Jonathan Van De Loo
Extravaganza! Antic fizz and bold theatrical exaggeration!
Proud women, lovely boys, beautiful drag queens–
Few melodramas with such tragic underpinnings have ever made me feel so intensely happy!
Grand movie stars, gorgeous frocks, wild wallpaper; a spectacular synthesis
Of lickable lollipop colors. His world is used to improvising. A buoyant and generous
Asserted breakdown, a decade long gay relationship… He isn’t, in an excluding sense, a gay.
He can lie very well. In any language. Superbly plotted. Cooler hues can’t tell an equal truth!
His efforts ask the audience to take it seriously. To blossom into a newly sophisticated style that is
Far more passionate, wise, and deeply felt. Repeated for real! Smart choices, wonderfully
Open expressions… He could wrangle it all together into something that truly touched the soul!
**Notes**
VI is a section of a larger poem titled “a poignant case study in the changing contours of gay life.” It is a collage poems made from sentences lifted and restructured from reviews. The sources are listed below.
French, Philip. “All About My Mother.” The Guardian, August 25, 1999. https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/aug/26/features.philipfrench.
Lozito, Joe. “All About My Mother Review.” Big Picture Big Sound (blog), April 26, 2005. https://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/article_22.shtml.
Maslin, Janet. “‘All About My Mother’: Buoyed by the Strangeness of Kinship.” The New York Times, September 24, 1999. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/092499ny-mother-film-review.html.
Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “All About My Mother.” Entertainment Weekly, November 26, 1999. https://ew.com/article/1999/11/26/all-about-my-mother-5/.
Jonathan Van De Loo is a theatre student from Albany, New York. Lover of breakfast, puppies, and Rihanna, he is excited to be a part of Helicon and is inspired by all of the amazing work produced by Northwestern students!
