Film critics are usually much too dull to make the news. No one really cares to hear people like Gene Shalit voice their opinions. Hell, we didn’t even know the guy’s Critics Corner segment on the Today’s Show was still airing. We’d just assumed it had finally been relegated to the ranks of cable access.
But the movie buff with the God-awful mustache and unmanageable Afro turns out to be one of the few high profile film critics to crap on our beloved Brokeback Mountain.
Shalit vilifies Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist, calling him a “sexual predator” who “tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.” Call us crazy, but we don’t call shoving someone’s hand onto your own crotch makes you a predator. Just horny as hell and in love.
All this has ticked off the folks at GLAAD (they call Shalit’s review defamatory!) and they want everyone to flood NBC with their angry calls, e-mails, and letters.
How about we take this to the next level?
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But the real victim in all of this is Shalit’s gay son, Pete. It’s not everyday your dad gets on national television and blasts a movie that you, your boyfriend, your queer friends, and the rest of the gay community consider a breakthrough and a masterpiece.
Poor guy must be getting it from all ends today.
Gene Shalit Offers Defamatory Brokeback Review on NBC’s Today [GLAAD]
