Please Baby Please is director Amanda Kramer’s queer dreamy 1950s trip into the neon-tinted world of a New York biker gang and its effect on the sexuality of a young beatnik couple. Arthur (Harry Melling) and Suze (Andrea Riseborough) are walking home one night when they witness a biker gang, the ‘Young Gents’, murder another couple. The gang force Arthur and Suze to disclose their home address in an attempt to intimidate them into keeping their silence. In doing so Arthur and the handsome Brando-esq leader of the gang, Teddy (the very sexy Karl Glusman), exchange longing glances with each other. This triggers a sexual awakening in Arthur and sets the couple off on a journey in which they consider, discuss and explore masculinity and their gender and sexual identities. Every norm is questioned. These explorations take the form of conversations with their bohemian group of friends, violent dance performances, scenes in porn cinemas, and sexual encounters in bars and toilets.
Please Baby Please makes a nod to such classics as West Side Story and The Wild Ones and adds in a queer, camp, theatrical sensibility to create a refreshingly different type of film. The sets, acting, choreography, costumes, soundtrack and characters are all exaggerated and so hyper-real that it’s like watching a stage production. Excellent casting includes the fabulous Demi Moore as Maureen, Arthur and Suze’s glamorous neighbour in their apartment building.
I feel this film may divide its audience. There will be many who will love all of the above but there will be others who will find the narrative slightly narrow – there’s no real plot as such, the film is more a 1950s trip through gender and sexual politics. Nonetheless, a beautifully bohemian, dark, theatrical trip.
P.S. Please Baby Pease is screening at NEWFest in NY, OUTshine in Fort Lauderdale and DAMN THESE HEELS in Utah
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
Labels: 2022, Amanda Kramer, Andrea Risborough, Please Baby Please, review, Ris Fatah
