It seems like the Avian flu, or Ebola, or some other kinda of shitty virus is going aroudn and it is taking down all of my friends, lol. Even though I thought I was going to go dancing last night to Victor Calderone, I ended up staying in and watching a movie with a pint of Cake Batter ice cream from Toscanini's (an awesome ice cream shop in Boston and no I didn't eat it all). It was totally relaxing and a good quiet night and it ultimately turned into an awesome convo with my hottie DJ friend in NYC.
Anyways, I am rarely into gay movies, because even for all of our creative talent, they usually just suck. And I was a little reluctant to rent a movie about gay life from 1996 in London. Thinking it would be about Heaven, E, drugs, sex, and AIDS. However, I am thrilled to say that I absolutely thought Beautiful Thing was sweet, touching, emotional, funny, and melancholic for me. In fact, I later realized the story was taken from a West End play by Jonathan Harvey. The story takes place in southeast London in an apartment building where the underachieving denizens get an emotional wake-up call when two teenage "cockney-chav" boys fall in love. There are tons of camp moments (not Kamp as they use in England either) in the film, most of which are hysterical, especially the black girl living next to the two boys who thinks she is Mamma Cass, lol.
I was totally touched by the story and I sat there for most of wishing I was cuddling with my own lil boy. Damnit! It brought me back to 1999 when I started to debate coming out after years of playing around discreetly with boys (oh, the days of the hottie Brown soccer player), and how shitty and alone I felt. Their innocence upon walking into their first gay bar, their first kiss, their struggles with it, their struggles with life so just flooded over me. Wow, I have come a long way, as has the world. Ha, it does turn out though that one of the boys, the jock, was dealing E since it seemed like the entire city of London was on it in 1996, too funny, while the other boy HATED football because it cut into his time watching The Song of Music, lol.
I just saw a production of the play here last month in London, and it brought back all the memories of watching the movie in theatres when it first came out. I think I was 17 or 18 then, newly out of the closet, and this movie instantly became my favorite. The production will be back on in the West End during Europride this summer in London. It's definitely worth seeing.
Posted by: Y | March 31, 2006 at 03:00 PM
Yes, a true classic. Took me about three watches to pick up on all the whitty comments throughout (Hugh Janus) but then I had to buy it and watch it again and again. Turns out the jock also hated the main kid, and if you go to his website he still posts ridiculous photois with various women to show how very straight he is. Reminds me of Hal Sparks since his QAF stint; ridiculous.
Posted by: tay hota | March 26, 2006 at 08:45 AM
Beautiful Thing is, by far, the best "gay" film made to date. After seeing it I got my hands on a copy of the play, which turned out to be very campy and did not have the heart that the film has.
Linda Harvey, the mother, knocks the ball out of the park with her performance. The director won best new director at Cannes that year for the film.
I loved the end of the film ~ it begs for a sequel, with the boys, now grown ~ dancing on a rooftop in Tuscany at sunset for the opening.
Posted by: Uncle Zoloft | March 26, 2006 at 06:42 AM
“Beautiful Things” is definitely one of the best gay films made. I only wish it had a better ending. Dancing in the courtyard of the housing complex was a little much. Logoonline.com's survey of gay films placed it 2nd, behind “Brokeback”. Another film (conspicuously missing from Logo's top 50 list) which I highly recommend is “Wild Reeds” by Andre Techine.
Posted by: Mike | March 25, 2006 at 01:21 PM
This is one of my most favourite films of all time. I have seen it so many times.
Its such a touching movie, I think everyone should see it at least once.
Posted by: Neil | March 25, 2006 at 01:11 PM
Frank
This is actually one of my favorite films, gay or straight. I am 23 now, I saw it by accident late one night when I was in my early teens. By then I knew I liked boys and that I could get killed for it. Seeing this movie was great though because it is so hopeful, in a innocent, non-typical gay way. What I mean by that is that at one point one forgets that it is love between two boys. It becames just about love. Get me? Anyway, it is still one of those films I watch every so often to help keep me from becoming too jaded and hopeless with the gay world. Glad you got to see it.
Joseph
Posted by: Joseph | March 25, 2006 at 12:10 PM