Now In Theatres: “Brideshead Revisited”
Amongst gay gentlemen of a certain age, there is almost certainly no more eagerly awaited film this summer than the much heralded big screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s elegiac 1945 novel, “Brideshead Revisited.” 
  Long before “Brokeback Mountain,” Will & Grace” or the mind-numbingly awful “Another Gay Movie,” American television viewers luxuriated in the 11-hour mini-series based upon  Waugh’s novel, a deliciously intoxicating confection of religious debate, stately homes, and class conflict, all washed down with plenty of the finest bubbly.
  Most of all, especially for a callow youth such as Glenn, there blazed on screen the intense romantic friendship between Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons) and the closeted, spectacularly doomed, Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews).
  While neither the series, nor the book offered anything explicit between Charles and Sebastian, viewers with imaginations such as Glenn’s were certainly left to fill in the blanks.
  It is difficult to imagine a more “definitive” cinematic adaptation of this iconoclastic novel, recently released in a lavish 25th Anniversary Collector’s DVD boxed set. Yet director Julian Jarrold, who  challenged devoted Jane Austen enthusiasts with the immensely enjoyable “Becoming Jane,” has refused to be intimidated.
  So just how well does this new, trimmed down yet decidedly opulent “Brideshead” fare?
  Charles Ryder is once again at the center of “Brideshead,” now played by an amiable actor boasting the rather unfortunately name of Matthew Goode. Following several hasty flashbacks, Charles is found ensconced at Oxford where he meets Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) when the young and exceedingly drunk aristocrat leans over an open window and spews vomit into one of Charles’s set of rooms.   
  Waugh’s description of Sebastian is telling, “he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behavior which seemed to know no bounds.” While perhaps not boasting beauty in such mythical proportions, Whishaw is  nevertheless an attractive, charming young actor who marvelously captures Sebastian’s fragile eccentricity, although his long-suffering teddy bear Aloysius barely warrants more than a cameo appearance. What Whishaw’s Sebastian does not possess is sufficient charismatic fireworks to believably seduce Charles. Poor drunken Sebastian quickly pales in comparison to that great pile that is Brideshead, again ably played by the very grand Castle Howard. Even worse, Charles is quickly swept off his feet by Sebastian’s sister Julia (Hayley Atwell) in scenes never imagined by Waugh.  
  As Sebastian quickly descends into an alcoholic haze, Mommie dearest (Emma Thompson as if channeling Barbara Stanwyck) endeavors to keep the lad on the Catholic straight-and-narrow. Turning to all and sundry, she soon sets her claws into Charles. Desperate to stay welcome in the rather magnificent surroundings for which he has become accustomed, Charles acquiesces and in the process, betrays his friend.
Full Price, Matinee Or Wait ‘Til The Budgets?
  Thanks to its sumptuous Masterpiece Theatre packaging and Emma Thompson’s marquee value, “Brideshead Revisited” on the big screen is sure to have a far greater audience than simply Gay gentlemen of a certain age. And let’s not forget that all of those ardent “Brideshead-ophiles” who will be driven in droves to see it, whereupon, more likely than not, they’ll kvetch about every departure director Jarrold has made from the book and previous mini-series. Not a fate even Glenn can totally escape. The new cast is fine; it isn’t, after all, the fault of actors such as Patrick Malahide and Michael Gambon that they are not in fact John Gielgud or Lawrence Olivier. More worrying to Glenn is the film’s subtle but nevertheless disturbing shift to underscore Charles’s heterosexual credentials. Waugh never so blatantly forced Charles to choose between Sebastian and Julie. Nope, Waugh knew that in Charles’s eyes neither could ever really compare with all that “Brideshead” represented. So why does Jarrold feel it necessary to so thoroughly and condescendingly dismiss poor Sebastian to yet another in a long line of celluloid closets?
