Printer Friendly
The Free Library
14,679,167 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

Bountiful Trip: the charming love story the trip crosses decades and political parties.


The Trip * Written and directed by Miles Swain * Starring Larry Sullivan Larry Sullivan (born Lawrence Edward Sullivan, Jr., September 10, 1970) is an American actor. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut to parents Lawrence and Sheryl Sullivan. , Steve Braun, and Alexis Arquette * TLA (Three Letter Acronym) The epitome of acronyms! While two-, four- and five-letter acronyms exist, there are more three-letter acronyms. Obviously, three words to describe a concept or product is the most popular.

TLA - Three-Letter Acronym
 Releasing

Why is the gay date film so elusive a critter? You'd think all the societal and media visibility we've gained would be good for regular doses of popcorn-popping, hand-holding, Saturday-night-dinner-and-a-movie gay-themed flicks. Like a Jennifer Lopez pic, only with homos. And a better script than Maid in Manhattan or The Wedding Planner, por favor.

Miles Swain, a sometime actor based in Los Angeles, cultivated this spring's first gay date movie, The Trip. Set during the '70s and early '80s, The Trip dishes up a mix of cute guys, gay romance, political awareness, gay drama, and great soundtrack ditties. The ride begins in 1973, when uptight young Republican journalist Alan (Larry Sullivan) meets young gay activist Tommy (Steve Braun). Pity for Peter (Ray Baker), a sleazy older lawyer scheming to sip Alan like honey wine. In short order, Alan gets ditched by his flaky flaky - (Or "flakey") Subject to frequent lossage. This use is of course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable.  New Age girlfriend (Sirena Irwin), comes out of the closet, buries a fag-bashing book he secretly wrote, and moves in with Tommy. They live happily ever after The term happily ever after is used in association with many works of children’s fiction and romantic fiction. It describes a happy ending, often a cliché in which all the good characters have emerged victorious and all the evil characters have been punished. . Sort of.

Peter, having stewed stewed  
adj.
1. Cooked by stewing: stewed prunes.

2. Informal Intoxicated; drunk.


stewed
Adjective

1.
 in bitter juices for several years, clandestinely engineers a public scandal involving Alan's coincidentally unburied book. Dumped again, Alan shacks up with the duplicitous Peter, and they live happily ever after. Sort of. Come 1984, Alan learns of Peter's diabolical doings and runs off to find Tommy--who's dying in Mexico.

While very much echoing Hollywood formula, Swain's film is more bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. , soulful, and complex than much of its heterosexual romantic comedy ilk. Alan and Tommy are well-drawn, evolving characters, charismatically brought to life by Sullivan and Braun. They only have to struggle through the occasional sitcom set piece (notably a pair of "zany" dinner scenes, which serve as major turning points), god-awfully bad wigs, and stereotypical supporting characters--namely Alexis Arquette as Tommy's flaming friend and Jill St. John as Alan's sticky-fingered mom.

In The Trip's defense, those awful wigs were a product of budgetary constraints. And while it's a pity that this movie didn't benefit from the tidal wave of money going into sappy Julia Roberts vehicles, we've at least got one Saturday night filled, for now.

Ferber has also written for Entertainment Weekly and Time Out New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Liberation Publications, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2003, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Author:Ferber, Lawrence
Publication:The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)
Date:Jun 10, 2003
Words:382
Previous Article:Gay and phat. (notes from a blonde).
Next Article:Pillow shock: Down With Love will have you humming the costumes.



Related Articles
The trip to bountiful.
Mexico trip replaces preconceptions.(News Councils: Watching the Watchdogs)
The Insurgency.("Fighting the Good Fight: A History of the New York Conservative Party 1962-2002")
GERMAN-AMERICAN IS PROUD OF BOTH ELEMENTS.(News)
VIDEO 'MAMA' DOES IT ALL RIGHT.(U)(Review)
Baggott, Juliana. Girl talk.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
Hit the ground swinging: with the highest disapproval rating of the president and the lowest voting averages, young people have the potential to...
Sailing away: William F. Buckley's art of revealing nothing.(On Political Books)(Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography )(Book Review)
Irish Magic.(Book Review)

Terms of use | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles