Chasing Pavement (US 2015)

The Gist:

A well known successful gay porn star who is making plans to leave the industry needs a new roommate. A Japanese immigrant looking to break into the tech industry needs a place to live. They move in together and realizations are made as boundaries are crossed. 

Comments:

The movie is okay. It's not really that bad, though it's also not exactly good either. 

Best thing is that there are some interesting ideas tossed around, such as the porn dude having submerged his 'real' self in favor of his porn persona for so long that there's nothing "real" left of him. He's just a shell of a person with all depth and humanity worn away. An interesting thought, though nothing much is done with it. 

A lot of the movie is like this, an idea is introduced, but not really addressed in much detail. 

Another issue is the dialogue. Everyone, especially the porn star lead speaks in the style of "listen to how  intelligent I am." Unfortunately it all comes off fake, since people, even smart people don'f talk like that ALL the time. It sounds like an expectation of what smart people sound like rather than how they actually speak. 

The stilted way he talks helps with the idea that the porn star is all artificial surface, though I'm not sure that was intentional. 

More oddness is how the porn star is supposedly leaving the industry to become a chef. Other than one line stating this, there's no indication it's happening. Well there is a scene  of him reading a text book, but for a would be chef, he rarely cooks or shows any interest in food. 

The subplot with the new roommate also goes against this leaving porn behind idea, since the new roomie is hired to work on putting together a website for the porn star's services to expand his "business." A job that results in the introverted, straight roomie watching porn staring his new extrovert gay roommate. A situation that leads exactly where you think it will lead. 

Issues and unsurprising story aside, not much happens here. People talk smart. Talk smart more. Then talk smart even more as everyone present, porn star's, friends, clients, and roommates all lead their lives of lies and artifice. 

So yeah, not terrible, just not overly interesting either. 

Women: 

There are two women in the movie, both seen from a distance voyeristly, one has some dialogue so following my rules of "counting as yes if it's a speaking role then, yes.... barely 

People of color: 

Yes. Very much so. One of the better things in the movie is that everyone isn't a white gay man. 

Gratuitous Nudity: 

butt shots and simulated sex

• Director: Matthew Doyle
• Writer: Mathew Doyle
• Actors: Remy Mars, Tokio Sasaki, Antonio Biaggi
• 82 min
• IMDB

Cherry Pop (US 2017)

The Gist:

A straight white man becomes a drag queen as it's his last chance to sing onstage. Comedic stuff not related to that happens. 

Comments:

Apparently straight white drag queen facing and overcoming prejudice from queer, mainly non-white drag queens is a queer movie subgenre. A somewhat boring one, for me at least, since "straight white dude enters queer people of color dominated space and overcomes prejudice to succeed" is not exactly a story I am personally interested in.

Main storyline aside, pretty much all there is to the movie is intentionally cheap n tacky jokes. Queens who hate each other, a queen with a mother in denial that her son Is gay, an ongoing thing about an older queen grieving her dead lover. Yes, that last bit counts as humor.

Truth is despite boring me a little, the movie is competent in telling it's jokes and succeeds in doing what it promises to do, providing an opportunity to see assorted RuPaul alumni and other more or less famous drag queens on screen. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No 

• Director: Assad Yacoub
• Writer: Nick Landa
• Actors: Lars Berge, Mayhem Miller, Detox, Tempest DuJour (if not obvious, drag names of the actors) 
• 79 min
• IMDB

$30 (US 1999)

The Gist:

For his sixteenth birthday, Scott’s father gives him the gift of an hour with a prostitute (young Sarah Gilbert).

Comments 

A short film where we have a closeted boy being given a prostitute for his sixteenth birthday by his apparently clueless father. Clueless because the father has no idea about his son. The "present" is not some sort of perverse "cure" for gayness, but rather something the father feels is normal to do for his son to become a "man."

The situation is messed up and the movie acknowledged this as the kid and prostitute talk and make a connection.

