The Malcontent

Rumbly Scottish Mutant Sex Party

In the ramp up to its May 26th premiere, HBO has been running little featurettes of X-Men: The Last Stand. In addition to an interview with Aussie hottie Hugh Jackman, HBO offers up a first look at a completely random scene from the movie.

Here, Ian McKellen's Magneto frees mutants in transport (to concentration camps or some such). We're introduced to two new characters to the movie series, Juggernaut and Guy Who Makes Lots of Copies Of Himself. He could be a one man orgy. Who doesn't want that power?

[Watch video – 3:33, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 3:33, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Blonde Bond-shell

The new trailer for the upcoming Bond movie, Casino Royal, has just been released. Does anyone really care? Of course not. Far more important is whether or not the new 007, Daniel Craig, is worth an ogle on the DVD release. This still from the trailer might hold some promise.

h/t Ace

Oscar Clippings: Brokeback

Very slim pickings in this category, as the gay film of the year drowned in snubsville. When the vistas of Alberta, Canada lost out to Memoirs of a Geisha in cinematography, it was a foregone conclusion the rompin, stompin cowboys weren't going to be on the business end of Hollywood love. They were on the business end of another sort of "affection."

Still, there were moments, from the red carpet, to the western montage, to the three wins that salvaged the night ever so barely.

So, here I present to you the most relevant Brokeback Mountain related highlights of the evening.

[Watch video – 9:47, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 9:47, WMV format, low bandwidth]

So It Begins

With a scant few days to go until Oscar, the speculation and "What are the many implications of life and/or playing gay in Hollywood films?" pieces are coming fast and furious on every news bit, entertainment clip, and syndicated show that ever spent several weeks discussing Lindsay Lohan's penchant for Santa Monica demolition derbies.

MTV - known primarily for celebrating diversity by cramming every tenth homosexual on the planet into a Road Rules challenge - recently highlighted the LGBT entries you may or may not be rooting for come Sunday night.

[Watch video – 3:13, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 3:13, WMV format, low bandwidth]

3 AM Cinema

One of the great advantages to having an adverse reaction to pain medication prescribed for an injury is being able to catch late night cable when independent movies are showcased more frequently. Tonight, I managed to see an airing of the 2000 Sundance hit Urbania starring Dan Futterman.

Quite honestly, Urbania is unlike any gay film I've ever seen. It opens as the main character, Charlie, finds himself walking the shadowed, autumn streets of New York, wandering from bar to bar, searching for an elusive street hustler. He leaves phone messages for an apparent ex boyfriend while flashing back on their once happy life together. He visits a fellow gay friend (Alan Cumming), a man whose once glittering social life lay in ashes, his frail form wracked by the last, grim stages of AIDS. What has happened here? Where is Charlie's boyfriend, his friends, his life?

I can't give any kind of real answer without spoiling the film. Suffice to say, Urbania is a strange mixture of a character darkly nagivating through his grief at a relationship lost, intimacy unattainable in the aftermath, and a thrilling, almost erotic fascination with the paradoxically homophobic hustler who set all these events into motion.

The movie's worth a see for the acting, the dialogue, the atmosphere, and not least of all the actors (cutie Futterman, an angelic Matt Keeslar, and a very sleazy Samuel Ball). It's a surprisingly moving film, especially in the final act as Charlie comes to terms with everything he must.

Redefining Homophobia

In a society where homosexuals have historically held little to no real influence, where marginalization, bigotry, and discrimination still permeate many levels of the social order, there is a temptation to grasp any vestige of power, to use what gifts we possess to assert ourselves, to feel empowered.

On Bravo's recent Great Things About Being Queer, number fourteen on the list named the ability to scare straight people as one of the great joys of our sexuality and position in society. There is a secret pleasure in knowing you can unleash the forces of your homosexuality on heterosexuals, perhaps make them feel as uncomfortable as they might have made you feel over the years, perform a little instant karmic vengeance in a petty but satisfying way.

Along this train of thought, some gay men are reveling in watching heterosexual males squirm at the prospect of two gay cowboys leaving the horses to the stables and riding each other instead. When Mickey Kaus stated he did not want to see this film because he is heterosexual, he noted:

If a gay man, say, goes to see "Wuthering Heights," there is at least one romantic lead of the sex he's interested in! In "Brokeback Mountain," neither of the two romantic leads is of a sex I'm interested in ... My wild hypothesis is that more people will go see a movie if it features an actor or actress they find attractive! If heterosexual men in heartland America don't flock to see "Brokeback Mountain" it's not because they're bigoted. It's because they're heterosexual.

