FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS
Like an East Coast version of The Cockettes (2002), this film is yet
another look at gay '70s
counterculture. Sigh. But who could fail to be sucked into the anarchic
abandon, creative high, and generally non-PC approach to sexual politics and
gender identity? In other words, who would resist the world of Jackie
Curtis, “Superstar in a House Dress"?
Born on the Lower East Side, Superstar follows the life of Jackie
Curtis
as he wafts through the Factory world of Andy Warhol, the films of Paul
Morrissey, the theatrical avant-garde of La Mama and John
Vaccaro’s Play-House of the
Ridiculous. Drawing on a spectacular wealth of archival stills and moving
images, the film is held together by a plethora of talking head interviews
with Curtis' surviving contemporaries.
Director Highberger, Curtis' personal friend and documenter, is
obviously passionately nostalgic about this time and place, and still in
love with the mythological Jackie Curtis. The heroes of the film, as
Vaccaro points out, are the true artists of this counterculture. According to
him, it doesn’t exist today. It's all about money. And the
baddies include Warhol, who according to Morrissey, was without an idea of
his own.
And let's not forget the drugs. Lily Tomlin, quoting her partner, Jane
Wagner, laughingly comments that sitting at home all day doing drugs and
watching TV, it's not hard to see the absurdity of the dominant culture. While
Harvey Fierstein argues that drugs and alcohol do get in the way of
creativity, there is still plenty of lip service to the romanticism of
drugs, despair and genius.
One of the most powerful scenes is near the beginning where we
see beautiful black-and-white images of the teenage Curtis. Photographer
Gretchen Berg describes their meeting, and the obvious depth and sorrow in
Jackie's eyes. Unfortunately, it is a moment that is left stranded.
This is the difficulty with a documentary review, to separate the subject
(and the passion and sweat of the filmmaker) from the film itself. And
ultimately, Superstar does not deliver. The structure is unclear,
the archival material is sparse and the narration leaden. Through the
relentless sound bites, the film is more about telling than showing, and by
the end of the film Jackie Curtis is no clearer. The lyrics for the end
credits, "Who are you anyway" are unfortunately apt. Jane C. Wagner, Director/Producer (Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning Girls Like Us and the Sundance Best Short Film Award winning Tom's Flesh)
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