Caligula:TheUltimate Cut (1979/2023) opens Friday

The story of the making of CALIGULA is legendary. From battles behind the scenes, to censorship trouble there is enough going on to fill several books or a long miniseries. The films was written by novelist Gore Vidal who was so unhappy with what was being done he wanted his name removed. Tinto Brass the director did what he could, but was removed by producer Bob Guccione who chopped the hell out of the film and added a lot of graphic sex. It made a mint and so many people were curious that the film was recut into an R rated version.

In whatever cut you only saw a pale shadow of what Gore Vidal wrote and what the actors were doing.  Recently filmmaker Thomas Negovan went back to the original footage and using Gore Vidal's script as guide assembled the almost 100 hours of alternate takes into a new version of CALIGULA what is minus anything the Guccione shot (there is graphic sex, but no penetration)

I'm a fan of the film. I've been in awe of the film  since I first saw the R rated version in a theater four decades ago. My feelings are mixed up in the spectacle and the audacity of what is on screen. That the film was "Hollywood's"  (albeit via an inde producer) attempt  at integrating hardcore sex makes more sense when you look at the time than it does now, when you consider some of the serious porn films that were being made in the late 70's (see here for a brief discussion). The problem of course was that the graphic sex stopped the film dead and resulted in a ton of material being chucked out. 

Like Negovan I always wondered what the film would have been like had it not been fought over and just a been the historical epic most people thought they were making. Having seen the ULTIMATE CUT, I now know and I am deeply impressed.

Frankly had this version been released 45 years ago the film would have been hailed as very good, and very adult epic. It's not for the squeamish or the prudish (there hardcore is gone but there is a lot implied).  I am also certain that while the film would have developed a cult following, it would have been largely forgotten like so many films of the period. That isn't a knock on the film but a statement of truth.

The truth is that this restored version of the rise of Caligula is a revelation.  It's a film that impresses with the spectacle but also with the depth of characters and the themes. Watching the full film I was struck by how much the film has to say about life today. Listening to Peter O'Toole's Tiberius rant about plots and how society is made it clear that he is a twin of a certain ex-president , demagogue and snake oil salesman.  The portrait of cutthroat politics is what we are seeing in America now. One completely understands why John Gielgud's character kills himself rather than stay in the cesspool.

I know why Malcolm McDowell and the others would frequently speak of the lost masterpiece they thought they were making.

Is it that masterpiece? Probably not, but it is light years ahead of what was originally released. It's probably damn close to being that masterpiece and it's definitely worth seeing and re-evaluating.

Frankly if I was to say that there is any flaw in this film it's in that it only really uses alternate takes. While I know there are reasons for it, a couple of sequences seem less emotional, the death of the drunk soldier at the start and the death Caligula's son, for example, are less affecting.

Honestly if you love movies you need to see this, more so if you were either in love with this film or merely liked it. This cut will knock your socks off. 

Brief thoughts on : Shunga The Lost Japanese Erotica (2022) Japan Cuts 2024

A look at the efforts to restore, reproduce and recreate Shunga erotica which was done in a  wood block style

Don't come into SHUNGA thinking you are going to be aroused. This is an informative, literary and a bit dry look at the erotic art form in Japan. It's a beautiful film which is going to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about classic Japanese erotica and then some.  It is a really well done film....

...that is much too long for what it is. 

Yes it is excellent. Yes it is informative. But it is so low key and detailed that you may nod off. I knew I was going to have a love hate relationship with the film when it showed us what it takes to carve pubic hairs.

It's not bad, but you should be aware of what you are walking into since the film plays at 9PM on a Saturday. Unless you a bringing a scholar you are not getting lucky after this film.

DESIRE LINE (2024) Sundance 2024

DESIRE LINE is going to raise a lot of questions for pretty much anyone who sees it. The film is a look at who we are attracted to, specifically focusing on members of the trans community. It is a story of an Iranian American trans man on a quest to see what his sexual desires are.

I'm going to keep this piece short because the film raised a lot of things that I have to sort out. It also requires a lot of thinking in how I want to phrase my thoughts and with a short time to compose this piece during the flood of festival films I don't want the remarks to come off in correctly because I respect the film so much.

I really liked this film a great deal. If it wasn't already readily apparent I am going to need to do another pass by the film in order to full take in everything that is in it and to find the correct words to discuss it. There is a great deal here beyond the trans community and as such it made me think about who and what I want.

It should be noted, this film is not going to be for everyone. Those with a closed mind toward matters of sex and desire should not be seeing this film. If on the other hand you want a film that is going to open your mind, get into your heart and make you consider what you desire then this film is for you.  

The Disappearance of Shere Hite (2023) DOC NYC 2023

When I was at an impressionable age Shere Hite and her book The Hite Report were everywhere. Her study about female sexuality hit a nerve and everyone was reading it- though not always openly. The book pushed the sexual revolution farther along because it revealed things no one was talking about. Over time Hite kind of slowly faded away.  The movement she started over took her in some ways. Her pale look and strawberry red hair have haunted me for decades.

This is a return to a less enlightened time when then things were getting freer but at the same time no one wanted to talk about sex. Yes, everyone wanted to hear what Hite had to say, but at the same time her critics were going to try and shut her up because of “bad research” (which it really wasn’t). Hite was a disrupter of the best sort, a smart young woman who knew her stuff and who was upsetting the mainstream with well researched facts. The patriarchy didn’t know how to react to her, and they probably still wouldn’t.

I liked this film. I liked that while the film explains what happened to Hite, who really did largely disappear after a while, it makes you wish she hadn’t gone away.

Worth a look

TOUCH KINK (2023) Fantasia 2023

Touch Kink is a documentary look at people who enjoy BDSM. It’s a collection of interviews with people across the spectrum and includes video of people enjoying sessions of play.

I’m kind of mixed on this film.  While I think the film is a very good primer for those who are curious of BDSM, I’m not sure how it is beyond that.

Don’t get me wrong the film does what it is intended to do which is demystify the kink and make it welcoming to anyone who is interested in participating, but there is a point where the presentation slips into a clinical and a sales film mode. I found I was distancing myself from the film with the result I admire it more than I like it.

Admittedly part of the problem is because of my own experiences. While BDSM is not really my cup of tea, despite having had a girlfriend who really enjoyed the role play, the scene as shown in this film is not very interesting to me. The whole dominatrix/master/slave dynamic has never appealed to me. I know several people who love it because it allows them to keep things in neat boxes, but outside of the fashion it leaves me cold.  Because of this there was a certain point about a third of the way into the film where I kind of raised my hand said I was done.

If you’re curious and want an in to the world it is showing do see the film. If not, take a pass.

Ariela Rubin on A SEXPLANATION (2022)

Sexplanation is a fun documentary, about you guessed it! Sex. Sexplanation follows a gay 36-year-old named Alex Liu who goes on a journey to uncover all things sex - from sex education, to the shame surrounding it. He speaks with psychologists, sex researchers, a priest, a governor, and even his own parents to learn more. 

The film's main objective is to encourage more information and non-judgemental conversations with children about sex, by parents and educators, rather than just teaching abstinence and shame. This documentary is made with humor and it was a lot of fun to watch! It has a perfect runtime of 76 minutes. 

I would recommend this doc to everyone. Alex Liu’s comedic sex education documentary Arrives on TVOD June 7 On all major streaming and cable platforms in the U.S. and Canada

Brief thoughts on PLEASURE (2021) which opens today

PLEASURE is a look at the adult film industry. The the story of an actress named Bella Cherry who wades into the industry wanting to be the best. However circumstances sends her up and down various pathways that may not lead to places she wants to go.

When I saw this film at Sundance in 2021 I thought  it is was a good film, and wonderfully not like Hollywood's portrayal of the industry. However I was disappointed that the plotting didn't do anything unexpected and you kind of knew where its going because, while there aren't a lot of films about the porn industry, almost of them, short of a porn film, follow the same route with the only question being how banged up is the person at the center going to be in the end.

AT the same time its frank handling of the material and refusal to paint things as purely black or white, despite taking the familiar course, has me still pondering the  film a year later.  

While not for all audiences it's worth a look for those curious.

Sex in the Comix play Ovid TV April 8

Molly Crabapple hosts a look at sex and erotic comics across the globe.

First a no duh, this film had graphic images. Only during one portion of censorship toward the end are any images censored.

This is a good but to short (it's only abut 54 minutes) over view of sex in comics. It covers all the usual suspects, Robert Crumb, Milo Manara, Ralf Konig as well as some new artists as well. It is  film that gives you a good over view of the subject of sex in sequential art.

