You Can't Have "Sex" Again

Watching Sex and the City last night I was struck at just how much the show, and now the subsequent movie, really push a consumerist message of buy buy buy more more more that's actually kind of scary. Carrie Bradshaw and the rest of the girls may by as tight-knit a group of girls as any of the very best of the best friends you have ever known, but their unwavering desire to have the best clothes, carry the latest bags or wear the newest shoes (the latter a yen I can't help but admit to as well) more than a little but jarring. Viewing the film last night I couldn't help but wonder, in a world of $4.00 gasoline and skyrocketing food prices is this message of spend just for the sake of spending really the one we should be listening to?

Granted, the original HBO show was about more than just that. These were real women who talked about real issues with a direct frankness not usually found on television. It was refreshing and invigorating. More, it was also about time, Sarah Jessica Parker and company blazing a path so wonderful it became virtually a call to action and an anthem of exhulatation for women both across this country as well as around the globe.

Unfortunately, if Sex and the City the movie proves anything at all it is the old axiom that sometimes you just can't go home again. As nice as it is to see Carrie, Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) again enduring almost two-a-half-hours of them is almost a virtual impossibility. I'll talk more about it on Friday in my review but, for now, just know that while some of writer/director Michael Patrick King's zingers and one-liners blissfully hit their mark, more often than not this is an overly contrived and frustratingly meandering slog heading to a forgone conclusion that's neither surprising or enchanting.

All that said, both Cattrall and Nixon are donwright fantastic, and Davis has a moment at about the one hour mark that had me squealing with glee. It still doesn't make this well-healed (seriously, the shoes are fantastic, and so are the handbags) drama any easier to digest, but for at least a few blissful moments the magic of the show materializes I remembered why I adored these women so much once upon a time. The sex may not be great, but the foreplay has its moments, and I guess as I myself finally enter my 30's that's pretty much going to be par for the course.

Back in the world of SIFF, I had the great pleasure and honor to interview Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Darkside) about his lates documentary the enthralling and fascinating Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. It was as pleasurable interview - if far too short of one - as any I've had so far this festival, the filmmaker waxing poetic about how he chooses projects, what keeps him motivated as a filmmaker and on the glorious mysteries talking about one of the 20th Century's greatest writers can't help but conjure up. The film doesn't release for quite some time so you'll have to wait until then, but I can still give a little bit of a preview for you to enjoy.

"We were finishing [Taxi to the Darkside and Gonzo] in ajoining cutting rooms, and actually that was a lifeline for me to be able to go from the seat of torture to Hunter Thompson next door. That was a relief. Not that I was originally supposed to be doing them simultaneously, but that's just the way it worked out. [Gonzo] took a lot longer than I had originally thought it would."

"It was like hearding cats, to round up all the people who we wanted to be in the film, to get Johnny Depp to do the narration and also to pour through a tremendous amount of material, which initially we thought was going to be all in one place but turned out to be scattered all over. While we had cooperation from the estate, there were still all these bits and pieces every where, so just marshalling that material than walking through and then trying to make deals so we could include it, all of that turned into being a hugely difficult process."

"But, why does he still resonate to people today? I think there are a couple of reasons. First of all, I think we live vicariously through Hunter. He's a wild and crazy guy, he's the guy who does it all, he's the outlaw we all secretly want to be. I think there's that. Also, I think it's because he's the truth teller. He's the guy who gores every sacred cow in his path, who's not afraid to make fun of the rich and the powerful and who does so in a way that's hilarious. This is not a guy who is so full of himself he doesn't enjoy a good belly laugh. That's the key to his writing. It's angry but it's funny."

It looks like Magnolia is going to hopefully start releasing this film across the country this July, so look for more of my interview with Gibney on the main site right around then.