henrywooten

A friend recommended that my boyfriend and I rent this film and I was expecting something modestly disappointing. I was wrong. Beautiful Thing is our favorite gay film of all time; it showed gay youth finding love. Ordinary guys in their 30s are the focus of Big Eden. Most gay films have a sex starved cast of ripped hunky bare-chested sweaty guys with at least two hot sex scenes in them. "ordinary" guys are usually the bad guy or the comic relief in these films. It is this look at regular joe gay man that really makes this film stand out. The ordinary quality of the men in the film though makes it more approachable and relatable.

Big Eden takes the gay man and puts him in Montana. As a former resident of Montana, I doubt that the townspeople in this film could exist since the part of Montana near Glacier is very bias against Native Americans and very "Christian conservative". That fact has to be put on hold when seeing this flick. However, "Gay" is only mentioned by a NYC character in the whole film. But the film minus this flaw should be seen for the story of a gay man giving up on life, coming back home to help his grandfather, and confronted with his past and a quiet store owner. And of course the wacky townspeople. We have seen this movie before in many Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts films. This is why you should give this one a chance. It has that heart.

I appreciated the fact that this was an honest story that allowed emotion and thoughts replace sex as a character factor. Dean played by Tim DeKay was especially a stand out as the sexually confused love of the Henry's (Ayre Gross) childhood.

Check this out and then put it next to your copy of Beautiful Thing, Longtime Companion, I Think I Do, and Lilies.

Dead of Night is one of those movies that actually started a genre. Tame to today's standards many of its short stories can be traced to horror plots today; most notably the ventriloquist dummy come to life (Michael Redgrave sequence). This movie takes horror where it should remain...the suspense film. We can see all the blood and gore today but why do films like The Six Sense (1999) or What Lies Beneath (2000) remain a success? Everyone has their own fears and thoughts of horror; and the thought of that fear and horror adds to the suspense film in all ways more thansay the breed of horror slasher films...probably best portrayed by Psycho, Halloween and the Scream Films. Dead of Night isn't a Hitchcock film but it uses the same actors of his England days and uses the same suspense techniques seen in his tv series. Check this film out and watch it from the perspective of the 1940s viewers eyes and see why it was popular. Also check out Cat People (1942)and M (1931)

The Letter is a great film and one of Bette Davis' top five rolls next to Margo in All About Eve, Jezebel, Baby Jane, and Little Foxes. Bette makes you sympathize with her character while also knowing she must pay for her crimes. Isn't that what we all seem to want Bette to do...pay for her crimes in her roles? Here she is at her most glamourous and most innocent(?). It also was the fourth nomination in a run that came to 7 Oscar nominations and 2 Oscars (Jezebel 1938 and Dangerous 1935) in 10 years. Check it out and return to filmmaking when it was always satisfying and Bette Davis was at the top of her game.