Friday, July 31, 2015
Brokeback Mountain Reconsidered
Annie
Proulx has written a short story about a love affair between a pair
of cowboys in Wyoming where gay boys get beaten to death. Polite
society has tried to avoid dealing with the love that dare not say
its name for centuries. What do we think was the service provided by
cabin boys and midshipman on 5-year ocean voyages. What was the
relationship between Charles Darwin and his sea captain friend on the
Beagle. That between Lewis and Clark on their trip across America.
What went on between pubescent Cowboys during those long cattle
drives. As couples have demonstrated for centuries not all
relationships are based on sex.
It
is interesting that Jack Twist initiated this coupling but it is
Ennis Del Mar who is the top in this relationship. A man of few words
Ennis is the realist while Jack is the dreamer. Hetero marriage by
gay men for years has been a common cover-up for activities that
could land one in jail or worse. Indiscreet behaviour could ruin
reputations and even get you killed. It is a terrible irony that the
AIDS epidemic occurred shortly after gay liberation brought gays out
of the closet.
Small
comfort for this couple who confined their couplings to the remote
wilderness. Denial and self-loathing are an all-too common
consequence. Ennis drifts from one dead-end job to another his wife
divorcing him; Jack in high-risk behaviours with both sexes that
eventually gets him killed.
Here on Earth
That
this teenage romance, young love, disease of the week flick rises
above the genre is credit to its young stars. Josh Hartnett and Chris
Klein square off like two young banty roosters fighting over a
pullet. Chris Klein has been described as a thinking man's jock. Josh
Hartnett is one of those character actors who inhabits a part to the
point that he leaves one saying, oh that's who that was. The girl
they lock horns over just happens to be the local sheriff's daughter.
Annette O'Toole plays her mother having come a long way since Beach
Blanket Bingo, she later plays Superman's mother in Smallville.
Michael Rooker, Cruise's competition in Days of Thunder plays
Hartnett's father though it is interaction with his mother that
assumes more importance in his life. The reconstruction project at
the centre of the movie seems to be a community event. This is
another one of those townie vs rich spoiled private boy's school
stories. The point is driven home repeatedly that Richie Rich's
father treats his son just like another one of his investments
whereas the local yokel has loving parents who are involved in their
son's life. Thrown in as best bud is a muscular bleached blonde whose
parents obviously own the local general store.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Boyhood Update
Most
actors commit themselves to a 3-6 month shoot with the possibility of
the need for scenes to be reshot. The principals in this movie made a
twelve-year commitment to a recurrent project. Seemlessly we see
Ellar Coltrane grow from a 5-year-old to 18-year-old manhood
college-bound. The others who follow Mason on this journey are the
actors who play his Mother, his sister, and Ethan Hawke who plays his
biological Father. We see hair styles change, limbs lengthen until
‘mother’ looks up at son, beards and moustaches come and go and
hair show signs of greying.
Intelligence
is no guarantee of wise decisions and Mason watches mom marry and
divorce three husbands resulting in too many moves to count. Where
his Father is concerned the child is father of the man. Though a
recurring presence in Mason’a life the child who fathered a son
remains very much a dilettante throughout. Mother’s and Sister’s
growth are not neglected. These characters are more than props. An
interesting sociological study, a decent movie. I probably need to
watch it again. The DVD provides no extras and the previews are
execrable.
Watched
it the second time. Mason is a left-lane hog just like his father.
The movie has teenage sex, underage drinking, drugs. The director
cast his own daughter.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Fire in the Sky
A
high concept type of movie. What if a group of redneck loggers saw
their buddy abducted by an alien spacecraft. A story they wouldn't
have believed had they heard it of others and not one that anyone
buys of them. So how do they cope and how to they deal with the
disbelief of law enforcement, their neighbours, and even their
families. Ironic that Robert Patric gets to play an alien in the
Terminator movie series and investigate them later on the X-Files.
Though relating that the abductee returns after 5 days might be
accounted a spoiler the movie is about watching his reaction and that
of disbelief in those who surround him.
