11.27.09
When happily ever after fails…
As much as I love a happy ending, there’s something about love unfulfilled that I love even more. Heartbreak, thwarted souls torn apart by circumstance or fate… that longing and grief brings a whole different kind of satisfaction to me as a reader or a viewer. Because sometimes it’s not about happiness, it’s about being denied happiness and trying to find a way to live your life despite that. For most of us, I think that’s a more realistic proposition. Because, as the Rolling Stones once said, “You can’t always get what you want.”
One of the most romantic movies of all time is Roman Holiday. And, spoiler alert, there isn’t a happy ending. (Also? Rosebud is a sled, the ship hits an iceberg, he’s been dead the whole time and Darth Vader is Luke’s father.) I ache every time I see it, and I relish that ache. Joe and Ann cannot be together. We know this. It is impossible. He’s a reporter and she’s a princess. But their madcap adventures are no less gorgeous, and their love is made all the more poignant for it. When Joe drops her off around the corner from her quarters and they have that desperate moment…god, it kills me. And Gregory Peck is so noble, so very much the measure of a perfect man.
For more contemporary examples, there are couples like Firefly’s Mal and Inara. He’s no Gregory Peck and she’s not a princess by any means, but in the 14-episode run of the series and the feature film that followed, we still know that they can’t work out. As much as there is a palpable attraction between them and a connection, they are just too fundamentally different to make a go of it. And unlike the battle of Serenity Valley, where Mal was willing to fight a losing battle to the end, the war for their hearts is one where they’ve laid down their arms and walked off the field. Mal thinks Inara is really just a whore in fancy clothes, Inara values her independence and her pride, and never the twain shall meet. God, that’s awful. But I can’t help but root for them, and Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin make such a visually stunning pair.
Then there are some of my favorite soap opera couples, for whom the intensity of emotion is so much that it, not class differences or prejudices, is what keeps them apart. ATWT’s Carly and Jack are a whirlwind of passion, dysfunction, judgment and impulse, and they don’t necessarily work together in the domestic sense. Happily ever after always seems to be just out of their reach. And my absolutely favorite World Turns pairing, Simon and Katie…? As much as they care about each other, he’s not cut out to settle down. He and Katie are at different places in their lives. I know he can’t stay, but that doesn’t make me love every time he returns to her life any less.
And I keep returning to these stories. Not because I suddenly expect the ending to change, but because even though they don’t quite “get there,” the journey these characters take is compelling enough.
11.18.09
Nothing new under the Hollywood sun
With the news of a Charlie’s Angels reboot being conceived for next year’s TV season, I can only continue to shake my head at how Hollywood is out of ideas. I mean, this is an industry that is remaking films that came out in the ’80s. I don’t care if it’s a horror movie like The Stepfather or the Chace Crawford-Julianne Hough re-imagining of Footloose (just typing that gave me hives), I don’t understand why it’s necessary.
Sometimes a reboot or remake does strike gold — look at JJ Abrams‘ wildly successful and awesome Star Trek — but it takes a very special balance of great script, great cast and originality to make something like that work. You never want to give the impression that your project is a case of, “Oh, shit, we have nothing on our roster so let’s dust off something old.”
As much as I can joke about how Jonathan Jackson’s return to General Hospital as Lucky is his extended audition for a 21 Jump Street movie, I’m actually quite serious: He would be great for such a project and if I were casting it, he’d be a lock as a 21st Century Tom Hanson (a permanent lock, even!). Fresh-faced Amber Tamblyn (ex-Emily, GH), who was pushing Jump Street herself by playing a cop on ABC’s short-lived The Unusuals, would also be perfect in an all-new role or even a modern variation on Penhall’s abrasive but good-hearted girlfriend Dorothy — now a cop herself instead of the stay-at-home spouse.
The series ran for four years, has a cult following, but also isn’t so sacred that touching it would make people freak out. And given the right story, it could be a great film. Especially if they got Johnny Depp to stop pretending that’s not where he started his career and he could make a cameo appearance as Captain Jenko (the original Jump Street squad captain before Steven Williams‘ Fuller). It could be dark, edgy, but also with a strong thread of wit: just like the show.
Of course, given the trend Hollywood seems to follow with its television show-to-movie pitches, it would end up more like a camp comedy, like the Charlie’s Angels movies and Dukes of Hazzard: lampooning the show rather than embracing what people loved about it. I was truly horrified by Dukes, as that series was a huge part of my childhood, and seeing earnest daredevils Bo and Luke reduced to idiotic buffoons was painful.
What would be less painful would be to see Hollywood actually start producing and releasing more fresh material instead of defaulting to tired remakes. There are hungry, talented writers out there just waiting to be discovered. The film industry just has to take a chance and…cut loose.
10.24.09
Setting the scene for romance
When you’re talking about some of the most romantic movie sequences of all time, everyone has things that instantly come to mind. All you have to say to a fan of recent Bollywood movies is “the gazebo scene,” and they automatically know what you’re talking about: 1998’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai; Rahul and Anjali share a dance to no music, until the tension becomes so heightened that the spell doesn’t break until Anjali sees her engagement ring on her finger and must tear herself away and bolt into the rain. It’s such a memorable moment that Tarun Mansukhani paid homage to it in 2008’s Dostana, having Kunal recreate the gazebo dance in order to woo Neha. I can safely that if any guy ever did that for me, I’d be a goner.
James Cameron’s 1984 classic Terminator has, at its core, the story of Kyle Reese’s deep devotion to Sarah Connor. And while most people quote “I’ll be back,” it’s “I came across time for you,” and “we loved a lifetime’s worth” that I remember more clearly. Battle-weary Kyle losing his virginity to Sarah in a few stolen hours of happiness is achingly gorgeous, and the visual of their clasped hands during the act is, to me, the sharpest image from the film.
Han Solo and Princess Leia’s kiss aboard the Millenium Falcon in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back is famous, but it’s later, in Bespin, that their romance reaches its peak: when their gazes lock just before Han is dropped into carbonite and Leia finally admits she loves him…and he offers up, “I know,” with the last of his cocky bravado. The princess and the smuggler, the most improbable of partners and the most inopportune time for a confession of love, and yet one of the most resonant scenes in the entire trilogy.
Resonant in an altogether different way is how Baby seduces Johnny in 1987’s Dirty Dancing, invading his room with her potent combination of privilege and innocence, asking him to dance with her. Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me” is one of the sexiest songs on the planet because of them, and I was one of millions of women who fell in love with the late Patrick Swayze all because of Johnny Castle’s confident moves on the dance floor and his vulnerability everywhere else.
What’s the unifying factor in all the examples I’ve brought up? Certainly not a crisp script. Most of these scenes didn’t involve much dialogue and what dialogue there was…wasn’t exactly Shakespearean in nature. The key to romance isn’t pretty words or even good direction and the right music, it’s people whose connection is just that believable. It takes a solid story, fleshed out characters, actors who embody those roles… and just a touch of magic.
And then, if you’re lucky…? Kuch kuch hota hai. Something happens.
10.04.09
Halla Bol: Pros and Khans
I love movies that get all meta about the film industry, be it The Player or Soapdish or Om Shanti Om. Rajkumar Santoshi’s Halla Bol (Raise Your Voice) is one such film, telling the story of superstar Sameer Khan (Ajay Devgan), who must confront the soul-less Bollywood machine he’s become when he witnesses the murder of a young woman at an exclusive industry party.
Through the use of an extended flashback, viewers learn that Sameer was once a struggling actor named Ashfaaq, who raged against social injustice with his street theater troupe. A passionate young man who adored his mentor, the charismatic Siddhu (Pankaj Kapur), and romanced his childhood sweetheart, Sneha (the luminous Vidya Balan), over the course of his meteoric rise to stardom Ashfaaq gets trapped in the hype. Product endorsements, awards and accolades, “auditioning” would-be heroines…somewhere in the middle of it, Ashfaaq loses himself, and his voice. An actor with his power and influence could so easily speak out against atrocity, but silence is the name of the game in Bollywood.
