All the Rage . Austin Chronicle . 03-30-98

All the Rage

DIRECTED BY: Roland Tec

REVIEWED: 03-30-98

Here's a movie that revives a dreaded art-film convention - the one that places a shocking, unexpected ending behind a litany of perfectly timed and purposeful plot events. In the case of All the Rage, that means that Christopher - a slick, oversexed attorney - finally finds true love with book editor Stewart and - as foreshadowed - blows it all by having a fling with Stewart's roommate. He then has to pay for his sin by having a one-night stand and a potentially murderous situation with an obsessive psycho type whom he doesn't even realize he's had sex with before. This ending is a shame not so much because the viewer wants Stewart and Christopher to happily work out their relationship but because it zaps the viewer with a sterile, preachy aftertaste entirely befiting the stiff Boston setting of All the Rage, which Roland Tec adapted and directed from his stage play, A Better Boy. All actors sing with enthusiasm for their parts. Peter Bubriski tinges the role of Christopher Bedford with a hint of vulnerability beneath a steely exterior.

--Claiborne Smith

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