the groundhog day project

T.V. Carpio's Prudence is a lesbian, or at least attracted to women; let's not limit her simply because the film (perhaps, necessarily) does. I almost want to give her a specific label to counter the notion of Anne Thompson (2007) in Variety , who refers to "songs about confused sexuality, politics, war, race riots and psychedelia." I'll give you the last four, Thompson, but the movie never tells us that anyone in it is "confused" about her sexuality. Prudence quite directly points "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at a female cheerleader. And, Taymor makes this quite clear by letting the male football player stay in the frame just long enough that we in the audience might automatically assume he is the object of Prudence's affection then having him leave and the cheerleader look toward Prudence/us. That young woman is the object of Prudence's attraction. There is confusion but that arising in the audience from heteronormative impulses watch...

I almost feel like I should have watched Repo! The Genetic Opera this week as a counterpoint. Almost. (Quick sidenote for those who know Across the Universe : I suspected but only confirmed yesterday that the guy Molly is with when Jude goes back to Liverpool is exactly the guy he tells her better not be taking her out while he’s gone—Phil Scully.) The thing about Repo! is it is not built on familiar things. It’s sci-fi, it’s strange, and if I remember right (been a few years since I saw it the one time) it’s got some despicable characters right around its core. As much as the Sharks and Jets dislike one another, none of them is really all that bad a guy, nor is Lina Lamont a particularly bad person—hell, I argued a few weeks ago that she was rather wronged by the whole Kathy Selden scandal. Moulin Rouge! has the one despicable character—the Duke—but that piece is structured to make him the villain, so it’s ok. Across the Universe has no bad people, really. Paco may be misgui...