Queer Beacon

Flushed Away (2006) - LightShed 5

By Guest Reviewer ultranow

Flushed Away taught me so many things:  Hugh Jackman is still cute even when in the form of an animated rat; Sir Ian McKellen still brings forth gay even when in the form of a villainous toad named, actually, Toad; Kate Winslet, who once again puts in some boat time, can bring believability to even the most improbable circumstances; and claymation, the look of which is sporadically utilized, most notably with a doo-wop chorus of slugs, is always impressive, putting even the most high tech animation to shame, even if ironically it’s that high tech animation which created the claymation look.

Hugh Jackman stars as Roddy, who goes from living in a mansion, or most pointedly in a cage within that mansion, to being flushed down the toilet by an interloper and down pipes and down the sewer and down down down to Ratropolis, bizarrely a fun, happening place, literally a bizarre bazaar.  From capitalism to barter, and he’s got nothing to offer, except saving the whole darn place.

Going from a living in an exclusive zip code to being flushed down the toilet - it’s the animated equivalent of Shannon Doherty’s career, and based on disappointing grosses is also the equivalent of her movie career. Should have been called Ratropolis, which would have simplified matters and brought in at least an extra $25 million.  Or possibly just Charming Mini Hugh Jackman in a Tuxedo.  I adore movies with that title and so would the world.

Hugh Jackman’s Roddy, though decidedly heterosexual, does at the beginning of the flick count dolls as his only companions.  This is not so much gay as pathetic.  He is also in possession of a wardrobe which includes Elvis, the Vegas Years, and Wolverine, the kind of inside joke I hate.

Why does Sir Ian McKellen’s Toad read as gay?  Purple and pink paisley robe, yellow ascot, pinkie rings, excellent manners, general fastidiousness, and most of all, hatred of rats.  When he does change to a suit, it’s similarly purple, with a yellow tie, pink shirt and pink pocket square.  He possesses what he perceives as fine collectibles, building on the film’s theme of perspective.  What can each tiny object in the lives of humans be utilized/seen as from a rat’s or frog’s or other small creature’s point of view.  What is more important, fine objects or family?  He also possesses maniacal genocidal plans, making him Joan Crawford gay.

This picture was heavier on child-friendly slapstick and puns than on the tricky multi-layered dialogue found in many animated pictures seeking to capture adult and youth markets.  That said, a fair bit of the slapstick was ingenious, and puns don’t hurt as badly when delivered by a Sir. The slapstick involving Toad and his hapless assistants was particularly engrossing.  Who knew tongues could stretch so far?

Kate Winslet’s Rita is the heart of the picture, offering companionship that dolls can’t, offering family that Roddy needs.  Plucky female on boat.  Consider her Keira Knightley in pants, with the must have belt of the moment, at least as far as Toad’s evil plans are concerned.

This is jaunty fun.  The best part is how Robin Williams isn’t in it.

Flushed Away will be released on DVD on February 20.

Small Town Gay Bar (2006) - LightShed 10

By Guest Reviewer Pam's House Blend

At the last NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, I saw small town gay bar, a documentary by Malcolm Ingram (it was exec produced by Kevin Smith, yes, the director of Clerks). It was a wonderful look at what social life is like for gays in the rural South. I mean really rural -- the two Mississippi bars profiled were in Shannon (pop. 1,657) and Meridian (39,968). Durham, for comparison's sake has an estimated pop. of 204,845.

Watching this film is like going back in time if you live in a progressive area or large city; the closet is a necessity here, as you might imagine. Being out can be a death sentence for these people. The bar is their only refuge, their only time to let their hair down, be themselves and feel safe to be who they are, as gays, lesbians, trans, black, white -- all that matters is that you know you aren't alone. Drag queens had a home to perform out and proud at Rumors and Crossroads (now called Different Seasons).

The audience howled as Ingram interviewed the unhinged Rotting Cryptkeeper^TM Fred Phelps. Fred was his animated self, talking about "fanning the flames of fag lust" and it was clear he's energized and surprised by "all the fags that come out to protest him."

The Phelps Klan picketed the funeral of Scotty Joe Weaver, who was killed right next door in Alabama. The 18-year-old out gay teen, known to many at the Mississippi bars, was murdered by a trio of backwoods homobigots; he was tied to a chair in his trailer, beaten, stabbed, and partially decapitated. His body was dumped in the woods and then set on fire. No wonder these people remain closeted.

And since this is Mississippi, Ingram had to stop by the HQ and nexus of homohate, Don and Tim Wildmon's American Family Association, which is in Tupelo. Interviewees said that Tim Wildmon and the AFA had people scoping out a local bridge in a small town in Mississippi taking down the tag numbers of people who were going over the bridge to go to the gay bar.

The next day on his radio show, Don would read the tag numbers on the air. This, he said, "would keep people accountable." Evil does exist.

One of the queens in the film (who does drag at the bars by night and is a veterinary tech by day), and the sister of one of the bar owners, said that the Wildmons are a bunch of hypocrites because they have a homo sitting right there in the family circle.

And that's no surprise, is it?

