devalier

Tender, slice-of-life drama marks an impressive debut for writer/director Eric Mueller. Unlike most queer cinema of the 90's, World and Time Enough eschews ubiquitous drag queens, trendy settings, and bitchy dialogue. It's sensitive, low-key, and modest. A film that's more interested in "quiet moments" than a complex narrative and lots of action. Those who appreciated Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances will probably love this movie, which is a little less urbane and more blue-collar. Viewers with short-attention spans and an affinity for graphic gay sex should definitely avoid at all costs.

Much of the film's success is due to the ingratiating performances of Matt Guidry and Gregory Giles as central characters Mark and Joey. Both actors are spot-on in their portrayals of two men who share a deep, mutual love for one another. Their supportive relationship is a refreshing change from the dysfunctional unions typically presented in films of this kind. Although the actors are both straight in real-life, they are completely believable as onscreen lovers. Like other reviewers, I'd love to see the two together again. Guidry continues to appear in Minneapolis theatre, while Giles is concentrating on theatre in LA. Maybe one day Mueller will do a sequel to show us Mark and Joey, still united I'm sure, years later. I know I'd be the first in line to buy a ticket.

"The Edge of Night" was without a doubt one of the best daytime soaps ever. Unlike other soaps, Edge focused on intelligent, complex mysteries fraught with irony, suspense, and edge-of-your seat action. The show's ensemble cast was probably the best in daytime history, supporting Edge's reputation a classy, well-written, and terrifically acted program. Sadly, after 28 years of superior programming, Edge was dropped in favor of higher-budget, more popular soaps, all of which in effect plagiarized Edge's plots, action, and individuality. Accept no susbstitutes: Edge was The Best!

A true classic in the So Bad It's Good genre. I'm astonished that "A Summer Place" doesn't rank up there with camp icons like "Mommie Dearest" and "Valley of the Dolls". Summer Place is in many ways even more lurid and over-the-top than those potboilers.

The story unfolds like this: Sexually frustrated Richard Egan brings his demonic wife (Connie Ford) and giggly daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) to Pine Island, a summer place for wealthy vacationers. On the island, Egan is reunited with his former lover Dorothy McGuire who now suffers with a dipsomaniacal hubby and horny teenager Johnny (Troy Donahue). Pretty soon, Egan and McGuire have rekindled their flame, while teenagers Molly and Johnny play footsy and try very hard not "to be BAD" (ie, go all the way).

It's typical soapy fare, but what really sets this one apart from the ordinary garden-variety melodrama is some truly inane dialogue, outrageous plotting, and incredibly bizarre acting.

Connie Ford steals the show as a Crawfordesque mother who goes so far as to have Molly's hymen checked by a doctor after Molly is stranded overnight with Johnny following an accident. Later, Molly complains to her father about being forced to wear corsets that flatten her chest. Molly, referring to her breasts, remarks to Dad, "Mother says I jiggle too much. Is that right, Daddy?" "Heh, heh, heh--only in a good way," leers father Richard Egan.

Next, after McGuire and Egan get caught "being bad", Johnny is shipped off to a boarding school during a custody battle (which seems absolutely ludicrous since actor Troy Donahue looks about 36 years old), while Sandra Dee continues to grin and giggle her way through the picture, making Molly look as if she's inhaled a can of nitrous oxide at the dentist's office. Conversely, wooden Troy Donahue seems to be a Method Actor imitating a totem pole.

Donahue and Dee get together on the sly, and when Ford finds out, she promptly slugs Molly, who careens into a plastic Christmas tree. The movie is worth seeing for this hysterically hilarious scene alone!