10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 23, 2005

eveningsout

Wink wink, nudge nudge

Fun and mayhem in this fast-paced film noir

by Kaizaad Kotwal

When was the last time you saw a mainstream Hollywood film with a leading character who was a queer private eye for the con guy?

In this season of GLBT flicks with Oscar buzz like Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica, The Producers, The Family Stone and Rent, Shane Black's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a different breed of film with its own kind of fun, frolic and frivolity. It won't win any awards, but it allows for a good time at the movies and gives stars Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer a chance to turn in some fresh, funny and feisty performances.

The film derives its title from a remark about cinematic sex and violence by the late grand dame of film criticism, Pauline Kael: "The words 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,' which I saw on an Italian movie poster, are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies."

The film, like its title, delivers its fun, mayhem and bravado in doubles. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is basically a film noir experience, retrofitted for the new millennium just as Pulp Fiction was for the 1990s.

The amazing (and troubled in real life) Robert Downey Jr. is Harry Lockhart, a smalltime New York thief who winds up, through some very improbable sequence of events, in the City of Angels.

Lockhart is absconding from the cops in New York City, and is mistaken for an aspiring actor at an audition for (surprise, surprise!) a detective flick. He is jetted away to Hollywood for a screen test. Like all good method actors, Lockhart prepares for his role by shadowing a tough talking, macho, suave,

intelligent and handsome private eye who just happens to be gay.

And since he is queer, he goes by the moniker Gay Perry.

Such is the delirious, "wink wink, nudge nudge" landscape of this sassy and surreal caper film.

The two leads exchange a lot of spunky and saucy banter, trading in one-liners like stocks on a bullish NYSE.

Into this verbally sparring duo enters the hot moll, a standard of such noir films where the babe herself embodies all the kiss kiss, bang bang the genre can muster. Remember Madonna in Dick Tracy or Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential?. Despite being named Harmony, not only does she not calm things down, she also adds fuel to the flaming fire.

The film's situations are improbable and the plot convoluted, just because it can be. Yet something about this slick, fast-paced film will hustle its way right into audience hearts and funny bones.

As the con who turns actor, Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious and in top form. (How ironic that he is an actor who turned con for a bit!) Perhaps it is his own experiences that Downey can't wink at and turn in such a self-effacing yet intelligent performance.

Val Kilmer hasn't been this good in eons. He, too, has courted a bad-boy, macho image in real life and seems to be slyly grinning at the persona he inhabits here. It is also nice to see a mainstream actor take on a gay role. The mature thing about the character writing here is that the gayness is very matter-of-fact. Yet it is a breakthrough for the genre, in that film noir and the action film have rarely if ever had a central leading character who was queer. The chemistry between Kilmer and

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Private investigator Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) gets hard with con Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

Downey Jr. is terrific and Michelle Monaghan holds her own against these two stalwarts in great comeback roles for their recently sinking careers.

Shane Black's script and directing are greatly supportive of the genre and the selfreferential nature of the film. Black, who is famous for his work on Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, makes his directorial debut here and it is a strong one. He understands the ludicrous nature of his plot and he doesn't pretend otherwise.

Masterpiece Theater this isn't, but it is the most fun you'll have with the noir-slashaction flick since Tarrantino's Pulp Fiction. This one, too, is not for the squeamish. There's

Geisha

Continued from page 9

Marshall's first time sitting in the director's chair, Wick calls his feat of winning a Best Picture Oscar "astounding."

"It puts him on a short list of one-two punches in movie history," says Wick, who lauds Marshall's generosity on the set. "Rob has the strongest point of view in the world. But his style of getting what he needs for the film is much gentler than certain autocratic directors. And he has this tireless drive. He fought for every quarter inch of the movie, yet does it with such kindness."

Marshall himself doesn't know what to make of his remarkable accomplishments as a first-time filmmaker. "Coming out of the gate and winning Best Picture, that's like something out of a fairy tale book," he says, with a laugh. Yet for his next project, he sought to avoid being pigeonholed as a director of musicals. "One of the reasons I chose Geisha after Chicago was because I wanted to challenge myself and I wanted to try some-

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plenty of gore and dismembered bodily humor, coupled with sexy double entendres and oodles of leading man panache.

If you are tired of the highbrow fare that usually emerges this time of year trolling for Oscars, then Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is the apropos antidote for you.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Pauline Kael is smiling down at us from her heavenly abode. She was right. We are suckers for a good two hours spent in the darkness, lapping up all the kiss kiss, bang bang we can get.

And for those who often complain that a good queer dick is hard to find, settle down. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang delivers in spades. ✔

thing that I would never have done before. It's such a unique project."

Although his experiences working in gayfriendly Hollywood have been "wonderful" so far, Marshall believes a celluloid closet does still exist in the industry-despite an avalanche of A-list actors going "gay" this season in Oscar-baiting films like Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Breakfast on Pluto. “I do think it's unfortunate for [closeted gay] actors. I'm so proud of those who are out. But it feels kind of archaic in a way that those who are [not publicly out] can't be free of that [restraint]. Hopefully someday that will change."

As a gay man, Marshall says that Geisha's themes of forbidden love really hit home for him and weighed on his mind while he was overseeing the development of the script. "You want to make sure that those themes are clear... There's that line that Mameha speaks toward the end of the movie, 'We do not become geisha to pursue our own destiny. We become geisha because we have no choice.' Mameha has accepted that and that's how she has survived. But Sayuri doesn't accept that. She says, 'I want a life that is mine.' And I love that about her."

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