Queer Film Spotlight: Yossi & Jagger & The Trip

This post gonna kick off a new series of movie reviews I hope to write throughout the summer. I'll be reviewing films that focus on gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgendered characters and/or romances. Most of the films will likely be American but a few will be foreign, as exemplified by the first gay movie:

Yossi & Jagger (2002) is an Israeli film about two secret lovers in the Israeli military. Yossi is the commander of a small unit near Lebanon who is close to his second-in-command, Loir, who is nicknamed "Jagger" because he is "handsome like a rock star." Two girls arrive at the base, one of whom starts to fall for Jagger at the same time Ofir, another officer, falls for her - all happening as Yossi prepares the unit for an ambush that evening.

One thing I loved about this film was how short it was - barely an hour. Another thing I liked was that in other hands, the story could have been very weak. Two gay soldiers, a girl and a love triange. It could have been cheap, but the characters were all very believable and the story was paced slowly to let the audience digest the different emotions. The love between Yossi and Jagger was performed well - the comedy, the tension, the pain and the caring. I didn't mind the tangent story with Ofir most of the time, but at times it seemed like the main romance was playing second fiddle to it.

I couldn't complain much about film other than the slow pacing. (That, and I thought Yossi was kinda unattractive. He didn't have to be some hot Adonis, but sometimes the pairing with the clearly attractive Jagger felt weird.) I enjoyed it because it cared more about developing solid leading men who love each other during wartime more than it cared about forcing itself to be dramatic and emotional. It was good filmmaking and good acting despite its low budget.

The Trip (2002) is a bit uneven but enjoyable. It spans the years 1973 to 1984 and chronicles the romance between Alan and Tommy, the one a staunch straight Republican and the other a carefree gay activist. Alan is working on a book with the intent to threaten the gay rights movement and asks Tommy for an interview. What starts out as innocent curiosity soon sways to a secret love affair that soon becomes threatened by jealous others and the Christian right. Alan and Tommy part ways only to meet each other for one last time in the mid-eighties when the AIDS epidemic threatens every homosexual relationship, including their own.

The film's low budget doesn't make the production suffer but the writing does. One bad line made me cringe during what should've been a fantastic ending. It's definitely paced more quickly than Yossi & Jagger and while this doesn't fault the story's delivery, the stitching starts to come undone towards the film's climax, and by the end the conclusion seems decently developed but way too rushed. Alan's transition from straight to gay is clumsy but the two actors make the bumbling road fun to watch. For that matter, all the actors make up for the just-below-decent writing in delivering heartfelt performances.

Despite it's many faults, I liked this film because, unlike other American gay films I'm familiar with, it's clear about its own story. Most other gay films are so clearly marketed to horny gay men who fantasize about straight men that it can be cliche, trite and mostly annoying. They make it clear their makers were trying to make a "dick flick." The Trip doesn't try to be anything. The scenes are directed and performed in a way that lets you know that those who worked on the film knew they weren't making Titanic or A Walk To Remember. It's honest - sometimes flawed, but at least honest.

"With God On Our Side..."

Today I decided to finally sit down and watch The Laramie Project - the HBO film about the murder of Matthew Shephard. The most disturbing scene to me - and simultaneously the most hopeful - was the one where there is a group of fundamentalist Christians protesting outside his funeral, and the friends of Matthew Shephard dress as angels and stand in front of them. The former group echos, for me, the complete disrespect shown towards Heath Ledger and his family from the Kansas Westbro Baptist Church (both in a news release and a subsequent letter). All of these things are still pretty fresh in my mind, especially after seeing Jesus Camp.

It's with little coincidence that Democracy Now! came out with a report today about a recent footage released by Al Jezeera, who have alleged for some time that Christian U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are attempting to convert Muslims. The Pentagon has denied their claims and, for the most part, has ignored the journalists that have investigated the subject. Now today, Al Jezeera released recent footage of a miliary chaplain discussing how to talk to Muslims about Christianity and hand out translated Bibles.

Amy Goodman interviews Jeff Sharlet, who wrote an article in Harper's article called "Jesus Killed Mohammed." The article tells the story of a soldier who, after seeing Passion of the Christ, goes on a destructive rampage in Iraq, claiming success because God is on his side.

Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart of American Power, can be a come off a bit heavy handed, but he argues that this is an extremely serious problem that threatens U.S. military credibility overseas. Mikey Weinstein, Air Force veteran and author of With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military, also comes on the show and concurs with Sharlet, saying, "We look exactly like the crusaders of 1096 to the Iraqis, and now the Afghans."

Captain Marvel Falls In Love

Even though it's finals and I've been cramming, I spend all my free time reading comics. I think one of my favorites right now is Captain Marvel. He's awesome! And I love him.

