Splendor (1999)

Splendor (1999)

Director: Gregg Araki
Scenario: Gregg Araki, Jill Cargerman
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK, USA
Year: 1999
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 5.2/10

Actors: Kathleen Robertson, Johnathon Schaech, Matt Keeslar, Kelly Macdonald, Eric Mabius, Dan Gatto, Linda Kim, Audrey Ruttan, Nathan Bexton, Amy Stevens, Adam Carolla, Julie Millett, Jenica Bergere, Paige Dunn, Emile Hamaty

Description:

Teenage trilogija Greg Arakija (Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere) je već predstavljena na ovom blogu, te sa filmom Mysterious Skin (2004) i The Living End (1992) čini zaokruženu sliku Arakijevog rada.
Ovaj film se definitivno nemože svrstati u Gay Themed Movie no bez obzira na to na ovom blogu se našao zahvaljujući  “nenamjerno i ničim izazvanom homoerotičnošću ” dvojice sjajnih glumaca Jonathan Schaecha i Matt Keeslara.
Veronika (Kathleen Robertson) na jednoj zabavi povodom noći vještica upoznaje Abela (Jonathan Schaech) koji od nje na jedan šarmantan način uspjeva da izmami broj telefona. Nakon toga upoznaje Zeda (Matt Keeslar) sa kojim polupijano završava u krevet. Ujutro kad se probudila šokirano je gledala u Zedovu jutarnju erekciju i čudila se sama sebi odkud ovaj lik u mom krevetu.

Iako joj se Zed dopao ženska znatiželja joj nije dozvolila da propusti sasvim drugačijeg a opet seksipilnog Abela (Jonathan Schaech).
I tako upada u vezu sa dva muškaraca, medjusobno toliko različitih ali dopunjujućih.
Ništa neobično da Veronika nije odlučila da im sve kaže i upozna ih. I tako nastaje savršena trojka koja ko zna šta sve radi noću u krevetu. Simpatičan mi je bio poljubac između Abela i Zeda.

Ova romantična komedija će vam zasigurno prijati nakon nedeljnog ručka, alako ne očekujete gomilu seksi scena. Toga u ovom Arakijevom filmu nema.
Mene je podsjetio na ednu davnu vezu sa jednim momkom i njegovom djevojkom. Ispočetka je ja sam bio samo njegov momak, a ona njegova djevojka. Kad bi se desilo da naš voljeni nije sa njom ili samnom družio sam se sa njom. Ispade da smo se jednima drugima dopali te je u meni probidila jak heteroseksualni nagon. I tako priča je tekla ko u filmu. Radnim danima je moja guza bila “zloupotrebljavana” od mog super momka, a vikendom sam gledao da ugrabim trenutak kako bih ga uvalio u savršenu pičkicu njegove cure.
Sve je funkcionisalo savršeno dok on nije odlučio da njoj kaže za nas. Imali su seks te subote i nakon toga je dijalog tekao ovako:

Naš momak: – Ja i on se volimo
Ona: – I ja ga volim, a znam da on voli i mene i tebe!
Naš momak: – Ali mi se volimo i onako… znaš
Ona : Kako … misliš … onako
Naš momak: – Da baš tako

Pauza 5 minuta  pa onda:

ona: A ko koga ? Mislim znaš…
Naš momak laže: Mi to ne radimo, samo pušenje , poljupci i to
Ona: Moram ti priznati , on super radi i to drugo!
Naš momak: Misliš vas dvoje ste…
Ona: Mislim da se mi svi međusobno volimo! Mi smo savršena trojka!

Nakon što me je sutradan nekako osvetnički izjebao ispričao mi je da joj je rekao i kako je tekao tok razgovora!

Left to Right: Jonathan Schaech, Kathleen Robertson, and Matt Keeslar in Gregg Araki’s Splendor

23 year old aspiring actress who wears more lipstick than a circus clown goes to punk club and falls in love-at-first-sight with two guys. Soon they all move in together and have three-ways every night–it’s a fornicator’s dream come true!. . .but the dream turns into a nightmare when the chick gets pregnant (now that’s a real surprise plot twist!) and realizes her two bed mates would make less-than-ideal co-fathers. Sure, they are fun to live and fornicate with, but these guys don’t even have jobs! What kind of life will her baby have ? Then the chick meets this bland but responsible guy. She doesn’t love him, but he’s stable and would be a good provider. So she dumps her two lovers and agrees to marry Mr. Bland-But-Dependable (now that’s a real surprise plot twist!). But, guess what? Right as the chick is about to say “I do,” the two lover boys crash the wedding and rescue the chick from a loveless marriage (now that’s a real surprise plot twist!). They all three go back to shacking up and raising the baby (which, in a real surprise plot twist, turns out to be two babies! Twins! Imagine that! How clever!). I guess this was supposed to be some sort of screwball comedy about how complicated young people’s lives can become in this so-very-post-modern-world, but. . .it’s not funny (though it is boring) and the script isn’t fresh (though the acting is terrible). You wonder how the mediocrity who wrote and directed this *movie* ever fooled enough people to pony up the five million or so it took to make this frisbee. . .that con job must have used up all his creative energy. *

by Scott Tobias April 19, 2002

Unburdened by the heavy nihilism that dogged his so-called “Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy” (Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere), Gregg Araki’s Splendor is his brightest, most tolerable work to date, a day-glo romantic fantasy that sweetly considers the long-term possibilities of a drunken three-way. A camp reworking of Noel Coward’s bohemian farce Design For Living, the film stars Beverly Hills 90210’s Kathleen Robertson as an aspiring actress and self-described “good girl” drawn to two polar  opposites at a Halloween rave: Johnathon Schaech, a bespectacled (and thus sensitive) freelance rock critic, and Matt Keeslar, a neanderthal drummer for a sub-par punk band. Robertson falls for her

competing lovers equally, but rather than choose between them, she allows both to move in and share her affections. This sort of premise would normally bring out Araki the obnoxious provocateur, but Splendor instead carries a bubbly, inconsequential tone that marks a surprising and welcome change of pace. While Araki’s self-conscious dialogue still pounds with leaden irony, he continues to make great strides as an avant-garde stylist, painting the film’s appealing surfaces with bold splashes of primary colors, eye-popping artificial sets, and a hypnotic art-pop sound design. Were he to invest the story with the same conviction, Splendor might have been the blissful, forward-thinking modern romance he intended. But for all his gifts, Araki is paralyzed by cool self-awareness, caught in the impossible position of trying to make this trio emotionally resonate while snickering at the Three’s Company phoniness of it all. Love stories require some measure of earnestness and heart, but Araki seems to have deposited his on the beach in The Living End, and hasn’t recovered it since.

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