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Gay and Lesbian Films
Here are a few of the growing list of mainstream films with either a Gay
and Lesbian theme, or with significant character treatments. Most
are available from Barnes and Nobel at hard-to-beat prices. Order them
conveniently (and discretely) from a trusted retailer, all in the comfort
of your own home!
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Movie Title |
About the Movie |
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Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert |
From All Movie GuideThe usually-menacing British actor Terence Stamp does a complete turnaround as Bernadette, an aging drag queen who tours the backwaters of Australia with his stage partners, Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Adam/Felicia (Guy Pearce). Their act, well-known in Sydney, involves wearing lots of makeup and gowns and lip-synching to records, but Bernadette is getting a bit tired of it all and is also haunted by the bizarre death of an old loved one. Nevertheless, when he gets an offer to perform in the remote town of Alice Springs, the threesome ventures into the outback with Priscilla, a lavender-colored school bus that doubles as dressing room and home on the road. Along the way, the act encounters any number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, while Bernadette becomes increasingly concerned about the path his life has taken.Don Kaye |
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As Good As It Gets
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From All Movie GuideJames L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) directed this $50 million-plus romantic comedy, set in Manhattan. Dysfunctional, acid-tongued romance novelist Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), who suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes pride in his ability to offend. At a nearby cafe, the only waitress willing to stand up to his sarcastic tirades is Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), a single mother struggling to raise her chronically asthmatic son. In Melvin's West Village apartment building, talented contemporary artist Simon Nye (Greg Kinnear) lives across the hall from Melvin. Simon is the current darling of the New York art world, reason enough to draw Melvin's verbal fire, but Simon's gay lifestyle is further grist for the novelist's malicious mill. These three New Yorkers, none of whom appears to have a chance in hell at finding true happiness, discover their fates intertwined because of the fourth complicated character in the piece, Verdell, a tiny Brussels Griffon dog (played by newcomer Jill, after a 15-week training program). Melvin seems to have no friends or family, and he lives alone, working on his 62nd book. When Simon goes into the hospital after a brutal mugging, Melvin has to take care of Verdell, and the dog actually warms Melvin's cold heart -- to the degree that he sets up unsolicited medical care for Carol's son. Eventually, Melvin is cornered into driving Simon and Carol to Baltimore, and during a hotel stopover, Melvin confesses to Carol, "You make me want to be a better man." The trip becomes an odyssey of self-realization for all three. Locations included Brooklyn's Prospect Park (Carol's neighborhood) and Greenwich Village (where Melvin's building is on 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues). Other exteriors were shot in downtown Los Angeles, where a dilapidated transient hotel at the corner of 4th Street and Main was transformed into the chic cafe where Carol works. Sets for the Simon/Melvin apartment interiors were erected on a soundstage at the Sony Pictures lot. Simon's paintings were created for the film by New York artist Billy Sullivan, whose work is part of the modern art collection at NYC's Metropolitian Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.Bhob Stewart |
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Bedrooms & Hallways
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From Barnes & NobleMale bonding takes on a whole new meaning in the British sex comedy Bedrooms and Hallways. Rose Troche (Go Fish) directed this quirky story of a gay man (Kevin McKidd) who’s dragged to a men’s support group by a straight friend, only to find that his homosexuality creates some interesting complications. There’s a healthy dose of new age parody here: the members of the men’s group take saunas together, beat drums around the campfire at their "wild man" weekends, and pass around harpoons and "honesty stones" to get in touch with their feelings. It all leads to some frank sexual discussions and an atmosphere of shifting sexuality in which a fistfight can turn out to be a prelude to having sex. Some kitschy dream sequences add to the film’s lighthearted tone, and the development of an unusual bisexual love triangle involving Tony Award winner Jennifer Ehle provides the romantic tension. By the end of the film, the characters' real sexual preferences are anybody’s guess.Gregory Baird |
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Beefcake |
