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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 1996)
movies like Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus and Tim Reid’s Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. It is unfortunate that among movies that feature a largely African American cast, one like Eddie Murphy’s extreme ly silly and crass The Nutty Profes sor can gross over $100 million dol lars while films like Get on the Bus and Once Upon a Time pretty much die on the vine. Both movies do a wonderful job of exploring the complexities of issues surround ing the African American community of the past and present. Anyone who concluded that 1996 was a bad year for movies but didn’t see these two pictures was not looking in the right places. Many white people might believe—based on the fact that these were black-themed movies—that they might not relate to them and in the process miss out on films that do more to explore human nature As far as queer-themed movies go, 1996 seems skimpy with the aforementioned Beautiful Thing, the immensely popular Birdcage, The Celluloid Closet, It’s My Party and Stonewall, as well as Everything Relative and Maybe...Maybe Not. In retrospect, 1995 was a much more bountiful year for lesbians and gay men. To refresh your memory, we were treated to (or subjected to, depending on how you look at it): Strawberry and Chocolate, Jeffrey, Priest, Wigstock: The Movie, Boys on the Side, The Sum o f Us, Bar Girls, Love and Human Remains, The Incredibly True Adventure o f Two Girls in Love, Lie Down with Dogs, When Night Is Falling, Carrington, A Man o f No Importance, Sister, My Sister, Wild Reeds, Total Eclipse and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Lesbian and gay male characters were featured in Home fo r the Holidays, Higher Learning, The Madness o f King George, Exotica, Erotique, The Basketball Diaries, Clueless and the controversial Braveheart. Even 1994 seemed a bit better, with Six Degrees o f Separation, Philadelphia, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Go Fish, The Adventures o f Priscilla, Queen o f the Desert, The Boys o f St. Vincent and the insipid Just Like a Woman. Though lesbian and gay characters appeared in a number of mainstream movies this past year— Flirting with Disaster, Sleepers, Basquiat, Guillermo Diaz in Stonewall than just celebrate the black experience. Likewise, if straight people decided that they couldn’t relate to the queer-themed Beautiful Thing, The Celluloid Closet, It’s My Party or Stonewall, they would also be missing out on unique cinematic explorations of the human experience. The dominant culture can see itself reflected in the bulk of movies released every week, and there doesn’t seem to be much initia tive to seek out movies that stray from what is familiar. That leaves people of color and queer folk to embrace those motion pictures that reflect a bit of our realities. ther favorite films of the year were more general in their appeal. Dead Man Walking and Sense and Sensibility were released in late 1995, in time to gamer a number of Academy Award nominations, but I didn’t see them until the beginning of 1996. Both are excel lent. Fargo was a smaller film that was entertain ing because of its quirky Midwestern cast of char acters, including indie film mainstay Steve Buscemi. Welcome to the Dollhouse was a wrenchingly accurate portrayal of a young woman’s coming-of-age experiences in high school, thankfully without a pat happy Hollywood ending in sight. This film featured the kind of direction and acting that rise above any thing the Oscar™-nominating community could ever be capable of acknowledging. O Independence Day, I Shot Andy Warhol and Diabolique—there are a few movies worth par ticular mention for the way these characters were unleashed upon an unsuspecting audience. One suspects that for many filmgoers the novelty of the suspense thriller Bound stemmed from the well-publicized fact that the two main characters were women involved in a lesbian relationship. But the queer content in movies like First Wives Club, Antonia’s Line, Get on the Bus, Independence Day and Set It O ff had to come as much more of a surprise—or a shock—to many strait-laced audience members. The inclusion of the gay Harvey Fierstein character in Independence Day is hardly worth noting, since it was so clearly used for comic relief and played a very minor part in the picture, however, among all of the complex relationships featured in Antonia’s Line, the most memorable and respectfully portrayed just happened to be between two lesbians. I delighted in the presence of a queer character as Diane Keaton’s daughter in First Wives Club. 1 loved imagining Middle America flocking to see such a slick Hollywood vehicle starring Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Keaton, only to find themselves exposed to an unrepentant lesbian character. Granted, once again the whole queer content was played for laughs, but no more so than the rest of the sociological issues brought up by the film. PHOTO BY PAUL CHEDLOW ju st out ▼ d ecem b or 2 0 , 1 9 9 6 T 21 Glen Berry (left) and Scott Neal in Beautiful Thing and have the audience still find us lovable and root for us to get away” kind of movie. It turned out to be more involving, exploring what leads people (in this case, four African American women) to make certain decisions in an attempt to better their lives. But the most notable aspect of this film was the performance of Queen Latifah as “turbo-driven Cleo,” a lesbian in a very realistic relationship with another black woman (complete with major kissing action). I witnessed a Lloyd Cinemas audience’s reaction of revulsion; you can bet the irony of the love scene receiving more negative response than all the murders in the film combined was wasted on most people in attendance. But the Queen carved out a unique character tough enough for The Village Voice to proclaim her a “carjacking, orgasmic, ganster dyke” and “the new Cagney.” She was riveting. Though there are still major releases coming in the next couple of weeks, I find it hard to believe that anything will match my two favorite movies of the year. I have a hard time choosing between them, because Antonia‘s Line and Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored share so much in common. Both are gentle movies that celebrate the human spirit. Both were small films that could easily be over The dominant looked by those who culture can whine about the lack of good movies these days. see itself Once Upon a Time is the reflected in story of a young African American boy who grows the bulk of up in the South, and the movies positive influences of every community and family released evei and the difference each week and makes in his life. Both Antonia’ s Line and Once there doesn’t Upon a Time When We seem to be Were Colored are highly recommended for video much initia rental. tive to seek As for the queer movies of ’96, it is fitting out movies that The Celluloid that stray Closet— based on the late Vito Russo’s landmark from what is book that examines the familiar. images of lesbians and gay men in film— ranks among the best. It is fasci nating to watch successive Jeffrey Wright in Q chapters unfold with each s Basquiat new portrayal of the queer experience. Here’s hoping that Hollywood and experiences. independent filmmakers alike continue to help I wasn’t prepared to appreciate Set It O ff as us share the truth of life as we know it with the much as I did, because it seemed like yet anoth masses. er “let’s rob a bank, kill people, create havoc My two favorite examples of queer characters in not-so-queer movies this year are found in Get on the Bus and Set It Off, two movies that many Just Out readers may not have seen. Spike Lee’s last three movies, Clockers, Girl 6 and Get on the Bus, have all benefited from being scripted by writers other than himself. Lee had been criticized in the past for his portrayals of women and gay men and has become irate and defensive when questioned about anti-Semitism, homophobia and sexism in his films. Get on the Bus, a story about a busload of African American men traveling from Los Angeles to attend the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., features a refreshing portrayal of a black gay male couple in the throes of redefining their relationship. It is a surprising ly sensitive treatment and not steeped in stereo typing. There was criticism of the film from some in the African American community concerning what were perceived to be negative images of a number of the men on the bus, but that continues to be the desire of certain people to see their hopes rather than reality realized on the screen. Get on the Bus is a wonderful film that manages to get beyond simply portraying a parade of dif ferent black men to exploring diverse perspec tives through a number of characters with unique ,
