9 Dead Gay Guys (2003)
Note: Some Spoilers.
The gay "Snatch."
No, it's not a lesbian film. Seriously,
it's the gay version of a new wave British film, like
those made by Guy Ritchie, director of "Snatch."
And with a title like "9 Dead Gay Guys,"
its got to be a piece of homophobic crap, right? Well,
actually, not really. I mean, the piece is full of
stereotypes. And the film does feature two straight
protagonists who seem nothing more than money-grubbing
street trade. But the title of the film is really
nothing more than good marketing (although there are
actually nine dead gay guys in the film). I mean,
after all, if you entitle a film "Gay Love is Beautiful,"
you'd be lucky if nine guys showed up to watch it!
But if you call a film "9 Dead Gay Guys," you'll pack
the house. Just ask the folks at Agliff (Austin's
Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival), where
the film's showing was a massive sell-out.
Honestly, the film only offends a bit
at the beginning. The gay guys to whom the two protags
offer up their sexual favors are nothing more than
stereotypical ageing queens. They really seem a sad
and pathetic lot. There are really no normal gay guys
in the film at all. (Then again, are there any "normal"
straight people in a Guy Ritchie film?) But the quirky
assortment of characters in the film soon win us over
and even though dead gay male bodies keep being counted
on the screen, we can't help but enjoy this offbeat
film.
The thing that truly wins us over is
the performances of Glen Mulhern as Kenny. Supported
wonderfully by Brendan Mackey as Byron, Mulhern's
Kenny evolves from near homophobe to - well, to an
amazing moment of self-discovery. I hate to give away
things but it is important for gay males who might
be discouraged by the film's title to understand that
the film truly does have many positive messages for
them and the other viewers of the film. Hell, the
thing even ends with a (albeit brotherly) loving male/male
kiss on the lips.
With an amazing cast of characters
like The Queen, Golders Green (an Orthodox Jew named
after the Jewish section of London), The Desperate
Dwarf, The Iron Lady, Donkey-Dick Dark, and Dick-Cheese
Deepak, the film has to be whack right? Hell yes!
Whack and fun as hell. The actors here really have
a good time with the film and it shows. The colorful
assortment of characters, almost all of them overtly
happily gay, really do make the film a quirky joy.
The actors in the roles flesh them out with an exuberance
usually reserved for drag queens!
And make no mistake about it, the character
arc of the two main characters, cute young hustlers
who get half-naked a lot, make the film a winner.
"9 Dead Gay Guys" is really just good-natured fun,
an amazing thing considering the title is an accurate
reflection of what comes to pass in the film. The
little homophobic fratboys who come to see it with
their buddy because they think its going to be a cool
British Ritchie-esque film just might find themselves
having an awkward silence when they ride home together
after the film.
Notes:
With Fish (who was the lead singer
of 80's rock band Marillion), Steven Berkoff, Vas
Blackwood (who appeared in Ritchie's "Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels"), and Michael Praed ("Dynasty").
The director, Lab Ky Mo, is surprisingly
not an American rapper but a Chinese/Irish filmmaker.
The film debuted at Cannes in May 2002
(where there were supposedly many walk-outs - perhaps
cuts were made) and has not shown in the UK yet. It
is set to have an arthouse run in the US in October
2003.
Almost all film wesbites spell out
the "Nine" in the title but the official site and
the trailer there lists the title number as "9" so
that's how I'm going to do it.
Viewed on 8/23/03 at the Metropolitan
Theater in Austin as a part of Agliff 2003 (Day 3).
Notes on Agliff 2003 - Day 3
Day 3 started horrible with sound problems
during the screening of "Fluff" I went to see at 4:30.
They were so bad that I walked out and told the Agliff
volunteers it was unwatchable. Bobette Mathis, President
of Agliff, was there and she told me that it was the
"filmmakers dub" and that there was nothing that they
could do about it. I knew this was bullshit but didn't
argue the point. Digital projection is always precarious
and making sure the projectors sound system is integrated
with the theaters sound system is always an important
part of a festival's tech staff's job. Agliff really
dropped the ball here and Bobette's attitude sucked
in my opinion. It is odd too because she is usually
really, really nice to me. She got me a free coupon
for another film but it took her forever to get it.
"Fluff" was preceded by two short films
which ran fine, so maybe I'm wrong in blaming Agliff,
but I don't think so. They had the same problem later
in the night when I was watching some shorts and fixed
it after a second and restarted the shorts.
By the way, I think we'll do a special
page for all the Agliff shorts I see this year so
look for that if you are looking for reviews of Agliff
shorts.
