connie and carla

(amc van ness, with jason, 4/18/04, 2:10pm)

jason and i quietly enjoyed this movie in a theatre full of gay men. it was funny, enjoyable, a rip-off of other movies though it claimed not to be, and full of singing, caked-on make-up, and dressing in drag in drag. or just one drag. it depended.

clint mentioned on his webpage that he had seen a preview for this movie and was confused because he didn’t think there was a dinner-theatre circuit in LA, so i went into this movie armed with a skeptical attitude, questioning how they were going to present that. and really…connie and carla ended up creating the one and only dinner theatre venue in LA, so, i guess it made sense. i’d never really known about dinner theatre. i mean, i’ve been to that round table place in LA where you watch the jousting tournament while eating chicken with your fingers. which i guess theoretically is the same sort of idea. only for people from the mid-west. or camelot. merlin, ho!

but anyway, watching the gangster guy who is looking for connie and carla in dinner-theatres across the country is pretty damn funny. he calls ‘rent’, “poignant”. and he sings along to the lyrics in auntie mame. he becomes, really, this freaky aficionado, and i can only applaud that kind of nonsense.

a lot of the characters actually had wierd idiosyncrasies. like nia vardalos was constantly saying things like, “your voice is giving me mono,” or “your voice is giving me shingles.” and no one had any eyebrows. alright, that’s not a quirky behavioral thing, it’s just a statement.

i kind of liked and disliked david duchovny in this movie. liked him because he’s cute and sincere. disliked him because how lame is for not being able to tell she’s a girl? and how lame is he for being so close-minded about gay people? though he does try. but the end of the movie only makes it right when she can be female and he won’t accept anything else. “i could get used to that,” he says at the end. bah on you, i say.

“i’m not gay.” -david duchovny

“neither am i…it’s complicated.” -nia vardalos

on a side note, a guy who looked a lot like michael rappaport was also in this movie (i adore him. i don’t know why. i think it’s the tall red-hair first-boyfriend syndrome thing.) and at one point he’s sitting on a park swing, swigging out of a paper bag, and clutching a kitten. abject adorable misery with kitten. some cops come along and are all like, “just put down the kitten. put the kitten down.” beautiful.