Indie Films and Little-Known GLBT gems from Hollywood

And while we are on the subject of Brokeback Mountain and Making Love, I have a few other GLBT- related movies to recommend.

Boys Don't Cry:  Hilary Swank in an Oscar winning performance as transgendered teenager Brandon Teena; Chloe Sevigny also shines as the girl who falls in love with Brandon even while suspecting that he may not be what he seems.

The Boys in the Band:  The first "gay movie" to be made by a mainstream director (William Friedkin of The Exorcist and The French Connection fame), this landmark adaptation of Mart Crowley's off-Broadway hit play is brought to the screen with the entire original stage cast intact.  The minimal plot revolves around a group of gay men who gather for a friend's birthday party and the uninvited guest who may or may not be a closet case.  Some feel that this movie has dated badly since it was first released in 1970, but for those of us who are old enough to remember those days, it remains not only relevant but an important historical document of gay male social life at the time.  And it is loaded enough witty and bitchy dialogue to make anyone laugh out loud.

Longtime Companion:  the first major AIDS drama is a fierce and poignant tale of a group of gay men told over the first ten years of the epidemic.  Bruce Davison (in an Oscar-nominated role) is particularly memorable as a man who watches his partner succumb to the ravages of the disease.

Philadelphia:  this one is a companion piece to Longtime Companion which derives most of its power from Tom Hanks's Oscar-winning performance as a lawyer battling both AIDS and the law firm that fired him for having the disease.  Director Jonathan Demme does not quite live up to the promise he showed with The Silence of the Lambs; instead of focusing his camera directly on the events that move the picture along, he plays it safe.  Antonio Banderas is well-cast as Tom Hanks's partner, but his role has been obviously cut, and the way they relate to each other seems at times like apair of college buddies living together.  And much too much screen time is given to the homophobic ambulance-chasing attorney (played withconsiderable charisma by Denzel Washington); still, this is in the last analysis a courtroom drama, and once we actually get IN the courtroom, the film becomes a devastating statement about AIDS, fear, and homophobia in "old boy's clubs" such as some law firms.  Mary Steenburgen, as the defense attorney, has perhaps the best line in this film when, after cross-examining Hanks in a particulary cruel way, takes her seat at the defense table and mutters under her breath "I hate this case."  You may hate the case too, but Tom Hanks is unforgettable, and in spite of Hollywood sanitization, this remains an important film about GLBT people and about AIDS in particular.

Torch Song Trilogy:  Harvey Fierstein and Anne Bancroft as mother and son; Ma is your typical Jewish mother,insisting on having her own way and trying to make her son live a life she can approve of.  Oh, did I mention that the son in question earns his living as a drag queen?  Brian Kerwin and Matthew Broderick are Fierstein's love interests.  Pure delight!

Latter Days:  a recent independent film that tells the story of a Mormon Missionary and the gay party-boy he falls in love with.  It is sappy and corny and all the things that make straight romances so popular.  As for the lovemaking scenes, this one is far more daring and explicit than either Making Love or Brokeback Mountain, making this one not to be missed!

 

 

 

Brokeback Mountain

Well, I finally saw Brokeback Mountain; nearly a year has passed since this monumental film was released and my only excuse is I am always the last one to see anything.

Director Ang Lee shows once again his marvelous sensitivity for actors.  Just as his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was so much more than a martial arts film, so is Brokeback Mountain so much more than the "gay cowboy movie." 

This is because Lee puts his characters under a virtual microscope and leaves them there; we see all their trials and tribulations up close and personal, which makes this film particularly heartbreaking to watch.

Having said that, however, I must point out that this movie is not nearly as "groundbreaking" as its publicity suggests.  Twenty-four years ago Twentieth Century-Fox made a little film called Making Love, starring Kate Jackson, Michael Ontkean, and Harry Hamlin, which covered a lot of the same ground as Brokeback Mountain did except for the fact that the people in Making Love were upper-middle class city dwellers.  Making Love was the first mainstream film to show two men kissing; I remember when I saw it in a theatre people went "EWWWWW" and some even got up and left when the kissing scene happened.

Making Love was, unfortunately, a resounding flop.  According to some sources I have read, word of mouth was that it was a dull film.  I did not find it dull at all; in fact I was transfixed by it.  Perhaps it was being eighteen and closeted that made the movie capture me so, but I would bet money that a good many gay men felt the same way I did when they saw this movie.

Brokeback Mountain is by far the superior film; unlike Making Love it delves deep inside the character's emotions, giving it a raw quality that the previous film does not have (and probably did not even think to attempt).

As for me, I lovethem both; a double feature of these two films would be not only entertaining but edifying.

 

 

 

 

 

Same-sex marriage case in New York

I was driving home from the grocery store and I turned on the radio; it was tuned to a Christian station that I sometimes listen to and there was a "news report" on the upcoming same-sex marriage case that is to be heard in the New York State Supreme Court. 

The "reporter," his voice positively dripping with disdain, referred to the case no less than four times as "so-called homosexual marriage;" as if the very idea made him want to either laugh or lose his lunch.

I suppose I should not be surprised; I have been hearing the so-called Christian Right's hate for GLBT people for years.  Since the Berlin Wall came down and they no longer have the Communists to demonize, the gay community has become the focus of their irrational fears and insane hatred.  There was really nothing new in what I was hearing on my car radio.

But there is an irony here that makes my blood boil.  These are the same people that have been saying since the 1950s and before that gay people are incapable of sustaining relationships.  They call us sex-crazed and promiscuous, and insist that our relationships do not last.

Now, when we are taking a stand and saying, "Yes, we want to have lasting relationships.  We want to be solid citizens.  We want our loves recognized and validated, and to be seen as legitimate members of society;" they are doing a 180 and denying us the opportunity to have the very committed relationships that they accused us of not being able to form in the first place!

As I said, I suppose I should not be surprised.  And on reflection, I guess I'm not, really.  I just wish these people would make up their minds.  They hate us so much that their hatred has blinded them even to common sense. 

I hope we win the case here in New York; my partner and I will be the first in line for a marriage license.  And if that nauseates some so-called Christians, they can just take some Alka-Seltzer and shut up.