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...

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.

Hollywoodland (2006) - LightShed 8

In Hollywoodland we follow detective Adrien Brody in his quest to uncover the facts behind the mysterious death of George Reeves, played by Ben Affleck.  Was it suicide or assassination?

The movie reflects the real life controversy behind the death of the actor who played TV's Superman in 1950s.  The movie boasts beautiful photography and great performances by Diane Lane (who plays Toni Mannix, George Reeves' sugarmomma) and Bob Hoskins (who plays Eddie Mannix, a big shot movie executive at MGM, and Toni's suggardaddy-husband).

We had quite a bit of gay content.  Our first scene with gay content comes when Ben Affleck and a friend are at a fancy restaurant having drinks.  The friend says that because they are two guys sitting next to the bathroom, "people will think that we are queer." The tone of the statement was negative, but Affleck makes it right by shrugging it off with something like: "Well, you do look dapper tonight."  That first gay-content scene reminds us that if you wanted to be an actor on the big screen you needed to stay in the closet, and any inkling of a chance of being gay would have hurt you.  I hope that that is more and more ceasing to be the case today, but it certainly was the case in the 50s, as two other homo-oriented scenes confirm.

We see Bob Hoskins giving one of the cute MGM actors a bad time for having been caught on a photo depicting man-on-man action (you can barely see the two guys inside a car, but I am pretty sure we are looking at two guys, see the pic below).  Bob shows him the photo and implies he had to pay the photographer 15 grand to have the photo off the tabloids:

That gay content was almost imperceptible as the picture is shown really fast (click the pic above for a larger version).  Bob then alludes to the fact that it is career suicide for an actor to be perceived as gay, and asks for a "publicist" who is present at the scene to arrange for that actor to be seen with a girl on a picnic or something.

Still confirming Hollywood's paranoia in the 50s, we have a scene in which Diane Lane is all mad because Affleck is about to break-up with her, and out of despair she tries to hurt Affleck by saying she will tell the newspapers that he is a "red," and a "faggot" and a "lush"...and that everybody would believe that.  She said the F word out of despair, but it was bad bad bad nonetheless (even though I think it is actually not so bad to have "faggot" as an epithet alongside "communist" -- both should clearly no longer be used as epithet nowadays). 

As harsh as Diane's use of "faggot" and Bob's obsession with keeping his actor in the closet are, I believe all the scenes above were used more as criticism, rather than to spread homophobia.  It all comes within the context of a homophobic Hollywood.  In any event, Bob is shown as a money-focused grump who had no clue about anything else, and Diane, well, she was just desperate.

We had other bits of more clearly neutral to positive gay content.  Like the scene in which Ben Affleck tells his manager that he looks handsome without his glasses (it is nice for people to see it is okay for a guy to compliment another guy).  On another scene, Affleck is shooting one episode of the TV series, in character as Clark Kent, and he asks the actress playing Lois Lane whether she wants to see the real man of steel.  She says yes, and he goes on to pull down his pants and pretend-hump her.  Watching that scene, the actor playing Jimmy Olsen is about to leave when Affleck says something like "don't leave just yet Jimmy and keep your bow tie on, you're next."  Horny Clark Kent, nice bisexual reference.  Right after that, Diane Lane tells Ben Affleck that the actress playing Lois Lane is a lesbian; Ben acts surprised, but not disgusted, just surprised.  Diane then takes it back by saying she is not a lesbian but that Ben needs to see her as a lesbian (Diane Lane is jealous, is all).

Hollywoodland is being released on DVD today.

American Dreamz (2006) - LightShed 8

What was I thinking? American Dreamz is unwatchable.  It's got a big cast: Hugh Grant, Marcia Gay Harden, Willem Dafoe, Mandy Moore, and Seth Myers.  Marcia, Hugh and Mandy have performed well before, but they all sucked here.

In American Dreamz, Hugh Grant is both Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, he hosts, produces and is the judge on an American Idol type show. One of the contestants, played by Sam Golzari, is involved in a plot to blow up the American President (played by Dennis Quaid), who will be a guest judge in the show finale.

Seriously. Don't see it. The contestants are painful to watch.  I guess the movie tried to show contestants that looked like and sounded like the rejects from American Idol, except for Mandy of course, bitch can sing.  The American Idol rejects are usually pretty funny, but the contestants in the movie just sucked, they were not funny at all.

At least we got gay content.  The dad of one of the contestants, played by Mandy Moore, is gay and is living in another city with another man.  She mentions it to her manager, played by Seth Myers, who is devising publicity strategies for her, something that would show her as personable, but Seth dismisses the gay dad thing, like that's something that needs to be hidden.  Not too nice.

In one of the rounds, after Omer, the character played by Sam Golzari, performs Hugh Grant says he liked the performance and that he just became omer-sexual. Neutral, I guess it was supposed to be a play with "metrosexual," I guess it was also supposed to be funny.

We have one gay character pretty much throughout the movie, which here on the Queer Beacon would usually mean a LightShed 10, but the light for our gay is not all positive.  Our gay is played by Tony Yalda, seen below on the right, holding the sign.

Our gay is super shallow, but so is his straight sister, and our gay is a little jealous of his cousin Omer.  But it is nice to see that his family loves him and apparently has no problem with his being gay, they really love him.  Anyway, he comes out as an annoying queen.  Queens are nice.  I love queens, but not annoying queens.  Still, positive light overall.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) - LightShed 8

I couldn't think of a better way to start a movie career.  This was Dito Montiel's first movie, it was based on his autobiographical book, and it was excellent.  The acting was great, and in the case of Rosario Dawson's small part, superb.

In A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, we follow Dito's (played in adulthood by Robert Downey Jr.) return to Queens due to a sickness in the family.  He plays a successful writer in L.A. who had not returned home for 15 years -- something to do with an issue with his father (played by Chazz Palminteri).  In his journey back to NY, we see a lot of his teenage years during the 80s.

The cast for those teenage years was excellent.  I think you will be surprised with Channing Tatum's performance.  I knew he would be in the movie but I didn't know he would have such a big role.  He was almost a lead.  I think you will actually be able to pay attention to his acting (despite his bare chest during most of the movie).

Channing was one of Dito's good friends, and he was a bad guy.  Channing's dad in the movie beats him up all the time and Channing vents on people.  He is an idiot and admits to it (his character talks to the camera at one point).

We had one gay character, a dog walker who helps Dito out.  Dito is played in the teenage years by Shia LaBeouf (who then becomes Robert Downey Jr. in adulthood).  Here's the gay:

Our gay is not a exactly an exemplary citizen, but he is not really a scumbag either, our dog walker was street smart (literally) and helped the the main character with a paying gig.  That was nice, and our gay appeared in a few scenes.  Channing Tatum even wanted a job from him.  But being the idiot that he was, Channing Tatum called him a faggot a few times.  But again, Channing's character was an idiot, so that's less of a problem.

The soundtrack was brilliant, with excellent 80s tunes.

I had one major problem with the plot, and I will talk about it after the jump because it will spoil the movie.  In addition to that, I will also consider other aspects of the sexuality of certain characters but that will also give away too much.

Watch the trailer here.

[SPOILER AHEAD]

Volver (2006) - Best Movie of The Year So Far - LightShed 8

Absolutely brilliant.  Penelope Cruz has got to get an Oscar for her role. 

Volver is easily Pedro Almodovar's best movie yet.  And if you had any idea how much I loved his previous movies, you would realize that that is perhaps one of the best compliments on this site.  Volver is the best movie I have seen this year and probably one of the very best movies reviewed here.  It's that good.

You can watch the trailer here but I am not going to say anything about the plot.  I wouldn't do it justice and I think you will love it if you are as surprised as I was with all the culture and eccentricity and craziness and pain that goes on in Volver.  You are guaranteed to cry tears of happiness -- at the beauty of the movie and of the story. 

Be ready to run to the theaters on November 3, when Volver opens in the US.  After the jump I will talk a bit about the gay content of the movie.

[SPOILER AHEAD]

The Last Kiss (2006) - LightShed 8

Have you guys heard the opening theme for Weeds?  The song is called Little Boxes, by Malvina Reynolds, I love it, it's about how people are so squared and lacking in diversity nowadays.  People grow up, get a higher education, family, and all end up looking just the same.  In The Last Kiss, Zach Braff's character is faced with the prospect of becoming one more example of what Reynolds sings about, of not having any more surprises in his life.  Sameness scares him, he might become just like any other guy and live a dull life. 

You may think that Zach's character is not at all actually concerned with looking and living like every other guy, that he is just concerned that he'll have to finally grow up and won't get to have (immature) fun anymore.

But I bought his desperation at the prospect of "no more surprises," his fear that everything will be super planned from now on. 

His life has been perfect.  He has a good career as an architect.  The girlfriend is pretty, smart, and nice, with loving parents (played well by Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner), and she is pregnant.

Zach meets this cute little girl in a wedding party, he is about to turn 30 -- he starts to wonder whether that is it for him, whether his life is over and from then on all he would have is dullness.  Should he give in to temptation and fool around?  Will that take him anywhere?

A date movie cannot get better than this.  I disagree with the few lukewarm reviews it got. 

The Last Kiss is a little on the somber side in that it is highly doubtful of happiness and the potential success of relationships.  Most of Zach's friends are also in bad shape one way or another, and the little development their characters get are meant, I guess, to show that Zach is not alone in his doubts and disenchantment with his future. 

The acting was very solid across the board, and the two main girls in the movie stole the show, they were awesome.  One was Zach's girlfriend, played by Jacinda Barrett, and the other one was Zach's girl-toy, played by The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson.  They both rocked.