Halla Bol is gorgeously directed, with a tight script. And much like Om Shanti Om, there is industry cooperation and actual Bollywood stars playing themselves. Kareena Kapoor, Sridevi, and producer Boney Kapoor are just a few of the cameos, and constant references are made to Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan and other real Bollywood figures. That actually gives the film a haunting amount of authenticity. You get the sense that, on some level, the secret keeping and back room deals and self-serving behavior is absolutely true. That the fiction of this film is nowhere near as compelling as the truth of it.
And along with the inside view into the industry —showing us how actors book “dates” in Mumbai for various films and come in to dub dialogue — there is also the message that you have to fight for what you believe in. Ashfaqullah Khan was a celebrated freedom fighter during the Indian independence movement. He was hanged in 1927, when he was only 27 years old. That Ashfaaq in this film is named for him, and that this name is changed to Sameer when he breaks into the movies, is incredibly significant. At one point, the character even rails at his father, “You forget again and again that you aren’t Ashfaaq’s father anymore, you’re Sameer Khan’s father!” So much of this film is about reclaiming your identity and your beliefs and what you’re willing to sacrifice everything for.
The second hour sort of devolves into typical Bollywood melodrama, with mob goons threatening Ashfaaq and his family and such, but the intensity of the film remains intact. I actually got chills when Siddhu resolutely tells Ashfaaq it’s now up to him to fight for the murdered girl — when he says, simply, “Halla bol.”
09.29.09
Can I just boycott and blacklist LIFE?
Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuaron, Jonathan Demme, Terry Gilliam, Taylor Hackford, Isabelle Huppert, Neil Jordan, Wong Kar Waï, Milan Kundera, David Lynch, Sam Mendes, Mike Nichols, Salman Rushdie, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Tilda Swinton.
These are just some of the big names from film and literature who have thrown their support behind Roman Polanski, a man who admitted to engaging in sex acts with a 13-year-old girl and then fled the country to avoid facing the consequences.
Let me say this in simpler terms: These are people who support a rapist. And not just a rapist, but a man who raped a child, someone one year into her teens.
Why? Because he’s a brilliant director who was going to Switzerland to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award and arresting him there was mean and unfair. Or something. My brain exploded reading all the articles. I’m still cleaning pieces off my hardwood floor. After a while the rationalizations turned into the teacher from the Peanuts cartoons going “wah wah wah wah.”
Polanski’s name, his celebrated catalog of films, has given him more notoriety than millions of molesters and rapists the world over whose crimes have long been forgotten. No one cares about the statute of limitations for their acts, is pursuing them or demanding their extradition, because they are non entities. By the same token, Polanski’s name gives him an absurd protection, this legion of voices crying out in his defense, signing their names to a petition to see him freed. People whose names have weight, saying that something that happened 32 years ago doesn’t matter now, that it’s his accomplishments in films we should remember and not one mistake. That, too, is something your average child molester or rapist doesn’t have either, right?
I’m honestly at a loss as to what to say. I look at those names above and I’m shaken. Almodovar, Cuaron, Gilliam, Scorsese, Soderbergh…these are people whose work I respect, and they are seeking mercy for a man who committed an ultimate act of disrespect. How do I reconcile that? How do I pick up one of their films or their books knowing that they think the rape of a 13-year-old is something Polanski shouldn’t face the music for? Aren’t some of these people parents or siblings? Would they sign a petition asking to absolve a man who fed their daughter booze and drugs and had sex with her?
Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.
That’s what the petition says. Extradition will take away his freedom. Do you know what an act of sexual violence takes away from the victim? Dignity. Self-respect. Confidence. Peace of mind. Privacy. The feeling that you deserve to be loved. A sense of happiness. A sense of the future. And countless other things that are are heavy in consequences.
I don’t care if it’s been thirty-two years. I don’t care that the victim herself has spoken out in Polanski’s defense. An act of rape, an act of molestation, should never be waved away as something less important than directing Rosemary’s Baby. And extradition shouldn’t be made out to be a bigger offense.
I’ve never been so ashamed to be an avid fan of film and literature.
