Little Ashes: A Review Sunday, Feb 21 2010 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 11:57 am

Last night PJ and I watched Little Ashes, which stars Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltrán as Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca, respectively. The movie follows these men’s relationship from the time they meet at university in Madrid to Lorca’s assassination by the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Here’s the trailer:

My response to this movie was rather mixed. On the one hand, I’ll admit up front that I didn’t know much about either Dalí or Lorca before seeing this movie. While my ignorance made the film difficult to follow at times, it also meant that I learned something about these men, which I liked. On the other hand, the movie did little to help someone ignorant like me, which made the film unnecessarily difficult to admire or enjoy. I liked it, but I thought that it could have been a much better film.

Let’s start with the positive. Beltran is especially good in the role of Lorca, and in many ways the film is really about him. He reminds me of a young Antonio Banderas or Javier Bardem. What he brings to the role of Lorca is a great combination of sensitivity and masculinity. I really liked his ability to avoid depicting Lorca’s homosexuality as effeminacy. Too often, gays are simply depicted as mincing would-be women. Beltran’s Lorca is just a poet who happens to like men in general and Dali in particular. He’s very good in this role, and I hope someone like Pedro Almodovar casts him in a big movie soon.

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Inglourious Basterds:A Review Tuesday, Jan 19 2010 

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Over the weekend, I finally saw Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Inglourious Basterds, a World War II fantasy in which a group of Jewish American soldiers infiltrate Europe and go on a Nazi killing spree as a means of instilling fear in the minds of German soldiers. While on this mission, the team gets the chance to take out the German high command, including Hitler, who are all attending the premiere of a German film valorizing the exploits of a German soldier.

Here’s the trailer:

Some of Quentin Tarantino’s films, such as Kill Bill, Death Proof, and Pulp Fiction, are among my favorite movies. But my response to this movie is rather complicated, and I ultimately have to say that I didn’t enjoy it like I had hoped (and thought) I would.

I’m ok with the fantasy of killing Nazis, but I had a problem with the films combination of humor with the typical gruesomeness of Tarantino’s violence. Brad Pitt’s scenes are all great — and mostly hilarious. But some of the other humor just doesn’t work for me. I can’t get past the fact that this is WWII and the Holocaust. It’s not particularly funny and doesn’t seem appropriate to try to make it so.

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The Hurt Locker: A Review Monday, Jan 18 2010 

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PJ and I recently saw The Hurt Locker, a movie about a bomb squad in Iraq. Kathryn Bigelow directed this script by Mark Boal, who was a war correspondent in Iraq during the war. The movie is informed by his observations while there. Here’s the trailer:

I’m surprised by my reaction to this movie: I really liked it. I wanted to see it since it’s an Oscar contender, but I wasn’t terribly excited about it. Until I watched it. Now I think it’s one of the best films of 2009. Thrilling, suspenseful, and insightful, it’s well-directed, well written, and well acted.

The movie begins with a scene in which the bomb squad is trying to detonate an improvised explosive device. This scene is completely riveting and suspenseful. One of the things we learn from this scene is that things can go wrong quickly on the streets of Iraq, and the surviving characters have to come to terms with the death of a comrade.

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Up in the Air: A Review Wednesday, Jan 13 2010 

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This weekend, PJ and I saw George Clooney‘s new movie, Up in the Air, which is about a guy named Ryan Bingham, whose job is to travel around the country firing people. Here’s the trailer:

As the trailer suggests, Ryan loves the mostly impersonal world of air travel, in which services are rendered in a friendly but non-invasive way. In fact, he’s developed a self-help lecture based on the principle that one’s entire life should fit into a backpack.

The main conflict in the movie revolves around a threat to Ryan’s way of life: he is closing in on 10 million frequent flier miles when he finds out that his boss, played by Jason Bateman, has decided to follow a new business model proposed by the new kid on the block, Natalie, played by Anna Kendrick. She’s proposed that the company fire people via the internet instead of in person, saving lots of money and upping the number of firings each representative can handle in a day. Ryan therefore has to figure out a way to convince his boss that her proposal is wrong before he’s grounded permanently. To make this point, Ryan takes Natalie out with him on a trip, which changes both of their perspectives on life in various ways.

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Precious: A Review Monday, Jan 11 2010 

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Last weekend, PJ and I saw Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. I was more than a little hesitant to see this movie, because the trailer makes it clear that it’s about a teenager who is physically, verbally, and sexually abused. But it’s a major Oscar contender, so I had to see it. I’m glad I did; it’s definitely one of the best movies of the year.

Here’s the trailer:

The first thing I have to say is that this is one of the stupidest official titles ever. Did Sapphire require the producers to include the subtitle? Why not just require them to call it Push? As is, it just seem clunky and arrogant, whether the latter is true or not. Do they really expect people to say the whole title if it wins Academy Awards? If I were an Academy member I would be tempted not to vote for it just for the title alone, which would be unfortunate, since it deserves several nominations and at least some wins.

