August

A delicious romantic comedy

Better than Chocolate Directed by Anne Wheeler Cedar Lee Theater, Cleveland Drexel East Theater, Columbus

Reviewed by Mark J. Huisman

Better than Chocolate? Better than anything you'll see this summer is more like it. A big burst of fresh, cool northern air, Better Than Chocolate is the single most charming, sexy flick I've seen all year.

A devilish-looking dyke and university drop-out, Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) stumbles into Kim (Christina Cox), a hot, muscletoned sketch artist living in ramshackle van. Smiles widen. Eyelashes bat. When Kim's home is towed (the film's first episode of dykus coitus interruptus), she and Maggie have the perfect reason to shack up for a while.

Just as things are heating up-thanks to Ani DiFranco music and a set of body paints— there's a shout at the door. Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson) and brother Paul (the adorable Kevin Mundy) have arrived for an extended stay. And P.S., Kim: Maggie's not out.

As Maggie tries to negotiate interpersonal space under Lila and Paul's noses, Kim grows increasingly impatient: Is Maggie her girlfriend or not? Lila attempts to fashion a new life minus the husband, while trying to understand her daughter's increasingly erratic behavior.

Adding to Maggie's woes, her manager at the bookstore where she works, Frances (Anne Marie MacDonald, who lesbian viewers will recall from the glorious film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing), is battling Canadian censors who have seized “obscene" material including, curiously, Little Red Riding Hood. (Look for the lesbian in uniform who facilitates a quick joke about a certain music festival.)

This flawless romantic comedy is given over almost entirely to women: two sexy lesbian leads, a frisky bisexual (who teaches Paul all about butt plugs) and a mom who isn't afraid to discover sexual joy via a box of plastic goodies beneath her daughter's bed.

TRIMARK PICTURES (2)

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Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson, right) meets her daughter's transgender friend Judy (Peter Outerbridge).

(Lila's toes curling around an iron bedpost is indicative of director Anne Wheeler's keen eye for detail.)

The sex here-be it between two women, a man and a woman or someone all by themselves is the most erotic and believable in years. To quote Judi Dench's Oscar-winning Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love: "She's been plucked. Takes a woman to know." Apparently, it takes a woman director to know when sex looks real rather than wheatpasted.

You will probably have read mainstream critics who have called the bashing-related ending to Chocolate contrived and forced. But those critics missed some of Wheeler's best touches, something that only queer eyes can see: The many beats of homophobia sprinkled throughout the narrative before this anti-gay sentiment rises to the top. There are slurs shouted from passing cars, comments from next door neighbors about “inappropriate" displays of affection and, not least, that government censorship of queer art. All this foreshadowing deftly leads to a conclusion that links all these forms of homophobia to the optimistic hope of finding shelter among a family that, sometimes, actually includes your relatives.

But Chocolate's most marvelous creation

by far is Judy (Peter Outerbridge, displaying a wealth of talent the likes of which we will not see again this year), a transgender singer battling more ups and downs that you've faced all year. Running the gamut from light comedy to sensual seduction, Judy befriends the emotionally crippled Lila, triumphs over a bathroom, decorates her brand new condo and-long live trans romance!-serenades a befuddled Frances with a torch song: "I'm not... a fucking drag queen! I'm in another bracket. What you see before you... is not some kind of racket."

This entire movie is a tour-de-force for everyone concerned, especially Outerbridge He could quite possibly walk away with tha top Canadian honor, a Genie. Now that would really be, well, transcendent.

Better than Chocolate starts at the Cedar-Lee Theater in Cleveland on Sept. 3, and at the Drexel East in Columbus on Sept. 24. The New Neon in Dayton and the Esquire in Cincinnati will also be showing it.

Mark J. Huisman is a Chronicle contributing writer living in New York City.

"The sex here—be it between two women, a man and a woman or someone all by themselves is the most erotic and believable in years.”

Christina Cox as Kim

Karen Dwyer as Maggie