Director-writer Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please (2022) reminded me of discovering Johnny Suede on SBS when I was young. The discovery of an arthouse American indie cinema morphing together the past and the present, a receptacle for a filmmaker’s fetishes. Empty alleys or street facades. Apartment interiors on a studio set. Creating a whole situation to let make-up, hair, costuming, accents and big performances run wild and loose.
Within an idea of the Fifties as setting, the opening sequence of Please Baby Please evokes West Side Story crossed with Tom Of Finland. A street gang descends upon a young couple, bashing them bloody. Across the street, a beatnik couple Suze (Andrea Riseborough) and Arthur (Harry Melling) witness the crime, and yet become bewitched by the hunky gang leader, Teddy (Karl Glusman). There’s love between the hipster pair but they’re spun out a bit, Harry feeling queer desire for Teddy and Suze wanting to dress up as Teddy, to play butch.
Please Baby Please is able to push things further than a 1950s movie might, with its queer lens, playing within gender roles and embracing the darker side of the street, but director Kramer retains a certain decorum. More for the pleasure from teasing out a hidden desire or transgression, using symbolism and visual metaphors. Dreams of an iron being pressed against a butt cheek, or a flirtation in a bathroom edged on by a puff of steam from a hand dryer.
I love Andrea Riseborough’s Noo Yawk beatnik accent, I love her eyeliner, her hair, and her physicality. Going big like a cockamamie cartoon, balanced by the introspection of Harry Melling’s peformance. Seemingly meek yet resolute in his refusal to accept the pressure “to be a man.” Cole Escola is heavenly support, and fits right in within the entire aesthetic. Lovely to see a small “guest star” part for Demi Moore, pre-The Substance, a glamorous society woman, delightfully demure and off in her own expensive universe.
I had to stream this off Mubi in USA mode. Outside of that, or ordering it on international Bluray, not as easy to see in Australia. Recommended.
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