The Projectors

For our MOVIES ARE GAY theme we like to hit up, at least, one romcom and today’s discussion had an unprecedented major studio presence for a gay film with a majority LGBTQ cast but it seemed to come and go fairly quietly. The Judd Apatow produced film directed by Nicholas Stoller, written by Billy Eichner and starring Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane may have had an uphill battle within an era where romantic comedies in general have become more and more rare. We’re talking about the movie “BROS” from 2022 in which Bobby, a neurotic and loud NYC gay man with a podcast, gradually falls for a beefcake “bro-type” named Aaron. It’s a lot like many romantic comedies in some ways while showing what is different about queer relationships. Very adult but seems like decent fodder for the romcom crowd. This didn’t blow up the box office but perhaps this movie will linger over time with a gradual shift in overall perception? We will see. We’re talking waaaaay deeper cuts than “BROS” this month but the future of gay romantic comedies may have been unfairly hoisted up “BROS” shoulders in today’s shaky moviegoing landscape. Hear us tell of it.

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MOVIES ARE GAY all month long and how could we go through Mondays of classic cinema subtext without another selection from the one and only James Whale? This 1932 film was very underrated in its time and fairly lost until it was risen from the grave for a new appreciation by modern cinephiles and James Whale fandom. “THE OLD DARK HOUSE” seems to lampoon tropes as it appears to create them. Genuinely unsettling and strangely comical, this film features a group of strangers stranded in a storm that have to contend with the dangerous legacy of a mansion’s inhabitants. It stars Boris Karloff, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton (gay) and Ernest Thesiger (very gay) and it’s all directed by the iconic pioneer in queer film history, James Whale (super queen supreme). Will these guests survive the turmoil of the Old Dark House? Perhaps they will come out of the closet? Not Horace. He’s never been anywhere near a closet. God bless him. God bless this family. Here’s the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnpbcUfmzkc

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We keep on trucking’ for this month’s theme of MOVIES ARE GAY and you can call this “LOW BUDGET WEEK”. We got one movie made on about 22 grand and this one was made from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That’s right. We paid for this one. So you’re welcome for the sex scene. It also happens to be the first film by a black lesbian. Cheryl Dunye’s 1996 film “THE WATERMELON WOMAN” has a lot of issues stemming from low budget. You get what you get when you need some pals, who have no acting ability or experience, to help you hold down a few scenes. But the layered story of a woman seeking a long lost black lesbian thespian manages to push beyond its surface and show interesting personal relationships with a nice amount of black film history to boot. Did we mention the sex scene? It’s the best scene in the movie in terms of pure execution. This sex scene could win a contest. It could be it’s own short film. See for yourself. Minute 41: https://archive.org/details/the.watermelon.woman.1996.webdl.720p.h264.aac-deep

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This month, MOVIES ARE GAY and we’re hitting up our second ever Gregg Araki movie with his groundbreaking 1992 film “THE LIVING END” starring Craig Gilmore and Mike Dytri. This low budget feature is considered ground floor for what was dubbed a “New Queer Cinema Movement” in which LGBTQ creators were looking to push boundaries within a world of social and political marginalization during a time in which the AIDS epidemic was thoroughly embedded into the queer culture scene. This new movement did not seek safety in the sentimental but presented queer characters struggling in a world they didn’t make. Luke, a nihilistic vagabond who has killed a few people, meets movie critic Jon. Jon has just been diagnosed with HIV. Luke already has it. In many ways they are different but their situation brings them closer together in backlash to a fatalistic world that wants nothing to do with them. They may not make it to the 21st century. A lot of low budget acting tropes get balanced out nicely here in a well executed ground floor film that shines in the context of its time. Last we checked, we found the film right here: https://archive.org/details/this-is-how-the-world-ends-gregg-araki-2000 and you should be able to find out more by looking up “Strand Releasing”. Fuck the world in the most gay 90s way possible.

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It’s time for a bit more classic film gay subtext of a varying degree of obviousness. It’s one of our favorite things to see in this month’s theme we’re calling MOVIES ARE GAY and we say that because they are. We like Pro Wrestling too and that is also gay. So many gay things all around us. You step on a train full of strangers and surely one of them will be gay. Maybe they can tell that you’re at least kinda gay and they got some great ideas they want to share. Like killing your wife in exchange for you killing their homophobe dad. Are we speaking the same language? Hitchcock seems particularly sad of the classic closeted Hollywood. The repression maybe didn’t make him very nice to Tippi Hedren but the rumors still live on after pushing that “wife guy” image so hard. I’m sure Alma had a deep understanding. Maybe it was a Charles Laughton/Elsa Lancaster situation? We’re discussing Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 film “STRANGERS ON A TRAIN” and here we star Farley Granger (gay) as “Guy” who has a chance encounter and candid conversations on a train with “Bruno” as played by Robert Walker (mormon). Bruno leans in a little too much and kills Guy’s no good wife and insists that Guy kill his father. It’s all a big mess that leads to tons of that Hitchcock tension your grandma loved. Including a killer carousel at the end that has a fatal design flaw. Good thing pappy was there. Stay gay, true believers. Here’s the movie: https://archive.org/details/strangers-on-a-train-720p Excelsior!

