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Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer
May 5th, 2001

Norman Korpi and Clint Cowen’s sly and funny “The Wedding Video,” which screens tonight at 7:30 at the Egyptian as an American Cinematheque Alternative Screen offering, reunites Korpi with other former colleagues from MTV’s “Real World.” It gleefully reveals the discrepancies between the un-edited footage shot by an unseen videographer—and relentless interviewer—for a wedding video and the polished final product.

(Deletions include a couple of wedding counselors squirming out of a gig when they discover the wedding couple is gay.) There’s a lot of edgy, less-than-flattering behavior on the part of pals who’ve gathered for their friends’ wedding that winds up on the cutting room floor.

Korpi plays a likable, pleasant-looking young man who wants to tie the knot in a formal ceremony with his spectacularly handsome and muscular lover Sky (Brien Perry), whom he does not know is a porn star, although everyone else seems to. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll seem the order of the day as the friends gather to party and pitch in to help prepare for the wedding. (Eerily, this movie was shot at the Benedict Canyon estate where actor Anthony Dwain Lee, having allegedly brandished a fake gun, was shot dead by a policeman called there to investigate a complaint about a loud party held last Halloween.)

Playing with “The Wedding Video” is Tom Schroeder’s rueful “Bike Ride,” which relates in sex minutes of minimalist white-on-black animated images an arduous but fuels journey in pursuit of true love. Lloyd E. Rigger Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 466-FILM.