Queer Review: Die, Mommie, Die!

Die, Mommie, Die! (2003)
Director: Mark Rucker
Writer: Charles Busch, based on his play of the same title.
Main Cast: Charles Busch, Jason Priestley, Natasha Lyonne, Frances Conroy, Stark Sands, Philip Baker Hall

Charles Busch the creator and star of Die, Mommie, die! is a male actor who frequently plays female characters in films. In Die, Mommie, Die! Busch gently parodies 60's films and particularly 60's Hollywood kitschy style.

The plot of Die, Mommie, Die! appears to have borrowed many of it's elements from the Greek tragedy Electra written by Sophocles and Euripides. Although, Die, Mommie, Die! is first and foremost a comedy, the dysfunctional family it depicts is filled to the brim with deep undercurrents of legitimate pathos.

When Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall) becomes too overbearing, his wife Angela Arden (Charles Busch) plots his murder. Angela was once a famous singer, but the untimely death of her sister Barbara Arden has left her with unexplained and unresolved guilt, plus the equally mysterious loss of her singing voice. However, it isn't long before Angela succeeds in poisoning Sol by lacing the suppository his doctor had prescribed with arsenic. While the autopsy clears her name (no arsenic was found in Sol's stomach after all), their kids - Edith (Natasha Lyonne) and Lance (Stark Sands) - believing that their mother was guilty in Sol's death, plot revenge. Meanwhile, Tony Parker (Jason Priestley) the films femme fatale, and who was also having an affair with Angela before Sol's death, begins an unorthodox investigation into the Sussman family.

The movie breezes by at a pleasant enough pace and the script was written with just enough intelligence to keep the audience guessing as to what is really going on. The film has a couple of surprises in store for viewers by the end, and I have to admit that I was only able to guess at a few of them beforehand.

Each of the primary actors is able to fill their role in the movie well, with Charles Busch and Jason Priestley providing standout performances. Director Mark Rucker manages to provide plenty of homages to classic movies in order to gently send them up; I was particularly reminded at times of Sunset Boulevard.

At the end of the day, while not a great film - I like my comedies to be a bit more bold - I would hope Die, Mommie, Die! does not give into it's title's plea, but rather I would wish for it to live a long and happy life in the annals of cinema.

Setting the Record Queer: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement.

Side Note: I had originally intended to do "Setting the Record Queer" articles on a more regular basis, in which I would focus on LGBTQA individuals who had made some significant contribution to history either positive or negative. However, between wanting to stick to a somewhat strict criteria of who I would do and the amount of time it takes to do such articles well, I ended up not doing as many as I had originally intended.

First, I did not want to do someone simply because they were famous, such as celebrities or artists, I wanted people who played a role in history itself. Second, I did not want to do an individual, unless there was conclusive (or nearly conclusive) evidence that they really were queer in some way. This criteria actually eliminated a lot more people then I had expected, such as Abraham Lincoln. Second, really famous individuals who were well known for being somehow LGBTQA were also not what I was interested in. This last criteria tends to eliminate a lot of the Greeks - Plato, Socrates, Alexander, etc. - among others.

So, while I consider less stringent criteria, I thought I would ask people if they had any paticular choices they might want to suggest for future Setting the Record Queer articles.

Bayard Rustin was a gay man of color and key figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. He served as a close advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. and was a organizer in the 1963 March on Washington where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Rustin's sexual orientation was often used as a weapon against him, both by individuals within the civil rights movement and those who opposed it. In a vain attempt to prevent the March on Washington from occurring, pro-segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond attempted to use an arrest of Rustin for lewd behavior against Rustin. Thurmond also went so far as to imply a gay affair between Rustin and King.

Non-violence was a crucial element of Rustin's philosophy and he was an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience within the civil rights movement. Later in his life, he would become more focused on equal rights for GLBTQA individuals.

In 1986, Rustin gave a famous and rather controversial speech called "The New Niggers Are Gay". In the speech Rustin states:

Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. . . . The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.

On August 24th 1987, Bayard Rustin passed away from a perforated appendix. From The New York Times article on that event:

Commenting on Mr. Rustin's death, Roy Innis, national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, said: ''Bayard Rustin was a planner, a coordinator, a thinker. He influenced all of the young leaders in the civil rights movement, even those of us who did not agree with him ideologically.''

