It’s an amazing week for home entertainment, with Blu-ray and DVD releases for the Oscar-winning Alan Turing pic The Imitation Game (above); Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar; autobiographical import about growing up gay in Morocco, Salvation Army; and a campy indie queer Seattle flick, Fallen Jewel.
Now for the details…
($34.99 Blu-ray, $39.99 DVD; )
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays gay genius Alan Turing, who cracked the Nazis’ Enigma Code during WWII and ultimately helped hand the allies a victory. While this biopic — which won best screenplay — skimps on the gay aspect, it’s still a solid watch. Extras include a making-of, deleted scenes, commentary and Q&As from several post-screenings.
($24.99 DVD; Strand)
Writer/director Abdellah Taïa’s film, adapted from his own heavily autobiographical novel, chronicles the emerging queer adolescence and tumultuous family life of 15-year-old Abdellah in down-low Morocco, where horny adult closet cases are keen to take advantage of his sexual curiosity, a later relationship with a Swiss professor, and eventual emigration to Geneva, Switzerland. It’s well-done, moving and thoughtful.
($39.99 Blu-ray, $29.99 DVD: Paramount)
Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic stars Matthew McConaughey as a father tasked with saving a dying earth’s population through a last-chance space mission to find a new planet to colonize. It’s a bit long and downright sappy in spots, but there are also big thrills, twists, really cool robots and a major cameo. Extras include a bevy of featurettes on the science behind the sci-fi and the film’s making.
($24.99 DVD: Ariztical Entertainment)
Seattle’s gender-bending, Julliard-trained boylesque performer Waxie Moon stars in this zany, campy, and way way way queer fantasia. Extras include an introduction from fellow Seattlelite Jinx Monsoon and deleted scenes.
ALSO OUT:
The Rewrite
AtticusBennett
My dad (a true sci-fi fan) and I saw Interstellar and were mostly bored senseless. Two dudes that love intense character dramas, and sic-fi, and yet the film was an almost complete and total snooze.
Also, it had the most obnoxious sound-mix of any film in the last year.
LOVE The Imitation Game – excellent filmmaking, with a collection of pitch-perfect performances essayed by a tremendous cast. And I really don’t think it “skimped” on the gay issues.
Homophobia was right up there on screen; the prejudice and persecution. So was love – the heartbeat of the film is Christopher’s impact on Turing – and the scenes of young Turing and Christopher together at school are heartbreaking. So, we didn’t get to see Alan kiss or make love to a man? We instead see his declaration of “i love you” to the guy he loved. That’s pretty gay, if you ask me. AND, if you have the eyes to see it, there is indeed a touching physical connection between the younger Turing and Christopher.
it’s a terrific film that people need to see.
Giancarlo85
Interstellar was a big sloppy borefest. It just tried to do too much and it didn’t do it well. I like Matthew McConaughey (did I spell his name right)… but even he couldn’t save that movie.
tricky ricky
@AtticusBennett: thank you. you have confirmed my suspicions about interstellar.
tdx3fan
Imitation Game sucked. It was not only a horrible movie, but they did an amazingly great job at heterowashing a person that was basically put to death for no other reason than being gay. I would not consider it a gay movie. I would consider it a historical drama, so if that is your thing then watch it for that. Do not watch it thinking it has anything to do with being gay though.
MarionPaige
@tdx3fan: “Imitation Game sucked.”
I agree 1000 per cent. It was more than boring it was insulting to gay people and to movie producers who are actually trying to inform the public about injustices.
Imitation Game is a “Paint-by-Numbers” CHEAPLY DONE, Oscar bait monstrosity. It’s like Harvey Weinstein looked as the movie MILK and told his minions to whip up a movie with a gay victim and English accents (for a run at an Oscar and box office receipts).
It also seems that “some gay people” never fail to fall for crumbs thrown at them by hustlers out to make a buck (like Madonna and The Imitation Game).
Ian's Gold Win
where can i watch salvation army on streaming???
ChiChi Man
@MarionPaige: Ouch! But every word you wrote is true.
Merv
@Ian’s Gold Win: Salvation Army is now on Netflix streaming (US).
AtticusBennett
It’s obvious tdx and marionpage have not seen The Imitation Game. at all.
AtticusBennett
because a film in which a closeted-homosexual man, whose need for secrecy played a role in his fascination with codes, (because, you know, this was WWII) whose undying love for another man inspired his groundbreaking work, and ended up being chemically-castrated for being a “confirmed homosexual” who was caught have dalliances with other men is “not gay”….rigth?
that’s the logic of you idiots who haven’t even seen the film? you boys don’t know a thing about history, or Turing, or cinema.
“we didn’t see him lick semen off another man’s penis, so there’s really nothing gay in this film. all those discussions of his homosexuality don’t count. his declaration of love to another male doesn’t count. we need to see sex or making out or it doesn’t count”
you’re both morons.
jwtraveler
@Giancarlo85: Good spelling. That’s a tough one.
