Queer Beacon

Ghost Town (2008) - No Gay Content

In Ghost Town, Ricky Gervais plays a dentist who has major issues with people. After dying for 7 minutes during a surgical procedure, he starts seeing dead people, one of such people is Greg Kinnear's character, who wants Ricky to prevent Greg's wife (Tea Leoni) from marrying this jerk (played by Billy Campbell).

The premise is preposterous but the movie is actually quite good. Ricky's delivery is very very good, and I'll just about see any movie with Greg Kinnear (he looks like my hubby).

We don't really get any gay content, except perhaps for this one comment from a naked guy (played by Jeff Hiller).  The naked guy is dead and his ghost is after Ricky Gervais to ask for a favor.  One time, the naked guy mentions the guy Tea Leoni is supposed to get married to (Billy Campbell's character) is cute. Not really gay, but I thought I'd mention it.

Gone Baby Gone (2007) - Shipwreck 4

I am quite impressed with Ben Affleck's directorial debut.  I think he put together a great movie: dialogs are meaningful, regional accents are done right, the plot is full of twists and turns, and, more important, the acting is first rate.  Pretty much everybody does very well -- Amy Ryan, who was unknown to me, kicked ass as a trailer-park trash mom whose little daughter goes missing.  Casey Affleck (I always liked him) is also very good as a private dick out to help the search for the missing girl.  Ed Harris, who can be excellent, was a little off -- I'm blaming Affleck; but, still, great job.

As expected from trailer-park crack-whores, the mother homo-curses a few times (mostly 'faggot').  She is pretty much alone though; so, the light for the gays is not that bad.

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]

A Good Woman (2005) - No Gay Content

Mediocre movie.  It starts off really bad, but it gets a little better.

I cannot believe they managed to screw up -- they had a great plot and a nice cast (Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson). 

Helen Hunt was also a lead here.  I love her, I do think she is pretty, but she was not the right one for this role.  She is supposed to steal Mark Umbers from Scarlett.  No way Jose.

The movie is based on Lady Windermere's Fan, from Oscar Wilde, so you can expect some awesome lines.  Too bad the delivery was not there.

No gay content :-(

I guess you can rent this, but don't expect much, at all.

Game 6 (2005) - No Gay Content

Awful movie.  Michael Keaton sucked hard.  Such a pity, I thought that he was sort of making a come back since White Noise (which was pretty good), but this will probably set him back.

Here, Michael Keaton is a playwright who loves baseball.  Michael skips the opening night of his play to go see the 1986 World Series.  Robert Downey Jr. is a ruthless critic who will watch the opening night.  Boring.

Don't bother with this piece of crap.  Ebert & Roeper gave this movie Two Thumbs Way Up.  I say Two Thumbs Way Up my butt.  Ops, that didn't come out right.

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!

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) - LightShed 7

The movie tells us the story of David Strathairn’s character bringing Senator McCarthy to justice in connection with the communist “threat” and finger pointing. The movie is pretty good, and Strathairn’s performance is excellent.

The whole movie provides a welcomed criticism to our current day politics of scare and reap votes, and it was quite nice to see an interview Strathairn’s character had with Liberace. In the interview Liberace is asked about a girlfriend and he lies, he says he is waiting for the perfect girl, bla bla. Within the criticism of the movie you can actually make a parallel with today’s politics and the use of gays to gain votes in a nasty way. Well done George Clooney (although I would of course have preferred something more explicit in defense of the gays).