HBO’s LGBT History: Outrage (2009)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we revisited Carrie & co. in their silver screen outings. As it turns out, the Sarah Jessica Parker series continues to elicit strong reactions though the films are, across the board, considered lesser versions of the oft-brilliant HBO show. This week, we look at Kirby Dick’s doc Outrage which navigates the tricky issue of outing closeted gay politicians. The doc aired on HBO in October 2009 after a Tribeca bow and a limited release earlier that year.

“There is nothing more public than privacy.”

I quote this Michael Warner gem almost every day. Usually to myself; it’s a mantra that perfectly captures many of the discussions about the LGBT community in the twenty-first century. It gets at the inherent and insidious privilege of privacy; it’s always those who don’t realize how their own “private life” (dating, family, marriage) is inherently public (coughMattDamoncough) who claim to want to keep it away from public view. Warner’s epigram could very well function as an apt tag-line for Kirby’s film (though “Do Ask. Do Tell” has a delightful campy, gossipy tone that’s a brilliant reworking of the militaryspeak it echoes).

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London is Magic.

Nathaniel popping in to say hi. In case you've been wondering where I've vanished to, there was a last minute London trip for a film junket. I couldn't leave town without seeing two of my favorite actresses on stage so I stayed a couple of extra days and I'll tell you all about it when I return! For those who don't want to wait you can always follow on twitter or instagram. 

Yesterday I walked across Waterloo Bridge and thought of Vivien Leigh. Have you ever been to London... and if so what movies did you think of while strolling around?

Curio: Lair of Soveyshina

Alexa here with some movie crafts fit for Halloween. Russian artist Victoria Shakirova has been making dolls as long as she can recall.  She loves miniature dolls, friends that can stand near a computer monitor or on a bookshelf. She likes that they don't take up too much space, and small details are important to her.  She has a nice selection of film character dolls of a spookier variety, all for sale at her etsy shop. 

Babadook doll

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Interview: The Filmmakers Behind Spanish Oscar Submission 'Flowers' on MacGuffins, Preserving the Basque Language, and 'The Hours'

Jose here. Flowers is centered around a mystery which sees construction site office worker Ane (Nagore Aranburu) start receiving flowers from an unknown admirer. Week after week, beautiful flowers arrive on the very same day, then one day they stop. Is it a coincidence that they stopped right after Ane's construction site co-worker Beñat (Josean Bengoetxea) passed away in a car crash? We soon meet Beñat's widow Lourdes (Itziar Ituño) and her mother in law Tere (Itziar Aizpuru) whose relationship only seems to weaken in the aftermath of Beñat's death. Flowers is beautifully constructed by José Mari Goenaga and Jon Garaño (who co-wrote and co-directed the film) who know how to take audience members along on a journey and understand how important it is to have us participate in trying to solve the mystery.

Meditative and melancholic, Flowers, is a worthy follow-up to their equally beautiful For 80 Days, and has been chosen as Spain's official Oscar submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category, a historic achievement since it's the first Basque film chosen for the honor. Individually Goenaga and Garaño have done it all, from animated films to documentaries, but their work together has a truly haunting quality, not to mention exquisite performances. I spoke to the filmmakers to discuss their Oscar hopes, making films in Basque and the movies about women that inspire them. 

JOSE: When I first reached out to you, Flowers didn’t have a US release date, now it’s opening on Friday. Are you excited about that?

JOSE MARI: We’re a little bit nervous, the film opens in NYC on October 30 and on November 27th it opens in Los Angeles, which is part of our press agents’ strategy to capture the attention of AMPAS voters. We’re nervous because we don’t know how people will receive it, and the commercial run will undoubtedly affect how it’s perceived by the Academy.

More on Flowers after the jump.

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And Your Golden Globe Host Is... Ricky Gervais

Hi everyone. Coco here, wondering how you guys feel about this year's Golden Globe host announcement.  

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the announcement yesterday on Twitter: Ricky Gervais will return to host the Golden Globes for a fourth time.

Gervais is back after a three year hiatus. Those three years, of course, are what we common folk refer to as the "Tina and Amy Era". And with good reason. Sure, their third time hosting was a relative letdown compared to the first two glorious times, but ask anyone on the street and they'll agree Tina and Amy are still among the best Award Show hosts of the past ten years or so. But let's go back to Ricky. 

Gervais has an interesting history with the Globes. He was the first person to host the ceremony since 1995 (when John Larroquette and Janine Turner shared the honors), and he made headlines thanks to his unsavory jokes. Every entertainment outlet seemd to be talking about how Gervais poked fun at Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson's histories of substance abuse, and for a while there, people tuned in to the Globes to see what inaproppriate thing Gervais was going to say next, instead of tuning in for the right reasons (which, by the way, are the fashion and the opportunity to see drunk celebrities interact with each other). 

But just like anything that coasts on shock value, Gervais's popularity could only last for so long. By the time Gervais hosted for the third time, his schtick was old news. 

But what do you think? Is Gervais's comeback a boring choice? Or are you actually excited about his return?