Blades of Glory wins weekend top box office

It's official. America is obsessed with gay men. This weekend, Will Ferrell's comedy, Blades Of Glory, tops the weekend box office, raking in over $33 million.

The film explores the ways in which homophobia gets in the way of a straight male figure skating duo from doing there best work. They learn to overcome their fears of man-on-man intimacy in order to dazzle crowds with double axles and triple-luxes--while wearing sequins and spandex.

I haven't seen the film. But I have seen enough of the trailers and clips on TV over the last several weeks to get the premise.

But I think I am going to check this one out. A review I saw yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning helped allay my worries that this film would be just another Hollywood frat boy flick with prat falls, farts and gay jokes.

My fellow AfterElton writer and associate editor Brian Juergens wrote a review of Blades, and also (quite eloquently) responds to this very issue:

Was there a parade of mincing stereotypes? Absolutely. But oddly enough, none of the ridiculous characters was gay or was intended to be perceived as gay. Was the audience laughing at the few gay characters the film actually featured? Yes — because these characters were teaching the others about how dated and pathetic their own machismo-laden perceptions of masculinity really were.

But were Ferrell and Heder headlining a project that treated gay men as cannon fodder just to get a few cheap laughs? Absolutely not. In fact, I would argue that Blades of Glory is one of the most relentlessly clever and keenly perceptive comedies ever made about straight-male bonding, fear of intimacy, and masculinity — and figure skating, naturally.

Most of our favorite gay weekly/monthly mags haven't posted reviews yet, but you can read what the mainstream papers are saying at Meta Critic.

Have you seen it? What were your impressions? Is this a step forward or a step backward?