Queer Beacon

A Single Man (2009) - LightShed 10

I always thought Colin Firth was kind of sexy but never really bought him as a hunky romantic lead.  Until now. Colin shed a few pounds and borrowed some of the sexiness that Tom Ford, the director of A Single Man, oozes; only Colin flaunts it in an entirely British way -- the way that'd make you surprised after you realize how much sexual energy can be buried beneath a well groomed surface.  

Colin is so well dressed and proper that it's often hard to believe the people in the movie who tell his character that he looks awful.  In A Single Man, Colin is a college professor in the 60's who finds it unbearable to deal with the death of his boyfriend of 16 years, played well (in flashback scenes) by Matthew Goode.

The movie captures one day in the life of Colin's character, a day when he is ready to just give up. We see him teaching a class, meeting a couple of random guys and partying with his British friend, played by Juliane Moore. The guys are all younger than he is and could be considered hotter, I guess, but, as you might have sensed from my description of his looks above, everyone wants Colin in this movie (and you would too). Colin's character is not some sort of sexual predator or married guy who goes for guys. He is just a gay, lover, suffering.

The portrayal of an intelligent, sexy and perfectly normal gay professor (though closeted by his times) is great for us.  We also get a scene with a painful reminder of the discrimination gays suffered back in the 60's and continue to suffer: Colin learns about the death of his longtime companion through a phone call from a cousin, placed in secrecy -- Colin is not allowed to go the funeral. Ouch. And, though we didn't get one gay actor to play any of the main roles, at least we got a gay director.

The movie is excellent and so is Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. You should certainly go see this instant classic.

District 9 (2009) - No Gay Content

Did you guys see the reviews for District 9? They are incredibly positive -- best reviews of a sci-fi in a long time. And you better believe the hype. I went in with high expectations and they were met.

In District 9, Sharlto Copley is a mid-level employee of an agency created to oversee an area that serves as housing for over a million aliens that crashed in Johannesburg.  Aliens have been in the area for 20 years but need to be moved to another, "safer," location. While serving eviction notices to the aliens, some crazy shit starts to happen to Sharlto.

There's a tiny bit of negative gay content. In one scene, Sharlto's character discourages a colleague from wearing some sort of protective mask while serving the eviction notices because those masks are for "sissies." I'll let that slide...

(500) Days of Summer (2009) - LightShed 5

This was cute. As in "cuuuuuuuute."  I read about how this movie was supposed to be so refreshing and all that shit -- and it isn't, it's just good. Period. Very well done, acted, produced. The only mildly "daring" thing in the movie is the fact that the guy is made to suffer, not the girl. Big deal.

In (500) Days of Summer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves one more time that he is one of the best actors around. He is a geeky sweet dude who falls for Zooey Deschanel -- the girl who no doubt is into all sorts of freaky shit -- but not really.  If you look closely she's just a big cock tease who never really dated or allowed herself to fall head-over-heals for someone else.

 

We have some gay content.  There are a few coments about this or that thing/situation looking gay or a girl being a lesbian -- all sort of on the neutral to negative side. But then, when we learn about the few relationships Zooey had been in (and enjoyed), we learn that at some point in her life she lezzied with a girl called Charlie. All recounted in a cute, sweet way, no judgment. Go bisexuals! Enough to make this movie a positive one for us gays.

All About Steve -Trailer

I have actually been a fan of Sandra for some time now. Bitch can even act (see Crash). This trailer, which I saw with the husband just before Funny People (review to come), is adorkable. Plus: me loves the Bradley Cooper (the fact that his face is shapped like a "c" -- either that or whenever I see his face they had just done one of those bad photoshop whirlwind effects -- actually adds to his charm, I think). Oh, and there's a little gay content in the trailer:

I'll certainly see this one.

I Love You, Man (2009) - LightShed 8

Finally another movie with Paul Rudd and good gay content. For all the gay buzz Paul Rudd gets, he has actually been in some pretty gay-bad movies (Knocked-Up and Role Models come to mind -- both of which have "faggot" slurs and other jabs at us gays).

Things went our way in I Love You, Man.  In the movie, Paul Rudd plays a recently engaged guy in a quest for a best man; Rudd is a girl's-guy and has no male friends. In his quest toward Jason Segel he meets Reno 911's Thomas Lennon, they go out to dinner. It turns out Lennon is gay and thought he was going on an actual date (as opposed to a man-date) with Paul Rudd...at the end of the date Thomas kisses Paul, he actually leads with the tongue (you can see that on the main theatrical trailer). Paul is surprised but takes it nicely. So, that's our first gay content.

