Bully, Brad & Bijou

by Nathaniel R

Remember Larry Clark? He was one of the chief provocateurs of American indies of the 90s and early Aughts who first broke through with the controversial and popular youth drama Kids (1995). One would assume no one would be eager to revisit his filmography at this point in time given that people are more riled up than usual about sex scenes, the male gaze, and actors placed in sexually compromising positions. But surprise -- local rep house The Metrograph just held a Larry Clark retrospective.

A friend wanted to see Bully (2001) so I went along, solely because it's so rare that it's someone else and not me who is all "let's see this movie!". Though the themes were familiar (sex, drugs, dead end lives, and 'the kids are not all right' amorality), as was the leering camera, I'd forgotten nearly everything else about it other than that I had preferred it to Kids (1995), which I just couldn't stomach at the time...

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James Franco ♥ Brad Renfro

Whose name would you carve into your arm?

I ask because James Franco carved Brad Renfro's into his... at least photographically. (Is it real? You tell us the next time you see James Franco naked.) This carving was part of the latest issue of The Thing, a mysterious quarterly periodical that comes in the shape of a "useful" object.

I'm not sure how useful a small mirror with "Brad Forever" scrawled in lipstick by Franco's own hand is, but it was fun to open and who am I to judge obsessive actorly devotions?  I have yet to carve an actresses name onto my body but never say never...

<--- I'm pretending that this photo to your left is the exact moment when Franco actually wrote on my copy.

This is only the freshest example that Franco is basically the Lady Gaga of movies: always throwing his eccentric persona at you in ways you're not expecting, even though you're expecting personal eccentricities.

Between this and that very public My Own Private Idaho obsession, we're realizing that James Franco is not an actressexual at all (our kind of people) but the other kind: an actor who obsesses over other male actors.

Or maybe he just really loves The Client (1994) and we just don't know about his Susan Sarandon fetish yet?

What do you suppose his favorite Brad Renfro movie is: Bully? The Client? Apt Pupil?

What's yours?