A blurb about Saltburn.

Saltburn

This movie is not about gay this or gay that. It is about obsession. Believe me, I know where of I speak when it comes to college frat boy love affairs. There is a tricky line between love and hate.  It's not that difficult to understand.

 

Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan crosses that line deftly. 

Felix played by Jacob Elordi on the other hand...

More later...

A Blurb About Paris Blues (1961)

 Paris Blues (1961)

    I love this period of jazz and film just prior to when I was born in 1963. The end of Camelot was nearing. Hope sprang eternal.

     Paris Blues is very evocative of a certain time and place. Anything was possible. Ram (Paul Newman) is the self absorbed musician trying to make a name for himself in the music world. Eddie (Sidney Poiter) is the soulful musician who is just happy where he is. Connie (Diahann Carroll) and Lillian (Joanne Woodward) turn both of their lives upside down when they come to visit Paris as tourists.

     I know the word bromance didn't exist back then but there was a certain chemistry between Newman and Poitier on screen. I wish there could have been more back story about their collaboration.

A blurb about 'My Policeman'

It Was an Awful Time to be Gay 

     Having survived two world wide pandemics so far all I have to say is that I lived to see this movie. 'My Policeman' is what it is.

     Tom (Harry Styles) is a get in, get out quick kind of guy. Patrick (David Dawson) is more of a lingering kind of guy.

     Who are we to judge? Put yourself in their shoes. Yes, this is a period drama. It's like Merchant Ivory and soft porn had a baby.

     I get it.

A blurb about 'Don't Worry Darling'

No Worries...

HIM: Don't worry darling.

ME:  Be worried. Be very worried.

     May I just say that I liked this movie? I am a big sucker for mid-century modern. The whole 'Thelma and Louise' thing at the end. I really get it.

 I would actually like to wear one of those 'Clock Work Orange' eye thingies to live in that house.

     The sound track was beautiful and cloying.

     The cars were very cool.

     The costumes were impeccable.

     Chris Pine is so sexy. Wait, did I say that out loud?

     That said, I like Harry Styles. The problem is that he is trying way too hard to get me to like him, and that is kind of a turn off.

        I know that some people thought it was dumb. It is what it is. I enjoyed it.

A blurb about Scotty Bowers

Full Service

That's Scotty throwing the left hook punch.

I watched this documentary on Hulu. 

Fascinating. Honest. No bullshit. 

I always suspected but I never knew until now. 

      I got my copy of 'Full Service' in the mail today. Can't wait to read it.

 

 

 

 

Reminiscence: A Blurb

 Reminiscence

   I remember one time...but I digress.

  This film is both moody and beautiful, kind of like me.

     Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) is the quintessential wonky, charming, naive mark.

   Cyrus Boothe (Cliff Curtass) is a potent, menacing adversary. 

  Mae (Rebecca Ferguson)lends the perfect film noir, Jessica Rabbit, mood to the movie. She's not bad... They just draw her that way.

     Emily (Thandiwe Newton) kicks ass and takes names later while she deals with her own demons.

     Saint Joe (Daniel Wu) is sexy and disturbing at the same time.

   What was I saying?

   I forget.

A Blurb About Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story Of Their Intimate Friendship

It's Always About The Drama... 

     I read Charles Casillo's Elizabeth And Monty: The Untold Story Of Their Intimate Friendship like a bedtime story. Curled up in bed after a nightcap, anxiously awaiting the next tidbit of juicy gossip.

     One wonders. Hasn't this story been told before? Of course it has, in anecdotes and piecemeal biographies. Yet no one has bothered to connect the dots...until now. Somehow, it all makes sense and none of it makes sense at the same time.  That is what I like about this story.

     The author has a great gift of gab when it comes to talking about movies and how they get made. It's like you are sitting in a diner eating pie and sharing stories about film.

     Some of my favorite movies are 'A Place In The Sun', 'Suddenly Last Summer', 'The Misfits', 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf'. The list goes on and on. This brings to mind the quote, "Oh what a tangled web we weave" by Walter Scott. No. It wasn't Shakespeare, but I digress.

     Run. Don't walk to pick up your copy of 'Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of Their Intimate Friendship' by Charles Casillo.

“Failure and its accompanying misery is for the artist his most vital source of creative energy.”

Montgomery Clift

“Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and pull yourself together.”

Elizabeth Taylor

Amazon- Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story Of Their Intimate Friendship

It's A Sin: A blurb

It's A Sin

     It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....to be gay. 

WOW! I love the Pet Shop Boys.

   No spoilers here, but just to be clear this show is not for the feint of heart.

    I watched 'It's A Sin' with my best friend. We both came of age during the AIDS crisis. We shared memories and stories about friends and acquaintances. Some of them are still here with us. Some of them we have lost.

     I grew up on the other side of the pond from where this story was told. I went to college at Cornell in 1981. I moved to Los Angeles briefly in 1985. Then I lived in Washington DC from 1986 until 1991.  At some point in my life I ran into, lived with or had sex with all of the characters portrayed here. Somehow, I managed to survive.

     It's A Sin is an evocative, thoughtful and timely reminder of what people went through then, and are going through now.

