(Mostly) Hidden Gems

Okay, so if you don't know by now that I am a movie buff, then you're probably not annoyed with me! But for those who already know (and even those who are just finding out), I have gathered some movie trailers of some GREAT movies that have (mostly) flown under-the-radar. Some are old, some are new, some are Best Picture Oscar nominees, and some aren't. I know there's a lot of trailers in this post, but feel free to check out only the ones that interest you.

(FYI, most of them are rated R, so if that is a concern for you then I respect that and I am sorry that you can't see them!)

Before I trot out the hidden gems, I am presenting the trailer for one of my all-time favorites: "The First Wives Club." It was well-received commercially in the 90's, so it didn't exactly fly under the radar. But it is FANTASTIC!



Want to see the best trailer ever? Yes - EVER. It's "Sunshine," a film about a space crew in the future who try to "reignite" the sun with a nuclear weapon. This movie is the most visually-striking movie I've ever seen.



"Breach" is a film that should've received more attention, especially because it is a true story of the biggest breach of security in U.S. history by a Russian spy who finnagled his way into working for the CIA.



The following is a clip from one of my favorite films - "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" It stars a freaky-looking, psychopathic Bette Davis (my favorite actress) and Joan Crawford, who are both gay icons - so you know it'll be good! It details the story of how Blanche (Crawford), who is stuck in a wheel chair, is psychologically and physically tortured by her sister (Davis). And because the stars were despised each other in real life, it makes watching them annoy the crap out of each other all the more entertaining.



"Michael Clayton," was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars a few years ago. This scene will reel you in hook, line, and sinker. The film is about a lawyer who takes over a defense case in which he finds that his clients are not really all that guilty. (I'm thinking Alan might like this one...)



Kate Winslet deserved her Oscar for this film, about two parents who meet at a park and carry on an affair that has tragic results. It's called, "Little Children."



Probably one of the best films ever, and one of my favorites, is "There Will Be Blood." It competed with "Michael Clayton" for Best Picture, but they both lost out to, "No Country For Old Men." It is about 2 1/2 hours but it flies by because you are so engrossed in Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as a ruthless oil tycoon, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar a few years ago. It is based on Upton Sinclair's novel, "Oil!"



Last, but not least, is a freaking trippy film made the year I was born called, "Jacob's Ladder." The ending is awesome and "twisty," and the whole time you are trying to figure out what's happening to this Vietnam War veteran who starts having hallucinations.

Famous Gays & Lesbians...

Just for fun, I searched the web for famous gays and I found out how little I actually knew regarding this topic; there are thousands! (Of course, those thousands include lesbians and bisexuals from all over the world.)

The site with the most complete list was, surprisingly, Wikipedia. People bag on Wikipedia all the time because it's "not reliable," but it has routinely been reliable for me in the past. Heck, fairly soon after the (latest) Chris Buttars "brouhaha" a few months ago Wikipedia had already added the information to his page and cited it to KTVX-4 (ABC 4, which broke the story). Hence, I say that Wikipedia is reliable, and this is my blog, so that's how it goes.

I have gone through Wikipedia's lists and consolidated the celebrities that I know. If you know of any that I have missed or any that may simply not be a celebrity to me (and hence I don't recognize and list them), please let me know and I'll add them. Let's have fun with this!

P.S. I am a cinephile (AKA "movie buff"). You may not know everyone on my lists - this is why I have provided links (and why this post took so long to write)!

Film Directors:

Pedro Almodovar (OSCAR; "Volver" & "All About My Mother")
Alejandro Amenabar ("The Others" & "The Sea Inside")
Clive Barker ("Hellraiser" series)
George Cukor (OSCAR; "My Fair Lady" & "The Philadelphia Story")
Stephen Daldry
Roland Emmerich
James Ivory ("The Remains of the Day" & "Howard's End"; Merchant-Ivory films)
Rob Marshall
John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig & the Angry Inch")
Victor Salva ("Jeepers Creepers")
John Schlesinger (OSCAR; "Midnight Cowboy")
Adam Shankman ("Hairspray" & "A Walk to Remember")
Bryan Singer
Gus Van Sant

Film Actors & Actresses:

Drew Barrymore
Marlon Brando (2 OSCARS)
Richard Chamberlain ("The Towering Inferno")
Montgomery Clift ("From Here to Eternity")
Alan Cumming
James Dean
Marlene Dietrich ("Morocco")
Divine ("Hairspray")
Rupert Everett
Harvey Fierstein ("Independence Day", "Mrs. Doubtfire")
Jodie Foster (2 OSCARS)
Stephen Fry ("Gosford Park")
Greta Garbo ("Grand Hotel")
John Gielgud (OSCAR; "Elizabeth", "Arthur")
Alec Guinness (OSCAR)
Nigel Hawthorne ("Amistad")
Anne Heche
Rock Hudson ("Giant")
Tab Hunter ("Damn Yankees")
Derek Jacobi ("Gladiator")
Michael Jeter ("Jurassic Park III")
Angelina Jolie (OSCAR)
Cherry Jones ("Signs"; originated the Sister Aloysius role in "Doubt" on stage)
Nathan Lane
Bai Ling ("Anna and the King")
Lindsay Lohan
Kristanna Loken ("Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines")
Jane Lynch
Miriam Margolyes ("Harry Potter" films)
Heather Matarazzo ("Saved!", "The Princess Diaries")
Kelly McGillis
Ian McKellen
Sal Mineo ("Rebel Without a Cause")
Kathy Najimy
Laurence Olivier
Anthony Perkins
Tony Richardson (2 OSCARS; father to Natasha & Joely Richardson)
Scott Rudin (OSCAR; producer: "Doubt", "There Will Be Blood")
Glenn Shadix ("Beetlejuice")
Fiona Shaw ("Harry Potter" films)
Lily Tomlin
Clifton Webb ("Titanic (1953)")
Paul Winfield ("Sounder")

TV Actors & Actresses:

Jillian Barberie (host of "EX-treme Dating")
Saffron Burrows ("Boston Legal")
Portia de Rossi
Andy Dick
Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne")
Tim Gunn
Neil Patrick Harris
Richard Hatch
Edward Hibbert ("Frasier")
Leslie Jordan ("Will & Grace")
T.R. Knight
Reichen Lehmkuhl (winner of "The Amazing Race" & Lance Bass' ex-boyfriend)
Harvey Levin (host of "TMZ")
Rachel Maddow
Megan Mullally
Max Mutchnick (producer of "Will & Grace")
Cynthia Nixon
Graham Norton (host of "The Graham Norton Show")
Rosie O'Donnell
Suze Orman
Sarah Paulson ("Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip")
David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier")
Robert Reed ("The Brady Bunch")
Charles Nelson Reilly (panelist on "Match Game")
Cesar Romero (Joker on TV's "Batman")
Adamo Ruggiero ("Degrassi")
Dick Sargent ("Bewitched")
Darren Star (creator of "Sex and the City")
George Takei ("Star Trek")
Jackie Warner ("Work Out")
B.D. Wong ("Law and Order: SVU")

Music:

Clay Aiken
Billy Joe Armstrong (of "Green Day")
Lance Bass
Melissa Etheridge
Boy George
Elton John
Janis Joplin
Liberace
Johnny Mathis
George Michael
Sinead O'Connor
Tegan & Sara
Carly Simon
Rufus Wainwright
Pete Wentz (of "Fall Out Boy")

Comedians:

Ant
Mario Cantone
Margaret Cho
Ellen DeGeneres
Wanda Sykes
Bruce Vilanch

Historical Figures:

Alexander the Great (profiled in the film "Alexander")
Cyrano de Bergerac (profiled in several works)
Caligula (Roman Emperor)
Edward II (King of England)
Hadrian (Roman Emperor)
Leonardo da Vinci (profiled in several works)
Michelangelo (profiled in the film "The Agony and the Ecstasy")
Marquis de Sade (profiled in the film "Quills")
Sappho (Greek poet in the B.C. era)

Authors:

Horatio Alger, Jr.
Michael Ausiello (columnist for "Entertainment Weekly")
James Baldwin
William S. Burroughs (profiled in the film "Running With Scissors", which he wrote)
Lord Byron
Truman Capote (profiled in the film "Capote")
John Cheever
Patricia Cornwell
Michael Cunningham
Ralph Waldo Emerson
E.M. Forster
Allen Ginsberg
Dorien Grey (a pseudonym for Roger Margason)
James Howe ("Bunnicula" series)
Langston Hughes
Chuck Palahniuk ("Fight Club")
David Sedaris ("Me Talk Pretty One Day")
Gertrude Stein
T.H. White ("The Once and Future King" - OMGosh, my favorite book!)
Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde (profiled in several works)
Virginia Woolf (profiled in the film "The Hours")