It tells a lot in it's short timespan and is worth a watch. 

Women:

One (out of three roles)

People of color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Gregory Cooke
• Writer: Christopher Landon
• Actors: Sara Gilbert, Erik MacArthur, Gregory Itzin
• Short film
• 20 min
• IMDB

Best Day Ever (US 2014)

The Gist: 

Facing a midlife crisis on turning fifty, David examines his life and considers ending his current unfulfilling relationship in a favor a starting something new with man he just met who is fifteen years his junior. 

Comments:

A man dealing with a midlife crisis and dealing with his own hangups about dating younger men has potential to be interesting. This movie however doesn't quite make it the entire way to interesting, stalling out somewhere between "meh" and melodrama. 

Part of the problem is casting and writing. David, the man turning fifty, has a boyfriend described as being financially successful, but what we actually onscreen see is an actor who seems miscast in the role and who despite (or maybe due to) saying things like "this deal is coming together," shows no actual evidence of having money. The only part of his characterization that comes through is that he's such a terrible jerk that the conclusion of the movie (stay with boyfriend or leave him) is never in question.  

Another problem is that the boyfriend is not the only inconsistent character. The lead simultaneously wants to have money and also doesn't care about money,  content to “merely” be okay and make movies (he's an indie filmmaker). However, instead of coming off as a real conflicted person, he just comes off as a wishy washy not entirely well written character. 

The main issue though is that while seeming a very personal, being an indie movie about an indie filmmaker, it feels very separated from any actual real life experiences. At least in terms of of the lead's personal life and relationships. He doesn't want to date a younger man, but why? He's settled for being in a "bad" relationship, but why? Has being part of a generation of gay men where AIDS happened right as they came of age affected his expectations of getting older? 

There are no answers provided.

There's potential for an interesting movie about queer men facing life and relationships as they face life after 50, but again this movie doesn't quite reach that potential. 

Women:

No

People of color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

Quick butt shot

• Director: Jeff London
• Writer: James Handshoe, Jeff London
• Actors: Mel England, Tom Saporito
• 82 Minutes
• IMDB

Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate (US 2018)

The Gist:

In the previous Hurricane Bianca movie,  a teacher who had been fired for being gay got revenge on his nemesis Debbie, via his drag persona Bianca. This time around Debbie is back in town and comes up with her own overly complicated plot for revenge, sending Bianca to Russia where she will be sent to a gulag for the crime of being gay.

Comments: 

The movie is terrible. The first flick wasn't very good either, but it at least managed to hover on the edge between being bad and merely meh due to having an actual plot, almost having something to say about discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and a certain odd naive charm (mainly due to being new). 

Those mild positives are all missing here, leaving the sequel a mess of not particularly funny, obvious jokes and odd situations that throw out any idea of resembling reality. 

The movie has several throw away guest appearances (Wanda Sykes, Sally Jessie Raphael) and adds new RuPaul Drag Race queens to the mix, including Katya. I normally love Katya, but not so much here. Her normal style of stream of consciousness humor is only evident in outtakes shown during the credit sequence. During the actual movie she doesn't do very much despite being a relatively major character. 

Unless you have need to watch everything remotely Drag Race related, the movie is pretty much skippable.

Women: 

Yes 

People of Color: 

Yes

Gratuitous nudity: 

No 

• Director: Matt Kugelman
• Writer: Derek Hartley, Matt Kugelman
• Actors: Debra Ward, Richard Martinez, Brian McCook
• 85 minutes
• IMDB

Elijah's Ashes (US 2017)

The Gist:

In order to meet the demands of their father's will and not lose the family house, two brothers, one gay (but not too gay), and the other, a homophobic ass, must take their father’s ashes to be buried in another town, so drunken anger filled roadtrip ensues.

