Little White Lies magazine

Bruce Weber likes to mix things up. Chop Suey, a 2001 movie re-released as part of Metrodome’s ongoing Weber love-in, testifies to this. Part-documentary, part photographic montage, it tells the stories of several contrasting characters dotting Weber’s universe. See a portrait of lesbian cabaret actress and singer Frances Faye using interviews with friends and family, including her partner, Teri Shepherd. Or a more intimate look at Peter Johnson, a model Weber discovered as a young wrestler. This being Weber, it isn’t even as straight forward as a double narrative. The movie starts with an anecdote about losing a contact sheet in the desert, switches to black-and-white images of Johnson at a wrestling try out, and on to footage of London Bridge at night set to a soundtrack of opera. And so it carries on.