Fridae

With his films The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain being two of the most important gay movies of all time, Taiwan-born filmmaker Lee Ang has acquired something of a cult following among queer movie buffs. Though he is straight, Lee has consistently depicted homosexual characters with utmost sensitivity and understanding.

And now Lee has chosen the memoirs of a gay man to be the basis of his new film Taking Woodstock. Joy oh joy!

Taking Woodstock centers on a young gay man named Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) who helps his parents run a disgusting, debt-ridden motel. When Elliot reads in a newspaper about a music festival called Woodstock that has lost its permit in a nearby town, he realizes he could improve the motel’s business by getting the festival promoters to hold the festival in his town instead.

Overnight, Elliot’s life is transformed. As half a million people descends on the town for three days of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Elliot not only turns the motel’s fortunes around, he also meets a host of free-spirited characters – including a cross-dressing Marine (Liev Screiber) – who ultimately inspire him to step out of the closet.

Compared to Lee’s last films Brokeback Mountain and Lust Caution, which had moments of unbridled passion and intensity, Taking Woodstock is a gentler and more elusive film. It looks at music’s defining moments from a surprisingly aloof and distant perspective.

The experiences of thousands who celebrated their youth and freedom at Woodstock are signified here by Elliot’s coming-out moment. And the sex-and-drug orgies of the throngs are symbolized by Elliot’s relatively innocent three-way encounter with a heterosexual couple.

By compressing a historical and momentous occasion into a personal journey, Lee crystallizes the meaning of Woodstock.