Blissfully Yours

Giving the proverbial thumbs up or thumbs down to a film like Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Blissfully Yours is no easy task. Depending on the viewer, the 125 minutes it takes for the innovative Thai director to tell the stories of three fairly ordinary characters will either feel like a slow descent into hell or a leisurely visit into heaven.

The problem some may have with Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong’s second feature) is that it isn’t doesn’t follow the formula most of us have come to expect when we walk into a theater (or watch a DVD at home). There really isn’t a beginning, middle or end to the tale—in fact, possibly in an attempt to convey to movie-goers just how much he’s veering from convention, the director drops the opening credits (as well as a headscratching pop song) smack dab into the middle of the movie.

What you see before and after the credits are separate segments of time in the lives of three seemingly ordinary yet connected Thai citizens. Min (Min Oo) is an illegal Burmese immigrant looking to girlfriend Roong (Kanokporn Tongoram) for assistance in acquiring a work permit. Roong, a factory worker by day, has hired the middle-aged Orn (Janjira Jansuda) to help obtain Min’s much-needed papers. Thrown into the mix are small details about the trio’s lives—Min’s bothersome rash, Roong’s former abusive relationship and Orn’s currently unsatisfying one.

If there’s a solidifying theme in the film’s first half, it’s the characters’ desires to flee their jobs and responsibilities—not to mention the city—for the supposed tranquility of the jungle (the focus of the film’s last half). The problem is, all three characters have too much going on in their heads to make a full escape.

Watching these events unfold on screen can be challenging—the director maintains a languid pace throughout, and often lingers on scenes that seem to be going nowhere. That’s seemingly the point of Blissfully Yours, however, and those who crave something out of the ordinary, or more specifically enjoy watching slow-moving foreign films with a contemplative undercurrent, will probably enjoy Apichatpong’s work. Those who don’t fit that profile should probably pass this one by and look for something that sticks a bit closer to the beaten path.

(2 out of 5 stars)

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Fun Down There

When Roger Stigliano’s Fun Down There was first released in 1988, gay cinema was just starting to find its legs. The indie film is getting a second chance at cinematic success this month (packaged with the director’s previously unfinished and unseen short, Seduced and Abandoned) thanks to Strand Releasing, and even though it’s hardly a stunning example of the genre, it’s worth checking out because it does something even current offerings fail to do: depict gay people as ordinary people.

That “ordinary person” in Fun Down There is Buddy Fields (played by Michael Waite), who lives with his parents (Waite’s real-life dad and mom, Harold and Betty) and younger sister (Jeanne Smith) in upstate New York and works at a local dairy farm. Being a twentysomething who has yet to experience the love of another man, Buddy is eager to escape his small-town surroundings—which he does after he deciding his calling in life is to make a movie.

Once in New York City, some very expected things happen to Billy—he meets a gaggle of gay men, some of whom are attracted to him while others are aghast at his “farm-boy” past—but what isn’t expected is that the entire film seems free of the drama that usually suffocates this kind of “boy escapes his past” story. The fact that Billy knows his way around a barn seems more of a surprise to the characters in Fun Down There than anything having to do with his sexuality, which is quite refreshing, even in this day and age.

Stigliano’s little film isn’t perfect, however. His obsession with long shots not only gets old after a while but serves to highlight one of the film’s main shortcomings: the acting. Overall, Waite and crew provide acceptable performances, but things appear particularly amateurish when the director focuses on any one of them for too long.

Still, Fun Down There could be an appealing purchase or rental for anyone interested in a flick that isn't filled with all the drama usually seen in "gay" movies.

(3 stars out of 5)

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Until next time!