Queer Beacon

Milk (2008) - LightShed 10

What a great movie. I saw it at the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas in NY. Opening night. The audience was full of fellow homosexuals and they helped me boo at the end of a National Guard ad aimed at attracting young people. I felt like booing immediately and so did everybody else. The nerve on these people: to show an ad for an institution that condemns who we are right before the most gay-important movie of the year...

In Milk, Gus Van Sant tells us the story of Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn), the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the US.  

Early in the movie we see discrimination against Milk and unnamed gays -- we see gays being beaten up and harassed by the police and we see Milk shaking hands with a businessman who wipes off his hand right after touching the hand of a gay guy.  Sick of living in a homophobic society, Milk takes matters in his own hands and starts to campaign for change; the campaigning takes place in the few street blocks around where he lived with his boyfriend in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, the hope was that the acceptance he'd be able to engender in those city blocks would spread throughout the country.

I was anxious to see this movie for many reasons but most of all because a good movie with a major gay theme comes by only once in a while (was Brokeback the last major gay themed movie before Milk?) -- when a gay movie like this does come by I feel like it needs to over-perform in order to get the greatest number of straight people into the theaters so that they can see we can actually be quite normal, if not heroic.Although I prefer a movie that shows us in the best light possible, I'm usually also fine with a movie that portrays us with our defects (or what can be perceived as defects).  This is what this movie does. We show up in full form. We see Milk dazzling big crowds with forceful speeches, we see him successfully arguing our case before allies and enemies alike, we see young gays who are intelligent and relentless in the pursuit of equality -- but we also see Milk picking up a handsome young thing (James Franco, who so continues to amaze me with his performances that he has become my "protégé" since after Pineapple Express) in a NY subway in the beginning of the movie (the ease with which gays pick up other gays is usually seen as bad by society, I think -- envious bitches); we also see all sorts of gays in bad shape one way or another -- they can come ashamed and in the closet, suicidal, and they can come really fucked up in the head (like Jack, one of Milk's boyfriends -- played by Diego Luna).  

I do think the movie (if seen as an ode to Milk's legacy) loses some of its force in its portrayal of Dan White (played by Josh Brolin).

 

 A Dan who is disgusting and purely homophobic would have suited the hero-biography style better -- it would make things easier (good vs. evil). But this is not it. In the movie, Dan is an ordinary loser who feels like he needs to upstage Milk, and upstaged he can't be.  Milk implies Dan is a closet case repressing his homosexual feelings and keeps constantly undermining Dan's political abilities (or lack thereof) -- I left the movie feeling like the assassination of Milk by Dan can be interpreted as more of a general mental instability by the ordinary loser, and not necessarily a mental instability that is gay focused and strictly homophobic. I'm yet to see The Times of Harvey Milk to see if that documentary sheds more light on that aspect of the story.

The movie is excellent and really grows on you -- I think I like it more now (a few days after I saw it) then right after it.  I think the "Dan not really being that homophobic" got to me a bit, but that was erased by the memory of the many outstanding scenes the movie has to offer (like the scene in which Harvey Milk picks up Scott in the subway).

One last comment: I hate the 70's look; so, I think everybody looks fugly in the movie (but they sure can act -- the acting is excellent across the board).

Michael Clayton (2007) - No Gay Content

People are thinking way too much of this flick.  In Michael Clayton George Clooney plays Clayton, a lawyer who solves personal problems of the other lawyers and big clients of this fancy NY firm.  I heard somewhere that he plays a broken man fixing the problems of other broken men, and that's a good description -- the movie focuses on Michael's efforts to deal with a partner (Tom Wilkinson) who goes postal in the midst of a ginormous mass tort lawsuit.  The acting is okay, I couldn't see all the Oscar potential people are talking about.  The movie is very good, you should see it, just don't expect that much.

A Mighty Heart (2007) - No Gay Content

I really wanted to like this movie, the real-life story on which it is based is touching and deserving of a great portrayal, but somehow the movie fails to deliver, and I don't know exactly what was off.  Angelina was fine (not excellent, but fine), and the supporting actors did their job too, so I can't really put my finger on the problems of this mediocre movie.

A Mighty Heart tells us the real-life story of Daniel Pearl (played by Dan Futterman), a journalist kidnapped in Pakistan and his wife's quest to try to get her hubby back; the wife, Mariane Pearl, is played Angelina.

There is no gay content in the movie, except that this FBI agent played by Jilian Armenante gave me major lesbo vibes (like, major), but we don't get any indication that she is indeed a lesbian in the movie.

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).

Man of the Year (2006) - LightShed 9

I just thought I'd publish this review in celebration of the victory of the Democrats in the US.  The victory in both the House and the Senate is a good start for gay issues.  But it's just that, a start.  I don't think that the Democrats are really any better on the gay issues and given the additional state bans on same-sex marriage in many states, I guess that start may actually be more troublesome than previously anticipated.  You can read more about the elections at Towle, and you should read Richard's interesting (but grumpy) take on the election.

Now to our movie.  I was not really expecting much from it, I am not crazy about Robin Williams or Christopher Walken, but Man of the Year surprised me.  It still is just a mediocre movie, but it painted an interesting scenario for an election. 

In Man of the Year Robin Williams is a comedian who decides to run for President.  I don't think that scenario is too far from what could actually happen in the near future considering the prestige the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert enjoy with the public.  And talking about crazy scenarios, how about Arnold being re-elected? How effed up is that?  Really, anything could happen.

Robin Williams plays an independent candidate, alleging both Republicans and Democrats fail to deliver, miserably.  As far as the gay issue is concerned, our fictional candidate could not have been more correct. 

Just on October 22 I saw Nancy Pelosi, now the speaker of the House, on 60 minutes (watch some of the clips here).  In that show Nancy was asked about gay marriage and she just shrugged it off: "Well, that's an issue that is not an issue that we're fighting about here." (you can read about it here). 

And she is supposed to come from one of the most liberal constituencies in the US, San Francisco.  I know there is a huge difference between being "only" a coward (to put mildly the stance taken by a lot of Democrats) and being a mean-spirited a-hole advocating the writing of discrimination into a federal constitution, which would make things much harder for us gays for much longer. 

Man of the Year had quite a bit of gay content.  We had seen a bit of it in the trailer.  In a televised debate Robin's character says something about marriage being always about same sex. 

We had a few additional bits of gay content, all pretty positive.  Robin Williams mentions Christopher Walkens' character supports gay marriage, if anything because gays should be as miserable as straight people.  Christopher Walken talks about J. Edgar Hoover being heavy-set but being able to dance well because he was "light in the loafers."  Initially I thought that was a little negative, but that can be seen as criticism to a man who persecuted gays while being gay himself (we never saw that before, that sort of thing just can't happen, right?).  Robin Williams considers a cabinet made up of lesbians, and considers a show about gay farmers.  Kudos!

Marie Antoinette (2006) - LightShed 5

Sumptuous.  Simply magnificent scenes, but not much else. 

In Marie Antoinette Kirsten Dunst plays the Austrian born Archduchess who married Louis XVI (played well by Jason Schwartzman) at age 14.  She partied hard, rebelled against the establishment, and screwed up badly.  She eventually lost her head, but the focus of the movie is on the partying.  I would have no problem with that, but the movie is just mediocre.

There were a few insinuations about Louis XVI spending too much time with guys.  If you take that with the fact that it took him a while to consummate his marriage, I guess you can infer a bit of gay content there. I know, I'm pushing...

And we see Marie Antoinette's designer as a flamboyant character.  Nothing big, but I guess you can see gayness there too.

Again, the movie is just beautiful, but you keep waiting for the movie to happen, and it just doesn't.  I'm still in love with the soundtrack though.

I am looking forward to Sofia Coppola's next movie anyway, Marie Antoinette was not bad enough to bump Sofia off my favorite list. 

