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News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

Out at the Movies: "Role Models", "RocknRolla", "Repo! The Genetic Opera"


Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd and Jane Lynch in Role Models

There are a few films in theaters this weekend that might hold special appeal to gay viewers, be it a gay character, musical sequences or the near-constant screen presence of the yummy his-and-his bookends of Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd.

Are any of them worth your eleven clams? Click on through the jump to find out.

Role Models
To be perfectly honest, Role Models pissed me off. It's funny, it's crass, and it's an excellent showcase for the increasingly humpy talents of Seann William Scott (including a butt-shot) and the ever-adorable Paul Rudd.

But I'm just flat-out sick and tired of hearing "faggot", "gay" and "homo" in the first 10 minutes of a comedy. Especially when that comedy comes from a handful of gay-friendly folks, including director David Wain, who brought us the exceedingly gay-friendly Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten. Sure, the gaybombs come out of the mouths of "bad guys", but that doesn't make it any easier to hear them if you've been on the receiving end of such words before.

Fortunately the mountain of manmeat that is Scott was eventually able to distract me, as did the barrage of incredibly tasteless gags and the brilliant performance of Jane Lynch as the ex-junkie head of the children's charity to which the guys are court-ordered to donate their time.


Idris Elba, Gerard Butler and Tom Hardy

RocknRolla
The latest Guy Ritchie cuss-em-up actually opened last week but I just heard today that the gangster comedy actually has a gay character in the central cast: Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy). From what I've read (and been told by a friendly reader, t/y!) the character is actually just treated as "one of the guys", and the movie overall is considerably better than Ritchie's recent efforts.

Ritchie has caught a lot of flack for being perceived as anti-gay or "uncomfortable" around gay men (thanks mostly to his estranged wife Madonna's clingon brother's memoirs) so it's nice to hear that not only has he included a gay character in his latest film but that he treats him with respect and tosses in plenty of HoYay for good measure.

Repo! The Genetic Opera
We've mentioned this gory sci-fi rock opera (not even kidding) a few times in the past, mostly because it stars Buffy gay-fave Anthony Stewart Head (still not kidding) and Paris Hilton. It's getting trashed by critics (no shock there) but I've heard that once you adjust to the fact that it's literally all sung (all the dialogue, in true opera form) this bizarre fable about organ harvesting in the future isn't that bad.

Jay's picture

Yes, Rock'n'rolla was a nice

Yes, Rock'n'rolla was a nice surprise. I didn't know there was a gay character in it when I went to see it...but then Handsome Bob tells his best friend that he is in love with him the night before he is due to go into prison! I was like, OMG, is Guy Ritchie actually going to go there? And he did. Even though there isn't any nice guy on guy action in it (well unless you want to include the dance :)), he is sooo not a stereotypical gay guy (though there is one in the film at some point) and the rest of the gangstas don't even care. I was well impressed by the end of it. Came out of the cinema with a big grin on my face!
Rob's picture

Repo

I saw Repo last night, and it was AWFUL, which is sad, because I'd been looking forward to it for a while. But it was just completely uninspired. The only thing it has going for it is cool art design, Anthony Stewart Head and Sarah Brightman. The music (all of which sounds the same) and lyrics are terrible. The plot barely exists. It's basically an endless-seeming 90 minutes of turgid, goth wannabe soap opera. It could have been awesome, but the source material sucks.
TerrynJames's picture

:(

Aww thats disappointing. I always get excited when I think a new musical is coming out and even with anthony stewart head and sarah brightman its bad? that must mean baaaaad cause they are both great at what they do!! but then again with Paris Hilton attached to it there wasn't a whole lot of hope!!
Rich's picture

"Repo" is no "Rocky Horror"!

Iit doesn't even compare to "Sweeney-fricking-Todd!"

 Just awful. I like just about everyone in the movie but this movie simply sucks. Horrible "script".bad "songs",bad "performances".

it's dark,depressing and disgusting. Stay away,please.

Rob's picture

Completely agree. And

Completely agree.

And there is nothing gay about it, in any sense of the word.