GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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Gay
Life
 
In Memory Of 
Mike
Maffei |
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I love a good mystery. Pornography: A Thriller, the debut film from writer/director David Kittredge, is a surprisingly intelligent, albeit confusing, mystery and ghost story revolving around the disappearance of a gay porn star. It is sexy, it is sometimes scary, and the rug gets continually pulled out from under the viewer's feet. By the end of this strange roller coaster ride, it will no longer be clear what is real and what is not. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night. Fans of David Lynch, especially his enigmatic Mulholland Drive, will find much to admire. |
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| It is a scenario that was once too familiar. An elderly gay man or lesbian lies dying in the hospital while homophobic family members deny visitation rights to a longtime companion. That is one of the conflicts driving the drama in Hannah Free. Sharon Gless (Queer As Folk, Cagney and Lacey) delights her longtime lesbian fanbase by finally playing a Sapphic sister on the screen. She steals the show as a boisterous old tomboy who wants to see her lover again one more time before she dies. Rachel wanted conventionality, Hannah sought adventure and thrived on change. Their relationship somehow survived into old age, despite a heterosexual marriage, WWII, an affair and finally family members in denial. | |||
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| Oral histories are important. Swimming With Lesbians, a radical documentary by Rochester filmmaker David Marshall, chronicles many of the important voices that have emerged from my native Buffalo, NY's eclectic gay, lesbian and transgender history. The film's Mistress of Ceremonies, Madeline Davis, is one of Buffalo's leading players on the GLBT stage. She is the founder and curator of the Madeline Davis GLBT Archives Of WNY. Davis made history when she addressed the 1972 Democratic National Convention at the age of 32, identified herself as a lesbian, and demanded the inclusion of a gay rights plank. Folks, it didn't all happen in New York City and San Francisco. | |||
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| Brokeback Mountain is the Citizen Kane of queer cinema. Some films make an impact on their first release only to be forgotten later. This one has lost none of its raw power. Brokeback Mountain was the breakthrough film that we awaited for decades. It was an exquisitely crafted movie, a critical and commercial success, and a surprise crossover hit. Conservative pundits and the family councils all went into apoplexy, jokes were made by comedians, and the mythology of the American cowboy underwent a major revision. But, above all, Brokeback Mountain was a love story that resonated with audiences both gay and straight. | |||
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According to popular
legend, playwright Tennessee Williams underwent psychoanalysis in 1957
to "cure" his homosexuality and the play Suddenly
Last Summer
was the result. This is inaccurate; the truth is much more complicated
than that. Many view Suddenly
Last Summer,
especially the film version, as being one of the ultimate artistic
expressions of a self loathing queer. The inclusion of a negatively portrayed
homosexual is hardly proof of this; Williams' fiction is populated with
far more grotesque examples of heterosexuals. |
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| Edwardian
England was not a good time to be gay. The climate was so bad that
noted novelist E.M. Forster began writing a book with a homosexual hero
in 1913 that he never published in his lifetime. That book, of course, is
Maurice
and, in 1987, Merchant Ivory Productions adapted the book to the screen.
The film
features superb performances and a meticulous attention to period detail.
It is a rich filmgoing experience and one of the most beautiful films in
all of queer cinema. |
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