POISON (1992)

Video allows viewers access to films they might otherwise have been potentially embarrassed by in theaters. A case in point is Todd Haynes' Poison, a low-budget film with graphic sexual -- specifically homosexual -- content that came under fire last year for being supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (the endowment contributed $25,000 toward postproduction). Now viewers at home can make up their own minds by watching the unexpurgated NC-17 edition, an R version (with a toned-down prison-rape scene and minus a scene of male frontal nudity), and an unrated one (missing merely the frontal nudity). Sadly, the three clumsily interweaving stories -- the disappearance of a 7-year-old boy who has murdered his father, a scientist's failed experiment that leaves him with an AIDS-like disease, and a thwarted love story set in reform school and prison -- lack real energy. The shape, rhythm, and visual style of Haynes' work belong to parody, which wears very thin after 85 minutes.

You Might Also Like

• Movie Review Poison (1991) | Owen Gleiberman
• Video News RATE IT EXCISED | Doug Brod
• The Q&A Todd Haynes on Dylan film | Allyssa Lee
• All About Todd Haynes