This nice blast from 1944 (Whiz Comics #53) about what happened when the Big Red Cheese fell in love.

As Billy Batson (the Cap's alter ego, for those who don't know) narrates for his young and eager radio listeners, the story goes that Billy once got a job working at a munitions plant for the military - just as World War II was ending. His boss was a demanding lady named Rosie who dropped her makeup compact at the plant. Billy turned into Captain Marvel to rush it home to her...and the Cap had no idea that this demanding lady Roise is one foxy lady.

(Click on pictures for better quality.)

Later,
as the Cap tries one more time to win Rosie while at the munitions plant...

That image of Captain Marvel sitting in the gutter kinda sums up how I feel about love right now. Poor Cap!

Still Reeling

It's been about twenty-four hours since I saw a perfect film, and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it.

It's not so much that it was the most mind-boggling film I've seen recently. Because it wasn't. It wasn't like Synechdoche, New York or The Fountain, the latter of which is my favorite film and, in my personal opinion, also a perfect film. I haven't come across a film I feel similarly about since I saw The Fountain for the second time two years ago.

To begin with: this is a 2007 anime film. Specifically, it's an OVA (original video animation, which I guess is some kind of technical name for an anime feature film).

Title: 秒速５センチメートル.

Which means: 5 Centimeters Per Second.




The title, as indicated in the trailer, refers to the rate at which an average cherry blossom petal falls to the ground, which is roughly five centimeters a second.

My personal misgivings about the film were set aside at Sylvia's insistence - a pestering she's managed to keep up for more than six months. We finally sat down and watched it last night. At some point, I stopped paying attention to what was happening and just let the film "happen" to me.

5 Centimeters Per Second isn't a completely linear film; it's a story that's divided into three twenty minute parts, all of which center around a boy named Takaki Tono and the distance in both space and time between him and a girl from his childhood.

The film is not a science fiction film or a fantasy. It's not told with gigantic robots or demonic aliens or cowboys or big-breasted femme fatales or melodramatic teenage boys. It's most likely part of an emerging genre some (heaven knows who) call "slice of life" (a stupid name for a genre). Put crudely, this category consists of films that have no involving plot and are driven from fade in to credits almost solely by character development. One of the most popular films of this sort is the Academy Award-winning Lost In Translation, and some of my favorite films can also be considered part of this genre, like The Squid and The Whale, The Savages, You Can Count On Me, and most recently Rachel At The Wedding.

That said: I can't really talk much about the plot or what happens. I can't quite talk about how I was affected by it either, except that A: I'd bet you some of my comics you've never see a more beautiful anime and B: I had a hard time finding anything fallible about this film.

I personally believe that perfect films exist, and that they can be made. I also hastily point out that "perfect" is merely a matter of perspective, and that perfect films are not always necessarily good, great or amazing films. So when I say, "5 Centimeters Per Second is a perfect film," one must keep in mind that my category of "perfect" currently neighbors 5 Centimeters with The Fountain. So depending on how you personally gauge the latter will give you an idea of what makes 5 Centimeters amazing to me.

It's not an easy film to find; if you've got the patience, I know it's separated into parts on YouTube. It's only an hour long. I plan on owning it very soon, and if you're interested I'd be happy to lend it out. But I know I can't watch it for a long time. I'm writing this to document my initial thoughts, which are brief and thus: this film had so many beautiful moments that I could hardly stand it, and I can only hope I care about my characters as gently as director Makoto Shinkai cares about Takaki and Akari.

"The Riot Squads Are Restless"

A couple of weeks ago, My Chemical Romance released their single "Desolation Row," a cover of the 1965 song by Bob Dylan. The song is featured in the upcoming Watchmen film adaptation by Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead). I guess I'll add my voice to the growing Internet conversation over this...

I loved My Chemical Romance in high school, and even a bit after. Their album The Black Parade (which I own on vinyl) was one of the most important events of my summer '07 existential crisis. Now I'm more of a nostalgic fan, but still think they can genuinely go places. I also love Bob Dylan like I need air. Another Side of Bob Dylan might be my favorite Dylan album (and I own it on vinyl as well), and along with many other Dylan songs, it was a big part of my healing process during my struggles last fall (when I also saw him perform in Park City) with the aftermath of my '08 summer romance. So I have personal reasons for loving each of these musicians in their own separate and different ways.

That all said: I believe that the Dylan fans who are bemoaning the so-called "murder of Dylan" are being melodramatic. Sorry, people - not only is he still alive and walking around, but he actually likes their version. (Even though it's Way, consider that if this was slander, surely Dylan or his assistants would've spoken up by now.) I also think that the MCR fans are being very reactionary, for the most part. As one person has said, it's ironic to note that Gerard Way & Co. remain ever respectful of Dylan and love him, and Dylan himself loves their version. They get along, but their fans are at war.

