Unmade Beds
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B
Nicholas Barker is a sociologist who decided to make a
feature film about people, and the resulting Unmade Beds (2000) is a
documentary with a difference. It is
based on the final four choices of many audition tapes barker received. He then took the interviews of the four
finalists and scripted them out so they could re-perform their viewpoints all
over again. We could even call this a
“re-documentary”.
There’s the fifty-yearsish Brenda, who has been dealing
with a lifetime of 38B-sized breasts.
She is a bit money conscious, even admitting to shoplifting the “little
necessities” like toothpaste and the like, to get by. She is looking for a “generous” man (read nice sugar daddy she
can tolerate) and maybe have a “real” relationship with.
Then we have Aimee, who is obsessed with and wondering why
she cannot have a man to get married to.
It does not help that she has landed up with secretly Gay men or those
into S&M. Every time she tries to
find another guy, it somehow does not work out, but she does laugh often about
her wacky encounters. She even tries to
let these guys know what a catch she is, because she is a working professional
with health insurance!
Michael is a guy who is sick of being single and blames
the baby boomer mentality for holding him back. They say women should have guys 5’ 8”, and he is 5’ 3”, which he
is unhappy about, in that it causes him so much rejection. He is played as sympathetic in the film, but
his real issues actually surface in the supplements, where he is suddenly
bolder, more cynical, and insulting of heavy women. He had better watch out for Aimee.
Finally, we have Mikey, an old school Italian whose
standards for women are “anti-mutt”. Of
the women left, they are at his place to do one thing, and it is not to have an
exchange of intellectual ideas. That,
in part, may be why the screenplays he keeps writing are “sub par”. Hollywood and other producers keep rejecting
them. I guess they have a “no mutts”
policy too.
All in all, this focus on these particular New York
singles pre-9/11, makes for a candid and interesting film. They may be repeating what they said before,
but they still definitely mean every word, but there are still many spontaneous
moments that get captured and film picks up things about their character tape
never could.
The letterboxed 1.66 X 1 image is average, making the film
footage sometimes look like video.
However, it eventually becomes apparent that it is indeed film, as the shots
progress. Cameraman William Rexer does
a fine job of capturing what turned out to be a late era of dating in that
great city. The people have not changed
since, even if the city had been through a hell of its own. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo translates
fairly well into Pro Logic surround, but this is so dialogue-based anyhow, so
do not expect much there. Besides the
aforementioned outtakes, the is an interview with a profile of director Barker,
trailers of this and other New Yorker films in DVD, and a still section of
various windows in the city featuring the people in undress or oblivious to
their windows being open, exposing them on several levels.
In all, the film is a pleasant surprise, with the focus on
the people speaking to a larger issue of the inability of too many to
communicate and connect with others.
One might be tempted to say that New York is unique in granting people
hang-ups, but that is a fantasy. Unmade
Beds ultimately applies to all adults, especially dysfunctional ones, making
mutts of us all.
- Nicholas Sheffo
