10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE August 11, 2000

out

A good but one-note tale of stalking a childhood past

Chuck and Buck

Directed by Miguel Arteta Artisan Films

Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal

Obsession is that bizarre journey that humans often embark on, searching for self, sex, stimulation and sanity. Obsession is an ubiquitous human characteristic. It's in our fetishization of pop culture, in our manic worship of Hollywood icons, in our voodoolike indulgence in the NASDAQ and Dow, in our quest to out Ricky Martin and Tom Cruise (hopefully as lovers), in Glenn Close's bunnyboiling brouhaha, and even in our boudoirs, bottled up and ready to spray, courtesy of Calvin Klein.

Obsession is not merely the rocky terrain of floundering adulthood. Kids obsess as much from Pokemon to the Backstreet Boysboth names that have me obsessing about their Freudian overtones. Straight people obsess as much as their gay brothers and sisters. Even the birds and bees obsess as much as their human counterparts.

Miguel Arteta's new film Chuck and Buck is an exploration of exactly this universal theme of enduring and unrelenting obsession. Arteta burst onto the independent film scene a few years ago with an exceptional film titled Star Maps, which explored obsession via the world of young male street hustlers and celebrity seekers (or "star fuckers," to be more honest) in that city of obsessions, Los Angeles.

Chuck and Buck returns to Los Angeles for its geographic and psychological landscapes. This is the story of Buck, a child-like young

Indigo Girls

Continued from page 9

Well, we just did this tour with our band, and our band are just awesome.

They're a tight band. I love the parts they play. I love them as people. Every show was fun and exciting. I don't typically look forward to shows. I always enjoy them while I'm doing them.

Is it nervousness?

It's a big responsibility. I don't know how to describe it. The way you feel on the day of a show is different from the way you feel on any other day. I think you just try to keep yourself together and then release it all during the show. But I even found myself looking forward to playing on those nights with the band. I just think having new songs that we're excited about, although its hard to arrange them, its very gratifying to have the process work out after all these years, like it always does. There's a million other things that excite me. I always want to wake up in the morning.

man who becomes fixated on his childhood friend Chuck and follows that adoration to ridiculous and even dangerous extremes.

While Buck has remained undeniably preadolescent, Chuck has passionately acquired all the trappings of adulthood, having become a successful music executive in a chic, albeit dull, relationship with another mover and shaker in Hollywood. When Buck's mother dies, he tracks down Chuck and tries to ensnare the object of his rabid affections.

The pair used to have a healthy childhood friendship, brimming with sunny days on the swing and even brighter days exploring the perils of pre-pubescent prodding and probing in precocious sexual awakenings.

At 27, Buck listens to his old records over and over, plays with his Matchbox cars and gets his daily fruit servings from lollipops (a not-so-subtle Freudian fetish on Arteta's part.)

Chuck, who in adulthood has abandoned his nickname for the more grown-up Charlie, hesitatingly tolerates Buck's nostalgia at first, and then begins to vehemently reject it as the obsession becomes increasingly frenzied. In order to get Charlie to notice him, Buck decides to put on an autobiographical play titled "Hank and Frank," at a theatre right across the street from Charlie's high-rise office building.

Buck enlists the help of Beverly, the theatre manager, to direct his play. He pays her gobs of money, presumably from his mother's inheritance, to put on the modern day version of the mousetrap in Hamlet.

Charlie and his fiancée come to the performance, and are even more outraged at Buck's parading of their lives on the stage.

This movie has been anointed as the sleeper

You must be the morning person. It sounds like Amy is the night owl.

I guess I'm more of a morning person than she is. I don't like to stay up too late. I don't like being tired, so I generally go to bed at a decent hour. I'm more alive during the day.

How do you keep yourself together on the road. Do you follow a certain health regimen, eat a certain way, exercise, meditate?

A lot of that stuff. Both Amy and I work out almost every day on the road, so we make sure there is time in our schedules and places to work out in the cities where we stay. I drink a ton of water, at least a gallon a day. I don't like to eat big heavy meals before we play. I do meditation. I just don't do things that will make me feel bad or affect my show. Fairly disciplined?

Pretty disciplined. A lot of times there's pizza after a show at night, and then the discipline gets all shot to hell. But you gotta have some fun.

What is the part of being a working musician that you despise the most? Hopefully, it's not talking to the press.

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hit of the summer by the mainstream entertainment media ever since Artisan Films picked it up at Sundance last year. It has received unanimously great press, more so than any other gay flick in recent memory.

Much of that praise seems misguided or profoundly patronizing towards the purpose of political correctness. The straight media wants us to think that they finally get it, that they too can appreciate a good gay story when they see it.

Unfortunately, Chuck and Buck is a mediocre film at best that will still do well, because Hollywood hath no greater messiah than a well-orchestrated publicity campaign.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is not a bad film. It's simply not as great as it's being made out to be. And I don't even care about what some critics have lambasted as another gay psychopath. Lord alone knows we have our fair share of them, and they are perfectly legitimate fodder for filmic fantasy.