You may ask, why on earth do these gay folks stay in these tiny towns? They are subjected to the possible loss of a job if someone outs you, shunning by family, or worse, you end up like Scotty Weaver. Kate and I talked about this for a while [QB note: Kate is Pam's wife], but it's pretty clear that for many gays in rural areas, their fear of living in a hostile world like this is actually less stressful than the thought of living in a large, urban environment. The "big city" for them may be a 2-3 hour drive away, and it seems an inhospitable, cold place in comparison to the world they know and make for themselves. back home, hidden in the shadows of bars tucked away, deep in the woods.

It's both easy and difficult to understand. But the overwhelming theme running through this film is that we are everywhere. No matter how tight the bible belt is pulled, your tiny town has LGBT citizens, and they are making their space. The battle for survival and to be out in small towns is the last frontier. It's coming, and people like Wildmon are desperate to lean on that closet door to keep it firmly shut with their hate tactics. In the end, these fundies are going to lose.

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.

Sherrybaby (2006) - LightShed 5

Very good movie, excellent performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Brad William Henke (he is the actor who played a lovely gay teacher in Must Love Dogs).

In Sherrybaby, Maggie plays a drug addict fresh out of prison who wants to reconnect with her daughter.  While she was in prison, the daughter stayed with Maggie's brother, played by Brad Henke, and his wife, played by Bridget Barkan.

Our gay content comes in a scene in which the sister-in-law asks whether Maggie did it with a girl in prison, to which Maggie replies: no.  The conversation and the tone of the response were pretty neutral, non-judgmental.

Sherrybaby is just out on DVD and you should see it, Maggie's performance got her a nomination for a Golden Globe (she lost to Helen Mirren, though).

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno - 2006) - No Gay Content

By Guest Reviewer Jimbo.info

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, creator of Blade II, Hellboy and Mimic gets serious with Pan's Labyrinth, but doesn't discard his skill with fantastic visuals.  Contrasting childhood wonder with the horrors of reality, he brings us into the two worlds of an 11-year-old girl living through the Spanish Civil War.

In the girl's fantasy world a faun gives her three tasks that will allow her ascendance to her true father's side. As her tasks grow more difficult, so do the challenges of real life with an ailing mother, a vicious stepfather, and keeping a dire secret. Sergi López plays the girl's stepfather, a cruel fascist captain, with disturbing alacrity that I hope gains him deserving recognition.

This film is definitely one to see in the theaters if it makes it to your town.

Official Website, here.  Interview with Guillermo del Toro in The A.V. Club, here.

Children of Men (2006) - No Gay Content

What a piece of crap.  Children of Men is unwatchable, I cannot understand the many great reviews the movie got. I disagree with them all, the acting was bad and the story was boring (save for this small subplot involving a rich guy and his son -- but that was it).

In Children of Men, people are living the last days of what turned out to be a chaotic, dirty, greasy, somber future.  Women can no longer conceive, so civilization is set to end soon.  But there seems to be hope (ha!), and Clive Owen is brought in to help out.

I already wasted two hours with this movie; I won't waste more time with it.  No gay content :-(

Notes on a Scandal (2006) - Shipwreck 4

Judi Dench rocked me.  In Notes on a Scandal Judi delivered one of the great performances in movie history.  You can actually see the classic status settling in with each line she delivers.

We'll have tough competition this year in the best actress category with the performances from Helen Mirren, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Hudson and now Judi Dench.  Judi was born to play this bitter bitch.  The acting and the movie are superb; the light on the gays, not so much.

In Notes on a Scandal Cate Blanchett is a daddy's girls who goes into teaching after raising her two kids.  She befriends Judi Dench, who teaches at the same school, and before you can say Mary Kay Letourneau, Cate puts out big time for a student.  Judi learns about the secret and blackmails the shit out of Cate while delivering wry pieces of her mind to us viewers, she narrates most of her thoughts.  Awesome.

The writing is superb and Judi delivers like Domino's.  A lot of people complain that movie adaptations usually fail to capture the essence of a book, and that complaint usually makes sense; if anything because books can give you a gateway into a character's mind and thoughts, you read about what the character is feeling at every moment, feelings are spelled out; but when those feelings are all spelled out onscreen (if they are at all) what was beautiful in the book can become quite annoying.  Gladly, this is not the case here.  Seriously.  The adaptation fromt the book is great.  The movie is perfect, I would not change a thing. 

I will talk about the gay content in the movie but that will give away too much of the plot.  So, read on or go see Notes on a Scandal, now!  Despite the not so great light for the gays, I strongly recommend that you see this movie.  It is just that good.

[SPOILER AHEAD]

Dreamgirls (2006) - No Gay Content

The movie could easily be called Dreamgirl, and that girl would be Jennifer Hudson.

Bitch got two ovations during the movie.  She made me cry a few times, not so much because of the emotional depth of her character or story, but because of the sheer power of her voice and performance.  Simply amazing.  I really hope you can see this movie.

I loved Dreamgirls.  Loved it.  It took me a while to get into it though; the first few scenes with Eddie Murphy bothered me, they were a little over the top, but aside from that, I think the acting was solid and everybody was great, including Murphy, after I got used to him.

