On December 4, 2022, the NEW YORK TIMES’ Sunday edition of ARTS ,gave over most of its ink to critic Wesley Morris’ insights on the decline of Hollywood stars; in an article entitled: WE’RE OUT OF MOVIE STARS. WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?
The article played significant attention to the gay romance film, BROS, written and starring Billy Eichner. That attention seems timely with the ongoing box office collapse of all things gay, including the film SPOILER ALERT starring Jim Parsons( BIG BANG THEORY) and Sally Field, the DISNEY cartoon, STRANGE WORLD( on its way to losing $100 million dollars) and the DISNEY+ series, WILLOW.
Below is an excerpt from Mr. Morris' article; this Blogger has a different interpretation on why Gay themed entertainment is failing with the PAYING customers.
The executive who authorized, greenlighted these projects made a seminal mistake. Gays are not interesting just because they are Gay.
The PAYING public likes interesting actors, such as Brando, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Mitchum, Wayne, Eastwood, Henry Fonda, McQueen or Bronson.
Does anyone in their right mind, does anyone other than a current Hollywood executive think that one can have a beer with Billy Eichner and discuss the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt? Or did Napoleon do right by splitting his army before Waterloo? Or the Imperial Japanese Navy’s reaction to their defeat at Midway? Or race cars? Or motorcycles? Or Fusion energy ?
The answer is no; everyone who pays to see a film, straight or Gay, knows that the only thing Billy Eichner will ever want to talk about is Gay things, or Gay Culture.
“ Billy Eichner tried to write himself into a romantic comedy, a genre as essential to American movies as milk is to cheese but a genre the studios have resisted for most of this century, as a sort of onset lactose intolerance. He called it “Bros” and got himself cast as one of the leads, a daffy podcaster who falls for a sporty suit (Luke Macfarlane). And when it sank at the box office, people blamed homophobia.
Exactly!, I almost said.
Then I remembered something. I’m not straight, and I didn’t see it. Neither did most of the not-straight people in my life. My guess for this movie’s poor showing would start with some of the posters and billboards. They confused me. Two adjacent backsides, in jeans, the hand of one man covering the rear pocket of the other. Whose asses are these?
One was implied to be Eichner’s. Strange that more of the posters wouldn’t simply share that. But omission like that is its own anxious disclosure: Who the hell is Billy Eichner? I mean, I know. He’s the comedian who’s given us “Billy on the Street,” a minutes-long antidepressant in which Eichner’s a runaway stallion dragging along some famous person and interrupting the promenades of regular New Yorkers. You watch it and think, “Antic comedy? Yes. Ro-mantic comedy? I don’t know. Let’s see.”…Wesley Morris.”
Billy Eichner is a dull boy to everyone save a small group of rarefied Hollywood executives.
Jim Parsons is fine for watching on free TV; but to pay to see him being romanced; that is a bridge too far.
Would any paying customer pay to see Charles Nelson Reilly romanced?
What is so tragic about Hollywood, is that Hollywood has an openly Gay actor who straight men respect as interesting, and straight women hunger to seduce.
That person, that actor is Rupert Everett.
And there is an artistic vehicle worthy of breaking the gay themed curse; the 1961 British film, VICTIM; which starred Sir Dirk Bogarde.
The film was Directed by Basil Dearden, who also Directed KHARTOUM.
“ It was the first English language film to use the word "homosexual"…..in the U.S. it was refused a seal of approval from the American Motion Picture Production Code.”
In the film, Sir Dirk plays a rich, respectable attorney MELVILLE FARR, about to be named to a powerful position, He is happily married.
“Farr is approached by "Boy" Barrett (Peter McEnery), a younger working class man with whom Farr has shared a romantic but non-sexual relationship. Farr rebuffs the approach, thinking Barrett wants to blackmail him about their relationship. In fact, Barrett has been trying to reach Farr to appeal to him for help because he has fallen prey to blackmailers who have a picture of Farr and Barrett in a vehicle together, in which Barrett is crying with Farr's arm around him. Barrett has stolen £2,300 from his employers to pay the blackmail, is being pursued by the police, and needs Farr's financial assistance to flee the country. After Farr intentionally avoids him, Barrett is picked up by the police, who discover why he was being blackmailed.
Knowing it will be only a matter of time before he is forced to reveal the details of the blackmail scheme and Farr's role, Barrett hangs himself in a police cell.’
There is a seminal scene in the film, so important to the foundation of Gay Rights, a scene beyond Billy Eichner. FARR is outed; so, he calls in his top aide, and offers him a letter of reference, with the understanding that there will no hard feelings if he resigns.
The aide refuses saying: “You are the same man today as you were yesterday, a man of integrity.”
VICTIM is the best, most profound pro-Gay film ever made, for it addresses that being Gay does not change one’s honor, or moral fiber.
Something a Billy Eichner film WILL NEVER CONVEY.
Let's hear it for 1961.
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