And we had gay content.  In the first scene with gay content, we have two hot lesbians going at it, for the amusement of guys though...not ideal, to say the least, but I'll take it, it was positive.

Then, Casey Affleck sees Michael Weston's former girlfriend dancing with a guy (Casey and Michael are two of Zach's best friends).  Michael gets all jealous and Casey tries to calm him by saying that the guy the girl is dancing with is gay.  That he looks too good to be straight. 

And there's a little more.  We see that Zach Braff's neighbors are gay.  Yay.  Their being gay is not really spelled out, but they kinda behaved like a couple, a regular, common couple hanging out on their front porch a few times, and one of the gays even sort of helps Zach with a certain issue.  Go us!

The soundtrack?  Yummie.

What can I say, I love the stuff Zach is involved with, Garden State was one of the best movies of 2004 (certainly the most overlooked movie of that year), and Scrubs is still pretty funny.  Oh, and remember one of his breakthrough roles was in The Broken Hearts Club, where he played a gay guy (that movie was pretty bad though). 

Kudos for Paul Haggins, the writer (yeah, the guy was behind Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale...)

Go see The Last Kiss in theaters.

United 93 (2006) - LightShed 8

Excellent movie.  I felt sick in it -- because of the content, certainly, but also because the camera wouldn't stop shaking.

United 93 tells us the story of the fourth airplane that was hijacked on September 11, 2001, and the only one not to hit a previously specified target. 

There is no explicit gay content in the movie.  However, one of the heroes in that flight was Mark Bingham, an out gay rugby player and businessman, played well by Cheyenne Jackson.

In the movie, we see our gay hero talking about rugby, laying out plans of action, but we do not get any indication that he is gay in the movie. 

A lot of the people got to say goodbye, but Mark was fighting and it appears he did not get a chance to say bye to his family.  Sad, sad, sad.

Anyway, Mark was an out gay men, and there was plenty of media attention to that fact.

So, despite the lack of explicit gay content, I believe the movie deserves a LightShed score (rather than a No Gay Content score). 

Another movie about the September 11 events will be released on August 9, 2006: World Trade Center.  Maybe influenced by what I saw in United 93, I cried watching the trailer for World Trade Center.  I know, gay, gay, gay.  You can watch the trailer here. 

The Oh in Ohio (2006) - LightShed 8

By Guest Reviewer Jimbo.Info

Queen of Quirk Parker Posey plays a convincing frigid wife on a quest to find her first real orgasm.

On her journey she gets to know her vagina through a brief addiction to vibrators and a sexuality coaching session with Liza Minnelli. 

If that isn't gay enough for you, her pursuit takes her to try a same-sex encounter, eventually frustrating her lesbian bedmate.

Paul Rudd plays the disgruntled husband who tries to restore his lost manhood during a tryst with one of his students.  Bears will enjoy the bearded Rudd, who is handsomely chunky in a few scenes.

The cliche of a reinvigorated romance after the couple explores relationships outside their failing marriage is sidestepped when Posey's character meets a frumpy pool salesman, played by an entertaining Danny DeVito.

The unlikely surprise ending, great acting and good writing make this a worthwhile visit to the theater.

Failure to Launch (2006) - LightShed 8

Bad movie.  I almost saw this on the big screen...I'm glad I didn't. 

In Failure to Launch, Sarah Jessica Parker (the reason why I wanted to see this movie) is a professional who helps parents get rid of their grown sons who still live with them.  She pretends to date the sons, giving them self-esteem.  With self-esteem they are sure to move out. 

SJP is hired to have Matthew McConaughey move out of his parents place.  The parents are played by Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw (we see quite a lot of his bare butt in the movie -- ew). 

Bradley Cooper (the real reason why I wanted to see this movie) and Justin Bartha play Matthew's best friends -- they both live with their parents as well.  Finally, Zooey Deschanel plays SJP's roommate/friend.  She rocked here, as she did in Winter Passing (despite her homophobic line there).

We had two bits of content for our gay movie review.  In the first one, a group of parents is having a barbecue and one of them mentions that their son still lives with them but he is rarely home because he is a flight attendant and he has a lot of pilot friends who invite him to spend the night.  They seem clueless but the other parents all look at each other as if acknowledging that the parents to the flight attendant are in denial over their son's homosexuality.  Granted, the "pilots" could have been all female, but seriously, what do you think...?

The other scene was much better.  SJP, Matthew, Bradley and Matthew's nephew, played by Tyrell Jackson Williams (pic on the right), are watching a baseball game and at one point the nephew mentions that he has a lesbian teacher.  The kid is cool with it.  I love it when a kid is involved with acceptance.  Matthew says that the nephew is faking his coolness with the issue because he (the little kid) is actually interested in the lesbian teacher.  That wasn't so nice, but I'll take it.

More Bradley Cooper and Matthew McConaughey after the jump.