From All Movie GuideThis portrait of the man who brought nude male flesh into the American mainstream combines present-day interviews, archival footage, and semi-fictionalized dramatization into a cinematic hybrid. Photographer and filmmaker Bob Mizer (Daniel MacIvor) founded the Athletic Model Guild, or AMG, in Los Angeles in 1945, hoping to turn his fascination with the male physique into a successful business that used nude and semi-nude photographs to sell the services of models to painters and the like. When the photos themselves proved more lucrative than the non-existent modeling contracts, Mizer launched Physique Pictorial. The magazine ostensibly offered bodybuilding tips and moral guidance to young men the world over, but in reality its clientèle included legions of gay men eager for eye candy. With the help of his mother and business partner, Delilah (Carroll Godsman), Mizer parlayed his magazine, short films, and other work into a palatial residence/studio where young men fresh off the bus from Nowheresville could frolic, crash, and earn a little cash in front of the camera (or on the casting couch). Occasional run-ins with the law and stints in prison couldn't deter Mizer from continuing his photography until his death in the early '90s. His models, contemporaries, and associates included bodybuilding proponent Jack LaLane and future Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro, who are among the many men interviewed by filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald. The writer/director/producer intersperses his dramatic and documentary sequences with plenty of actual AMG and Physique Pictorial images. The film's narrative arc, however, focuses on the fictionalized character of novice model Neil E. O'Hara (Joshua Peace), who serves as a stand-in for the audience as he acclimates himself to Mizer's campy, flesh-filled compound and witnesses the photographer's betrayal by another model, Red (Jack Griffin Mazeika). Beefcake was inspired by F. Valentine Hooven III's book Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America, 1950-1970. The scenes of Mizer's trial for pandering were based on transcripts of the real-life Red's courtroom testimony. The character name Neil E. O'Hara, of course, is a joking reference to Neely O'Hara, the ingénue character from Valley of the Dolls.Brian J. Dillard |
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Before Stonewall
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From All Movie GuideThis documentary by Greta Schiller takes a look at the sometimes oblique American acknowledgment of homosexuals in the decades before a historical flashpoint in 1969. Late that year, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village was stormed by police and its patrons arrested -- resulting in two days of rioting. Allen Ginsberg and other celebrities talk about past police tactics, witch-hunts, censorship, and historical "cleansing" operations that violated human rights and civil liberties -- such as routing gays and lesbians out of the State Department. A certain openness about sexual preferences started appearing in the 1920s and accelerated during World War II, eventually culminating in the organized movements of the 1960s and later demanding an end to discrimination. Older and younger generations of gays and lesbians present different viewpoints on a variety of topics, and conflicts or disagreements between gays and lesbians are outlined. The seriousness of the subject of discrimination is balanced with humor, which makes this documentary more accessible to straight audiences unfamiliar with the topic.Eleanor Mannikka |
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Bent |
From All Movie GuideSean Mathias directed this screen adaptation of Martin Sherman's award-winning play about the persecution of homosexuals by Nazis during World War II. In Germany, the Nazi party's program of genocide against any and all perceived "enemies" is coming into full swing when the party begins a violent purge of homosexuals in its membership. Max (Clive Owen), a bisexual playboy, is attending an orgy thrown by drag queen "Greta" (Mick Jagger) and featuring a number of party members when the festivities are raided by the police; Max and his lover Rudy (Brian Webber) escape, but they are later arrested and sentenced to a concentration camp. En route to the camp, Max betrays Rudy and arranges to be given a yellow identification star, marking him as a Jew, instead of a pink triangle, which would signify him as gay; while the Jews are destined to be executed, gay prisoners receive even more brutal treatment from the guards. While incarcerated, Max meets Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), an inmate who proudly wears the pink triangle. Max and Horst fall in love with each other, and Horst's bravery leads Max to accept his sexual identity. Bent was released in two versions; the original cut was rated NC-17 for a sequence featuring strong sexual content, while a trimmed version was granted an R.Mark Deming |
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Better Than Chocolate
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From All Movie GuideBetter Than Chocolate is a lesbian love story. Walking home from an evening at the lesbian club 'Cat's Ass,' Maggie is confronted by a gang of skinheads. Suddenly a minibus comes to a screeching halt and out jumps Kim. The skins move on, and Maggie thanks Kim, who watches her go. This is their first meeting. Maggie has recently dropped out of law school and now works in a women's shop. To avoid a confrontation with her mother, she makes up a success story and tells her that she's living in a beautiful apartment. As her mother is having her difficulties with her second husband, she decides to take her young son and come to live with Maggie for a while. Meanwhile, Maggie is housesitting the apartment of a female performer on tour. As fate might have it, she runs across Kim again and they find themselves at the new apartment making love in the shower -- at which moment Maggie's mother and little brother step in. The film was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999.Gönül Dönmez-Colin |
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Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
