Gayscape #7: Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding – A Look Into Gay Indie Cinema

In the wake of the critical success of Gus Van Sant’s Milk, I couldn’t help but wonder why there are only a handful of truly great examples of gay cinema out there. Believe me, I know there is no shortage of queer flicks out in the world. If you live in a big city, chances are your local video store even has a LGBT movies section. But the truth is only a very select few can be counted in the pantheon of great films. Most of them are poorly acted, poorly written, poorly shot, and just overall wastes of film (and at least half of them are somehow about male prostitutes. OK, I might be exaggerating about it being half, but not by much.) Some are pretentious as hell, and are more or less just “Gay Cowboys eating pudding” as South Park once mentioned in an ep regarding indie flicks in general.

You might be saying “Well, that’s a hasty judgement, it’s not like you’ve seen ALL the queer themed films” Except, thanks to the magic of Netflix, I think I pretty much have seen them all at this point. Going over my Netflix rental history, I’ve seen 95 LGBT themed movies in the past 5 1/2 years. Of those 95, I’d say only maybe 25 or so were any good, and most of those were documentaries. And yet, I keep renting them, keep watching them…hoping to find that diamond in the rough, that movie that’s not just watchable because there are other gay people on the screen and and I’m happy to see people who are like me involved in a story, but one that stands on its own as a film. So, here I’m gonna give you some examples of the best and the worst of gay cinema that you might have missed.

Now, I’m just gonna get the “greats” out of the way here. If you are a fan of film at all, you owe it to yourself to see these particular movies: The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Boys Don’t Cry, The Crying Game, Bound, Jeffrey, My Own Private Idaho, Heavenly Creatures, Gods and Monsters, But I’m A Cheerleader, The Opposite of Sex, Beautiful Thing, Mysterious Skin, and of course Brokeback Mountain. Yes, it may be trendy to dismiss Brokeback today, but if it wasn’t for that movie everyone would have scoffed at the notion of Heath Ledger as the Joker and just said “that guy from A Knight’s Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You???” instead of “ooh, Heath was nominated for an Oscar and totally transformed himself, good choice”

Here’s some choices for underatted gems you might have never heard of, much less seen before.

THE GOOD

Soldier’s Girl

This is the true story of Barry Winchell, a young military recruit who was murdered by his fellow cadets in 1999. Upon arriving at his infantry base in Tennessee, Barry gets taken to a nightclub for drag queens by some of his fellow bored soldiers. Guess the strip bars were closed that night. There he meets Calpernia (Lee Pace), a tranny performer, and quickly becomes smitten. But as Winchell’s relationship with Calpernia develops, his fellow soldiers become more antogonistic towards him, ending tragically for Barry. This was actually a Showtime film, but it’s better than a lot of movies that were released in theaters. Well acted and shot, this one is totally worth a rental.

Edge of Seventeen

In gay cinema, there are like a million coming out movies about young white boys in the suburbs. Truthfully, the only thing that really sets this one apart from the others is the early 80’s period setting and really great New Wave soundtrack. But this movie is charming and lickable, even if (at least as a gay person like me) you feel like you’ve seen it a million times before. Side Geek Note: Co-Star Andersen Gabrych has since written many comics like Batman, Detective and Catwoman for DC.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Yes, it’s another gay teen coming out flick…but this time, they’re Canadian! And not just Canadian, but French Canadian. C.R.A.Z.Y. is the story of Zac, a young man dealing with his emerging homosexual feelings while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in 1960s and 1970s Quebec. The title derives from the first letter in the names of the five brothers: Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary and Yvan, and also refers to their father’s love of Patsy Cline’s classic song “Crazy”. This was apparently one of the biggest hits ever in French Canadian history, but of course when straight to DVD here in the states. Far more well shot and acted than most of its American counterparts, this one is another overlooked gem you should definitely check out.

Chuck and Buck

This flick will make you squirm in your seat and make you feel totally uncomfortable, and yet laugh at the same time. This movie was written and directed by Mike White (who also plays Buck) known more for his screenplays for Nacho Libre and School of Rock. Chuck is played by someone else also not as well known as an actor, Chris Weitz, who co-directed American Pie, and directed About a Boy, The Golden Compass, and the forthcoming sequel to Twilight. Chuck and Buck were best friends growing up. Chuck grew up, but Buck didn’t, remaining emotionally 12 forever (much like my editor). When Buck’s mother dies, he becomes totally fixated on his childhood friend, now a succesful music producer, and begins stalking him. If you’re wondering how this movie is gay themed and not just considered a creepy stalker flick, I remind you that Chuck and Buck rhymes with two other words that end in the letters “U-C-K”

Honorable Mentions go out to Latter Days, Boy Culture, Shelter, The Times of Harvey Milk, The Celluloid Closet, Gia, Transamerica, The Broken Hearts Club, and L.I.E.

THE BAD

As I mentioned, there are a lot of truly terrible gay flicks, mostly shot on cheap hi def video, usually about male hustlers, and acted worse than your typical high school production. But there are two that are SO bad, they are almost worth watching to experience their full on shitiness. And laugh at their expense.

FAQS

FAQs (as in “frequently asked questions”, but more importantly, it looks like the word Fags when you glance at it at first) is sublimely awful. The premise is simple. A young gay teen runaway named India is forced to hustle the streets and make porn in sleezy motel rooms. He is then saved from a gay bashing in a parking lot, when, out o