A queer fantasy musical set in the 50s. The queer part excited me, but nit as much the fantasy and musical part. Of course, I still had to watch it :) Please Baby Please is the kind of movie a freshman or sophomore might conjure on their dorm room bed, riding a contact-high from absorbing all that a liberal arts education offers to malleable minds. It for me, for a total campy film, made for I don't know who, and wasn't even interesting or fun to watch barring a very few scenes here and there.
Newlyweds Sue and Arthur start off their marital bliss by arriving at the wrong place at precisely the wrong time: A murder scene right outside their apartment building by a gang of members dressed in leather slinking in dance routine. In a surprising move, the gang lets them go after they ask their address. From here the film takes a weird turn where the couple starts feeling some desires and horny sexual yearnings. Arthur has now hots for one of the gang members and he goes to meet him in a bar and there is a massive sexual tension between the two on two-three occasions that they meet. Sure has her own thing going with her latent machoism, dancing and acting out and honestly I didn't even understand or cared what her deal was.
The film has this theatrical feel to it laced with neon lights, weird choreography , some poetic dialogues. Arthur disowns his masculinity and trails after Teddy, the gang guy like a numb limb, baffled by but powerless to resist his fascination. I would have been very happy if just this trait was explored in detail and the whole focus of the film had been on their evolving relationship. Sadly they just get few scenes. The entire storyline and plot felt tedious. It feels the film was trying to give its own definition or perspective of what gender is, which is very obvious everytime Arthur refuses to be the macho man, and also with Suze's latent machoism. This is a film that turns what could otherwise be a glib throwaway theoretical query — “What is a man, anyway?” — into a seminal question of style and sensibility. But what a boring way to bring this to the screen. The film may pay homage to queer aesthetics, but it fails to make any coherent points about gender or sexuality. In my opinion, this is completely avoidable. (2.5/10)
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