The Guest House (2012/Wolfe DVD)/Mary Marie (2011/TLA DVD)/Weekend (2011/Andrew Haigh/Sundance/Criterion Blu-ray)

 

Picture: C/C/B-     Sound: C/C/B-     Extras: C-/C/B-     Films: C/C+/B-

 

 

I have been complaining about the failures of gay films and other projects since the end of the Gay New Wave, meaning the films have either been silly, formulaic or just plain dumb, often ignoring social issues and the AIDS crisis.  This time, we look at two lesbian releases and a British release that is more significant.

 

 

Michael Baumgarten’s The Guest House (2012) is about two women (Ruth Reynolds and Madeline Merritt) who meet and spend the weekend together getting to know each other very intimately.  This could have just been a thought police lesbian exercise, but we do get an actual story at first about how they get together and land up in such a nice place, then character development and the convincing scenario starts to crumble as they get together to really get together.

 

That’s a shame because this was potentially going somewhere at first, but the script just gives up as soon as they give in and it is barely above many other similar such tales.  I even liked the actresses, but not enough is done with the 84 minutes and unfortunately this disappoints after a promising start.  Sad.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

A little better is the Alexandra Roxo/Alana Kearns-Green co-directed/co-starring project Mary Marie (2011) about two women who have known each other for decades, but cannot be together like they would like to be.  But they cannot take it anymore and when a meeting in the hot summer begins, they let all their repressed feelings out and finally get together after so much suppression.

 

This is even shorter at 72 minutes and yet has no more or less character development, while the scenario works a bit better.  Unfortunately, it becomes much like the last release; the characters gets sexually intimate and the narrative stops like a sudden Music Video moment.  Too bad, because this had potential too and ends too soon.  Extras include a Trailer, Deleted Scenes that could have stayed in and audio commentary by the duo.

 

 

When I saw Criterion was releasing Weekend on Blu-ray, I thought it was the Jean-Luc Godard classic, which they announced a few months later.  But first, Weekend (2011) is a British release by Andrew Haigh and it might be the most important gay male narrative release since the Gay New Wave.  For starters, it seems to be aware of what it is doing because it dares to use the same title as a Godard French New Wave film and it has some of that same attitude, if not imitating his style.  It has moments of quiet, many shots of the city and takes its time as two men become involved in what is a frank look at their lives.  The character development does not end in the bedroom.

 

Glen (Chris New) is an artist who is interested in Russell (Tom Cullen) who is not telling everyone about his sexuality and finds society treats all sex as banal and trivial, so he keeps to himself, but bit Glen.  Especially when they get together.  Instead of just it being sex, they talk it each other, say things any couple of any sexuality might say and even question life as they engage with each other.

 

Some of this is verbally graphic and will shock some, sexuality notwithstanding, but it is also a bit more British than expected which is a plus.  The actors are convincing all around and its insistence on treating the people like people and not just gay male cut-outs or an ongoing joke makes this significant like the best Gay New Wave releases and classics like A Very Natural Thing (1974, reviewed elsewhere on this site) so now I see why Criterion of all companies picked this one up in conjunction with Sundance.  It is a minor Gay classic and for all the complaining by Gay filmmakers about illegal downloads hurting their profits, which has a degree of validity, writing more realistic, honest scripts and taking risks would help and Haigh can really direct well.

 

Extras include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and Dennis Lim’s The Space Between Two People essay on the film, while the Blu-ray adds an interview about the sex scenes with Haigh, interview featurette, auditions, on set video from several of the participants, Original Theatrical Trailer, video essay on the film via photographs and two shorts by Haigh on relationships (heterosexual as well) that foreran the making of this project.

 

All three releases are HD shoots with both DVDs in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 form that is softer in both cases than expected, even with styling in mind.  The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Weekend also has some minor motion blur and minor detail issues, but is one of the more thoughtfully shot HD releases of late and looks pretty good overall.  Director of Photography Ula Pomtikos creates a few memorable images and form in the HD format which looks formless and generic in most of the cases I have seen in HD feature releasing to date.  A true talent, this has its visual moments.

 

The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the DVDs are not bad, but not great, soft and have sonic limits including some location audio that is not great.  Guest also has a Dolby 5.1 mix that just spreads the sound around and does not work.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 lossless mix on Weekend is more like it with consistent recording quality and healthy Pro Logic surrounds.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo