Queer Beacon

The Family Stone (2005) - LightShed 10

Good movie.  Very easy case for a LightShed 10.

Here, Sarah Jessica-Parker plays an uptight conservative bitch who spends Christmas with her boyfriend's family (the boyfriend is played by Dermot Mulroney.).  The family is liberal and nice, and can't get along with Sarah Jessica.  They all think she is the wrong one for Dermot.

I always cry in comedies, they always have some short sad part that gets to me, and this is very much the case for The Family Stone.

Our gay content is present throughout the movie and it's outstanding.  Our main gay is Dermot Mulroney's brother, played by Tyrone Giordano.  Tyrone has a steady relationship with Brian White (pic on the right), and they are trying to adopt a baby.

The Stone family could not be more supportive.  Craig T. Nelson, who plays the father, hugs and kisses both Tyrone and Brian, Tyrone sits on brother Luke Wilson's lap and Luke holds him tight. All really heart warming and just super normal. 

In one scene, mother Diane Keaton even says, at the dinner table, that she hoped all of her sons were gay.  Luke Wilson is asked if he is gay and he just says: "I'm queer, I'm here, Get used to it!"  You tell them girl!  Luke is not gay in the movie but has no problem playing with it.  Awesome. 

In that dinner scene though, we have a big discussion, because Sarah Jessica is all like "I can't believe that, what parent would want their kids to be that challenged, every parent should want their kids to be normal and live an easy life."  Then Sarah Jessica even tries to get sympathy and support from Brian White -- in the logic of Sarah's character Brian should know how difficult it is to grow up black and gay.  Shame on Sarah Jessica.

Anyway, the discussion brought up by Sarah was actually very good for us gays.  Sarah is all wrong all the time and she is portrayed like a crazy racist bigot Bedford bitch (and she even acknowledges it).  Awesome.  I love it when they throw in the two traits (racism and homophobia) in one person -- I really believe the two traits belong together.  We also saw a racist homophobe in The Break-Up, remember?

Go rent this movie right now!

UDPATE ON JUNE 17, 2006: check out the views and comments on The Family Stone at Rod and Oh La La!

Last Days (2005) - LightShed 6

Good movie.  I like Gus Van Sant a lot.  The pace of the movie was pretty quiet and crazy, like Kurt Cobain's last days were supposed to be.  Worked for me.  This movie was certainly better than Gerry.

Here, Michael Pitt sort of plays the role of Kurt Cobain (the movie is not really about Kurt Cobain himself -- it's a fictionalized version of it all).  You know how it ended, right?

We had some interesting gay content.  At one point, two guys make out and they head to the bedroom -- there is a strong suggestion of gay sex (you actually see the guys on the bed, sort of -- but you cannot see much of the man-on-man action).  It's really a gratuitous sex scene, and I loved it, makes it all look natural I thought.  The two guys could have been bisexual too, we didn't get a whole lot of information for the scene.

They were all stoned all the time, and crazy and unreliable, that's why the LightShed score was not higher.  Still, having the gay sex scene in the movie was pretty cool and good for us (like, rock stars and groupies can have gay sex too).

Sin City (2005) - Shipwreck 3

Good movie.  Damn it.  I hate when good movies happen to homophobic movies. 

The flick tells us the story of Mickey Rourke's character, a street fighter trying to avenge the assassination of this woman he slept with once.  Dark, smokey scenarios.  Elijah Wood is great in his cameo. 

Unfortunately, Mickey Rourke's character says a few homophobic slurs.  Not nice, especially in a movie with strong appeal to a straight male audience. 

Hopefully Sin City 2 will do better in the gay area.

The New World (2005) - No Gay Content

Better than good, but not quite excellent. 

Here, Colin Farrell is John Smith, the English settler who fell for Pocahontas, played by Q'Orianka Kilcher.  Christian Bale is also in the movie -- he is also involved with Q'Orianka. Christopher Plummer is the boss of them all.

I had a conflicting feeling about this movie.  I thought it was stunning, I loved the short, poetic, introspective scenes.  The scarce dialogs.  All very ethereal, very Malick. 

The acting was superb, that Q'Orianka is amazing.  Colin Farrell and Christian Bale were very good too. 

So, despite the qualities pointed here, I still think the movie was not excellent.  The slow pace of the movie both helped and got in the way somehow.  All the time, you want to know what happens next, but it always takes a bit too long.

I liked FourFour's take on the flick.  I think FF's review hits the point: "The New World fucking rocks. I only fell asleep twice!"

No gay content.  No gratuitous Farrell-on-Bale action.  Damn it.

London (2005) - Shipwreck 4

I thought this was a very good movie, but it got lots of awful reviews.  I think the amount of drugs done in the movie was a big part of the problem people had with the flick, and I can understand that.  The characters did snort blow like I've never seen before, but I actually think all the coke sniffing made some sense.  I know that some rich beautiful young people deal with their issues like that.

Here, Chris Evans is trying to get his ex-girlfriend back.  The girlfriend is played by Jessica Biel.  Jason Statham is a stranger who listens to Evans whine.  They spend most of the movie in the bathroom of a party.  I loved it.  Jason and Evans have lots of hair in their heads.  I think at least one of them was wearing a rug.

The acting surprised me, I didn't know Evans and Biel could act.  I mean, they weren't outstanding or anything, but they were pretty good.  They actually had a few really good scenes.  Who knows, maybe if they keep working under steady and firm directing hands they may turn out to be good actors.  Jason disappointed me though.  I think he is (a little) better than that.

We see a lot of Evans' torso.  Statham remains in a suit all the time.  Damn it.

Unfortunately we had one line of homophobic content for our gay movie review.  The girl hosting the party (played well by Isla Fisher), calls Evans a cocksucker like it's a bad thing.  Bitch doesn't know what she's missing if she really thinks it's bad.  Shame on her on two counts.

Also, in one scene, Jason mentioned they had no time for Evans to be a pussy.  Bad, but more misogynistic than homophobic, right?  And there were tons of misogynistic comments.  That was pretty bad.  It's like they replaced all the commas in Jason's script with the C word.

Oh, and the movie had a few excellent tunes.

Don't Come Knocking (2005) - No Gay Content

Mediocre movie.

Here, Sam Shepard (who also wrote the movie) is a Western movie star who has seen better days.  He's having something like a late-life crisis.  He goes to his mom's house, finds out he has a child.  He goes after the child.

Fairuza Balk was very good as the girlfriend of Gabriel Mann, who played a struggling singer.  Jessica Lange is in the movie too.  She had no expression above her eyes, due to a bad case of bottox, I guess.  Sam Shepard was just bad.

Sam Shepard's character was bothered when male fans stared at him, and that bothered me a bit.  He had no problem when females stared at him but was upset when guys did it.  But I won't take it as homophobia because there was no name calling, no suggestion of a real problem with gays, and no indication that the guys staring at him could have been gay.

Excellent tunes, some of which were sung by the mentioned struggling singer, who also shows some skin (unfortunately).

Now wait, a cowboy related movie with no gay content?  Oh, come on.

Partners (2005) - LightShed 10

Mediocre movie.  It's one of those movies that are bad but you just can't turn it off because you need to know what will happen next.

Here, a straight attorney pretends to be gay in order to lead the representation of a client.  The client is being accused of firing a guy because he is gay, so the client wants a gay attorney on their side to show that they have no problem with it.  The straight lawyer wants to make partner at his law firm, but Julie Bowen wants to stop him.  The light for the gays was excellent.  It's a pity the movie wasn't better.

Our straight attorney turned gay is played by Jay Harrington, who is on Desperate Housewives now.  Michael Ian Black is his gay roommate (Michael is the guy in the Sierra Mist Super Bowl XL ad with Kathy Griffin).  So, we have a straight guy who has no problem playing gay, living in a tiny apartment with a gay roommate.  You go girl! We also see that Jay's parents are very supportive when they find out that he is gay.

Reichen Lehmkul plays Michael's one night stand.  He shows up in a towel.  Does not utter a word.  He dates Lance in real life. 

There are tons of cliches in the movie, like when some gays say that Jay doesn't look gay enough because he has no muscles, but they are all okay with me.  You can rent the movie, just don't expect much.

Grizzly Man (2005) - LightShed 7

Excellent movie.  What a crazy guy. Literally certifiable.  The documentary brought me a bit of the eerie feeling of The Blair Witch Project, it felt like something really screwed up was always about to happen.

In the documentary, Timothy Treadwell is an actor turned environmentalist who tries to bring attention to the endangered grizzly bears in Alaska.  He spends 13 summers with the bears in the wild, just hanging out.  Seriously wicked. 

Now to our gay movie review.  When Timothy is rambling to the camera about his troubled relationship with women, he mentions it would be much nicer if he was gay.  He does say the reason for that is that gay men can hook up easily, in restaurants, truck stops etc.  Well, I'll take it.  I don't see a problem in that stereotype actually.  Gay men, in general, do have it easier in the dating scene, so what's the problem with that?  To me, it's clearly the men part that's doing it's thing, not exactly the gay part.  You put two eager gay guys together and nothing can stop them.  Straighties can envy me as much as they want, and I'll like it.  Of course, not all gay men hook up that easily, and Timothy actually acknowledges it.  Super cute in his own lunatic way.

Go Herzog (the director and narrator)!  Go Timothy! Go Bears!

Lord of War (2005) - No Gay Content

Mediocre movie.  A pity, because it had some pretty interesting, even if a little tired, political insights regarding guns (against them).

In the movie, Nicholas Cage sells guns to all sorts of rogue governments, fueling nasty wars everywhere.  He loves his family and his wife, played by Bridget Moynaham.  She is the only acting in the movie; Nicholas was just not there.  Neither was his brother Jared Leto.  I guess you can rent the movie, but don't expect much.

Nothing for our gay movie review.

Stay (2005) - LightShed 6

Better than mediocre, but not quite good. 

Here, Ewan McGregor is a psychiatrist.  Ryan Gosling becomes his suicidal patient.  Naomi Watts plays Ewan's girlfriend, she is an artist.  Ryan is an art student.  Ewan goes on a quest to prevent Ryan's suicide.  There's some crazy stuff in the middle of it all.

We have a bit of gay content.  In one scene, Ewan is reading a great review of Ryan's art work, and Naomi is able to guess that the review was written by a professor who is famous for sleeping with every cute boy in class.  If you think about it, the gay content is not so nice because it involves a professor sleeping with a student.  Not too ethical.  But Naomi says it in such a matter-of-fact and non-judgmental way that I couldn't really see it as negative.  So, I'll consider it a plus.

Also, in one scene, Ewan is looking for Ryan and he goes to talk to Athena, a girl who is possibly Ryan's girlfriend and may be able to help Ewan in his quest.  She is in the middle of a mini-rehearsal for Hamlet, and after the rehearsal is done, Ewan asks her if she is playing the role of Hamlet.  She says she is because it's a lesbian version with only women in the cast.  She was kidding, but I'll take it as positive content anyway. 

The real Athena was not easy to find.  All Ewan had was a first name and the fact she worked in a diner on this particular street.  So Ewan goes around several cafes in that street to find her.  Before getting to the real Athena, he finds a very butch Athena, working as a butcher.  Ewan didn't even ask if she was the right Athena or if she knew Ryan, he left right after he laid eyes on her, maybe because she was too ugly for Ryan, or maybe because she was obviously not interested in guys.  Anyway, we had no hard evidence on the butch Athena, so I'll leave that scene out of our gay review.

There were some good, mellow, tunes in Stay.

You can rent the movie, it'll keep you interested, just don't expect a Memento.