It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine is a tribute to its screenwriter, Steven C. Stewart, who also stars as a bookish, middle-aged man with cerebral palsy. Illness has made his speech slurred, but certain women are so charmed by his insight into their inner woes that they go to bed with him. These fantasy sex scenes are so disturbingly frank that you may well look away; then the sex turns to violence (perhaps also imaginary). Getting the film made is said to have been Stewarts life dream; he died before seeing the final cut. To reject It Is Fine! is to reject the man and, perhaps, the right of the disabled to express sexual fantasies. Co-director Crispin Glover will appear before the screenings, narrating a one-hour slideshow. If you dare to duck out of the movie early, you may meet his gaze as you head up the aisle (Q&A follows). Moviegoing is rarely this fraught. (Glovers 2005 What Is It? will screen on Saturday.) Also shows Fri., Jan 11., and Sun., Jan 13.
Thu., Jan. 10, 7 p.m., 2008