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From All Movie GuideTommy O'Haver wrote and directed this gay lifestyle comedy about aspiring photographer Billy (Sean P. Hayes) who encounters rocky romantic roads intersecting among an assortment of Los Angelenos -- handsome Fernando (Armando Valdes-Kennedy), who has a steady boyfriend; blond waiter Gabriel (Brad Rowe), who has a San Francisco girlfriend; Billy's roommate Georgiana (Meredith Scott Lynn); and pal Perry (Richard Ganoung). Entranced by Gabriel, Billy takes him on as a model and introduces him at gallery openings and parties, only to see Gabriel leave for better modeling assignments with well-known fashion photographer Rex Webster (Paul Bartel). Fantasy sequences parody Vertigo, '30s musicals, and From Here to Eternity. Shown at 1998 film festivals, including Berlin and Sundance.Bhob Stewart |
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Birdcage
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From All Movie GuideMike Nichols' hilarious reworking of the classic French farce La Cage aux Folles is a treat, spiced up with additional moments of contemporary political satire. Nathan Lane and Robin Williams are marvelous as two gay lovers who run a South Beach nightclub featuring Lane's female impersonations. Williams has a grown son from a previous marriage, who is engaged to the daughter of a stodgy right-wing politician (Gene Hackman). When it comes time for the two families to meet, the fur flies in an uproariously funny dinner scene which is the film's highlight. Also featuring a wonderful turn by Hank Azaria as Williams' flamboyant chef, whose attempts at "butching it up" for the dinner go scandalously awry, The Birdcage is a delightfully engaging comedy.Robert Firsching |
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Blue
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From All Movie GuideThe first chapter in Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, Blue stars Juliette Binoche as Julie, the lone survivor of an automobile crash that killed her husband, a famed composer, and their only child. Despondent, Julie attempts suicide, but she cannot bring herself to take her own life. Instead, she sets about starting over, purging all remnants of her former existence in an attempt to sever her ties to the past. A piece in the trio of films loosely inspired by the colors of the French flag and their corresponding symbolic qualities, the basic focus of Blue is liberty.Jason Ankeny |
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Boys Don't Cry
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From All Movie GuideBased on a true story, this drama was adapted from the life of Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, a woman who chose to live her life as a man and suffered tragic consequences as a result. In 1993, 20-year-old Brandon (Hilary Swank) leaves Lincoln, Nebraska for the nearby community of Falls City, where she sports a crew cut, favors jeans and boots, and is regarded as a man by most of the people in town. While Brandon's friend Lonny (Matt McGrath) warns her that sexual outsiders aren't looked upon kindly in Falls City, she develops a reputation for being something of a ladies' man, and is soon living with a single mother named Candace (Alicia Goranson). But when Brandon meets teenage Lana (Chloe Sevigny), the two become romantically involved almost immediately. Brandon makes friends with Lana's mother (Jeanetta Arnette) and a burly ex-con named John (Peter Sarsgaard). John and his buddy Tom (Brendan Sexton) run with a rough group of men who like to drink and carouse, and they accept Brandon as one of their own. However, when Brandon ends up in jail on a traffic violation, her secret comes out, and, while Lana stands by Brandon's side, John and Tom feel betrayed -- and their anger soon boils over into violence. A distinguished feature debut for director Kimberly Peirce, Boys Don't Cry was enthusiastically received in its showings at 1999 film festivals in Venice, Toronto, and New York.Mark Deming |
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Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
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From All Movie GuideGreg Berlanti directs this comedic romp about a quartet of gay yuppies looking for love in all the wrong places. Though photographer Dennis (Timothy Olyphant) longs for a long-term relationship, he loves and leaves gay neophyte Kevin (Andrew Keegan) at a birthday party. Dennis' associates aren't faring much better. Apartment mate and hunky actor Cole (Dean Cain) goes through boys like Kleenex, that is until he is curtly dumped by a closeted movie star. Taylor (Billy Porter) is ditched by his longtime boyfriend during a long distance phone call. And Patrick (Ben Weber) generally whines about how ugly he is. Romantic misunderstandings, an obligatory AIDS scare, and a climactic hug-a-thon soon follow. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.Jonathan Crow |
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Celluloid Closet
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From All Movie GuideBased on Vito Russo's groundbreaking 1981 work of film history, The Celluloid Closet gathers clips from dozens of mainstream Hollywood films to illustrate how the movies have dealt explicitly -- and more importantly, implicitly -- with gay and lesbian themes. Layered between the clips are interviews with filmmakers whose works have touched on that subject. The popular films of the Golden Age could only hint at homosexuality and often portrayed gays as simpering characters, objects of scorn or merriment, or insidious villains. With the strictures of the old Production Code loosening, bolder presentations were possible, but often over the objections of studio executives who feared a public backlash against a film that dealt with a long taboo subject. Among the films discussed are Philadelphia, The Children's Hour, Making Love, Rope, and Spartacus. Gore Vidal, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, and director John Schlesinger are among the film's strongest interview subjects.Tom Wiener |
