Florida Agenda

By Warren Day

You might think 2005 was the best gay year in movies based purely on the release of “Brokeback Mountain.” But in terms of sheer quantity, 2011 has all other years beat, and the quality was damn good too.

I’m not talking about the small, independent films that you usually see only in GLBT  film festivals, but mainstream movies with one or more recognizable stars, the kind of gay-themed movies that escape the distribution ghetto to which most are assigned, and which your liberal-leaning relatives might see. And in addition, they are showing up on Best-of-the-Year lists. The celluloid closet is finally bursting open.

In June, it all began with “Beginners,” where Ewan McGregor plays an uptight straight son who learns how to take risks with his heart from his gay father, who comes out of the closet at age 75 and forms a better relationship with a thirty-something man than anything the son has ever experienced.  The unsurpassable Christopher Plummer is the father and he’s currently the front-runner to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the film itself is appearing on some ten best lists from straight movie critics (yes, there are some).

If “Beginners” portrays the liberating normalcy of coming out of the closet at any age, then Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar” shows the soul-crunching consequences of dwelling there your whole life.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover, the founder and longest-serving head of the FBI, while Arnie Hammer plays his never-left-his-side assistant Clyde Tolson. If Mr.

Tolson had been as good-looking as Mr. Hammer (he wasn’t), then it’s doubtful Mr. Hoover could have excised as much self-control as he did.  Straight audiences didn’t warm up to this almost tabloid version of a right-wing hero, but gays resonated with this unresolved relationship and found  meanings in the film that may have escaped others.

If “J. Edgar” dealt with one of the biggest bromances in American history, our next film lays out the biggest one in world literature, namely that between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  In “Game of Shadows,” with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the original dynamic duo, the script and the director (Madonna’s ex-husband) make the homoerotic nature of their relationship blatantly obvious.  Holmes looks like a heartsick puppy as he watches Watson marry, and then on their honeymoon night Holmes kidnaps Watson, throws the brand new Mrs. Watson into a river, and does all of this while dressed in drag.  Subtle it ain’t.

In “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” taken from the novel that’s been a world-wide phenomenon, the bi-sexuality of Lisbeth Salander is more subtle than it was in the Swedish film version. The first time Daniel Craig meets Rooney Mara, she’s in bed with a woman, but then she’s portrayed as more heterosexual for the rest of the movie. Directed by David Fincher, who did “The Social Network,” the film is grittier and has more resonance than the fine Swedish version.

Just the opposite happens in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” where the homosexuality of at least three characters receives more play than it did in the internationally-acclaimed TV mini-series. Rightly one of the best films of the year, and one of the best thinking-person’s spy thrillers ever made, Gary Oldman achieves a career high, with excellent support from Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Hurt.  Like “Beginners,” the homosexuality or bisexuality of those three characters is treated with the same nonchalance as if they’d been straight, and that’s definitely a sign of cinema progress. For a good deal of this film, you may feel you don’t know what’s going on, but the director is merely letting you know how real espionage feels, where the whole nature of the enterprise is deception and confusion.

Benedict Cumberbatch

The British film “Weekend” escaped the attention black hole that most independent gay films find themselves in, and is appearing on some best of the year lists. Telling the story of how a relationship-inclined gay man and a very much non-relationship type gay man meet on a Friday and developed a strong bond over the weekend.  On some level, this is a rather run-of-the-mill story for gay films, so it was interesting that it received so many positive reviews from straight critics.

“Pariah,” which is still opening in theaters, is in some ways the gay version of last year’s “Precious,” as it traces the struggle of a Brooklyn 17-year-old African-American girl to come to terms with her sexuality and deal with her strait-lace mother.  Played by Adepero Oduye in a heartbreaking performance, she finds herself attracted to a girl even more closeted than she is.  The film succeeds in telling a particular story in a universal way, thus enabling whites and blacks, straights and gays, men and women to mutually find relevance and truth in its characters.

What is really amazing about these gay-themed movies is that to some degree they’re all worth seeing, and in what other year could you say that about seven movies with gay content?

