Archive for the ‘Gay & Lesbian’ Category
Filed under: Documentary, Gay & Lesbian, Fandom
Klaus Nomi was a prominent figure in the New Wave scene of the ’80s in New York City, not only for his gorgeous counter tenor that made pop and punk songs into opera but also for his iconic look and stage presence. Watching the documentary The Nomi Song, I can only wish I was around when he was performing, perhaps in the same clubs I went to many years after his death. With campy futuristic stage performances and an iconic look that was a mix between a space alien, a Kabuki performer, and the robot from Metropolis, he was the one shocking the seemingly unshockable downtown punk crowds.
This doc about his short career and early death from a mysterious disease we now know is AIDs has fantastic footage of him performing live, shots of the East Village as it was then and now, and, of course, tales from his friends (including the fabulous Ann Magnuson), and a giant Klaus Nomi robot. It weirdly, touchingly, fittingly illustrates the life and lonely death of an outsider among outsiders, a purposely enigmatic man whose music and performances touched many, and still does to this today. It’s also a fascinating time capsule of the underground music and performance art world of New York, back when, you know, artists could actually scrape together a living making art.
You can watch this unique documentary over at SnagFilms for free. The beautiful tribute to Klaus Nomi by Meredith Yayanos over at Coilhouse (which you should bookmark immediately, and also go buy their gorgeous, keep-them-forever magazines) is absolutely worth a read. I’ve embedded the video for “Lightning Strikes” after the jump.
Have you seen The Nomi Song? Let me know what you think of it in the comments.
Filed under: Action, Gay & Lesbian, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
It all started with Robert Downey Jr.’s quips to David Letterman. EW had the transcript, which I’ll post in full so we have the proper context:
Letterman: “Now, from what I recall, there was always the suggestion that there was a different level of relationship between Sherlock and Dr. Watson.”
Downey: “You mean that they were homos …”
Letterman: [Laughs.] “Well …”
Downey: “That is what you’re saying?”
Letterman: “In a manner of speaking, yes … that they were closer than just out solving crimes. It’s sort of touched on in the film, but he has a fiancée, so we’re not certain. Is that right?”
Downey: “She could be a beard. Who knows?”
Paul Shaffer: “What are they, complete screamers? Is that what you’re saying?”
Downey: “Why don’t we observe the clip and let the audience decide if he just happens to be a very butch homosexual. Which there are many. And I’m proud to know certain of them.”
Total Film apparently caught up with Andrea Plunket, who holds the stateside rights to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brainy deducer. Those quotes didn’t sit well with her, nor did she take them in the spirit in which they were probably intended.
Follow the clues below the jump
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Lists, Best/Worst, Cinematical Indie
“I know it when I see it.”–U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, in reference to the definition of obscenity, 1964.
The past decade has seen an explosion in the number of films proudly identified — either by the filmmakers themselves, marketing campaigns, or members of the press — as “independent.” But what makes an “independent” film independent, anyway? Is it the source of financing or is it the artistry? Or is it a combination of elements?
I’ve wrestled with this question for weeks, through at least one blown deadline, and keep coming back to Justice Stewart’s definition: “I know it when I see it.” Not that I’m an expert; in fact, one of the greatest frustrations of the past ten years has been the difficulty I’ve had in keeping up with all the films whose independence is defined by their artistry — the closest to a definition that I can come. Over the decade I’ve worked in various capacities with several different film festivals and I’ve also covered a number of festivals as a working member of the press. So I’ve had the opportunity to see hundreds of indie films. And it’s still not enough.
Setting aside all the decade’s great documentaries, ably covered by Christopher Campbell, and all the wondrous foreign-language films, well captured by Jeffrey M. Anderson, we’re left with thousands of English-language indies. (Sundance says they had 1,058 (?!) feature-length submissions for their dramatic competition this year.) Obviously, the biggest challenge is to see a reasonable amount of films. And unless you’ve been lucky enough to spend all your time watching movies, and traveling to a multitude of film festivals and markets, you only see a tiny percentage of what’s been made.
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, The Weinstein Co.
A Single Man is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, which is written as the internal monologue of a man who has made up his mind to commit suicide. If you know this, the first few minutes of the movie are a bit unnerving. Colin Firth, playing the title character — a handsome, low-key college professor named George — narrates the opening scenes by essentially reading lengthy passages from the book: the laziest possible approach to a challenging adaptation. There’s little that does more to try my patience than this sort of extended “literary” voiceover. Not to be melodramatic, but in its worst incarnations, it’s an affront to cinema. At the very least it misses the point.