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Coming Out Under Fire
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From All Movie GuideInnumerable homosexual men and women served honorably (and unnoticed) in the armed forces of the United States during World War II, while a great many others were swept up in anti-homosexual dragnets and entrapment schemes. This documentary interviews survivors of both kinds, and shows how it required tremendous courage and determination to cope with the society they found themselves in. Among the highlights are revelations of the ways these individuals had for identifying each other more or less safely, and the efforts many took to ensure that they would be able to serve their country in its time of need, despite the dangers of stigmatization or worse. The documentary is framed by the 1993 U.S. congressional hearings which resulted in the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the armed services, a policy which was calculated to please no one and which was predicted to be a failure before it ever began, opening the gates once more on service-wide anti-homosexual entrapment schemes.Clarke Fountain |
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Deathtrap
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From All Movie GuideSidney Lumet provides another of his film adaptations of Broadway successes -- in this case Ira Levin's 1978 clever Broadway murder mystery that starred John Wood in a triumphant turn as down-on-his-luck playwright Sidney Bruhl. Wood's brittle airiness is replaced in the film version by Michael Caine's smoldering bitterness. Sidney Bruhl is a successful writer of Broadway mystery plays who was at one time considered the Neil Simon of Broadway mystery writers. Unfortunately, Bruhl is now struggling to live up to his own reputation, suffering through a series of four consecutive flops. But then Bruhl comes upon the manuscript of a brilliant suspense drama written by unknown writer Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve). Bruhl, desperate for a hit play, invites Clifford to come to see him, telling him that he is interested in collaborating with him on the play. Actually, Bruhl plans to murder Clifford and pass off Clifford's play as his own. What Bruhl doesn't know, however, is that Clifford has some surprise plot points of his own up his sleeve.Paul Brenner |
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Gods and Monsters
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From All Movie GuideGods and Monsters was promoted from the outset as an artistic drama, but the publicity tended to play coyly on the possibility of a homosexual romance between the retired film director James Whale, played by Ian McKellen and his hunky gardener Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser). While the film does involve romance, the central relationship between the director and his gardener is about the development of a genuine friendship between two outwardly dissimilar but inwardly kindred spirits. In the story, Whale has been living for many years in peaceful, if not entirely contented retirement, under the loving and watchful eye of his contentious and argumentative Hungarian housekeeper (Lynn Redgrave). His earlier celebrity as the director of the original Frankenstein movie and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, results in his being visited occasionally by disagreeable young men who have come to bask in the reminiscences of this creator of two "camp" classics. His reputation as a fairly outrageous homosexual comes into play here, when one particularly unpleasant and effeminate young man comes by seeking cinematic tidbits: the director challenges the boy to a game of stripping off one article of clothing for every revelation he shares about his moviemaking past. He had gotten the boy down to his briefs when he is stricken with one of his ever-recurring bouts of epilepsy, the result of a series of strokes. By way of contrast, while he is clearly interested in his gardener as a sex-object, gradually luring him into ever closer association, the openness and vulnerability of this awkwardly aggressive heterosexual boy inspires him to reveal the history of his heart. It turns out that, like the young man who is modeling for his supposed artworks, he came from a poor and difficult background. By the time naïve gardener learns of the director's homosexuality from the housekeeper, he has been drawn too deeply under the man's spell to stay away from their meetings for long. While the tension between the men never departs, a genuine relationship of caring develops between them. Meanwhile, Whale has been clearly observing the progressive deterioration of his mental faculties, and is increasingly being overwhelmed by vivid memories and visions.Clarke Fountain | |
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Hanging Garden
