1999 – Rogueslayer0's Blog

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with someone about gay films, I can’t remember who off the top of my head, but I was told I needed to watch Trick. The opportunity presented itself tonight and I figured, why not?

I quite enjoyed it, despite being a little confused. In short, a shy writer meets this gogo boy on the subway and decides to bring him home. They are unable to hook up, as his roommate and his best friend both get in the way, and they spend the evening trying to find a place to hook up.

It is set in NYC in the 90s, which I love. I really regret not being an adult in the 90s. I think I would have loved living in NYC. Gabriel, the main character, is played by Christian Campbell (Neve Campbell’s brother… though I think he could pass for Ryan Reynold’s brother,) and I really liked and related to the character. In the beginning, he is testing a song from a musical he wrote, and a friend questions how he can write about falling in love or the potential to do so if he hasn’t experienced it.

There are a series of misfortunes between him and the go-go dancer, Mark, and at several points in the film, both debate calling it a night and going to their respective homes. Though I enjoyed the film, I was a bit confused by the motives of the main characters. For instance, to me, it seemed very apparent from the beginning that all Mark and Gabriel wanted was sex, more so Mark than Gabriel. I could see Gabriel maybe hoping the hookup could turn into something more, but I didn’t see that with Mark.

After they are kicked out of Gabriel’s place, they try to figure out where they can go to mess around, and a guy walks by, and Mark starts checking him out. But later in the film, it seems Mark picked up Gabriel in hopes that this hook up would be different than the others, something more, which didn’t make sense based on what I thought of the character prior to that moment. Perhaps it is a bit nitpicky, but I couldn’t understand why either of them were so emotionally invested in a hook up that hadn’t even happened yet. Nonetheless, it was cute and sweet.

I’ve written about this film before, and I’m sure I’ll do it again. I can’t explain how or why I stumbled across the film or even the name Gia Carangi, but somehow I did. Back in the day (as in probably around 2010 or so), I’d find myself on Wikipedia clicking links within articles and start off one place and end somewhere totally different. Though, I’ve always had a strange obsession with drug addiction, so I’m not too surprised I found my way to this film. I imagine I watched it around the time I was binge watching seasons (not episodes… seasons) of Intervention on Netflix and Amazon Prime, back in the good ol’ days when they had them.

It stars Angelina Jolie as Gia (with Mila Kunis playing her as a child) and I was instantly in love. Basically, she is one of the first “supermodels” (as there are several models who claim to be the first). She wasn’t like other girls in the industry at the time, and she was bisexual (maybe exclusively lesbian), and was inspired by Bowe’s look, so she could give a masculine look, a feminine look, or a blend of them. Not to mention she was wild and crazy and would do things other models wouldn’t do.

Unfortunately, she fell into drugs. First coke, then heroin, and at first she wouldn’t shoot up, but eventually she started that and her career started to nosedive. After watching the first time, I started to do more research because I wanted to know more about Gia. The film makes it clear that the industry knew about her drug use, but they didn’t care. Some reports claim they would even supply her with coke and heroin and argue that she started (or perhaps helped bring in) the heroin chic look.

Several times she tried to get clean, but would end up relapsing, and then she ended up contracting AIDS. This was the mid-80s, so no one really knew what it was yet, and she died shortly after discovering she had it. She had since left the fashion world, so a lot of people she’d worked with didn’t even know she was dead until months later.

I just find it really sad. I obviously didn’t know her or anything about her, she died about a year and a half before I was born, but I… relate to her? (I don’t know if relate is the right word.) When I watch the film and I read about her, I get her loneliness and I can understand why and how one would want some escape from that. I think a part of me envies and maybe resents how everyone seemed to love her, yet she still felt so lonely. Another part of me sees it as a cautionary tale not to squander my gifts and talents, because one day it will all be over and I want something to show for it.

I was reading more about Angelina Jolie the other night, as I didn’t realize Gia was one of her breakout roles. I didn’t know it before reading it, but she’d had her own demons when it came to drugs and self harm, which may be part of why when I think of Gia, I think of Angelina.

I hate how the industry chewed her up and spat her out, I mean, I suppose one could argue the drug use did that, but the industry and constantly working and partying didn’t help. The film starts with Gia walking down this beautiful catwalk, there is some dance music playing and she is in this gorgeous white wedding dress. She works the catwalk and all the people love her. It is my favorite scene in the film, because it tells you so much, but you don’t realize it until the end of the film.

You see this same scene again towards the end of the film (and the end of her career and her life), but now you have a different perspective. The first time you see it, she is full of life and having so much fun. When you see it the second time, you realize she is high, and this scene extends to her crashing, then she goes back stage because she needs another fix. The thing I hate about this scene is one of the guys, I assume the designer, is clapping and telling her how great she is, and as soon as she is out of earshot, he starts saying how she is finished and she’ll never work again.

She goes in the bathroom to shoot up, and has this disgusting open wound on her hand that she shoots into ( I loved the juxtaposition of the red and the white, pure, wedding dress), and one of the girls from the line of models goes back to get her and help her to her feet. The girl that helps her, Stephanie, I think her name was, is a girl that Gia meets when she first started modeling, and they started partying together. I just thought it was a sweet moment that she didn’t turn her back on Gia like everyone else.

Once upon a time, I read, and now I can’t find where I read it, that upon learning she had AIDS, and knowing she was going to die, Gia took all the money she had and when to get one last score, essentially to overdose, and when she goes to her dealer, he must sense she is trying to OD, and he and his guys just rob her and rape her (the film tells this as well). I know it is a horrible thing to say, but I hope the man (or men) who raped her contracted the virus when he/they raped her.

It’s weird. I’ve watched a lot of shows about drug addiction and I’ve watched a lot of films about people who died before their time, but I can’t example why this one touches me in a different, more personal, way. Maybe she reminds me of someone I knew when I was growing up (I can think of one person in particular, and I never found out what ended up happening to her or if she turned her life around)? I probably sound like one of those crazy fans or something, but I feel a connection I can’t explain. Maybe we are kindred spirits? Who knows.