The brevity is both a blessing and a curse. Its good because it manages to compress a lot of material into a short amount of time and keep it all balanced. It's bad because this could easily have been two or three times longer. I would have loved to here more from artists other than Crumb and Manara. While there is nothing wrong with their segments they tend to be the focus of anything like this so why not go elsewhere? I would also have liked more on the censoring of comics.

Understand that my interest in the subject is not anything new with the result that I was looking for something more. That said as a starting place SEX IN THE COMIX is gangbusters and recommended for those of appropriate age and disposition.

Romantic Chorus (2021)

ROMANTIC CHORUS is an animated documentary about love, relationships and sex. Constructed from a series of interviews done with people from all walks of life the film attempts to present the spectrum of how we humans interact.

This is an intriguing film about our interpersonal relationships in all its forms. It is told in a bewildering mix of animation styles that absolutely delights the eyes.

The experience of watching the film can be overwhelming. There is a great deal to process here from notions of love, monogamy, open relationships, sex... and everything else you can think of. A lot of thoughts are thrown at us and it is a great deal to take in. When you couple it with the dizzy, and often magnificent animation, the film just hits you like a tsunami. It was so much that there was a couple of times when I stopped looking at the screen and just listened because I wasn't certain what I should be paying attention to.

To put it another way ROMANTIC CHORUS is a banquet of great food where you are going to over eat.

While I think you should make a real effort to see it, I'm still processing to what degree I like it. Don't get me wrong I can and will be happy to explain why the film is a must see, I find that my reaction to the film is all over the place. While there are moments that had me shouting "YES YES THAT'S IT" at the screen when someone said something brilliant, there were other times when I wasn't interested in what was being said.  At times the visuals and the interviews mesh perfectly and at other times I wonder what the animator was trying for. Perhaps its the arrangement of the bits which at times seems to be off.

Quibbling aside I would rather be wrestling with a film like this that gives be too mc of everything that a typical Hollywood film. I love that ROMANTIC CHORUS basically goes "Here is a whole bunch of the things we found out- you sort out hat it means" Oh the joys of being treated like an adult.

Give it a shot.

The film can be streamed starting today at the website https://romanticchorus.com/ starting today

Morgana (2020) Fantasia 2020

Morgana Muses was tied of her life. Her life was a falling apart and she decided to kill herself. Getting a fancy hotel room and an escort she was planning on going out on a high note... except that the encounter changed her life and makes a film about what happened. The result was that as she approached 50 Morgana became an adult film star.

Far from prurient portrait of a lovely woman who discovered the secret to her life is a small joy. This film is good time with a lovely lady. I kind of wish that the Covid crisis wasn't happening because I really would love to spend some time with her.

One of the things, beside Morganna herself, that I loved about the film is that it kind of makes clear that not all adult films and  elated industry are what most people think of as porn, just people having sex. The reality is that there is this whole other realm of intelligent well thought out and deeply felt films which are not just about the act but the everything else that goes with it. This is a world where emotion and the whole experience important and not just the mashing of genitals.

To be honest I don't know what else to say other than this is a sweet little film. I saw this film four weeks before the start of Fantasia and I have been struggling with what to say about it. I've watched it several times and each time all I could say was that was "sweet".

Recommended to anyone who want's to see a sweet little biography about a lovely woman and her movies.

JUST SEX, NOTHING PERSONAL (2019)

Out on VOD is the Ukrainian sex rom com JUST SEX, NOTHING PERSONAL. If you want a charming and adult change of pace it's worth taking a look at.

Serhiy's life is thrown in to disarray. his girlfriend refuses to marry him because he is terrible in bed. Distraught he goes to spend New Years Eve with ladies man Vasyl. However things go really wrong at the club and he ends up drunk and pantsless on the cold streets. On of the strippers named Diana takes pity on him and takes him home. She agrees to teach him how to be a great lover. Spicy romance results.

To be honest this is almost two films. There is the try too hard set up  that plays out up to the point of the pantsless meeting and then there is everything else. If you are willing to wait for the film to flip then you are in for a really charming little film. To be certain the film doesn't break any new ground, but once it gets going it does what it does like a fine tuned machine.