Comments (with spoilers because I can’t be bothered to generalize/hide boring plot points ) :

It seems there are lots of people who like this movie, finding it witty and fun. I found it ‘meh.’ Meaning that I didn't think the story was engaging or funny. An issue for a dark comedy. Thing is, if you can think of funny situations involving a road trip to transport ashes to a cemetery, you’re probably thinking of funnier things then happen here. It also doesn't help that the 'dark' aspect of comedy is thrown out at the very end for an attempted uplifting ending that doesn't entirely work and feels out of place. 

My main issue with the humor is the jerk homophobic brother is relentlessly so, so his dialogue is pretty much just an ongoing unstopping stream of bad gay jokes, mingled with misogynistic jokes. The character being an ass is not the issue. It's that the jokes go on and on to the point where the impact fades and he becomes not so much a shocking and outrageous terrible person as much as boring. 

The gay brother isn’t much more interesting. He’s played as the regular guy ‘straight man’ so to speak to the jerk brother’s crassness. His 'schtick' is that he’s dealing with internalized homophobia (spoiler) so has issues of his own to deal with. Something that could make him interesting, but doesn’t since the only thing done with this is have him try to sleep with a woman for some reason (another spoiler) and be withdrawn and dull. A detail which makes a recurring joke odd. Nearly every man they meet on the trip is not only gay but also  really ‘into’ the gay brother, which is not so much funny as unbelievable that anyone would be into such a sullen dud of man.

There is als a very problematic bit involving an overly long joke about a trans woman prostitute. Part of the "humor" is that everyone, jerk brother, gay brother and others, refer to her as “It.” So very funny... not. 

All a long way to say I did not find the movie funny or interesting, so the best I can say about it is that the acting is adequate.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

An Asian bartender and an African-American pimp. Yes, the hooker has a black pimp... 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Writer: Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Actors: Ari Scheider, Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Time: 87 minutes
• IMDB 

Call me By Your Name (US 2017)

The Gist:

In the warm carefree summer days of 1983 in Northern Italy, seventeen year old Elio falls for his father’s latest grad student intern, confident charming Oliver.

Comments (with an attempt to minimize non-obvious spoilers):

As of this writing the movie is getting praise, nominations for awards, and is showing up on best movies of the year lists, deservedly so. Not absolute praise though. While largely loved by professional critics, I do know people who felt the pacing was far too slow.

I don't agree with this critique, but then again i've been known to like "slow" movies. At least I do  when done well and the pacing is for a purpose, which is the case here. The story mirrors the time it takes for the two young men to go from attraction, to hestant flirting, to love, in a manner that echoes summer itself, both languid stretched-out warm days and simultaneously far too short as the end of freedom and return to 'real life' looms ever closer.

So yes, this is not a fast paced sitcom romance dramedy. Rather it's a story of youth's summer love, that by definition must soon end leading to a sense of hesitation, desire and achingness throughout the story.

In addition to the critiques of length / boredom, there's also been criticism of the relationship itself, because of the ages of the protagonists, seventeen and twenty-four. Not surprising given the events unfolding at the movies time of release, of accusations against individuals and growing acknowledgement of a culture of sexual abuse by men in positions of power against women (and younger men).

Aside from them both being over the Italian age of consent, so both "legal," there's also the fact this is not a story of abuse of power, sexual or otherwise, but rather a love story. Granted they aren't the same age, but given the way Elio and Oliver are written and portrayed they aren't that far apart, in some ways being almost the same person, both filled with the arrogance of youth. Another complaint i've seen, that the leads aren't likeable enough.

Which well, they are both far too full of themselves, but again they are both young men from a certain background of higher education, of "comfortable" moneyed class, and again, young, so this is understandable.

This is starting to sound like I didn't like it very much which isn't correct. I thought the movie was great. One of the best of the year, It is beautiful, well acted, well directed, and also rather sensual, filling you as viewer with not only gorgeous imagery, but managing to convey a sense of smell, heat, and touch as well. Not an easy feat for a movie.

Some scenes, including a specific monologue and one that plays out over the closing credits were enough to bring tears to my eyes, and from the noises I heard, made several people in the audience I saw it with cry.

