This is the only gay movie that doesn't bug the crap out of me - The Sum of Us (1995) Discussion

[–] jescci 18 years ago

Seeing Crowe play queer does kinda bug me. I don't buy it. Wish they had real gay actors. Not all strates can play gay.

Aren't you gonna tell me to break a leg?
Break 'em both.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] scottish_guy 18 years ago

this was the first movie I saw him in and I fell instantly in love with him! He was very convincing and kinda perfect. He was also hot as hell in Gladiator too :) mmmmm
Cant say i care for him in much else though.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] scottish_guy 18 years ago

oh, loved LA Confidential - completly forgot abou that, also Romber Stomper is good from what i remember, need to see that again soon.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] scottish_guy 18 years ago

I think I really didn't like a Beautiful Mind and that just kinda put me off him a bit.
I missed him in Sydney when he done a gig in some pub last year in the newtown area somewhere. Was a shame as would have been fun. But him in the Sum of Us must be my perfext idea of a gay man (until I see Brokeback Mountain!).

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] whitewiz 18 years ago

worov - I agree. I was totally convinced he was a gay actor, not just an actor playing a gay man. It wasn't until after Q&tD that I knew he was straight.

This is a phenomenal movie though. The flashbacks to the grandmothers makes me cry every time.

"I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of fertilizing your caviar!" Dr Zoidberg, Futurama

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[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 15 years ago

Not all strates can play gay.

So I've seen — and in so many, many films! However, what else I've noticed is that that the vast majority of those poor portrayals are from Americans. I think I can count on my fingers the American actors, gay or straight, whom I've seen to play a gay character other than the swishy, effeminate stereotype — and even then some of them looked a bit uncomfortable when called upon to kiss another man. Most of the watchable portrayals of gay men I've seen have been done by actors from the UK, Canada and Australia.

Seeing Crowe play a gay character with strength and dignity doesn't bug me nearly as much as seeing, say, Philip Charles MacKenzie acting like a drag queen in boy's clothes.

Sorry about the rant, but assorted bad stereotypes seems to be one of my buttons this season.

***
Have you noticed that, in Shakespeare's plays, soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Fraloopie 18 years ago

I thought it was a good movie, but it drove me nuts when the father would look to the camera and start talking to it.

It's a movie, you don't know the audience exists...

Good movie though, although it was a little odd watching the Gladiator play gay.

Sean.

------------------
"I like a man who grins when he fights"
-Winston Churchill

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[–] elgatony 18 years ago

When I saw this movie years ago I thought the father talking to the camera wasn't such a bad thing as it gave me deeper insights into his feeling about Jeff especially given that the source was a play. That said, it seems a LOT of gay movie since had adopted this monologue device to the point where it's so utterly annoying that I become hostile to the movie I'm watching. "Mambo Italiano" and "Lie Down with Dogs" are two that immediately leap to mind. It works when the characters are likeable not whiny little bitches. I hope they stop.
I agree with the voicer regarding the scenes with the grandmother. That was pretty heartwrenching.

"He'll bring them death...and they'll love him for it!"

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[–] wildcardgal 15 years ago

It's called "Breaking the Fourth Wall" and when it works in a film or play, it can be a very effective technique. And in some movies, it's perfectly fine to act aware of an audience.

Let slip the Determined Kitten of Doom!

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 15 years ago

Talking to the audience is a very old theatrical technique called "an aside". (And by "very old", I mean older than Shakespeare.)

As this movie was adapted from a stage play, the screenwriter decided to leave in the asides from Harry and Jeff. This particular screenwriter was able to make it work. Not all screenwriters can do that.

It was also used in "Jeffrey", another movie-from-a-play, and it worked well there, too.

I agree with the poster who didn't like the whiny way it was used in "Mambo Italiano". That one had the central character narrating his story.

***
"Uncle Cosmo, why do they call it a 'Word Processor'?"
"It's really very simple, Skyler. You've seen what food processors to do food?"
***

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[–] hshowe 17 years ago

should be required watching. if you aren't tolerant after this film.

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[–] Mincom 17 years ago

For a poofter film this was pretty good.

Happy one day, Pissed the next

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[–] Frumious_Bandersnatch_46 15 years ago

Depending on what you liked about this movie, you may also enjoy Big Eden.

It, too, is a story about a gay man looking for love; not just sex. The big issues (to me) are:
• A small, bucolic village in Montana welcoming a gay man.
• Our gay protagonist struggling with coming out to his grandfather (who is hinting to beat the band that he knows, he just needs grandson to say it out loud.
• The messy mass of mixed signals coming from the man's old-school-days crush.

It definitely proves that Arye Gross has been thoroughly underrated as an actor for many years.

***
Have you noticed that in Shakespeare's plays soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
***

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