march 6.1998 * Just out 21
H U H IH R FRIENDS
And the winner is...
® Licensed to Kill
Arthur Dong’s film on imprisoned men
who have killed gay men, makes for uncom
fortable but important viewing. He interviews
the often charming men in jail and allows
them to recount their own stories and feelings.
For anyone who wants to understand the vis
ceral nature of homophobia.
Continued from page 19
the film.
S Mimi Rogers, for
Weapons of M ass Distraction
Rogers is totally believable in this H BO
production as a high society wife who started
out as a Russian peasant...boy! Having been
molested by his father, he turns to a life of
male prostitution, transvestitism and, ultimate
ly, transsexualism.
Most Incidental Use of a Qay Character
® Event Horizon
Blink during this horror/sci-fi yam and
you’ll miss, during one particularly gruesome
scene, one of the devilish monsters taking an
astronaut from the rear. One mystery solved:
There is at least bisexuality in hell.
And the winner is...
® The Lady Chablis, for
Midnight in the Qarden of Qood and Evil
One of the most original Hollywood char-
Best Openly Lesbian Actress in Hollywood
® Anne Heche
Joey Lauren Adams (left) and Dwight Ewell in Chasing A my
The dreamy Duval is first encountered jerk
ing off in the shower to psychedelic fantasies
of both women and men, and he almost ends
up with the man of his dreams. Rachel True
plays his girlfriend, who also has the hots for
Beverly Hills, 90210 star Kathleen Robertson.
And the w inner is ...
® Ewan McGregor, for T he Pillow Book
The nearly ubiquitous McGregor plays a
British translator living in Japan who is lover
to both an older man and calligraphy devotee
Vivian Wu.
T he Lady Chablis
acters of the year, this black, middle-aged drag
queen and nightclub entertainer (playing her
self) boldly struts her stuff among the citizens
of Savannah with a theatrical devil-may-care
flippancy. She steals the show, but does she
ever get into John Cusack’s pants?
S In the Gloaming
A young man (Robert Sean Leonard) in
his final months living with A ID S returns to
reconcile with his estranged family. This
drama, Christopher Reeves’ directorial debut,
is at its best when focusing on Leonard and his
mother (G lenn Close).
® Rupert Everett
And the w inner is ...
Like Heche, Everett is on the verge of
becoming a leading actor who is also openly
This widely-praised H BO miniseries about
life inside a maximum-security penitentiary
features full frontal nudity, a candidly casual
attitude toward gay sex and male rape, and Lee
Tergesen as a convicted drunk driver (guilty of
killing a young girl) who becomes the heroin-
snorting, forced cross-dressing “prison bitch” of
his white supremacist cell mate.
S MURDER and murder
Independent filmmaker Yvonne Rainer
directs and stars in this drama-documentary
that explores both a relationship between two
older women as well as the problem of breast
cancer, which affects them both. Rainer
appears shirtless, herself one who has had
breast cancer. A challenging, experimental
look at lesbian sexuality, aging and disease.
S Stanley Tucci, for The Daytrippers
Read no further if you haven’t seen the
film but intend to. This wonderful low-budget
sleeper follows an excitable family clan’s city
wide search to discover whether husband
Tucci is having an affair. He is, and it ain’t
with a woman.
Stephen Bogardus (left) and Jason Alexander
in Love! Valour! Com passion!
S Douglas Spain, for Star Maps
Adroitly mixing toughness and vulnerabili
ty, Spain plays a Mexican American teenager
who works for his father’s prostitution business
and has no problem getting it on with both
men and women. Unfortunately, his real sexu
ality is never explored in this bold story of hus
tling, family turmoil and young dreams.
S Rachel True and James Duval, for
Nowhere
gay-
Although he’s been acting for years, he first
caught Hollywood’s attention with his role in
My Best Friend’s Wedding. If he and Heche find
success in straight roles, who knows who else
might come out?
The “ Full M onty” Aw ard
(They’re all winners!)
® The Pillow Book
This entertaining documentary takes a
lighthearted, informative look into 60 years of
British film history and how the industry “han
dled” the subject of homosexuality.
S Hide and Seek
® Love! Valour! Compassion!
Su Friedrich has fashioned a remarkable
assemblage of what it was like to grow up a les-
There are several lakeside scenes where we
are offered a look at the chiseled body and
perky appendage of Randy Becker, as Ramon.
S Sting, for Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets
Sting plays a menacing bisexual butler who
drives his wife to the bottle, an entranced
Alan Bates into a wheelchair, and his secret
male lover into his grave in this little-seen
thriller.
Rupert
G raves in
Different
for Qirls
Ewan McGregor sports a tan, blond hair, a
curvaceous body and an impressively large
member for all the film-going public to see in
this Peter Greenaway film. His nude scenes are
far from discreet glimpses: He’s proud of what
he’s got and languidly allows us to admire.
S A Bit of Scarlet
S The entire cast of Crash
Best Openly Qay Actor in Hollywood
®Oz
t>feu»CHtoy:
fciiCKuAt CAmtetn:
David Cronenberg’s dispassionate parable
on urban alienation and sexuality features
James Spader and Elias Koteas as “perfectly
straight” guys who take their friendship/rivalry
a step further. N ot to be outdone, there is
some better girl-on-girl action when paraplegic
Rosanna Arquette gets it on with ice queen
Holly Hunter.
Garry Marshall and Faye Dunaway co-star.
Could it be anyone else? Happily, her very
public romance with Ellen DeGeneres so far
has not hurt her career. Heche s prodigious
output in 1997 includes playing a presidential
adviser in Wag the Dog, Johnny Depp’s long-
suffering wife in Donnie Brasco, a scientist in
Volcano, and a backwoods woman in I Know
What You Did Last Summer.
® Boogie Nights
Qc<t JtltviiioH
While we all know that the foot-long dong
that Mark Wahlberg displays in the final scene
is only a prosthetic, it did not stop thousands
of size queens from swooning with delight.
Fib*:
S Breaking the Surface:
The Greg Louganis Story
Diving champion Louganis’ life story
unfolds tepidly in this chronological account.
We see the him suffer through family crisis as
well as the trauma of sexual self-identification.
S TWilight of the Golds
Hunk Brendan Fraser is surprisingly affect
ing as the gay son who becomes embroiled in
his family’s moral problem— whether his sister
(Jennifer Beals) should continue with her
pregnancy after it is determined that the child
will be predisposed toward homosexuality.
Robert Shepard (left) and Arthur Dong on
the set of Licensed to Kill
bian in 1950s and 60s America. She mixes
interviews with older women, who recount
memories concerning their emerging sexuality,
with a mock documentary of a 12-year-old
girl’s nascent same-sex attractions.
The “ Em ory” Aw ard for Film Q ueen of
the Year (In honor of C liff Gorm an’s portrayal
in 1970’s The Boys m the Band)
® Craig Chester, for K iss Me, Quido
Sporting a platinum mane, skin-tight hot
pants and an impressive array of shoes,
Chester’s Terry is the epitome of theatrical gay
wit. He’s biting, catty and bitchy (but only
when provoked), all in all a delightful charac
ter who provides most of the humor in the
film. Is this a disquieting stereotype, or an on-