Waiting to Sex Pale

Last weekend at the movies was to kinds of fun: proto-post-modern clever and the inner-teen dreamy with a twist of social comment.

First, Papertrix, Snacks and I saw Tristram Shandy, a film geek's delight of the Brit variety. If you enjoy self-referential, self-mocking, self-indulgence, then get yourself to it before it leaves town as fast as it came. (Unless you live in New York where you'll probably be able to see it in a theater at least a month from now.)

Later, I saw Something New with my friend who only enjoys "normal movies" in which time moves in one direction only: forward of course. Something New, a comedy about a black woman dating a white man, shouldn't be something new, yet it is. If it wasn't, then why was it released by a company like Focus Features? Even in a fairly conventional entertainment movie, this topic is still a big deal, folks.

Most Rom Coms and Chick Flicks seem as unfamiliar to me as Wuxia Pian (and far less entertaining). Usually the only ones that don't make me ill are the "urban" ones, and even those have little I can relate to. These parades of impeccable fashionistas and high powered executives who are still "down" are comfortable fantasies of African American upper middle class life that remind me of the Hollywood glamour of the 30's and 40's. The characters are beautiful creatures, fun to watch but unlike anyone I really know. The values are occasionally tweaked, but never fully questioned.

Something New didn't exactly burn the mother of bourgie values down. It was too cuddly and cute for that. But the main character, Kenya, and her family were as close to recognizably human as I've ever seen in an unassuming romantic comedy. I haven't watched a movie and thought "That reminds of so-and-so." so often since I first saw Crooklyn.

Sanaa Lathan's Kenya had just the right brittleness and intelligence. The movie's cultural specificity and its ambivalence to the society that stood in the lovers' way (you gotta have something stand in the lovers' way) was strong enough that people will leave the theater with something to think about. And that made me feel a little less corny as I ate up the more conventional parts of the movie (the candles, the getting caught in the rain, the pretty clothes). There's even a debutante cotillion. Just try to pull that off, Drew Barrymore!

So if you like "normal movies" with a hearty side of satire, looking at nice clothes, and watching guys do heavy yard work, try Something New. If you've ever been in a debutante cotillion or considered paying hundreds of dollars for a weave, see it in the theater.