Raising Victor Vargas (2002) - R

There are so many coming of age films. It is a type of film where young adults become adults, “or sort of”. Sex is always either the headline or the sub-text. All of this is true with Raising Victor Vargas. However, the film makes a major shift about 40 minutes in. The youth teens, so hip and so sexual, stop their lives and flip their world to care for their grandmother. They stop their own searching for identity, personally and sexually, and take care of their family. The result is a maturity and sexuality beyond their years and perhaps beyond our years.

This is a film to watch with your teenagers when you feel like you are speaking different languages. Take a deep breath; it has a lot of sex. That is good. Teenagers have a lot of sex. However, teenagers have less intercourse than you think and are SO struggling for relationships. 12/16/10

Stage Beauty (2004) - R

Stage Beauty is a fictional story based on the historical event of English Theater allowing women to play women. As we know, Shakespeare’s plays were composed of all male casts. Women’s roles were played by men. This film follows the fictional event of an actor, played by Billy Crudup, who specialized in playing women. Crudup’s character becomes unemployed when women play women. This leads to a personal crises where he loses his acting identify, personal gender identity and sexual identity.

Billy Crudup acting in this film is excellent. The 17th Century set design and costumes deserve an award. However, this film is remarkable because of a mind bending gender and sexual theme. The theme is how a homosexual man can teach a woman how to make love to him. Conversely, how then she can enjoy the sexual pleasures from a man skilled at being a woman. This is nothing but pure Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the film was not well received. I recommend it. 5/26/11