Will Ferrell (right) and Jon Heder star in ‘Blades of Glory,’ a film about two figure skaters who decide to compete as the first male pairs couple. (Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures)
advertisement
advertisement
|
Friday, March 30, 2007
Hope might normally spring eternal, but that’s not the case in this year’s gay cinema lineup. The options are few, leaving gay movie lovers to scramble to art houses for short runs or troll the internet for DVD releases.
Hollywood is up to its usual tricks with movies about gay men who aren’t really gay. Yawn. “Blades of Glory,” released nationwide on March 30, is another sports-related Will Ferrell vehicle, but instead of “Talladega Nights’” white-trash car races, “Blades of Glory” is all about that bastion of closeted homos everywhere — figure skating. Ferrell and Jon Heder (who boasts a slew of dubious second-tier credits but is best known for playing Napoleon Dynamite) play figure skaters who end up getting into a knock-down, drag-out at the Olympics. The boys are banned from skating for life, but they discover a loophole that will allow them to hit the ice again — pairs skating.
This scenario allows for all manner of gay-related jokes, and it will be interesting to see what direction the film takes. “Talladega Nights,” which featured gay character Jean Girard played by Sacha Baron Cohen, surprisingly never stooped to ridiculing gay men with any sort of pubescent teen viciousness. With luck, “Blades” will follow that lead, but it could go either way.
An honest-to-goodness gay film hits theaters in D.C. on April 13 in the guise of “Boy Culture,” based on the novel by Matthew Rettenmund. A story of the ubiquitous gay male quest for love and sex, “Boy Culture” follows the main character’s first-person voice-over narrative of his romantic maturation process. “X” (Derek Magyar), so titled because no one is allowed to know his real name, is a high-end hustler who picks and chooses his 12 clients.
He lives with Andrew (Darryl Stephens, the titular character on “Noah’s Arc”), who’s newly out, and Joey (Jonathon Trent), a young queen with a good heart. Like many urban homo roommates, they’ve cobbled together a strange family unit, but with X falling in love with Andrew and Joey in love (or at least lust) with X, things start getting as tangled as a Chekhov play in the posh apartment.
Thrown into this mix is Gregory (Patrick Bauchau), one of X’s new clients, a 79-year-old man who won’t have sex with X until the hustler wants him back. Intrigued, X meets with the man to chat about life and learns that Gregory had a long relationship with a man who recently died. This romantic story becomes a vision of hope for X who is trying to figure out how to make a real connection with Andrew.
The title of the film is telling, as every character, regardless of actual age, is working through being a boy.
“There’s so much to talk about as far as growing up, where the line is,” says Q. Allan Brocka, the 34-year-old director. “Even Gregory … is completely stunted and playing the weirdest game.”
Brocka’s film alludes to the commonly held belief that most gay people undergo their hormonally fraught adolescence whenever they come out.
“Straight people are able to have their first crushes when they’re eight or nine,” Brocka says. “ They go on the first dates at 11 and 12. With Gregory’s generation, [being gay] was kept hidden for his entire life.”
Each successively younger character in the film, X and then Joey, has a different experience with emotional and sexual maturation because of the changing cultural attitudes toward sexual orientation.
On a variety of levels, “Boy Culture” isn’t the typical white, young, hottie-boy gay flick, and Brocka intended it to be that way.
“I’ve written seven screenplays and one of them got made,” he says. “It’s the only one that didn’t have a lead character of color.”
Casting Stephens as one of the roommates was a departure from the book, which didn’t describe Andrew as a black man.
“I sat down with the producers and said I can’t make another all-white movie,” says Brocka.
During the casting process Stephens had yet to air the first season of the hit Logo show “Noah’s Arc,” so he was still an unknown to the gay audience. Since filming “Boy Culture,” “Noah’s Arc” has gotten into its second season, and Stephens played a very un-Noah like role in last year’s popular gay film “Another Gay Movie.”
The actor says he sees “Boy Culture” as an opportunity to move beyond the often-segregated subcultures of so-called “gay communities.”
“I think a lot of people will probably come into this movie and say, ‘Oh, shit there’s a black guy on the screen,’ or black people will come and say ‘This is Darryl from “Noah’s Arc” — what’s he doing with all these white people?’ I’m hoping people have the opportunity to see beyond the race and see this story is about two people.”
ONE WORD OF warning this spring season: The film “Pride,” which opened on March 23, seems to be getting a lot of play in gay media. Even Logo has a teaser for the film on its web site. The blurb admits that while “Pride” isn’t about anything even remotely gay, “It stars Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac and great-looking guys in trunks!”
The movie’s posters do seem to target gays with well-chiseled young men mugging and reveling in their shirtless Adonis states. But remember, the film is about a swim team, so the skin-baring isn’t gratuitous. Gay moviegoers might want to keep in mind that Howard is a Jehovah’s Witness who readily admits to thinking gay people are sinners — along with thieves and liars.
On March 12, online news source the Post Chronicle quoted Howard’s commentary about gay people in reference to a discussion on gay rappers.
“Do I agree with homosexuality? No, I’m a Bible-based young man. But I know the Bible also speaks about homosexuality with liars, adulterers, thieves. I’ve lied, I’ve cheated on my wife, I’ve stolen. So how can I judge somebody for something that’s mentioned in the same exact scripture?”
If gay people need a good eye-candy movie, perhaps they should stick with a film whose star doesn’t spout homophobic twaddle.
INDIE FILMS USUALLY take up the gay slack of Hollywood, but if none of these come to a theater near you, they’ll probably quickly make it onto DVD. “Color Me Kubrick” is currently in theaters and follows the real-life story of Alan Conway, who, during the early ’90s, pretended to be film director Stanley Kubrick. (A review of the film was published in the March 23 edition of the Blade.) John Malkovich stars as the eccentric alcoholic Conway, and the film is already on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment.
Gay director Gregg Araki, who helmed “Mysterious Skin,” premiered his newest work “Smiley Face” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which starts touring the country on April 20, is about a stoner who goes on a pot-induced adventure across Los Angeles.
“Death at a Funeral” goes into wide-release on April 27. A British family is forced to confront its patriarch’s gay past when his unknown lover arrives. Rupert Graves, who played the lover boy in the film version of E.M. Forester’s “Maurice,” is part of the cast, as well as the handsome Matthew McFayden who played Mr. Darcy in the lauded 2005 remake of “Pride & Prejudice.”
Although not exactly a gay movie, there is certainly something queer about “Offside,” directed by Jafar Panahi. Since 1979’s Iranian Revolution, the country’s women have endured a host of strict Islamic dictums. One of them is that women were banned from soccer matches. In “Offside,” a group of young women decide to disguise themselves as men and enjoy the game. Of course, nothing goes easily for the ersatz boys, but there will be no spoilers here.
|