                   Colin

 

Henry

    

 

A Blurb About 'In & Out'

 I'm gay

  I laughed until I cried, and then I cried until I laughed again. Kudos to the fabulous Kevin Klein as Howard. Tom Selleck tried valiantly to portray a gay man as Peter. Joan Cussack was brilliant as Emily. Matt Dillon was 'meh' as Cameron. This movie just wouldn't have been the same without Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley and Bob Newhart.

  That said...

  I am a gay 57 year old man who has been out to gay friends and gay family members for a long time, but I wasn't out to everyone.

  I decided after watching In & Out a few weeks ago to come out on my social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Mind you, I hadn't come out to my parents, or straight friends, or co-workers yet. Aside from words of encouragement from a few close gay friends and gay family members,all I heard were crickets.

   Perhaps some people didn't care. Maybe they already knew. All I know is that it doesn't matter anymore.

   Take care,be safe, and whatever you do...DO NOT DANCE! LOL

                   Preston 

Hamlet

To be or not to be...whatever

    Probably, my favorite part of Hamlet staged by National Theatre Live was at the beginning when Hamlet was listening to Nature Boy sung by Nat King Cole on his record player. It set the period and tone of the piece. It also reminded me of me.

    I remember sitting in high school English class and talking about Hamlet. Something about iambic pentameter, Shakespeare...blah, blah, blah. Now I get it.

    Benedict Cumberbatch is great.  To be honest, if it weren't for Dr. Strange I may not have gone to see the Fathom Event at all. (Shush, tell no one.)

    Sian Brooke is just annoying as Ophelia. I mean, pick a twitch and just stick to it. 

    Ciaran Hinds is as cantankerous as Claudius in Hamlet as he was as Big Daddy when I saw him in 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof' on Broadway.

    The lady dost need a tissue, methinks. Please, someone give Gertrude (Anastasia Hill) a handkerchief. I loathe disingenuousness.

 

   The play's the thing.






  

Links:

National Theatre Live

Fathom Events  

Nature Boy Nat King Cole

Rocket Man

Rocket Man

"Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone"

     I remember listening to 'Good Bye Yellow Brick Road'  in my sixth grade music class. My music teacher and I shared this little downward smile and subversive wink and nod, although I didn't have a clue what these songs were about.

     Later, I remember doing the twist to 'Crocodile Rock' when I was about 13 years old. Again, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was having fun doing it. For that, I say thank you Elton John.
     I watched Rocket Man with friends, which is probably the best way to see this movie. The best part is that there is no sense of nostalgia about this film. Elton John is unapologetic. For gay men of a certain age, like me, it's a time capsule.

     Taron Egerton takes ownership of his role. That little downward smile gets me every time. He can sing too. I loved the scene where he played the first few chords to 'Candle In The Wind' and admitted that he didn't have lyrics for the song yet.
     Anyway. What I'm trying to say is...I don't know. I'm baffled. Stop. Go. See the movie. I'm about to cry.

References:

Vulture

Candle In The Wind. 1973 Video.

The New Yorker

Variety

Bad Times At The El Royale

Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

"Miles, I fell down. I'm old, shit happens. Get the whiskey."

Father Daniel Flynn

     This film is right up my alley. I love almost everything about it. The period. The music. The cinematography. The actors.
     The only thing I don't love about the story is that it's talky. It works best as a hard boiled detective story, kind of a whodunit. The backstory scenes could have been edited a little bit and made shorter. While they do give us insight into the characters, they take us out of the moment.
     Billy Ray (Chris Hemsworth) appears later in the story. His arrival is portentous. Billy Ray gives new meaning to the word "Bad" in 'Bad Times At The El Royale'. Chris Hemsworth is great in this film. He moves like a snake charmer in a den of snakes. You might think Billy Ray is a snake, but he's not the only one. 
     Watch the movie. Figure it out.

References:

Variety

Days Of Wine And Roses

It Wasn't Fun Anymore

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream. Ernest Dowson One day you're a highly functioning alcoholic, and then the next day you're not. It's as simple and as complicated as that. Many people think alcoholism is a progression of behavior. A gradual slip and slide into oblivion when actually it is more like a switch. Kind of like blowing a circuit breaker. Suddenly, everything goes dark.

Joe Clay had the gift of gab. Oh boy, he was a pretty boy with a great line of bull. As a PR man that worked in his favor until he started to believe his own bull shit. That's when everything went sideways. He lost his career. He lost his beautiful wife Kirsten who as it turned out was also a raging alcoholic. Sadly, as a result he also lost his own mind. Joe Clay sought redemption, but it's not really clear that he found it. I've received a call from an alcoholic who was trying to make amends. I wondered to myself if I was just another step in his ladder as I had always been. Today we call it alcohol abuse in order to relieve some of the stigma of the word alcoholism. This is so that all the bro's can feel better about binge drinking a six pack after work, and the house wives can feel a little bit better about finishing that bottle of wine. It is what it is.

