Queer Beacon

Premonition - Trailer

I actually wanna see this:

Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon. 

Premonition opens in March 2007.

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.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno and the Gay Conversion Therapist

One of my very best friends sent me this video.  Watch it:

Sacha Baron Cohen plays Bruno, the interviewer above. 

Sacha also plays Borat, the main character in a movie coming soon.  Borat is racist, anti-Semitic, hates women and gays.  But he is so utterly ridiculous and repulsive that it is easy to despise what he says and does.  There's absolutely nothing likable about him.  But he is funny (in the same way that I think South Park is funny).

[Thanks Dani]

The New York Post Homophobic "Comic" Strip

Complain by e-mail ([email protected]) or call The New York Post and give them hell (212-930-8000).

[h/t Towle]

The Prestige (2006) - No Gay Content

Great movie.  In The Prestige we follow two magicians in a huge cat-fight (sparked by a trick gone bad) in early 1900 London. 

Hugh Jackman, the sassier, classier magician, pulls a trick and Christian Bale, the roughneck genius, tries to out-trick him.  It is all very entertaining, even though I think Bale and Jackman should have solved their beef with a good man-on-man action. 

Anyway, Hugh's acting sucked a bit, but Michael Caine (he plays Hugh's coach/manager) and Bale were pretty good. 

The scenes and special effects were awesome.

We see some of Hugh's chest, but nothing from Christian.  You'll have to get that here. 

No Gay Content.  You can watch the trailer here.

New Jersey and Dworkin on Gay Marriage

By now you will have seen the great news: all 7 Justices at the New Jersey Supreme Court (pictured above) agree that gays should have all the rights and benefits of marriage.  However, the majority - 4 of the justices, deferred to the Legislature the decision on whether the gays are really equal (and we will have marriage) or if we are equal, but separate from the heteros (and we will have civil unions in NJ).  Either way we are much better off with the New Jersey decision than with the decision from other "liberal" states, like New York and Washington.

The full decision is here. 

I wanted to bring some attention to a citation of Dworkin by the minority concurring and dissenting.  The minority of 3 concurred with the majority in that gays should have all the rights of marriage, and dissented in that they think, correctly, that gays should not only have the rights, but they should also have the title, marriage.  The citation is on page 87 of the pdf. 

Ronald Dworkin is the greatest American legal philosopher alive, and here's what he had to say about gay marriage on The New York Review of Books:

"Civil union status may provide many of the legal and material benefits of marriage, but it does not provide the social and personal meaning of that institution."

There are other problems with the term Civil Unions, but Dworkin's argument is awesome.  I liked Dworkin before (I actually just lead a seminar on his ideas on my Ph.D.) but now he is the man.  You should really head over to The New York Review of Books to read Dworkin's take on gay marriage.

Go New Jersey!  Go Dworkin!

The Fountain (2006) - No Gay Content

Unbelievably boring.  I could not at all engage with The Fountain.  The movie is well made in a technical sense I guess, it's not at all a crappy, sloppy joint, but I thought the story was so boring.

This piece of shit has three parallel themes going on.  The movie deals with love, death and spirituality, and they go back and forth between the issues and stories, it's annoying. 

We have Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz figuring out how to squat the Spanish Inquisition, then Hugh is trying to develop a cure for Rachel Weisz' decease, then he is in a quest to find the tree of life.  Seriously.  The movie spans through hundreds of years. 

This is not even my ADD kicking in, the movie does deal with all of that. 

I saw this at the Vancouver International Film Festival and I can't understand how the audience applauded at the end.  That was fortunate enough though, I bet a lot of people would have been asleep in the theater until now...

Just in case you are brave enough, The Fountain opens wide on November 22.

Gay Crumbs on TV - Brothers & Sisters - Our Gay Gets Some Action

We have been getting some gay crumbs this season.  We got the possible gay on Lost, the gay on The Office; and another possible gay on Heroes (I'll talk about that on another post).  But did you guys see Brothers & Sisters last night?  I think the best gay crumb is on that show. 

Our gay is played by Matthew Rhys, and he already got more man-on-action than Will Truman on 8 seasons.  Don't get me wrong, I am one of those who believe Will & Grace was a true watershed for the gays.  Will & Grace did a lot.  Really.  But it was nice to see our gay share a passionate kiss with another guy (played by Canadian actor Luke MacFarlane).  Will Truman would be jealous.

Gay kiss pics courtesy of Oh la la.

Bobby - Trailer

The trailer for Bobby sucks.  Hard.  But with such a great cast I will have to see the movie.  Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan (bitch can act, I tell you), William H. Macy, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone...it goes on and on.

I saw the trailer before Man of the Year.  The review for that is coming soon.

The Queen (2006) - LightShed 7

What an excellent movie!  I mentioned here earlier that Penelope Cruz should get the Oscar for her performance in Volver, but I will not be mad if Helen Mirren takes it home.

In The Queen, Helen Mirren is Her Majesty, and we get to watch her reaction and behavior in connection with Princess Diana's death.  Yummers!

She actually kinda looks like the real thing.

I remember the day of Diana's death well.  I bet a lot of people do to.  I was awaken in my law school dorm in D.C. by crazy students hitting on my door and yelling "Diana is dead! Diana is dead!"  I couldn't believe the hysteria.  And this was Washington, D.C.  Can you imagine what it was like in the U.K.?  If you can't imagine, you have got to see The Queen.  It's all there.

We had bits of gay content.  We see that Diana went to Gianni Versace's funeral and we see that she was close to Elton John.  Both big flaming gay homosexuals.  Also, at one point, Prince Philip is all mad about the media giving the royal family a hard time for not showing sorrow for Diana's death, and he complains that the list of guests for Diana's funeral was full of 'homosexuals.'  Philip is shown in a very bad light in The Queen, perhaps the worst light in the movie, so, his homophobic remark fits him well.

Run to the theaters!  You should not miss this one.