The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Resurrecting the Movies thread...
Front-Ranger:
I saw "Up" last nite with the Denver Brokies...a very fine time! I recommend it!
oilgun:
So Just How Gay is James Franco's Student Film?
Written by S.T. VanAirsdale | 15 Jun 2009, 12:00 PM
James Franco has been dabbling in directing for a while now at New York University’s film school, where he has acknowledged the influence of poetry on his early short work. Not just any poetry, though — we’re talking about Anthony Hecht’s blisteringly homoerotic piece The Feast of Stephen, Franco’s adaptation of which screened here at CineVegas. And when it comes to nailing the tone, vitality and flopping penises of his source material, the fledgling filmmaker is unquestionably in a league of his own. Let’s break down the festival’s gayest film (with spoilers!) after the jump.
Also paying homage to the trailblazing work of Kenneth Anger, the silent, black-and-white Stephen opens with its meek, bespectacled title character (Remy Germinario, in his screen debut) watching a pick-up basketball game in New York City. But the only score Stephen is keeping is the number of shirtless hunks dribbling, sweating and writhing on the court. One mop-topped stud in particular has all the moves, nudging Stephen’s daydream into the more erotic realm of naked boys playing hoops — in slow-motion, natch, and suddenly transported to a wooded glen where society’s referees won’t blow a whistle on their hard fouls.
That sylvan utopia quickly turns into a leafy city park, where the boys haul Stephen off for a prolonged beating. This doesn’t quite reflect the eloquence of Hecht’s “kilowatts of noon” or the “bully’s thin superiority”; Franco opts instead for the more squirming, sustained brutality of fists, elbows, knees and blood. But one sporting fantasia calls for another, apparently, and by now Stephen daydreams of himself as the object of the naked boys’ violent game. Franco pulls this together stylishly if graphically, with chests, thighs and asses pressed tight in various permutations, infusing the violence with the poem’s more visceral sense of ecstasy.
No single punch or kick or bout of dry-humping, however, wields quite the diminishing power of feces smeared on one’s face, which Stephen endures in Franco’s grand finale. But really, endurance has less to do with his ordeal than does experience. The “feast” of the title is Stephen’s big gay rite of passage, however demeaning and/or gang-rapey it might be; the literally shit-eating grin he shares with the audience at the end suggests that even the most horrendous intimacy is better than none at all.
As student films go, it’s a tight, competent, attractive exercise. As James Franco projects go, it cements the young hyphenate’s place in the canon of the gayest stories ever told. Howl won’t stand a chance.
from: http://www.movieline.com/2009/06/so-just-how-gay-is-james-francos-student-film.php
I'm really starting to like James Franco, a lot!
oilgun:
The 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time
They should be called leaders.
We know them as trailers, but they don't trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary "Coming Attractions" dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled "What Happened to Mary?" After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences "The next incident in the series of 'What Happened to Mary' will be shown a week from now." Not exactly "In a world..." but it did the trick back in 1912.
What happened to Mary wasn't nearly as important as what happened to trailers, which have grown into one of the most popular forms of advertising in the world. Some think they spoil the movies -- Gene Siskel famously hated them so much he wouldn't enter a theater while they were playing -- but for the rest of us, they're a treasured part of the moviegoing ritual, a delicious cinematic appetizer to prepare us for the main course.
[...]
Continues, and you can watch all 50 trailers: http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: oilgun on July 16, 2009, 08:11:02 pm ---The 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time
They should be called leaders.
We know them as trailers, but they don't trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary "Coming Attractions" dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled "What Happened to Mary?" After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences "The next incident in the series of 'What Happened to Mary' will be shown a week from now." Not exactly "In a world..." but it did the trick back in 1912.
What happened to Mary wasn't nearly as important as what happened to trailers, which have grown into one of the most popular forms of advertising in the world. Some think they spoil the movies -- Gene Siskel famously hated them so much he wouldn't enter a theater while they were playing -- but for the rest of us, they're a treasured part of the moviegoing ritual, a delicious cinematic appetizer to prepare us for the main course.
[...]
Continues, and you can watch all 50 trailers: http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php
--- End quote ---
Soooooooooo disagree with so many of their choices. Heck, my favorite trailers weren't even on the list!
oilgun:
Trailer:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n7zGVwi4AA[/youtube]
The Second Installment in the Donald Strachey Mystery Series: Even Better than the First!
Richard Stevenson's gay mystery novels based on his creation of Donald Strachey, Private Investigator have found the perfect crew to transform these very interesting and entertaining stories to film. SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM is the second in the series and as adapted for the screen by Ron McGee, directed with panache by Ron Oliver, and starring the very fine actor Chad Allen as the sleuth with couth and style and charisma the results are a polished little gem of a film. But aside from the fact that the film is so well put together, it presents gay people in roles that are so far away from the usual stereotypical types that their sexual proclivity is in many ways simply incidental: you have to look long and hard to find a solid healthy gay relationship as well portrayed as that between Strachey and his life partner Tim (the very fine Sebastian Spence).
The story this time around involves Strachey's being asked to help one Paul Hale (Jared Keeso), the supposed poster boy for the Phoenix Foundation, a 'turn gay people straight' institute run by Dr. Trevor Cornell (Michael Woods) and his wife Lynn (Anne Marie Loder). Paul is soon found dead and the implications are suicide. But Strachey suspects foul play (we later discover Hale was his first love in the Army!) and aided by Hale's mother Phyllis (Morgan Fairchild looking terrific and acting well) who encouraged her son's joining the Phoenix Foundation, he begins his own style of investigation.
Strachey wisely 'becomes a patient' with Dr. Cornell and in group therapy makes discoveries and friends with those who eventually help to solve the case: a strong group of actors including Rikki Gagne, Stephen Huszar, Ryan Kennedy, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Shawn Roberts, Dany Papineau, and Gerry Morton. The clues are laid out, the deaths follow and the truths finally surface. And all the while Strachey is supported by Tim, by a very fine comic actor Nelson Wong as his 'office manager', and by his 'boss' Detective Bailey (Daryl Shuttleworth).
The dialogue is crisp, relevant, intense when it needs to be and funny when it relaxes, the cinematography takes a beautiful bow to the old Hollywood film noir techniques, and the cast is excellent, filled with not only a lot of eye candy but also with some very well realized characterizations. In the end the film belongs to the very hunky and versatile Chad Allen, only making wait for the next installment in this very successful series! Highly recommended for all audiences.
From gradyharp from United States at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780606/usercomments
That movie was on TV recently and i caught the second half. I love the series, they are above average TV movies and rather earnest in tone but I find them wonderfully entertaining guilty pleasures, reminiscent of QaF.
The gay "Nick & Nora" had their own 'Shasta' in the previous film, Third Man Out, which I thought was a nice touch but for some reason the little terrier was absent in this one.
Anyway, what really brings me here is the speech by the Doctor at the 'ex-gay Phoenix foundation. The anti-gay sentiments expressed match almost verbatim what I've been hearing from the androphiles on this site. And I'm not saying this to start an argument or to shit on the andros, it was just so uncanny that I had to bring it up. I'll check Youtube to see if that scene is available. If you have the chance to see it, please let me know what you think.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version