Full frontal
Tel Aviv, present-day. Our main characters–attractive, middle-class, of various sexual persuasions–live in a kind of bubble: the real world–old-line Israelis, extremist Palestinians, Hamas-zealots–touches upon but does not define their pursuits. They listen to American rock, go spinning, fuck in an ecstasy of confusion and delight, and know as much about Sex and the City as they do about suicide bombers. Gayness is not much of an issue for them, but they are the first generation for which this is true. They are well-spoken, naive, well fed, charming and perhaps not doomed. By the time this excellent, deceptive, and often funny movie has finished, we know a great deal about three of them and their culture, in which their idea of dealing with external problems is to have a rave against the occupation. Reality looms.
It is perhaps too irresistible a pun to call The Bubble a seminal moment in the history of international gay cinema. But that’s exactly what it is–that tipping point in which gays experience a generation in which they are no longer fully-defined by being gay or bi or pan-sexual, in which they are citizens of an imperfect world, no longer one-issue voters, so to speak. (Thanks be to the Honolulu Gay & Lesbian Cultural Foundation for bringing grown-up gay films to the sacred ‘aina.)
Director-co-writer Eytan Fox. The leading practitioner of middle-East gay films (excluding the underground Muslim films, whose participants can be put to death for their efforts), has made his best film here, skillfully intertwining strands of story-lines from the most shallow to the ones with most depth, without cheapening either.
Sex? There is heterosex, homosex and friendship between heteros and homosexuals, upfront and uneuphemized–contemporaneous stuff from the post-modern, televisionary world. One of the characters works for Time Out magazine, another is a covert bomber, and another is a checkpoint soldier during his reserve duties. And all interacting–trying to love, trying for sexual liaisons, trying for family peace, concerned confusedly about the future. And then Real Life interrupts–beyond sex, beyond rationality.
Entertaining and sexy, The Bubble has the real feel of today–not yesterday, not a film studio’s notion of current reality. The movie, deft and often charming, resonates with–dare we say it?– relevance. It’s well worth seeing–and well worth thinking about.
pm, [hglcf.org], 38l-l952
