Some films that I have watched recently and liked a lot...
...with links to Amazon.com, should you want to buy the DVD's.







Big Fish


Wow! I loved this movie! What's not to like? Ewen McGregor,(who could read the dictionary as long as he smiles while doing it..) Albert Finney, both of these guys playin' southern boys, Danny Devito as a circus ringmaster wierdo and Tim Burton as director! Great performances here and Tim Burton takes on a story about how a son gets to know his father and gets a chance to show that he knows how to do that kind of story well without sacrificing his spooky personal vision of things. The film has this wonderful, beautiful balance between fantasy and truth and you are never really sure which side of the fence your on. Best of all, you don't care whether it's true or not, you just want it to be real.

The original story was written by a gay man and the producers are gay. I think that had a lot to do with the way this movie turned out. I think it's a very sweet film. What do you think?





Adventures of Felix


This film was done by two French gay guys who are lovers. That fact is probably more important than you might think at first when looking at this film. The first thing you are going to look at is the man who plays the lead, Felix. His name is Sami Bouajila and he's stunningly beautiful. He's a straight French actor, arab... but he plays gay very well and that's because he's a very good actor, the kind of male lead that Fellini would have made famous. This film offers him a lot of chances to skip out on the edge emotionally, and he handles it well and especially during love scenes with men. There's lots of kissing and hugging, and a good long look at him naked several times throughout the film, and unlike most American actors, there is no coyness about it. It's just there naturally during the story.

The story: Felix loses his job on a ferry across the channel, (the chunnel is mentioned as a reason for the ferry shutting down) and he ends up at home a bit more than his lover is used to. The fact that he's on meds for HIV is part of the story, not such a big part really, but that, and the fact that he finds some cash, and some old letters with his father's address in a strong box in his mother's apartment as he is cleaning it out after her death may account a bit for his decision to take off and hitch hike to Marseille in search of the man who fathered him. He sets off with plans to meet his lover in five days. On his way he meets some people who seem to represent members of his family. It's metaphorical: the young boy, his brother. The older woman, (played by the amazing Patachou, an older French actress of incredible power), his grandmother. A hot man who gives him a ride becomes a "cousin", which I guess explains the hot sex they have. Later he meets a woman with many children, his "sister". And finally as he nears the docks of Marseille, he meets an older guy who is not his father, but might have been.

He did the journey. The trip was the thing, not the destination. In the end he meets his lover in Marseille and his lover is all curious; what did the father look like and how did it all go? There are no answers, but love is there to end the film as they hug and kiss. It's very romantic and sweeeeeet!

Remember what I said in the beginning about the two gay lovers who made this film? There is some tension in the plot, (in France, the fact that Felix is an Arab was apparently more shocking than the fact that he was gay), but the tension is fairly light. There's such a happy ending... and that's the way these two gay lover film makers wanted it. A bit of a confection perhaps, but then I wanted a happy ending for this one too. I really wanted the good looking guy to stay stay with his lover. I wanted a happy ending. And so did the film makers.

Fortunately, they had Sami Bouajila to carry it off.