As you should know by now, Dreamgirls is the much awaited adaptation from the musical of same name.  In the movie, we see three sisters trying to make it in the music industry.  The three sisters are played by Anika Noni Rose, who plays the weakest link; Beyoncé Knowles, who plays the beauty with a good voice; and Jennifer Hudson, the jumbo-sized train-wreck with a truly unique talent.  Jamie Foxx is excellent as a tough and evil manager who favors Beyoncé.  He is all business.  Jamie also manages Eddie Murphy a singer and womanizer who gives the girls their first break.

Dreamgirls is not the best musical out there, I much preferred Chicago and Moulin Rouge to speak of two recent examples, but I still thought it was outstanding; it didn't even bother me so much to have the characters break into song while arguing, something that would usually make me leave the theater pronto, cursing.

I must say I went into the movie wanting to hate Jennifer's performance.  I wanted to hate it because of her homophobic stance towards her audience.  She basically said we are sinners and later issued a statement saying she doesn't judge.  Get it?  We are sinners indeed, she didn't deny that, but we can still be friends with her and give her our money...I believe she is about tolerance, not acceptance.  Not nice.

Anyway, I have to give it up for her performance, the acclaim for which seems to be unanimous.  The movie, however, got pretty mixed reviews.  If you want to read the views of someone who did not like the movie you should read Rich's review (it has major spoilers, be warned).

The soundtrack was pretty good.  You may consider getting "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" and "I Am Changing," both performed by Jennifer -- those were the two songs that got Jennifer applause from my theater.

Happy Feet (2006) - No Gay Content

By Guest Reviewer Jimbo.info

An official holiday season panel of two gay men screening the animated feature ‘Happy Feet’ unearthed no evidence of gay penguins in the film. While there is a message of the importance of being happy with your individuality amongst sameness, if there was a specifically “gay” subtext in there, our panel missed it. Lots of people feel different, gays among them, but it doesn’t mean this movie is pushing any gay agenda. Think ‘Footloose’ with penguins and you’ll get the idea.

The film is about an emperor penguin named “Mumble” who was born without a distinctive “heartsong,” but he does have an uncontrollable habit of tap dancing in lieu of the ability to sing.

This leads to his inevitable exile from the penguin colony, which sends him on a journey of self-discovery and exploration. On his journey Mumble meets voracious predators, friendly penguins and humans.

The movie opens trying to be like an Antarctic ‘Lion King’ with a trippy visit from a spectral ancestral penguin-spirit in the opening sequence. That was just plain weird. Then it turns around and tries to take a crack at being a clever Baz Luhrmann musical, replete with attempts at witty pop-culture medleys, but fails at this as many of the songs are too obscure to immediately recognize. Plus it’s been done before, and using computer-generated penguins doesn’t help deliver the genre quite right. Then it gets serious, adding an eco-drama element, but by then we’re all quite confused about what the film is trying to be. PowerPoint presentations are best delivered by wooden former politicians, rather than by fuzzy CGI penguins.

As I watched the movie it struck me that some Hollywood executive saw ‘March of the Penguins’ and thought some of them acted like various international stereotypes, depicted with bad accents by a long list of voice-over celebrities. Since the exec thought Robin Williams was funny in ‘Aladdin’ he had to include him too. Williams is the voice of two characters in the film whose accents are often indistinguishable, and I felt embarrassed for him as I did when he chose to be in ‘RV’. I guess he has kids to send to college.

I wouldn’t take the niece and nephew to go see ‘Happy Feet’, and the other gay panelist - a children’s CGI movie fan - wasn’t impressed either. We both walked away thinking that the film tried to deliver too many messages and missed out on the fun along the way. Just when the music started fly, some morality lesson was put in. Even the spectacular computer-generated landscapes were interrupted by one persona change or another. Throughout most of the film, even the kids in the theater weren’t laughing much, and I enjoyed my Cookie Dough Bites and Cherry Coke a lot more than the film.

The only gay content in ‘Happy Feet’ was the inclusion of a k.d. lang song in the soundtrack. And possibly one soft-spoken penguin in the colony could have been interpreted as gay, but without further cloacal and behavioral examinations of the bird, we are unsure if this was in fact a gay penguin.

Hard Candy (2006) - No Gay Content

Hard Candy sounded pretty interesting, but it's just mediocre.  In the movie, Patrick Wilson plays a pedophile who is in for a big surprise from one of his victims.  The victim is played by Ellen Page.

I didn't like the acting in the movie, and Wilson can be good, he rocked as a trophy husband in Little Children.  I'm blaming director David Slade. 

We had no gay content, except for a brief mention of Jodie Foster by Ellen Page, but I won't count it as lesbian content just yet, I'll wait for JoFo to come out of the closet.

I was glad the pedophile did not prey on boys (Ellen Page did look pretty androgynous though). 

After all the Foley crap, we need all the distance we can get from pedophilia.  Homosexuality has nothing to do with that perversion and people need to see that.

The trailer is better than the actual movie, but be warned that it reveals too much: