2 Rudds & an Eisenberg: 3 Movie Reviews Wednesday, Apr 8 2009 

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In the past couple of weeks, PJ and I have had the opportunity to see three movies, I Love You, Man, Adventureland, and Role Models, but I haven’t had time to write reviews. So, I thought I’d quickly try to catch up.

I’ll start with my favorite of the three: Role Models, which stars Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as two men sentenced to community service work with children. Here’s the trailer:

Rudd plays Danny, who’s fed up with just about everything in his life. When his girlfriend dumps him rather than accept his marriage proposal, Danny goes off the deep end and causes an accident. The judge sentences him and his sidekick, Wheeler, played by Scott, to work at a big brothers kind of program for kids called Sturdy Wings. Danny is paired with a kid named Augie, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who loves Medieval fantasy role-playing, and Wheeler is assigned to Ronnie, played by Bobb’e J. Thompson, a precocious, potty-mouthed Black kid.

Of course these two men learn to grow up and take charge of their lives. It’s all very predictable, but I really enjoyed it. Rudd is excellent as the sad-sack prude, and Scott is great in the role of irresponsible playboy.

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Rachel Getting Married: A Review Sunday, Mar 22 2009 

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On Friday, PJ and I finally got to see Rachel Getting Married, which stars Anne Hathaway as Kym, a young woman just leaving rehab at the same time that her sister, Rachel, is getting married. Here’s the trailer:

Hathaway is such an endearing actress that her role as Kym is quite a departure for her — Kym is fairly unlikeable for much of the movie. Selfish, immature, and without appropriate boundaries, Kym is a total mess as she deals with her family during her sister’s wedding. We learn early on in the film that Kym has been a drug addict for most of her life and that her addiction had led to tragedy: she’s responsible for killing someone in an automobile accident while high. This tragedy — as well as Kym’s addiction — is something that her family doesn’t know how to deal with, making it all the more difficult for her to deal with it.

This lack of communication intermixed with recriminations, fighting, and emotional trauma makes Rachel Getting Married a relatively difficult film to watch. Some of the scenes go on forever, but very little happens in the way of plot: Kym comes home from rehab, gets into fights with all of her immediate family members, the rehearsal dinner takes place, and the next day Rachel gets married to Sidney, an African American musician. There’s also a car wreck and a woman-on-woman slapfest, but that’s about it.

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Watchmen: A Review Tuesday, Mar 17 2009 

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On Saturday, PJ and I went to see Watchmen with a couple of our friends. We’d been looking forward to seeing this movie since it was first announced. The graphic novel would seem almost unfilmable, so I was eager to see what Zack Snyder would do with it. Here’s the trailer:

Watchmen is based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It is set in an alternate universe in the 1980s, one in which Richard Nixon has used the Cold War to achieve reelection to the presidency several times. A group of citizens had donned costumes and begun to fight crime on their own, but eventually a law was passed to outlaw such vigilante activity, leaving these Watchmen little to do.

The movie starts with the assassination of The Comedian, one of the most controversial members of the Watchmen. Another member of the group, Rorschach, is convinced that someone is killing “masks” and tries to convince other members of the group to be on guard. All of their lives become increasingly complicated just as the world inches toward nuclear war. Only one member of the group, Dr. Manhattan, a scientist who’s molecular makeup had been transformed during an experiment, giving him god-like powers to manipulate time and space. The fate of the Watchmen and of the world seems to lie in his hands, but he is becoming increasingly detached from humanity.

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Chris and Don: A Love Story–A Review Sunday, Mar 1 2009 

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Yesterday, PJ and I watched the 2007 documentary Chris and Don: A Love Story, which is about the 30-year relationship between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy. Isherwood was, of course, a famous British writer who emigrated to the United States in 1939. Bachardy is an artist who specializes in portraits; his work is also familiar to anyone who follows queer art. It’s a great documentary.

Here’s the trailer:

As the trailer makes clear, the relationship between Isherwood and Bachardy began in controversy: the former was 30 years older than the latter. The age disparity in this relationship takes up a lot of the documentary’s time, but it’s not the only, or even the most, interesting part of this love story.

It is really interesting to hear about how Isherwood and Bachardy met. The latter was still a teenager, and Isherwood was already an important author who had started working for Hollywood films. It’s also interesting to see how beautiful Bachardy was as a teen — I can see why Isherwood was initially attracted to him. Here’s an early portrait of the couple:

Seeing an image like this and knowing that the two are lovers raises a lot of issues and questions in our culture. The film doesn’t shy away from these issues. But the really interesting part of this story is watching Bachardy narrate the rest of their lives together.

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Favorite Films of 2008 Wednesday, Feb 25 2009 

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I’ve been too busy lately to post, but in honor of the Oscars on Sunday I thought I would finally list my favorite movies of 2008. Some of them I’ve been able to write about already; others are only going to get a quick mention here. I wish I had more time to write all of the posts I want to write. Maybe once this quarter is over I’ll have more time.

My favorite movie of 2008 is Gus Van Sant’s Milk. I blogged about it previously. I love the politics of this movie and its call for the gay community to organize and fight for our rights. I also love Sean Penn’s performance especially. His Oscar for Best Actor was certainly well deserved.

My second favorite movie of 2008 is Les Chanson d’Amour. I love this movie and it’s quickly become one of my favorite films of all time. First off, I love musicals. Second, I love Louis Garrel. And finally, I love this movie’s queer plot. I blogged about it here.

Slumdog Millionaire is my third favorite film of the year. I love this movie’s love story and optimism that contrasts with the deplorable living conditions its characters find themselves in. Dev Patel is especially good as Jamal, the poor, uneducated slumdog who competes so well on a gameshow that he is accused of cheating. The romance is total fantasy, but I enjoyed the modern-day fairy tale element of the film. I would have voted for Milk for Best Picture and Director if I had had the chance, but I’m glad Slumdog Millionaire won. It’s a great, enjoyable movie. Here’s the trailer:

Number Four on my list is Brideshead Revisited, a movie that most people didn’t like. But I thought it did really well with Evelyn Waugh’s novel, which is a difficult one to adapt into a movie. I blogged about this movie as part of my summer movie round-up.

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Teaching E.M. Forster’s Maurice Sunday, Jan 18 2009 

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Last week, I taught E. M. Forster’s Maurice for the first time in several years. The last (and only other) time I taught it, I didn’t think it went very well. This time I taught it in my Major English Authors class, which is focusing on British Lesbian and Gay writers. I think it went pretty well.

Forster wrote Maurice in 1913/14, but it wasn’t published until after his death in 1970. The novel relates the story of Maurice, a suburban, middle class English boy (and later man) who comes to understand that he prefers men to women. The novel is impossibly romantic, but it provides an interesting glimpse of Forster’s ideas of the origins and experiences of homosexuality.

Maurice holds a special place in my life. It is literally the novel (and film adaptation) that helped me come out. I was “struggling” with my sexuality when I happened upon the movie version of the novel on one of the cable movie channels (my dad worked for a cable company, so we had all of the pay channels). The first time I stumbled across it, I only saw one scene, one in which Clive, played by Hugh Grant, and Maurice, played by James Wilby, lay on a bed together. Maybe my parents were around or something, but I quickly turned the channel. I then looked up what movie it was in the guidebook and found out when it was playing again. I often stayed up late at night after everyone else had gone to bed watching movies. Fortunately, Maurice was playing late one night a few days later. I found a copy of the novel and read it too (though I can’t remember if I read the novel before seeing the movie or vice versa.)

The first scene I saw is about 5:40 into this clip:

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HOTM: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Wednesday, Dec 31 2008 

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The hottie of the month for December is Georgiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire, the subject of Keira Knightley‘s latest film, which PJ and I saw earlier this month. Here’s the trailer:

Georgiana lived a colorful life. She married the duke just before she turned seventeen. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in the country at the time. Their marriage is probably most interesting due to the fact that Georgiana’s best friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster, was the duke’s mistress for some twenty years before the duchess’s death allowed them to marry. Furthermore, the basic set up of their marriage, an older man who marries a younger woman, was satirized in Richard Brinsley Sheridan‘s School for Scandal. And finally, just as her husband had a mistress, Georgiana had a lover, Charles Grey, by whom she bore a daughter, Eliza Courtney.

Georgiana was also famous for her beauty, which she put to political use campaigning for the Whigs. She was regularly features in the newspapers and satirical prints of the day. In addition to her beauty and politics, she was an infamous gambler. When she died, she was deeply in debt as a result of her gambling losses.

