There is still something wonderfully queer about the Wachowski Brothers’ film Bound (1996) and the never-ending positive responses from members of the lesbian and gay community. This noir tale depicts the ‘horizontal collusion’ between Corkie, an overtly butch ex-con, and Violet who, as her name suggests, is a rather glamorous femme, and their plot to do away with Violet’s Mafia husband Cesear, and the mob’s money. Now what is so astonishing, so perverse, so ‘queer’ about this movie is that these lustful lesbians get away with it; it’s a happy ending - this is unheard of! Adding to my rapturous amazement is that there are no apologies for overt displays of lesbian sexuality, no guilt about one’s desires, no angst-ridden characters searching for that ever allusive cure. Yet the creative forces behind this progressive noir narrative aren’t butch-femme activists or semiotians, but instead are two straight married men, Larry and Andy Wachowski, and their leading players, Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, identify as heterosexual. Now that’s a little queer to me! *****/5
