IN & OUT (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Frank Oz Writer: Paul Rudnick Starring: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, Bob Newhart, Gregory Jbara, Shalom Harlow, Dan Hedaya, Glenn Close, Aaron Eckherdt, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno
You've all seen the previews: a suburban Indiana English teacher, Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), watches the Oscars with his fiancee to see one of his old students get a Golden Boy for Best Actor, only to "out" him. Back in 1993, something like this almost happened when Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay lawyer with AIDS and thanked his gay teacher from High School. Of course, he WAS "out" anyway, but this is a movie.
As the film goes on, the now totally insecure Howard, with his bow-tie, perfect wardrobe, and love for Barbra Streisand and Ethel Merman, becomes the big tabloid target of the moment. He's especially hounded by one reporter, played by Tom Selleck (sans moustache), who turns out to also be gay, and is out to bring Howard out of the closet. But Howard, who really is gay as it turns out, is trying desperately to convince himself of that, most notably in scenes involving a bachelor party gone to the Twilight Zone, and an absolutely hysterical scene where he tries to become a man by listening to "Increase Your Masculinity" tapes, which include a bit about listening to Disco music and trying not to dance. Of course, when I saw this film, I stood up and danced along with Howard. I guess I'm gay or something.
The second half of the film, following a great twist I didn't think a film like this would take, allows some of the supporting characters to blossom, including Howard's fiancee, Emily (Joan Cusack), who goes completely beserk (and won an Oscar Nomination for it); his two parents (the perfectly casted Debbie Reynolds and Wilford Brimley), who, um, try to understand; and the old student, a bottle-blond stud named Cameron (Matt Dillon), who's dating a thin model (Shalom Harlow), and is trying to make ammends for what he has done.
The ending, a hilarious spoof on the films of Frank Capra, is further proof of how funny this film can be, walking right on the edge between parody and preachiness. Some may say it's not funny or too message-y, but it's the kind of old time audience rousing experiment that has a serious message but never feels forced.
I'm actually surprised this kind of film would be made and distributed as a light-hearted comedy. It's the best thing to do with it, and you'd figure that a major Hollywood distributor would axe the idea before it could even be written. It's a film that pokes fun at the whole idea that someone being gay is actually an issue. It's a film that jokes around with the whole concept of "homophobia." And yes, it's a riot.
It does this by being completely politically incorrect and taking visciously hysterical stabs at everything homophobic. One of the funnier moments is one where the just somewhat neurotic High School principle (a classic Bob Newhart) tries to say "homosexual" and gets there before he says it. Or another sequence where a group of jocks sit in the locker room and try to make some kind of sense out of homophobia ("It's against, like, nature...and indoor plumbing"). Screenwriter Paul Rudnick, a openly gay man who also writes a hysterical column in Premiere Magaizine every month under the psuedonym Libby Gellman-Waxner, has so much fun making fun of everything that it's hard not to laugh. His Oscar ceremony, featuring such Best Actor Oscar nominations as Paul Newman for "Coot" and Steven Seagal for "Snowball in Hell," is one of the many big hoots of the film. In short, Rudnick's script is a gem.
However, it doesn't try and be nasty against heterosexuals in anyway. Paul Rudnick takes a strictly lassez-faire approach to the homosexuality controversy in America - it's as if he's looking at homosexuality and just saying "Who the FUCK cares?" And by presenting it as a light-hearted comedy (I mean, Frank Oz directs - the man is incapable of melodrama), he gives it a fun air, something that anyone, and I mean anyone, can enjoy.
"In & Out" is absolutely, definitely one of the funniest, most hysterical films I've seen in a long while, at least the funniest to ever actually say something about Americana. I'd say it's the cinematic equivalent of that great episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer finds out that a good friend of his is in fact "ho-mo-sexual." Like that show, it makes fun of all kinds of stereotypes in life, and comes out as being completely hilarious and never preachy. And I almost literally laughed my ass off. That has to mean something.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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