Angels in America
Years ago we went to see Angels in America, a play by Tony Kushner. It was the biggest thing since I don't know what, and so we went to see it. Eric and i hated it. I can't remember now why we hated it. I was saying to Joe the other evening that we thought it was pompous and overblown and just really 'theatrical' but. Which in and of itself is not a criticism. When something is so whoop-de-doo that everyong except me and 4 guys like it, i doubt myself. So I guess I thought maybe it was the production that sucked. I know the CanStage are usually good, but it was in Berkley St. and so maybe it was their second stringers or something or maybe the space was too small to hold such a grand thing.
So when Showcase in the US made a miniseries out of it with some of the best actors going, well I thought I'd maybe give it a wack. Mike Nichols directed, it stars DeNiro and Glenn Close. I mean if anyone could pull it off it would be those people. The thing with overblown or melodrama is that sometimes you need to Thelma & Louise it, sometimes you need to just hold hands and gun the engine, even though it seems reckless, because slowing down or going back is not an option. And so you do. Then other times you turn around and go back. I'm not entirely sure what Mike NIchols did with this one. I mean if you want overblown and 'theatrical' (and I hope the pronounciation of that is clear) well you could hardly pick a better pair of Actors than Glenn Close and Bobby DeNiro. I mean they've never met scenery they couldn't chew. DeNiro alone could make a deli take out menu sound like Glengarry Glen Ross.
But you know what? I hated it. And not because it was too much, or not enough. Not because DeNiro's leash was long or short. But because of what it was about. It was way too gay in the 80s. I loved Jeffery when it first came out, and when i watched it last year it was the same thing. it was dated. I have always loved Boys in the Band, because it was about that time at that time. And maybe when some time has passed I'll find these films fun again. But for now they are just about things that mean nothing to me. The AIDS politics makes no sense, we don't live in a time where the diagnosis of HIV and the death are merely 2 seasons and a fall-colours montage apart. I know people who've been positive for 10 or 20 years.
But what do i know about HIV & AIDS? Well that's the point isn't it? For years we were fed a diet of gay/aids movies. And that was fine, the generation of gay men who were making movies were thinking of that stuff, and so they should be, when i was 22 there were an entire generation of men 15 to 30 years older who disappeared into it. And so their widows made a few movies, I'm fine with that.
A while ago though i got over it. In the same way that the time for movies where the fag or dyke dies or kills herself at hte end of the movie is gone, the time for movies like Angels is gone. We don't need movies about guys getting AIDS and being afraid to tell anyone or getting KS and dropping dead on the way home from a Cats matin�e. I dont' know what the next stories are, I don't know what stories my generation of writers are writing about, I'm curious. I think maybe i should try to write some of it.
