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Party Monster
Directed by
Fenton Bailey Randy Barbato

Written by
Fenton Bailey Randy Barbato
How to order Happy Birthday
Directed by Yen Tan
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Sure, if you want to go see a new gay movie see Party Monster, the club-scene, murder-comedy, drama about New York's fast lane in the slow early 1990s. But then that would be, pretty much, a waste of time as the movie is, pretty much, awful. The most interesting thing about Party Monster-- which stars McCauley Culkin (in one of his first "adult" roles) as a raving queen-- is why more reviews of the film were not titled "Homo Alone." To be fair, the film does feature some extravagantly playful club outfits. But it's sadly wanting in dramatic excitement or psychological suspense.

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The reality is that some of the most interesting gay and lesbian films are not hitting movie theaters. Well, they may have had quick play-dates in some large urban areas after their debut on the festival circuit. But the chances of them coming to your local independent theater are almost nil. Luckily they're available on DVD for sale or rent.

One of the best of the current "lost" films is Happy Birthday, the debut feature length film written and directed by Yen Tan. Shot in black-and-white on video transferred to film, Happy Birthday tells the story of two days in the lives of five people as they face their birthdays, and various other personal crises. There is the sort of non-linear, often rambling plot that Robert Altman made famous use of in Nashville, The Wedding, and Short Cuts. And while Tan lacks Altman's socio-psychological scope, he's made a film that's smart, thoughtful, moving, and great to look at.

Indeed, Happy Birthday works because it is small. Shot mostly in interiors-- bedrooms, hallways, restaurants, offices-- Tan creates an authentically realized feeling of spatial and personal claustrophobia. The men and women who are "trapped" in these rooms are also trapped in varying circumstances-- their bodies, their relationships, the past, government bureaucracies, their families, their own denials, their own fantasies. Nothing big happens in Happy Birthday (Party Monster has a murder if that's what you're looking for). But what we do get to see is (as Grace Paley wrote) "enormous changes at the last minute."

The stories are, for the most part, interior. Ron, a man tormented by his homosexual desire, is a conversion-therapy minister who cannot quite convert himself. Jim, a man of considerable bulk, is the leading phone telemarketer for a weight-loss product company. Kelly has just broken up with her lover and has become obsessed with an old crush from college, Javed-- a Pakistani man who, cut off from his biological family, is facing deportation back to his homeland and the prospect of exile from his lover. Tracy is a Taiwanese lesbian living in the US who has to deal with the visit of her intrusive though loving mother.

The best parts of Happy Birthday are the quiet moments-- such as Ron just sitting by himself as he contemplates what a mess his life is torn between desire and religious belief. While all the stories have mostly "happy" resolutions, to the film's credit we watch in dread, hoping that something bad does not happen. Tan's gift as a filmmaker-- he has only made one short before this-- is to convey the inner lives of his characters in such a generous, empathetic manner that we are filled with a genuine sense of dismay and alarm in the face of their problems.

Happy Birthday is, in the usual dry run of gay movies, a work of intelligence and deep emotional sensibility.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com