And now we come to what may be the campiest moment in any film released in 2011, but it happened in one far different from any of those discussed here. I’m talking about Tom Cruise’s latest outing in the fourth “Mission Impossible” movie, but the scene didn’t involve him, but rather his comrade-in-arms Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker,” “The Town”). The sole woman in the IMF team has been sent to entice a code from a multi-millionaire industrialist, while Jeremy is plunged down a shaft and suspended by magnetic force (I defy anyone to suspend belief enough to swallow that).  And when Renner barely makes it back up the shaft exhausted and bruised, he exclaims, “The next time, I get to seduce the rich guy.” Now the question is, was this in the script or was it an ad lib?

May the year 2012 further develop these delightful, diverse, and ever-deepening trends.

Warren Day

Send comments or questions to AgendaReviews@aol.com

By WARREN DAY

The keeper of the nation’s secrets, had dark secrets of his own.

Two weeks ago I wrote a review about why straight critics were giving better notice to the gay movie “Weekend” than the gay critics were. Now I’m faced with a new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover that could be the exact reverse. What seems contradictory and confusing about the life of a deeply closeted man to straights may make far better sense to gay men and lesbians.

Hoover was not only one of the most powerful and influential American figures in the 20th century (see separate box), but also one of the most enigmatic, an ever-churning stew of great achievements and great wrongs. Someone about whom you could write a biography that mentions only positive things, and then turn around and write an entirely different book of the same length about his shortcomings and transgressions.

Few individuals present so daunting a task in turning their comprehensive life into a comprehensible film. With “J. Edgar,” the result is 2011’s most ambitious and adventuresome movie–one that’s directed and produced by the indelible Clint Eastwood. It’s a life and a film filled with improbabilities.

The devise the writer uses to cover this complex and capacious life is to have the elderly Hoover dictate his memoirs to a series of FBI agents (all of them seemingly picked by him for their looks as well as their typing skills), and we then see in flashbacks the events that shaped him, and even more so, the many events he shaped for others. As it is in the nature of memory, his reminiscences jump back and forth, switching from one decade to another as his mind wrestles with what his life was like and how he desperately wants others to think his life was like.

Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the original screenplay, is an openly gay man who also won an Academy Award for writing “Milk,” and he believes that once you realize Hoover was a deeply closeted and conflicted homosexual then he becomes more understandable and even elicits a little sympathy.

In what has to be the most chilling scene of fear and self-loathing afflicted onto a gay son by his mother, the dominating Mrs.

Hoover mocks J. Edgar for not wanting to dance with women. She reminds him of his boyhood friend Daffy (short for Daffodil), who had a fondness for dressing in girl’s clothes, a “perversion” that led to his total disgrace and suicide.  “I’d rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son,” she adds in her steely soft voice.

With that kind of upbringing and with the stark homophobia of his day, it’s no mystery, except to some straight critics, that Hoover:

• felt he had to do everything better than any other man, a real overachiever

• became obsessive about other people’s secrets, particularly those for whom there were gay rumors, such as Eleanor Roosevelt

• crushed those who suggested he might be gay and carrying on a relationship with his deputy Clyde Tolson (widely rumored in his lifetime)

• worked hard to cultivate a macho image, encouraging movies and comic books to depict him as a gun-toting hero

• demanded that all FBI agents be clean cut, All-American men, no blemishes on their character, and in excellent physical shape. In other words, ultra-straight looking and acting

• was a control freak about every aspect of his public life, which is often true of people who fear their inner life and desires may not be so controllable

• when asked why he hadn’t married, he said he was married to his job of protecting American citizens

You can’t make an honest film about a man with great flaws without having some of those same flaws in the film itself. The movie “J. Edgar” has both strengths and weaknesses, noble goals and ignoble means, disjointed at times, emotionally reticent, and it doesn’t wrap things up in a neat package at the end.  Eastwood has given us a movie that’s very much like what Hoover was like himself. The form and the content are one. That may not always be easy for the moviegoer to follow, but it is brilliant moviemaking.

Leonardo DiCaprio is equally brilliant as Hoover, capturing Hoover’s contradictions in a nuanced performance spanning from age 24 to 77. It’s a tour de force that will be Oscar nominated. As Clyde Tolson, Arnie Hammer (“The Social Network”) proves he has acting chops as well as good looks, in a performance where he has to always suggest more than his words can say. The wonderful Judi Dench plays the not-so-wonderful Mama Hoover.

Hoover and Tolson were inseparable colleagues and companions for 42 years. They had lunch and dinner together almost every day.

They took their vacations together (often to Miami Beach). They had adjoining offices at the FBI. They even dressed alike. At Hoover’s funeral, the American flag that draped his coffin was folded by the military guard and given to Tolson. Whether they had a sexual relationship the film leaves somewhat up to you, but it’s clear that the closest thing each man had to a marriage was the relationship they had with each other.

Hoover is buried in Washington’s Congressional Cemetery with Clyde Tolson’s grave only a few feet away, but it’s Hoover’s mother who lies by his side within their own fenced-off area. After all, closeted stories never have Hollywood endings.

J. Edgar Hoover

1895 – 1972

Served as the nation’s
“top cop” for 48 years
under eight presidents
from Calvin Coolidge to Richard Nixon

Director of Bureau of Investigation
1924 – 1935

Founding Director
of the FBI
1935 – 1972

Longest serving head of a major Federal agency in American history

Pioneer in the use of
forensic science in the
solving of crimes

Never married

And Now the Good (and GLBT) Movies Will Come Out to Play

Photo: Rooney Mara in “The Girl with  the Dragon Tattoo”

By Warren Day

For at least a couple of decades, the movie year has divided itself into three basic seasons.

The first four months of the year – January, February, March, April – is the Dump Season. The major and critically-acclaimed films having been packed in toward the close of the previous year (to qualify for awards), now give way to the also rans. The new films that are left are largely the ones in which the studios have little faith, so they dump them into these winter months when theater attendance is at its lowest ebb.

Next we have the Blockbuster Season – May, June, July, August. This is when the studios pile on the heroic, comic-book, pre-sold sequels and R-rated comedies to ensure they will keep the theater seats and their coffers full. In this third of the year, studios will earn over 55% of their annual boxoffice. For counter-programming, there are usually one or two adult films released in August. This year, it was the wildly-successful, “The Help.” That film cost only $30 million (compared to other summer films with budgets around $175 million), yet “The Help” is likely to earn $150 million—domestically alone.

Finally, we have the Award Season, which stretches over the last four months of the year, from September through December. It kicks off with three, very high-profile film festivals where the studios test the critical and award-worthy waters, namely the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival.

All three of these have just finished, and among the hundreds of movies on display were most of the key ones expected to pull in the honors from the critics and award groups (of which the Holy Grail is the Oscar® Awards). Only three films released in the first eight months are expected to have a chance to be nominated in the major Oscar categories: “The Tree of Life,” “Midnight in Paris” and “The Help.”

Colin Firth in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

Already among the critics, industry-insiders, and would-be opinion makers, there’s a growing consensus on what films stand a chance for the top ten lists, and who will be making acceptance speeches at the Kodak Theater in February.

Of those ten, four have GLBT-related content, so this is truly the season when the movies come out.

First up, October 7, is “The Ides of March” with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. Here, I’m making the assumption that the studio wouldn’t be courting the gay press so much if there wasn’t a gay connection. The plot does revolve around a scandal that threatens an attractive presidential candidate (Clooney) and how an idealistic staffer (Gosling) struggles with the moral and political implications.

It was seen at all three film festivals I mentioned and received kudos for being a taut thriller that could easily take place in other areas of American life.

Ryan Gosling in “The Ides of March”

Then on November 9, we have “J. Edgar,” Clint Eastwood’s film about J. Edgar Hoover who headed the F.B.I or its predecessor for 48 years, welding great power over the secrets of this country, but in his lifetime squelched any rumors he was gay (and maybe a cross-dresser). Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hoover, and Armie Hammer, who played the Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network,” plays Clyde Tolson, his deputy and supposed lover. Eastwood has said this is “not a film about two gay guys,” but the original script was written by openly-gay Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for writing “Milk.”

On December 9, we have the movie theater version of John Le Carré’s great novel, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” starring some of the best actors working today: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Among these male spies, there are two who’ve had a fervent affair that greatly affects the outcome of the story. Previously dramatized in 1979 as one of the most highly-acclaimed TV mini-series (with Alec Guinness), the filmmakers have seemingly been successful in making a 127-minute version of this complicated story. Premiering in early September at the Venice Film Festival and already showing in England, the reviews have been through the roof and the movie is being heralded as a sure thing for several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

Leonardo DiCaprio in “J. Edgar”

Finally on December 21, the English language version of Stieg Larsson’s worldwide best seller, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” reaches theaters. Directed by David Fincher, one of the best directors working today, the advanced word is this may be even better than the well-liked Swedish film version. Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, the investigative reporter, and Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a bisexual who is also a brilliant computer hacker, and one of the most fascinating fictional characters to emerge in many a year. It may be the first mainstream film to feature a bisexual as its protagonist.

