Dating in the Frame
Valentine's Day may still be a couple of weeks away, but hell, the candy displays and flower shrines have been choking store aisles since New Year's. You can take that as either an indication of how commercially whorish our society has gotten, or as a humorous reminder of just how complicated dating can be in our sometime (okay, oftentimes) puzzling society.
That complexity extends to a couple of 1999 mockumentaries, both of which try to get to the bottom of relationships in the United States.
The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human is a pseudo alien documentary following a couple from furtive glances across a dance club to a flower-garnished wedding chapel. Most of the film's humor comes from its imitation of a nature documentary. Only, instead of learning about chimps using tools to gather food in the wild, here we get a nervous phone number exchange juxtaposed against the Natural Geographic-style drawl of Frasier's David Hyde Pierce.
The film is at its best when the alien narrator is interpreting and, more often than not, misinterpreting human behavior. It's only when the dating becomes a relationship that the humor drops off.
For later '90s documentary dating, there's also Myles Berkowitz's 20 Dates. This film follows Berkowitz as he goes on a series of dates, each of them filmed, in an attempt to both find love and explain its mysterious intricacies. Myles is about as skilled at dating as George W. is at truth-telling.
Myles finds himself on the curb again and again. He finds a woman who appreciates France and picks a fight with her. He decides to be honest with another date, so he tells her about the hidden camera and nearly winds up in court. All the while, Myles argues with his agent and the film's financial backer, who both want substantially more T & A.
Even so, Myles somehow succeeds, both in love and as a filmmaker. If you can get past his narcissism and superficiality, you'll find a funny peek into both filmmaking and romance.
Lloyd Babbit

January 29, 2004 * Vol. 14, No. 5
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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