2024 Entry #58 08-20-24 “The Adjuster” is a 1991 Canadian drama film directed by Atom Egoyan (“Speaking Parts”, “Exotica”, “Ararat”, “Where the Truth Lies”, “Chloe”); this was his fourth feature film and the first to achieve international acclaim. The film stars Elias Koteas (“Chain of Desire”, “Exotica”, “Crash”, “Apt Pupil”, “Ararat”) as Noah Render, the insurance adjuster of the title who sleeps with his clients, men and women alike.
A very odd film. I’d been meaning to watch this one for ages and it felt like I’d found another David Lynch film. Elias Koteas is as hot as ever but how much you’re able to enjoy this will likely be based on your expectations.
2024 Entry #48 06-09-24 “Thelma & Louise” is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, “The Hunger”, “Cradle Will Rock”, “Cloud Atlas”) and Geena Davis (“Tootsie”, “Will & Grace”, “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”) as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforeseen circumstances. The supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel (“Pulp Fiction”), Michael Madsen (“Sin City”), Christopher McDonald (“The Boys Next Door”), and Brad Pitt (“Less Than Zero”, “Interview with the Vampire”, “The Mexican”, “The Normal Heart”). Filming took place in California and Utah from June to August 1990.
I wanted to revisit this film more than 30 years after first seeing it because I remembered several of my lesbian friends having stickers and magnets that said “Thelma & Louise LIVE” on them, and also having seen “The Celluloid Closet” many times over in which Susan Sarandon discusses putting the big kiss in at the end of the film. It surprised me to see that there are no LGBTQ characters in this movie. Even the much lauded kiss is between two women that the film goes out of its way to present as heterosexual and are kissing in a show of solidarity before they drive off a cliff together and presumably die. I think this, sadly, just goes to show how in the early 90s, queer audiences were starved for images of ourselves and would glom onto anything that remotely suggested homosexuality. It’s still a good film, but it just serves to remind me of exactly how far we’ve come.
Still, that connection between LGBTQ+ audience members and this film has made it something of an icon.
The LGBTQ movie pandemic lock down marathon continues…with Gus Van Sant’s 1991 masterpiece, “My Own Private Idaho”, which I’d seen many times before, but again, not in several years. And just like today’s other entry (“Edge of Seventeen”), I was surprised how much I’d forgotten of this film and I feel I noticed things that I never had before…perhaps because I’m seeing it so far removed from previous viewings? It probably doesn’t hurt that I watched it on a huge TV.
“My Own Private Idaho” was the first gay themed movie that I actively sought out. It was the first movie that I rented once I had a drivers licence and could get an account at a video store (Blockbuster). At the time I was incensed that any movie with LGBTQ material was flagged by Blockbuster as something that could only be rented by people 17 and older regardless of content…and yet I was also grateful as it made such properties easier for me to find, and I rented many other such films which had a lasting impression, even if they didn’t join the collection I’m enjoying now. Years later, I was hired at Hollywood Video and during my interview I mentioned my disdain for Blockbuster for this very reason, which impressed my new manager (DJ).
As for the film itself it was (and remains) for me a haunting, eccentric collage of tones and quirks which exhilarated me as a film fan, even as it sometimes frustrated me as someone yearning to see representations of my own experiences; something that’s faded with time and more satisfying portrayals. Having said that, the campfire scene in which River Phoenix’s sympathetic, narcoleptic street hustler Mike Waters confesses that he loves Keanu Reeves’ gay for pay Scott Favor – and that he wants to kiss him, was a breakthrough moment for me as a gay film fan, and for the actors as well – it’s cited in nearly every review I’ve read of the film…and I watched that part repeatedly.
