they're not an issue movie, they just love each other!

[cimorene]

'Philip Morris' is MIA at ohnotheydidnt: I Love You Philip Morris, the movie starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as dudes who fall in love in prison, premiered at Sundance but failed to get picked up for distribution.

The article quotes no doubt well-intentioned people saying things like "I don't think it's a gay movie, I think it's a movie about humanity" (Jim Carrey) and "I didn't want to make an issue movie" (writer/director John Requa).

To me this is uncomfortably similar to "they're not gay, they just love each other" - which is bullshit. Newsflash! If they are men who are in love with each other then they are gay, and the real meaning of that phrase is, "They're not like those other gay people! These are the good kind of gay people, who are like straight people!"

Fuck. That. That's why there are hardly any gay movies. That's why there aren't gay characters in movies that aren't about being outed, being left by a partner who turns straight, being unable to come out, or dying of AIDS: because only people who want to make an issue movie are making movies, and even a guy who could make a prison romance based on a true story is willing to go on the record saying dumbass things rejecting issue movies, as if

1. ISSUE MOVIES are BAD for the poor straight people to have to watch! After all, why would you care about gayness if you're not gay? and



2. any movie about gay people must, by default, be an issue movie, even if it is in fact explicitly a romance, so that you have to stand there and write NOT AN ISSUE MOVIE! all over it.

This is why the media and society is such that the intended lesbian plot was cut from Bend it Like Beckham, and the secondary lesbian characters were cut from Watchmen, and the lesbian soap opera characters in the US haven't shared on-screen kisses until this season, and the gay characters in chick flicks are always the protagonist's neutered Magical Gay Guy who provides fashion tips and never has a boyfriend, and they break up at the stupid ending of Kissing Jessica Stein, and even the sympathetic lesbians on CSI are always evil or dead, and Tara is dead and Willow is simultaneously evil, and the only onscreen gayness in the Star Trek universe is the evil Mirror Verse versions of Kira and Dax and the producers of TNG shut down all Whoopi Goldberg's fighting to have some guys just holding hands in the background in one of her Ten Forward scenes.

Comments

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Wait. There was going to be more lesbian plot in Bend it Like Beckham?

That would've made... quite a lot of the story make more sense, if I am remembering the film correctly.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Yes, it would have. *still disgruntled*

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

That's pretty disappointing. That could've been a REALLY good movie.

Feh.

[arboretum]

I never knew this either. Yeah, it would have. o_o;

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I get possibly even more angry about the inevitable "how was it to kiss a MAN omg?!"

I also would like more gay movies where the central conflict or twist doesn't have anything to do with being gay. I'm always bored with straight-romance that doesn't have a significant outside twist, and I want gay detectives, gay space ship captains, gay athletes and gay con men telling their detective, space ship, sports or capper stories. If I want well-done romance, I read fanfiction :(

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

If I survive film school (by which I mean, I do not end up going postal due to the obliviousness of my classmates or completely demoralized by all the talk of 'the industry') I'm going to need to assemble myself a little crew of cheerleaders to help me get exactly that kind of film made.

I mean, it's the stuff I love to read (hi, fanfiction, you are so much better than much professionally published fiction) so why shouldn't someone make movies with it?

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I would totes go to see your movies!

[dreamnnightmare.livejournal.com]

very well said. Isn't everyone wanting to watch gay movies already up to clavicles with films where nothing else happens? gays, friends, & family are a big market share.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

While I love many of those films (and hate some), I really just want more stories. Falling in love, while often epic to the people involved, is kind of boring to the rest of the world if they aren't chased by dragons/robots/zombies.

[thornsilver]

Seriously, they have to get off this "gay people are sooo werid" kick.

[hand2hand.livejournal.com]

word. Gay does not equal tragedy. Sigh.

[hollsh.livejournal.com]

I remember reading about a huge stink because one of the US soaps did this big Valentine's montage of all their couples kissing, and it only showed the gay ones holding hands. WTF? Would a kiss have ruined the romantic vibe or some shit?

It annoys me that people act like they're gay friendly when in fact they're gay mildly tolerant at best.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Just. Yes to everything in this post.

[perhael.livejournal.com]

That's why I love the Donald Strachey movies so much. His being gay (and in a happy, committed relationship) is secondary to the mystery. What would make them really perfect would be a) better acting, and b) bigger distribution.

[southpaw526.livejournal.com]

Jess and Juliet were supposed to be gay? Uh...okay. I've never seen it that way, but if that's what the director's said (or whoever).

Now, I was totally thrown by one of the plotlines in Love, Actually, to the point where it pretty much wrecked the movie for me. Is it irony or merely a weird coincidence that it was the plotline including Keira Knightley?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was the original intent (http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/Movies/beckham.html).

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

For reals.

[fayemeadows.livejournal.com]

My whole thing is if we keep calling it an issue movie IT WILL CONTINUE TO BE AN ISSUE. Just go watch a love story and shut the fuck up.

and they break up at the stupid ending of Kissing Jessica Stein

My god, that pissed me off so much.