The other movies being touted for best of the year include: “The Descendants” with George Clooney (some are already predicting this will win Best Picture), “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s version of the book and play, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Clear,” with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, and “The Artist,” a silent film (with music and sound effects) that has charmed critics and already won some awards.

So far this hasn’t been a sterling year for movies (“Green Lantern” anyone?), but as usual the best have been saved for the Awards Season, and from the advanced reviews and buzz, we have some excellent ones coming in the final three months.

And it appears, at least as of now, that 40% of the best films of the year will have some GLBT content, a fact that will further convince the right-wing fundies that Hollywood is a liberal bastion of iniquity. To which I say, thank God it is!

Send comments and questions to AgendaReviews@aol.com.

G.O.P. Candidates Sign NOM’s Marriage Pledge

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three Republican presidential candidates, Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, have signed the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) Marriage Pledge. NOM’s marriage pledge was offered to all serious announced candidates for the G.O.P. nomination. An opportunity to sign the Marriage Pledge will be extended to Texas Governor Rick Perry and other major candidates, if and when they enter the race.

In signing the pledge, the candidates swear to: support and send to the states a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, appoint judges and an attorney general who will respect the original meaning of the Constitution, appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters and support legislation that would return to the people of D.C. their right to vote for marriage.

Gay Man Wins Right to  Be an Ordained Minister

MADISON, WI – Openly gay Scott Anderson, 56, won the right to be ordained by the USA Presbyterian Church. Anderson is believed to be the first gay person in a long-term same-sex relationship to be approved for ordination by the denomination.

The church’s judicial commission  dismissed a case against Anderson by opponents of gay ordination. Opponents brought the case last year, arguing Anderson could not be ordained because he was in an open relationship with a man. At the time, church rules required clergy members to live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. However, a shift in thinking earlier this year happened when a majority of the church’s regional bodies voted to allow openly gay men and women in a same-sex relationship to be orda

ined.

Another Indian Tribe Approves Same-Sex Marriage

SEATTLE, WA – A second American Indian tribe has adopted a law recognizing same-sex marriage. The Suquamish Tribal Council of Washington state voted to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. The new law gained the support of more than 100 tribal leaders in their most recent meeting.

The law permits the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, regardless of their gender, as long as they’re at least 18 years old and one of the people is a member of the tribe.

Same-sex marriage is illegal in the State of Washington, but the state legislature has approved a measure stating they will recognize same-sex marriages that took place in other jurisdictions and other nations. The legislature has also approved a bill called “Everything But Marriage,” which grants same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples except for using the word “married”.

The Coquille Indian Tribe in southern Oregon is the only other tribe that recognizes same-sex marriage.

New Data Shows Annual HIV Infections in U.S. Relatively Stable

ATLANTA, GA – The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s first multi-year estimates from its national HIV incidence surveillance find that, overall, the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States was relatively stable at approximately 50,000 each year between 2006 and 2009.  However, HIV infections increased among young men who have sex with men (MSM) between 2006 and 2009, driven by alarming increases among young, black MSM – the only subpopulation to experience a sustained increase during the time period.

The new estimates were published online in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.  The incidence estimates are based on direct measurement of new HIV infections with a laboratory test that can distinguish recent from long-standing HIV infections.

“More than 30 years into the HIV epidemic, about 50,000 people in this country still become infected each year. Not only do men who have sex with men continue to account for most new infections, young gay and bisexual men are the only group in which infections are increasing, and this increase is particularly concerning among young African American MSM,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D. “HIV infections can be prevented. By getting tested, reducing risky behaviors, and getting treatment, people can protect themselves and their loved ones.”

