Link Machine
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 1:42PM 
New York Observer Nicole Kidman reborn. On The Paperboy and her upcoming NYFF tribute
The Genteel the great costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Vera Drake, Atonement) on her Anna Karenina work
New York Times "Rian Johnson Builds a better Time Machine" on Looper.
Los Angeles Times Singer Andy Williams ("Moon River") has passed away
Stale Popcorn Glenn is angry with the "100 best gay films" list that was crowd sourced. The gays really do have bad taste! (I'm allowed to say that as a gay.
Broadway Blog congratulates director Jason Moore on his feature film debut (Pitch Perfect) and looks back at other Broadway directors that made the leap.
John August on his contribution to the Frankenweenie soundtrack "Praise Be New Holland"
Vanity Fair a standard post Emmy party or any given day in Betty White's life? Hee
In Contention when to strike with your Oscar campaign when the deck is stacked against you
Finally, for those of you interested in Platoon and the 80s Oscar lore, Oliver Stone optioned his story early on but it didn't get made until he made it and he recently published photos on his own website from his time there.
Oliver Stone in Vietnam.
In 1976 I optioned “Platoon” to a producer, but it was not made. The production manager asked me to entrust him with many of my prints and negatives from Vietnam. He thoughtlessly sent it all in a package from New York to Los Angeles, but it never arrived. I’m sure they’re somewhere in this world—anyone know (reward offered)?
So recently when we were setting up our website, I went hunting thru storage for various materials that are now on the site—or will be. In the back of a home closet was an old shoebox marked ‘classic snaps, 1950s.’ There were many family pictures, but at the very bottom were 7 envelopes of worn-looking negatives in 35mm and the vanished 126 format. They looked vaguely like Vietnam. It is an amazing moment when something lost reappears after more than 40 years...
If only I could find everything I lost in the 80s!
Costume Design, LGBT, Nicole Kidman, Oliver Stone, Platoon, Rian Johnson
Reader Comments (13)
the gays really DO have bad taste, apparently .. (don't worry, i'm a gay too ;) )
Far From Heaven, Happy Together, Victor/Victoria, Law of Desire .. ALL RANKED BELOW "ANOTHER GAY MOVIE" ......... what the fuck is wrong with the world ..
I'm not a gay, but just throwing in my two cents on the list . . .
The Crying Game is number ninety-three?!? What the hell??? Have people completely forgotten that there's a lot more to this movie than the twist?
Shouldn't Far From Heaven eternaly be #1?
But, like, you could probably make a top ten list from films solely made in 2011 (possibly the best year in gay cinema ever). There is just so much to choose from. Personally, Beginners and Tomboy are my favorites, but the list keeps going.
I will never understand people thinking Kidman is cold. Watching that Oscar speech again on that link, I see a shy woman desperate to not make a fool of herself and live up to her mother's high expectations. Kills me how revealing that last moment is...
So many of those gay films are so bad (and not in the guilty-pleasure way either) that they almost make the list altogether laughable. Geesh.
I'm not particularly fond of that Kidman article. It is all at once lavishing praise and damning her for her willingness to approach difficult subject matter / characters; the article also serves to counteract a piece written by A.O. Scott all of nine years ago. Not bad writing, by any means, but kind of distasteful.
I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen a good chunk of the "greatest gay movies," but I'm wary of any list that names Shelter as the best anything. Even worse are the abysmally low rankings of In and Out, Cabaret, and But I'm a Cheerleader and the glaring omissions Glenn pointed out.
That's a terrible list. Any list where Law of desire is below Eating Out 2 is discredited automatically. But Shelter at the top of the list? WTF? As Glenn says it's a nice movie, but one that has as its biggest asset being a gay story. I also find Weekend terribly (gasp) overpraised, but I realize I'm in the minority on that one.
I have to say as a queer lady, I am jealous of that list. Everything might be all mixed up, but at least you have some genuine masterpieces on there. Brokeback Mountain, Beginners, all of Almodovar, Happy Together, Far From Heaven, Milk, Weekend, and there's more where those came from. Lesbian lists tend to consist mainly of terrible C-level romantic comedies with a couple of camp classics in there by accident because no one can part and parcel the difference between campy and just plain bad. And you can't even get mad, because well, they have to fill the thing with something. Boys Don't Cry, Heavenly Creatures and Lisa Cholodenko's movies can only account for so much.
I'm going to be myopic and look at the list for movies that I should see. I should see 17, starting with My Beautiful Laundrette.
Also, I'm willing to give Laurence Anyways a chance but for now, fuck Xavier Dolan and fuck Heartbeats. Seriously, the main character buys a $500 sweater for a guy he met two months beforehand. If he grew up in the hood where I grew up people would be robbing him of his shirt and kicks like every day.
Iggy, we can be in the minority together. I agree about Weekend.
And I'll say that I thought Shelter was terrrrrrrible.
As bad as that list is, I'm still happy that "Romeos" made it on it. It's by no means a perfect film, but I absolutely adore it. At times it's almost magical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHkVJzk8ryo
A lot of the of so call best gay film are barely watchable- #1 "Shelter" is a very nice sweet movie but not in the same cinematic league as "Brokeback Mountain".