Queer Beacon

I Love You, Man (2009) - LightShed 8

Finally another movie with Paul Rudd and good gay content. For all the gay buzz Paul Rudd gets, he has actually been in some pretty gay-bad movies (Knocked-Up and Role Models come to mind -- both of which have "faggot" slurs and other jabs at us gays).

Things went our way in I Love You, Man.  In the movie, Paul Rudd plays a recently engaged guy in a quest for a best man; Rudd is a girl's-guy and has no male friends. In his quest toward Jason Segel he meets Reno 911's Thomas Lennon, they go out to dinner. It turns out Lennon is gay and thought he was going on an actual date (as opposed to a man-date) with Paul Rudd...at the end of the date Thomas kisses Paul, he actually leads with the tongue (you can see that on the main theatrical trailer). Paul is surprised but takes it nicely. So, that's our first gay content.

A little later into the movie, we learn Paul Rudd has a gay brother (played by Andy Samberg).

The gay brother is a pretty butch personal trainer. Our gay is an actual guy's guy. The portrayal is very nice, the gay brother is Dad's best friend and even coaches Paul Rudd in the straight art of getting a wing-man.

 

You should see this one. The movie is funny even if Paul Rudd's constant attempt at creating fun catchphrases gets old early into the movie, but he drags on...

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - LightShed 7

I wish we lived in a wold where, if they couldn't come up with a movie like Benjamin Button, they just wouldn't make a movie at all; we would have the guarantee of being completely swept away to another world for the price of a movie ticket. Seriously, movie-making doesn't get any better than this; and, if you ask me, I don't think this movie was nominated for enough Oscars (but for one or two scenes here and there -- which we could have done away with -- the movie is perfect).

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt is a guy who is born old and grows younger with age. That superb circumstance allows the movie to portray the impossible and heartbreaking love story between our aging-challenged Brad Pitt and a person aging as we all do (played by Cate Blanchett). I started crying at the scene when a 7-year old Cate sees the old-looking Brad for the first time.

The acting is superb across the board (Cate easily deserved a nomination for her role here).

We had a tiny bit of gay content. In one scene, Cate Blanchett tells Brad that there are a few lesbians in her dance company and that one of them proposed sleeping with her, she seemed proud of that, she was very non-judgmental -- and so was Brad's character. Nice. Later on, when we see some of the people within her dance company, you could see some guys who could have been gay (ok, I'll say it: they looked pretty gay) -- but we don't really know that, so I'm leaving that out.

 

You absolutely must see this movie.

Four Christmases (2008) - Shipwreck 4

This was pretty bad, I went to see it with a couple of friends from Brazil (a straight couple-- they liked it and laughed quite a bit).

In Four Christmases, Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon play a couple terrified of spending Christmas with their families -- they don' want to confront their ghosts. Their attempt spend Christmas away from their families in Fiji fails when all flights are grounded due to bad weather and they end up on TV (this after having lied to their families -- they had said they were going to Burma to save children or sth like that). Seeing them on TV, their families talk them into spending time with them.

We have a bit of gay content.  While visiting Reese's mom family, we learn that the husband of Reese's sister (played by Kristen Chenoweth) "has experienced with men" -- Kristen reveals the news as a way to tell Reese how much she knows about her husband (and, to a lesser extent, how forgiving she is); Reese, meanwhile, knows nothing about her boyfriend Vince. Kristen might have talked about the gay experience in a somewhat positive light, but I think it came off as being just for laughs, at our expense.

Later in the same visit, Reese`s mom shows Vince pictures of Reese's lesbian phase (she basically had a very butch friend growing up; but soon after we learn Reese didn't actually know her friend was a lesbian). Vince shows what appears to be his support and understanding of the "lesbian phase" and I did want to see the scene in a good light, but at the end, again, I think it was all really just for laughs, at our expense ("at us, not with us" king of thing).

I must say, though, that if this is the way that homophobia is going to be portrayed, we are probably on a good track as at least there seems to have been an effort to not just go all purely derogatory on us; as I pointed out, the light can even arguably be seen as neutral to positive.

Independently of the gay content, the movie is pretty bad -- a waste of Reese's (and ours) time.

Fur (2006) - LightShed 8

This one is pretty creepy, but in a nice way. 

Fur's main character is called Diane Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman) -- the movie goes out of its way to make sure we know the story is not about real-life photographer artist Diane Arbus. 

In the movie, Kidman is fascinated with people who are usually thought of as freaks.  She is not fascinated as one would be in a circus, she really feels alive around different people. She befriends a few trannies and gays.  That was super nice.

The movie gets creepy as she falls for a uberhairy Robert Downey Jr. and cheats on her perfectly hot husband (played by Ty Burrell).

The movie is well put together, the acting is decent, but if you actually see this one, you should see it because of its kitsch value (in any case, don't expect much).  The flick is out on DVD.

The Nanny Diaries (2007) - LightShed 7

What a pleasant surprise I had with The Nanny Diaries.  Initially, this would have been too much of a chick flick even for me, but I am glad a good friend dragged me into this one -- well, it was also nice to sit in the cool air of the theater, it has been hot here in NYC.