09.06.09
Round about the earth in 95 minutes
Writer/director Tom Gustafson’s 2008 indie flick Were The World Mine is a fantastical, musical coming of age tale that’s not so much a re-telling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as it is an homage. A very gay homage. (Though, seriously, if you’ve seen the 1999 film version with Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christian Bale, I’m not sure it gets gayer than THAT.) It also, to me, feels like alternate universe Dead Poets Society fan fiction: What if Neil’s mother had left his father and let him be the kind of man he was born to be?
I think he could’ve become Timothy, this film’s engaging lead character. Tanner Cohen, who plays Timothy, is quite the find. He’s a strong singer and empathetic actor, and I absolutely understood Timothy’s reckless urge to make everyone around him succumb to Love-in-Idleness. Who among us hasn’t wished we could make people walk in our shoes and see the world through our eyes? Timothy gets the chance to make that wish come to life, and, like in Shakespeare’s story, “the course of true love” doesn’t quite run smooth. Wendy Robie, whom I didn’t even realize played Nadine on Twin Peaks until I hit IMBD, is the Mr. Keating to Timothy’s Neil. But Ms. Tebbit isn’t just an inspirational English teacher, she’s genuinely otherworldly, and Robie absolutely embodies that quality. She, and the dreamy musical sequences and gorgeous costumes really help make Were The World Mine the charming, beautiful fantasy that it is. The supporting cast is also wonderful, with great turns by Nathaniel David Becker as Timothy’s love interest Jonathan, the absolutely gorgeous Ricky Goldman and Zelda Williams as Max and Frankie, and Jill Larson (Opal, AMC), as the principal’s repressed wife.
It’s not the deepest movie in the world — in many way it’s overly simplistic and doesn’t resolve the issues it raises regarding gay marriage and tolerance — and the sound quality at times gave me fits, but what I loved about it is that it made me shut my cynical side up. Whatever reservations I may have had in the first half hour were gone by the end, and I was genuinely happy as the film came to a close.
Like Shelter, it’s a movie that makes you feel good about family, about love and about being who you are. And that’s a message we need put out there just as much as the more serious and wrenching messages that come out of films like Brokeback Mountain or Milk.
09.04.09
Taking a moment to talk Lamhe
Yash Chopra’s 1991 film Lamhe is the very definition of an unconventional love story. Starring Anil Kapoor (whom people now know as “the host from Slumdog Millionaire“) and Sridevi in a double role, it’s long been one of my favorite films. It makes me laugh, it makes me sing at the top of my lungs, and it makes me cry. And the older I get, the more it makes me think.
The film is about Viren, who falls in unrequited love with free spirit Pallavi when he visits his ancestral home in Rajesthan. Pallavi loves and marries another, but then she and her husband die, leaving her newborn daughter to be raised by Viren’s childhood nurse, Daija (Waheeda Rehman). Viren can’t even bear to look at the girl, Pooja, who grows up hero-worshipping him. Finally, when she’s eighteen, she’s the spitting image of her mom and a force to be reckoned with. Not realizing he was in love with Pallavi and turned into an angst puppy because of it, Pooja makes it her mission to bring happiness into Viren’s staid existence.
In ‘91, Lamhe was a scandalous film. Not only did it feature a pair with substantial age difference, but that Pooja was her mother’s doppelganger also put a seriously creepy spin on things. Watching it now, some 18 years after its theatrical release, it strikes me how fascinating that romantic dynamic is. Viren loves on such an obsessive level that it turns into tightly wound repression. He’s afraid to feel anything. And Pooja… she’s pretty much the embodiment of youth and innocence. Sridevi, who certainly wasn’t a teenager at the time, captures that vitality with perfection.
Viren goes from viewing Pooja as something to be ignored to seeing someone who looks like his dead goddess and then to acknowledging a young woman he actually loves as an individual. And there’s a really simple scene that encapsulates when Viren and Pooja achieve “pairing” status, even though neither character realizes it. They’re at the breakfast table with Daija and Viren’s best friend Prem (Anupam Kher), and Pooja pricks her finger on something. Without even skipping a beat, Viren takes her finger and sucks on it. Completely innocent? Yes. Completely erotic? Oh, hell yes. I can’t think of a single reason why the director would include such a scene, except to show the audience how intimate they are even if Viren is too thick-skulled to realize it.