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From All Movie GuideTen years after he disappeared from his family's life, Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns home to Nova Scotia for his sister's wedding. Despite the fact that he's gone from a morbidly obese adolescent to a thin, handsome, self-assured young man, the reunion proves bittersweet. Although he reconnects with his loving sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) and his Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother Grace (Joan Orenstein), he is dismayed to learn that his parents' rocky marriage has settled into permanent animosity. He also witnesses the toll his absence has taken on his abusive, alcoholic father, Whiskey Mack (Peter MacNeill); his tight-lipped mother Iris (Seana McKenna); and Violet (Christine Dunsworth), the tomboyish younger sister he's never met. The past lingers in the very air of William's childhood home; disturbing visions of himself as both a waifish boy (Ian Parsons) and a fat adolescent (Troy Veinotte) follow him everywhere. And it's not just the ghosts who dredge up the past. Rosemary's new husband, Fletcher (Joel S. Keller), flirts shamelessly with William, bringing back memories of the painful relationship the two shared as teenagers. When Iris disappears, William must confront not only the haunting visions of his past, but also the unfinished business he left behind. The feature debut of writer/director Thom Fitzgerald, The Hanging Garden was the winner of the Air Canada People's Choice Award for best picture and the co-winner of the Toronto-CITY TV Award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Brian J. Dillard | ||
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La Cage Aux Folles
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From Barnes & NobleA wry portrayal of gay stereotypes animates La Cage aux Folles, the superb French comedy directed by Edouard Molinaro. Based on a French stage play, La Cage follows a middle-aged gay couple -- the owner of a gay nightclub (Ugo Tognazzi) and the star of the club's transvestite revue (Michel Serrault) -- who agree to conceal their flamboyantly gay lifestyle in order to impress the parents of the girl the club owner's son intends to marry. Despite the nightclub setting, the transvestite stage show takes a backseat here to the domestic comedy and the superb work of Serrault and Tognazzi, with the latter's low-key performance working as a perfect foil for his partner's marvelously detailed gay affectations. They make a fascinatingly believable couple, and the depth of their 20-year relationship keeps the sex farce from boiling over. La Cage inspired two sequels, a Broadway musical and a Hollywood remake, but the original's effortless, crowd-pleasing charm ensures its place among the classics.Gregory Baird | ||
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La Cage Aux Folles 2
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From All Movie GuideRenato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Albin (Michel Serrault), the internationally popular homosexual couple from La Cage Aux Folles, return in this sequel directed by Edouard Molinaro. In this go-round, Renato and Albin find themselves innocent victims of an espionage ring and become involved with killers when several corpses begin to turn up. They are sought for some missing microfilm and through a series of convoluted circumstances are forced to flee, hiding out with Renato's family on their farm. Once there, Albin becomes an object of lust for a group of lonely farmhands. Benny Luke and Michel Galabru also reprise their roles from the first film. Paul Brenner | ||
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La Cage Aux Folles 3 -
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Lavender Limelight: Lesbians in Film
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From All Movie GuideThis documentary offers an overview of lesbian cinema and contains interviews with several leading lights in the area including Jennie Livingston and Rose Troche. Sandra Brennan | ||
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Lie Down With Dogs
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From All Movie GuideIn this gay comedy, filmmaker Wally White assumes the lead role. He frequently pauses throughout the film to address the audience directly. Most of the film chronicles the protagonist Tommie's summer romance. He was in Provincetown on vacation and looking for a little fun. He needs to find a place to stay and a job. He attempts to work as a houseboy but gets few takers. He does however, find lots of casual sex. He is devastated when his favorite dream guy dumps him after a one-night-stand. This does not keep Tommie from wanting to go back and try again next year. Sandra Brennan | ||
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Love! Valour! Compassion!
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From All Movie GuideEight friends spend three weekends in the country over the course of a summer as they explore their sometimes conflicting attitudes about love, sex, friendship, life, and death in this screen adaptation of Terrence McNally's award-winning play. Gregory Mitchell (Stephen Bogardus) is a successful choreographer whose skills as a dancer have begun to decay as he slips into middle age. He has a handsome summer home in Upstate New York which he shares with his lover Bobby Brahms (Justin Kirk). Gregory and Bobby often invite several of their friends to join them for holiday weekends: Perry Sellars (Stephen Spinella) and Arthur Rape (John Benjamin Hickey) are a pair of yuppies (complete with a Volvo) who have been a couple for 14 years (as Perry jokes, "We're role models -- it's very stressful"). John Jeckyll (John Glover), a musician and composer with a short temper and a witheringly bitter sense of humor, arrives with his latest boyfriend, Ramon Fornos (Randy Becker), a good-looking dancer who often suffers the wrath of John's foul mood. Buzz Hauser (Jason Alexander) is a witty and flamboyant enthusiast of the Broadway theater who describes his greatest fear as a production of The King and I starring Tommy Tune and Elaine Stritch; he's also HIV-positive, though he stubbornly refuses to discuss his condition with his friends. And John's twin brother James Jeckyll (also played by John Glover) is his brother's polar opposite, a kind and forgiving soul who is now living with AIDS. Love! Valour! Compassion! was directed by Joe Mantello, who also directed the original New York stage production; this film also reunites the show's New York cast, with the exception of Jason Alexander, who stepped into the role created by Nathan Lane. Mark Deming | ||