In Nanny Diaries, Scarlett Johansson is a college graduate trying to find out who she is; in an effort to take some time off to figure out her life, she nannies Laura Linney's little brat and falls for 'out-of-her-league' Chris Evans, who plays a rich Harvard graduate who lives in the same building where Scarlett nannies.  Laura is the Upper East Side's upper crust and makes Scarlett's life miserable.

Few bits of gay content.  First, when Scarlett is considering what she should do with her life she pictures herself as many women; she pictures those women walking around the streets of NY, the camera freezes the frame with the particular woman under consideration, and we see a little explanatory card...one of such cards lets us know that one of the women is a Park Slope lesbian attorney.  Cute.  Then, Laura Linney (the devil) says she went to Smith but that that does mean she is a lesbian. 

Finally, Scarlett's pal from college, played by Alicia Keys, shares an apartment with a gay guy (played by Nathan Corddry) -- Scarlett even teases her for being too happy, as though she were in a Will & Grace episode.

Factory Girl (2006) - Shipwreck 4

What a depressing movie.  It's good, but depressing...and bad for the gays.  The movie is not out to get the gays, I don't think, but whoever watches it can't help but feel that the gays either helped destroy a poor rich little girl or sat and watched and did nothing while the girl destroyed herself.

In Factory Girl, Sienna Miller plays, very well, the role of Edie Sedgwick, a precursor to Paris Hilton who came from big money and wanted to be famous in NY. 

Edie suffers quite a bit throughout her childhood, from being committed to a mental institution to being abused by her father; Edie then goes on to suffer some more in the hands of a manipulative Andy Warhol, played, also very well, by Guy Pierce.

The movie is not all bad for the gays.  First the good stuff: There's a very sweet scene in which Edie is recounting the story of a very close friend who was gay and was rejected by his family.  The gay's family put the little gay in an institution and some time after that the gay commits suicide -- that marks Edie for life because she loved that gay very much.  That was very sweet, sweet enough to almost move the movie's rating into a LightShed zone.  Also good: the monster of a father Edie has, says to Andy Warhol's face that he is a faggot, and this is over a fancy dinner with lots of people around -- the slur was good here because the movie has us strongly against Edie's father; so, his being a homophobe is no surprise and fits his evil character well.  It goes to show that only nasty idiots say that word.  Another bad guy who doesn't do much to save poor little Edie is played by Hayden Christensen, who plays a musician (apparently based on Bob Dylan) whom Edie falls for; he tries (but not too hard) to protect Edie from Andy Warhol and utters one or two homophobic remarks at Andy...not nice. 

We have those two bits of gay positive content, but in the end, the light for the gays is not good.  I left the movie with a feeling that the plot construed Andy as a bad, greedy guy -- there's nothing really wrong there, but (and this is bad) the movie also gives us the idea that the fact that Andy was gay had some effect on his evil deeds.

Factory Girl is a good movie, it's just out on DVD, but watch it at our own peril (did I mention it's depressing? and portrays the gays in a bad light?)

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) - LightShed 10

I cannot believe how much buzz this movie got.  The actors (Kevin James, Adam Sandler, and Jessica Biel) were everywhere.  You turned on your TV and there they were, promoting Chuck & Larry. 

If you watched pretty much any TV show during the past month or so, you know that Chuck & Larry is about two firefighters (Kevin and Adam) getting into a domestic partnership in order for Larry (Kevin James) to maintain pension related benefits for his kids, a little girl and a little gay boy.

The movie is mediocre.  Maybe reading a few bad reviews will help you lower your expectations and allow you to enjoy the movie -- that kinda worked for me.

As for gay content, there is a lot of it, of course.  A lot of it, especially in the first half of the movie, is really bad on the gay side.  Really bad.  I will talk about that first, and then about what in the movie makes me think it deserves the highest positive gay rating on the Beacon: LightShed 10.  I will talk about the positive stuff after the jump because it will ruin the plot.

I see four really big problems with Chuck & Larry: (i) it suggests gays should not get rights lest people abuse the system with all sorts of fake marriages/domestic partnerships; (ii) Adam Sandler (whom we are made to like and stay on his side) uses "faggot" to refer to gays; (iii) Adam Sandler hits Kevin James hard on the face when Kevin approaches him with kissing intentions; and (iv) Kevin and Adam give Kevin's gay son a hard time for being gay-bound (the kid likes musical theater, etc.).

I think the movie overcomes the problems above, except for the first one, and that is very sad.  Gays are in need of rights and acceptance so that they can be happy and stop being bashed and killed on a daily basis.  I think that, despite the effort made in the movie to the contrary (I talk about that effort after the jump), there's still a message that fraud can occur, and that is a message that assholes like Bill O'Reilly, who might be looking for a cheap, idiotic, argument against gay rights, will find in Chuck & Larry.  So, that's really bad.

Beforing moving on to the positive aspects of the movie, let me address an important criticism the movie has received.  I read somewhere that one reason the movie was homophobic was the fact that the gays in the movie were mostly stereotypical characters, basically queeny, effeminate guys, particularly the gay son and this firefighter who is all macho and then, when it turns out that he is actually gay, he turns into a flaming 'mo the minute he comes out. 