And, indeed, both the viewer and Pooja realize long before Viren does that the requited love he craves so desperately is right there. It’s heartbreaking, because while he’s ostensibly in his late 30s/early 40s, Pooja, in her absolutely earnest and secure love for him, is the one who is more emotionally mature. She knows what she wants, who she wants. That’s something that terrifies Viren, who is determined to remain faithful to a memory. I spend most of the movie calling him either a “stalker” or a “dick,” because he’s so frustrating. And yet Pooja gets to him, she makes him smile; she makes him want to reach out. And she makes me believe in what they could have together.
(There’s also a lot of homoerotic subtext between Prem and Viren, but that’s a post for another day.)
The word “lamhe” means “moment,” and it’s in the little moments of this film that its story really unfolds.
08.31.09
Oliver’s coming out party: a recs post
One Life to Live’s Fish stepped out of the closet today, finally admitting to Cristian, Layla and himself what he’s been so afraid to acknowledge aloud: He’s gay. And, okay, from a ’shipper perspective, I also had to squee because he acknowledged Kyle’s importance to him as well…
Oliver: I went to college, and it was a thousand miles from home, and I joined a frat because that was a good straight thing to do, a frat. And that’s where I met Kyle. He was just like me. And for the first time in my life, I looked at someone and I felt…I felt welcome. And he saw me. And it was amazing. Until it wasn’t.
And in honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I would recommend some of my favorite gay-themed films. My list could go on and on, but I’ve deliberately capped it at 10. Let’s just call it some educational material for Oliver, to help him grow more comfortable with who he is. 
1. Shelter (Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe) – Two young men grow close while one deals with being the linchpin for his unstable family. Shelter is heartfelt, earnest and incredibly romantic.
2. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna) – The movie that introduced talents Bernal and Luna to the rest of the world, it has a lush sensuality and a heavy thread of regret. Just gorgeous! Spanish, with subtitles.
3. Dor (Gul Panag, Ayesha Takia)- Not actually a textually lesbian film, this Indian arthouse film has beautiful subtext, as it tells the story of two very different women connected by one tragedy. Hindi, with subtitles.
4. But I’m a Cheerleader (Natasha Lyonne, Clea Duvall) – A teenager’s parents suspect her of being a lesbian and send her to an atrociously (i.e. hilariously) over-the-top de-gaying camp. Wackiness — and romance— ensues!
5. Dostana (John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan) – Two guys pretend to be gay in order to score rooms in a hot girl’s apartment and learn the value of true friendship in the process. Hindi, with subtitles.
6. The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce) – One of the funniest and most touching movies I have ever seen. Three drag queens head into the Outback to do a series of shows and go on a journey of self-discovery in the process.
7. The Broken Hearts Club – Okay, so this is basically like an incredibly sanitized episode of Queer As Folk, all about drama between friends. But the cast is what makes me love it: Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Andrew Keegan, Christian Kane, Zach Braff, and Justin Theroux.
8. The Wedding Banquet (Winston Chao, Mitchell Lichtenstein) – Ang Lee’s moving, funny film about a gay man who engages in a sham marriage to convince his traditional Chinese parents he’s straight and finds a new definition of family in the process.
9. Velvet Goldmine (Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor) – A smutty, sexy saga about glam rock that is loosely based on the supposed affair between Iggy Pop and David Bowie, VG is all about identify and identification.
10. A Touch of Pink (Jimi Mistry, Kyle McLachlan) – The spirit of Cary Grant guides a man when his conservative Muslim mother shows up out of the blue, hoping to marry him off to a nice girl. It’s a sweet coming out film with resonant cultural angst.
08.30.09
The Milk of human unkindness
I just finished watching the Oscar-winning biopic Milk (yeah, yeah, I’m behind; I know), and my arms are still covered in goosebumps, my throat still choked with tears. It’s a powerful film –melodramatic at times– and what makes it the most powerful is how easily it could be taking place now. Blink and it’s like thirty-one years haven’t passed since Harvey Milk was shot. And obviously that resonance is part of the film’s message: The battle against Proposition 6 then is absolutely supposed to remind viewers of Proposition 8.