Sources:
"Homophobia will never erase the contributions of Bayard Rustin to the civil rights movement" from Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Wikipedia Article on Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin Is Dead at 75; Pacifist and a Rights Activist" from The New York Times archive

Queer Review: Bound

Bound (1996) was the directorial debut from The Wachowskis (although before Larry Wachowski became Lana Wachowski they went by The Wachowski Brothers). The Wachowskis would later go on to direct The Matrix and would write the script for V for Vendetta.

The plot of Bound is straight forward enough, but there are enough twists and turns to keep viewers guessing as to what will happen next. At the start, ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) is trying to go on the "straight" and narrow when she meets Violet (Jennifer Tilly) who immediately seduces her. Shortly thereafter, Violet proposes to Corky that they steal 2 million dollars from Violet's boyfriend Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano) who happens to be a money launderer for the mob. Corky, although suspicious, soon agrees and the heist, not unexpectedly, does not go off without a hitch.

In my opinion, Bound is probably one of the best mainstream movie featuring two lesbians. There are many queer themes and imagery scattered throughout the film. The most obvious being that the title itself can be seen as a reference to being closeted, an idea confirmed by the opening scene. Although I do have to say that, while the film does not invite in depth analysis, there is still plenty of material that can be looked at for deeper meaning.

The Wachowski's provide solid direction and the film features a lot of darkly brilliant cinematography. Suspense is built to the sort of mind bending levels that few films aspire to, much less achieve. On the acting front, there is not a weak performance to be found. Each of the three leads -Tilly, Gershon, and Pantolino - gives a riviting performance.

On the whole, I highly recommend this film. It's smart and pushes boundaries in all the right ways.

Queer Review: Odder Than Ever

Odder Than Ever by Bruce Coville is a collection of short stories that exists as an exhibit for the truly weird.

The Golden Sail
When a young teenager is given the opportunity to meet the father who abandoned him at birth, he realizes that there is always a price to pay for everything.

Biscuits of Glory
Obsession and baking explosively collide in this story about a ghost who only wanted to be able to bake perfect biscuits.

I, Earthling
It's a cliche because it's true, growing up is tough and requires making hard choices, as a son of human diplomats on a distant planet finds out.

The Giants Tooth
Imagine you've been eaten by a giant, only to be rescued by a woman inhabiting one of the giant's rear molars. That is what happens to Edgar Twonky in this tale about the importance of community.

There's Nothing Under the Bed
This story reveals the truth every child knows so well and parents are always oblivious to. There is a great evil lurking under the bed and it will make all one's nightmares come true.

The Stinky Princess
When a goblin and a princess are rejected by their respective species after they start to smell too much like each other, they must make their own way in the world.
The Japanese Mirror
A morality tale on the dangers of uncontrolled anger, with elements of Dorian Grey mixed in.

Am I Blue
A bullied teenager questioning his own sexuality finds himself aided by his very own fairy godfather.

The Metamorphosis of Justin Jones
This story deals with the difficult subject of child abuse. This one I must admit to having some reservations on, as the ending may not send the best message. I hate to play the curmudgeon, but false hope is rarely a good thing.

My favorite stories of the collection were Biscuits of Glory, The Giant's Tooth, The Stinky Princess, The Japanese Mirror, and Am I Blue. In my opinion Bruce Coville is usually at his best when telling whimsical tales with provocative offbeat material. His weakest stories tend to be the more grim stories that attempt to address darker material.

Not that Bruce Coville doesn't do well when addressing serious issues, it's just that he does it best in stories, like Am I Blue, that use absurdity in order to poke fun at human nature.
I also think the following quote from Am I Blue is good advice in general and since I have little more to add, I will end with it:

But if you live in a world that keeps trying to grind you down, you either start thumbing your nose at it or end up very short. Taking back the language is one way to jam the grinder. My friends and I called each other faggot and queer for the same reason so many black folks call each other nigger - to take the words away from the people that want to use them to hurt us.

