A Very Natural Thing (1974) Queer Film D-
There is massive footage of NYC pride parades that lend nothing to the proceedings. Today, it comes across as a failed curiosity that gets a D- for effort.
Read More
Category: YouTube
Butley (1974) Queer Film B-
Adapted by Simon Gray from his stage play and directed by Harold Pinter, the movie is a testament to Alan Bates, who, having originated the role on stage, delivers a tour-de-force performance, simultaneously witty, pathetic, and tragic.
Read More
Going Places (Les Valseuses) (1974) Queer Film (A)
The second scene is where the boys are horsing around and, wouldn’t you know it, they almost start pounding one another. Very sexy.
Read More
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Queer Film B+
Michael Cimino’s directorial debut – he also wrote the screenplay – was an enormous critical and commercial success and paved the way for his Oscar-winning triumph The Deer Hunter four years later. Blending humor, melancholy, and violence with a nod to the American road movie, the film boasts great buddy-film chemistry between Eastwood and Bridges.
Read More
The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Queer Film B+
Sexuality throughout the film seems less important than transformation, performance and desire. It’s The Red Shoes reimagined for the Me Decade.
Read More
Chinatown (1974) Polanski’s Noir Masterpiece A+
Polanski captured the FEEL of LA better than anyone before or sense. Jack Nicholson gives his greatest performance as private dick J. J. ” Jake” Gittes.
Read More
The Eiger Sanction (1975) Cinema’s First Queer Canine (F)
When we first meet FAGGOT, he is pleasuring himself on Eastwood’s shoe. Who was the dog who played him? Since the little rascal was uncredited, we will never know. Did the little fellow realize that the audience probably hated him as much as they hated his master. Was it nature or nurture? Where was animal protection in those dark days of 1975?
Read More
Once is Not Enough (1975) Queer Film D-
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is so awful that the good work of Alexis Smith and Brenda Vaccaro barely registers. Worse, that essential camp factor, which had allowed its predecessor “Valley of the Dolls” to flourish at a thousand Gay Midnight Screenings is nowhere to be found. Eventually, your watch becomes your constant companion as you wait (and wait!) for the best moment to bolt for the exit.
Read More
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Queer Film (B) High Camp at a Midnight Screening.
It is, of course, a GROUP EXPERIENCE with those inspired zingers going back to the screen, composed by a generation of audience members over the years.
Read More
Barry Lyndon (1975) Queer Film (A)
In “Barry Lyndon” there is a moment where Ryan O’Neal finds two soldiers naked and holding hands in a pond as they confess their love for one another.
Read More
In Celebration (1975) Queer Film C+
“In Celebration” is another filmed stage play that makes no attempts to hide its origin. James Bolam’s queer Colin remains largely a sounding board for Alan Bates’ barbed wit and, as a Queer Film, it’s negligible.
Read More
Farewell My Lovely (1975) Queer Film A-
One of those rare instances where the remake is marginally better than the original, Farewell My Lovely not only keeps the original title of Raymond Chandler’s novel but is also more faithful to the book’s spirit.
Read More
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Queer Film. Lumet’s Masterpiece. A+
Pacino is magnificent. With Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies, “Dog Day Afternoon” is his defining role.
Read More
Grey Gardens (1975) Queer TV. Documentary Feature A+
After its release, the film’s high campness – a tragic story set in the faded milieu of New York high society – developed a significant gay following.
Read More
The Naked Civil Servant (1975) Queer Film (A)
His life becomes a kind of performance art and Hurt is phenomenal. One of the great queer performances as one of the great Queers.
Read More
Jeanne Dielman (1975) Queer Film A+
In “Jeanne Dielman”, a feminist masterpiece, the everyday details of a caring mother contrast with her life as a prostitute.
Read More
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Queer Film A+
Weir, who showed, like Hitchcock, that horror can be visited upon us on the brightest and most beautiful of summer days.
Read More
Drum (1976) Queer Film (F)
John Colicos’ DeMarigny is a loathsome excuse for a human being who harbors queer desires.
Read More
The Ritz (1976) Queer Film C+
Part mob comedy and part drag review, this exhausting adaptation of Terence McNally’s hit play wears out its welcome in the first thirty minutes
Read More
Norman… Is That You? (1976) Queer Film (C)
What we do have, however, is Redd Foxx as the dad and thank God for that! The result is a laugh every other minute. Foxx does not have to work for it, he’s a natural and he basically saves the movie.
Read More
Car Wash (1976) Queer Film C+
You come to “Car Wash” for Antonio Vargas’ Lindy, who delivers razor-sharp shade to his homophobic coworker Duane (Bill Duke). You stay because a day at the Dee-Luxe Car Wash in Los Angeles is, despite the slurs, occasionally fun.
Read More
Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976) Queer Film A-
Lenny Baker delivers a marvelous, lived‑in performance, radiating zest for life. Tragically, Baker’s career was cut short; he died of thyroid cancer at just 37 in 1982, never appearing in another film.
Read More
Carrie (1976) Queer Film A+
Brian De Palma’s masterpiece and one of the GREAT HORROR MOVIES with tremendous performances from Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. The unforgettable score is by Pino Donaggio.
Read More
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) Queer Film Focus (F)
After two hours of heterosexual escapades—casual hookups, fleeting romances, and Theresa’s own search for identity—the story reserves its harshest judgment not for the straight milieu it has been dissecting, but for queer desire.
Read More
Valentino (1977) Queer Film (F)
Russell’s worst film, it cannot even be enjoyed as camp. The audience either walked out or slept their way through the movie.
Read More
The Choirboys (1977) Queer Film (F)
Blaney (Michael MacKezie Willis) is a young gay man who is cruising MacArthur Park in LA. The cops are there as well. When Blaney opens the police van’s door, he mistakenly thinks that Officer Lyles (Don Stroud) is waiting for him. Lyles, a Vietnam veteran, is in the middle of a PTSD flashback and shoots him in the face. The death of “the fag” gets a big cheer and a big laugh from the audience.
Read More
Suspiria (1977) Queer Film (A)
Italian director Dario Argento’s supernatural horror sensation! Jessica Harper is a ballet student whose school is a front for a coven of lesbian witches.
Read More
THE TURNING POINT (1977) Queer Film C+
How this managed to get eleven Oscar nominations only Hollywood knows. Browne and Baryshnikov cannot act and all of their scenes are painful to watch.
Read More
The Goodbye Girl (1977) Queer Film (C)
Unfortunately, Elliot’s director (Paul Benedict) is a raving, mincing queen who insists that Dreyfus play the part of Shakespeare’s Richard III like Bette Midler.
Read More
The Betsy (1978) Queer Film (F)
Loren Hardeman (Paul Ryan Rudd), the heir to Bethlehem Motors, is queer. Loren kills himself – it is Harold Robbins!
Read More