Chocolate Babies

By EMANUEL LEVY

An Open City Films production. Produced by Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente. Co-producers, Samuel-Moses Jones, Jordan Flaherty. Directed, written by Stephen Winter. Camers (color), Chris Shaw.
 

Jamela Gregg Ferguson The Larva Dudley Findlay Jr. Sam Jon Lee Lady Marmalade Michael Lynch Max Claude E. Sloan Jr. Melvin Freeman Bryan Webster

Stephen Winter's audacious feature debut, "Chocolate Babies," is a colorful but messy satire about a bunch of HIV-positive Asian and black drag queens who decide to take matters in hand and fight the government's apathy toward AIDS. Ambitious in intent but flawed in execution, pic might not be ready in its current shape for theatrical release, but it should travel the road of gay and regional film festivals.

Winter, an energetically young African-American director, has constructed a potentially outrageous tale, set in a harsh underworld populated by ethnic minority members infected with the virus. Aware of -- but unwilling to accept passively -- their status as "queer outcasts," the protagonists form a terrorist gang dedicated to the agenda of attacking conservative and homophobic politicians.

The band's multiracial alliance is threatened when Asian-American Sam (Jon Lee), its youngest -- and most sympathetic -- member, is discreetly seduced, while working underground, by Melvin Freeman (Bryan Webster), a closeted homo-sexual councilman. As a result, excessive emotions and conflicts surface, for Sam is infatuated with Max (Claude E. Sloan Jr.), a cynically bitter man who's dying of AIDS.

As most AIDS stories have been serious dramas by and about white gay males, it's refreshing to see a political satire that not only revolves around men of color, but also refuses to label them as victims. Indeed, in its good moments, "Chocolate Babies," displays a zesty, often exuberant style that suits the chaotic story and its flashy drag queens.

However, aiming to be at once a riotous comedy and a sensitive, compassionate melodrama, pic vacillates between wild humor and sentimental pathos, with jarringly awkward changes in tone from one scene to another. Result is a disjointed movie that seldom finds the right rhythm to deliver its message -- and jokes.

Still, well-intentioned and original picture offers some sharply amusing lines, conveyed with great panache by a talented ensemble, particularly the late Dudley Findlay as the flamboyantly outspoken "The Larva." Lee, the tale's moral center, is also likable as a conflicted youngster who, in the midst of it all, comes out to his horrified mom.

Martha Gretsch's fanciful costumes and Ana Iza Otis' bold production design give the nobudgeter a wild visual style, though lensing and especially editing are just average.

Editors, Francisco Macias, Winter; production design, Ana Iza Otis; costume design, Martha Gretsch; sound, Dan Aronin; associate producer, Donna Winter. Reviewed at Directors Guild, L.A., July 21, 1996. (In Outfest '96.) Running time: 80 MIN.