For all the strides made, and all the victories won, the LGBT community is still considered by many Americans to be deviant, other, and not worthy of equal representation and protection under the law. And I still don’t understand why. If we judged every citizen by what they do in the privacy of their own bedroom… the halls of government would be empty, there would be no one teaching the schools. And, yet, so many people see fit to judge gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens… to dub them people who don’t deserve marriages or the ability to adopt children or, yes, even the right to be portrayed on TV.
I often stumble upon messages to that effect. Not as much as the pro-gay, positive feedback, but still enough to make me sad. I can’t believe that, in this day and age, such prejudice is still so… normal. I can’t wrap my mind around how people think that saying “Why can’t gays have their own show instead of ruining ours?” or “I don’t want to see them on my TV,” or “I have a friend who is a lesbian, but I still don’t want the gay storyline” (A.k.a the “Some of My Best Friends Are…” Defense.) is okay. It’s like…dude. DUDE. Do you even hear yourself?
I’m a woman, and I’m not white. All I have to do is substitute one of those factors into one of the above assertions and it’s easily, obviously, a sexist or racist statement. The kind of statement that, even if people believe them, someone probably wouldn’t make in public anymore. So why is it okay to say the same things with an anti-gay slant?
And then there’s the ever-popular add-on of “and I know I’m not the only person that feels this way.” As if people know they have to cocoon their hatred with the assurance that others share it. As if that gives them some kind of validity. Well, hundreds of years ago, the majority of people thought the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. That didn’t make them right.
And eventually, folks got the message that the world was round and that, gasp, heaven forbid, not everything revolved around it.
That’s why I’m glad that movies like Milk are made, even if the people who would benefit from watching them the most will never give them a try. Because it’s chilling to see that the more things change, the more they remain the same. That the fight for equality is never over, even when we have a blracial president and several states legalizing same-sex marriage.
Milk is food for thought. Hauntingly so.
And maybe, eventually, folks will get the message.
08.29.09
Bollywood goes gay-friendly with Dostana
Tarun Mansukhani’s Dostana is one of the first big budget, non-arthouse — yes, Bollywood —Hindi films to deal with LGBT issues as a central subject. Not only that, the musical comedy of gay errors features Bollywood A-listers Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham in the principal roles.
Though I’ve seen Dostana before, when a chance came up to see it on the big screen during the I-View Film Festival, put forth by Engendered, I immediately bought a ticket. Ideally, I would have liked to have attended the entire festival, but I just couldn’t afford it at this time. That said, shelling out the pittance of $18 for a 9:30 AM showing of Dostana and the brief Q&A with Mansukhani, Abraham and Boman Irani afterwards proved to be well worth it.
One thing I frequently laud Brandon Beemer (Owen, B&B) for is that he’s comfortable enough with his physique to do just about anything, wear just about anything, and let the camera catch it all. It’s savvy. Abraham has a similar sensibility about his body, which makes since sense both men have modeled. And Dostana kicks off shamelessly indulging in Abraham’s sex appeal. There are a few points where it’s literally a shot of his torso taking up the entire screen. He comes out of the water, dripping like that infamous Daniel Craig scene in Casino Royale, and the risque number, urging everyone to “bounce, baby, bounce” revels in eroticism —and homoeroticism. From the motorcycles, to the pink car that Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan) drives and the scarves the character accessorizes with, even before one word of dialogue is uttered, the film tells the viewer that Something Gay This Way Comes.
Of course, everything after the item number is slightly less heightened, though the ease with sex and sexuality does continue…evidenced by how both Abraham’s character, Kunal, and Sameer are both shown waking up with women…and Kunal wanders out to an apartment balcony wearing nothing but a very tight pair of hip-hugger briefs. From there, the comic set-up ensues: These men, who’ve met at random, wind up pretending to be gay in order to score a really sweet apartment —only to realize their new roommate is a very smokin’ hot girl.
