Sleep with Me (1994)

October 20, 2024 3:26 PM

Six different writers wrote a scene each of this romantic comedy featuring the marriage and turbulent relationship of Joseph and Sarah, with Joseph's best friend Frank trying hard to cope with letting the love of his life marry his best friend.

Starring Craig Sheffer, Eric Stoltz, Meg Tilly, Dean Cameron, Todd Field, Thomas Gibson, Parker Posey, Adrienne Shelly, Susan Traylor, Tegan West, June Lockhart.

Directed by Rory Kelly. Written by Duane Dell'Amico, Roger Hedden, Neal Jimenez, Joe Keenan, Rory Kelly, Michael Steinberg. Produced by, Michael Steinberg, Eric Stoltz, Roger Hedden. Cinematography by Andrzej Sekuła. Edited by David Moritz. Music by David Nessim Lawrence.

21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Not currently streaming in any easy way, but there's a weird, off center YT upload of the whole film and anyway, this scene, starring and written by Quentin Tarantino is the only one anyone remembers anyway.

posted by DirtyOldTown (8 comments total)

I particularly like the Quentin Tarantino scene in which he argues, in detail that Top Gun was a homoerotic film.

It's not a matter of me being a QT fan (I'm not really, as I've seen maybe half his films). It's not a matter of me finding this rant convincing, because I don't. I think it's great in a way Tarantino likely do not intend: it's the best example I can think of a particular rhetorical gambit that progresive film nerds love. You pick a bonkers contrarian take on a film that upholds a bedrock progressive value and you set up a false binary where someone can either agree with you and affirm this value or argue and they're unknowingly against that value or just a sheep who doesn't see the hard truth, man.

Do you disagree with Quentin here? No? Is it because you're afraid to stand with gay men? Is it because you're secretly homophobic?

I mean, it can't be because it's a stupid argument, and that the degree to which it has been carefully applied to the whole film remains stupid, right?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:30 PM on October 20 [1 favorite]

Quentin probably wanted to see more bare feet.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:09 PM on October 20 [3 favorites]

I watched this movie on VHS, most likely after Pulp Fiction came out. I don't remember anything about it at all, other than that Tarantino scene, and I thought it was hilarious because it IS a stupid argument. It's like his explanation of Like A Version in Reservoir Dogs. He's clearly trolling! It's the sort of thing the other Quentin (Mr. Dupieux) would make an entire movie about.
posted by mrphancy at 8:47 PM on October 20 [2 favorites]

I particularly like the Quentin Tarantino scene in which he argues, in detail that Top Gun was a homoerotic film.

The Tarantino character's specific argument, that Top Gun is secretly about Maverick wrestling with the decision to be straight or "go the gay way," is pretty silly. But I don't see how anybody can deny that Top Gun is homoerotic as hell. I mean, Playing with the Boys?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:37 PM on October 20 [5 favorites]

Unintentionally homoerotic for sure. But as you note, his argument is that it's intentional.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:50 AM on October 21

Tarantino's Top Gun rant should be viewed, I think, with the knowledge that a year earlier he had worked with Top Gun director Tony Scott when Quentin was the writer and Tony was the director on True Romance.

Whether that makes his theory more likely or less likely to be accurate is left as an exercise for the reader, but I think the two men's history together is something that should be taken into account.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:16 AM on October 21 [1 favorite]

> Unintentionally homoerotic for sure. But as you note, his argument is that it's intentional.

I don't want to derail the discussion completely, and I'm struggling to find a link for this, but I swear I saw an interview with Tony Scott where he was pretty clear that the movie was deliberately homoerotic
posted by dis_integration at 10:15 AM on October 21

That doesn't especially surprise me, but QT's read of the film as "Are you gonna go the gay way?" still feels far, far beyond what Scott may have dabbled with.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:51 AM on October 21