Margaret Cho's first narrative feature "Bam Bam & Celeste" famously went through many hurdles to finally reach the public. First they went through a battle to get funding to even have the movie produced. Then, once produced, critical reception was horrible, and it took them 2 years to get distribution on DVD. Now that the final product is readily available one can see why the movie had such hurdles.
It certainly isn't for want of effort and genuine interest on the part of those involved. If there is one thing the movie has going for it it is that the cast and writers genuinely believe in their story and their characters, and the charisma carries the film during those times when it isn't a total, emotionless stinker.
The film stars Cho as Celeste, an Asian-American punk rocker fag hag living in small town America with her extremely effeminate African-American friend Bam-Bam. The first five minutes of the film show the two in all of their awkwardness as they are soundly rejected by their classmates (including Elaine Hendrix, who played a similar role in the brilliant "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"). When not being subjected to constant overt racism, homophobia and physical violence, the duo dreams of becoming stylists and moving away.
We then jump ahead many years to see the two as adults, living essentially the same lives as before. Their racist and hateful bullies, however, have gone on to be hugely successful NYC stylists who are frequent participants on a reality T.V. show about makeovers. The two are afforded the chance to go to Manhattan to square off against their former rivals, and see it as their chance to finally live the lives they dreamed of.
The results are predictable: they encounter rednecks and homophobes during their brief car trip, get to New York, have a fight, make-up, go on TV and make a statement about individuality and beauty. It's nothing we haven't seen before and there isn't a single surprise throughout.
When I watched the film I couldn't help but think "These people could do better." Margaret Cho has spent the last seven years building a following of misfits and socially shunned minorities who look to her as a beacon of outspoken rebellion. Her messages of equality for all and beauty in all people permeate her one woman shows and books, so it makes sense that those messages would be translated into a movie she wrote.
Unfortunately it is glaringly obvious that Cho simply couldn't find a way to put these ideals into character form, and the result is a bunch of bumbling stereotypes who have if possible fewer than one dimension each. The gay characters are REALLY GAY! The racist characters are SUPER RACIST! There is no room for ambiguity when painting with such broad strokes, and as such the cast is left with little more to do than fill in the chalk outline Cho's characters present.
Cho as Celeste is the least interesting of the characters; a woman so convinced of her own hideousness that she has long since stop believing she could find love or happiness. She starts the film apologizing to a racist who throws a milkshake at her head and calls her a Ch*nk, but by the end of the film is confronting her childhood bullies screaming "I am beautiful!" The problem is that very little has actually happened on screen to make us understand what finally unlocked the warrior woman within. It may be the thinly outlined romance Celeste has with Eugene (Alan Cumming), a nerd who is a PA on the reality show and whom she has coincidentally been flirting with on the internet. Unfortunately the two have absolutely zero on screen chemistry, and I can't envision that their relationship would consist of anything more than them fawning over one another while hating themselves.
If Cho's performance is boring, Bruce Daniels as Bam Bam is painful. Bam Bam talks in a squeaky, high pitched Michael Jackson voice that Daniels never commits to enough to make it believable. His character is meek throughout, and we're supposed to accept that his femininity and meagerness are admirable, beautiful qualities, but this same character is painted as one who has unashamed, indiscriminate sex. It's a gag about gay men that Cho has joked about on stage, and maybe it's even true, but when Celeste and Bam Bam have their big blow out over Bam Bam's putting sex before friendship, you can't help but think she's totally right.
Perhaps the worst part of the film is the characterization of the uber stylists, headed by Hendrix, as overtly and blatantly hyper-racists bordering on KKK caliber hatred. This is highlighted by an exchange during which the words N*gger and Negro are tossed around so cavalierly by these characters that it's impossible to understand why any talented black stylist would ever agree to be treated that way to begin with. (And how would such an unabashedly racist person ever rise to fame anyhow? Even Mel Gibson hid his bigotry for 25 years.) It's these overly broad characters that bog the film down in emotionless mire. It's not that I don't relate to feeling discriminated against and the desire to break free from an unhappy life; it's just that I don't care if THESE characters do it, because I don't know anything about them other than that they are minorities, and that certain other people have made them feel bad about themselves.
Celeste's final speech after the makeover competition is reminiscent of many Cho has closer her one woman shows with: all about self-acceptance and how we're all beautiful in our own way. Unfortunately the sentiment is squashed since her character has just been turned from a goth chick into a glam babe with straightened hair and a sleek cocktail dress.
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