Queer Beacon

Iron Man (2008) - Shipwreck 3

Even though RDJ's portrayal of a superhero was a little over the top for me, I still liked Iron Man -- the gay content, not so much.

In Iron Man, RDJ plays a rich arms dealer (he owns a company that manufactures high tech missiles) who, after being kidnapped in a rogue country, is forced to rethink some of his values and actions. Cute.

While being driven in a military convoy to this site where he was going to make a demonstration of the latest weapon developed by his company, RDJ acts all surprised when he realizes the driver is actually a girl -- not so nice to the butch looking ladies.  Later into the movie, RDJ makes a joke with real life homophone Terrence Howard -- something about Terrence going out with a tranny or something like that.  Very derogatory. Not nice.

What would NPH do? - Harold & Kumar Trailer

I would never in a million years see something like Harold & Kumar, I don't even know why, it's just not my cup of tea, I guess...but after seeing this poster at my local AMC last weekend:

And after reading this on the website: "The benevolent one, NPH, has infused his chakras, chi, and sexual energy in the HTML code of this page. Let his spiritual tskundahs splash all over you face, and eyes, and hair"...

I can't wait to see the movie. Can't wait.  Like, I just peed myself a bit, giddy with anticipation. Me loves the NPH. Trailer after the jump.

Shelter (2008) - Lightshed 10

Shelter is excellent.  The acting is solid across the board. Jonah Markowitz's experience with larger projects shows throughout -- bitch really kept everybody together. You should absolutely believe the hype. If the movie is playing at a theater near you (check out the venues at here!), you must see it.

In Shelter, Trevor Wright is an artist who flips burgers at a local joint -- he is clearly unhappy; he wants to go to art school but has decided to settle for the I-think-I-should-be-happy-but-I'm-not state of mind brought by the fulfillment of family responsibilities, in his case, that means taking care of his cute little nephew, a kid neglected by his mother (played by Tina Holmes, she delivers a nice performance). 

You can tell through Trevor's sad look that something big is missing (I must say that a few of his more pensive moments, like this one at a cliff by the ocean, were a little tacky -- you can almost hear the "hello...is it me you're looking for?" kinda deal).  Trevor's best friend, played by Ross Thomas, has an out gay brother.  This is the gay brother:

That's Brad Rowe. I've had my eye on Brad Rowe since Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. I always thought he had the potential to become a true Hollywood lead and never understood why he didn't.  He is drop-dead-gorgeous and can act.  Not surprisingly, Trevor's character falls for him.  Or is he just confused?

While sorting out his issues, Trevor's character shows us how nice being gay can be after all.  Shelter is all about the normal guys, some of whom are gay.  The soundtrack is great too.  I can't wait for Markowitz and here!films' next release. Watch the trailer (but read my caveat first) after the jump.

The Gay on Lost

The QB was right! M.C. Gainey, whose character name is Tom (nom-de-drag "Mr. Friendly"), is indeed our gay on Lost.

On tonight's episode "Meet Kevin Johnson" Tom even kissed his, uh, friend, Arturo (played by Francesco Simone).  It is not clear if Arturo is Tom's boyfriend or just some sort of rent-boy.  Watch the episode to see the context of the gay revelation (you can read the spoilers at lostpedia -- I will post pictures as soon as I get my hands on them).

Talk shows and homophobia

I saw the video below on Towle the other day. In the video we see Ellen talking about a boy who was killed because of homophobia -- the video sandwiches a clip from an appearance of comedian Harland Williams on Conan O'Brien:

The story Ellen talks about is precisely the reason why I started this blog.  I continue to firmly believe that the often negative portrayal of the gays in the media can cause many damages to our lives, it causes gays to stay closeted and out gays to suffer, be killed.  Things need to change.

Male, white, heterosexual talk show hosts vary the degree of negativity with which they refer to gays, but they are invariably negative -- damaging to us. The leader in the nasty homophobic jokes circuit always seemed to be Jimmy Kimmel.  Case in point: his latest lame attempt at comedy, which sadly got the support from major stars.

