The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 58

THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1997 i jf Sir I I Vf I iIA Comedy That 5 'Refreshingly i 4 IMFLNCHNGI Murderer Jeffrey Swinford: "The police ain't gonna do Movie Review wrneruireuur mjviii annul. ''MS ill I licensed': a grim look at homophobic killers ttr 1 'The FUNNIEST, Most fcj -AmyTaubin All The -Hallmarks rKevin Thomas A SFIW Comedy! 'Chasing Amy' redefines the boy-meets-girl formula for a culture where anything goes." -Janet Maslin i'The! i Love Story! Hilarious, bighearted and unexpectedly wise," -John Powers Thumbs CrlMiAICrr Romance! I tit 1 'Chasma Amu' is one of I jt5SSl the most gratifying movies 'VlJte tF -1 I have encountered this year." f-VsfTVl'fil -Andrew Sarris M'V "Comic LICENSED TO KILL Written and directed by Arthur Dong At: Coolidge Corner Theatre Running time: 80 minutes Unrated men 'claim they were molested by men as children, and those memories led to their contempt for homosex-: uals. Others maintain gay men are. easy prey since they are less likely to report crimes such as harassment and robbery to the police. "Not too many people in the; world care about Swinford says.

"The police ain't gonna do nothing. They ain't interested." Perhaps the most poignant segment features Jay Johnson, serving two concurrent life sentences for two 1991 murders. Raised in a conserva-1 tive and religious household where his father condemned homosexuality, Johnson found his victims in areas frequented by gay men areas Johnson was familiar with because he was a closeted homosexual. "I think I was disgusted with the activities I was engaging in," says Johnson, who is now openly gay. In committing the murders, "I convinced myself I was actually helping, this was a constructive, moral thing to be doing.

I certainly didn't just come up with the idea -1 watch The 700 Club' with Pat Robertson, and they're constantly talking about gays." Johnson's comments provide a natural opening for Dong to introduce clips of Robertson, as well as Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, and Lou Sheldon. Still "Licensed to Kill" is remarkably nonjudgmental, even-handed and matter-of-fact. Dong resists the temptation to launch a diatribe, allowing the material to speak for itself. That's particularly impressive considering Dong was himself a victim of an antigay attack 20 years ago. By Renee Graham GLOBE STAFF "Back then, it was the going thing 'Hey, man, let's go over here and rob a explains Corey Burley, a Texas man serving a life sentence for the 1991 murder of a gay man in "Licensed to Kill," a harrowing film about homophobia and murder.

Arthur Dong's latest examination of antigay prejudice masterfully probes the lives and crimes of seven men whose homophobia led them to murder. The documentary casts an unblinking eye on the psychological and sociological motivations of those who commit such crimes, while making pertinent points about hate crimes in America. Using police interrogation videos, crime scene photos, and courtroom footage, Dong packs a great deal into a relatively short 80 minutes. But the most compelling moments come in jailhouse interviews with the murderers. Surprisingly, none use the opportunity in front of the camera to proclaim their innocence; they are more intent on explaining why they' were driven to commit murder.

"Life's just one big opinion and what you make of your opinion," says Jeffrey Swinford, serving 20 years for the 1993 murder of a gay man. "I don't have any opinion whatsoever for homosexuals, except they all oughta be taken care of." Not every subject in the film is imprisoned for murdering a gay man. Former Army Sergeant Kenneth French Jr. murdered four people in a North Carolina restaurant in 1993 after hearing of President Clinton's attempt to lift the ban on gays and lesbians in the military. According to witnesses, French shouted, "I'll show you, Clinton, about letting gays into the Army" as he fired at patrons randomly.

All of Dong's subjects are young men, ages 22 to 32. They are black and white, some from rural areas, others from big cities. Two of the Movie MIRAMAX 508 628-4404 I (V a A 0 I SONY THEATRES SONY THEATRES GENERAL CINEMA UfcNfcKAL tlNtmA Unu Pi AVINft At THPCF PI FTPD THFATPFC' nickelodeon harvard sq. CHESTNUT HILL FRAMiNGHAM 14 1VW TlflliPIl)1 HI inWt guLtOIUl intnllVtO 606 COMMONWEALTH AVE. 10 CHURCH CAMBRIDGE RTE.

9 AT HAMMOND ST. HUTIE PASS AT SHOPPERS WORLD Lata show tonight at Chestnut Hill Call theatres for showtimes 333-FILM005 333-FILM 007 277 2500 "'AUSTIN POWERS' IS A VERY, VERY FUNNY MOVIE!" -JmI Suoal, fiOOO MOrtNWt AMERICA unpi minusLY wacky! 'Austin pnUUPRS1 IS THE GROOVIEST- lft LOOKING COMEDY OF THE SEASON!" I llS "'AUSTIN POWERS' IS A LOT OF Watermelon Woman': sweet and sassy satire "A FUNNY MOVIE THAT ONLY GETS FUNNIER!" Hoger BMrt, CHICAGO SUN MIICE International MYEitS Man Of Mystery Review THE WATERMELON WOMAN Written and directed by: Cheryl Dunye Starring: Dunye, Guinivere Turner, Valerie Walker, Camille Paglia, Lisa Marie Branson i At: Brattle Theatre -i Running time: 81 minutes Rated: Unrated an director were lovers. Although "Watermelon Woman" is at times rudimentary and slight, it's saved by its humor and its way of tweaking political correctness. Camille Paglia, for instance, contributes a cameo saying that the black mammy should be revered as an earth mother, not jettisoned as a shameful stereotype. Dunye and Guin Turner (of "Go are fresh presences, and their sex scene, although brief, is convincingly steamy.

But the film is stolen by Valerie Walker as Cheryl's black pal and coworker at the video store, who takes a dim view of the interracial affair and has the best one-liners. Between the faux archival footage, the fun it pokes at the lesbian community, and the resonances it convinces us exist between the anonymous actress from the 30s and the present-day filmmaker, "Watermelon Woman" proclaims Dunye as a talent thatis more than raw FUN!" 0IID 017 I ii I Ifil 1 1 CINIBAl CINiMA. BRAINTREE 848-1070 inateais lUnilapei iiniioiaiiiiiHi tivi fn mmm By Jay Carr GLOBE STAFF Cheryl Dunye's "The Watermelon Woman" is a spirited home-grown film about a black lesbian's summer of discovery and self-definition. Its charm and humor enable it to get away with being self-referential, and it has more ideas than technique -enough in fact to have turned it into a lightning rod for anti-NEA send-, ment in Congress. Before he withdrew his amendment reducing the NEA appropriation by $31,500 the amount of Dunye's NEA grant -Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) did the film a great favor by singling it out to attack the NEA for supporting black lesbian pornography.

In doing so, he demarginalized "Watermelon Woman," making it a rallying point for arts supporters. "Watermelon Woman" is a sweet, sassy mockumentary juggling Cheryl's unearthing of the story of a nameless black actress known only as the Watermelon Woman in an old plantation movie and her own developing present-day romance with a perky white customer she meets in the video store that employs her and contributes to her encyclopedic knowledge of films. Not surprisingly, she concludes that the Watermelon Woman (whose name she eventually MtL4 1 I 99" I IttBllpn lIMMlIIMMHIir WU MichadYork HifliiRogBrs II I -I n.i Il.l I' 1 IK HL U. KSSK an wiiw unnitGH iaraiiiHbfflra i i ifeaJ b. i fca iweiqiB jqnon NEW LIN 1 gJ.IJ ESSSS" NEW LINE JUfvT.

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