That the film works as well as it does is due entirely to the cast.Roman Lutskiy, Angelika Nikolaeva, Natalya Mazur, Sergey Pritula, and Andrey Danilko are all great with the to leads absolutely perfect. (please forgive me not singling them out I can not find a cast list that lists the names in English).

Other than the opening bit of the film the only thing really wrong with it is in the presentation. The version I saw, while providing subtitles for everything that was said did not subtitle anything else do references to anything written, such as in a scene near the end, is completely lost. Still we get the idea and it it is more annoying rather than fatal.

Recommended for anyone wanting to go off the grid.

Circus of Books (2019) Tribeca 2019

CIRCUS OF BOOKS is a great deal of fun. The story of a family which owner a well-loved San Francisco gay adult book stores, it is a portrait of a bunch of charming people who quietly changed the lives of the people around them.

Karen and Barry Mason fell into the porn business by accident. When the manufacturing of dialysis equipment became too expensive, malpractice insurance was astronomical, they tried distributing Hustler magazine. They started to add additional magazines, and then ended up taking over the Book Circus which they renamed Circus of Books. From there they got into the production of videos and made a small fortune as they made some good friends because they were honest. The Masons also never told their kids what kind of bookstore they owned and for bid them from ever looking up from the floor.

The film is a love letter from director Rachel Mason to her parents. Interviewing her parents, her brothers and many of the people they worked with the film reveals itself to be look at the lives of a couple who cared about their employees and their customers and were ultimately just regular people who were trying to earn a living.

And the film reveals that they were unintentional crusaders for the first amendment when they were charged with Federal crimes during the first Bush administration. They were also unintentional witnesses to the AIDS epidemic. The degree to which they cared for their employees who were diagnosed was not normal, with the couple allowing their employees to work until they couldn’t, visiting them in the hospital and trying let their families know that their children were sick. Many times the families hung up on them, but they tried anyway because they didn’t want them to die alone.

But this is not a sad film, but a joyous one. It is good times with good people. It will make you want to find the Masons and give them a hug.

Recommended.

Ariela Rubin on ASK DR RUTH (2019) Tribeca 2019

I loved this documentary! Ask Dr. Ruth is about the famous sex therapist Dr. Ruth. Who hasn’t heard of her? Of course I had, but I didn’t know much about her.

The film started with a very funny opening of Dr. Ruth talking to “Alexa”. From there, it was a mixture of laughs, and sadness. Ruth tells us her story. A story of a German-born Jew, whose parents sent her to Switzerland when she was 10, only to never see them again. She still has all the letters her parents sent her, until she stopped receiving them.

She has had quite the life. She discusses her life in the orphanage, and the story of her first love. He is in the film, and she is still in touch with him. (These scenes were so sweet). She also talks about how she lost her virginity, of her several marriages, of the time she lived in Israel, and when she was trained as a sniper.

She is a resilient woman. She is charming, and hilarious. She’s 4’7”, but said she feels 6 feet. She tells us that there’s no such thing as normal, and hates that word.

I can’t say enough good things about this doc. I can’t recommend this film enough. I loved it. It was a joy to watch.

Call Boy (2018) Japan Cuts 2018

A young bartender being drawn into becoming an escort. We watch as he has numerous encounters with various women and takes stock of his life.

Great looking erotic thriller is so damn close to be a full on adult film that you’ll wonder why they didn’t go all the way (no pun intended). It’s also a film that tries to walk the fine line between being deep and meaningful or being about the sex, only to trip over the line and fall on its face. The result is it really isn’t deep and the sex, while good looking, ultimately only has the kink factor going for it. I got bored relatively fast and by the time the film ended after almost two hours I wasn’t really paying much attention to the proceedings. I had been there so many times before with a much more charismatic lead character.

I’m all for erotically charged films but there has to be something there beyond the sex. While the cinematography is ultimately worth the price of admission, the fact that it is tethered to an unremarkable story makes me not want to recommend it. If I wanted to watch an artistic sex film there are plenty of adult directors and cinematographers who are doing similar things without having to pull their punches.

Recommended for people who want arty kinky sex but need an air of respectability.

For tickets and more information go here

Escorts (2015)

British documentary about two escorts and their lives.

Okay film looks at making money from sex and fantasy in the modern world. While for adults it's not really purient and kind of makes the life, though not the money as something that just sort of is. I was five minutes in and was like "oh, thats it then?" and it kind of stayed in one place emotionally and went nowhere.

