Not-So-Gay Cinema
I don't own a lot of gay movies. However, I'd like to share with you 5 of my favorite gay-themed movies that I do own. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with non-mainstream gay movies, and by "mainstream" I mean movies like The Bird Cage, To Wong Foo..., Philadelphia, non-mainstream refers to the ones that most straight people would never even know about (much less go watch) if there wasn't some "name" attached to the lead(s).However, in the real world, the majority of gay films fall into 4 categories:
1. Wacky, yet loveable drag queens who steal our hearts with their catchy, retro music and over-the-top fashions.
2. Someone overcoming (or succumbing to) AIDS
3. "Coming of Age" premises with some completely-unbelievable love object. Yeah, my high school was just swarming with "closeted" pectacular hunks just waiting to unleash their unbridled homo lust. NOT! Whatever.
4. The non-threatening gay underdog who is so average that straight people can't help but be won over by his Everyman charm.
5. The gay character who's fighting for his/her rights against all odds. Think Rocky with a lisp. Inspiring! Whatever. Life's not fair, get over it.
I've been trying to think of a way to convey what I like/dislike about gay movies, but it all comes out sounding like an "all-or-nothing" situation, but it's not that black and white. Let's just say I'm hard to please when it comes to gay movies. As you know, I like the beefcake as much as the next homo, but it doesn't take precedent over stuff like plot/characters. I know people who will rent anything (re: gay-themed movies) just because there is a "hot" guy on the cover. Whatever. Whenever the film companies market the OUTSIDES like that it's because what's on the INSIDE is sub par and they're banking on the shallowness of homos. And not-surprisingly, it works. Doi! I like the gay movies based on true stories. They ALL have unhappy endings, just like in real life! Some favorites include: Swoon, Soldier's Girl and Heavenly Creatures, just to name a few.
Rites of Passage © 1999Synopsis: When lawyer DJ Farraday discovers his father has been having an affair, the two drive out to the remote family cabin to talk things over. What neither expects is that DJ's estranged gay brother Campbell will already be there, apparently planning a weekend retreat with his boyfriend. But father and sons are forced to put aside their grievances when two escaped convicts show up and put everyone's lives in danger.
Comments: I was initially drawn to this movie because of the dark, thriller-style quality. You rarely see a good thriller with gay characters (Apartment Zero being one of the exceptions), so when I saw the trailer for this one, I thought "alright!" I liked it a lot. I didn't quite buy the whole "My son is a hunk" thing, but like I mentioned before, that's how the cookie crumbles. Besides, even though Jason Behr (Roswell) was obviously cast to be the movie's eyecandy, I thought Robert Glen Keith was 10x hotter than he ever was. So there! Nyah!
The Sum of Us © 1994Synopsis: An Aussie story about a father and a son both searching for love and sharing an unconventional bond. Harry, the father, is the caring and open-minded "mate" that borders on annoyance. His son Jeff unsucessfully searches for love, with the un-wanted guidance of his father.
Comments: I fell in love with this movie the first time I ever saw it. I ended up buying the VHS, the DVD and the play it was based on. It stars Russell Crowe (pre-ego inflation) and I'd have to say is my favorite gay movie. It's realistic (sans the gung-ho "My son's a big homo and I LOVE it!"-mentality of the father overkill), funny and honest. A must-see.
Big Eden © 2000Synopsis: This is the story of Henry Hart, a successful New York Artist, who returns to the town of his childhood to care for the ailing grandfather who raised him. Back in Big Eden, Henry must come to terms with his relationship to Dean Stewart, his best friend from high School, as well as the object of his unrequited love.
Comments: First off, lemme preface this by saying I think Arye Gross is just that: gross. God, he couldn't be less appealing if he tried. BUT, I commend him for doing such a great job in this movie. I really, really loved it. There was enough realism that the parts that were unrealistic didn't bother me that much. I'd much rather see this kind of gay movie than the typical fodder that keeps coming off the assembly line. One reviewer at IMDB put it best when they said: "Perfect Recipe: Just enough heartfelt sweetness, and no "FABulousness"!! A film in which gay men were represented in all shapes and sizes, where they actually were OVER the age of 30, and where they were just regular guys! No drag queens, no fey lispy men snapping their fingers saying "you go, girl," no circuit boys and their designer drugs, no latest club hit from Cher, no stereotypes played for laughs." EXACTLY.
