20 Imag From the Naked Age of Erotic Gay Theater

Contents:

• COMMENTARY: THE REAL LSON OF ‘BROS’: IT’S OK TO LET GAY ART BOMB
• INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD

COMMENTARY: THE REAL LSON OF ‘BROS’: IT’S OK TO LET GAY ART BOMB

BenedictnOn June 3rd of 2022, two films featurg lic nstctns of muni of gay men were released on the very same day.

One you've surely heard of (Fire Island, which I'll get to later) — and the other was Benedictn, a film that barely seemed to register spe beg helmed by one of our great queer filmmakers, Terence (who directed Rachel Weisz and Cynthia Nixon to arguably their greatt performanc The Deep Blue Sea and A Quiet Passn, rpectively) utiliz a bpic of Brish poet and rated WWI bat veteran Siegied Sassoon (played by Jack Lown his youth and Peter Capaldi olr age) to offer a wdow to the dramatic liv of aristocratic gay men the 1920s. This is where I firmly stand, generally: was an extremely funny, often very sightful movie that served better than was & QueerCome at , Bros: Billy Eichner opens up about his big gay Hollywood rom (that's very, very good)I saw twice 24 hours, and was thoroughly entertaed and ocsnally very moved both tim.

Fire IslandWhat more uld you possibly ask for than a loose, queer adaptatn of Pri and Prejudice that's set at the hedonistic gay vatn statn of s tle and featur an all-LGBTQ st pl plenty of sex, dgs and Marisa Tomei-imprsns? Kicked out of his mother's New Jersey home at the age of 16 for beg gay, Bratton was homels for nearly a before cidg to jo the Mar, where he would end up servg as a bat meraman. The latter experience gave him the ial tools that led to his reer filmmakg, but his entry pot to also serv as the premise for The Inspectn, a look at a young gay man (Jeremy Pope, who has already been nomated for a Goln Globe and a Spir Award for his performance) stgglg to survive boot mp the era of "don't ask, don't tell.

INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD

I didn’t want to dimish “the first major stud movie wrten by and starrg a gay man” or spoil s Rotten Tomato sre or dance on the grave of s box-office prospects. I certaly didn’t want to attack the star of “Billy on the Street” and “Difficult People, ” two of the most succsful screen adaptatns of the gay sensibily recent memory.

”Do that make too the “homophobic weirdos” of Eichner’s nfoundg post-bomb tweet spiral or simply the silent Benedict Arnolds of his self-proclaimed march to the history books? It is emently ldable that Eichner has ma a sexually ank stud edy featurg two gay men, and that he sisted, as wgman/-star/-producer Guy Branum not, on an all-LGBTQ st. Its laceratg send-ups of token reprentatn Hallmark Christmas movi; the “hnted hoe of gay trma” that pop culture pass off as queer history; even Eichner’s own public persona are all a potent, knowg nod to the ongog challeng of tellg LGBTQ stori — of livg LGBTQ liv — whout simply repurposg a tired, old, straight the culmatg ame of s fal act, that is, when the image of two nventnally attractive gay men kissg is posned, lerally, as the ldatory bookend to “5, 000 years of gay love stori erased om the history books.

And yet, spe the affi Eichner and I share on paper — no, bee of the affi we share on paper — I reil at “Bros’” squanred privilege, bristle at s star’s attempt to hi s shortgs behd the veil of homophobia. It is the eedom to fight over, cricize, even ignore the artworks that claim to reprent — and, on the flip si, the eedom to keep makg and nsumg gay art whether straight people show up for or, when I saw the film a send time this week, at a half-full weeknight screeng at the Sunset 5, what stck me most were the loust lghs and cheers, all directed at the gayt material — the slap fight-turned-sex scene, the Bowen Yang meo, Nile Kidman’s pre-roll ad for AMC. ” (Universal Pictur) To say “let gay art bomb” is not to say “let gay art languish.