PRICK UP YOUR EARS

Alfred Molina and Gary Oldman

PRICK UP YOUR EARS (1987). Director: Stephen Frears.

Midway through Prick Up Your Ears, biographer John Lahr (Wallace Shawn) talks to some of the late Joe Orton's relatives, wiggles his hand, and says, "did you know he was 'that way.'" This sort of sets the tone for this condescending biopic of the playwright Orton (Gary Oldman of Criminal Law), who was murdered by his longtime companion, Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina of The Hoax), before the latter committed suicide. The whole tone of the movie is off-putting, starting with the decision to make John Lahr (upon whose biography this is based and who was co-producer of the film), and his wife, unnecessary characters in the film and even having them and an agent played by Vanessa Redgrave providing non-illuminating commentary throughout. Was Lahr's ego so big that he needed to put himself into the movie? Prick Up Your Ears bounces back and forth in time and never seems cohesive, nor does it make the characters come alive the way they should, focusing more on Orton's sexual escapades than his life and work. The performances are only okay. Oldman somewhat resembles Orton, but the real Halliwell was much better-looking than Molina. Orton's plays were erotic black comedies, and it may be that the filmmakers wanted this picture to reflect that -- Orton and Halliwell had many good times in spite of their horrible ending -- but making a nominal black comedy out of their ultimately tragic lives still seems in poor taste, as if it's "who cares what these funny fags did to each other?" Whatever these two men were really like -- and this film doesn't let us know -- they deserved better than this. Worse was to come: Orton, a campy musical comedy about the two men that played in London. Stephen Frears also directed the equally poor Florence Foster Jenkins.

Verdict: The movie may have seemed progressive thirty years ago, but it doesn't really work today. **.

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS (2016). Director: Stephen Frears.

Florence Foster Jenkins is loosely based on the life of the title character (Meryl Streep), a silly woman in 1944 New York who fancied herself a patron of the arts but may have been more interested in promoting herself despite a complete lack of talent. Was she delusional; was it all a big goof? Does anybody care? Frankly, a movie about a genuine opera star whose life is full of drama would have been a better bet than this mediocre film about the awful-sounding Jenkins. A bigger problem with the movie is that the characters are one-dimensional and in the case of  her "boyfriend" and manager (Hugh Grant of Love, Actually), highly unlikable. Streep, although miscast, isn't bad and Grant is fine, but the picture is stolen by Simon Helberg in his winning portrayal of Jenkins' befuddled accompanist, Cosme McMoon. But despite some funny moments and bits that attempt to be touching, this is not really a movie about people that anyone could give a fig about. Sadly, Streep has made worse, equally superficial movies, but she also appears in good ones such as Doubt. There was a play about Jenkins, as well as a French film based on her life, and a 2016 docudrama entitled The Florence Jenkins Story. Enough! Stephen Frears also directed Philomena.

Verdict: Hardly worth the time to sit through. **.

PHILOMENA

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan

PHILOMENA (2013). Director: Stephen Frears.

Martin Sixsmith authored a book entitled "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee," which was basically a biography of that child, a gay Republican (who was questioning some of his notions) who died of AIDS named Michael Hess. Hess becomes almost a mere footnote in the film version of the book, in which the main characters become his mother, Philomena (Judi Dench) and Sixsmith himself (Steve Coogan), who has just lost his job with the BBC and needs a new story immediately so he can get back in the game. He encounters an old woman named Philomena, who gave up her child to nuns many years ago and wonders what became of him and if he is still alive. In the mostly fictionalized movie, Sixsmith accompanies Philomena to the United States (a trip she actually never took) to find out what they can about her son so Sixsmith can write about it for the magazine footing the bill. Philomena has old-fashioned notions about gay men, supposedly knowing the very young boy was gay simply because he was "sensitive" and saying "maybe he played the harp -- he was gay, y'know." The movie certainly lets the Catholic Church off the hook when it comes to their antediluvian attitudes toward homosexuality. Frankly a story about Hess and the conflicts he endured would have made a much more interesting movie, and it's almost insulting that his story takes a back seat to the travails of his mother. Oddly, the producers apparently thought a movie about an 80-year-old woman would be more box office than one about a young gay man! That being said, the movie is absorbing enough for most of its length, but becomes less so when she learns about her son. Dench and Coogan give very good performances.

Verdict: Not what it could have been, and rather annoying at times. **1/2.