esrosedotblog

This is the first film I have seen about the addiction to hormones.

The main character has to have testosterone because he cannot produce it naturally.

How he came to be that way and what happens when he becomes addicted to the essential drug is the theme of

Bullhead (2011)

I got to this film because I am trying to see all of the work of Matthias Schoenaerts, who bulked up for this role naturally without the steroids that his character has to have.

There is a lot of violence in this film and a few distractions in the plot which make it a bit hard to watch.

When on the screen, Schoenaerts is a force of nature. A beauty trapped in a beast's body. When he is off stage, things lag.

This is a classic plot, one of the thirteen universal stories. The tragic hero.

I liked this film a lot but had to look away a few times. There are animals involved and while there is a scene where they have to take a calf not one of them is hurt.

Not so much can be said of the guys who get pummeled and beaten up along the way.

One more thing. It was a nominee for best foreign film in the Academy Awards.

This film is a 3 out of Netflix5. Not for everybody and almost not for me but when I was done I watched the "making of" bits to come down from my own adrenaline high. I usually do not do that. I let the film stand on its own.

But t his time I needed to detach and the little short helped.

Today's film is one of those indescribable movie experiences.

But as Roger Ebert says in his review.

I've just thrown out the first 500 words of my review and am starting again with a sense of joy and release. I was attempting to describe the plot of "Bad Education." It was quicksand, and I was sinking fast. You and I have less than 1,000 words to spend together discussing this fascinating film, and not only would the plot take up half of that, but if I were by some miracle to succeed in making it clear, that would only diminish your pleasure.

Bad Education (2004)

Pedro Almodovar directs. I am watching this again because Gael Garcia Bernal is in it but the film has to be viewed again and again.

It is not that it is puzzling. All of it is pretty clear. There are many viewpoints of the same situation. Not that these can be reconciled because, well, that is life. Or at least life in Almodovar's studio.

This is a clear 5 out of Netflix5. And I will see it again sometime.

Labels: film

I am looking at many Gael Garcia Bernal films as I can.

Today, the story of the campaign to take down the Pinochet regime in Chile.

No (2012)

Very exciting and informative. In a way Pinochet was an old fashioned dictator so he was naive about the power of television and, as it turns out, television advertising.

Bernal is a creative ad director and designs the campaign for NO, the vote to unseat the regime.

No one expects that the vote is any more than jerking the people off but the campaigners turn it around and it is the end of Pinochet.

Some real news clips are used and while I do not know for a fact that it is all factual, it does not deter from the drama and quality of this movie. A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: film

Another coming out film, young adult anguish.

But good anguish.

It isn't so much that the guys here are upset about being gay. More that they are young and can't do a lot about their love in a repressive society.

Even that sounds worse than it is here.

Otra Pelicula de Amor / Another Movie About Love (2104)

Irony in the title but not in the story line.

This is just a nice little romance in Spain and the boys will get along very well. If not with each other, eventually, in the world. They surely have a good start.

A little magical realism never hurt anyone and there is enough in this film to make it just a bit beyond the norm of this kind of enterprise.

All gay stories are essentially coming out stories so there needs to be some salt and pepper to keep them seasoned well.

Labels: film, films, gay films

Today's film did not really get distributed.

I cannot understand why. Perhaps because it is about loneliness, or memory, or yearning, or that it is a film film. It depends on time to make itself felt. No instant gratification here.

The Hour of Living (2014)

It is sad that few people will get to see it.

It comes from Horace: "He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses a stream".

Theo goes to Switzerland to find out about his father, a suicide. He finds a recluse who knew the Dad well. Most of the movie is the story the hermit guy tells.

The film is full of mountains and rolling fog and beautiful meadows. Alpine beauty.

The actors are superb. It is a two man tour de force.

So many good films fall to the wayside. This is not a deep film but it has lots of feelings. Very well made. A 5 out of Netflix5 for me.

I might even watch it again tomorrow but probably not. Digestion is important.

Oh. The gay part. Solid and realistic and quite touching. All of it. It goes beyond sexuality into identity.

Labels: film, gay films

Today's film was a documentary about design.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011)

Both Charles and Ray Eames did the work but it is Charles who got a lot of the credit.

This is a moderately interesting film that sometimes teeters on the edge of over-design or TMI. But I enjoyed it and will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

I do not worship at the church of design but I do live with a designer architect so I better watch my comments.

The Eames cannot help but be interesting as their constant self promotion almost guaranteed.

It worked. Who doesn't have or want an Eames chair or two?