A little later into the movie, we learn Paul Rudd has a gay brother (played by Andy Samberg).

The gay brother is a pretty butch personal trainer. Our gay is an actual guy's guy. The portrayal is very nice, the gay brother is Dad's best friend and even coaches Paul Rudd in the straight art of getting a wing-man.

 

You should see this one. The movie is funny even if Paul Rudd's constant attempt at creating fun catchphrases gets old early into the movie, but he drags on...

No Voice for 'Milk' in Brazil

Soon after the Oscars were announced, two pieces of news came out that reminded us about the homophobia all around us. In one, we found out that Asia blotted out the mention of "gay" in Oscar acceptance speeches (read about that at Towle). In the second, and this I haven't seen elsewhere on the English blogosphere, the guy who usually provides the voice for Sean Penn in Portuguese dubbing -- his name is Marco Ribeiro, refused to do his work because of the gay theme of the movie. The guy is an evangelical christian (ta dah! surprise!) who had no problem taking on other roles that went against is church's teachings (from Mike Myers in Austin Powers to Tom Hanks in The Da Vince Code...).

Good articles have been written about the issue in Portuguese, I think the best one is here.

[h/t Fabinho]

Oscar night - Got Milk?

I'm preemptively turned off from the ceremony this year. I just don't want to have my heartbroken again (Brokeback was the first time). I think Milk will get no love from the academy, and that shouldn't, but it does, hurt me and my gayness. The movie deserves a few major awards but won't get any,I don't think. Well, here's to the little part of me still hoping. Break a leg, Milk! Bring home at least one little golden guy.

Frost/Nixon (2008) - LightShed 5

Frost/Nixon is a great movie, but I don't think it deserved an Oscar nomination for best film.

In this movie, Michael Sheen plays David Frost, an entertainer who scores a major interview with Richard Nixon (played by Frank Langella) soon after his defenestration.

My major problem with the movie, and I hope I'm not giving too much away, is that I felt there was not enough time for Frost (who had been upstaged and beaten to death by Nixon's trickydickyness for 4 out of 5 interviewing sessions), to be able to pull a Rocky and defeat Nixon in the last round with no real or meaningful chasing-the-chicken moments. That was a bummer for me. The acting is awesome, though. Langella is fantastic, and so is Sheen.

The movie has gay content, at least I thought so.

It actually was something that kinda held the movie together in a sense.  When Nixon is trying to study his opponent before the interviews, he notices Frost is wearing loafers and there's a whole back-and-forth on the subject between Nixon and his adviser...Nixon's adviser, played by Kevin Bacon, suggests the shoes are too effeminate -- the homophobic innuendo was pretty clear to me. Nixon had liked the shoes, apparently was actually challenged by the notion that shoes could come with no laces, but is easily led to see the shoes for what they are: gay.  At one point Nixon mentions the shoes to Frost as being something effeminate -- this as a way to bully Frost; put in him in his place, Nixon's bitch.  But Frost doesn't bite the bait and at the end even gives Nixon a gift:  a gay shoe, and Nixon seems to like it. I was ambivalent about the whole thing, but I thought it all was neutral to positive in the end.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - LightShed 7

I wish we lived in a wold where, if they couldn't come up with a movie like Benjamin Button, they just wouldn't make a movie at all; we would have the guarantee of being completely swept away to another world for the price of a movie ticket. Seriously, movie-making doesn't get any better than this; and, if you ask me, I don't think this movie was nominated for enough Oscars (but for one or two scenes here and there -- which we could have done away with -- the movie is perfect).

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt is a guy who is born old and grows younger with age. That superb circumstance allows the movie to portray the impossible and heartbreaking love story between our aging-challenged Brad Pitt and a person aging as we all do (played by Cate Blanchett). I started crying at the scene when a 7-year old Cate sees the old-looking Brad for the first time.

The acting is superb across the board (Cate easily deserved a nomination for her role here).

We had a tiny bit of gay content. In one scene, Cate Blanchett tells Brad that there are a few lesbians in her dance company and that one of them proposed sleeping with her, she seemed proud of that, she was very non-judgmental -- and so was Brad's character. Nice. Later on, when we see some of the people within her dance company, you could see some guys who could have been gay (ok, I'll say it: they looked pretty gay) -- but we don't really know that, so I'm leaving that out.

 

You absolutely must see this movie.

Harry Connick, Jr. + Beard = Must See Movie

I would never see a piece of shit of a movie like this if it weren't for this man and his beard:

Sign me up!