Fri. November 23, 2012
By Gregg Shapiro
In theaters: Acting up
"United In Anger: A History of ACT UP" - Combining vintage footage (much of it amateur and personal) with interviews with more than 50 people, the doc "United In Anger: A History of ACT UP" is as inspiring as it is infuriating. It's inspiring in the way it portrays a community (a "convenient population" in the words of Ron Goldberg) affecting change through desperation, organization, affinity, action and rage. It is infuriating due to the fact that more than 30 years into the HIV/AIDS crisis, with no cure, ACT UP lost much of its strength in its later years due splits that occurred within the group and the "movement eating itself from the inside."
Setting the mood with 40,000 AIDS deaths between 1981 and 1987 and the fact that President Reagan never spoke the word AIDS during the crucial first five years of crisis, "United In Anger" highlights the March 1987 speech by Larry Kramer in which he calls for a "new AIDS movement." Two day later, Kramer got his wish with the formation of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP). A visible presence at the June 1987 Pride Parade in New York, ACT UP followed that appearance by the first of its actions at Sloan-Kettering Hospital.
Things escalated from there. ACT UP meetings more than doubled in attendance. People with a history of organizing mingled with newcomers, creating an amazing energy in the room and the feeling that lives depended on them. There was no organization, professional, cultural, political or religious that ACT UP wouldn't take on fearlessly. From the pharmaceutical industry to Cosmopolitan Magazine, from New York City Hall to the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street, from CBS to the CDC, from St. Patrick's Cathedral to Grand Central Station, ACT UP was there and made certain that its message was heard.
The interview component, featuring firsthand accounts from Gregg Bordowitz, Ann Northrop, Larry Kramer, Jim Eigo, Peter Staley, Maxine Wolff, Tom Kalin, Michelangelo Signorile, Anna Blum, Lei Chou, Maria Maggenti, Robert Vazquez-Pacheco and many others, is highly effective. In combination with the remarkable period footage, the results are a powerful cocktail, elevating "United In Anger" to another level in terms of the many other docs about the AIDS crisis. (United In Anger screens at the Gene Siskel Film Center on State Street at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 1 – World AIDS Day.)
On TV: Queen Elizabeth
As he always did during the course of their on again/off again relationship, Richard Burton (Grant Bowler) wrote letters to his great love Elizabeth Taylor (Lindsay Lohan). He even composed one on the last day of his life in 1984. In this final letter, he says that he fell for her the moment he saw her all those years ago at a party in Hollywood. She was everything he ever wanted; even though she looked at him with utter disdain.
Sitting in directors' chairs, dressed in black, "Liz & Dick," the titular characters in the Lifetime movie, employ the classic device of laziness and recount their "true story," interwoven between flashbacks. Beginning in Rome in 1961, while filming Cleopatra, with Taylor's late entrance on the set, to their first awkward exchange, the sexual tension mounted while Burton's excessive drinking and Taylor's haughtiness threatened to derail it all. Never mind that both were married to other people - Burton (the "Welsh Don Juan") to Sybil (Tanya Franks) and 29 year old Taylor to her fourth husband Eddie Fisher (Andy Hirsch).
"Liz & Dick" follows the notorious couple from their famous first love scene through the beginning of the affair to their scandalous headline-making relationship. We see Richard force Elizabeth to choose between him and Eddie. We watch Elizabeth swoon as Richard recites poetry for her. But mostly we watch them get drunk and fight. They make up, he buys her expensive gifts (usually jewelry, once a jet) and the drinking/fighting cycle begins again.
Eventually, they divorced their respective spouses and finally married each other. They made movies together, including the acclaimed "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," but they're a (movie) star-crossed pair if there ever was one. Love may conquer all, but jealousy, insecurity and alcohol give love a run for its money. In 1974, the tempestuous relationship eventually crumbled under the weight of tragedy (Burton's brother Ifor's injury and death), infidelity (Burton cheats) and, of course, all that alcohol. They foolishly remarried more than a year later, only to divorce again after nine months. Still, when Taylor learned of Burton's death in 1984, she fainted dead away. For a visit to his gravesite (she didn't attend the funeral out of respect for his family), Taylor is naturally emotional.
But, wait, you don't care about the familiar story (and any liberties taken). You want to know if Lindsay Lohan an actress as troubled (if not nearly as talented) as Elizabeth Taylor did a decent job portraying the titular Liz. Let's just say it takes more than good (and probably gay) hair and make-up artists for a transformation of this scope. Lohan, who gives it her all, simply wasn't up to the challenge. There are definitely times when she comes close to pulling it off, especially in the scenes from the earlier years. But as time (and the movie) wears on, Lohan as Liz becomes less credible and more comical. Bowler has an easier time with Burton, which might have more to do with the accent than the bad hair pieces, although he flirts with caricature over character on more than one occasion.
Perhaps the movie's greatest sin, far worse than casting Lohan as Taylor, is its title. Elizabeth Taylor remarked on more than one occasion, including an interview with Barbara Walters, that she hated to be called Liz. "Liz & Dick" is not the tribute that Taylor or Burton deserved. It's also not the comeback that Lohan was probably hoping it would be. But for all of its flaws, the scenery chewing is still fun to watch and worth seeing if you have 90 minutes to waste. (Liz & Dick airs on the Lifetime network on Nov. 25. Check local listings for times.)
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