Reference links:

Alcoholics Anonymous

Al-anon

Montgomery Clift

Monty

“Failure and its accompanying misery is for the artist his most vital source of creative energy.” Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift in New York City, 1948. Photograph by (c) Karl Bissinger. fotofolio.com postcard.

Photo by Ida Wyman

   How much deconstruction can one man stand? I don't know. Let's find out. Mid century heart throb? Gay icon? Beautiful loser? Call him what you will. Monty put himself out there. He was nothing, if not conflicted about his sexuality. At a time when people were being black balled and black mailed due to their sexuality, he exuded a nonchalance about the whole thing. Maybe he was gay, maybe he was bisexual, maybe he was straight. Perhaps, (gasp) he didn't care.
     Yet at the end of the day, he had to go to bed with himself and he did care. His self flagellation with pills, alcohol and psychoanalysis proved that he did.  I mean, what gay man wouldn't have given his right nut to have Elizabeth Taylor (Bessie Mae) as his enabler? 
   Today, it's difficult for some people to understand the self loathing and contempt that gay men felt for themselves 'back in the day'.  Now we have Gay Pride, and Broadway shows like Angels In America, and The Boys In The Band to tell our story.
   Back then, Monty had nothing.  As a result his death has been deemed 'The slowest suicide in Hollywood'. That's the saddest thing of all.

Matt (Montgomery Clift) - You're going to wind up branding every rump in Texas except mine.

Thomas (John Wayne) - Hand me that iron.

Publicity photo from 'A Place In The Sun'

“Then, there on the screen I saw Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. An American Tragedy, a film I'd seen at least twice, not that it was all that great, but still it was very good" - Truman Capote

"He's the only person I know in worse shape than I am." Marilyn Monroe

The Misfits

Monty at Paestum, an old Greek colony south of Naples. Photo by Kevin McCarthy. From Patricia Bosworth's Montgomery Clift: A Biography.

Reference Links:

CMG

LA Times

You Must Remember This Podcast #20 Liz and Monty

Here's The Thing Podcast Patricia Bosworth

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Tennessee Williams. Sublime.

Return To Brokeback Mountain

Love Is A Force Of Nature

By Preston Sinclair

Ennis! Quit yer hammerin' and get in here! - Jack Twist

     This is how it all gets started. Baby, it's cold outside, alcohol is involved, one thing leads to another and boom you're in love. I watch Brokeback Mountain every year during the late winter, early spring here in Northern New York. Somehow I can relate to movies which involve cold weather and snow storms. This story always warms the cockles of my heart.
     I remember driving an hour with a friend to Syracuse NY to the nearest cinema that would screen this ground breaking movie. As we stood in line I looked around me and saw nervous guys with salt and pepper gautees wearing leather bomber jackets standing next to their girlfriends who flaunted their auburn Jennifer Anniston haircuts and brown lipstick.  I thought to myself,'OMG, this is a chick flick."

He was a friend of mine. -Willie Nelson

     While it could easily have been watered down into a bromance flick in order to get it made by the studios, the story remains intact as a love story between two men. In Annie Proulx's short story she writes, 'There were only two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air...' Little did they know Joe Aguirre was watching through his binoculars while they were 'stemmin' the rose.'  In one pivotal scene after Jack and Ennis have learned that they have to leave the mountain, unable to cope or communicate their feelings, they decide the only thing that they know how to do is wrestle around and beat the crap out of each other.  A classic example of the theme man vs man.
     Brokeback Mountain is based on the short story from Annie Proulx's anthology Close Range: Wyoming Stories. Larry McMurty and Dianna Ossana pain stakingly and with much love translated every sentence into the finished screenplay which won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 78th Annual Academy Awards.

(C) Universal 

     Director Ang Lee brilliantly marries the gorgeous cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto to the haunting original score by Gustavo Santaolalla to create this classic film.  The images by Rodrigo Prieto look like Ansel Adams photographs in color.  There's a nice homage to the film The Misfits in the scene where Ennis and Alma are at the drive-in involving Marilyn Monroe character and Montgomery Clift character.  The Misfits is a classic film directed by John Huston in black and white about the last days of the cowboys in the early sixties.
    Gustavo Santaolalla's soundtrack beautifully supports the theme of loneliness and longing between Jack and Ennis, while at the same time advancing the story. In a key scene, Mary McBride seems to channel Patsy Cline as she croons  'No One Can Love You Like Me,' while Jack Twist and Lureen hook up on the dance floor.  Can I just say right now how much I love Patsy Cline.

RIP buddy

    This movie probably wouldn't have been made without Heath Ledger.  His lean 6' 2" cave chested frame fit Annie Proulx's description perfectly. Ang Lee said that he had thought about Heath Ledger as Ennis for several years prior to the producton of the movie. It's Ennis's hoarse choked voice that brings the arc of the story to it's natural conclusion when he whispers,"Jack, I swear."
     Today, I'm able to proudly say that Brokeback Mountain is one of my favorite movies of all time.  Not everyone has seen it yet, but I'm still hoping to change that.

References:

Slate: Men In Love

Out: 10 Years On  
IMDB: Brokeback Mountain
CinemaQueer: Go Tell It On The Mountain