Queer on Celluloid

A couple days ago, Nathaniel at The Film Experience was jokingly saying that the worst thing about being gay is all the bad movies you have to endure to see GLBT topics. It truly upsets me to say this, but it's kind of the truth. How many times have you popped a movie in just to see two guys making out, because every single other movie has at least one straight romantic entanglement? And how many times has that movie made you want to shit through your eyes because that would be a more pleasing alternative to sitting through the rest of the movie? A lot, eh? Yeah, exactly.

Case in point: a little straight-to-DVD release called Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds. Now, I never saw the first Eating Out movie (and don't plan on it), so I didn't really know what to expect. And I certainly didn't expect it to be this completely and hopelessly awful. It stars American Idol Season 1 cast-off Jim Verraros as Kyle, a "geeky" "awkward" queer university student, recently dumped by his much hotter, more straight-acting BF. What ensues is 85 minutes (but it seems like MUCH longer!) of corny, often offensive dialogue ("I wanna hit that harder than Ike hit Tina." Seriously? That sounds like something my five-year-old cousin could come up with), exceedingly inept performances and some generic-looking manflesh parading about.

The vast majority of mainstream romantic comedies are at least able to be fun, cute and charming. I can usually sit through them with a chuckle here and a giggle there, without feeling like I've wasted valuable time. So why does it have to be that the few gay romantic comedies out there have to suck so much!? I think it's well-known that we queers are usually pretty artistic, intelligent people in general, so why aren't more people making the kind of movies that we're going to appreciate? Of course, there are a couple of really good gay light comedies (Edge of Seventeen, etc.) and maybe I'm just not looking in the right place either, but seriously, come on.

That is exactly how I felt three days ago. But then...

Thanks to an illegal online website that provides access to almost every television show out there for free*, I discovered the British version of Queer As Folk. Watching all eight episodes back-to-back, I think I was almost completely re-assured that there was hope for mainstream GLBT film, and in this case, television.

I hope I don't sound too much like one of those journalists whose sole intention is to get their quotes on movie posters, but Queer As Folk is like Sex & The City for Brits. And gays, of course. I can't really speak since I've never been out clubbing (not old enough), but this seems about as realistic an interpretation of gay life as possible. The three main actors are all pitch-perfect in their roles (particularly Charlie Hunman as a 15-year-old in the midst of a sexual awakening) and the writing is crisp, funny, and light-hearted. It separates itself from something like Will & Grace though by cleverly addressing relevant issues like discrimination, drug abuse, promiscuity...

In today's day and age, it's pretty well normal to be different. While twenty years ago almost everyone heartily disproved of gays, now it's the opposite. If you have a problem with gays, you're seen as the one to be heartily disproved of. So, if this is the case, there's really no reason that there shouldn't be a fairly sizable market for fun, intelligent, accessible entertainment for the GLBT crowd. Is it really that much to ask for?

*No, I am not going to link to it. It's wrong and immoral, and how dare you even think about that? Go out and rent it for yourself. *cough*hypocritical asshole*cough*