Queer Cinema

Am v. behind on watching DVDs I've bought over the past year. Two X-Files season box sets still stare at me mournfully. "When is it our turn?" they seem to cry.

So I have decided to start catching up. Best way to do it I thought would be to watch one DVD a day. To make it more fun a/o interesting, I decided to group them and make themes out of them. This week's theme: Queer Cinema.

Over the past year I went on a gay-themed movie splurge. I got tired of all the hetero blockbusters so readily available...where were the movies that would appeal to me as a gay man? Gay men like adventure/thrillers/romance/etc. too--where were those kinds of movies with gay characters as leads, not just the token best friend to the straight? So with a little research on the IMDb and at TLA Video, I found some titles that sounded cool to me. I tracked some down at my local Suncoast Pictures that actually had a Gay/Lesbian movie section (although very small), and I picked up a couple at a video store in the Castro in San Francisco on my last trip to CA.

Monday's entry was Big Eden(2000). This was a quiet little film that I remember seeing a preview for at the Lagoon Theater in Uptown. Never caught the movie when it played there, though. The "big names" in this movie are Arye Gross and Louise Fletcher. There are also a couple of actors you recognize from other movies and tv shows, even if you don't recognize their names.

I liked this movie quite a bit. It's quiet, as I mentioned. No great big drama (just a little one), no "coming out" crises, none of the characters make a big deal out of the sexual orientations of the other characters. There is a sweet romance; you get the feeling that all of the characters really do care for the others...The shopkeeper Pike, who has fallen in love with Henry, says "I just want to make things nice for him." Pike's friend Jim says "Well, buddy, we just want to make things nice for you too." Beautiful.

The movie takes place in the small Montana town of Big Eden. The filming was done in Glacier National Parl in Montana and the director shows off the scenery every chance he gets. And it works for the story...it looks beautiful.

Spolier Alert: Another reason I liked this movie...a happy ending that I was hoping for.