Gay movies - what are you sick of?

[NoIAmNotYourFriend]

I am sick to fucking death of the soundtracks. I hate dance pop.

I hate how virtually all of them feature at least one scene in a club.

Also, can there be one movie without a pretty-boy main character? Newsflash: not everybody's a gym bunny. Maybe provide ONE character I can actually relate to?

Um. Gay movies kinda piss me off. Sorry.

 

[dr_beat]

Also, can there be one movie without a pretty-boy main character? Newsflash: not everybody's a gym bunny. Maybe provide ONE character I can actually relate to?

I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered the straight guys in movies are all pretty much "gym bunny" types as well. And if they're not, then they're usually goofy.

 

[darkhelios1977]

I'm sick of how depressing most gay movies are. Most of the ones I've seen ends with one of the lovers dying...example Brokeback Mountain and another movie called The Trip.

 

[brian1052000]

I am sick of the stock flaming character...they are funny (sometimes) but its old. One character has to be a hoe. I am also sick of how they meet and not long after they have sex. I am also sick of gay movies with only about two characters that can act.

I would like to see a movie with abuse as an issue(cause it is), gay couple with kids, any kind of gay action movie, or a gay horror movie (like scream). It would be good if the people could act.

 

[CuriousMonkey]

I've seen a lot of low budget gay films, and the production quality is just obnoxious. bad lighting, sets, dialog ... sheesh. I think the lack of competition in the genre leaves it flooded with junk.

 

[Spellbound]

I am sick to fucking death of the soundtracks. I hate dance pop.

I hate how virtually all of them feature at least one scene in a club.

Also, can there be one movie without a pretty-boy main character? Newsflash: not everybody's a gym bunny. Maybe provide ONE character I can actually relate to?

Um. Gay movies kinda piss me off. Sorry.

I am sick of the stock flaming character...they are funny (sometimes) but its old. One character has to be a hoe. I am also sick of how they meet and not long after they have sex. I am also sick of gay movies with only about two characters that can act.

I've seen a lot of low budget gay films, and the production quality is just obnoxious. bad lighting, sets, dialog ... sheesh. I think the lack of competition in the genre leaves it flooded with junk.

Yes, yes and yes.

 

[tHaTeViLmOnKeY]

Ha, what a wonderful question. Probably one that I could show a ready made list for.

I think first and foremost the assumption that only gay people will want to see a gay themed film should be reconsided because it's obviously affected the end result.

But also, why does every gay movie have to have some kind of romantic aspect? I have yet to watch a gay movie where the main character wasn't in a relationship, forming a relationship, mourning over a relationship, etc. Gay people can be superheroes or serial killers or super agents. Can't we just get some normal genre movies with characters that happen to be gay?

 

[aijalon18]

I don't know about not having a pretty boy main character. I love a hot main character. I've seen several gay movies and usually they don't have hot main characters at all.

It's always some weird looking guy and some depressing shit. Someone has AIDS, or a street hustler addicted to crack, or a tranny who adopted a baby, or someone gets shot in hate crime.

The movie Shelter people have talked about here is a good example of a good gay movie. Prolly the only good American one I've ever seen.

 

[NoIAmNotYourFriend]

^I've never seen any gay movies without eye-candy. Not a one. And hot main characters are typically cast because they're hot. They can't ACT.

The depressing ones are crap too. They're worse than Lifetime movies. The scripts are awful and clunky and end up just being unintentionally funny.

 

[neoachilles]

I wouldn't mind seeing a movie in which the story isn't centered around the main character being gay--but, rather, have their homosexuality be simply another aspect of their character.

 

[cityboy-stl]

I am sick of gay movies always being so tragic. The gay characters always die, they always have a terminal illness, they're always murdered, they're always psycho or some other depressing thing.

I want a gay movie where the gay people are healthy, stable and happy...and the straight people die!

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[aijalon18]

^I've never seen any gay movies without eye-candy. Not a one. And hot main characters are typically cast because they're hot. They can't ACT.

The depressing ones are crap too. They're worse than Lifetime movies. The scripts are awful and clunky and end up just being unintentionally funny.

Really?? I have seen tons of gay movies. The only ones I've seen with hot main characters are come undone, latter days, and shelter. AND hot guys can act. It's just the acting in most gay movies is horrendous, by hot guys and not so hot guys.

 

[NoIAmNotYourFriend]

^I'm not saying hot guys can't act. This is because I'm not stupid. I'm saying the ones in gay movies can't act. Because they're not actors. They're eye candy. Like you said, the overall acting is horrendous. Possibly because gay movies cast from a pool of gay men who don't know and/or don't care that starring in a gay movie is career suicide, unless you want to star only in those and as a stereotyped out minor part in made for TV movies on networks like Lifetime and CourtTV (sidenote: is CourtTV still around?).

 

[G-Lexington]

The idea that I need to be pandered to with a "gay movie".

