Fair warning: This post may be a smidge delirious and rife w/ strange diction as I've been sorting through KidLit all day and, dammit, I didn't read stuff for 5th graders when I was in 5th grade so why would I find it interesting now? Regardless...
I went on an extensive hunt to various and sundry video stores around Alexandria looking for a copy of The Heart is Decietful Above All Things. This is a movie that was sold out in Nashville when it made the Film Festival rounds about a year and a half ago. What piqued my interest this time around was that I found that my new favorite perfumier YOSH developed a fragrance with the same name in tribute to the author of the novel, ostensibly named J.T. LeRoy. Now, apparently, there's some hubbub-- a real literary intrigue-- going on regarding the actual authorship of the books credited to LeRoy. I won't bore you with the details but rather direct you to the Wikipedia entry from which I learned everything I know anyway. Anyway, the perfume is $125 for a teeny bottle and is really pretty fabulous-- as are all of YOSH's scents. But, I got all excited about this controversy surrounding the writer. I mean, any opportunity to have a discussion about authorship and authenticity is very exciting to me-- and this case has apparently been caught up in some of the tailwind stirred up by James Frey.
But anyway, the movie... it's one of those stories wherein, about 1/3 of the way through it, you wonder, can this many awful things possibly happen to one human child? The basic story is about a little kid who has a rough-and-tumble junkie whore for a mother and a Christian cultist for a grandfather-- and he experiments with cross-dressing and is raped a couple of times and has some curious fantasies involving red birds and lumps of coal. Even if I didn't know there was some debate about how authentic this supposedly autobiographical tale is, I think I would still question it in the way that I question the realistic-ness of a movie like (Oxygen channel regular)Where the Heart Is. I mean, some portion of everyone's life is boring, right? It's just not possible that every moment be so damn chock full of drama and destructiveness. But even anyway, Asia Argento, the director and woman who plays the main character's mother, is vaguely interesting in her dirtiness. I find the character stupid and self-involved past the point of being tragic... and I suppose it's at least quasi-ballsy to cast oneself as such a repugnant soul.
More than anything, though, I'm just really intrigued the idea of a writer-filmmaker-perfumier three-way. It's an interesting circle of inspiration... the perfume is sexy, kinda earthy-- a lot of vanilla-- but has enough restraint to not be too sweet. It has an essence in it called Massoia bark which is known to be a skin irritant and cause rashes, though--I think that's a pretty fascinating aspect of it... I mean, a sweet, seductive with a real physical consequence. But really, I think it's a little more sophisticated than this movie. Alas...
And then there's The Aristocrats. I had a really hard time talking anyone into seeing this movie-- a documentary about a dirty joke-- when it was in the theatres. And, really, it's a pretty good rental as there's nothing fantastically visual that would be big-screen enhanced. But I just loved it and thought it well worth my $4.49. There are umpteen reviews available on line so I'm not going to explain what how this basically stupid and crass joke functions but here are some of the highlights: The kids from South Park tell it-- it seems very de rigeur in this particular incarnation. Mario Cantone tells it in the guise of Liza Minelli-- and I about fell over. Carrie Fisher tells it as though it's about her famous mom and dad-- nobody ever gives her enough credit for being funny... you wear a gold bikini once and nobody can think of anything else, apparently. Andy Richter tells this totally obscene thing to his infant child. Oh, yes, it was amazing. I squirmed. Bob Sagat's (yes, of Full House fame) version is much lauded in other reviews from being the dirtiest... but I wasn't so scandalized. Gilbert Godfrey's Friar's Club rendition was immediately post-9/11 and therefore had some resonance but none of them-- I mean no other comic in the whole movie-- including the hysterical mime version-- measured up to Sarah Silverman's delivery. I mean, the joke she told was so internalized, so twisted, so filled with this brilliant tragi-comic angst... I'm just not sure how someone could tap into something like that with so little guile. The girl proved herself the real master of this joke... in my opinion anyway. But anyway, posting about documentaries is tricky. Non-fiction has a way, regardless of agenda, of telling its own story in a more straightforward manner than a fiction does. Therefore why would anyone need the lens of my humble analysis to gain entry? So... enough!
2 comments:
I should note that it's amusing that, in the blurb regarding the Heart is Deceitful perfume, it says that Yosh developed it for her "friend" JT Leroy. Apparently, I curious part of the mythology surrounding th existence of this writer is that a number of celebrities are claiming to be his/her (I think she/he's supposed to be transgendered?) friend. Which means, either those people have been duped or they're in on the joke. Or, I guess, there's still the possibility that LeRoy is a real person. How nutty is all that?
here I am, posting on my own blog... but I just read some stuff that confirmed a vague recollection that The Heart is Deceitful has a Nashville connection. Apparently, LeRoy claims to have lived in Nashville as a child, frequently accompanying his mother, who wanted to transmogrify herself into Loretta Lynn, to various open-mics around town. He speaks of shoplifting food and liquor from a Publix... Now, Publix is a grocery store chain that has only, within the past 2 years or so, moved into the Nashville area... and due to some retarded liquor laws, grocery stores in Tennessee can't sell anything other than beer. These laws were once very Bible-belt-y but are now perpetuated by the independant liquor store owners who don't want big grocery-store competition. So anyway, if the book was published in 2001 about a childhood that happened in the 80s, well, it just doesn't seem to jive with the Publix corporate expansion plan. Anyway, as much as I say I wasn't in love with this movie, apparently, I'm obsessed with it-- though, more the lit-world drama than anything, I guess. If only I could predict what will capture my imagination, I might pick slightly cheerier things on which to fixate...
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