The Gray Lady's Sloppy Seconds

I rarely (if ever) have cause to pity a Times film critic, but this week was not kind to poor Jeanette Catsoulis. After first being underwhelmed by the dusty, diabetic Australian export Opal Dream, Catsoulis endured the indignity of not only having to view Phillip Bartell's tastefully titled Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, but having to actually rationalize the film in English:

It’s not often filmmakers are thoughtful enough to include a critique of their work in the title, so for that, at least, the creators of Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds are to be commended. But in case avid fans of the first opus require further enticement, you should know the slop in question is both pervasive and highly visible. ...

With its jauntily crass aesthetic and wine-waiter line readings, the movie is most focused in its zeal to show the fruitlessness of right-wing efforts to reorient gay men. To that end, the support-group scenes are amusingly dimwitted, and the legendary Mink Stole (still game after 40 years in the business) gives her all as Kyle’s ebullient, gay-friendly mother.

The other women fare less well under [Bartell’s] direction and a script ... that sags with sexual explicitness. “Did my vagina scare you away?” asks a perplexed Tiffani. Perhaps we should ask the audience fleeing the theater.

It's special enough to see such a vulgar title tattooed on The Gray Lady, but its another thing altogether to see Catsoulis getting away with vagina jokes in The New York Times. I raise my Thanksgiving goblet in appreciation and hope to God her holiday bonus includes a review opportunity for something with commas in the budget.

Posted at November 24, 2006 12:34 PM