Having tackled the world of '70s glam rock with "Velvet Goldmine," Todd Haynes sets his ambitious sights on the vintage '50s melodramas of Douglas Sirk, whose stylistic imprint was very much in evidence in such classics of the genre as "Imitation of Life," "Magnificent Obsession" and "All That Heaven Allows." [...] rather than simply replicating the extravagant look of the originals, Haynes has rigged the narrative construction with incendiary themes that wouldn't have dared speak their names in the Hollywood of half a century ago -- namely the kinds of sexuality that break the boundaries of gender and race. In trying to do full-blown melodrama completely straight for contemporary audiences, Haynes isn't allowed to fall back on the excuse that all the mounting excess came out of a more "innocent" place in time.

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