Five
Dances (2013/Wolfe
DVD)/Valentine Road
(2012/HBO/Cinedigm DVD)
Picture:
C+/C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: C+/B
Here
are two releases for everyone, even though they are Gay-themed
releases...
Alan
Brown's Five Dances
(2013) is a mixed by mature work about a young man (Ryan Steele,
making a strong acting debut) as a guy who comes in from out of town
to New York to be a dancer, but he is also gay. He has a mother who
is back home in Kansas, but he is not ready to go back home to her
and his sick father just yet. He gets a dancing job and this brings
him into contact (not sexual) with the man who runs it, some fine
fellow dancers and one in particular he might get involved with.
Though the acting, situations and some scenes work, some of this is
predictable and other parts uneven. Not bad, but not everything it
could have been at 83 minutes, yet it is not merely a gay film
showing a certain realism and maturity missing from such works.
Deleted
Scenes (some of which should have stayed in) and a feature length
audio commentary track with Director Brown and Star Steele are the
extras.
Marta
Cunningham's Valentine Road (2012) is a documentary about the
horrible murder of a 15-year-old young man of color who was shot and
killed by a 14-year-old white male unhappy with the romantic advances
of the slightly older male who was starting to enjoy cross-dressing
and finding his way in the world. In a computer lab at their school
in Oxnard, California, the point blank shooting took place while a
class was going on in 2008. That is where the nightmare begins.
The
victim was being harassed and told falsely by one friend that coming
out and being who he was would not get him killed, but the big shock
is how badly the adults (and especially school officials, possibly
out to darkly respond to new anti-discrimination legislation they did
not like no matter who got hurt or killed) handled everything. You
have the fact that there was a strict dress code, yet the victim,
Laurence King, was allowed to indulge in cross-dressing. The
shooter, Brandon McInerney, was likely an abuse victim and his mother
(who married a man with money who likely became an abuser later)
became a drug addict. Add poverty, ignorance, institutionalized
bullying and possible Right Wing political agendas and things get
worse, though the shooter lands up in jail after the court cases run
on so long that a plea bargain is reached. However, the situation is
not as cut and dry, as the school, some jury members and even the
media allow the shooter to become the victim and maybe even a de
facto hero!
We
also discover the shooter was around Nazi Skinheads, White
Nationalists, had a tendency towards violence and created artworks
that would get many in trouble and be considered explicit works of
hate. Unfortunately, that was not enough to get him into more
trouble, but I will say no more except that Oxnard has serious blood
on its hands (as does the E.O. Green School, all who ought to face a
giant civil lawsuit) and unfortunately, they might not be alone in
this vital, untold news event that horrifically may in the near
future prove to document the birth of a new neo-homophobia (and
neo-racism to some extent in this case) that may turns ugly against
any other group (like poor people) considered expendable by people
who think they can use children as pawns and get away with it.
Excellent work by the makers and this is far from the last we will
hear of this case or cases like it.
Extras
include Extended and Deleted Scenes, a few of which should have
stayed in the film.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on both are digital
productions, but Road is a little softer throughout than I would have
liked. Both releases actually have lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound,
but Dances
is quiet and dialogue-based, while Road
combines its sound from many sources, including some old, rough and
monophonic ones and location audio limits creep in as expected.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