Just The Facts: “Bridehead Revisited” is in English and is clocked at 100 minutes. For more information check out the fabulous official website: bridesheadrevisited-themovie.com. Audiences might recognize Hayley Atwell from her role in the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s “Line of Beauty” while Matthew Goode was featured in the popular lesbian romantic comedy, “Imagine Me & You.” “Brideshead Revisited” opened at Milwaukee’s Downer Theatre on August 1 and at other venues throughout Wisconsin during August. Check local listings for show times.

New on DVD: “A Four Letter Word”
It a mere coincidence that Charlie David’s fabulously toned figure has figured so prominently in several of Glenn’s reviews this summer. The hard-working openly gay actor/travel host has not only shared his fabulous globetrotting experiences in the popular Bump! Gay Travel series but has happily shared his flawlessly chiseled torso in one steamy sex scene after another in the hit Here! network series, “Dante’s Cove.”
  For the record, Glenn is certainly not guilty of any form of stalking and adamantly insists no reasonable jury can read any sinister connotation to Glenn’s description of the brunet hottie as “criminally adorable.” Other than that, Glenn has “No Comment.”
  But back to “A Four Letter Word.”
  Charlie David plays Stephen, love interest to the tragically superficial, sexual compulsive Luke (Jesse Archer) in director Casper Andreas’s “A Four Letter Word,” a decidedly tepid (sort of) sequel to his debut hit film, “Slutty Summer.”
  A rather pleasant low-budget surprise, “Slutty Summer’ followed the romantic misadventures of lanky blonde Markus (Casper Andreas) after he breaks up with his two-timing boyfriend. Thanks to his friend Marilyn (Virginia Bryan), Markus gets a job waiting tables and soon finds himself surrounded by a wacky, primarily gay group of cute twenty-somethings looking for love in all the wrong places.   
  Having presumably lived happily ever following his “Slutty Summer,” Markus is nowhere to be found but the rest of the gang is back with Jesse Archer’s Luke now front and center. Luke no longer works as a waiter, a job Glenn felt he was uniquely unsuitable. At the start of “A Four Letter Word,” Luke has just started working at the delightfully named sex shop, “Gayborhood.” By day, Luke dusts large purple dildos (Glenn wonders if there would be any demand for small purple dildos) when not exchanging caustic barbs with his oh-so serious yet nevertheless criminally cute co-worker Zeke (Cory Grant).
  And by night, Luke is on the prowl and if doesn’t often find Mr. Right, he’s at least happy to hit the sheets with Mr. Right-away.
  When Luke first spies hunky Stephen, he is absolutely indignant to have the hot, “total top” call him “a gay cliché.” Spot on, thinks Glenn. But surely this isn’t the last we’ll see of these two comely  lads. And on the very next night, while on a quest for the highly prized “sloping cascade,” (use your imagination here, bois) Luke hooks up with Stephen for a night of unbridled ecstasy - sexual, not pharmaceutical.
  Is it love at first f*ck? Can a cute, bubble-headed porn-pusher find his soul mate in the backroom at Boy’s Room?
Buy It, Rent It, Forget It?
  Glenn’s expectations for “A Four Letter Word” were perhaps a tad bit too high after having enjoyed “Slutty Summer.” Sadly, the glow of summer is long past and these quirky, rather lovable characters have somehow totally misplaced their charm. Marilyn has morphed into a drunken Bridezilla while Peter, now played Steven Goldsmith, has become a totally annoying character who spends the entire film whining at his sweet, hunky BF Derek (J.R. Rolley). Screenwriters Andreas and Archer mangle attempts at laughs at just about every turn but no more so than during Marilyn’s painfully unfunny all-Drag Queen Bridal shower. Not to mention that lines like “There’s a party in my pants and everybody’s coming” will surely have even Paul Lynde cringing from the crypt. Sure, there’s plenty of sex as well as an absolute abundance of firm, hard-bodied male flesh on display, but for Glenn, “A Four Letter Word” is can only be spelled, “limp.”
Just The Facts: “A Four Letter Word” has a nifty running time of 87 minutes and is in English. “A Four Lettter Word” will be available on DVD Tuesday, August 26th with a SRP of $22.99.

