It’s Sunday morning here in Sydney, I’ve had my coffee and I’m putting off doing more packing for the move and I thought it a very appropriate time to review a couple of movies and a CD.
DVD – CIAO. Why is gay cinema SO consistently rubbish? There are thousands of great gay stories bogged down in terrible scripts and bad acting, tripping over cliches and awkwardness along the way. Ciao is another one that unfortunately fits into that category. The script didn’t actually go anywhere. It was an hour and a half of first date conversation. The premise of the movie is Jeff lives in Dallas and after the death of his long time best friend has to email people to let them know of his death. Adrea was supposed to be coming from Italy to meet Mark for the first time after meeting online. Oddly Jeff asks him to come regardless. Wooden acting is taken to new heights by the two leads but trumped easily by the token fag hag/asian girl/step sister. Avoid the movie unless suffering from insomnia.
CD – TRACEY THORN “LOVE AND IT’S OPPOSITE”. Remember Everything but the Girl? I do. Simple electronic mellow pop. Then Tracey went on to collaborate with Massive Attack and made some beautiful music. This month sees the release of her new solo effort. This album feels like reconnecting with an old friend on facebook. It’s familiar, there was no falling out to cause you to drift apart, you catch up online in a vague inoffensive way from time to time but the buddy era of old is past. It’s a comfortable listening album, but I doubt you’ll be catching up with Tracey every day.
MOVIE – ROBIN HOOD. This is a couple of hours of good old fashioned movie escapism. It’s movie making by numbers and Gladiator in England is good at what it is, swashbuckling underdogs making good. The lovable but inconsequential character dies, there’s Russell with a watery trail of blood down his face in a fast edited battle scene of epic proportions at the end. Don’t get me wrong. I liked it, but there’s nothing earth shattering here. Russell has proven true to form by acting well but storming out of a publicity interview because the journalist questioned his accent in the movie. Precious much? Cate Blanchett is stunning as usual and gives a great performance, but it won’t be her career highlight.
You are so right that a many gay themed movies aren’t so great. But when I saw “Ciao” I really liked it and thought it was so much better than average. I thought it was very warm and loving and melancholy. We all have a right to our opinion.
I agree, we like to see gay themed movies when possible but it ends up that they are just about always a waste of time and money. There’s a huge market out there for great gay themed movies (without porn).
I just saw “Ciao” over the weekend, and I have to disagree. I think the story portrays the loss experienced by two people in different ways, and shows a different side of the dead friend/”lover” to the other person. The cinematography was a little drawn out in some places, but upon reflection it contributed to the overall success of the film. I really liked it. Sorry Brenton :-)