Roos, who\u2019s gay himself, walks a fine line in The Opposite of Sex<\/em> that wouldn\u2019t be possible in a modern movie without inviting social media outcry and ironic support from the exact people the movie is meant to oppose. A mean, manipulative, foul-mouthed teenager from small-town Louisiana, Dedee leaves home following the death of her hated stepfather and shows up unannounced at the suburban Indiana home of her comparatively sedate half-brother Bill (Martin Donovan). Bill is a soft-spoken high school English teacher approaching middle age, but he\u2019s also openly gay in the Midwest, which makes him an easy target for insults and attacks, many of which come directly from Dedee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dedee would probably characterize herself as an equal-opportunity misanthrope, and she lashes out at Bill as much out of resentment for his seemingly comfortable life as out of any distaste for his sexual orientation. That doesn\u2019t excuse the rampant homophobic slurs, of course, but in 1998 there was genuine shock value in filmmakers like Roos proudly retaking those terms, and The Opposite of Sex<\/em> is working in a more mainstream version of a tradition established by queer filmmakers like John Waters and Gregg Araki. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Roos expresses his point of view not through the often defiantly naive Dedee, but through a fiery speech that Bill delivers late in the movie to sniveling blackmailer Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki), detailing the horrors he endured during the preceding decades so that younger gay men like Jason could grow up with the freedom to be self-centered assholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its own sometimes clumsy way, The Opposite of Sex<\/em> is also an early depiction of sexual fluidity, although it eventually shies away from its potential embrace of bisexuality and asexuality. Dedee\u2019s main act of disruption is her determination to seduce Bill\u2019s younger boyfriend Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei), who proves remarkably open to sleeping with an underage girl despite his avowed homosexuality. Matt later comes out as bisexual, but the movie is quick to dismiss this revelation, with the outdated notion that only gay men ever claim to be bisexual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, The Opposite of Sex<\/em> was more notable for expanding the horizons of Ricci\u2019s career, after her years of work as a child actor. Following her supporting turn in The Ice Storm<\/em>, this was Ricci\u2019s breakout \u201cadult\u201d role, and part of the movie\u2019s appeal is seeing the onetime Wednesday Addams apply that same sardonic, deadpan disdain to much more mature topics. Ricci makes the most of the spotlight, offering withering putdowns even as she\u2019s offscreen for long stretches. One reason that Dedee\u2019s nastiness is palatable is that Ricci delivers it with such good-natured dismissiveness, and Dedee is rarely truly malicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As other characters keep emphasizing, Dedee is a literal child, despite spending much of the movie pregnant with a baby of unclear paternity. She\u2019s an immature brat who enjoys getting a rise out of people, whether her friends and family members or the viewers of the movie. As with so many present-day online trolls, her bigotry is more performative than sincere. She\u2019s adept at stringing the audience along with her narration, playing with expectations for what this kind of movie would entail, and chiding viewers for their susceptibility to common cinematic storytelling devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dedee\u2019s meta-narrative abilities are more sophisticated than her interpersonal skills, and she can never stop straining for edginess. The movie can\u2019t resist that, either, which means that plenty of it now comes across as dated and cringe-worthy. But that\u2019s part of the process of growing up, both for Dedee and for queer representation onscreen. What\u2019s provocative in one decade seems retrograde by the next. Dedee gets her heart of gold, whether she likes it or not, and she passes that maturation forward to the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Opposite of Sex” is streaming on Kanopy<\/a> and Hoopla<\/a>, and available for digital rental or purchase<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/opposite2-1024x683.png\")
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Even more intriguing is the hint that Bill\u2019s friend and co-worker Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow), sister of his late boyfriend Tom, may be asexual. In an often cartoonish movie, Kudrow gives the most sensitive performance as a lonely straight woman who\u2019s poured all of her emotional energy into the lives of gay men, and she expertly plays a scene in which Lucia opens up to Bill about being baffled over the appeal of sexual intercourse. She\u2019s then immediately paired off with a love interest (Lyle Lovett\u2019s friendly cop Carl Tippett), but for a moment Roos expands the spectrum of sexuality that could be depicted in mainstream cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n