 Not bad but nothing special-which weirdly may mean it is something special- I'm not sure.

Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy

This adult version of the classic Lewis Carroll tale is much better than you might expect. Here Alice is a virginal librarian who falls down the rabbit hole and learns to love sex and her own self image.

Made at the time when adult films were creative endeavors with plots instead of just a series of sex scenes, this is a good looking little movie more akin to the low budget films of its day. Despite what you may think this film actually has a good script with funny jokes and good songs. Its an naughty little tale for adults. If you're wondering whether or not my recommendation is a good one or not consider that the film was pretty much only available in its non-hardcore version for the better part of the last three decades simply because the film stands up without the sex, which is how I first saw the film years ago on cable TV.

The relatively recent home video release on DVD put back the sex (in horribly grainy inserted clips) which makes it clear the removal of the shots was the best choice all around. If you're an open minded adult with a taste for something spicy I can heartily recommend this little film as a nice diversion (though ignore the hardcore insert shots)

NYAFF does Roman Porno WET WOMAN IN THE WIND, DAWN OF THE FELINES, and AROUSED BY GYMNOPEDIES

The New York Asian Film Festival has only dealt with the odd Roman Porno film. Yes, it's run the odd film hand picked but it never went deep into the genre. This year it's making up for lost time by running three. The films are part of Nikkatsu's new series of films where they are bringing in established directors to pay homage and restart the series.

For those who don't know Roman Porno are Japanese softcore sex films that run about 80 minutes and have a sex scene every 10 minutes or so. The studios that produce them generally let the directors do whatever they want so long as the previously mentioned rules are followed.

Okay let me stop right here and make it clear I am not a fan. I love the ones that work, but most of them bore the living shit out of me.  They are filled with great looking people but terribly unsexy, often odd for no reason and go nowhere. Unless you can tell me its a good film I try to avoid them.

That said I waded into the three Nikkatsu films that NYAFF is running this year because the NYAFF programmers rarely let me down....

....At the risk of getting the shit kicked out of me I have no idea why they are running three films since one is just bad and the others are okay... my real question is why in hell are they running two of  them on one day? The thought is just painful. (see addendum below)

AROUSED BY GYMNOPEDIES
Painfully dull film. about a once great director reduced to doing porno who has his lead actress quit. Unsexy, brutish and boring to the point of laughter this film is bad. Quite simply one of the worst films I've seen this year and one of the worst Roman Porno films I've seen which is saying a great deal. Vile and misogynistic the film's the main character is one of the most horrible people I've ever seen in any sort of sex film (and I've seen a lot) It may also be one of the least films I've seen in the 9 years I've been going to NYAFF.

DAWN OF THE FELINES
The lives of three call girls is supposed to be a statement about modern Japan. I'm not too sure of that. A dark down beat story the film is much better than AROUSED. It is the best of the three film in the series  but kind of never gets to build momentum thanks to the sex every ten minute rule and shifts from comedy to drama.

JB's take on the film can be found here

WET WOMAN IN THE WIND.
Breaking the sex every ten minute rule for the first half the film hits into over time in the second half as a woman sleeps with everyone. The film held my interest for the first half but I lost interest in the second when the sex just overwhelmed everything and the monotony of watching other people fake sex began to bore me.

JB's review can be found here

*-ADDENDUM: Lest you think I just hate the films  please note Sion Sono's entry in the Nikkatsu series ANTIPORNO runs at Japan Cuts July 22 and it is one of my favorite films of that festival.


Mondocurry's look at all the films in the sidebar can be found here

Cipka (2017) Sundance 2017

Renata Gąsiorowska's CIPKA (Pussy) is a masterpiece. A beautifully animated short that just works to hell with the fact that I'm a guy this is just a great film.

The plot of the film has a girl alone decide to pleasure herself but things go sideways. I can't really explain more than that because of the nature of what happens will be lessened.

The visuals of the film are stunning. They are simple. see above, but at the same time they manage to covey so much. What I love is how as the film goes on things become more complicated, the visuals more detiled. With the bits toward the end I was smiling with wonderful sense of glee because the film just pulls it all together into a glorious use of color that replaces the white world.