Probably me. But that is another subject.

I did like the film but it could have had ten minutes lopped off at the end. There is no juice in it. They try but it is hard to reach the people behind the reputation. Perhaps that was the nature of the self promoting Eames.

Labels: documentary, film

Translations aside, political buffoonery carries well across cultures.

In this film the title character never appears.

The French Minister (2014)

But a bunch of familiar French stars do and a delightful comedy ensues.

I had forgotten that it starred, among others, Neils Arestrup. Who I have seen being evil, innocent, guileful and, as of today, enormously funny.

It is difficult to find something wrong with this so I will admit that it is about fifteen minutes too long. But then it is French. Cut some slack.

Labels: film

For a Saturday I was pretty busy.

A meeting in the morning. The second season, fourth episode of Sherlock Holmes in which (spoiler), they left him for dead in the street.

So we will all have to wait and see how that turns out.

Then to take care of some of us who are ailing. Marcus has been throwing up so it is no food for him, just ice cubes for the rest of the day and then rice and chicken tomorrow.

He is not too happy about that but he is also not feeling good. So we are giving the recommendations a couple of days to work then see whether we need to take him in.

The on line suggestions are very good and seem to make sense and he seems to be OK with a diet of ice cubes which he refuses but conveys the idea that we are concerned for him and don't want him to go hungry. Or at least that is what I am telling myself.

And I am having a recurrence of sciatica which is an old problem, held in abeyance for a long time with the help of a chiropractor. Who I had stopped going to.

So human. Or something. If something is working quite well and there are no symptoms then consider ones self cured.

Fortunately I still have a chiropractor who knows my back and I will see him Monday. Right before I get my teeth cleaned. It will be my maintenance day.

I am not happy about this but the pain meds are working pretty well without going over the recommended amount. Not that I wouldn't give that a try for a short while if it got too bad.

I do not feel bad about stopping the chiro. Meaning I will not be ashamed to return. They actually like this, it makes them feel needed. And I know the guy from the time we moved out here many years ago. I have invested in his practice!

Labels: film, health

If you hang out on the gay internet, it is inevitable that you will encounter the Studlebrity.

This is often a middle ground between soft porn and personal blog where a good looking young man displays his life for all to see. Or what he wants them to see.

I admit to some regular studlebrity visits on a daily basis.

What is the appeal here? What is their motivation? How does it work.

There is a DVD called Studlebrity which approaches these questions in a half baked way and that was today's movie.

I don't think it had much more than interviews with these guys which you could find on their very own sites.

There are a few talking head analysts who comment lamely on the scene.

What it boils down to is more prolonged eye candy shots for the voyeur. Me.

There is a phenomena that is interesting and that is where two of these guys met and got together. I watch one such couple now and it is interesting to see whether the public nature of their activities will affect their off screen time.

Of course, this is hard to evaluate and so, while I am mildly curious, I just watch and enjoy what I see and move on to more serious fare. It is mostly fluff but at some level these guys are role models for young gay men. But we have learned that there are role models and then there is real life and being a celebrity can be a kind of prison. More of this kind of examination might help this DVD which I will not see again.

The guy in the picture is Ethan Hethcote who ended up with another blogger Mark E. Miller and now they do a joint vlog on Mark Miller's blog site.

They are the most interesting couple that I have seen so far. It has been fun to follow the growth of their relationship.

Years ago I watched a similar blog called Chaos in Austin which is still alive but more as a porn site. I enjoyed it very much. They didn't mention this pioneer "photo journal". Perhaps for the porn-reason. A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: film, gay films, gay life

More Big Bang Theory today.

I am headed toward disc three of the third season.

It is nice to know that the star, Jim Parsons, is an out gay man with a ten year long relationship, a husband! Todd Spiewack.

This is not the reason that I watch the show but it is an added pleasure.

I do not know the history but I have the impression that he has never been in the closet.

I like all the people. The actors.

You do know that I cannot bear television in general. Never watch it.

So far, the mega series Teen Wolf and Big Bang are the only ones that have caught my interest. Wolf because of its high hunk factor at first but then the realization that they were exploring all sides of the para normal "world" as part of the plot line. They know what they are doing. Tits and class.

And I admire Big Bang for all of its story line and all of its people. In addition, you know I am an MIT nerd and it never leaves. That high flown dorm talk.

The fact that they made a series out of my kind is quite heartening. It never talks down. I know that a lot of physics talk is used as a form of amusement but the stuff is completely accurate and watched over by a real physicist who appears in the show from time to time mostly as an extra. Next time I will do an item on him.