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Les Chansons d’Amour: A Review Thursday, Dec 18 2008 

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Last night, PJ and I rewatched Les Chansons d’Amour, a French film written and directed by Christophe Honoré and starring our favorite French actor, Louis Garrel. It premiered in the U.S. earlier this year, but we first watched it on dvd through Netflix. I liked it so much that I decided to buy it once the dvd became widely available. It’s a great film.

This quirky musical is ostensibly about ménage à trois between Ismaël, played by Garrel, his girlfriend Julie, played by Ludivine Sagnier, and his co-worker Alice, played by Clotilde Hesme. The film is divided into three acts. In Act 1, The Departure, the threesome, which, after a month of togetherness has begun to fall apart, is rocked by tragedy. Act 2, The Absence, looks at Ismaël’s attempts to deal with the absence of love in his life, but Act 3, The Return, presents him with an unexpected romantic opportunity in the form of Erwann, played by Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. Here’s the trailer:

This film is unlike just about any other film I’ve ever seen. First, the music isn’t glammed up. The songs are relatively simple, and the actors sing their parts without sounding like professional recording artists. I really liked the tentativeness this brought to many of their duets (and trios), a feeling that often reflected the emotions the characters are expressing in the words of the song. Second, the opening act’s action blends realism with non-realism. Some of the characters’ dialogue (especially that between the three lovers) is playful and self-consciously performative, by which I mean that the characters know they’re performing roles for one another and that in self-consciously performing the role they are simultaneously making those roles “real.” These moments, however, are also recognitions that the three lovers are falling apart. They are trying to substitute these performances for the “real,” something that may only temporarily work. And finally, this film blends comedy, romance, and tragedy in a very sophisticated way. I think it’s rare for a musical to really explore the death of a loved one and to show how that loss can devastate lovers, friends, and family. This one goes there.

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Milk: A Review Sunday, Dec 14 2008 

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While PJ and I were in NYC earlier this month, we took the opportunity to see Gus Van Sant‘s new movie, Milk, starring Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, and Diego Luna. Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk’s repeated attempts, and ultimate success, to become the first openly gay man to be elected to a major office in the U.S., San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, in 1977. Milk was also famous for having been assassinated by fellow supervisor Dan White in 1978.

Here’s the trailer:

There’s no reason to beat around the bush: I loved this movie. I’ll have to think about it a little more before definitely committing to this declaration, but it could very well be the best gay movie I’ve ever seen.

I have nothing but praise for this film. Let’s start with the film’s narrative device. It’s narrated by Milk, who tape records an overview of his life to be played if he is assassinated. I liked this device, since it helps to create a point of view and shapes our vision of Milk himself.

This device feeds into our appreciation of Penn’s performance, since it doubles his role — he’s both the present-tense narrator and the past-tense character. Penn is magnificent in this film. He’s already won an Oscar for Mystic River, which I didn’t really are for. (He should have won that year but for 21 Grams.) If there is any justice in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he’ll win his second Oscar for this role. His performance is transcendent. He beautifully captures Milk’s aspiration, energy, and humor. When he smiles as Milk, you can see why Milk succeeded in the ways he did.

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Documenting Jack Wrangler & Peter Berlin Saturday, Nov 29 2008 

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Last week, PJ and I watched two documentaries about 1970s gay porn stars: Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon and That Man: Peter Berlin. Both documentaries trace their subjects from childhood to success as gay icons to their more recent lives. I thought that they were both excellent and informative documentaries.

Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon looks at the life and career of Jack Wrangler, who became famous for embodying the butch, masculine gay role model that dominated the queer subculture of the 1970s. Here’s the trailer:

Born Jack Stillman in 1946, Wrangler became one of the most famous gay port stars of the decade. In the 1980s, he crossed over into straight porn and eventually became involved with Margaret Whiting, a cabaret singer. Despite his marriage to her, Wrangler continues to identify as a gay man, which makes this documentary, which is narrated by Wrangler himself, an interesting study of identity and sexuality during the last four decades.

That Man: Peter Berlin explores similar territory, in a way. Its subject is another icon of butch 1970s gay culture: German born Peter Berlin, who became a celebrity figure in San Francisco. Here’s a clip from it:

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