My only question with the whole film is why does it feel it needs a guy with a telescope in a couple of scenes. Yes I know it allows for a funny  gag but it's out of place.

I can't say enough good about it except that it's very possible Renata Gąsiorowska maybe one of new favorite directors. If this one plays near you see it.

(Additionally I would love to hear what any women who see it think of it)

À LA RECHERCHE DE L'ULTRA-SEX (aka In Search of Ultra Sex)(2016) Fantasia 2016

Hour long spoof of earth in perils films that was stitched together from numerous hardcore and softcore films is the sort of thing that you're either going to love or hate...

I hated it.

The problem for me is that the joke never worked. More or less a random collection scenes over which the two directors talk over and do all the voices the film never goes anywhere. I'm certain it never was supposed to go anywhere , but at the same time the jokes just lay there since in most cases the people speaking are random people.

TO be honest it is amusing for about five minutes and then you realize that its just two people doing silly voices over random clips and any patience you had evaporates.

I wasted an hour watching this? Really.?

Yea apparently.

I think this is the first film in four years at Fantasia where I honestly had no idea why it was programmed.  If they wanted to run a scifi sex film there are dozens of good ones out there they could have chosen instead.

This is a film to avoid at all costs.

SWORN VIRGIN (VERGINE GIURATA), VIRGIN MOUNTAIN (FUSI), and How Sex Changes the Size of a Character's World - Tribeca 2015

Sex changes everything, or at least it opens up the possibilities for change. Seeing two films with the word "virgin" in the title meant an immediate possibility for contrast. While Sworn Virgin (Vergine giurata) and Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) each approach the idea of sex as a rite of passage, they also share a common idea that sex leads people into bigger more more fulfilling worlds.

In Laura Bispuri's moving Sworn Virgin, we get to explore the eponymous concept and its deleterious effects on a woman's sense of self and sense of worth. Sworn virgins are Albanian women who make a pact with their community to live as men. They're made to dress as men, and vow to remain virgins for the rest of their lives simply to participate in the patriarchal society they live in.

By becoming a sworn virgin, a woman (now considered a man) is able to own property, to carry a gun, to have some sense of a future beyond being a wife or a servant. It's not a matter of gender dysphoria, but instead a means to limit possibilities and keep the world small and women powerless; the only way for women to have some sense of agency is to surrender their sex and gender.

Mark (Alba Rohrwacher) made the vow many years ago, but she leaves the confines of her old world for Milan. There in the city, with the help of a friend, she begins to unfetter herself. The only limitations are the old traditions imposed on her in Northern Albania. There, the sheer denial of womanhood was a way to live, but in Milan denial is stultifying. Mark has the possibility of becoming herself and defining her own destiny--she finally gets to create her own future. The process is slow, and Bispuri allows the emotional journey toward agency to unfold while Rohrwacher communicates Mark's reticence. The present is intercut with glimpses of the suffocating past, until there is only present, only modernity. Sex, if it happens, isn't just a rite of passage, but an act of glorious liberation.

Virgin Mountain offers another version of small world confinement. Rather than a tradition that keeps the local patriarchy strong, we're dealing with issues of self-esteem. Fusi (Gunnar Jónsson) is a massive middle-aged airport employee who lives with his mom. He leads a sheltered existence. Also his mom gets laid more than he does.

Rather than get out in the world, Fusi prefers to deal with the world of scale models and historical recreations. He's a gigantic manchild, but he prefers this state of arrested development to the complications of adulthood. (When he's bullied by co-workers, it feels like it's still high school.) The model world presents a series of manageable situations, ones defined by guidebooks and that he can control. Historical battle recreations do not involve rejection or human interaction. There's a comfort in this sort of confinement, and it's also no way to live. The model world is a way of retreating from the real world.

Writer/director Dagur Kári presents the airport in a series of overhead shots, as if it were another kind of model that Fusi would play with. When his mother and her current boyfriend get him line dancing lessons, they introduce so many variables into the model world life Fusi leads, notably a potential love interest (Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir), maybe the first shot he's had at letting his world expand.

There's an overly sweet sense to Virgin Mountain at a certain point, and some of Fusi's behaviors strain believability. In fact, he gets down right stalker-y in an uncomfortable way. Still, it's satisfying to watch both Fusi and Mark fight to become themselves. It's as if the bigger world was waiting for them to show up.