3 AM Cinema

One of the great advantages to having an adverse reaction to pain medication prescribed for an injury is being able to catch late night cable when independent movies are showcased more frequently. Tonight, I managed to see an airing of the 2000 Sundance hit Urbania starring Dan Futterman.

Quite honestly, Urbania is unlike any gay film I've ever seen. It opens as the main character, Charlie, finds himself walking the shadowed, autumn streets of New York, wandering from bar to bar, searching for an elusive street hustler. He leaves phone messages for an apparent ex boyfriend while flashing back on their once happy life together. He visits a fellow gay friend (Alan Cumming), a man whose once glittering social life lay in ashes, his frail form wracked by the last, grim stages of AIDS. What has happened here? Where is Charlie's boyfriend, his friends, his life?

I can't give any kind of real answer without spoiling the film. Suffice to say, Urbania is a strange mixture of a character darkly nagivating through his grief at a relationship lost, intimacy unattainable in the aftermath, and a thrilling, almost erotic fascination with the paradoxically homophobic hustler who set all these events into motion.

The movie's worth a see for the acting, the dialogue, the atmosphere, and not least of all the actors (cutie Futterman, an angelic Matt Keeslar, and a very sleazy Samuel Ball). It's a surprisingly moving film, especially in the final act as Charlie comes to terms with everything he must.

Comments

[Malcontent]

Dan Futterman was also in "Related" on the WB. Funny, but somehow I chose screen captures of Chris Carmack over him. :-)

[manhattan offender]

Since you're having an adverse reaction, can I have your pills? I promise not to take them in a public restroom.

[Donald]

I first watched this on HBO a few years back for Futterman but I stayed for the entire movie. I was moved often and whenever I hear about or see Futterman this is the first movie I think of. I believe he wrote the screen play for Capote. Thanks for reminding me Robbie.

[brian]

I still think one of the best sex scenes in film is when Futterman is alone in bed yanking it to his neighbors doing it. Perverse. Funny. Erotic. Sad.

[will]

I watched this movie a couple of years ago, and he was really impressive. I prefer his role here to the one he played in sex and city.

[will]

I watched this movie a couple of years ago, and he was really impressive. I prefer his role here to the one he played in sex and city.

[Patrick (Gryph)]

Its a meditation on grief.