Within a few minutes, though, first-time director Tom Ford finds his groove. Ford is a fashion designer by trade, a fact to which early reviewers have done their darnedest to ascribe significance — a bit of a contrived exercise, it seems to me, since one certainly could not guess his prior occupation just from watching the film. In fact, despite the shaky start, Ford finds an elegant, striking way of bringing this material to the screen. Much of A Single Man is an elegiac tone poem, rendered haunting by Ford’s beautifully composed images, and propelled by a gorgeous, somewhat Philip Glass-like musical score by little-known Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski. If you want a reference point, I’d name The Hours, which may send some readers screaming from the room — but Ford’s film has the same sort of nimble flow and sorrowful beauty.
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Casting, Newsstand
The upcoming The Danish Girl is one of those independent, edgy films that has all the right elements for something brilliant, but it’s subject matter is so tricky that it could end up becoming a farce. Based on David Ebershoff’s novel, The Danish Girl is the story of the world’s first post-operative transsexual, Einar Wegener, and his wife, Greta. Tomas Alfredson is set to direct, Nicole Kidman has long been attached to play Einar, and Variety reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has stepped in to play Greta. She’s stepping in for Charlize Theron, who originally held the role, but has dropped out for unspecified reasons.
The story takes place in 1920s Denmark. Greta* was a portrait painter, and needed a model. She asked Einar to step into a dress, stockings, and heels, and created some kind of awakening in Einar. In women’s clothes, her husband became an outrageous character named Lili. The paintings of Lili became extremely popular, few realizing a man had stood in for them. Lili than took on a public life of her own, and Greta often introduced Lili as her sister. Eventually, Einar / Lili decided to commit to gender reassignment surgery, a dangerous and experimental procedure at the time. Greta stood beside her husband until his transformation was complete, and then their marriage was declared null and void by the King of Denmark.
Continue reading Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in ‘The Danish Girl’
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Casting, Newsstand
The upcoming The Danish Girl is one of those independent, edgy films that has all the right elements for something brilliant, but it’s subject matter is so tricky that it could end up becoming a farce. Based on David Ebershoff’s novel, The Danish Girl is the story of the world’s first post-operative transsexual, Einar Wegener, and his wife, Greta. Tomas Alfredson is set to direct, Nicole Kidman has long been attached to play Einar, and Variety reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has stepped in to play Greta. She’s stepping in for Charlize Theron, who originally held the role, but has dropped out for unspecified reasons.
The story takes place in 1920s Denmark. Greta* was a portrait painter, and needed a model. She asked Einar to step into a dress, stockings, and heels, and created some kind of awakening in Einar. In women’s clothes, her husband became an outrageous character named Lili. The paintings of Lili became extremely popular, few realizing a man had stood in for them. Lili than took on a public life of her own, and Greta often introduced Lili as her sister. Eventually, Einar / Lili decided to commit to gender reassignment surgery, a dangerous and experimental procedure at the time. Greta stood beside her husband until his transformation was complete, and then their marriage was declared null and void by the King of Denmark.
Continue reading Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in ‘The Danish Girl’
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Cinematical Seven, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Lists
We love it when our heroes fall for the suspicious types: the wolves in sheep’s clothing, the dangerous femme fatales. It happens often in film noir and a heckuva lot in comics, and provides some of the best last-act twists and turns as our hearts palpitate along with those of our protagonists… up until the bitter end. Can’t that evil love interest turn out to have a heart of gold, so we can all have a happily ever after? Sometimes, yes. Most of the time, no.
What is it about these doomed romances that we love so much? Perhaps it’s the futility of it all; you can’t have your cake and eat it when you’re a superhero or a (wo)man on a mission to right wrongs, even if you’d rather be kissing that beguiling bad guy than fighting them, arresting them, or foiling their evil plans. Turning down a chance at love is the ultimate sacrifice for a hero or heroine to make — it proves their commitment to the side of good. Hence, loving a villain makes a hero even more heroic. How tragic!