Lex

 

[NoIAmNotYourFriend]

'Cause making it the main idea of a movie sets gays aside as separate from the rest of the world. Like we need special movies directed towards us 'cause we're too different for mainstream ones. And usually the ones we get are shit.

Characters in normal movies should probably just be gay and not make it a big deal. Like I said before, gay movies kinda piss me off

 

[G-Lexington]

Because "gay movies" are made for homosexuals...and ONLY homosexuals. They're often presented as if to say, "Good news, gays - this is a movie for YOU!"

Gays aren't aliens. We're humans. When I see a heterosexual love story, it's not like I can't understand what's going on, or can't relate at all, because one of the characters doesn't have a penis. I'm a human being - I know what's going on. And if it's well-written and well-acted, then I can get into it.

Too many gay movies I see don't seem to realize that. They're too busy trying to present a movie "from the gay perspective". In most, if you swapped out the main gay couple for a straight couple, the entire movie - from start to finish - wouldn't make any sense at all. It's not that I feel issues like homophobia or gay identity or closetedness shouldn't be mentioned, or even dealt with. But in these films, too much of the time, these issues are the complete and utter point of the film.

Maybe that's what many other people want. Movies that are truly "ours", and can speak ONLY to homosexuals, and ONLY to the homosexual part of us. But that seems so limiting. It'd be like making a movie for little people, and it being 100 minutes of "gee, it's tough being short". Surely they have emotions other than "it's not fun being short".

Lex

 

[brian1052000]

^^^^^ I think it is reality. I believe there are a lot of people who have all those qualities...and it won't be hard for someone to make a decent movie where the character is all of those.

 

[SonOfSlobone]

I wouldn't mind seeing a movie in which the story isn't centered around the main character being gay--but, rather, have their homosexuality be simply another aspect of their character.

I agree with that -- but not in a fake way. Like for example Val Kilmer's character was supposed to be gay in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but I didn't buy it.

I love the way they handled the lesbian characters on The Wire. And Sonja Sohn really made it work. I'd love to see that for a gay male character too.

 

[G-Lexington]

Points made. But let me offer this:

How many "gay movies" actually deal with any of these issues? Not as a wacky subplot (that wacky homophobic neighbor in comedies), but as honest-to-God problems that homosexuals face? If a movie includes homophobia, it almost always involves "a group of toughs" beating up one of the main characters. I'm not saying this doesn't happen - it most certainly does - but it's not the homophobia most of us face on a routine basis, any more than the racism that most minorities face comes in the form of crosses burning on their lawns.

Secondly, all the gays I know here manage to live lives almost exactly like those of straights. Their encounters with homophobia tend to be brief and subtle. Yeah, they can't get married, but that's something they fight for...as they go about their regular lives. And, mind you, I live in a red state. Home of Amendment 2. The Hate State.

>>>go through a few threads about personal issues on this site and come back and tell me that we're a happy, stable, healthy bunch.

The people posting are those who HAVE problems. They're posting in CO&R specifically BECAUSE they have problems, not because they're gay.

Yes, we have problems and issues to deal with. This isn't because we're gay - it's because we're human. EVERYBODY has shit to deal with. Saying that gays are a fucked-up bunch is just fodder for anti-gay movement - "you're resigning yourself to a lifetime of misery". Bullshit. My life kicks ass. Yes, I've got issues, and yes, I've got problems. But that's not because I like dick. It's because that's what life is like. And I know I'm not the only happy homo - I'll grab you five from just the top floor of my building if you want more evidence.

>>>Who says that means it's just for gays? Straight people could certainly learn something and most of them need to.

Who says it's just for gays? The people that call it a "gay movie". Are there people who could "learn" from a gay movie? Probably so. But they're the ones least likely to see it. Why? Because it's a gay movie.

And please - let's not talk about romantic comedies. The second they make a gay romantic comedy (in the style of the straight ones) in the day I swear off movies forever. I've only seen maybe two or three, and that was at least five too many. I don't hate them because they don't speak to me, a homosexual. I hate them because they suck. "Romantic comedy" apparently is an excuse to switch gears whenever they want - now we're serious, now we're wacky, now we're romantic - and to present a group of people who would either be shot dead or locked away in an insane asylum if they ever acted like this in real life. If romantic comedies are an accurate portrayal of heterosexual love, I am SO happy I'm gay.

Lex

 

[thevofl]

I am so over the preachy aspects of gay movies. Good lord, when I see a movie I, for the most part, want to escape. When I want to watch a message movie, I want more than bumper stickers doubling as a movie.

It would be nice if when you think of a character, that you are not an archtype. Thinking of Brokeback, Ennis and Jack do not fit into the prude/sex fiend roles or the gym bunny/bear roles or the crystal fiend/recovering addict roles. It is hard to really define Ennis and Jack into gay archtypes. They were rich unique characters.