Politicians:

Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)
Harvey Milk (profiled in the movie "Milk")
Gore Vidal

Composers:

Peter Allen ("Arthur's Theme"; divorced from Liza Minnelli)
Howard Ashman ("Aladdin", "The Little Mermaid")
Cole Porter (profiled in the film "De-Lovely")
Marc Shaiman ("Prop 8 - The Musical", "Hairspray (2007)")
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Infamous:

Michael Alig (NYC club promoter & convicted murderer; profiled in the film "Party Monster")
Peter Bacanovic (Martha Stewart's stockbroker)
Joan Crawford (OSCAR; film actress)
Jeffrey Dahmer (serial killer)
Mark Foley (former R-Florida)
Annie Leibovitz (famous controversial photographer; took Miley Cyrus' virtue away)
James "Jim" McGreevey (former Governor of New Jersey; appeared on Oprah after gay affair)
Joel Schumacher (director; "Batman & Robin")
Matthew Shepard (murder victim; profiled in the mini-series "The Matthew Shepard Story")
Aileen Wuornos (serial killer; profiled in the film "Monster")

Fashion Designers:
Christian Dior
Marc Jacobs
Michael Kors
Isaac Mizrahi
Yves Saint-Laurent
Christian Siriano (winner of "Project Runway")
Gianni Versace

...and every other male fashion designer out there! JK JK

Screenwriters (Film & Television):

Alan Ball (OSCAR; "American Beauty", "Six Feet Under")
Greg Berlanti ("Brothers & Sisters")
Dustin Lance Black (OSCAR; "Milk", "Big Love")
Marc Cherry ("Desperate Housewives")
Bill Condon (OSCAR; "Dreamgirls", "Chicago")
Michael Patrick King ("Sex and the City")
Tony Kushner ("Munich", "Angels in America")
Don Mancini ("Child's Play"/"Chucky" movies)
Ryan Murphy ("Nip/Tuck")
John Waters ("Hairspray")
Kevin Williamson ("Scream")

Athletes (wait - there are gay athletes?!):

John Amaechi (former Utah Jazz player)
Rudy Galindo (championship figure skater)
Orlando Jordan (WWE wrestler)
Billie Jean King (tennis player; faced Bobby Riggs in the famous Battle of the Sexes match)
Greg Louganis (diver and Olympic-winner)
Martina Navratilova (tennis player)
Sheryl Swoopes (WNBA star)

Others:

Josephine Baker
Bruce Bastian
Nate Berkus (Oprah's go-to interior designer)
Chastity Bono (Cher's daughter)
Mary Cheney
Janice Dickinson (former model)
David Geffen (recording executive)
Sam Garrison (one of Nixon's many lawyers for his impeachment trial)
Kitty Genovese (crime victim; a crime studied by social psychologists, by the way...)
Steve Hildebrand (Obama's Deputy National Campaign Director)
Perez Hilton
James St. James (NYC "Club Kid")
Frida Kahlo (artist; profiled in the film "Frida")
Alfred Kinsey (biologist and sexuality researcher; profiled in the film "Kinsey")
David LaChapelle (media director; see his U.K. "Lost" commercial)
Bishop Gene Robinson (first openly-gay Episcopalian Bishop)
Samantha Ronson (Lindsay Lohan's ex-girlfriend)
Anna-Nicole Smith (model)
Andy Warhol (artist)

So... basically, without all these people, the entertainment industry wouldn't exist. Wel, it would exist but it would suck really, really badly!

Let Me See Your OSCAR Talk!

I went to the AMC Best Picture Showcase yesterday and saw all five Best Picture-nominated films. When I told my friends and family that I was going to do this they either told me that I was crazy or that they were happy because, as my best friend commented, "This is tailor-made for you."

It was fun and I won three prizes, which they gave out during the breaks between the movie for correctly answering Oscar trivia. I received a Milk-themed t-shirt, a calendar, and a full-size poster of The Wrestler. They gave us a large popcorn with free refills all day long, as well as allowing outside food and drink. Luckily, there was a Costa Vida next door!

