Zander’s Weblog

När alla vet in the original Norwegian. Based on a novel by Per Knutsen, it plays more like the author’s idyllic fantasy of what he would wish the coming-out experience to be than the actual reality typically encountered. Or is Norway different? The two main characters were pure A&F model material. The musical choices were hit or miss, and the attempt at avant-garde lighting (darkly lit scenes) was mostly a bust. Finally, our poor gay protagonist, although accepted by his friends and family, strikes out at love. 

A quirky gay-student-coping-with-high-school movie. Only the high school is an “International High School” some where in Europe (actually shot in a stunning school in Belgium), and uses a fair amount of local talent to supplement the Hollywood protagonist. So even the setting is disembodied from reality. This film will probably appeal to alt-high school students who by now, hopefully, know that only a (small?) minority of gay people are motivated to perform or consume drag performances! Production quality is “Disney” made-for-TV fluff.

An excellent coming-of-age film. Well acted, pulls no punches, and doesn’t feel compelled to gloss over or clean up messy situations. On the other hand, like most films with gay characters, it feels compelled to portray things like highway rest-stop bathroom sex as de rigueur. In my opinion this was unnecessary and potentially misleading for a younger audience.

Most are familiar with the grisly details of Matthew Shephard’s  murder. This movie is Moisés Kaufman’s screen adaptation of the off-Broadway play he wrote together with members of his Tectonic Theater Project. It is well done, and hosts a skilled cast. But as a screenplay adapted from a play adapted from interviews concerning the actual events, it seems overproduced and strangely mechanical.

Les Roseaux Sauvages, André Téchiné’s 1994 coming-of-age drama, is a gem. Set in a boarding school, the film follows the struggles of a group of friends as they grapple with the complex issues of that age. What sets this film apart is that one comes away liking all of the characters.

What can I say about this film? Nice try? I really wanted to like it–a kind of real-world High School Musical, unlike the sterile 2006 film. The music was good. The kids were cute and super talented. But the script was confused. Who was the film supposed to be about? Vlad? Bert? Michael? Ellen? How could Bert be such an alcoholic in one scene and such a paragon in the next? And why on earth would Stephen Sondheim ever have agreed to be in such a messy concoction?
But what really turned me off about this film was the gay backdrop (the film’s title, the rainbow flags all over the place, the one or two actual and several implicitly gay characters), all of it trite stereotype dredged up from the ’70s. The film’s message tries to be a good one: celebrate diversity. And for straight kids the film may work somewhat–”tolerate your gay classmates even if they are bizarre freaks like the ones we portray here.” But how can being tragic losers be a good message for gay kids?

Did you believe things as a child that you have since learned are not true? Have you changed and grown during the last 10 or 20 years? Has the world changed? Was there such a thing as laparoscopic surgery or the iPhone or a computer disk drive with no moving parts 20 years ago? And when you go to a foreign country do you get the impression that people are not like you–that they think and speak and behave quite differently? So now try to place yourself back 2000 years, into a very different culture–one struggling to survive in a difficult environment–and try to imagine what they were thinking when they wrote what they did in the bible. Do you think they spoke like kids in California today–that they used words in the same way–to mean the same things we do? They didn’t even have a word or concept for homosexual (word not created until 1869).
Today it is well established that one’s genes (not even imagined in 33 AD) are more important in determining sexual orientation than, say, right or left-handedness. And that the prenatal hormonal environment has a strong influence (as a woman bears more male children, the odds of gay offspring climb since she builds antibodies to male structures).
Many people have little cause to concern themselves with these questions, but if you do this is the best recent film on the subject and well worth a viewing.

Supposedly a story about a gay frat boy coming to terms with his sexuality. However seldom have allegedly college-aged kids looked so old, or so much like a collection of soap-opera extras. Marry them to a bad script and you have a critics’ delight–you’ll have a great time hating this one!

A production of the Queer Teen Ensemble Theatre program (QTET), and sponsored by the Washington Ensemble Theatre (WET), this was a summer lab project to encourage and develop young acting talent. It was written and performed by the actors. It had some good bits and some promising performances. One has to start somewhere!

I thought the cinematography was great–the scenery is beautiful. The music was well done for the film as well. Now if there were just a feature on the DVD whereby one could remove the script and actors the film would be a winner! While it’s true that many gay people grow up in hostile family environments, including brain-dead christian fundamentalist ones, I doubt that many would watch this film or find it helpful or entertaining. If you fall into this category there are better resources for certain–tip-toe into your local library and read John Boswell’s book or one of the newer works on the subject. Or, better yet, go directly to the books by Joseph Campbell and put the whole ridiculous dilemma in a proper perspective.