OpEd: Ending Gaysploitation
Commentary By Chuck Griffith
  This month the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Outfest, will celebrate twenty-six years of LGBT cinema. Outfest is one of the premiere film festivals that focuses on the LGBT community and the filmmakers who supply it with its programming. With Hollywood A-gays, agents, buyers, and the penniless filmmakers sipping goblets of sponsored liquor and targeted corporate advertising aimed at that urban myth of gay disposable income, films will be screened that are hardly anything to be proud of, much less celebrate.
  Films like Boys in the Band, Longtime Companion, and the recently restored Parting Glances were a queer Americas response in dealing with the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. We didnt know what was killing us at first and then when we started going to more funerals than birthdays, the discourse permeated throughout the community to take action. Filmmakers, armed with cellophane, documented and scripted some of the most moving stories of our times. Films of the late 1980s and early 1990s had purpose and crossed many demographic barriers, even if there always seemed to be a death in the end.
  Studios still seem intent on financing gay-themed films only if the homosexual dies in the last reel, but the real death you see on the screen these days is the suicide of the LGBT film. Recently, Gregg Goldstein with The Hollywood Reporter observed at this years twentieth anniversary of New Yorks gay and lesbian film fest, Newfest, For despite breakthroughs like Brokeback, gay films already are well down the same path as 1970s black films, where quality projects like Sounder were the exception and blaxploitation flicks were the rule. Cables demand for cheaply made gay movies has ushered in an era of gaysploitation that only the most talented filmmakers and daring companies are likely to resist.
  As the democratization of filmmaking continues with cheap camcorders and DIY editing, anyone can be in Circuit City today and come out a filmmaker tomorrow; begging the question, just because you can, should you Who can blame them when the LGBT community has turned itself into a marginalized affinity market of lemmings over the years Theres no near-term justification to invest in more modest budgets that brought us films like Trick, Broken Hearts Club, or Boys Dont Cry (all films made for around $500K to $1m respectively) when you can make ten or fifteen flicks at $25,000 a piece and turn a quick buck.
  Distributors of these arguably questionable works put these films out into a theater for a day as a publicity stunt and then quickly rush them to television or DVD so the title is fresh in the memory of the gay cinema junkie looking for their next fix. Film festivals are left with programming the best they can given the saturation of poor quality content arriving by the truckloads. Filmmakers who aspire to make actual films (the ones actually shot on film and use bona fide actors) find themselves lost to find the financing in a world of diversified hedge funds where the bottom line of next year outweighs the profit of the long-term investment. The justification that distributors give to filmmakers trying to raise enough capital to make their films is the calculation of the break-even point based on domestic box office receipts rather than ancillary DVD or on-demand sales; however, if the distributor is releasing a low-quality film for one day or a week, then the financial performance is a self-fulfilled prophecy. Based on this Shylockian algorithm, the real auteur directors are being robbed the opportunity to make films that will actually inspire the LGBT community and mainstream audiences to get up off the couch and actually see a film worth ones two hours. Weve gotten so comfortable with ourselves that weve been making films with inside jokes and juvenile stories for our inner-teenager rather than reaching for more universal aspirations. Theres always room for a B-movie here and there, but as a community we are maturing from the rainbow-waving gay adolescence of 1995 and it is time to show that we are contributing members of a society ready for the responsibilities like marriage, children, and family. While it is important to maintain our identity, we will need to elevate ourselves to show that were much more than fodder about two twenty-somethings repeating the word gay over and over again.
  Goldsteins comparison of blaxploitation to our gaysploitation is a deft one. It took the black community almost twenty-years for a Do The Right Thing; lets hope it doesnt take that long for us.
  Chuck Griffith, a film director, is the founder of Roaring Leo Productions (www.roaringleo.com), a film production and distribution company based in New York City. He recently released a collection of gay-themed short films, Best of Breed: Volume 1, available on Netflix.