Saturday, June 19

Parting Glances Movie Review



This movie came out when I was 4, but I heard about it a couple of years ago in a LGBT in the USA class and that Steve Buscemi was in it. I finally saw it yesterday, you can see it instantly on NetFlix but I'm having trouble with my java so I had to settle for a DVD. The DVD by the way sucks because everytime you press 'play', even if you are in the middle of the movie, it goes back to the beginning and the 'scenes' section has everything written, no images. Anyhoo, the story is about Michael (Richard Ganoung), who is worried about his piercing eyes partner Richard (John Bolger) leaving to Africa for work because Richard reveals he thinks things are boring between them. Meanwhile, Michael takes care of his Ex Nick (Buscemi) who is HIV positive. The movie mostly deals with one night Even though it was made and set in 1986, it feels very modern and four a gay guy, the characters are identifiable.



Michael doesn't like Richard's boss (Patrick Tull), who in front of his wife (Yolande Bavan) is oblivious that Mike and Dick are gay. Mike is close to the wife and she knows that the couple are gay. But when Dick and the boss talk alone, it is revealed Cecil likes men and knows about Richard, but just doesn't tell Betty (who I think was originally supposed to be White but the awesome Yolande was cast and they just didn't change the name). There are characters I can recognize: The fat guy Douglas who flirts with everyone and is creepy (Richard Wall), the hanger-on to the guy I just mentioned--who doesn't even have a name! (Jim Selfe), the black guy with no personality (Andre Morgan), the twink Peter that is 'in love' with Michael (the beautiful Adam Nathan), the straight guy who tries to find a chick, and Richard's ex-girlfriend is his ebst friend and she is happy with a normal guy.


And the party to wish Richard goodbye is held at Joan's house and Joan is played by nobody else but freaking MIMI FROM THE DREW CAREY SHOW!!! Kathy Kinney looks awesome in this movie, it seems that this is her first role ever. She is still acting these days, in The Late Late Show with Craig Freguson and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Steve Buscemi looks so cute back when, he stills has the buggy eyes, he doesn't even look that young in context of seeing the movie 24 years later. Come to think of it, the 25th anniversary of the movie is next year. Nick and Richard do have a competing relationship, Nick calls Richard a 'ken doll' in a negative manner and Richard may not like how much time his boyfriend spends with his ex. But it is later insinuated that Richard might be leaving so he doesn't have to be there when Nick dies, which it seems to be inevitable.


The movie does have some bizarre parts and it peters out by the end. There is this weird artistic dude, I didn't understand whose friend he was because the dialogue is kinda hard to hear and the DVD doesn't offer any closed captioning or subtitles. The weird guy says mean things about people with AIDS and Nick threatens him. And there is a scene between twinkie Peter and Nick that felt more like a 'move' than a 'moment.' And Nick has a dream sequence with a creepy dude in a knight outfit that foreshadows death but it is just a weird scene. But take a look at the movie, its awesome. I didn't like how it ended, it seems as if they didn't have enough money and were planning more and had to cut some stuff out, or they found out they could film more and did. It has some great groundbreaking stuff in there too. One dream sequence with Michael and Nick ruining Douglas' day, that leaves me wanting more antagonism between them and Douglas.