When I say I loved the movie, I really mean 99% of the movie because it did this weird thing at the end that I HATE when movies do: It kept going after the point where it should have stopped. Personally, I thought it should have stopped at the general store scene in the next-to-last chapter of the DVD. However, it just had to go on to do a totally-unnecessary kissing scene at the local jamboree. Oy. It really seemed tacked on, as if to show the audience to what extent Arye Gross was willing to get the role. Yeah, we get it, they're in love.
Love is the Devil © 1998Synopsis: In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, 30 years Bacon's junior, accepts. Bacon finds Dyer's amorality and innocence attractive, introducing him to his Soho pals. In their sex life, Dyer dominates, Bacon is the masochist. Dyer's bouts with depression, his drinking and pill popping, and his satanic nightmares strain the relationship, as does his pain with Bacon's casual infidelities. Bacon paints, talks with wit, and, as Dyer spins out of control, begins to find him tiresome.
Comments: This is one fucked-up movie. And I love it. If you're remotely familiar with artist Francis Bacon's paintings, then you can only imagine what this movie is gonna look like. Dark, gritty, surreal, disturbing. If you're looking for a happy, shiny gay movie, keep looking. Hard-to-find, but recommended.
Happy, Texas © 1999Synopsis: Two escaped convicts arrive in the town of Happy, Texas, where they are mistaken for a gay couple who is to host the town's Little Miss Fresh Squeezed beauty pageant. Enjoying the celebrity and using their skill as con-men, the two adopt their persona to take on the task.
Comments: I love the two leads in this movie: Jeremy Northam and Steve Zahn. I also really love Illeana Douglas, so renting this movie (and subsequently buying) was a no-brainer. In a word: Hilarious! Yeah, it's got a lot of the typical gay stereotypes, but there are also a few surprises. Any way you cut it, I guarantee it will crack you UP. Funny, original comedy.
posted by Kirkkitsch @ 6:00 AM
8 Comments:
The only movie I saw of this list was "Happy Texas" and I loved it as well! So funny, and even sexy.
I would ad two gay movies to the list of best ever: "Bound", very classy and sexy, and "The Kiss of the Spiderwoman" with William Hurt and Sonia Braga. It's so moving and beautiful.
Mariana-
I totally forgot about Bound. I saw that about a year ago, for the first time, and I loved it too. It was very Neo Noire. I had initially avoided it because it was every straight man's wet dream that came into the video store where I worked, so I assumed if they liked it it was probably just because there was some "hot girl-on-girl action." I'm still convinced that's why they liked it, but I also liked it too, but for its' own merits.
And Kiss of the Spiderwoman, I've never finished. I remember seeing bits and pieces of it AGES ago on cable and thinking how good Raul Julia was (I thought he was so HOT as Gomez Addams). I'll have to check it out and watch the entire thing. From what I saw, it looks great!
Though I could only blog about a small handful of favorites, some others include: Beautiful Thing, Tea & Sympathy, Torch Song Trilogy, Red Dirt, Bent, But, I'm a Cheerleader, The Children's Hour, Girls Will Be Girls and Rope, just to name a few. ;)
Oh, and just one more thing I forgot to tell you: you said you were shocked to find that your posts were all centered and in small letters. Although you since have fixed the problem, in your comments that's how they still appear.
This is a good thread, Kirkkitsch. There is a movie that I rarely ever hear about anymore, called "Hustler White".
Has anyone seen that? It's from the late 90's, and the DVD edition came out last year, I think. Definitely doesn't fit into any of the normal categories. It follows the lives of Hollywood hustlers, and gets wrapped up in this bizarre world of murder & fetish.