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M Butterfly
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Maurice
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From All Movie GuideDirector James Ivory brings his subdued, "Masterpiece Theater" style to a forbidden subject -- homosexual love. Maurice is based on E.M. Forster's suppressed 1914 novel that was held back from publication until after his death. The film takes place at Cambridge, before World War I, when homosexuality was outlawed in Great Britain. Clive (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic Englishman with a life of privilege, suddenly shocks his close friend Maurice (James Wilby) by declaring his love for him. Maurice is initially stunned by the pronouncement, but in the end finds himself giving Clive a passionate kiss and telling him that he loves him as well. Clive, in the stiff-upper-lip British manner, considers their love to be more of an intellectual concept, but Maurice becomes passionate about the affair. Clive, afraid of being exposed as a homosexual, backs off and breaks up with Maurice for marriage, family, and politics. Maurice is crestfallen, but then he has a passionate affair with Clive's gamekeeper, Scudder (Rupert Graves), and Maurice and Scudder decide to risk their reputations by openly living together as lovers. Paul Brenner |
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My Beautiful Launderette |
From All Movie GuideAfter the death of his wife and his subsequent descent into alcoholic near-agoraphobia, a crotchety Pakistani intellectual convinces his shady entrepreneur brother to provide work for his son in this multi-layered portrait of the immigrant experience in Great Britain. Young Londoner Omar (Gordon Warnecke) isn't sure what he wants out of life, but his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) provides a corrupt, capitalist role model as Omar graduates from washing cars for the old crook to running his run-down laundromat. After a chance meeting with Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), an old school chum whose flirtation with fascism deeply wounded Omar's principled Papa (Roshan Seth), Omar hires the young thug to work for him. Soon, the pair begin a romantic relationship that remains as under-wraps as the illicit drug-running and enforcement work they perform for Nasser's associate, Salim (Derrick Branche). On the domestic front, Omar must balance his knowledge of Nasser's long-running affair with posh Brit Rachel (Shirley Ann Field) with his own loyalty and attraction to Nasser's Westernized daughter, Tania (Rita Wolf). After successfully transforming his laundrette into a vision of resplendent pastel suds and providing a bright spot in his otherwise sqalid London neighborhood, Omar seems to have a bright future in Nasser's organization. The spectre of Johnny's past, however, combines with Omar's conflicted immigrant loyalties to threaten the sense of identity the young man has managed to stake out for himself. British-born, half-Pakistani playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi won an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette, which was originally filmed for BBC television. Kureishi collaborated again with director Stephen Frears on Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Brian J. Dillard |
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My Own Private Idaho
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Parting Glances
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From All Movie GuideGay yuppie Robert (John Bolger) accepts an assignment in Africa that will put his strained relationship with his lover, Michael (Richard Ganoung), in limbo for the next few years. Michael, meanwhile, tends the needs of his ex, Nick (Steve Buscemi), whose punk band's video is getting MTV airplay even as he battles HIV and bittersweet memories in a claustrophobic apartment. After a farewell dinner thrown by Robert's foppish boss and his luminous wife, Michael and Robert fret and frolic with a host of Manhattan hipsters at a party thrown by their artist friend Joan (Kathy Kinney). These various crowd scenes set the stage for a series of one-on-one interactions that explore the romantic and other tensions of early AIDS-era Manhattan without offering too many easy resolutions. Buscemi would become an indie regular, while Kinney would go on to achieve fame on The Drew Carey Show in the 1990s.Brian J. Dillard | |
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Philadelphia
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From All Movie GuideAt the time of its release, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia was the first big-budget Hollywood film to tackle the medical, political and social issues of AIDS. Tom Hanks, in his first Academy Award-winning performance, plays Andrew Beckett, a talented lawyer at a stodgy Philadelphia law firm. Andrew has contracted AIDS but fears informing his firm about the disease. The firm's senior partner, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), assigns Andrew a case involving their most important client. Andrew begins diligently working on the case, but soon the lesions associated with AIDS are visible on his face. Wheeler abruptly removes Andrew from the case and fires him from the firm. Andrew believes he has been fired because of his illness and plans to fight the firm in court. But because of the firm's reputation, no lawyer in Philadelphia will risk handling his case. In desperation, Andrew hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a black lawyer who advertises on television, mainly handling personal injury cases. Miller dislikes homosexuals but agrees to take the case for the money and exposure. As Miller prepares for the courtroom battle against one of the law firm's key litigators, Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen), Miller begins to realize the discrimination practiced against Andrew is no different from the discrimination Miller himself has to battle against. Paul Brenner |