Labels: film, television

Some people are able to blend in so much that they disappear.

Such is the case of a now famous photographer Vivian Maier. In her life she was inconspicuous to a fault. Now, posthumously, her work is receiving a lot of attention, including today's film

Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

We see a lot of her work, a little bit of her and a lot of other photographers and museum types who appreciate her work.

There is even a guy we know from Provincetown, the photographer, Joel Meyerwitz.

I think it is difficult to make a good film about a still photographer no less a dead one. But John Maloof has done so. It is filled with life, interesting people and not just talking heads. We do, of course, see a lot of Maier's work.

It is amazing that the photos seem as though they are a movie. A film of a person. Biography in one shot.

I enjoyed this film a lot and learned a great deal about photography, some contemporary photographers and of course, Ms. Maier. Also something about the young man who resurrected her, John Maloof.

Labels: film, films

I think it is very difficult to make a good film about dancers and dancing.

And this one succeeds very well, the rare exception.

Five Dances (2013)

Real dancers, real dancing, five stories. The main story is about the two male dancers who slowly are attracted to each other and, well, that would be telling the ending.

One of the guys is a virgin, the other an experienced two relationship guy. A little older.

We get to see them dance with one another. There is a lot of dancing and that is a good thing.

The other dancers are as interesting and there are smaller subplots going on here as well.

The thing I enjoyed most was the tie-in of a dance then an advance of the story line in each of five segments. Very nice. Not slick. Just well done. Masterful.

I will buy this disc. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: dance, film

Today's film was not quite a biopic.

More of an appreciation.

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

Stanton is in the "whattaguy" category of film actors.

An actor first, then an unforgettable personality.

We actually know him already from the over 200 parts he has played as a "character actor", the title they give to actors who are so good and yet never get a lead.

As I expected, he is a very interesting guy. He has an ego but it has been kept in check by the limits of how he is used.

He works all the time and he almost always has gotten to play "himself" which he says is a blessing. Of course we know and he knows that "playing yourself" takes incredible focus and preparation. It is a matter of selecting the best part to bring forth at the particular moment.

I liked him as a person as much as I have looked forward to seeing him in a movie. Anytime, anywhere.

There is a lot of other interesting stuff in this film. People he has played with, friends, film history.

Very nice.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 as I could watch it again without a second's hesitation.

Labels: actors, film

Today's movie was the German film Cibrail / The Visitor

Indie gay story which follows predictable lines but which has a great deal of charm because the guys are not studly. They are plain people who come together, one gay, one not so much. The gay doesn't mess with the straight guy. Quite the contrary.

Groping toward understanding his feelings, the homo in hiding, a cop, slowly comes out to himself then his friend.

I liked this a lot and will get it for our collection.

I think part of its charm is that we are in Berlin and there is ample use of locations. There is the smell of freedom and liberation in the air that helps us move along. A strong image of the statuary Molecule Man is repeated effectively.

I am glad that they didn't try to pad this out with extra fluff. It is straight on, short (69 minutes) and to the point. A 4 out of 5 on the esrose richter film scale.

Labels: film, gay films

Today's movie was Gravity.

Mostly Sandra Bullock with a little help from George Clooney. Wry space humor from him while she floats around and tries to make it back to Earth.

I will not tell you what happens even though I think everyone knows.

I liked it. A four out of five. Yes I still do that on the web.

They care what I think.

I would post a photo but it would be all space.

I am not sure if I am going to use images on the renewed blog. Not yet.

This film got the NYTimes Critics' Pick. A good sign.

She is great. I would not voluntarily seek out a Bullock film but she owns this.

Also, I go back to space travel all the way to Captain Video on Channel Five in NYC.

I never cared for Buck Rogers and all that but began from time to time to get interested in some space fare.

Captain Video was a straight shooter and actually it was mostly a space film that used western cliches. That worked for an eight year old boy who had no interest in westerns at all.

Since then, I have avoided the genre because, paradoxically, I have a bit of a claustrophobia thing and while these all take place in outer space, the suits get me down. Space. Closed in.

This film is no exception but somehow it worked for me as she does get to take the fucking suit off often enough that even I could breathe more fully.