In what will surely spur controversy, I’ve whittled my favorite villain-hero romances down to the seven best pairings in cinema. No, Phantom of the Opera didn’t make it. That would have been too easy. Instead, find odd couples, would-be perfect pairs, star-crossed lovers, and yes, the world’s most legendary bromance after the jump.
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Best Villain-Hero Romances
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Foreign Language, Gay & Lesbian, Box Office, Box Office Predictions
Things went wild this past weekend as Where the Wild Things Are took top honors. The action flick Law Abiding Citizen also premiered well and Paranormal Activity continues to astound, taking third place while only playing in 760 theaters. Here’s the top five:
1. Where the Wild Things Are: $32.7 million
2. Law Abiding Citizen: $21 million
3. Paranormal Activity: $19.6 million
4. Couples Retreat: $17.2 million
5. The Stepfather: $11.6 million
Four new releases this week, three of which will be putting the Halloween spirit into people.
Amelia
What’s It All About: Hilary Swank and Richard Gere star in this biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart who disappeared during an attempt to fly around the world.
Why It Might Do Well: A historical drama is a pretty good counter programmer to all the horror and fantasy movies currently in release.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Right now we’re looking at 17% at Rottentomatoes.com.
Number of Theaters: 800
Prediction: $6 million
Astro Boy
What’s It All About: Adaptation of the classic anime (that itself takes a page from Pinocchio) about a robot boy with incredible powers.
Why It Might Do Well: 73% at Rottentomatoes.com ain’t too shabby.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Will this character that originated in the 1950s translate well in the twenty-first century?
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $16 million
Filed under: Classics, Gay & Lesbian, MGM, Fandom, Family Films, Newsstand
This year marks the 70th anniversary (and a rerelease) of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, which is really quite startling. It’s one of those films that’s absolutely timeless, and it’s so ingrained in each one of our childhood memories that it seems like it was made for our childhoods. If that sounds mawkish, I apologize. To be honest, Oz isn’t even one of my favorite movies today, but it rocked my world when I was small, most memorably during its 50th Anniversary in 1989. I know that isn’t the first time I saw the film, but I was absolutely enthralled with the little collector book and the documentaries and “deleted scenes” featured on the VHS. It’s one of the earliest times I can remember finding out there was a “making of” tale behind a movie I adored, and it struck me as absolutely impossible that the movie was 50 years old. I’m not even sure I was aware
Judy Garland was long gone, though there were certainly enough “if we’d only known” hints in those documentaries.
But I digress. As I said, I outgrew the movie and I was never particularly fond of L. Frank Baum’s original book or any of the sequels, though I dutifully read them. (I should take that back — I adore Marvel’s 8-issue run. Beautifully illustrated! Buy it!) I’ve never known much about Baum beyond his history with the Hotel Del Coronado (he stayed there while writing, and designed the light fixtures!), so Meghan O’Rourke’s Slate article on Baum was a treat. I’ll leave you to read it for yourselves, but what thrilled me was finding out some of the history, myth, and inspiration behind the book.
Continued below the jump
Continue reading The History and Promises Behind ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Romance, Casting, Politics, Trailers and Clips
There’s a long-running joke in Hollywood that one of the easiest ways to earn an Oscar is to either ‘Ugly it up” or contract a disease. But, in recent years, one of the newer trends that can lead an actor to the podium is for them to take on a role where they play a person of same-sex orientation (a fact that has already become the stuff of satire). Over the past 10 years, plenty of actors have earned Oscars for playing gay roles, and the latest actor to join the club could be Matt Damon, who has signed to play Liberace’s lover in Steven Soderbergh’s biopic of the flamboyant musician.
So what’s the big deal? Don’t actors pretend to be different people all the time … isn’t that their job? Well, yes, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Gay and lesbian political advocates have long lamented the sad state of affairs where straight actors are getting gay roles, instead of giving ‘out’ actors their chance to shine. So, while I question the idea that only gay actors could play a gay character, just as only straight actors can play straight characters, the sad fact is that Hollywood is still relatively puritanical when it comes to allowing their actors and actresses to be out and proud — and that needs to change. But, that doesn’t mean I think an actor (gay or straight) shouldn’t play role any role they want … just as long as they’re good at it.
So on that note, I decided to give a little credit to five performances by straight actors in gay roles that transcended orientation and, ultimately, are just damn fine performances.
After the jump: my picks for the best of straight actors going gay for pay…
