2007 SUNDANCE MIDNIGHT FEATURE! The second in Crispin Glover’s planned art film trilogy began with “What is It?” and continues in “It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.” The film is written by and stars the charming and cerebral palsy afflicted Steven C. Stewart, a man who will not allow his handicap to stop him. The story involves Stewart who is a ladies man, seducing young women, getting them naked, then getting them in bed, then getting them into a chokehold to kill them in an almost comedic fashion.
It’s hard to feel sorry for a handicap serial killer, but Steven is just too likeable as he grunts his way through his lines. He’s impossible to actually understand, yet, in the context of each scene, we know what he’s saying. It’s like a John Waters film from the 1970s, as Glover and Brothers force you to see this crippled person as a suave leading man. To say the film is weird would be cliché, it’s way beyond that the film drew laughs and gasps from the audience. The odd thing about it all – it works. It’s actually refreshing to see someone who actually has cerebral palsy in a film rather than some actor playing someone with cerebral palsy, y’know, like Daniel Day Lewis. It wasn’t long ago that Hollywood would dress up Caucasian actors to play Asians or other races in movies (John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Mickey Rooney). Perhaps some will get the idea that the handicap have a right to play themselves on screen. Even when it is a “turn-off” to general audiences who need to be challenged.
The climax features Stewart in a hardcore sex scene as he receives a blow job leading to a close-up of full penis-vagina penetration. The tight shots of the actual act do not linger, so one could hardly call it porn, but it is rather jarring. Glover and Brothers felt it was important to see that Stewart actually had sex and that this wasn’t some sanitized Hollywood love scene with bits of nudity. Crispin Glover plans to tour festivals with the film combining screenings with a live performance starring himself. An experience not to be missed.
NOTE: I have not reviewed a film in over three years, but after seeing this film at the Sundance Film Festival, I felt compelled to offer my opinion. For what it’s worth.