I saw the films in the above order: Milk started at 10:30 a.m. and Frost/Nixon didn't get over until 11:45 p.m.!

I have to say that I am confused by the film awards season this year: some films that should be nominated aren't; some films that are nominated aren't getting the attention they deserve; and an actress is nominated in the wrong category.

I desperately wanted Milk to be "the film" of the year, much as Brokeback Mountain was "the film" of the year a couple of years ago; I wanted it to be great; it wasn't. Although I do have to admit that it was better upon a second viewing. To me, it felt like it was on a small scale; it localized gay-rights issues instead of focusing on, perhaps, a national movement or event (like Prop. 8). I do know that it was a true story and so the small-scale feeling of the film wasn't under the director's control. But I do have to say that it felt like more of a documentary than a narrative. Even more, Sean Penn's portrayal, while good, is nothing special (he will win the Best Actor Oscar anyway).

The Reader has been accused of stealing the fifth Best Picture nominations slot from The Dark Knight; nothing could be further from the truth. The Reader is a great story. However, I have to say that Kate Winslet does not deserve to win Best Actress for two reasons: 1) she plays a supporting role, and 2) she's had much more worthy performances. I am actually shocked that she did not win the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Little Children a couple of years ago (which also deserved a Best Picture nomination).

If any movie stole anything, it is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I have to admit that this film was absolutely beautiful: great cinematography, great special effects, great art direction. However, the film was too long by at least 45 minutes! A great deal of time was wasted on tangent plot lines that didn't add much to the film. Brad Pitt (who doesn't deserve his Best Actor nomination) and Cate Blanchett have absolutely no chemistry together. The most tiring thing about the movie was Benjamin's and Daisy's relationship: she wants to sleep with him but he says no; he visits her in New York City but she now has a boyfriend; she comes back to him and they have a baby; he decides to abandon his family; then he comes back but she has a new husband. This is bland melodrama and it doesn't make sense.

Slumdog Millionaire wasn't what I was expecting at all: it was violent and moody, yet joyful and full of love. I found myself rooting for Jamal and wanted him and Latika to end up together. The twists and turns in the end are what makes the film worth the journey (I won't spoil anything). Dev Patel, who plays Jamal, deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Frost/Nixon is nominated for four major awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay) yet is receiving little attention. This is unfortunate because this film is so intense and satisfies the audience. Frank Langella deserves to win the Best Actor prize.

I would rank the Best Picture nominees in this order, from Best to Worst:

1) Frost/Nixon, 2) The Reader, 3) Slumdog Millionaire, 4) Milk, 5) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

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If I could make my own Best Picture list, it would look something like this:

Doubt is the best film I've seen this past year. Meryl Streep deserves to win her third Oscar for her performance in this film. It is a film entirely driven by its performances; one weak actor would ruin the entire film. It's a great thing, then, that all four of its major players received acting nominations. Furthermore, Amy Adams deserves to win the Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in this film as well. This movie makes you think; the ending is ambiguous and is left up to the audience member to decide for himself. If you haven't seen this movie - GO SEE IT!

Just about everybody and their dogs have seen The Dark Knight, which was snubbed for just about everything! It should've been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and many more. Heath Ledger is a lock for Best Supporting Actor, and deservedly so.

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Now for my predictions.

Best Picture and Best Director

WILL WIN: Slumdog Millionaire; Although I have heard of late that the recent Prop. 8 controversy may play a role in an upset; some are predicting that Milk will walk away with one or both of the awards as a political statement. I doubt that.

SHOULD WIN: Frost/Nixon or The Reader

Best Actor

WILL WIN: Sean Penn (Milk) - (his win will be the political statement hypothesized above).

SHOULD WIN: Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

Best Actress

WILL WIN: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

SHOULD WIN: Meryl Streep (Doubt); some have predicted an upset in this category, although it is very unlikely.

Best Supporting Actor

WILL/SHOULD WIN: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Best Supprting Actress

WILL WIN: I'm going out on a limb here, as this is the most wide-open race: Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Although Penelope Cruz has swept earlier awards for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Henson will win because she is the only actress who is in a Best Picture-nominated film.

SHOULD WIN: Amy Adams (Doubt)