LA CAGE AUX FOLLES II (1980)

The charming Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and the lovely Albin (Michel Serrault) are back. This time around, Albin goes to an outdoor café to enjoy a mint cordial with water when suddenly a fleeing spy hides a capsule (with microfilm inside it) in Albin’s pocket right before he’s assassinated. I hate when that happens, it ruins your entire day. Anyway, problems arise and Albin and Renato must go on the run from the killers who want the information on the microfilm...that Albin doesn’t even know she has.

As far as sequels go, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES II is perfectly fine and a welcome addition to the adventures of Albin and Renato. At first I was kinda thrown off by the spy adventure stuff, since it’s such a wide departure from the first film, but then when I realized it was all just an excuse to get Albin out in public, I was onboard. Unfortunately, there are not as many laugh out loud scenes in this film as there was in the first installment, but there are a few genuine moments that had me laughing hard. The hardest was when Albin was dressing up as a rugged manly window washer. Fuck, I watched that scene like 20 times! The other part I really enjoyed is when they go to the old country in Italy to hide and Albin must dress up as a man as to not arouse suspicion. Hahaha. Classic.

I did miss the sweetness of the first film, but, hey, I just happy there’s a sequel at all. I’d watch a two-hour movie of Renato and Albin grocery shopping if that’s all there was. Recommended for fans of the first film.

[This might be a stretch, but, in my handsome brain, that iconic slow-motion walking scene in 1992's RESERVOIR DOGS looks a lot like the walking scene in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES II. I'm sure there are many people who say that scene is a play on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but...there was only four people walking in ACO. There are six characters in suits in RD and there are six men dressed up in LCAFII. Just an observation.]

[Not part of the review, but I don’t have a copy of Part 3. So, if y’all wanna review, then send me a disc of it. Thanks.]

Part 1 - La Cage aux Folles (1978)
Part 3 - La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding (1985)

Some lucky motherfuckers back in 1982 got to see a La Cage aux Folles double-feature!

TONGUES UNTIED (1989)

“I was mute, tongue-tied, burdened by shadows and silence. Now I speak, and my burden is lightened, lifted, free.”

TONGUES UNTIED originally broadcast on PBS stations across America on July 16, 1991, as part of their “POV” (Point of View) series. It is an experimental documentary by Marlon Riggs talking about the alienation of gay people in American society, specifically gay Black men. And the subject of gay people being silenced is ironic because while reading old newspaper articles about TU’s original release I came across multiple sources saying that 18 of the 50 largest television PBS stations (markets) refused to air the film. And others didn’t show it until late at night. Including one that didn’t show it until midnight! But let’s not go off into the weeds about dim-witted program directors in 1991…is TONGUES UNTIED a good film? Yes, it’s quite good.

As mentioned earlier: TONGUES UNTIED is an experimental film and it did take my perfectly chiseled honky buttcheeks a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the free-style, poetic, street rapping approach the film used, but once I caught on, I dug it and even wished the film had been longer. At 54 minutes I felt like Marlon really only scratched the surface of his story. (Maybe this has already happened), but I would love to see much longer different documentary about Marlon Riggs and the subject matter and events talked about in TONGUES UNTIED. For example: he briefly talks about having full on anal sex with other boys at age 6! Like holy shit, that could be a full doc all to itself! And don't even get me started on the breakdown of different kinds of snaps! I could watch a 12-hour film about that.

I don’t want to give away too much, you should just see the movie for yourself, but there was one segment that I want to talk about. They’re talking about how gays are openly mocked and ridiculed in society and during this segment, there is a close-up shot of poet and activist Essex Hemphill simply looking into the camera. At the same time, they play clips of popular movies of the time using the f-word. It was very simply done and yeah, it’s kinda like that one scene from South Park, but I personally found it very upsetting because I remember seeing all of those movies back in the 1980’s and it never even crossed my adolescent mind at how hurtful it was. And now as I’m going back and re-visiting and reviewing older movies, I’m straight up shocked at how fucked up some of these mainstream films are. I’m talking about you, CROCODILE DUNDEE. Anyway, I just found that segment to be heartbreaking.

Sadly, TONGUES UNTIED is not for all audiences, but it deserves to be seen by all (adult) audiences.

Double-feature with PARIS IS BURNING.

[Update: It is not part of the film, but I included a screen capture of Marlon Riggs' obituary. He died in 1994 at age 37. It's sad to think about the positive impact he could have had if he had lived longer. We were all robbed.]