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Pillow Book
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From All Movie GuidePeter Greenaway directed this elliptical and visually intricate tale of the far side of erotic and intellectual attraction. As a girl, Nagiko would receive a special gift each year from her father, a calligrapher (Ken Ogata) -- he would carefully paint a poem on her face, as her aunt (Hideko Yoshida) read aloud from The Pillow Book, a classic Japanese text on the art of love. As Nagiko (Vivian Wu) reached adulthood, her father insisted on putting a stop to this ritual, and he persuaded her to marry the nephew of his publisher (Ken Mitsuishi). But Nagiko is not satisfied with her husband, and after finding success as a model, she seeks a lover who will indulge her fondness for literature by writing verse on her naked body. In time, she finds happiness with a British expatriate named Jerome (Ewan McGregor), who persuades her to use his body as paper for her poetry, but the interference of her father's publisher (Yoshi Oida) gives their relationship a tragic turn. Greenaway deliberately mistranslated some of the French and Japanese dialogue for The Pillow Book, hoping that the occasionally fractured language would give the film a "Tower of Babel" quality.Mark Deming |
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Salmonberries
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From All Movie GuideWriter/director Percy Adlon's offbeat tale of the friendship between two unusual women: an East German emigre who works as a librarian in Alaska, and a taciturn pipeline worker.Nicole Gagne | |
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Sunday, Bloody Sunday
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From All Movie GuideThis British film examines the choices individuals must make when confronted with a romantic relationship which is rewarding but does not offer them everything they want. In this sympathetic and psychologically precise drama, Alexandra Greville (Glenda Jackson), "Alex" to her friends, has a younger man as her sometime lover, the young sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Elkin is completely open about the fact that he is also the lover of her acquaintance, Dr. Daniel Hirsch (Peter Finch). These relationships continue in some kind of equilibrium until Alex and Bob agree to house-sit the children of a couple known to the three of them. In their roles, neither Head nor Finch "swished," or otherwise catered to homosexual stereotypes, and theirs was considered to be a groundbreaking, sympathetic portrayal of this kind of relationship, not condescending in any way. One highlight of the film is a scene in which Dr. Hirsch attends the Bar Mitzvah of his nephew. This critically well-received movie was unexpectedly successful at the box office. The film's director and screenwriter, as well as Jackson and Finch, were nominated for Academy Awards.Clarke Fountain | ||
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Threesome
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From All Movie GuideWell-groomed junior transfer student Eddy (Josh Charles) forges an unlikely friendship with messy party animal Stuart (Stephen Baldwin) after the two room together in an all-male dorm at a large university. When Alex (Lara Flynn Boyle) ends up in the adjoining suite because of her mannish name, all three students fall into an overheated friendship that provides cover for no less than three unrequited loves. Alex, a sexpot who's turned on by big words, falls hard for intellectual Eddy, who's actually pining away for the ripped, oversexed Stuart, who's got the hots for Alex. As the three friends try unsuccessfully to alleviate their collective sexual and romantic tension, dorm-desk workers Dick (Alexis Arquette) and Renay (Martha Gehman) become convinced that there's something kinky going on -- and they may just be right.Brian J. Dillard | |
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Torch Song Trilogy
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From All Movie GuideHarvey Fierstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit was adapted for the screen by Fierstein himself. The playwright also repeats his stage role of female impersonator Arnold Beckoff, aka nightclub entertainer "Virginia Hamm." The three-part plotline, whittled down to accommodate the film's 117-minute running time, concerns Arnold's seriocomic efforts to find a lasting relationship. We first meet Arnold in 1971, when his heart is broken by his bisexual lover (Brian Kerwin). Next we find Arnold in 1973, enjoying short-lived happiness with his true love (Matthew Broderick). The final act takes place in 1980: Arnold, still grieving over Broderick's sudden death and struggling to raise the young boy that the couple had adopted, has a long-anticipated showdown with his uncompromising mother, superbly played by Anne Bancroft. A witty film that is by turns touching and outrageous, Torch Song Trilogy works well despite its somewhat soft-pedaled approach to the material.Hal Erickson | ||
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Total Eclipse
