I went ahead and bought the festival pass. I'm sure I could've gotten in free since I work for the home office of the theatre chain, but I didn't ask the marketing woman, and am fine giving the money to the gay and lesbian community center-- they need it!
First, I saw "Mississippi Queen"- a documentary about a lesbian woman returning home to her parents, who started an ex-gay ministry. Any regular readers probably know my feelings about religion in general. I found myself twitching in horror, and really holding back the screams of frustration. The film interviewed many ex-gay ministries, including Memphis' own: Love in Action. I found it interesting that everyone they interviewed had failed. Each had 'slipped up' at one point or another, and had to return to the ministry. They all seemed to concede that going through ex-gay 'treatment' won't stop you from having same-sex attraction, but will instead teach you how to cope with it and how to grow your relationship with god (vomit). I was curious, as I always am, at understanding these 'ministers' relationships with god. It's clear that they genuinely believe what they preach, but listening to them talk is like watching a psychopath: I just can't identify with that reality. The documentary concluded with the documentarian and her parents just concluding that they won't see eye-to-eye on her sexuality, but that that won't stop them from having a relationship. I found this strangely satisfying.
Second, I saw "Make the Yuletide Gay". To my delight, this film starred Adamo Ruggiero of Degrassi fame. I became a Degrassi fan when Adamo's character, Marco, entered the scene and the 'gay' plot line started. I also thought Marco was super cute. Apparently, Adamo 'came out' in real life about a year ago! I find it especially interesting, because in some Degrassi behind-the-scenes interview a while ago, I remember them asking Adamo if he was gay in real life and he said 'no'...which crushed me. :-)
The movie was a comedy about a gay couple, Olaf and Nathan, in their senior year at university. Both are going home to their parents for the holidays. Nathan (Adamo) decides to surprise his boyfriend Olaf by showing up unannounced! However, Olaf failed to mention that he was still very much in the closet at home. Hilarity ensues.
This movie was 'fun', and Adamo was adorable--I want a boyfriend like him. However, this was not a 'good' movie. There were many times where the writing was contrived, the characters made no sense, and the acting was a little poor in spots. It was very typical of a 'gay' movie--ala Trick, Broken Hearts Club, etc-- but being gay, you have to watch them, and you just expect them to be campy and kind of crappy. So I would watch this if you want to chuckle and stare at how cute Adamo Ruggiero is... but just don't let your expectations get too high :-)
Tonight, I am checking out "Ready? Ok!", which is a comedy about a 10 year old boy who just happens to love dresses and cheer-leading. Oh, and it's got the guy who plays Ben Linus from LOST, so that's cool.
Much Love,
Steve
7 comments:
Steve,
The festival sounds like fun. Hope you had a good time.
Jayson
I liked Trick and loved Broken Hearts Club. What's wrong with them?
Oh, no I didn't mean to imply that there was something wrong with them, and really I should've picked better examples--those two are actually especially good. I am just making the point that most (not all, and I realize I'm just digging myself a hole here) of the films from our ppl are overly campy, overacted, over-written, etc. just very over-the-top. And there's nothing wrong with that per-se-- camp is fun, over-the-top is fun, but it's just in such high concentration that it's a stereotype. I was just trying to make the point that 'Make the Yuletide Gay' was one of 'those' types of films. I was still entertained by it, it was 'fun' like I said.
My comments in the post were pseudo tongue-in-cheek.
But thanks for keeping me honest :-)
Steve
That's awesome mate! I would love to go to a gay film fest one day. ^__^
Heh. I just missed AGLIFF here LAST week. I wonder if there's a traveling band of producers / directors / nomads / former-waiters-at-applebees going from one GLBT film fest to the other?
Well as expected AGLIFF had quite a few more features (and waaayyy more shorts), but you had many of the films we had. Typically, for these there are only a few prints ever made, so I'm sure they sent them here after they were finished at AGLIFF. You should've gone! Film fests are FUN!
I have more to post but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Steve
I think the "gay' film genre has some growth ahead of them. I keep my Netflix queue filled with em. The good thing is they are getting better, and I've been tempted to do a kind of weekly film review on my own blog.
Wouldn't it be great to start some kind of GLBT bloggers film awards?
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