Precious is about the eponymous character, who is sixteen and pregnant with her second child. We quickly learn that she has been raped by her father, her mother’s boyfriend. She lives with her mother, who lives off Precious’s welfare checks, and generally makes Precious’s life miserable. Precious waits on her mother hand and foot, mostly out of fear that her mother will turn abusive without any notice.

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My Favorite Gay Movies of the Decade Tuesday, Jan 5 2010 

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I’ve already listed my favorite films of the past decade. Many of those films were gay themed, which started me thinking about the gay movies PJ and I have watched over the past ten years. Once I started thinking about it, it turned out to be a lot — without much effort I identified some 75 gay movies and documentaries from the past decade that I’ve seen. Since I regularly teach GLBT lit, it seems worthwhile to record my favorite gay films of the past decade.

To make it a little easier, I thought that I would identify my favorite gay film of the decade and then  a) list the other   films I most like alphabetically rather than try to rank them and b) separate them into two categories: features and documentaries. This blog will just be about the features. Not all of these are “great” movies. They are just the 25 (plus several tied for #26) gay films that I most enjoy, starting with my favorite:

Shortbus (2006)

My favorite gay film of the past decade is John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus. This movie is gay-affirming, sexy, sexually graphic, and just plain fun. What more could you want in a movie?! I originally blooged about Shortbus here.

Here’s the trailer:

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My Favorite Movies of the Decade Monday, Dec 28 2009 

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Everywhere I turn, it seems that I’m reading someone’s list of the best movies or songs or albums (etc) of the decade. So, I thought that I would join in on the fun starting with my favorite movies of the past decade.

Overall, I’d say the 2000s have been a good decade for films. While there are lots of great movies to choose from, my list is of my twenty twenty-five favorite movies. I’m not necessarily saying that they’re the best; they’re the ones I’ve enjoyed most in the past ten years. Usually they’re the ones I want to see again (and again). I’ll start with number one and work my way down the list. The top ten are more or less in order; after that, it’s less specifically in order.

1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2003, 2004)

My favorite movie of the past decade is Quentin Tarantino’s epic revenge thriller, which I’m treating as one movie even though it’s divided into two as a release. I love everything about this movie: the direction, Uma Thurman, the fights, the unbelievable soundtrack. Everything. This is the movie that, if I see it on TV, I can’t help but sit down and watch it.

Elle Driver is, of course, my favorite of the “bad guys:”

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Avatar: A Review Saturday, Dec 26 2009 

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Last Saturday, PJ and I saw James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar. We both really liked it, which was surprising, since PJ dislikes 3D movies and I tend to be mostly indifferent towards sci-fi movies that aren’t Star Wars. Here’s the trailer:

Avatar stars Sam Worthington, who plays Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine who gets the chance to participate in a special mission on Pandora, a moon on which a precious metal (unobtainium) has been discovered. The marines are there to “relocate” the indigenous population, the Na’vi. Sully’s special mission is to participate in a scientific enterprise in which humans virtually inhabit avatar bodies that are crossed between the humans’ and the Na’vis’ appearances. The scientists want to learn more about the Na’vi; the military wants them to help in the relocation efforts. Soon Jake  must choose between his mission and the Na’vi people he has come to love.

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A Single Man: A Review Thursday, Dec 24 2009 

movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 11:44 am

While in New York last week, PJ and I saw A Single Man, which stars Colin Firth as an English professor, George, who is deciding what to do with his life now that his partner of 16 years, Jim, played by Matthew Goode, has died suddenly in a car accident. Set in 1962 Los Angeles, we follow George as he goes through the day putting his affairs in order; having decided that life is meaningless without Jim, he is going to kill himself at the end of the day.

Here’s the trailer:

A Single Man is a kind of gayer version of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Like that novel, this film, based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, allows us to not only follow the lead character as he prepares for a big event but also allows that character to reflect on life and its meaning. The narrative jumps back and forth between George’s depressed present alone and joyous past with Jim.

While George understandably feels alone, we see that there are at least three other options out there for him. While buying alcohol for a dinner party with his best friend, George meets a male escort, who sees George as a lonely guy who obviously needs his company. I really like what Tom Ford, the director and co-writer, did with this scene. It could have been incredibly clichéd and stereotypical; instead, it’s a beautiful moment of almost connecting.

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The Man You Had in Mind: A Review Monday, Dec 14 2009 

documentary and movies and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 6:58 pm

Last night, PJ and I watched a documentary called The Man You Had in Mind, which tells the stories of five gay couples from the Portland, OR, area who have been together for varying lengths of time: one year, seven years, ten years, fifteen years, and fifty years. Here’s the only trailer I could find on YouTube:

I really like the idea of this documentary. There at least seem to be so few records of queer lives and relationships that any addition is more than welcome. And this documentary’s focus on what gay male relationships are like in the age of fighting for marriage equality is both interesting and timely.

In particular, I think the filmmakers have chosen their couples well. To some degree, I’m sure they were selected with some degree of randomness — whoever was willing to participate, for example. But the range of couples is really good. There is the range in the length of their relationships, for example. But there is also clearly a range in socio-economic backgrounds, in religious backgrounds, and in experiences. Some of these men have children from previous marriages; it’s interesting to see how they accommodate this into their same-sex relationships.

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