It's a classic, with some scenes I can't even talk about since I'm at work ;) Anyone seen it?
I totally agree with you about "gay" movies and how their plots are usually ludicrous and totally unbelieveable.
However, I gotta say I didn't care for "Big Eden"... because it was totally unbelieveable. A whole town rooting for the shy homo-guy? Not a single homophobe in sight? Heh.
And "Rites" is on my netflix queue.
And there's always the classic "The Boys in the Band." I saw it when it first came out, uh, back in the '70s, I guess. It was filmed just like the stage play with the action taking place in one apartment, with an added intro.
I loved Swoon, the tragic love aspect of the murders and the dream sequence way it was presented still moves me. Heavenly Creatures had the same dreamy shared world aspect to it. I loved Bound because of the hot girl on girl action and the way they talked about being pieces of each other. I simply loved Soldier's Girl. It had just a touch of the hot and then ended with the pain and the painful. One of my favorites was always the movie Fire because it was such a movie about age and love and identity while also being an investigation into a different culture's view of lesbians. Of course I also adored Go Fish (I think that is required if you've ever kissed a girl) specifically for the wedding dress scene and the narration in the background.
I think the thing one always has to remember with all movies, whether they are gay or not is that when one sets out to create a story they want to represent a story they can relate to personally. So while I agree with you on the most part on gay movies, I think mostly people just want a little fairy tale in their lives.
Nathan-
I've never seen Hustler White, nor heard of it. Apparently neither has IMDB, 'cause when I tried to find it there, nothing. However, when I looked it up on Amazon, there it was. Weird. Judging from the reviews by other people on Amazon, it doesn't fit into any categories, but sounds like exploitation stuff to me. If you dig that kinda stuff, then you definitely need to see 1976's Salo. Fucked up. Seriously fucked up.
Dennis!-
I understand what you mean about Big Eden. I think Ebert or Roeper said something similar (re: an entire town filled with gay-friendly townfolk). That was one of the things I was referring to when I said "There was enough realism that the parts that were unrealistic didn't bother me that much." I could totally buy Gross' character pining after the idea of someone (his old friend from school who just "happened" to be pecalicious and abtacular....yeah, right) and some of the other parts, but I know what you mean. I guess I just found it refreshing that there wasn't a single dance single in the entire movie, that the town wasn't infested with humble hunks and that there wasn't hot 'n steamy sexual encounters waiting around every corner. It's definitely a fairy tale, but like girlzoot mentioned, sometimes even I like a little fairy tale from time to time (no pun intended).
Cool! (re: Rites on your Netflix queue). Let me know if you like it or not. I liked it because it took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on. No easy task when you've seen as many thrillers as I have. ;)
Shelly-
I finally got around to renting that (re: The Boys in the Band) back in the mid 90's. I read the book first, and likes it, so I was interested to see what the movie would be like. I enjoyed it, mainyl because it was a 70's movie with a gay theme, but I have to admit that more than a few of the characters were just waaaaaay too sassy for my tastes. I mean, I know they exist, but watching them just screams "stereotype" to me and ends up distracting me from the movie.
Girlzoot-
I've never seen Go Fish, but a friend of mine swears my Kissing Jessica Stein. I need to check those out. To be honest, I haven't seen that many movies with lesbians as the central characters (i.e. Desert Hearts), though I've seen plenty of movies with lesbians in the ensemble cast (Chantilly Lace, But, I'm a Cheerleader, Foxfire, etc.). I guess, like anything, it's whether or not the premise interests me.
Thanks for the heads up on Go Fish and Fire. I love "Bollywood"-type stuff!
Also, I agree with you on the fairy tale part. I too think that movies are an escape for a lot of people, which is great. Like I always say "If I wanted to see real, I'd rent a documentary." And that's why I think I don't like a lot of gay movies because, whether I like it or not, there is a lot of aspects to them that are real. For instance, gay movies that work my nerves:
• Trick
• Lie Down With Dogs
• Jeffrey
• Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
...and that's just a few of them! Lol!
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it! :)
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