Warner Brothers Sets November for Release  of J. Edgar

HOLLYWOOD, CA – Warner Brothers Studios has set November 9th as the release date for the film, “J. Edgar,” a biopic on the first director of the F.B.I. being produced by Clint Eastwood. The motion picture completed filming in February.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and was written by Dustin Lance Black; the timing of the release will make it eligible for nomination for next year’s Academy Awards. In addition to DiCaprio, the cast includes Armie Hammer (from The Social Network) as Hoover’s assistant and closeted lover, Clyde Tolson; Josh Lucas as aviator Charles Lindbergh; Ed Westwick as Agent Smith, an operative gifted with writing skills; Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann, the man convicted of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby; Judi Dench as Hoover’s mother; Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk who ended up being Hoover’s personal secretary; Ken Howard as lawyer and jurist Harlan F. Stone; Jeffrey Donovan as Robert F. Kennedy and Stephen Root as Arthur Koehler, a wood specialist at Forest Product Laboratories who uses his expertise to help Hoover investigate the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby by tracing the origins of the ladder used by the perpetrator.

Major Psychology Group Comes Out to Support Gay Marriage

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The policy-making body of the American Psychological Association (APA) voted unanimously to approve a resolution to support full marriage equality, a move that observers say will have a far-reaching impact on the debate. This was the world’s largest organization of psychologists’ strongest stand to date in support of same-sex marriage and cited new research in their decision.

The group, with more than 154,000 members, has long supported full equal rights for gays, based on social science research on sexual orientation. Now, the nation’s psychologists, citing an increasing body of research about same-sex marriage, as well as increased discussion at the state and federal levels, took the support to a new level.

The resolution points to numerous recent studies, including findings that many gay men and lesbians, like their heterosexual counterparts, desire to form stable, long-lasting and committed intimate relationships and are successful in doing so.

Rupert Murdoch to Cash in on Gay Marriage

NEW YORK, NY – According to Gay City News, Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp is ready to cash in on same-sex marriage with a new magazine, Wedding Pride: The Magazine for Gay and Lesbian Wedding Planning. The first issue will hit newsstands this September with an initial 35,000 copy run, which will likely remain confined to the gay-friendly communities of Chelsea, Park Slope, Fire Island, Montclair, South Orange and Asbury Park.

Murdoch’s News Corp. is most famous for its other publications, such the New York Daily News and its cable Fox News Channel.

“Glee” Star to Replace Daniel Radcliffe in  “How to Succeed”

NEW YORK, NY – The producers of the 50th anniversary production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical comedy “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” announced last week that Darren Criss, of Fox’s Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning hit television show, “Glee,” will make his Broadway debut as J. Pierrepont Finch, performing a strictly limited three week engagement from January 3, through January 22, 2012. He will replace Daniel Radcliffe, who will play his final performance on Sunday, January 1, 2012.

Criss plays Blaine Anderson, Chris Colfer’s love interest on “Glee”.

Esurance Donates $50K  to The Trevor Project

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Esurance, the online car insurance company, announced that the company donated $50,000 to The Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBT youth.
Esurance recently launched the charitable giving campaign on its Facebook page. For each new “Like,” the company donated $10 to The Trevor Project to help support the Trevor Lifeline, a 24/7 crisis intervention phone hotline offering free and confidential suicide prevention counseling to youth nationwide.

With Twitter and Facebook support from The Trevor Project itself, and the mentions from celebrities such as Perez Hilton, Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block, and others spreading the word, Esurance quickly reached its stated goal of $50,000.

Ann Coulter to Serve  as Honorary Chair of GOProud’s Advisory Council

WASHINGTON, D.C. – GOProud, a national organization of gay conservatives, announced that Ann Coulter was joining the organization’s Advisory Council as Honorary Chair. Coulter’s official title will be “Honorary Chair and Gay Icon”.

“Ann Coulter is a brilliant and fearless leader of the conservative movement, we are honored to have her as part of GOProud’s leadership,” said Christopher Barron, Chairman of GOProud’s Board in a written statement. “Ann helped put our organization on the map. Politics is full of the meek, the compromising and the apologists – Ann, like GOProud, is the exact opposite of all of those things. We need more Ann Coulters.”

Coulter responded with “I am honored to serve in this capacity on GOProud’s Advisory Council and look forward to being the Queen of fabulous.”

Coulter joins Margaret Hoover, Grover Norquist, Andrew Breitbart, Liz Mair, Chuck Muth, Lisa De Pasquale, Christian Josi, Roger Stone, Andrew Langer, Kathryn Serkes and Bob Carlstrom on the GOProud Advisory Council.

Coulter is the author of “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America,” as well as seven other New York Times bestsellers: “Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America,” “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans,” “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must),” “Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism,” “Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right” and “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton”.