Pedro Suárez | Pretty Things / 2019

let me entertain you

by Douglas Messerli

 

Pedro Suárez and Pepe Yapur (screenplay), Pedro Suárez (director) Pretty Things / 2019 [16 minutes]

 

Pretty Things begins with a heavily bearded man still asleep, awakened by the sound of the TV playing the “Little Lulu” theme, watched by his young daughter at the end of his bed. The father, Ollie (Jaime Scott Gordon) almost immediately joins in with the song’s unforgettable lyrics:

 

“Little Lulu, Little Lulu with freckles on your chin

Always in and out of trouble but mostly always in

Oh, the clock says 7:30 it’s really after 10

Looks like Lulu’s been repairing it again

Little Lulu, I love you, Lu, just the same, the same.

Little Lulu, I love you, Lu, just the same.”

 

     His daughter Buffy (Elspeth Archer) refuses most of his suggestions for breakfast or even brunch, which include “egg pizza” and a “Bloody Mary.” She’s had her cereal. He tries a bottle of beer but can’t find the opener (we later discover that Buffy has hidden it), but spots a can of beer hidden away in the refrigerator, which he quickly slurps up.

     It’s clear that Buffy is a bit skeptical about his ability to properly parent her. But he does sit down to chat with her for a moment, asking about her school experiences. Her teacher has told her she can’t do “spells” anymore, “like turning invisible.” We soon discover that Buffy is also into magic. Ollie reminds her that the magic stuff is something she should keep at home, since “other people don’t really get it.”

     Buffy carefully feeds her gold fish (we later discover it is named “Goldie Hawn”), parenting it with the words, “No brunch pizza for you either.”

     Meanwhile, Ollie, in the bathroom, is busy on his cellphone attempting to find a hookup for the day.

     Buffy can’t find her “watermelon” dress, which her father hasn’t apparently taken out of the drier. She insists upon wearing it, nonetheless, with the wrinkles remaining.

     It’s clear that she feels the need to parent all those in Ollie’s house, her fish, herself, even her father, since her “other” father, Marcus (Toussaint Meghie), provides her with an entirely different vision of what a father should be. Totally responsible and highly skeptical of his former husband’s ability to even take care of himself, Marcus soon arrives to pick her up. It’s his day, apparently, to spend with Buffy.

     Alone, Ollie closes the blinds and lays down on the couch to watch a movie with Goldie Hawn (the fish). Again, he picks up a bottle of beer from the refrigerator, to be reminded that he can’t find the bottle opener. But in search of the opener he instead discovers a cockroach, which, terrified, he captures and throws outside, going on an amazing cleaning up process of the entire house, washing the dishes, scrubbing the tub, vacuuming, dusting, doing the clothes, and discovering under a coverlet laid over a bench his three bottle openers, obviously hidden there by Buffy in a private attempt to diminish his intake of alcohol.

      Disheartened by the realization that he has perhaps not been a good father, Ollie spots his daughter’s little plastic make-up kit and, unable to control himself, makes himself up as the drag queen (which we again discover later in the plot) he used to be. Marcus and Buffy return early to find him still prancing around in front of the mirror.

      Marcus orders Buffy to her room and challenges his ex with the question: “You still doing this shit?”

      Ollie responds, “You’re early.”

      “I told you I had that thing tonight”

      Marcus scolds him for possibly doing drag in front of his daughter. “Didn’t you see how uncomfortable it made her?” Ollie insists that any reaction she may have had is because she’s never seen it before. He hasn’t done it in years.

      But already we sense the child’s discomfort had more to do with Marcus’ immediate reaction than with her own probable amazement. And we wonder if these few short hours during the week are all that the apparent business man Marcus can devote to his daughter.

      Something has changed, however, as Buffy barely picks at her carry-in chicken wings, describing them as too spicy.

       Perhaps it’s time finally to show her some “pretty things.” He has only one red sequined dress and a wig left from his drag days, but he pulls it out to show it to her, explaining that he was once a drag queen.

       Buffy asks, “Do you wish you were a woman?

       He answers, “No. That’s something else. Some people are born in the wrong body. Like a boy that was born in a girl’s body or a girl that was born in a boy’s body. But drag queens dress up to perform. It’s pretend, like your magic spells. It’s fun to pretend, isn’t it? You know that, sometimes girls don’t like to wear dresses. That’s okay too.”

       “I like dresses,” Buffy interjects.

       “So do I.”

       When they discover Goldie Hawn dead, even Ollie finally breaks down into tears, realizing that he has perhaps failed his beloved daughter. Buffy attempts to bring her fish back to life, but fails and, practical being she is, flushes it down the toilet. Trying to bring her father out of his funk, she dabs on some of her makeup upon her face, trying to make him pretty again. This time she shows some curiosity about his past, asking “What was you lady name?

       “Ruby,” he replies, “Ruby Sangria.” For a moment he goes into his old campy routine, “Because I am sweet, intoxicating, and no stranger to having fruits inside me, if you know what I mean?”

       She does not know what he means.

       It’s time, Ollie determines to cheer things up, to show his daughter the power of drag. Rushing into the bathroom he shaves off his beard, puts on his makeup, and returns some time later, his pink fingernails opening the bathroom door to bring a total smile of joy upon his usually sullen daughter’s face.

       We never see the transformation, but we have learned by now a great deal not only about why Ollie and Marcus broke up, but why it’s sometimes better to have a far more imaginative and entertaining father than a busy if far more straight-thinking one.

        I can almost imagine Pedro Suárez’s short film expanded to be a longer play or even a series in the manner of Herb Gardner’s 1962 play and the later 1965 movie, A Thousand Clowns.

 

Los Angeles, April 21, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema (April 2024).