Sunday Drive: Golden

A short film by German director Kai Stänicke that you will like:

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Trick

Steve Hayes reviews the 1999 gay romantic comedy, which your Head Trucker saw some years ago and heartily recommends, not least for Steve's own hilarious rendition of "¿Como Te Gusta Mi Pinga?":

Tori Spelling, Christian Campbell, JP Pitoc, Miss Coco Peru and “Yours Truly” spend a hilarious and romantic summer night in Manhattan in Jim Fall’s classic Gay comedy TRICK (1999). Shot on location with an original script by Jason Schaeffer, the film deals with a young gay composer and a hot go-go boy who hook up. During the course of an evening, they try and find a place to have sex, without much success, and despite numerous obstacles, including themselves, they wind up falling in love. Sweet, sexy, romantic and endlessly funny, TRICK is the perfect way to spend an autumn evening. “It’s big. It’s beautiful. And you’re gonna love it!”

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Maurice

Steve Hayes reviews the 1987 gay romance:

James Wilby, Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves turn in subtle and brilliant performances in Merchant Ivory's adaptation of E. M. Forester's romantic gay love story, Maurice. Published after Forester's death and hidden for decades, it concerns the romance of a two young men at Cambridge at the turn of the century, what their love affair costs them and how they manage to find peace and happiness in a society which forbids, admonishes, and punishes them for their inclinations. Gloriously photographed, meticulously directed, and exceptionally cast, it is one of the greatest and most honest love stories ever filmed.

What I Say: Your Head Trucker has written before in the Blue Truck about reading the newly published novel one weekend when I was 17, and what a seminal experience that was in my young gay life - seeing all my deepest feelings portrayed in print for the first time.

But although the film is indeed beautifully photographed, it left me cold: I just could not believe that the three leads could actually be attracted to one other, despite their best attempts at acting that way. So the movie was completely unconvincing from first to last, for me: as if they were all just reading the lines but not feeling them. (For the record, all the other Merchant Ivory films were likewise disappointing, for the same reason - lovely to look at but played without real emotions, and deadly boring to watch.  I would have thought two gay guys could have done better on that score.)

Maybe one day it will get remade with actual gay actors who can deliver the umph of passion and attraction that this version lacked. What did you fellas think of the movie, I wonder?



Catch more fabulous movie reviews at Steve's YouTube channel.

Bridegroom

Just debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York:

BRIDEGROOM is a documentary directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that tells the emotional journey of Shane and Tom, two young men in a loving and committed relationship — a relationship that was cut tragically short by a misstep off the side of a roof. The story of what happened after this accidental death– of how people without the legal protections of marriage can find themselves completely shut out and ostracized– is poignant, enraging and opens a window onto the issue of marriage equality like no speech or lecture ever will.

Your Head Trucker can relate. For the background to the story and more movie info see bridegroommovie.com.

The Celluloid Closet

My truckbuddy Frank has posted a clip from a new documentary about the late author and activist Vito Russo over at Reluctant Rebel; which reminded me of this documentary, now posted in six segments on YouTube, of Russo's Celluloid Closet, a survey of how gays were depicted in film during the past century.  Fascinating stuff; and as Frank says, should be part of the required viewing before anyone gets their gay card.

You might be surprised at how much gaiety some filmmakers managed to slip past the censors back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Here's segment 1, narrated by Lily Tomlin:

Cary Grant - "I've just gone gay!" - in the
screwball comedy Bringing up Baby, 1938

The Loving Story and the Wedding Dance

A couple of new films your Head Trucker recommends.

The first one, I'm a little behind time on: it premiered Tuesday night on HBO. Using newly discovered archival footage, it brings to life the principals in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia, which by a unanimous Supreme Court decision invalidated all remaining laws against interracial marriage in 1967.




The second one is a complete short film by Eliot London, and you will need a hanky for sure.




Support London's new feature-length film about a bullied gay teen here.

All About the Boys in the Band

Young'uns today have no idea how shocking this poster was in 1970.

The other day I stumbled upon this short feature on the making of The Boys in the Band, the play and the movie, which is a fascinating piece.  I well recall hearing about the movie, somewhere around the summer of 1970, at the time when I had just realized a few months earlier, to my horror, that I was gay.  Lots of sensational movies had come out in the late sixties, but this one seemed like the most shocking of all - though in truth, as one of the participants in this documentary says, there is nothing pornographic to be seen in the film.    It was just the very idea of a whole movie about those - those - ugh, those nasty, ugly, filthy degenerates - those h o m o s e x u a l s ! - that was enough to fill everybody with disgust. 

Including me.  As a young, frightened, totally isolated gay teen living way to hell down in the provinces, I was nowhere near ready to embrace my gayness - or, God forbid, let anyone else think I was gay.  I used to pray every night for years that God would never, ever let me even meet a homosexual, lest I be tempted to, um, do something with that kind of wicked sinner.   It took a long time to get over that brainwashing, and in fact, it was another ten whole years before I came out, my senior year in college.  I don't recall whether the movie actually played at any of the theaters in my small city, but I would have just as soon signed a pact with the Devil as go see it, if it had.

Still, as Leslie Jordan says about some other things in his growing-up-gay autobiography, I was totally repulsed at the thought of this movie . . . but fascinated by it at the same time.   Many years later, somewhere around 1986, I happened to find a paperback edition of the script in a used-book store - and was captivated by it.  Not only is it very funny in places, and a well-crafted story, but I was also struck by its verisimilitude:  the dialogue, the sayings, the bitchy attitudes, the personalities, all are so true to life, and still very much with us.  Which helped me realize that gay people in earlier times probably talked and acted much as we do today - there is a gay personality that runs through us all, though we may emphasize one facet or another of it individually.

One amazing thing I learned from this feature is that four of the actors were straight men - can you believe?  If you haven't seen the film in a while, go watch it on YouTube, or get the disc from Netflix, and see if you can guess which ones aren't really gay.  You may be very surprised with some of them.  Sadly, most of the gay guys died later, in the AIDS epidemic.  But the film lives on, preserving a slice of pre-Stonewall gay life for the ages.  Thank God we now have happier endings to look forward to, especially the younger generation.