Cruising gay movie
The Reveal
Minding the Gaps is a recurring feature in which Keith Phipps watches and writes about a movie he’s never seen before as selected at random by the app he uses to catalog a DVD and Blu-ray collection accumulated over the course of the last 20+ years. It’s an attempt to fill in the gaps in his film knowledge while removing the horrifying burden of choice. This is the fifth entry.
What’s to be done with films that are morally reprehensible (or contain some deeply reprehensible elements) but artistically vital? I have no one-size-fits-all answer, only examples that, for me at least, make the question more complicated. Take Blake Edwards’s 1968 film The Party. On the one hand, it’s probably the director’s masterpiece, a brilliantly staged string of comic place pieces that’s the closest Hollywood ever came to making a Jacques Tati film. On the other, it stars Peter Sellers under brown make-up adopting a broad accent to play a bungling Indian character. If that was ever a sound concept (it wasn’t), it’s so far removed from contemporary sensibilities to make The Party a really challenging sit these days. It’s hilarious and inventive. But is it watchable? (On the other other
Cruising: The Most Controversial Film You’ve Never Heard of
The glory days of the 70s' gay liberation came to a crashing end with the onset of HIV in the early-80s. Curiously, before that moment in the gay rights movement came a certain film that sparked equally powerful emotions — so strong that the film was sabotaged almost every day.
Adapting a book by Gerald Walker to screen, William Friedkin’s cop movie broke the mold. Introducing a whole recent segment of community to the Novel York City gender non-conforming underground, one marked by slang, seedy bars, and color-coded bandanas, Cruising acted an anthropological learn for heterosexuals as much as a crime flick. In retrospect, that might the crucial flaw. The movie often comes across as clinical, lacking the empathy of other films with male lover characters like Dog Day Afternoon.
Friedkin’s Cruising, a novelty for the time, marked the first moment a big-name Hollywood star and director shone a spotlight on the secretive underbelly of the 70s gay lifestyle. The gay collective didn’t take it lightly. Whoever wasn’t irked by the perceived political word was terrified by the explicit tone. “I took the fil
Gay cruising movies and TV shows
Genre:Drama, Tune, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country:UK, France, Germany, Spain
Duration:105 min.
Story:Young Soul Rebels is a 1991 film by Isaac Julien which examines the interaction between youth cultural movements in Britain. Skinheads, Punks & Soulboys along with the political and cultural tensions between them. The film received the ...
Style: practical, serious, independent motion picture, crying, queer cinema ...
Audience: teens, pre-teens
Plot: same-sex attracted, lgbt, lgbtq, skinhead, immigrant, friendship, punk, erotica, radio station, subculture, black, same-sex attracted african american ...
Time: 70s, year 1977, 20th century
Place: england, europe, britain, london, together kingdom
Gay cruising and its geography in cinema and documentary
The idea for this list grew out of discussions after I rewatched Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) and a suggestion from David Conner. My interest is in films where cruising forms part of the plot (rather than just incidental background), with a particular interest where the production focuses on the geography or architecture where the cruising occurs, in addition to the rituals of cruising. Films are listed alphabetically.
I have not included narrative films/documentaries where the cruising happens in the context of sex work or hustling. Gary Needham is curating a fantastic list for those films at Movie Trade: Hustlers and Male Sex Work in Cinema and Documentary. Acknowledging that cruising has moved online for many men, I have not included films about online cruising, which need a seperate list.
The list is a work in progress and suggested additions via replies are very welcome. Cruising is a ordinary theme in gay porn, most of which will not be indexed on Letterboxd (Note: This was changed from August 2021.). I am adding these films/documentaries in the replies area in my Goodbye, Dragon Inn review (it should be near the top)