Knight at HOME at the Movies
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Something for the ladies and the gents...
It's Gay Pride weekend in Chicago and celebrations here and in other cities, large and small, throughout the country, are
sure to be as festive as always. Here are some recent DVD releases of gay themed movies, overt and covert, that are also
worth celebrating:
It's Gay Pride weekend in Chicago and celebrations here and in other cities, large and small, throughout the country, are
sure to be as festive as always. Here are some recent DVD releases of gay themed movies, overt and covert, that are also
worth celebrating:
Fox Home Entertainment brings us last winter' charming romantic comedy, Imagine Me
& You. Starring lesbian pin up girls Piper Perabo and Lena Headey, this gentle twist on
the "love at first sight" story is the freshman effort from writer-director Ol Parker. The
Special Features include a Q&A with Parker in which he talks about writing the script after
experiencing the sensation upon meeting his future wife at a casting session. The twist
with Perabo falling in love with Headey just as she's about to walk down the aisle is a nice
one and the complications that ensue are nicely played out by the fetching leads and the
expert supporting cast. The Q&A also includes interviews with the stars of the film and
other special features include a few deleted scenes, a director's statement, commentary,
and both fullscreen and widescreen editions of the film.
Universal Home Entertainment brings us the 15 year Anniversary Edition of Fried
Green Tomatoes. Based on the best-selling novel by Fannie Flagg, this 1991
melodramatic saga of sisterhood in the deep south, recalled through vivid flashbacks by
storyteller Jessica Tandy to rapt listener Kathy Bates is as much a guilty pleasure as the
signature dish of the film's title. Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson enact the
story of two extremely close friends who open a cafe together in a small southern town in
the 1930s. Much more than simple homespun wisdom is served in this dipped in batter
drama but thanks to heartfelt performances by the leads, a supporting cast that includes
Cicely Tyson and Chris O'Donnell, this guilty pleasure goes down as easy as pecan pie.
Sitting in the theatre in 1991 I bristled at the cliched characters and situations but
subsequent viewings have vastly altered that opinion. This is a movie that I never tire of
and I love it's old fashioned preachy uplift and use of standard Hollywood studio story
telling devices. This new disc includes the previously released extended edition (which
mainly adds to the modern day story), a few deleted scenes, recipes for some of those all
important dishes, and an excellent making of documentary (about a half hour in length)
that was on the previous edition. The complaints that the implied lesbian relationship
between Parker and Masterson is not consummated or made clearer is valid (as noted in
The Celluloid Closet) but as usual with mainstream Hollywood, one simply needs to fill in
the blanks in their own mind. I knew what Ruth and Idgie were up to -- didn't you?
Screenwriter Shane Black made his directing debut with last year's very funny modern day
film noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The movie follows Robert Downey, Jr., a small time
hood turned actor hired to play a detective in a movie who is advised by a real life
detective, the suave and extremely capable Val Kilmer. In typical noir fashion, LA style,
the fictional very quickly merges with the real life and soon Downey is immersed in all
sorts of dark doings. Stuffed to the gills with clever dialogue and scenes, this rather
flashy debut has particular interest to gay audiences because Kilmer's character is one of
Our People. Dubbed Gay Perry, Kilmer's character proves to be so adept at his job that
he quickly becomes the capable hero of the piece -- he's the sanest one in a film filled
with eccentrics. We don't see the character involved in a romance but there's no doubting
that Gay Perry is getting a lot of action somewhere. Kilmer who has played many sexually
ambiguous oddballs before (from The Doors to the over the top Island of the Lost Souls)
this time plays gay as smart, funny, and cool -- James Bond if he were gay. The disc
includes a gag reel and commentary by Black, Kilmer and Downey.
Universal Home Entertainment has also released a stand alone version of Hitchcock's
1948 experimental thriller Rope. Hitchcock shot the film utilizing one set in real time like
a play (there are only eight edits in the entire movie). The story, based on the famous
Leopold and Loeb murder case of the 1920s, is about two quasi-homosexual
sophisticates who strangle an unsuspecting young man as an intellectual exercise. The
two then invite the young man's fiancee and family over to dine (perversely on the chest
where they've dumped him). Their college professor, played by James Stewart, slowly
figures out what's going on and a game of wits commences between he and the killers.
It's implied that the two leads, played by Farley Granger and John Dahl (who both came
out years later) are gay though that's never, obviously for the times, made overt. Out
screenwriter Arthur Laurents describes in the excellent making of documentary that the
character played by Stewart was also supposed to be gay and that is perhaps the film's
greatest flaw. With George Sanders in the role, this could have been the outrageous
masterpiece that Hitchcock was seeking. Stewart is fine as always but he throws the piece
off balance. A rare case of bad miscasting. This edition has previously only been
available in a massive Hitchcock boxed set and is worth getting for the new making of
documentary and the little seen original trailer in which the murder victim is glimpsed in
the park before heading off to meet his fate at the hands of the young "sophisticates"
(code word for homosexuals).
