Lest there be any doubt we should start by saying that his new movie from French director Etienne Faure truly deserves its title more than any other cutting edge movie released on the fringes that we have seen this year. It is actually taken after the name of the Brooklyn Cabaret Club that 18-year-old Maurice lives over after he was accosted by one of it’s owners when she found him homeless on the streets. The plot is very light on details, but we do know that Maurice has recently arrived in New York from France after escaping some dark and scary past that he certainly isn’t going to talk about. In fact talking is not something that Maurice does much at all which allows the other members of the household to project their own take on what they want/feel/think about this young silent stranger.
To pay for his keep Kim and Betty the bar owners expect Maurice to help out by cleaning the bar downstairs and also by jumping naked into the bed they share. He is happy to do the former, but is certainly not too keen on the later and he is in fact very ambiguous about his sexuality. When Luka one of the barman has a sleep-over with Maurice and immediately blurts out that he loves him, the French boy, true to form, says absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile the scenes of domestic life upstairs are mixed in with Maurice seriously taking boxing lessons at the gym (we can only guess there is someone in his sight lines who he wants to hit) plus scenes of the outrageous and downright lewd burlesque acts performing in the Club. There is a very definite disjoint between it all, and it’s difficult to see exactly where all the Club happenings fit into this strange coming-of-age story.
Despite all of this there is still something strangely intriguing about this weird mish mash of a movie which I found oddly compelling but it really could have benefited from just a little clarity. It is definitely ‘bizarre’ but however hardly for the way that the filmmaker had intended.
