1. Trick
1999 MY TAKE: Sure, it's a little fluffly, but "Trick's" popularity is no mystery. It speaks to every human being's deepest desire: to find somebody and fall head over heels in love with him. Doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, male or female. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Gabe, the budding screenwriter, is boy-next-door cute and Mark, the go-go dancer and former CUNY journalism student, is slinkily sexy. It also doesn't hurt that the film is set in Lower Manhattan, the epicenter of Gay America, where guys holding hands is as normal as licking an ice-cream cone on a summer evening.
PLOT: Two boys meet and spend the evening looking for a place to hook up. It turns into a cool and highly entertaining romantic comedy.
FAVE SCENES: 1) Mark (upper left on the subway) takes an uncomfortable Gabe to a gay club. Needless to say, Mark immediately strips off his shirt and starts dancing. Gabe demurs until -- with transvestite Miss Coco belting out "I Am Woman" -- he too catches the fever. The expressions on Mark's face are priceless. 2) The boys, who had noticed each other during Mark's performance at another go-go club, end up in the same subway car that evening, make eye contact and begin their hook-up. 3) In a tiny scene at a late-night diner, Mark confides to Gabe that he lives with his mom in Brooklyn. It goes by in a flash, but it's one of the most endearing moments of the flick.
SEX QUOTIENT: It's sexy, but nothing's explicit. Straight people could watch the movie without blanching.
TRIVIA: Queens native J.P. Pitoc (aka John Paul Pitoc), who turns 33 on Monday and has done lots of TV since making "Trick," is half Colombian (which accounts for his amazing looks) and studied drama at NYU (brains, too!).
MORE: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trick/
2. Angels In America 2004
MY TAKE: Obviously, this is one of the greatest theatrical achievements in American history -- Tony Kushner won a Pulitzer in 1993 for his efforts. The movie ain't bad, either. An HBO miniseries, it ran for 352 riveting minutes, sucking the viewer into a vortex of overpowering drama and breath-catching comedy. In a word, it's massive. The performances of Al Pacino as an AIDS-ravaged Roy Cohn, the brilliant but despicable anti-communist who helped fry the Rosenbergs, and Meryl Streep as Ethel Rosenberg and a Mormon mom (among others) are astonishing. So is the poignancy of the relationships between straights and gays, HIV-negative and HIV-positive lovers, out gays and closeted gays, and on and on. The subtext, of course, is profoundly political.
PLOT: Wow. In short, a little-know disease -- AIDS -- is ravaging the gay community. Relationships are affected.
FAVE SCENES: Again wow. 1) Prior Walter, fighting AIDS, is visited in, shall we say, dramatic fashion by a sex-crazed angel. 2) Prior meets Louis, who ditched him because of the disease, in a reunion of sorts in Washington Square Park. 3) A black gay nurse interacts with a dying Cohn.
SEX QUOTIENT: Zero.
TRIVIA: The charismatic Jeffrey Wright, who played the gay nurse, also excelled as the lead role in a film about Jean-Michel Basquiat.
MORE: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/angels_in_america/
The angel visits Prior.
3. Latter Days 2003
MY TAKE: You've gotta love a flick that takes on religion, in this case -- obviously -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons. There's lots of comedy here and some all-too-obvious moments, but the underlying messages are strong: 1) You are what you are, and 2) intolerance is fueled more than anything by religion. Again, this isn't original, but it's highly watchable.
PLOT: Slutty gay boy in L.A. meets cute-but-closeted Mormon missionary and falls in love.
FAVE SCENES: 1) Christian, the West Hollywood party boy, thinks Aaron, the Mormon, is dead, so he tearfully visits the latter's family home in Idaho to return a family heirloom. It's then that Aaron's mother -- who had been piously anti-gay -- understands how wrong she's been. 2) At the end of the movie, Aaron shows up at a restaurant where, coincidentally, Christian works. In a tear-jerker, they're reunited.
SEX QUOTIENT: Moderately explicit, but if I can watch sex scenes in straight movies, I assume enlightened straights could watch the scenes in "Latter Days" without being too grossed out.
TRIVIA: Written by a gay Mormon, the movie was filmed in 24 days, according to IMDb.
MORE: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/latter_days/
m/m/latter_days/Steve Sandvoss (left)
and Wes Ramsey
0 comments:
Post a Comment