Labels: film, space

So, on a day I was not going to do anything, I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of medium size cactus for our desert section. It has been fallow for awhile but when they painted, I took one of my small plants that had overgrown itself, the second such, and planted it in the empty space on the north courtyard side. Then the whole thing looked a lot lonelier. And with the new paint job, I was inspired to go get a dozen decorative cactus and put them into the spot. They look great. They complete the picture. One of the painters said that, often, they will paint the outside of the house and the owner decides to redecorate the inside too. I just got the cacti. One plant, not a cactus, is a purple sage for the corner. I still mourn the big purple sage they took out when they went desert next door. The plant was between our houses. And, the awful truth is, that the sage is a desert plant. As any listener to cowboy songs will know.

Today's film was the new, pre-print, of Marco Berger's Hawaii 2013. Berger is the master of sexual yearning. Put two presumably gay guys in proximity and watch what happens. Yogi Berra: "You can see a whole lot while watching". Long silent expanses, great photography, music. This one is as good as his other award winning Plan B. I am already anxious to see it again.

The Times says the liberals think the White House should be in more of a panic mode about ACA. They still don't get Obama. No drama. This is instead of support and fighting off the sharks. Oh, I despair of my nominal party. If I could start my own I would. Such assholes. I get more angry at them than the teas sometimes.

Labels: condo, film, garden, obama, professional left

Today's film is a highly successful television series (MTV) which follows the film feature to series track. I watched the first two episodes of

Teen Wolf (2011)

The series has a long pedigree in the movies.

In 1957, A.I.P. released “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” as part of a double bill with “Invasion of the Saucer-Men.” It was shot in a week for around $80,000, starred Michael Landon. It ended up on a double feature billing. Some years later, 1984 to be exact, after a series of scary "Teenage.....whatever" films, a young director, Joseph Loeb got the new idea to put the emphasis on the teenager part and wrote a film called Teen Wolf which had the good fortune to have Michael J. Fox as its star (wolf/fox hmmm) and became a runaway hit.

In the first one the teenager was angst ridden and filled everyone with fear. In the second, the wolf thing was changed to be a kind of acceptable normality since Fox also was a basketball star and, as people found out his "secret", he became everyone's hero. It was a buddy comedy with a heart.

The film was a huge hit and is now required viewing if you want to see the teen classics.

Now comes, came this version of the Fox film which just completed its third season.

This too is a take on the kindly athlete (lacrosse) who has a wolf guy mentor (Tyler Hoechlin), a little older, a best friend who figures it all out before the wolf teen does and a girl friend who is not yet in on it (so far).

The young star Tyler Posey is great. So are the others.

I wanted to see. The boys are very good looking and the story is tongue in cheek except when it isn't and becomes scary enough to demand full attention.

I rented the first disc which has two more shows in the first season and I will watch those, then see what happens next. In the meantime, it is an easy 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: film, television

COOK OUT

Today's film was the NYTimes Critics' Pick documentary

Entre Le Bras / Step Up to the Plate (2012)The inventor of an entire cuisine, Michel Bras, turns his restaurant over to his son Sebastien.

Gentle and peaceful as the process is, there is that nice tension between father and son which all fathers (and sons) will appreciate.

I am not a "foodie". So I don't relate much to the dishes which are the ultimate in what I think of as "toy food". I am just not interested in it. But there are a lot of interesting scenes where they do things with food that I never imagined.

It is a nice film, I am glad I saw it and good luck to them all. Nice people.

There is nothing wrong with being nice. A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: film, food

NOT A FILM

I watched the apparent but not really film

This is Not a Film (2011)

And he is correct. This is not a film. It is a protest or an act of rebellion.

Confined to his house, the Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi videos an hour and 15 minutes of talk about how he would have made a film if he were not under house arrest. And if he were permitted to do so.

Panahi is not illegal. There is no law broken. It is an arbitrary ruling without a law behind it by some provisional council of government.

We have seen this before. It is a Soviet favorite.

The result is a sort of exercise in defiance. Technically he is not violating the ban laid against him but as he does this we have no idea if he will get away with it.

It is hard to watch because it is difficult to identify with him. Partly language. Partly the futility.

At the time of this non film making, is awaiting an appeal to a sentence of prison and a 20 year moratorium on any film making.

So here he is spitting in their faces but also defying them to "catch" him as he is technically not doing the things he was told not to do. A hall of mirrors.

This not a film was smuggled out of Iran on a small USB thumb drive hidden in a cake.

He lays out the sets on the floors of his large apartment (quite modern, I guess Iran is not really third world) and does other pre production chores. He reads the script of the movie that is not being made.

I guess my feeling about it was that there is really some sick shit going down in the world and some people are not going to be done in by it.

I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5 for courage and maybe even stupidity. It is a real downer.

Labels: film

STARFACES

Labels: film