Happy Valentines Day whether or not you're feeling it!

Happy Valentines Day, whether or not you're feeling the love! Sometimes it's hard to tell, right? The image above, from House of Flying Daggers (2004) is perfectly non-committal about romance which seems appropriate for this divisive holiday. 

One thing we're always in the mood for is screen kisses, though. Our choices for "Best Kiss" from 2022 aren't ready but in the meantime, do share your favourite recent screen kisses in the comments.  

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• Vanity Fair first images from the miniseries Welcome to Chippendales starring Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis, Dan Stevens, and Annaleigh Ashford
• People Anne Heche in stable condition after a car crash / fire. Our thoughts are with her in recovery. Such a great actress but she's had many personal issues and troubles
• Variety a Jennifer Coolidge with a hilarious admission about American Pie benefitting her sex life

More after the jump including a Star Trek kiss, a buzzy Beyoncé / Madonna remix, looking back at The Fugitive, and stage productions of Cats and Devil Wears Prada...

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Great Moments in Gayness: Journey to the Cocksucker in "But I'm a Cheerleader"

In honor of Pride Month, Here’s Christopher James highlighting a pivotal scene from Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader.

Doesn't everyone remember their first time in a gay bar?Satire is a powerful tool. It can take even big dark topics and shrink them down to laughable size. But I’m a Cheerleader represents the high point of what satire can do. Conversion therapy camps are still a blight on our society, despite being declared illegal in 20 states and more municipalities. They have traumatized an uncountable number of queer people. Yet, Babbit’s film subverts the location to be a cotton-candy-colored joke. The film does such a great job of making it a nightmare that loses its shock value because you simply can’t stop laughing AT it.

The joke machine comes to a halt for a joyous moment where we come up for sweet, queer air. The kids escape True Directions to go to a gay bar, "the Cocksucker"...

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A Room With a View, Pt 3: A lot of lying on the way to Truth, Beauty, and Love

Previously in our deep dive retrospective, Nathaniel visited Lucy Honeychurch at her idyllic pastoral home in England and her new engagement to Cecil Vyse, whose sneering fastidiousness is only matched by his complete inability to relate normally to other people. Things got delightfully complicated when the Emersons turned up unexpectedly as neighbors.  They’re about to get a lot more complicated in part 3, with Charlotte Bartlett, of all people, emerging as the unsung savior of truth, beauty, and love.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW
(a three part miniseries)
part 3 by Lynn Lee

I’ll be honest: although A Room With a View is one of my all-time favorites, for a long time the third act was my least favorite.  Too much lying and denial by Lucy, too much drawing out of the inevitable, not enough humor to make it go faster.  But as I grew older, I came to see it differently.  If the first act is the most romantic and the second the most comedic, the third is – pardon my French – when shit gets real.  We see the emotional consequences of our heroine trying to bury what’s in her heart, and in so doing we get to see her finally grow up. 

1:18:26  First-time viewers may not know it yet, but the library book Lucy’s mother admonishes her to pick up is a narrative grenade...

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Look back: "God's Own Country"

by Matt St Clair

The beauty in God’s Own Country, the marvelous directorial debut from Francis Lee whose newest film Ammonite has hit VOD, is not just in the luscious landscapes. It's also in the silence. The two lead actors use their facial glances and body language to confess their infatuation. Minus the ending, there’s no cathartic monologue spoken by either John (Josh O’Connor) or Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu). No 'I love you's because the words aren’t needed. Nor is this a typical “coming out” narrative present within the realm of queer cinema where the characters come to a gradual realization about their sexualities.

It’s clear when God’s Own Country begins that John is already aware of his sexuality. He engages in hedonistic hook ups for minor fulfillment.  He acts out sexually but without intimacy and definitely without kissing. When Gheorghe arrives to help John and his family on their Yorkshire farm, their bond initially starts with wrestling in the mountains...

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