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[green_queen]

dryope posted Ian and Maggie outtakes. I love Maggie's legs.

Yesterday I watched Kinky Boots.

Yet another working-class post-Thatcherism feelgood Brit comedy (see: Billy Elliot, On a Clear Day, The Full Monty.) Granted, they're generally better than American feelgood comedies that leave me feeling more like I've been eating straight sugar for two hours, but the formula is wearing a bit...thin. Still, this one has a lovely GLBT element, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is spectacular as drag queen Lola - but then, it's Chiwetel Ejiofor, so I was expecting nothing less. He has some nice chemistry with Aussie Joel Edgerton as our protagonist, enough that I wondered a couple of times whether Lola might have a crush on him.

There was some lovely backstory on those two characters and their unlikely friendship was really well handled. The girl was cute but not overly important. The best parts of the movie, though, were the close-ups of the making of shoes and Lola's numbers, which Chiwetel sang himself and which are really good.

6 out of 10, probably would have earned more had I really been in the mood for Britcom just then. I prefered On a Clear Day, though.

Tonight, after some Party of Five (OMG little Foxy is so cute with his bad hair, and Laid was playing on the radio but not by Matt Nathanson, and I used to have SUCH a crush on Scott Wolf) I watched The Wedding Banquet.

This is that gay movie Ang Lee made before he made Brokeback Mountain, although you probably couldn't have a cinematic experience further removed from that of Brokeback Mountain if you tried. This movie is all talking and noise and big Taiwanese families and traditions and complicated, tangled lies that get enormously out of hand, where secrets tear people apart and are the only things that hold them together. It's absolutely brilliant. The main character took a bit of time for me to warm up to because he's kind of an unappreciative jerk at first, but he loves his parents so much. I don't really want to spoil anything that happens, but I definitely recommend it. It's bilingual (and the captions are sort of terrible) but not actually a foreign film, being set entirely in America. It also has one of the best endings just about ever.

Ang Lee also gives himself the best line in the movie. He is a genius.

8 out of 10.


I love the Nazgul. Er, I mean, look, Dom! New Zealand Return of the King premiere as recently posted by mata090680.

I'm collating data for my fanfiction vs. canon Supernatural post. 'Collating data' may or may not mean 'constantly getting distracted by reading fanfiction and not actually posting anything.'

Five thousand years of sexual repression
Green Queem

Comments

[garfeimao.livejournal.com]

Kinky Boots was fun, and I think you are supposed to think Lola had a crush on Joel's character. I'm pretty sure that's where the story was leading everyone. Anyhow, I loved the boots best, and you are right, the musical numbers were fun.

Wedding Banquet is a blast, very sweet film. I really enjoyed Ang Lee's early films, and this one is no different. I'm going to recommend a few films I think you really will like. Films from Malaysian/Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0874633/) has some brilliant films that I think are right up your alley.