I can see how stereotypes hurt people and how stereotypes shouldn't be encouraged.  But I think the argument against stereotypes of gays as super happy queens is actually based on a not so noble argument; the argument may actually be: If there were no effeminate / queeny gay men, it is possible that we would already have equal rights because we would have an easier case for how normal gay people are; it would be easier to show that we really are equal and "normal".  But that is not what life and happiness should be about.  Life should be about people being happy no matter how they look, talk, walk, etc.  What the hell is the problem with a guy being effeminate?  Again, I know society sees that as a problem, but why do we have to comply with assigned roles?  Here's what needs to be changed: people who see a problem in an effeminate man (or a butch woman, at that).  That's where the problem lies.  The mind of those people, that's what needs changing.  And, mind you, that sadly includes a lot -- I mean a lot -- of gays too.  People need to accept that a man can be effeminate and that a woman can be butch and everything else in-between.  Femmies and butchies are people just like you and me, and deserve the dignity all human beings deserve.  So, you need to seriously reconsider your views on effeminate men and butch women if you have a problem with them.  They must be embraced and that needs to start with us gays.

Just one last think before jumping into the reasons why I think the movie deserves a LightShed 10. The movie is surprisingly racist towards the Chinese.  Adam Sandler tries to get a few nasty laughs out of this Chinese guy in the movie.  Not nice.

Read on for the remaining of my gay discussion, or go see this mediocre, but very gay-important, movie.

Fast Food Nation (2006) - LightShed 5

Good movie.  Fast Food Nation will keep you hooked to the end -- I just wish they had crammed fewer issues into the movie. 

In Fast Food Nation, Greg Kinnear plays an executive in charge of finding out what is really going on with a burger patty plant: management suspects there is bull crap (like, feces) going into the patties.  Ewwwww.  Eww.  Ew.  All sorts of gross scenes ensue.  The movie really makes you re-think your meat eating habits, that's for sure.  On Kinnear's quest for the truth, we skim through Mexican immigration, greedy corporate america, sexual harrasmnet at work, you name it (except, of course, for the gays, that was left out of the political discussion). The issues are certainly related to how the fast food industry exploits low-wage illegal immigrants, blah blah blah, but I just don't think the whole thing was put together seamlessly.

Maybe something like Nine Lives, or Crash or Babel would have worked better.

We had only one tiny reference to the gays.  In one scene Catalina Sandino Moreno (that bitch rocks!) comments on seeing a few weird scenes in a hotel (she cleans hotel rooms), and the other cleaning lady mentions the other day she saw two guys in action in the room while their wives were out shopping and that the wives came back never knowing what went on. The comment depicts a circumstance not so nice for the gays (closeted gays married to women), but I thought the tone from the cleaning lady was pretty neutral.

Bobby Cannavale deserves special mention for his good performance as a prickalicious verbally and sexualy abusive hot Latino boss.  Fast Food Nation is out on DVD.

Mr. Brooks (2007) - LightShed 6

The rundown: Dane Cook sucked the hardest, but there was a lot of sucking (I mean, a lot) left for Kevin Costner, Demi Moore and William hurt.  God, it was awful.

If you saw the trailer, you know that in Mr. Brooks, Kevin Costner plays a successful business man who kills for pleasure.  He wants to stop but he just can't: William Hurt (who plays Kevin's alter ego -- they talk to each other like there's no tomorrow) keeps convincing him to continue killing. 

Dane Cook watches one of Kevin's jobs and starts to blackmail.  Demi Moore is a millionaire cop (yes, a millionaire cop) who wants to put an end to it all.

There was a tiny bit of gay content: in one scene, Dane Cook is reading this note that must be read by putting together words that had been circled on a newspaper, and one of the circled words is "same" on a headline that says "Same-sex Marriage" -- that was nice (although we can't really read what the article under the headline says).

Curiosity: did you see the video where Dane Cook talks about a gay roommate?  I don't know what to think of it (watch that here).

The History Boys (2006) - Shipwreck 4

The movie is good, even though the acting is a little too theatrical for me (well, the film is based on a play -- and has the same cast).

In The History Boys we follow a bunch of smart kids from a less than stellar grammar school in England preparing to try for Oxford and Cambridge.  Of the three teachers preparing them for the task, two are certainly gay, and the other could be a lesbian (like, seriously). 

Of the 8 students, one is gay and out, another is kinda bisexual.  It is the 80's but no one has a problem with their sexual orientation.

We have gay content from beginning to end, some of it very very good, but the balance, I think, is negative, and that's a pity: The History Boys would have otherwise been a highly recommendable movie.  The soundtrack, filled with sweet 80's tracks, is pretty good too.

I will talk about the gay content after the jump as it will ruin the plot quite a bit.  In any event, despite what I think of the light for the gays, I would be curious to know if you share my views.  Let me know if you see the movie.  You can queue it on Netflix or get it on DVD.

[SPOILER AHEAD]