Sunday, February 05, 2012
A GUY NAMED JOE
Today's gay film was Stephen Frears'
A biography of the playwright Joe Orton and, of necessity, his partner Kenneth Hallowell who, after a long tenure of a classically dysfunctional relationship bludgeoned Orton with a hammer. Ballpeen.
Of course, this is not funny but the film is. Orton was a master of stage comedy and had many hits. Despite this, he and Hallowell lived in a hovel for all the years he was making a lot of money.
It is strange, in a way, that there is more graphic, interesting gay sex in this film than most that I have ever seen. Gary Oldman as Orton is one hunk on a stick. He is the poster boy for promiscuity and hung out in as sordid places as possible.
As it happens, he had very little at home. The lover Kenneth played magnificently by Alfred Molina is a queen without a queen's mannerisms. He is petulant, jealous, abusive verbally and probably, well certainly, insane.
So not very sexy.
I have seen this several times and it is still a puzzle why Orton stayed with him. But then that is part of the SM side of it.
I love this film. I still turn away when the hammer comes down but they have already warned you about this. But when it comes it is sudden and awful.
Frears has made a masterpiece of this. To combine the fun and happiness with the nasty, tragic parts of it is quite a feat. John Lahr wrote the book based on Orton's diaries. He is weirdly played by Wallace Shawn. Funny for Lahr to do this.
This is also a bit of a time capsule. Homo life was illegal at the time. Even being homosexual was a mystery to the persons who lived it out.
There are a lot of men's rooms in this picture. Sex on the fly. So to speak.
This is all before my time and one of the reasons that I could not face a life like this in the fifties when I was young.
A 5 out of Netflix5 for all the fine work in this honest film.
It is too bad that it is not on the list of favorites so I took it upon myself to correct the error here.
