{"id":623,"date":"2011-12-20T11:55:40","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T17:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=623"},"modified":"2011-12-20T13:28:33","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T19:28:33","slug":"bloomington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/bloomington\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloomington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloomington.<\/em> DVD. Screening copy. Dir. Fernanda Cardoso. With Allison McAtee, Katherine McGregor, and Sarah Stouffer. Wolfe Video, 2010. 83 min.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Jackie, a former child star who romped about the universe in the television show Neptune<\/em>, has moved from Hollywood to Bloomington, Indiana, to leave her life in and with the stars behind. She brings with her a troubled relationship with her Mom, an ambiguous future, and a liminal self. Enter Catherine, a college professor sprung from fantasy \u2014 tailored suits, pinned-up hair, intellect, a Porsche, and an adorable dog.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, Bloomington<\/em> does not tread new ground. We\u2019ve been here before\u00a0\u2014 Desert Hearts<\/em>, Liana,<\/em> and, of course, M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em><\/a> and Loving<\/em> Annabelle<\/em>. Despite that, the filmmaker spells out for us that Jackie is of age \u2013 the actress looks much younger than the 20-plus years she is supposed to be. These efforts do nothing to make this relationship between a student and professor feel less uncomfortable. This includes a scene of Catherine bathing Jackie that feels more motherly than provocative.<\/p>\n

The movie\u2019s uneven pacing begins with an unbelievable seduction scene at a department mixer where Catherine, without finesse but with success, seduces the young Jackie in a matter of moments. As one might guess, this love affair does not last. The director\u2019s flat handling of the end betrays her past experience editing television reality shows such as The Real<\/em> L Word<\/em> and America\u2019s Next Top Model<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are moments of true charm and amusement in the Bloomington.<\/em> That being said, more often than not the scenes of the actresses alone are more emotionally authentic than the scenes they share. In particular, Allison McAtee (Catherine) communicates more emotional depth than one might expect with such a wanting script. It should be mentioned that other viewers of this film have taken issue with both lead characters sleeping with men at the demise of their relationship.<\/p>\n

Any library with a healthy budget devoted to purchasing films and a mission to provide equal access to LGBT materials should consider purchasing this film. Although it is not a great movie (it cannot be compared to the artfulness of M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em>), it is no worse than The Switch<\/em>, another 2010 release that has doubtless been added to library collections in multiple copies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Analisa Ornelas<\/strong>
\nTraining and Documentation Coordinator
\nInnovative Interfaces, Inc. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomington. DVD. Screening copy. Dir. Fernanda Cardoso. With Allison McAtee, Katherine McGregor, and Sarah Stouffer. Wolfe Video, 2010. 83 min. Jackie, a former child star who romped about the universe in the television show Neptune, has moved from Hollywood to Bloomington, Indiana, to leave her life in and with the stars behind. She brings with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,34,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}