The trailer for Marie Antoinette is here.

Miami Vice (2006) - LightShed 5

Miami Vice is mediocre.  The movie had quite a few great action scenes but you will not be so interested in actually watching them.  Strangely for a gay man, I was especially less interested when Colin Farrell was in the scene.  I think he is super hot, and he was hot in Miami Vice, but he was so bad -- he messed up every single line he had in the movie.

In Miami Vice Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx bring back to life the characters once played by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in the 80s.  Colin and Jamie are out to uncover a big drug operation, but they also take their time with the ladies.  They get it on with co-workers and criminals.

Gong Li, who played one of the criminals, is the only one doing some acting in Miami Vice; Jamie, who is one of my favorites, does not live up to any expectations, he is dull in Miami Vice.

We had almost no gay content.  The one tiny bit of queerness comes from a question Jamie Foxx makes to a drug dealer.  Jamie and Colin are undercover, and the drug dealer is evaluating Jamie and Colin for a potential partnership; he says he doesn't like the way Colin looks.  Jamie just asks whether he wants to work with Colin or whether he wants to fuck Colin.  No bad reactions or anything.  So that's good, I guess.

Monster House (2006) - No Gay Content

Excellent movie. 

Although I thought Monster House was pretty scary for kids, the many many kids in my theater did not seem to be that frightened, and I heard lots of "I loved it" after the movie had ended.

In Monster House, DJ (Mitchell Musso's voice) realizes the house across the street is alive, and scary. 

The house's only inhabitant is curmudgeon Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi's voice). 

DJ's pals Chowder (Sean Learner's voice) and Jenny (Spender Locke) help him in his battle against the house.  It all happens while DJ's parents are away. 

The grumpy goth babysitter Zee (voiced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) was excellent.  She was edgy and funny.

As expected in a kids movie, we had no gay content, but it was cute to see DJ's mom pushing his father to show affection towards the boy, making him say "I love you."  What kind of a redneck father would not say "I love you" to his son before going away for a few days?

Mission Impossible III (2006) - "No" Gay Content

Very good blow-up movie.  I hate to say it, but I did like the joint.  It was a (very) guilty pleasure to watch her on the big screen.

Shame on the Queer for not joining one of the many boycotts called for this movie.  Anyway, with that caveat, I have to say Bitch was actually pretty good in the flick -- considering her limited acting skills. 

Here, she plays secret agent Ethan Hunt, who enters a two-hour-plus cat-fight with the villain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Philip is trying to sell some sort of weapon or technology to some bad guy.  Bitch tries to protect his own identity and that of his 'girlfriend' (to be read with three snaps and a good back and forth head-tilt).  The girlfriend is played by Michelle Monaghan (who played a homophobe in North Country, remember?).  Philip is excellent as a villain, as expected.  Both bitch and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (he's also a secret agent) appear shirtless a few times, but don't expect much.

So, no gay content for our gay movie review.  At least bitch did not slur us in the movie. 

Oh, and she got to shoot in the Vatican and Shanghai, she got to wear the robe of a priest and a pair of fancy jeans (I think they were indeed the same jeans she wore in War of the Worlds -- maybe it's her lucky jeans).

UPDATE ON MAY 8, 2006: MI3 is a box office disappointment.

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - No Gay Content

Mediocre movie (mediocre to good though).  Think Rocky Balboa, but instead of speed training for the fight of his life, he's training for a whore-off.  Literally.  Then, think Oskar Schindler, but instead of protecting people of a certain religion, it's protecting people of a certain profession.  It's all in there.  I thought the acting was atrocious.

It is sad to say but, despite all the silk kimonos paraded in the movie, and all the cat fight, there's no gay content.  Nada.

The movie had beautiful scenes.  Very dramatic, but not much else. 

And the whole Geisha concept is pretty disgusting in the movie, with lots of child abuse of all sorts, misogyny, the works. 

There is some lesbian tension between the two main 'hos...I guess you can rent the movie but don't expect much.