Queer Review: Another Gay Movie

Another Gay Movie features the tired approach of parodying popular movies started by Scary Movie and continued by films such as Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans. In this case, the movie being parodied is American Pie. For the record, of those movies I've only seen Meet the Spartans, which was absolutely awful.

The plot of Another Gay Movie has four recently graduated gay teenagers Andy, Nico, Jarod, and Griff making a pact to lose their virginity before the summer is over and they all take off on their separate ways to college. In other words, if one does not know where this is going and how every subplot will wrap up, one has recently had a lobotomy.

To put it bluntly - as I know of no nice way of putting it - this is a crappy movie. The jokes aren't funny or clever, but rather, they are completely predictable. I knew the fate of the gerbil the second it was mentioned and knew where it was headed long before it even showed up on screen. When one of the guys finds an unattended quiche, it suffers the same indignity as a well traveled cinematic apple pie.

The characters are little more than two dimensional caricatures, each more offensive and grating then the next. It was as if the writers made a list of all the gay and lesbian stereotypes they could think of, stuck them in a blender and hit puree.

It's worth noting that, in terms of parody, there is no gay movie (that I'm aware of) that this movie was based upon. Instead, we're given an American Pie parody, a movie whose main characters were straight. Which begs the question of whether or not what was being attempted here was simply a gay version of American Pie or a parody of. If the former, I might forgive the filmmakers somewhat, if the gags hadn't hewn so close. If the latter, this is still a bad movie, but the predictability could at least be explained somewhat.

The only interesting thing Another Gay Movie does, is cast a man, John Epperson, as the wife of a bisexual husband, but the character isn't around enough for this to be worthwhile.

The film-makers are clearly trying to be as gross and outrageous as possible, but end up merely being gross and vaguely offensive. While watching, I was reminded of the infinitely superior John Waters comedy A Dirty Shame although only for the reason that both movies have a penchant for the perverse.

In my opinion, a more accurate title for Another Gay Movie would have been Worse Gay Movie Ever.

So after my last post regarding the music industry, I ended up coming across the music video "Hell Yeah" by Rapper Jayne Dooe. It's only fair now that I share it.

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Queer Issue: The Impact of Words

This isn't a queer issue per se, but there are two recent events that I want to comment on, both dealing with censorship either directly or indirectly. One is the removal of the word "nigger" from a recent edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The other is the backlash that has been generated against Sarah Palin due to the connection (however weak) her aggressive rhetoric played in the horrific tragedy that took place in Arizona that left 6 dead and a U.S. Congresswoman hospitalized in critical condition.

Regarding the censoring of Huckleberry Finn, the publishers have justified their decision by claiming that teachers were becoming increasingly reluctant to teach the book, due to the use of a modern pejorative for people of color. My response to this is simply, huh?

Yes, the term "nigger" is a pejorative today, but it's use was perfectly acceptable at the time Huckleberry Finn was published. Rather than not teaching the book, I think teachers should use it as a learning opportunity. That is, they should have students read the uncensored version and then provide students with a history of the word and discuss why it's considered offensive today.

What I mean is this, are not teachers supposed to educate on sensitive issues, not cover them up? Students need tools and information in order to be able to evaluate complicated information in an increasingly complex world. By ignoring the issue itself, teachers are sending all the wrong messages to those they are supposed to be teaching.

Moving on to the second issue, the backlash against Sarah Palin, I have this to say. Using angry, violent, and threatening rhetoric is a problem. Not because it might lead to situation that occurred - and there is little actual reason to think that Palin's comments did cause the shooting - but because such rhetoric appeals to emotions and not to reason. There should be little discussion that reason in today's political climate is what we need now, not amped up emotional appeals.

These two issues are more connected then one might think. Thanks to the unsubstantiated charges that our rancorous political climate is the cause that lead to the shooting, I have seen the suggestion made that certain words (gun, shooting, etc.) and threatening statements should be banned from anyone with a microphone or in the media, etc.

I do not believe that this is a good idea, censoring certain words will only make reasoned discussion harder. Nor do I think that Sarah Palin or any other right wing commentator should be considered responsible for what happened.

However, remember that that the angry and violent political discourse that has taken place is wrong, not because it could cause violence, but because it leaves out reason, which is all that we should be using to guide our way forward.