It is definitely worth seeing.

Women:

Yes

People of Color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

There is some minor stuff happening, for both guys and girls, or more specifically one guy and one girl. Was it gratuitous? Possibly?

• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Writer: James Ivory
• Actors: Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet Stuhlbarg 
• 132 minutes
• English, Italian, French
• Note: I’ve not read the book it is based on, so have no observations about the transition from word to film, but the movie did succeed in making me interested in reading it.
• IMDB

Gaydar (US 2002)

The Gist: 

Randy comes across the ultimate yard sale find, a “gaydar” gun that can tell if a person is gay or straight. Something that would come in handy in figuring out the facts about Jack, the cute man at work that everyone, gays and women alike, has a huge crush on. 

Comments:

A comedy short film where gaydar, the ability to tell if someone is gay or not, is not only real, it’s a goofy looking handheld appliance.  

There’s appearances by Charles Nelson Reilly and Jim J. Bullock, and the lead Terry Ray is amusing as our childish fey lead. In truth there’s not much to the story, just goofy silly fun.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Larry LaFond
• Writers: Larry LaFond, Terry ray
• Actors: Terry Ray, Bryan Dattilo, Charles Nelson Reily 
• Short film
• 20 minutes
• IMDB

Homo Heights (US 1998)

The Gist:

Gay icon Malcolm (Quentin Crisp), beloved by all the people of Homo Heights (an apparent all queer city) is not so secretly a prisoner of Maria Callous (Stephen Sorrentino), drag queen leader of the gay mafia.  

Malcolm wants to leave, womanizer Clementine (Lea Delaria) wants her old girlfriend Stella back. Stella wants her new girlfriend Blanche to be less annoying. Nerdy reporter Tootsie wants a scoop. 

Comments:

This is an odd duck of a movie. It is a high camp comedy that despite the implications of those adjectives is not merely loud and obnoxious, but also at times fairly calm and subdued. 

Calm being the result of casting of Quentin Crisp, who was in his late eighties at the time, and filled his his scenes with softness and muted elegance as he more or less plays himself, quoting Oscar Wild and acting somewhat bemused by everything around him as his character waits calmly to leave the earthly plane behind. 

Despite sounding like an odd combo, some of the best scenes here involve Crisp and Delaria playing off each other. There seems to be a genuine fondness between them. Stephen Sorrentino as Maria Callous is also amusing as the drag queen mafiosa. 

There's not much to the story, at least to the main story of holding Malcom against his will. While there's a bit more to the Clementine romance subplot, actual plot seems besides the point here, which is letting Quentin Crisp just be his fey self, interspersed with humorous scenes of lesbian dramedy and gangster drag queens.

The movie is quirky and doesn't entirely work, bouncing back and forth from loud and wacky to smooth and creamy, and yet I'm really fond of it. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

A couple of drag queens 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Sara Moore
• Writer: Sara Moore
• Actors: Quentin Crisp, Lea DeLaria, Stephen Sorrentino 
• 92 minutes
• IMDB

Majorettes in Space (Des majorettes dans l'espace (France 1997)

The Gist:

In a filmed lecture we are told of heterosexuals, homosexuals, cosmonauts, majorettes, the pope, and AIDS. 

Comments:

This is a French (very) short film using filmed scenes, stock footage, stop motion animation, and the convention of a dry education video to make simultaneously amusing yet no fucks given 1990's AIDS activist era commentary on the injustice / ridiculousness  of the church’s / society’s reaction to AIDS. 

It’s very short, only a few minutes long and does a good job at what it sets out to do.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

There is brief full nudity, presented as banal, yet simultaneously in your face confrontational, so gratuitous is not the best word for it 

• Director: David Fourier
• Writer: David Fourier
• Actors: ELise Laurent, Jean-Marc Delacruz, Olivier Laville
• French
• Short film
• 6 Minutes
• IMDB