TEL AVIV TALE 'BUBBLE' BURSTS IN MELODRAMATIC FASHION.Byline: GLENN WHIPP WHIPP WhiteWater Head Impact Protection Project >FILM CRITIC Sometimes perceptive, sometimes formulaic, Eytan Fox's "The Bubble" plays like an episode of "Sex and the City," provided that Carrie Bradshaw was a gay man whose daily worries encompassed the threat of suicide bombers as well as closet organization. This may seem a flippant flip·pant adj. 1. Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness; pert. 2. Archaic Talkative; voluble. [Probably from flip. way to describe the latest movie from Fox, whose previous two films -- "Yossi & Jagger jag 1 n. 1. A sharp projection; a barb. 2. a. A hanging flap along the edge of a garment. b. A slash or slit in a garment exposing material of a different color. tr.v. " and "Walk on Water" -- have been warmly embraced, particularly among Israeli and gay audiences. But it's an accurate one, too, as Fox and his writing (and life) partner Gal Uchovsky have crafted an uneven film that awkwardly shifts its focus between the personal and the political, culminating in a contrived, simple-minded and deeply unsatisfying ending that will work only for those who found the plot mechanics of "Crash" to be deeply organic. Still, the bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. "Bubble" has its merits, particularly in the way it captures the uneasy way young Tel Aviv Tel Aviv (tĕl əvēv`), city (1994 pop. 355,200), W central Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. Oficially named Tel Aviv–Jaffa, it is Israel's commercial, financial, communications, and cultural center and the core of its largest hipsters chase normal trivial pursuits -- romance, sex, drinking, nightclubbing -- while trying to acknowledge the political and social realities of life in the Middle East. The film focuses on three roommates, but really is at its best (and sometimes worst) in depicting the doomed relationship between apathetic ap·a·thet·ic adj. Lacking interest or concern; indifferent. ap  a·thet record store clerk Noam (Ohad Knoller, playing a character who would
have been very much at home in "High Fidelity") and his
Palestinian lover Ashraf (Yousef "Joe" Sweid).
Both men sincerely, naively believe their love can transcend the racial and religious conflicts that darken dark·en v. dark·ened, dark·en·ing, dark·ens v.tr. 1. a. To make dark or darker. b. To give a darker hue to. 2. To fill with sadness; make gloomy. 3. their daily existence. That one of their most meaningful moments comes during a performance of Martin Sherman's play "Bent" indicates at least an unspoken understanding that their story might not have a happy ending. Noam shares a flat with another gay man, Yali (Alon Friedmann), and the feisty Lulu (Daniella Wircer), neither of whom are particularly interesting in or out of bed. The filmmakers want to juxtapose jux·ta·pose tr.v. jux·ta·posed, jux·ta·pos·ing, jux·ta·pos·es To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. life in the cosmopolitan Tel Aviv "bubble" with the hard truths that exist but a few miles away, but the story's routine romantic entanglements do little to engage your interest. Fox and Uchovsky realize this, steering "The Bubble" into (soap) operatic territory, though it's hard to regard the movie's final moments as anything more than a trivialization of terrorism. "Good sex is explosive," Noam tells Ashraf after the two men make love for the first time. Ashraf doesn't quite understand. The word "explosion" means something else entirely to him, as we come to realize with alarming literalism lit·er·al·ism n. 1. Adherence to the explicit sense of a given text or doctrine. 2. Literal portrayal; realism. lit . Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com BUBBLE - Two and one half stars >Not rated: sex, language. >Starring: Ohad Knoller, Yousef "Joe" Sweid. >Director: Eytan Fox. >Running time: 1 hr. 57 min. >Playing: Laemmle's Pasadena Playhouse; Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. >In a nutshell: Tel Aviv hipsters balance the personal and political, a hard act as filmmaker Eytan Fox finds here. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Yousef "Joe" Sweid and Ohad Knollers play lovers from opposite sides of the wall in Israel in "Bubble." |
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