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We’re week one into MOVIES ARE GAY 2 and we’re still glad to no longer be in outer space. Queer film history has its controversies when it comes to representation and this notorious feature film feels like an outsider work by critically acclaimed director William Friedkin. One that feels observationally curious on the part of the director. We’re discussing his 1980 film “CRUISING” starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino & Richard Cox. It’s about an undercover cop who goes into the very specific world of gay leather/S&M clubs to find a killer who cruises for his victims. Activists at the time were critical of more depictions of the gay underbelly and the self loathing often at the center of such representation. On the other hand, the actual New York gay S&M scene at the time was very on hand for the project representing a sub-culture of a sexuality that would be drastically changed by the end of the 80s. Modern takes have seemed more objective and slightly less charged with “Cruising” finding its place in LGBTQ history for good or bad. It’s fairly open ended ending still raising conversations to this day. We just so happened to have found a link to the film right here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8dmb7g

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Let me tell you something about movies…MOVIES ARE GAY. They are definitely gay for this month’s theme and how can we do a month like this without some Rainer Werner Fassbinder? We’re discussing what some may consider his masterpiece in this romantic drama from 1972 about a sadist fashion designer and her relationships with the women in her lives. Lovers. Mothers. Daughters. Subs. Based on a play he wrote, Fassbinder’s “THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT” strikes a tone that few movies do and lingers in a way you wish more movies would. Starring Margit Carstensen, Irm Hermann, Katrin Schaake, Eva Mattes and the absolutely stunning Fassbinder muse Hanna Schygulla. Seriously, what a babe. She’s the old woman on the ship deck hanging out with Jerrod Carmichael in “Poor Things”. It’s still a “would” for any self respecting film nerd. Now go get me some goddamn tea.

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We’ve finally left a galaxy far far away for more domestic fare and it’s time for us to revisit one of our most eye opening annual themes. Its MOVIES ARE GAY 2 in which we discuss films made by, and adjacent to, LGBTQ culture. Classic subtext and modern gay classics all month long and we ease in to the month with a screwball classic that flopped in its time but became beloved as a standout amongst its long lost comedic genre. It also stars Carey Grant (gay) who becomes the first person in a feature film to use a common terminology in a very specific way. We’re talking about the wacky Howard Hawks rom-com “BRINGING UP BABY” from 1938 and starring Katherine Hepburn as a wise cracking heiress and Carey Grant as an archaeologist who just wants to get his bone. Also, there is a Leopard involved and it likes dogs. Whattayaknow you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE1O9SwwB1c  and there’s a cleaner version of it on Tubi as of this writing.

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And so our journey through THE FORCED concludes with this episode. All the Star Wars movies, up to now, have been thoroughly watched and discussed. Now we ride off into Tatooine’s double sunset because we will never watch these ever again. Once upon a time we might have gotten angry at these movies. Many get angry to this day with the sequel trilogies having their own divisions amongst the fanbase. We won’t be angry this time. Just happy to move on. We’ve done our mission. We’ve supplied you with new and proper opinions that you can replace inside your mind. We will leave the comment thread nitpicking to the rest of the internet. The only thing I would change about all of them is that I would digitally insert Jar Jar Binks into all the movies. New cuts and remasters adding Jar Jar. It wouldn’t be Rey learning that she is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. It would be Rey learning that she was the daughter of Master Sith Lord and true ruler of the Final Order, Jar Jar Binks. Yes. This is so much better. I did it. I fixed Disney Star Wars. Recut that shit, Disney.  We’re saying goodbye with this most recent STAR WARS film and the finale of the last trilogy. J.J. Abrams returned to scrub off some Rian Johnson with the 2019 space fantasy “STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER”. The Emperor definitely raised zombie Dreadnoughts from below the ground. Those are zombie machines. Jesus Christ I can’t wait to watch something that isn’t in space.

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We’re in the final stretch of FORCED, our month’s theme where we discuss every STAR WARS film in chronological order, and we’re really feeling the dregs at this point. We got to spread this franchise shit around a little bit more in the future. After we finish all the STAR WARS we’re going to be watching a Carey Grant movie and we can’t wait to get to something that is the complete opposite of a space fantasy. Yeah, we do this voluntarily, and that’s on Bob because he was a little fatigued on this franchise before we scheduled this and we’re definitely never watching these ever again. But if you put a blaster to our heads and made us choose one to rewatch, Rian Johnson’s 2017 contribution to the sequel trilogy “THE LAST JEDI” might be a contender. All the referential onslaught you come to expect but it does seem like Johnson was attempting to do something a little different. Maybe philosophize the force a bit deeper. This movie has its appreciators and some quite vocal detractors but compared to the rest of the trilogy, is this one truly so bad? It had cool looking shit at least. The Holdo Maneuver? Poe Cameron being at his peak coolest? The throne room scene?? SEAMONSTER TITTY MILK CHUGGING?!?!?! YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT DOES NOTHING FOR YOU? Well, now you can just empty your brain and accept our final judgement on this movie that we will never watch again. Did you get the Justin Theroux figure when it came out?

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