(You can read more and watch the Kimmel video at Towle). 

But Jimmy is not alone, and his Ben Affleck stint is not even amongst his worst homophobic bits -- do you remember his nasty comments about Brokeback? Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and David Letterman are all together in making homophobic jokes.  David Letterman, who I sometimes think is the least damaging of them, the other day said he was happy that the Spitzer incident at least did not involve an airport restroom.  I guess he could just be jabbing at the Republicans with the reference to the Senator Larry Craig story, but his comment could very easily be seen as "at least he (Spitzer) is not gay"...

Hopefully those comedians will change soon, especially Conan and David -- both have talent and are better positioned to negatively influence people and instill greater homophobia in society. Conan, for example, could have said something to Harland after he was done with his "joke."  Kudos to Ellen and the maker of the Ellen video above for shedding some light on the issue of homophobia.

10,000 B.C. (2008) - No Gay Content

Man, this was unwatchable. 

In 10,000 B.C. this tribe is headed for extinction and have to rely on their warriors to survive. I did not care, except that I kept wishing I was on the set to shampoo those people. Barfy hair was everywhere.

No gay content.

Sex and the City - Trailer

Too late?

The teaser-trailer looks pretty bad, but I'm still seeing the movie when it comes out in May.

There Will Be Blood (2007) - No Gay Content

In There Will Be Blood, Daniel Day-Lewis plays an oil tycoon in-the-making. He plays a man thirsty for oil power, does it all with his bare hands and will stop at nothing to get what he wants -- surprising, huh?  He nasty, of course. 

I thought the movie should have been shot in two parts, the first with his rise, the second with his, uh, fall.  As it is, the movie feels rushed towards the end (they tried to pass it off as artsy, but that didn't fly with moi).  Having said that, I still think the movie is excellent -- Daniel gave us the best performance by a male lead. Ever.

No gay content.

Juno (2007) - LightShed 6

Juno is excellent. In the movie, Ellen Page (remember her from Hard Candy?) is 16 and she is carrying Michael Cera's baby.  Too young to deal with it all and unwilling to do an abortion, Page decides to give her baby away to Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, who play one of those perfect suburban couples.

The movie is a joyride despite the seriousness of the subject (teenage pregnancy). The soundtrack is full of first-rate alternative rock songs and the acting is really solid. Page certainly deserves the attention she is getting for her performance in Juno, but she is not alone. Olivia Thirlby, who plays Page's best friend (an unlikely friendship between a cheerleader and Juno, the screw-up goof-ball);  Allison Janney, who plays Juno's step-mom; J.K. Simmons, who plays the father, and Cera and Garner are all excellent.

We also have gay content, not all good though. In our first gay tidbit, Juno says that, ideally, she would give her baby away to be adopted by a nice lesbian couple. That is super nice. But then, later in the movie, when Garner is wondering about baby names, she suggests a name that Juno thinks is gay (I think the name was Marianne or sth like that).  Juno  said "gay" as though it was not necessarily a bad thing, there's no hate in her voice, but still we'd be better off if people didn't use " gay" to mean sth uncool (remember this post about whether it's okay to say "gay"?). Then, finally, Juno is just walking around in this mall with her best friend Thirlby when they bump into Garner, who was also shopping in the mall with her " girlfriends."  When Thirlby hears that, she asks whether Garner is gay. Of course, Thirlby just got it wrong, as Garner was referring to girls who are her friends, not actual girlfriends. That was pretty neutral.

You should definitely see this one on the big screen.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - No Gay Content

What a perfect, somber, vehicle for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  They both rock in Sweeney Todd.

In the movie, Johnny is unjustly imprisoned by this nasty judge -- when he's out of the joint all he wants is revenge.  Helena helps him out. 

Again, the acting is superb, but I didn't really like the songs.  The movie is good but could have been much better.  I think the plot should have us see more of Johnny's perfect little life before his imprisonment so that we could better taste his revenge.  As it is, the movie feels almost gratuitously gory -- revenge for revenge sake.  Just my two cents...you should still see the movie.