Rambling ‘Virtue’s’ Look at Virtual Reality Misses Its Mark

“Virtue� perversely manages to be imaginative but even more tedious and pretentious. Its maker, a young woman who calls herself, perhaps more appropriately than she intended, Camera Obscura, has hit upon a good idea to explore: the addictive aspect of computer technology and how it can be exploited for corporate or government control. Alas, she has chosen to tell her story mainly as a limp, rambling drag show, intercut with commentary from such cyberspace gurus as John Perry Barlow, the late Timothy Leary, William Gibson and R.U. Sirius.

Beneath a flourish of surreal effects lies a simple plot in this would-be dark comedy. A young woman, Hundee (Laura Milligan and, later, Connie Champagne) is so distraught over the autoerotic suicide of her husband that she begins a search for a computer program to replace him in a world of virtual reality. This takes her to a drag club, run by Trip (Phillip R. Ford), whose chip supplier is one Dr. Pluto (Timmy Spence). Be warned: Trip likes his fantasies “reality-based,� which means he enjoys footage on sex change operations and breast implants.

Popping in a series of chips in her virtual-reality goggles, Hundee zeros in on none other than Elvis Herselvis, the well-known female Presley impersonator. What Hundee is watching is a drag version of “Cinderella,� which casts her, as the viewer, in the title role and Elvis H. as the Handsome Prince with the glass slipper (only here it’s a combat boot.) Later on, San Francisco’s famous Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence stage one of their camp ritual orgies.

Obscura would actually seem to have lots on her mind about the world of technology, film and video history, cyberspace, Postmodernism, etc., but “Virtue� is so swiftly and lethally boring that her point that the pursuit of virtual reality inevitably becomes the pursuit of death gets lost along the way. “Virtue� is likely to connect only with the most dedicated cyberpunks.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: some X-rated-type moments and some nudity.

‘Virtue’

Laura Milligan and Connie Champagne: Hundee

Phillip R. Ford: Trip

Timmy Spence: Dr. Pluto

Miss X: As Herself

A Margin Films release. Writer-director Camera Obscura and others. Costumes Cricket Alexander, Held Over (San Francisco). Sound Steve Fisk, Clatter & Din (Seattle). Film editors Obscura, Phillip Lollar. Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes.

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