I enjoy Dylan covers, and I like 80's punk. I'm okay when they're together - and this isn't the first time; The Ramones do a pretty good cover of "My Back Pages" (one of my favorite Dylan songs). It's not an amazing cover and I'm not too big on some of the production elements; I think that some of their live clips are a bit better, in fact. But I still think that given what they set out to do - namely, make a punk-stylized cover of "Desolation Row" that fits into Znyder's version of Alan Moore's Reagan-era - they succeed pretty well. They're brave for doing it and it'll likely introduce people to Dylan. I love both versions in different ways.

"The Revolver"

         I will be haunted to remember him by southern winds,
        ardent acrobat with brazen sepia eyes, he lilted gently –
        a taciturn man with a pocket for clothespins.

After th’ ripe pitch into orbit, the silence dropped like a balm.
You, I loved. You had a child beneath the autumn tree.
My ears may fatten on bells rung by outback winds

across the current’s ceaseless periphery.
You tucked in, you rolled back from sand dunes at Perth to waters more free,
        a cadenced man made fortunate by his clothespins.

        And light, lacquer those shattered lungs in his past ‘lectric blood.
Weigh down, immaculate collapse, to cold bare floor at last. If I call, refuse me;
I might yet smell my musk on stillblown southern winds

for there are some rivers that never find their oceans.
And shameless, clutching mother in the iris of noisy camera cacophony,
she waltzes: constant, your daughter – your bundle of clothespins.

Your beautiful feet once flew above the ground. Now still, they rest beneath it.
You frequented the places I sleep. Now they are only a little comfort to me.
        I will be haunted, I will remember by south winds
        a taciturn man with a thing for clothespins. 

Slumdog Porn

Things aren't looking to well for Slumdog Millionaire, the acclaimed film that took the Globe for Best Picture and has been nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture.

Most critics loved it, but movie lover (and renowned author of The Satanic Verses, one of my favorite novels) Salman Rushdie told the New York Times that he was part of an initially silent minority - including Mick LaSalle of the San Fransico Chronicle - who had reservations about the film. I wrote my own criticial review in the UVU Review (I swear I didn't come up with the title).

Now this week, it seems that according to The Telegraph in the U.K., the parents of the two eight-year-old child actors in Slumdog Millionaire have risen accusations against the producers, claiming that their children have been exploited. The children have reportedly been paid less than an average Indian servant's sum - in fact, when comparisons were made between their salary and the payment to the Afghan child actors in last year's The Kite Runner, it's substantially less.

Yesterday, the AP reported that the parents of seven-year-old Rubina Qureshi are happy about being a part of the film and claim that the filmmakers and Foxlight has promised to put Rubina through school and has paid her a substantial sum - more than three times the annual adult's salary for the thirty days of shooting.

I don't know if the parents are telling the truth and are getting shushed by the big exec's or if they're lying to get more money out the studio. What's almost more interesting, though, is India's own reaction to Slumdog Millionaire, which is - almost predictably - not completely favorable, according to the Los Angeles Times. (It made me raise my eyebrow to find out that it opened earlier this month in the States but didn't open until just this week in Mumbai, the film's setting.) A few believe that it helps to show a side of India's current problems. Others, however, believe that it's a misleading and all-too-popular portrayal of India's problems that offers glamorized and unrealistic solutions to those problems.

"It's a white man's imagined India," says Shyamal Sengupta, a film professor in Mumbai. "It's not quite snake charmers, but it's close. It's a poverty tour."

Reuters reports that protests have begun in India over the film and Alice Miles, The Times writer, officially cemented a connection between Slumdog Millionaire and the phrase "poverty porn."

What may be of some irony is that the country's own Taare Zameen Par got the shaft for the Academy's foreign film nomination. Taare Zameen Par, arguably a Bollywood film in its own right, tells the story of a young school boy with dyslexia who sees the world in artistic manifestations (through animations and songs). When considering what has been suggested that makes Slumdog Millionaire so fascinating to Western viewers, it's pretty predictable that Slumdog Millionaire is now India's stake in the Oscar race.

(I haven't seen all of Taare Zameen Par, but what I've seen of it is pretty good. The acting is heartfelt, and there's great cinematography.)

Perhaps, like some, you get postcolonialist readings out of the film; this wouldn't be Boyle's first time playing with "(a) the slum exotic; (b) the neoliberal exotic, in which global capital miraculously transforms one's life; and, (c) the criminal exotic". Or maybe, like Rushdie or me, you just think the storytelling is spaghetti (slippery) and the delivery is the strainer (full of holes). Or maybe you really do love the film. Either way, I think Miles' concluding sentiments are pensive enough to co-opt here: "Boyle's most subversive achievement may lie not in revealing the dark underbelly of India - but in revealing ours."