The Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil
masquerade party, which benefits the Fiesta Youth
nonprofit organization, the host of San Antonio’s premier
LGBT teen and young adult support groups, will take
place Saturday, April 9.
Inspired by their cause, I have highlighted four films from
the New Queer Cinema movement of the early 1990s, a
cultural zeitgeist that provided queer-themed films seeking
to humanize homosexuality and avoid gay stereotypes.
POISON • Todd Haynes, known for Oscar-bait
films like Carol, directed Poison on a micro-budget
that would make most filmmakers gasp in admiration.
Inspired by the novels of Jean Genet, this 1991 flick
interweaves three separate tales that showcase a
bullied student who shoots his father, a scientist who
synthesizes human sexuality and two prison lovers.
The most engaging narrative involves the
aforementioned scientist whose elixir causes his flesh
to decay. He kisses another woman and inadvertently
transfers his disease, causing an outcry of public fear
about this new contagion.
“The world is dying of panicky fright,” we are told,
and this most definitely rang true in regards to the
public’s attitudes toward gay men and the AIDS
epidemic at the time.
THE LIVING END • One of Gregg Araki’s (Doom
Generation) early works, The Living End is riddled with
the director’s trademark nihilistic attitude brought to life
by graffiti slogans and disaffected one-liners, a style that
borrows heavily from the French New Wave.
Our two gay characters set out on a road trip
while coming to terms with their recent HIV-positive
statuses. These characters aren’t the meek gay
archetypes that had been previously embodied in films
such as Longtime Companion. No, The Living End’s characters direct their inner anger outward toward their
homophobic would-be oppressors in acts of violent
aggression. Will the men’s lack of inhibition free them,
or will it force a James Dean ending?
SWOON • This highly stylized 1992 film depicts the
infamous Leopold and Loeb case, in which two men
killed a teenager in 1924. What sets this movie apart
from other Leopold and Loeb depictions is the director’s
focus on the killers’ homosexuality. This is less of a true
crime movie and more of a contemplation on how sexual
manipulation caused an unthinkable crime.
Another travesty of this situation is how the two
men were treated in court. They were referred to as
engaging in “mouth perversions” and having unnatural
lust. They were accused of sexually abusing their
victim despite any physical evidence. Even the topic
of homosexuality was deemed too disgusting for
women in the courtroom to hear. Despite their guilt, the
discrimination these men faced most certainly affected
their sentences of life plus 99 years.
YOUNG SOUL REBELS • Two black British friends
(one gay, one straight) struggle with the recent murder
of their friend Terry, while at the same time operating a
pirate radio station called Soul Patrol. Metrosexual Chris
has dreams of becoming a mainstream radio DJ, while
Caz is more interested in his new beau, a Socialist punk
whose ideologies might get the best of him. Ultimately,
Chris is framed for Terry’s death as he tries to uncover
the true killer.
In some ways, Young Soul Rebels is Do The Right
Thing for the gay set as it focuses on an ensemble cast
in one London neighborhood. In other ways, the film
resembles a mild thriller with killer POV shots ripped
straight from a Dario Argento Giallo. Whatever box the
viewer chooses to place Rebels in, one can’t help but
appreciate the danger of being a gay black man when
there are swastikas and National Front initials painted on
every passing building.
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This article appears in Apr 6-12, 2016.