I was going to have dinner with Johnny
between movies (he was over seeing the other film
"Jim in Bold") so I decided to movie hop around the
theater and sit in "Bend it Like Beckham" for a few
minutes. I was reminded of just how good the performance
of Parminder K. Nagra is. She's so likeable and charming.
And Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is so fucking hot! I've got
to get "Velvet Goldmine" on DVD.
I also saw a trailer for the new Farrelly
Brothers film "Stuck on You," which comes out at Christmas
and features Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon as Siamese
Twins. Cher is also in the film, playing herself,
and they make a joke about her young boyfriends by
having her in bed with a shirtless Frankie Munoz ("Malcolm
in the Middle"). It was fucking hilarious!
I waited in the lobby for a bit and
saw a cute Agliff volunteer boy. He was pretty young,
a teenager really. He was one of those guys that looked
kinda dumb and country and was maybe even possibly
a little "special." He was hot as hell.
I met up with Johnny after his movie
and he raved about "Jim in Bold." It's a documentary
about gay youth and if Agliff adds it as a TBA, I
might have to try and see it. Johnny also told me
the local GYM Project (Gay Youth Media) short film
was shown after the film. It didn't show at MGM this
year. Johnny said it was okay but made him dizzy as
it was 13 minutes of extreme close-ups. Apparently
GYM Project coordinator Jenn Garrison introduced their
short film and the folks behind "Jim in Bold" also
did a Q&A.
I saw Craig coming out of the "Jim
in Bold" screening too but didn't have a chance to
say hello to him.
We ate at Taco Cabana and had to go
outside to chow once we got our food when a mother
and her 5 Hispanic children sat down next to us. They
were loud and obnoxious. I quipped that they were
all auditioning for "Stomp Junior" as they kicked
and screamed and pounded on the table.
If the sound debacle of "Fluff" wasn't
bad enough, Agliff had another surprise in store for
everyone there to see a 7 o'clock film as they shuffled
all the girls (over 100 of them - maybe 200 of them)
there to see the lesbian film "Between Two Women"
out of the big theater into the small and then the
200 plus guys in the small theater over to the large
one so they could accommodate the sellout crowd for
"9 Dead Gay Guys." It was a huge mess and the lesbians,
whose film was supposed to start 30 minutes before
the guys did, should have went kicking and screaming.
What a huge fuck-up! Totally unacceptable. Sandra
Martinez did come in and apologize and we did get
to sit in the big theater to see the show, but it
was truly a huge debacle. The film did not start until
nearly 8 o'clock.
Sandra introduced the film and let
the sponsors from a local landscaping shop called
The Great Outdoors on South Congress say a few words.
They were really nice and apparently have a cafe at
their space so you can shop for stuff and have lunch.
How cool. Johnny and I agreed that we need to go and
check it out sometime.
Also, there's some ad on Agliff's sponsor's
slides that is really hard to read. I think it says
Chasoinaustin.com. I wonder what that is all about.
Oh yeah! I need to say something about
the 2003 Agliff trailer. I forgot to mention that
on Day 1, before "Girls Will Be Girls," they played
the festival trailers from 2000, 2001, and 2002 before
playing the new one. But the new one started without
sound and we didn't quite get it. I've seen it three
times now and twice the beginning has been without
sound and this sucks because the first 10 seconds
of the trailer is important. It shows a bunch of gay
people sitting in a movie theater and one tells a
friend, "Have you heard about this new movie. Supposedly
you see it and you turn straight." Then the movie
starts and it's a odd piece like the one in "The Ring"
(it uses pieces of "The Big Lebowski" among some other
shots) and when the film is over, one of the Agliff
big-wigs, Bruce Weatherford, is hitting on some chick
as they walk out of the theater and his boyfriend
freaks out. It's funny as hell. But if you don't hear
that very first line, the whole trailer is a waste
of time and makes no sense.
After "9 Dead Gay Guys," Johnny and
I went out to line up for the short films we were
seeing at 9pm. This was a group of shorts about older
guys with younger men and was called "Age and Innocence."
About the same amount of people were there to see
the feature "Gasoline" playing in the other theater,
including many cute guys. We got into the theater
and I saw Bruce Weatherford, Agliff's "Web Programmer"
and star of this year's trailer, whom I met a couple
years ago when he was hanging out with "Eban and Charley"
writer/director Jimmy Bolton. (I wish he'd make another
film). Bruce introduced the short films program which
started with some sound problems but was fixed quickly
and re-started.
