Catholicism was the subject of more Hollywood-type treatment in two movies released over the summer. “Jeffrey” is labeled an “AIDS comedy” by movie reviewer Thelma Adams. Adams, who loved “Priest,” gave three stars to “Jeffrey,” delighting in its Irreverence.
Adams said the lead actor’s performance “flies in the face of convention and will no doubt ruffle feathers as a horny, gay Catholic priest. Father Dan sees shades of the divine in sex and musical comedy. His notion of God is lighter than air: He’s the guy at a picnic who taps the balloon aloft just before it hits the ground.” Adams took special pleasure in mentioning a sex scene that takes place in one of the bathrooms in New Y ork’s Essex House.
Those who want to see what a “mangled Irish-Catholic legacy” is like will evidently not be disappointed by “The Brothers McMullen.” As described in New York magazine, the movie portrays three Irish Catholic brothers from the suburbs of New York. The review states that “The most honest and amusing moments…are found in smaller scenes, as when they [the brothers] recall their upbringing by their late father-‘our favorite wife-beating, child-abusing, good-for-nothing drunk,’ and their endless struggles with the strictures of Catholicism.”
If all this sounds familiar, it is regretfully so.
