> Yoshie: > do queers have a 67% chance of dying by gay-bashing and a
> 33% chance of dying of AIDS in the real world, as the gay-themed Oscar
> contenders represent? <
>
> writing from Tinsel Town, I ask, since when has anyone thought of
> Hollywood movies as representing reality?
Jim, have you not noticed the importance of at least making sex scenes realistic: "The moment at that movie that i tuned out for good - total end of suspension of disbelief, followed by being bored to tears watching great gobs of mediocre acting - was the sex scene. Unless the bottom had been the whore of babylon for the last decade or had been fisted by the bear all afternoon there is no way that he gets grabbed and a second later they're ecstatically assfucking" (as John Mage observed authoritatively at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/ pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20060130/030479.html> -- there goes my movie review!).
In any event, Jim, you love King Kong: "Despite its extreme length, this is an extremely good flick, the reason why God invented popcorn. The special effects, the plot, much of the script, and even the acting are very good" (at <http://www.mail-archive.com/pen- l at sus.csuchico.edu/msg10011.html>)! That demonstrates that you should get back to writing about economics. :->
While I'm handing out F's for cultural studies, let me add that I have totally lost confidence in John Lacny's aesthetic judgement (which I had held in high regard till recently): I finally got around to seeing North Country (which John recommended effusively: "I saw 'North Country' last night. It was far and away the best movie I have seen in years. I had to fight back tears several times. All progressives need to see this film."<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/ pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20051017/023107.html>), and it sucked!
Joel wrote:
> >Gay-themed Oscar Contenders: Gay characters die to help straight
> actors
> >and film makers win Oscars.
> >Yoshie Furuhashi
>
> This maybe true, but I really doubt Jake Gyllenhaal (sp) was much
> of a contender, and that he or his co-star as straight as they
> pretend. Maybe that is simply my fantasy.
Oh well, my guy -- Gromit (of Wallace & Gromit), surely the most sensitive and intelligent male character who appeared on the big screen last year -- is not even in the running for Best Actor!
Brokeback Mountain, alas, has a chance of winning Best Picture and Best Director. If I could have my way, I would give Best Picture to Munich, Best Director to Steven Spielberg, Best Writing to Tony Kushner, and Best Foreign Language Film to Paradise Now (Joyeux Noël [a movie about the Christmas truce], which I have not seen yet, may be as good as or even better than Paradise Now, but let's vote for symbolic Middle East peace).
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>