Reverend's Interview: Wild About Harry

From co-star of the first major Hollywood movie to deal compassionately with the subject of homosexuality, to being named one of People magazine’s sexiest men alive, to serving as a guest judge at this month’s “Best in Drag Show,” Harry Hamlin has lived a colorful life.

This is the second year in a row that the ruggedly handsome, 60-year old actor has judged the event in support of Los Angeles County’s Aid for AIDS (AFA). Hamlin’s wife of 15 years, Lisa Rinna, is also one of the celebrity judges. The October 7th fundraiser at the Orpheum Theatre will mark the current event’s 10th anniversary.

“It was wild,” Hamlin recently told me about last year’s show. “I hadn’t had any prior experience of it but as they say, try anything once. It’s a great fundraising opportunity and a really fun evening.”

To gay men of a certain generation (including myself), Hamlin will first and foremost be remembered as Perseus in the original, 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. Wearing a barely-there toga throughout, he displayed what one online commentator has crowned “the best nipples I’ve ever seen.” Hamlin was born and raised in Pasadena, the son of an aeronautical engineer father and a martini-swilling, socialite mother. He reveals many intimate, surprising facts about his upbringing in his 2010 autobiography, Full Frontal Nudity: The Making of an Accidental Actor.

Although he initially set out to become an architect, Hamlin graduated from Yale University with degrees in both Drama and Psychology. He then attended the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre, where he played his first lead role largely in the nude as the troubled stable hand in Peter Shaffer’s Equus. Shortly after, Hamlin starred as the title character in a 1979 TV miniseries adaptation of Studs Lonigan.

Hamlin has appeared in several stage musicals over the years, including the popular Broadway revival of Chicago. It was his and Rinna’s involvement with Chicago in 2009 that ultimately led to their current involvement in “Best in Drag.” As Hamlin recounts, “Lisa and I were approached through friends. Greg Butler, who did Chicago with us and performs in "Best in Drag," was the one who really got us involved.”

“It’s a very sober event, which is great,” Hamlin said of his current gig. “But at the same time it’s outrageous and fun, and it’s great to know those two things can go together.” As he shares in his book, Hamlin experimented heavily with drugs and alcohol in his youth. He has since tried to live a more healthy and holistic lifestyle.

Hamlin also had the experience of being on the other side of the judges’ table when he appeared as a contestant on television’s Dancing with the Stars a few years back. “I don’t know what qualifies one to judge "Best in Drag," not having any prior experience with drag myself,” he reflected. “It’s just a lot of fun with obviously talented people.”

The actor enjoyed a popular and lengthy run on the series L.A. Law. It was during that time, in 1987, when People declared Hamlin the “Sexiest Man Alive” for the year. He has since appeared on TV in Veronica Mars, Army Wives and the reality series Harry Loves Lisa.

Of course, it is Hamlin’s performance in the 1982 movie Making Love that has endeared him the most to gay audiences. He played Bart, an unapologetically gay novelist who has an affair with his closeted, married doctor (Michael Ontkean). The film received mixed reviews from critics and wasn’t a hit at a time when gay suburban men didn’t go to the movies in droves (like we do today for Magic Mike), but it eventually found an audience on cable and home video.

“We just had a 30th anniversary retrospective screening in Hollywood last month, and it’s great to see that it holds up well,” Hamlin said. “It was a movie that was clearly ahead of its time.” Hamlin noted that director Arthur Hiller and A. Scott Berg, who wrote the original story the film was based on, were also in attendance. Hamlin speaks about his experience on Making Love in the acclaimed 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet.

Here’s hoping Hamlin continues to expose himself — his talent, that is — for years to come.

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reel Thoughts Preview: Coastal Disturbances

San Diego Theater is Offering Up a Lot for GLBT Audiences

In addition to a variety of theatrical offerings for every audience, San Diego is an ideal destination to see world premieres and other unusual shows. This Fall is no exception, and here are some highlights.

Allegiance: The Musical, Old Globe Theatre (now through October 28): To call Allegiance a labor of love for Star Trek actor and gay icon George Takei has to be an understatement. The Asian-American actor best known for playing Lt. Sulu on Star Trek and for his hilarious Facebook page based Allegiance on his experiences as a child, when he and his family were placed in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II. Losing everything, some of the men still went to fight in the war, while others protested being treated like criminals in their own land. The musical stars Telly Leung from Glee and Miss Saigon star Lea Salonga.

