The Wrap with Two Gay Guys! video blog: The best gay movies, new media, and "The Cho Show"

I have not read the book, by I really thought Object of My Affection was a really good film. I did not feel it was catering to sterotypes, in fact having a major character play a decent and balanced gay man who teaches kids and manages to make it to the end of the film in a good relationship and not dying of AIDS is a cinematic miracle.

Perhaps if some people could explain some of the major differences between the book and the film. Yes, I mean te ending was perhaps a very happy Hollywood one that would have made sense then as much as it did at the begining. Yes, you do not see too much in the way of PDA and most of the adults are white and upper middle class.

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Bitter, table for one, db?

Pretty actors like Paul Rudd are why I go to the movies!

I don't dislike The Object of My Affection but I do think it's a bit bland and I wonder if that has to do with Wassersteiln's writing the screenplay. The movie basically works for me because of Paul Rudd who is entirely convincing as a gay man (at least to me) and so endearing in every frame. I do like the way the movie handles a friendship between a gay man and a woman in a less sitcomy way than Will and Grace. It's also one of the few times I didn't get sick of watching Jennifer Anniston. In defense of Wasserstein, I kind of liked her last play Third, which actually was an improvement over some of other work. Why haven't more films been made from McCauley's books? True Enough and Alternatives to Sex would both make good movies.

Thanks guys for picking Brokeback as one of your films. I think there's been a bit of backlash against the film since it opened because it was so acclaimed and just watching the clip you showed in your blog made me want to watch the film again. Though you're right, parts of the film are so painful it's not exactly the kind of film you want to watch over and over again, like say Funny Face. (I still wonder why when the film was up for the Oscars, some gay members in the Academy were quoted as disliking the film and voting for Crash. I still don't get that but then we can't all like the same things).

I voted for my films about a week ago but since then I've thought of other films that weren't obvious gay films but that I might have voted for. So I wish I could vote again.

Ordinary People is a good and interesting choice and I could easily see how a gay boy could identify with the film.  I don't think it's a great film but the performances are wonderful. I need to watch that again--I haven't seen it in a long, long time.

I saw Trick for the first time recently and really liked it. So I agree it's a good choice. Though I was surprised the actor who plays the songwriter hasn't played another gay role, though I may be wrong about that.. A somewhat similar film is Broadway Damage--though not as good as Trick it has its charms.

If it is the one that I am thinking about, "Ordinary People" was certainly an influential film for me in my younger years.  Objection of My Affection is a great film if for no other reason then it is often aried on Disney/ABC, only slightly edited, and it s heck of a lot better role model for LGBT people then, say, the Birdcage. 

Brokeback is a wonderful film.  It really does pull at your emotional cord because of its tragic love story.  Internal and external homophobia keeps them from living happily ever after.  A big step for Hollywood and for the actors involved.  Their was a Oscar Backlash, and I do feel that the film is -- in many ways -- as much about class oppression and the plight of indigent rural Americans as it is about homophobia and sexism.  Thus it has some connection to the gay politics of EM Fosters and Edward Carpenter.

The Road Trip -- closted Gay Republican and hippie gay Democrat meet and over the years fall in and out of love in the late 1960s - 1980s.  Great independent film that I saw a few years ago.  Also 'Its My Party' (1995). 

'Saving Face' - Great film about three or four generations of Chinese Americans, with a lesbian daughter and her pregant -- unmarried -- mother.   'Everyone' is a Canadian production, and the script has its low points, but is a great film that deals with the real life challenges of relationships -- gay and straight.

'Touch of Pink' is also a great independent gay film, set in the multicutlural world of UK.  'Unconditional Love' is a grossly undrated film.

I should add Victor/Victoria (1982)  simply because it was one of the first gay-themed films I saw as a child.  Perhaps that could be another topic.   

I loved the tv series the Book of Dan and was sadden that it got pulled off the air.  Although the gay son was somewhere between being in and out, and they did not have much time to get into his political beliefs -- other then his relutence to allow it to define him.  On the subject of TV, Buffy and Firefly were both great series. 

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Now i can admit in anonymity that I didn't like Brokeback Mountain.  It was Jake Gyllenhaal.  I didn't like what he did with his Jack.  Heath was brilliant as Ennis and almost made up for Jake, but not quite enough.