S/D: Gay movies of arty qualities

Fire Island doesn't look good, obviously, but I don't see why contempo gays don't deserve a Spring Break or a Where the Boys Are '84 of their very own.

Spring Break was already plenty queer.

(Spring Breakers)

https://worldfilmgeek.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/springbreak-still.jpg?w=816

OK, that looks gayer.

A gay Netflix series of non-artful qualities, Heartstopper, is the best gay thing I've seen in a while.

I was curious if that was worth a watch ... I prefer the Hulu show Love Victor (more or less) to its major motion picture antecedent Love Simon.

I just read the first volume of the Hearstopper graphic novel, and have the other three on hold at the library. I'm not sure how much the first season of the series (or is it a "limited series?") covers, but I'm thinking I should hold off on starting the series until I finish up the books.

It covers the first two volumes. A friend praised the fidelity to the source.

What'd you think? As I wrote on Facebook, I grinned from ear to ear by the time I reached the last episode's revelations. Nice to see bisexuality given a boost too: no equivocations, no this-is-just-a-way-station bullshit.

I also appreciated how Nick Nelson might be one of the few recent genuinely nice characters successfully presented.

The first volume was really sweet. It may border on slight--although I am told the series eventually moves beyond just two boys making goo-goo eyes at each other--but I nevertheless appreciate its (relatively) angst-free presentation of queer joy.

Except for Nick's mom (nicely played by Olivia Colman) the parents are non-entities; however, Charlie's friends are fully fleshed out.

hoooooly shit I just watched ZERO PATIENCE (1993), a very wacky and surreal musical in which noted explorer Sir Richard Burton drank from the fountain of youth and lives forever and is making a documentary about AIDS' Patient Zero? Please watch this. It's on Criterion Channel at the moment.

That's been a blind spot of mine for years and years. Will happily check out soon.

Daniel Craig plays an outcast American expat who lives in Mexico, and Drew Starkey stars as a younger man with whom he becomes madly infatuated, in Luca Guadagnino’s next film ‘QUEER.’

Filming begins this month in Italy. pic.twitter.com/jfUiDC2QAG

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) April 21, 2023

I detest cheap sentiment.

Or a book full of clippings?

Or a salted peanut.

Daniel Craig leaning into gay roles now makes good on how hot he was in Enduring Love and Munich

and Infamous, the first movie where I went hubba-hubab.

this would make for a fun movie tie-in version of the book, if that's still a thing

Passages proving surprisingly divisive amongst my Letterboxd gays

Your response?

(I watch it on Saturday)

Still on my to-watch list, sadly, but I expect it opens here before too long. Meanwhile, I'll be reviewing Rotting in the Sun soon enough.

(Oh crap, Passages has opened here. Will try to see it this weekend.)

i enjoyed it!

Another gay arty short I've seen tons of enthusiasm over: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-taking-of-jordan-all-american-boy/

I really liked Passages too. Must've been the Ira Sachs thread that I posted on.

Ira Sachs has quietly created an intelligent little gay oeuvre

he really has

He’s one of the under-the-radar directors whose films I’ve recently enjoyed getting to know, like Celine Sciamma (who was not talked about much until the last few years), Eliza Hittman, and Jessica Hausner. I don’t think any of those directors have taken a wrong step yet. All of their films have been very understated but also interesting

I would put Ulrich Seidl in that category as well, and maybe some others. His films aren't gay as such but have a very queer sensibility

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/t-magazine/gay-villains-white-lotus-ripley.html

I watched Weekend (2011) tonight. Pretty good!

Well, except that Weekend is still within the last 10 years and I know it's too normcore and hetero for the room but fuck off and enjoy it.
― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Wednesday, March 28, 2018 11:32 PM (five years ago)

ibid

I really loved Passages - Franz Rogowski is a force of nature.

I also loved L'immensita, a semi-autobiographical Italian trans coming of age story by Emanuele Crialese, which has got otherwise mixed reviews. Everyone has focused on Penelope Cruz, but the non-actor kid in the central role is sensational.

I agree with everything, except I also liked Penelope Cruz in that movie.

All of Us Strangers splitting my arty gays about as much as Passages did. When was the last arty gay movie that got universal arty-gay praise?

The majority of arty gays are wrong about All of Us Strangers btw. I loved it.

why didn't the arty gays like Passages?

A sampling:

What’s worse, the ego of the filmmaker in the movie or the ego of the filmmaker making the movie?

is this person hot enough to justify their horrible behavior?: the movie

This is a major problem for contemporary film culture in which actors are hired for their social identity and limited to it. Gay actors are bamboozled into invasive, distasteful postures the same way black actors are bamboozled into defensiveness. They are forced to find their way through politicized stereotypes according to the era’s fashion — where their humanity and creativity have been traduced and politicized.

This desolate view of hapless people is extreme, consistent with Sachs’s interest in sexual compulsion (The Delta, Keep the Lights On), but it also smacks of humorless, radical progressivism. Pedro Almodóvar’s self-critical Pain and Glory was also emotional, erotic, and funny, with a wonderful, fully fleshed performance by Antonio Banderas and a range of lovers holding on to their humanity. But instead of bringing his characters close, Sachs brandishes topicality: After Thomas and Martin’s last squabble over infidelity, Sachs features a West Hollywood rainbow-flag poster that blares,“No More Abuse of Our Rights, Dignity,” “Police Officers Not Storm Troopers,” “Blue Fascism Must Go,” and “Stop Illegal Search and Seizure.”

Those slogans are clearer than the relationships in Passages. These progressive libertines are miserable yet smug. Sachs salutes their headlong independence in the closing sequence where his camera tracks alongside Thomas’s bicycle ride across Paris. It’s also smug, recalling Woody Allen running through New York streets at the end of Manhattan but without the Chaplinesque payoff. Sachs has not perceived or created recognizable people in Passages but is selling politicized sexual types — perhaps, ultimately, a misperception of homosexuality. It’s like an adult version of Disney’s grooming agenda. Is this a harbinger of social propaganda to come?

OK you got me, the last one's 4rm0nd

Disney's grooming agenda

of the three samples eric posted: first one i don't get (sachs is hardly the fassbinder type?), second one is weaksauce "critique" (someone was horrible? in a movie???), third one is...well, armond

I also liked All of us strangers - hard to resist if you grew up in the 80s suburbs listening to Pet Shop Boys. Kind of a queer spooky sibling to Eternal Daughter.

Mescal and Scott did a q&a at my screening and their mutual affection was almost as moving as the film!

i recommend paul b. preciado’s new godardian recasting of woolf’s orlando into the current-day trans milieu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGFplNRUmc

Def my favorite key art of the year

Man, Saltburn sounds awful