Allegiance strikes a nice balance between the horrors of the Japanese Internment Camps and the resilient and hopeful dreams of the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned there. Takei is never less than riveting as a proud veteran who looks back at the mistakes he made and the family he lost and also in flashback as his own loving grandfather who never lost his optimism, even in the cold environs of the Heart Mountain Camp. Leung sings and dances well, and gives his role depth and heart. Salonga is wonderful as Leung’s protective sister, who falls in love with a resistance-minded fellow internee. Her Broadway voice gives the music much-needed star power, although none of the songs will probably stand on their own outside of the show. You only have a short time to catch it at The Old Globe!

Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir, La Jolla Playhouse (now through October 17): Get your Mad Men cocktail on and travel back to 1958 to see the swinging singer with a secret. Set in a smoky Greenwich Village nightclub more than a decade before the Stonewall Riots, the audience gets up close and personal with smooth Sam Bendrix, who is giving his final performance in New York City. Handsome Luke MacFarlane, who played Kevin Walker’s sweet husband Scotty in the much-loved show Brothers & Sisters, performs songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Kurt Weill. McFarlane’s Bendrix tells his poignant tale of a gay man looking for a love “that dare not speak its name” at a time when being gay was illegal.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, La Jolla Playhouse (November 6 through December 16): Des McAnuff, the man who brought The Who’s Tommy to Broadway, is tackling another challenging musical, this time based on the music by the Flaming Lips. Yoshimi is a young Japanese artist who must battle for her life in a fantastic and surreal robot world. Fortunately, Mitt Romney is not one of her robot attackers...

When Last We Flew, Diversionary Theatre (November 8 through December 9): San Diego’s GLBT theater company is finishing a successful reimagining of Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz’ first hit Pippin, but their next show is even more intriguing. Taking off from the iconic Tony Kushner play Angels in America, When Last We Flew tells the story of a gay teenage boy in a small town whose life is changed when he sneaks the town library’s only copy of Angels in America out and is exposed to the play’s emotional power. Extraordinary things begin to happen to him and those in his dull Kansas suburb as a result of the play.

Preview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reel Thoughts Preview: Scottsdale International Film Festival

Amy Ettinger has been producing the exciting ScottsdaleInternational Film Festival for an even dozen seasons, and this year, you will find a lot of interesting films from all over the world that you won’t see anywhere else. In addition, three films will particularly appeal to the LGBT community.

From France comes the hilarious gay Jewish farce Let MyPeople Go! Reuben is a daydreaming mailman who is living a wonderful life with his handsome Finnish lover. Three days before Passover, Reuben’s life gets split in two like the Red Sea when he comes into a pile of money, gets into a fight with his lover over the ill-gotten gains and must rush back from idyllic Finland to his crazy family in France. Gay Jewish stereotypes are exploded in this wild French farce.

Another film of note is In the Family, a drama that takes on the messy realities of marriage and parental inequality when it comes to the LGBT community. One Life to Live actor Trevor St. John plays Cody and director Patrick Wang plays Joey, a happy couple living in Tennessee with their six year-old son Chip. When a tragedy occurs, Joey finds out just how few rights he has regarding his son, when Cody’s sister moves to take full custody of the boy. Wang’s film resists demonizing anyone as it confronts what a lack of recognized parental and marriage rights can do in times of tragedy, especially in states where the Legislature tries to ban discussion of anything LGBT-related in schools.

Perhaps the most hotly-anticipated film is the illuminating documentary Satan’s Angel: Queen of the Fire Tassels, about a lesbian burlesque artist who is still performing alongside a whole new generation of women. Now sixty-eight, Angel Walker takes the audiences back to the 1960’s and tells them her story of love, addiction and determination that has made her a hero to burlesque performers everywhere. Grounding the film is the tender relationship between Angel and her girlfriend. Satan’s Angel features interviews with dozens of women from the sixties to today, who are happy to tell you what makes Angel such an icon.

Other films to watch for:

• Struck by Lightning: Glee’s Chris Colfer plays Carson Phillips, a high school senior who knows that there is more to life than his close-minded town provides and is determined to seize it. Unfortunately, he is struck dead by lightning in his school parking lot, so we are treated to his recounting of the hilarious last two weeks of his life. Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect) plays his best friend, while Allison Janney and Dermot Mulroney play his far-from-encouraging parents.
• Quartet: This delicious comedy is the directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman, and it features a banquet of wonderful British stars like Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and Tom Courtenay as retirees living in a home for former opera singers. Life at Beecham House is thrown into turmoil when Smith arrives; she is the ex-wife of Courtenay, and despite acting the part of an opera diva, she refuses to sing in the Home’s annual tribute to composer Verdi’s birthday.
• Lore: This drama looks at the effects of World War II and the Nazis’ atrocities from a whole new angle. A group of children, led by the title character, set out on a 900 kilometer trek in 1945 Germany to find their grandmother, after their parents are arrested by the Allies for being members of the Nazi SS. Through their journey, they are forced to realize what their parents’ actions really did to people.
• The Eye of the Storm: Director Fred Schepisi will present his new drama, starring Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush on Friday, October 5th. Rampling plays an eccentric matriarch who lies on her deathbed with plans to give her money to a “German dancer,” much to the dismay for her children, Rush and Davis. Both have built lives of sophistication far from their Australian roots, and they will do what it takes to hasten their mother’s departure before she can disinherit them. Their selfishness turns to something profound when they return home and gain new perspective on their dying mother.

The Scottsdale International Film Festival will begin October 4th and run through the 9th. See their website for more information.

Preview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Feeling Perky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, now in limited release from Summit Entertainment but gradually expanding, is the freshest and most heartfelt teen-angst tale to come along since Easy A two years ago.  Written and directed by first-timer Stephen Chbosky, adapting his semi-autobiographical book, the film is set in the 1990’s but has much more in common with the 1980’s in terms of style and content.

Chbosky employs the comedic-dramatic tightrope frequently walked by the late John Hughes in such mid-80’s, adolescent-skewing classics as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink, as well as an arsenal of me-decade tunes by such singers as David Bowie, The Smiths, Morrissey and, naturally, Dexys Midnight Runners.  The hairstyles are big, the wireless phones even bigger, and mix tapes remain the most indirect yet personal way to say “I love you.”

Cute Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) grounds the movie as Charlie, a lonely teen with a troubled but nebulous past who is just starting his freshman year at a suburban Pittsburgh high school.  Anxious to make friends, Charlie ingratiates himself to two seniors: the pretty but insecure Sam (the Harry Potter series’ Hermione, Emma Watson, who has matured beautifully as both a woman and an actress) and her stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller, proving that his frighteningly-impressive turn as the murderous son in last year’s We Need to Talk About Kevin was no fluke).  Patrick is not only gay but, as Charlie discovers, is having a secret affair with a closeted member of their school’s football team.

The trio and their extended circle of friends consider themselves outcasts and “wallflowers.”  As the school year moves along, Charlie finds the inspiration to become a writer through both the encouragement of his English teacher (a nice turn by Paul Rudd) and his growing attraction to Sam.  He also assists the discouraged, self-doubting Sam in her efforts to be accepted into Penn State, and becomes an unexpected hero when he saves Patrick from a lunchroom gay-bashing.  In the movie’s most personally-nostalgic moments, Charlie & Co. delightedly re-enact The Rocky Horror Picture Show before packed midnight audiences.

Alas, just when things seem to be going so well for Charlie, dark memories and physical blackouts start becoming more frequent.  There’s a lingering mystery throughout the film involving Charlie’s favorite aunt (played in flashbacks by Melanie Lynskey, of Heavenly Creatures fame, who currently gives an acclaimed performance in Hello I Must Be Going) that gets resolved during the final 20 minutes thanks to Joan Cusack as a kindly counselor.  After the emotional honesty of the previous 90 minutes, I found this climax not only predictable but handled unrealistically.  (An example of the latter: Cusack reveals the painful, would-be shocking truth behind Charlie’s issues to his parents in the middle of a public hospital corridor rather than a private office.)

As much I was disappointed by the final act of The Perks of Being a Wallflower after being consistently impressed for such a prolonged period of time, I still recommend it most heartily.  Chbosky directs with sensitive confidence and wrings impressive work out of his young leads.  Not everyone will figure out the cause of Charlie’s scars in advance and some viewers who endured similar, real-life circumstances have reportedly been quite moved.  The film is shaping up to be a cross-generational crowdpleaser, which was evident during the nearly full Sunday matinee I attended.  For those of us who came of age in the 1980’s-early 90’s, though, it rings especially true.

Reverend’s Rating: B+

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.