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Arts & Entertainment
"It's Big, It's Beautiful, and You're Going to Love It!"
Review by Roland F. Palmer
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Trick |
So maybe you’ve heard how hard it is to find housing in New York City? With a great sense of humor, this film proves it – kinda. Trick, Jim Fall’s first feature film, is the story of two young men who spend an evening in the city looking for a place to tryst and end up finding each other.
Gabriel is an aspiring musical theater writer, played by Christian Campbell, the brother of Neve Campbell. Gabriel decides to take a trip to a local dance bar, and therein catches the eye of hot go-go boy Mark, played by newcomer J. P. Pitoc. The two decide they’d like to spend a little time alone and go in search of a place to do so, running into myriad roadblocks and a cast of hilarious characters during their travels.
Among the characters we encounter are Gabriel’s straight roommate, Rich, and his aspiring sex therapist girlfriend, Judy. One of the movie’s funnier scenes involves Judy’s somewhat awkward attempts to help Mark and Gabriel work through their frustration at not being able to communicate.
Tori Spelling – yes, that Tori Spelling – shows up as Katherine, Gabriel’s friend from high school who is now a mostly happy, mostly clueless actress. Watch for her meltdown scene in the diner; it’s over the top.
Then, of course, there is the outrageous and venomous drag queen, Miss Coco Peru (Clinton Leupp, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar), who cannot pass up the opportunity to share information about Mark with Gabriel in the men’s room of a club.
First-time screenwriter Jason Schafer provides dialogue that’s fast-paced, campy and hilarious. Some reviews have criticized the way straight female characters are portrayed, but in my opinion, those stereotypical caricatures actually helped make the film even more amusing and fun.
Director Fall managed to translate his successes on the New York stage (The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, Cute Boys in Their Underpants Go to France) and in short films (the award-winning He Touched Me and Love is Deaf, Dumb and Blind) into a critical and popular success. Trick had one of the highest theatrical openings of any gay-themed film in the summer of 1999, playing on 90 screens in 25 cities nationwide, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, won the Audience Award at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and placed number two in PlanetOut’s “PopcornQ Top 10 Films of 1999” survey.
As you might expect from a fun gay film set partially in nightclubs, Trick has a great soundtrack to suit. This mostly high-energy mix includes dance versions of “Dreamweaver” and “I Am Woman” and offers the dance hit “Unspeakable Joy” by Kim English. And just in case you don’t get enough of Spelling singing in the film, which she does, there’s a track of hers on the soundtrack as well.
Trick is funny, sappy, erotic, and outrageous. To quote the fabulous Miss Coco Peru, “It’s big, it’s beautiful and you’re going love it!”