Tuesday, March 07, 2006

FAGATS Continues To Turn Into Towleroad, Gains Decades, Loses Vertical Feet

To further my post-Oscars Brokeback bemoaning, I refer you to this article by critic Roger Ebert, which responds to the Ken Turan article that I appreciated yesterday. Ebert goes on and on about how there is a pro-“Brokeback” conspiracy to denigrate “Crash” as a film. As if people who think that “Crash” is a bad movie must be part of some evil gay agenda:

“It is not a "safe harbor," but a film that takes the discussion of racism in America in a direction it has not gone before in the movies, directing attention at those who congratulate themselves on not being racist, including liberals and/or minority group members. It is a movie of raw confrontation about the complexity of our motives, about how racism works not only top down but sideways, and how in different situations, we are all capable of behaving shamefully.”

This makes me upset about Roger Ebert. Is he kidding? “A direction it has not gone before?” It was the most contrived piece of crap I saw all year. You’d think Roger Ebert would have know how to recognize stock characters, hackneyed 1970s racial themes, and clichéd plot twists by now.

But as a wise and handsome friend pointed out, this was not the most upsetting segment of the article. Rather, this was:

"'Capote' was a brilliant character study of a writer who was gay, and who used his sexuality, as we all use our sexuality, as a part of his personal armory in daily battle.”

The image of Roger “Mr. Magoo” Ebert using his sexuality as a weapon every day makes me want to sandpaper my genitals.

No comments: