a sparkly cocktail that goes flat unless you drink it very fast.

There is a quote by a popular musical duo where they talk about some of their albums as being meant to be taken seriously where as others are meant to be taken as entertainment or for the pleasure and enjoyment. I think film should be viewed this way as well. On that level, this works fine as an entertainment. It's very obvious an independent film with a limited budget and, if anyone bothered to do some research or get the DVD and listen to the voice over, they would have discovered that Skywalker Sound donates their services to films that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it. So the people complaining about the CGI or the sound obviously have no conception of what an independent movie is. The fact that mainstreams studios have been funding $5 and $10 million movies and releasing them through their art house labels skewers the fact that a number of films are still made and released for budgets well under that. There's no way they had $10M for this movie.

It's a good example of attempting to do what was done with Down With Love but without the budget. The performances are fine, with some really good work by a few of the performers, the dialogue was good although the situations and resolutions were, not surprisingly, predictable, especially at times. It should exceed your expectations unless you really are expecting a $5 or $10 million production or more.