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From All Movie GuideThis historical drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland, focuses on the rocky relationship between the renowned 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud (Leonard DiCaprio) is a teenage wunderkind known for his rebelliousness against conventional society and his surrealistic writing. He disrupts the life of Verlaine (David Thewlis), a more conventional writer who is older and married to a dutiful young wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). The drunken Verlaine is unkind to Mathilde, even though her father is providing him with a house and an income to live on while he pursues his writing. Rimbaud overwhelms Verlaine, mocking his conventionality, constantly disrupting his domestic life, and somehow attracting the maniacal love of the older man.Michael Betzold |
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Trick
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From All Movie GuideA shy musical comedy composer searches in vain for someplace to bed down with a sexy go-go dancer in this sweet-natured romantic comedy set in Manhattan. College student Gabriel (Christian Campbell) wants to compose musical comedies; Katherine (Tori Spelling), his muse and confidante, wants to star in his productions. In the meantime, she's rehearsing an all-female version of Salomé set in a women's prison while he drowns his sorrows about a negative review at a tony strip club. On the way home from the bar, Gabriel notices Mark (Jean Paul Pitoc), one of the dancers from the club, catnapping in the subway. One mumble-mouthed come-on later, the men attempt to consummate their attraction to one another at Gabriel's tiny apartment, only to find themselves frustrated by pets, roommates, and a visit from Katherine. The couple's attempt to find a suitable boudoir leads them from one location to another; along the way, they discover that their attraction might extend beyond a single afternoon's ardor. Trick marked the feature debut of director Jim Fall, a New York University alumnus who had previously lensed such gay-themed shorts as Shanghai, He Touched Me, and Love Is Deaf, Dumb and Blind. Fall and first-time screenwriter Jason Schafer spent more than three years reworking his original script while raising half a million dollars to finance the film, which appeared at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals in 1999. Much of the publicity over the film centered on the heterosexuality of its two male romantic leads; despite such mild controversy, Trick became a modest art-house hit. ~ Brian J. Dillard | ||
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Victor/Victoria
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From All Movie GuideThis filmed stage production of Victor/Victoria came to be through the collaboration of director Blake Edwards and his wife, singer and actress Julie Andrews. Andrews reprises her role as a female pretending to be a male who is impersonating a female, while Edwards once again directs. As with the 1982 film and 1996 Broadway productions of Victor/Victoria, Andrews' character rises through the entertainment circuit by means of her unique gimmick, leaving a Chicago gangster and the rest of her audience thoroughly confused about her true sexuality and its implications. Filmed shortly before her vocal chords were unfortunately injured, this production of Victor/Victoria marks the last musical performance by Andrews prior to the damage incurred to her singing voice after undergoing subsequent surgery.Tracie Cooper | |
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Wild Reeds
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From All Movie GuideThis is a nostalgic French coming-of-age drama from director Andre Techine set in a Provence deeply divided over the war for independence being waged against French colonialism in Algeria. In 1962, Francois (Gael Morel) and Maite (Elodie Bouchez) are best friends and students at a boarding school in southwestern France, where Maite's mother Madame Alvarez (Michele Moretti) is an instructor. Francois is realizing he's gay because of his attraction to his working class roommate Serge (Stephane Rideau). Although Serge seduces Francois one night, he is not gay and is actually attracted to Maite. So is Henri (Frederic Gorny), a radically-politicized Algerian-born Frenchman who supports France in the war, an unpopular position, particularly with Madame Alvarez, a communist. The classroom sparring between Henri and Alvarez galvanizes the school, but then word comes that Serge's older brother has been killed in the war. Madame Alvarez, who loved him but refused to help him desert the military, becomes so unhinged that she must be sent away for treatment. Wild Reeds (1994) won four Cesars (France's equivalent of the Oscar), including the award for that year's Best Picture, beating such other notable films as red (1994) and Queen Margot (1994).Karl Williams | |
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Wilde
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From All Movie GuideLiterary genius, legendary wit, bon vivant, and gay martyr, Oscar Wilde was a man whose legend has grown to iconic proportions since his death at the beginning of the 20th century. Establishing Wilde (Stephen Fry) as a loving family man, complete with a wife (Jennifer Ehle) and two adorable sons, the film takes pains to portray him as a dignified genius who was as pained by what he considered his own sin -- his homosexuality -- as he was delighted by the sins of others. From his initial encounters with Robbie Ross (Michael Sheen), his first male lover, through his tragic affair with the beautiful and bratty Alfred Lord Douglas (a perfectly cast Jude Law), Wilde is seen as a conflicted fellow, warring with his own urges even as he dazzles everyone around him.Rebecca Flint | ||
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