Citizen Cain responded:

Got that? Kaus isn't interested in Brokeback Mountain only because he wants to see women when he goes to the movies. But it's not, NOT, because he's homophobic.

Cain goes on to poke holes in Kaus' argument with plenty of disingenuous strawmen, but that isn't what interests me here.

What is fascinating is how certain sections of the gay movement have decided the goalposts of tolerance and acceptance must be further moved to satisfy an insatiable need for validation. It is no longer acceptable that gays be tolerated and accepted in the abstract. Now heterosexual males are not allowed to be uncomfortable in graphic depictions of man on man action or else they're homophobic.

This is a dangerous and patently stupid attitude for gay men to take if they care at all for the near future of gay rights in this country.

Sometimes a Movie is Just a Movie

There is a little back and forth happening in the blogosphere over the imminent wide release of Brokeback Mountain.

Mickey Kaus claimed to have no interest because he's a heterosexual (scroll down), Andrew Sullivan archly implied . . . something about this, and Ace of Spades took issue.

Here's the trick - it's only a movie.

Brokeback Leads The Globe Noms

Seven nominations to be exact. Among them:

Best Actor - Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress - Michelle Williams
Best Director - Ang Lee
Best Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Original Song - "A Love That Never Grows Old" by Emmylou Harris
Best Dramatic Picture

The Battle of Superman's Bulge

There is a new villain in the upcoming Superman movie. It is neither Lex Luthor nor Dr. Doom, but the dread powers of star Brandon Routh's enormous wang:

The new Superman is giving movie bosses a headache - because of the size of his bulge.

They fear Brandon Routh's profile in the superhero's skintight costume could be distracting, reports the Sun.

One man's fear is my deep personal hope.

Hollywood executives have ordered the makers of Superman Returns to cover it up with digital effects.

The Sun's source said: "It's a major issue for the studio. Brandon is extremely well endowed and they don't want it up on the big screen.

Gay groups, feel like boycotting? Boycott this. For the love of god, do you people have no principles whatsoever?!

Oscar Loves Gay Cowboys Who Play Straight

These are strong heterosexual men, damnit. Ann Althouse discovers something terribly curious about Brokeback Mountain's Oscar campaign.

Notice anything? How about this one? And most absurdly. Here's the whole set of Oscar ads. Compare those to the original movie poster.

Gay cowboys? I don't know anything about gay cowboys. Have you heard anything about gay cowboys? Of course not. Don't be silly. These are obviously family men in a movie about a lapse in judgement. Whiskey may be implicated. Other than that, these cowboys (and actors) estan muy macho. Virile even. They loves them some vagina.

Good lord.

h/t (yet again) Dan, who reads the Internets so I don't have to.

A Brokeback Documentary

In a last burst of publicity before Brokeback Mountain hits theaters this Friday, Logo recently ran a documentary about the making of the film. Though Mal may be off in a land far away, Malco-Vision is still here to keep you company.

In these highlights you'll find a synopsis, interviews with the stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, director Ang Lee, and the writers of the film. There are also plenty of shirtless scenes, kissing scenes, kissing while shirtless scenes . . . ahem. More than enough to tide over any hard-core Brokeback Mountain fan until the film's final theatrical release.

[Watch video – 9:04, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 9:04, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Finally, Actual Men

The trailer for Brokeback Mountain is finally making its way across the net (scroll down to the first comment after the link).

I must admit, when I first heard they were making a feature film out of this material, I wondered how they could make it work. Part of a collection by Annie Proulx, the original story is brief and full of a kind of writing as spare as rural Wyoming - it doesn't rely on ornamentation to be beautiful while still capturing deeper human truths.

When I heard Ang Lee would be helming the film, I sighed in relief. Not only is this a director familiar with gay material (The Wedding Banquet), but he is also a reverse Oliver Stone. Lee is a film-maker who never seems less than earnest. While someone like Stone uses homosexuality as a cheap vehicle for sensationalism and psuedo-controversy (see: Alexander), Lee always seems content to let his camera and characters speak for themselves. In this film, I think we can expect to see the sexuality of the characters subtly folded into their personalities, rather than propped like a gaudy piece of jewelry meant to draw the eye and shock the senses.

That alone is reason enough to see it, but there is something else here: