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There is only one thing that makes "Shem"
worth seeing and that is Ash Newman. But I mean
this only in the most typical and "gay" way.
Newman is hot and seeing him for 90 minutes
here, in nearly every frame of this boring and
poorly made film, is a treat. Here's the best
way to see this film. Buy the DVD and play it
with the sound off. You won't miss anything
worth experiencing.
Newman plays Daniel, an asshole Londoner
teenager who goes on a long and laborious and
pedantically and poorly written journey to discover
his Jewish heritage. His elderly grandmother
asks him to find his great-grandfather's grave
and along the way he discovers the story of
his ancestor and begins to consider and reclaim
his heritage. (I'm making this sound like you
can actually decipher this from the watching
the film, which is kind of me).
The story is so hodgepodge and hard to
follow that those of us not versed in European
history and geography and modern politics will
simply give up trying to figure out what is
going on. Daniel travels to a plethora of countries
via railpass trying to find the gravesite and
along the way he meets up with numerous supposedly
interesting characters who are actually bad
actors who speak with such thick accents that
we can barely understand what they are saying.
To make matters worse, when they speak in their
native tongue (and since Daniel cannot understand
them) there are no subtitles.
My biggest problem with the film showing
at Agliff, a gay and lesbian film festival,
is that Daniel, in addition to being an asshole,
is a supposed bisexual who has only one seemingly
loving relationship with another man. This is
at the beginning of the film when Daniel is
also show to be sleeping with this other young
man's mother as well. What the fuck, man? Why
are we supposed to like this guy or care about
him. Whenever he meets other men in the film,
they are stereotypical pervs. And he is mean
to the only nice young man he meets in the film,
a guy walking a dog on the banks of the Danube.
He is nice to women and has fun with women (although
he does act ridiculously shameful with a couple
towards the beginning) but his relationships
with men in the film are complete disasters.
There's nothing to like about Daniel and his
supposed evolution during the film is poorly
written, unbelievable and contrived. Newman
is such a poor actor that he cannot enact an
honest scene in the film anyway, gay or straight,
dramatic or comedic, happy or sad.
"Shem" (the title is never explained to
us) is certainly not worth watching. I don't
know why anyone would consider programming it
at a film festival, gay or straight. The only
reason I can come up with is that Newman is
hot. If you think about this film after you
see it, you may even consider that Daniel's
bisexuality is considered part of his "moral
corruption" and a symptom of that which needs
to be "fixed" about him. The filmmaker, Caroline
Roboh may be suggesting that this is emblematic
of his modern lifestyle and his turning his
back on the Jewish faith. It may be a symptom
of his "unenlightenment." This film may, in
fact, be homophobic. If you want to see a great
gay film about a guy travelling about Europe
bedding other cute guys without a trace of homophobia,
rent "The
Adventures of Felix."
Notes:
In English, and perhaps Hebrew, French,
German, Yiddish, Hungarian, Roumanian and other
languages without subtitles
The film debuted at the Paris Film Festival
in April of 2004.
The transfer I watched at Agliff in Austin
in October of 2005 with my friend Johnny Oh!
was bad and the media often jumps frames.
Report Card
Script: F
Acting: F
Cinematography\Lighting: F
Special Effects\Make Up: A-
Music: F
Final Grade: F
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