What is upsetting about the film is that it is a one-note movie. We know that Buck is obsessed, and we get to watch his obsession in action for a good 95 minutes. Plus, the resolution of the movie is as unrealistic as Charlton Heston voting for Al Gore on November 7.

After Charlie relents to one last meeting with Buck, and Buck gets to release his sexual obsession over Chuck, we are made to believe that all of a sudden Buck grows up and starts to make a life for himself.

If only obsession were that easily dealt with, millions of shrinks would be out of business, pharmaceutical companies would be downsizing their Prozac and Zoloft machinery and many more men would get rid of

[Laughs] No, its not that. I get tired of being away from home. I miss my girlfriend. I miss my dog and my cats. I miss my family and friends and a lot of their lives go on without me, so I miss a lot of milestones and that can be painful.

On the other hand, I've got my own milestones going out on the road with friends that I have in different cities. So it's a mixed bag in that way.

Towards the end of the touring season, I start to feel the cumulative effect of being watched all the time onstage, and I start to really break down and start to become antisocial and don't want to be in a situation where I'm an Indigo Girl. I just want to be me, and escape, and not want to have anybody trying to scrutinize me.

So you really need to balance the time that you're on the road to make sure that you get enough time at home?

And we do. We're very vigilant about that. It's not worth it to be miserable. And we're not the kind of band that thinks, "Hey we've got to ride the wave" and keep working. We're a nuts-and-bolts, grassroots, nose to the grindstone type band and we take our mental health very seriously, and we take breaks accordingly. When one of us is strong, the other could be weak, and vice versa. We hold each other up. It's just worked out really well. You mentioned about being scrutinized and that it bothered you. A lot of people might think that musicians would naturally be extroverts, but maybe you're an introvert. What do you think?

Let me ask my friend... hold on... [Saliers puts down the phone to ask her friend: Am I an extrovert or an introvert?]

She says it depends on my surroundings, but that I'm an extrovert. I think that's right too.

For example, if you went to a party and there were a bunch of people in the room that you didn't know, do you have an easy time going right up to a compete stranger and comfortably have a conversation?

Yeah. I don't have a problem with that at all. The only time that I feel introverted is when I'm overwhelmed after touring too much or too much social activity. I don`t like to go at a full pace all the time, and I don't like to have a lot of things that I have to take care of at one time. I'm not a multitasker. So, when I become introverted, it's usually because I'm overwhelmed.

their stalkers by simply allowing them to blow them one last time!

It is quite likely that the movie is trying to make some deep philosophical rumination about obsession, and possibly about Charlie's repression of his sexuality behind the firewall of Hollywood power. But the film's execution of such a tale is as simplistic as Buck's boyish behavior.

Michael White, who plays Buck, also wrote the script. (He is the son of Soulforce founder Rev. Mel White.) His performance is a lot more polished than his writing.

White does capture the obsessive Buck with nice nuance and tenderness that makes him worth watching. Chris Weitz, as Charlie, works well within the repressive stiffness of his character but the part is pretty one-dimensional.

The joy of the movie comes in the form of Lupe Ontiveros, who plays Beverly, the director of Buck's autobiographical play within the film. She lends a gravity and depth to her performance that saves this film in many ways.

Chuck and Buck is worth watching for some of its performances. What makes the movie annoying is that it treats Buck's seemingly disturbed and deep-seated obsession as something as curable as a broken fingernail.

Those of us who have truly been obsessed should take it as an insult to be told that our jeopardized journeys of obsessiveness were simply a blow job away from being solved.

Kaizaad Kotwal is a Chronicle contributing writer living in Columbus.

You're just trying to charge your batteries back up.

A. Yep, I'm a person who needs to charge my batteries a lot.

Let's talk about your musical heroes. Who did you listen to when you were growing up that inspired you?

Joni Mitchell was the biggest influence, biggest inspiration. I have to count up there Stevie Wonder, Neil Young. I love the band Heart. They were pretty big in my life. Just to name a few.

Did you ever work with any of those artists? I think you worked with Neil Young. We opened for him.

How does that feel? Do you become the kid that you were?

Oh my God, yes! Yes! Yes! I'd stand on the side of the stage every night thinking I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe we get to do this. That's what Lilith Fair felt like too. I couldn't believe that I was standing on the side of the stage, watching these people sing and that we get to sing together. I couldn't believe that all those fans were out there. I just can't believe this is my life... that's what it feels like.

That's great. It brings everything full circle. It's the realization of all your dreams?

Dreams I never even knew I had, I guess. Wow, look what unfolded.

Now you get to promote someone that maybe you're listening to now, that might not be very well known, that you're finding interesting musically. Who would you recommend?

Michelle Malone is a great artist who's been around for a long time but she's still very vibrant. She has a new record out called Homegrown. Rose Pulenzani, who has a record out on Amy's label, Daemon Records. I like Danielle Howle's music a lot. She has a record out on Amy's label and on Kill Rock Stars. Those guys are all great.

Since you change the set list every night, we don't know what to expect from your upcoming Cleveland show.

We don't either. We won't know until we get there. We like playing in Cleveland. We've had some memorable experiences playing there, with the boats at the Nautica stage. I think Cleveland is a cool city. I've always enjoyed my time there.