MarionPaige
@AtticusBennett: “you boys don’t know a thing about history, or Turing.”
See, what is really great for the world and the gay community is that there has in fact been a lot written about Turing and there have been previous movies / telemovies and books about Turing. WE KNOW that Turing wasn’t this fragile pussy man Cubersomebatch turned him into in Imitation Game.
One of the things that stood out for me about stories of Turing life is that Turing reportedly contacted the family of his school friend Christopher and asked them for a picture of Christopher AND he became lifelong friends with Christopher’s parents. In Imitation Game, one gets the impression that Turing didn’t even acknowledge to his schoolmaster than he and Christopher were friends. In one telemovie, Christopher is shown visiting Turing’s house and meeting Turing’s mother.
IMITATING GAME’s CON is: “We showed you this pathetic queer who died and we gave you English Accents – THAT makes us a legitimate Oscar worthy movie (even though we used stock black and white world war II clips because we were too cheap to colorize them)”.
AtticusBennett
based on a true story – not “a documentary” – things are changed for artistic license, so it works as a film. did you know harvey milk had many other boyfriends, up until his death? “MILK” leaves that out, not because of “shame” – but because a narrative has to be streamlined to work as a film.
RAY – the ray charles biopic – liberties taken with the stories of them women in his life, too. timelines altered, some characters turned into composites, etc.
you haven’t seen the film. it’s obvious.
pathetic queer who died? what film did you see? i saw a brilliant man who changed and saved the world who was punished by the world he saved, and its ignorance.
yes. in The Imitation Game Turing, as a child, has a profound emotional sadness and fear (of being FOUND OUT) when informed of Christopher’s death. artistic. license. which you clearly don’t understand, amongst no doubt many things.
thanks for explaining your idiocy.
MarionPaige
@AtticusBennett: “It’s obvious tdx and marionpage have not seen The Imitation Game. at all.”
I remind you that in a previous post here on Imitation Game YOU kept referring to Turing’s school friend in the movie as Charlie (until someone pointed out to you that the friend’s name was Christopher – Turing even names his machine Christopher in the movie for Christ’s sake).
MarionPaige
BTW, there was literally a Witch Hunt going on in England during WWII as a result of an infamous spy ring in which some of the players were gay. For all that they may / did accomplish in his short life, Turing was supremely naive to assume that his sexuality would not be a problem. I’m pretty sure the punishment for treason or suspected treason is more severe than chemical castration. There was some reference (that I did not explore) that some guy Turing met in Norway could have been a known spy.
AtticusBennett
@MarionPaige:
…what accents would you have preferred these british actors use while playing british characters?
the film effectively showed exactly how britain repaid the man who saved them from all having to speak german.
MarionPaige
See, I think you are confusing the individual Turing with the cheap shit fest that is the movie Imitation Game.
It’s like …
Some people get emotional when a child is put in danger in a movie and others of us think it is a cheap shot for a movie to fall back on trying to get an emotional response from the audience by putting a child in danger.
It has to do with seeing that you are being manipulated and recognizing that the person(s) attempting to manipulate you THINK THAT YOU ARE SO DUMB that all they have to do to get an emotional response from you is to throw up some victimized character and some nice British accents.
AtticusBennett
that didn’t make one lick of sense. it’s a film. not a documentary. based on a true story. not “a literal assemblage of lit era events presented in chronological order”
it’s a film.
i know and understand what films are. yeah. all they had to do was assemble a fine cast of some of Britain’s absolute best actors, acting out the actions in a screenplay that balanced humour, suspense, and massive heaps of emotional resonance, all wrapped up in a terrific technical package of wonderful filmmaking.
your posts show what a lame human being you are. so thanks!
MarionPaige
if you couldn’t see “the strings”, the manipulation and the very obvious marketing in Imitation Game, you must be absolutely convinced that Steven Spielberg is a genius.
AtticusBennett
@MarionPaige: i suppose you’re saying that the only films you ever watch or consider worthy of acclaim are documentaries that consist solely of basic facts being displayed with no filmic conceits.
and Spielberg is one of the most effective utilizers of film theory: audience manipulation elevated to art. Jaws. Duel. ET. The Color Purple. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jurassic Park. Minority Report. Catch me If you Can. those are among his most “commercial” films and they’re absolutely spectacular entertainment. which is their entire raison d’être. to entertain.
we get it. you don’t have a solid argument so you’re going to now unintelligently rant against popular cinema.
you complain about british accents a lot. you’re very odd.
MarionPaige
ON ANOTHER FRONT, I thought Interstellar (and its disposable earth message) was crap. Another cheap and failed attempt at being thought provoking. It’s okay to Trash this earth because there are billions of other earths we can run to.
But then again, I thought Inception was also crap. There is a book about a man with unlimited memory and the way his memory was described as working was nothing like anything in Inception. It was more like THE MEMORY WAREHOUSE in the movie Dreamcatcher
https://youtu.be/TeqFXHhDEM4