In Kaufman's movie, the elaborate camera movements represent the character's feelings and a subtle mystery, but they fail to elicit an obvious emotional reaction from the viewer. You supposedly need to be smart to "get it". Kaufman doesn't clearly present his thesis and it hurts the film. It requires two viewings that should not be necessary, unless you make it part of the experience (stitching the same movie back to back). The concept of stream of consciousness is not enjoyable if we don't get to participate in the intricacies of the protagonist and his mental state. Acting is phenomenal, albeit a bit exaggerated. However, men's lives of quiet desperation are accurately represented. Maybe too well. We don't want to see ourselves in the protagonist, but our unsuccessful encounters with women are often only memorable to us. Mr. Bernstein remembers in "Citizen Kane" a girl with a white parasol that he saw for a moment decades ago. The girl doesn't even remember that day. Obtuse movie, real situation.
In "Straight Up" the opposite is true. Accessible rapid-fire rom-com, mix of "Gilmore Girls" and Lubitschian cinephilia. An asexual affected young guy (Todd) decides that he is not indeed gay as everybody else thinks he is. He rejects the alternative lifestyle that is now part of normality, and the social support that comes with it. His peers insist, he must be gay. In this view, a man without overwhelming sexual impulses is not a man, regardless of his sexual preference. He meets a brilliant and extremely beautiful actress that falls for him. Because of his personality. Do I need to explain that the man is also the director and the writer of this film? He tries to justify the fascination of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl for our intellectually dashing and honest character, but those of us that have lived for a while recognize personal fantasies in art and what they're supposed to achieve. Movie is fun, quick and somewhat interesting, but it is also completely unrealistic.
Thanks to Kaufman, we describe guys like Todd as a mosquito bite from twenty years ago on a summer night. Uncomfortable when it happened, since long forgotten.