& You. Starring lesbian pin up girls Piper Perabo and Lena Headey, this gentle twist on
the "love at first sight" story is the freshman effort from writer-director Ol Parker. The
Special Features include a Q&A with Parker in which he talks about writing the script after
experiencing the sensation upon meeting his future wife at a casting session. The twist
with Perabo falling in love with Headey just as she's about to walk down the aisle is a nice
one and the complications that ensue are nicely played out by the fetching leads and the
expert supporting cast. The Q&A also includes interviews with the stars of the film and
other special features include a few deleted scenes, a director's statement, commentary,
and both fullscreen and widescreen editions of the film.
Universal Home Entertainment brings us the 15 year Anniversary Edition of Fried
Green Tomatoes. Based on the best-selling novel by Fannie Flagg, this 1991
melodramatic saga of sisterhood in the deep south, recalled through vivid flashbacks by
storyteller Jessica Tandy to rapt listener Kathy Bates is as much a guilty pleasure as the
signature dish of the film's title. Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson enact the
story of two extremely close friends who open a cafe together in a small southern town in
the 1930s. Much more than simple homespun wisdom is served in this dipped in batter
drama but thanks to heartfelt performances by the leads, a supporting cast that includes
Cicely Tyson and Chris O'Donnell, this guilty pleasure goes down as easy as pecan pie.
Sitting in the theatre in 1991 I bristled at the cliched characters and situations but
subsequent viewings have vastly altered that opinion. This is a movie that I never tire of
and I love it's old fashioned preachy uplift and use of standard Hollywood studio story
telling devices. This new disc includes the previously released extended edition (which
mainly adds to the modern day story), a few deleted scenes, recipes for some of those all
important dishes, and an excellent making of documentary (about a half hour in length)
that was on the previous edition. The complaints that the implied lesbian relationship
between Parker and Masterson is not consummated or made clearer is valid (as noted in
The Celluloid Closet) but as usual with mainstream Hollywood, one simply needs to fill in
the blanks in their own mind. I knew what Ruth and Idgie were up to -- didn't you?
Screenwriter Shane Black made his directing debut with last year's very funny modern day
film noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The movie follows Robert Downey, Jr., a small time
hood turned actor hired to play a detective in a movie who is advised by a real life
detective, the suave and extremely capable Val Kilmer. In typical noir fashion, LA style,
the fictional very quickly merges with the real life and soon Downey is immersed in all
sorts of dark doings. Stuffed to the gills with clever dialogue and scenes, this rather
flashy debut has particular interest to gay audiences because Kilmer's character is one of
Our People. Dubbed Gay Perry, Kilmer's character proves to be so adept at his job that
he quickly becomes the capable hero of the piece -- he's the sanest one in a film filled
with eccentrics. We don't see the character involved in a romance but there's no doubting
that Gay Perry is getting a lot of action somewhere. Kilmer who has played many sexually
ambiguous oddballs before (from The Doors to the over the top Island of the Lost Souls)
this time plays gay as smart, funny, and cool -- James Bond if he were gay. The disc
includes a gag reel and commentary by Black, Kilmer and Downey.
Universal Home Entertainment has also released a stand alone version of Hitchcock's
1948 experimental thriller Rope. Hitchcock shot the film utilizing one set in real time like
a play (there are only eight edits in the entire movie). The story, based on the famous
Leopold and Loeb murder case of the 1920s, is about two quasi-homosexual
sophisticates who strangle an unsuspecting young man as an intellectual exercise. The
two then invite the young man's fiancee and family over to dine (perversely on the chest
where they've dumped him). Their college professor, played by James Stewart, slowly
figures out what's going on and a game of wits commences between he and the killers.
It's implied that the two leads, played by Farley Granger and John Dahl (who both came
out years later) are gay though that's never, obviously for the times, made overt. Out
screenwriter Arthur Laurents describes in the excellent making of documentary that the
character played by Stewart was also supposed to be gay and that is perhaps the film's
greatest flaw. With George Sanders in the role, this could have been the outrageous
masterpiece that Hitchcock was seeking. Stewart is fine as always but he throws the piece
off balance. A rare case of bad miscasting. This edition has previously only been
available in a massive Hitchcock boxed set and is worth getting for the new making of
documentary and the little seen original trailer in which the murder victim is glimpsed in
the park before heading off to meet his fate at the hands of the young "sophisticates"
(code word for homosexuals).
