Tricky Love

I watched two famous queer films today (well, one last night and the other this morning). The first was Making Love (1981, dir. Hiller), which I think I really liked for one reason - Michael Ontkean. Excuse my gratuitous "he's so dreamy" rant, but... oh my god, Michael Ontkean is so dreamy. Or, he was. For a 40-year-old, he was fuckin' HOT AS HELL! I fell into a ridiculous crush with the man when I first watched the entire series of Twin Peaks. And then I never saw him in anything else, until this. And man, he was sooo good looking during the '80s (I should see Slapshot for this scene and that scene only - I don't like hockey).

So, anyway, back to Making Love. Other than Sheriff Truman, I actually did like it. It ain't no Brokeback Mountain or My Beautiful Laundrette, but I think when watching it you have to take into account that this was 1982. I liked watching a serious take on the subject. I found it funny that the roles of the two gay men were sort of switched in Brokeback. Here it's the homely married man who wants the relationship while the more outwardly open man doesn't. And Kate Jackson (she of Charlie's Angels fame) gets the Michelle Williams role. She gets the realisation AND confrontation scene all in one. I'm not really sure if I entirely bought everything the movie was selling me, but... i dunno. I liked it. Plus, there's plenty of Michael Ontkean ogling to be had. There's an interesting interview with the screenwriter here. He discusses Brokeback and all that jazz.

The other movie I watched was Trick (1999, dir. Fall). Yeah, again, I didn't really think this was the greatest of filmmaking ventures I've ever seen, but in the end I liked it. It's not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I mean, I didn't like the Christian Campbell character (he's Neve Campbell's brother! lol) - I didn't understand him at all, and some of the cliches were overdone, but it won me over I suppose. I just enjoyed watching it (for the most part). Oh, and despite the fact that I don't usually go for muscle beefcake guys, that John Paul Pitoc was... well, he was fun to watch ;)

I give them both Bs. I give Michael Ontkean in the '80s an A+ though, thank you very much.

Oh, yeah, I also watched Die, Mommie, Die! yesterday. What a strange movie. The thing with these sorts of movies though is that, just because you're mimicing movies that aren't well-acted or well-written, doesn't mean yours should be as poorly written and poorly acted. And, I know it was Charles Busch's play that he adapted and starred in, but it's not like having a man play this woman's role did anything for it. It harmed it I thought. It came off as hammy. Like, they didn't even try to make him appear to be a real woman. Bizarre cast, also. C