Rambling Reporter II

I haven't done one of these postings in nine months so I thought we should do another one.  Here are some things that have been running through my head:

When I wrote that last Rambling Reporter posting I mentioned how wonderful it would be if someone remade 1962s Bette Davis-Joan Crawford loving sister movie, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane with Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange.  I had never heard a single mention of redoing that film with anyone but I certainly thought these two would be great together.  The old ticker raced a few weeks back when I read that it is going to be remade and Streep is, in fact, going to do it.  Thinking I might go into the clairvoyant business if I scrolled down and saw Lange's name, too, I saw Sissy Spacek's name instead.  In my version, Streep would have played Blanche but in the real one she will be Jane.  Sorry it's not Lange but Spacek should do well spinning in that wheelchair.

I read with amusement that back in the early 60s Jane Fonda thought Warren Beatty was gay. She came to this conclusion at the time the two of them were in a heavy clinch while doing a scene for roles in Parrish.  I never thought he was gay but I may have spent a summer wishing he were.  Wonder what Joan and Leslie and Michelle and Isabelle and hordes of others thought about what Jane had to say!

Fonda and Beatty

Of the 25 movies I have written about under the Good 60s Films banner, Light in the Piazza, the Olivia deHavilland-Yvette Mimieux movie, acquired the most readers.  That surprised me somehow and I wonder if many clicked on to it because they hadn't heard of it before.  Hmmmm.

Imagine a single product makes $24 million and it's considered a box office disappointment.  That happened to Adam Sandler's newest... Pixels.  Poor thing.  Whatever that touch was he had (and I never understood it), it seems to be gone.

I am gone for Rosamund Pike

I am waiting for Rosamund Pike's career to get going, to capitalize on her terrific title role in Gone Girl.  I have my eyes peeled for the newest member of my I-gotta-see-their-stuff club.

Speaking of Ms Streep, she and daughter Mamie Gummer are having their first co-starring role together in Ricki and the Flash.  Yes, yes, I know they worked in the same film, Evening, but they had no scenes together (didn't they play the same character at different ages?)  Streep doesn't usually involve herself in films that are misses, but she does have one now and then.  I'm wondering if this is one.  I hope not.  Of course I want to see mother and daughter act together so I'll be there.

I read that Julianne Moore has a new film being released shortly called Freeheld.  She and Ellen Page are partners in a story of trying to secure pension benefits for one partner when the other becomes aware she's dying.  I guess my brain was impacted because I heard it murmur... she's in another gay-themed film?  So I looked her up to recall what they were.  In 2002 she was the wife of Dennis Quaid who was dealing with his new gay lifestyle in Far from Heaven.  The same year she was in The Hours where just about everyone was playing on the other team.  In 2007 she appeared in the controversial true life Savage Grace where she has an inappropriate relationship with her gay son, Eddie Redmayne. 



Julianne Moore

Then came three in a row.  In 2009 there was the neighbor role in A Single Man where she had the hots for gay Colin Firth.  The same year she had some designs on Amanda Seyfried in Chloe.  In 2010s The Kids Are Alright, Moore and Annette Bening were lesbian moms in a fractured relationship.

Pretty impressive.  I wonder if any other top actress or actor can lay claim to being in this many gay-themed movies.  Aside from these, this fine actress has been in so many good films of far-ranging topics.  She seems to have never shied away from controversial films.  I have usually loved her choices.  And I am so happy she finally won an Oscar last year for the Alzheimers drama, Still Alice.

Logo says the 10 greatest gay movies of all-time are, from the top:
Brokeback Mountain
Beautiful Thing
Latter Days
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Angels in America
Bound
Trick
Torch Song Trilogy
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Desert Hearts

There's a contrast as one looks at my 10 favorite gay movies.  I can assign a number to the first two... Brokeback Mountain and The Boys in the Band, in that order.  The remaining eight I can only list alphabetically because to consider any other order is too weighty for me right now:  A Home at the End of the World, Latter Days, Making Love, The Mudge Boy, Shelter, A Single Man, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Wilde.  The truth is I wanted to put about 18 films in my top 10.  Lists can be so difficult.

The next posting starts my time with the 1940s.  I am so hot to get started because I think that decade was the most exciting one in movies.  Let's see what you think.

In drawing this one to a close, I want to thank Carlo and Chris (known in these pages as angelman) for taking the time to not only read but to respond to so many of my postings.  You both know a great deal about movies and having a dialogue with you on various subjects is such a kick.  I love, too, that you offer the opinions you do on various subjects and I have enjoyed learning from you.  And while we're at it, many thanks to all of you who write.  I love it.  To those of you who don't write, thanks so much for reading.

It's a wrap.