Ask the Flying Monkey! (March 11, 2010)

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Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to gay movies? I like the good ones (to me anyway) like Ciao and Guys and Balls. But there are some I like where the dialogue is terrible and the acting is very questionable: Angora Ranch and An Angel Named Billy. So do you have any you are brave enough to admit to liking? — Ed, London, Ontario, Canada

A: Do I have any guilty pleasures?!

First, yes, there are a few micro-budgeted gay films where the acting and production values are questionable, but that are still worth watching. I’m willing to forgive a lot if I get some sense that the actors and producers believe in what they’re doing, if they created an unintentional comedy, or if there's full-frontal male nudity.

I enjoyed these gay movies that had questionable production values (but admittedly above-average acting): Socket (a gay thriller about a guy who is hit by lightning and discovers a sub-culture of similar folks who purposefully electrocute themselves); Whirlwind (a psychological study about how a hot stud tries to manipulate a group of gay friends); Redwoods (a cheesy, angst-y Bridges of Madison County-like gay romance); and Big Gay Musical (a, well, big gay musical with a more “serious” back-stage storyline).

Socket has a wonderfully cheesy plot AND full-frontal male nudity!

But if we’re gonna talk "guilty pleasure," we have to broaden the canvas a bit.

I admit to loving most of the "obvious" gay camp classics: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and its follow-up, Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte (especially when the head goes bouncing down the stairs like a basketball); Showgirls; almost anything with Joan Crawford, but especially Johnny Guitar and Mildred Pierce; Mommie Dearest; Valley of the Dolls, Myra Breckenridge, The Bad Seed; Now, Voyager; and the films of Douglas Sirk, especially All That Heaven Allows.

Still, here are a few more slightly-less-well-known bad movies for which I will always clear my random-late-night channel-surfing schedule for:

Mahogany (1975): OMG, this Diana Ross vehicle, directed by Motown founder Berry Gordy at the very peak of the Ross/Gordy Dreamgirls-riffed glitz-fest, is sooooo campy! I've always loved the subset of movies that has the main character saying something like, "Wait. You want me to be an internationally famous model? Why I've never even considered such a thing!"

I loved this movie as a kid, even as I completely missed its genuine subversiveness in presenting a black woman in 1975 as rich, successful, and (later) very bitchy. Added bonus: Anthony Perkins plays a bitchy gay! (We can all laugh about it now.) Another added bonus: these days, out of its cultural context, you can appreciate the 1970s for all their garish, tacky charm.

Scenes from a 1975 camp-fest: "Success is NOTHING
without someone to share it with!"

Next Page! More of the Monkey's guilty pleasures!