Brideshead Revisited 30th Anniversary Edition
($59.99 DVD, $69.99 Blu-ray; Acorn Media)
Considered by many to be the greatest TV miniseries in history, the 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel introduced American audiences to Jeremy Irons and the homoerotic tensions of young Englishmen between the wars (sigh). This 30th-anniversary edition includes the documentary Revisiting Brideshead and new commentaries.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
($23.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray: Warner Bros)
Middle-aged Cal’s perfect life is turned upside down when he discovers his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Things get “crazy” (well, relatively so) when the hapless Cal becomes the wingman for handsome lothario Jacob (Ryan Gosling). Sweet but flawed, Crazy delivers a stellar cast and ample scenes of Gosling looking absolutely delectable.
Flight of the Cardinal
($19.95 DVD, Water Bearer Films)
Director Robert Gaston, the gay Roman Polanski who brought us Open Cam and 2 Minutes Later, delivers another mystery-thriller: A rural North Carolina innkeeper (Ross Beschler) endures a The Big Chill-gone-wrong reunion, with a possibly dangerous, albeit super-cute con artist (David J. Bonner) thrown in the mix. Add full-frontal male nudity, out gay-fave actor Matthew Montgomery, delicious slow-burn suspense and serve!
From Here to Timbuktu
($29.99 DVD, Oracle Releasing)
Oracle Releasing’s quintet of international queer shorts come to us from Japan, Russia, Slovenia, Australia and the U.S. and touch on themes ranging from love triangles to newfound romance. Judging from this lot, gay boy drama knows no borders—or running times.
Go Go Crazy
($24.99 DVD, QC Cinema)
Fred M. Caruso (Big Gay Musical) helms a zany mockumentary following the screwy subjects of a gay go-go boy contest. With hot bods, backstabbing hijinks, and hysterical drag comedian Hedda Lettuce as the emcee, it feels like a homo-fied Christopher Guest movie. Double-down on comedic boylesque action this week with Go Go Reject.
Also This Week:
Cars 2 (Disney)
Going Places (Kino Lorber)
Tabloid (Sundance Selects)
christopher di spirito
Ryan Gosling can flap his manhood in front of me anytime.
yolanda
Irons is always sexy even now
Michael Bedwell
“THE greatest”? Uh, how “many” think that? In any case, incomprehensibly, PBS chose rabid homophobe and all-around neo fascist William F. Buckley to host the series when it was shown in the US in 1982. We assume it was because he liked to think of himself as a Brit and was a ridiculously obsessive Catholic like many of the story’s characters. But those infamous Great Fake Liberals at PBS chose to forget that, among other things, Buckley had called Gore Vidal a “queer” on live television in response to
Vidal having used Buckley’s own term back at him for protestors at the 1964 Democratic National Convention who were getting beaten up by Chicago cops—”pro crypto Nazi.” [But that paled at what Buckley wrote four years after the “Brideshead” broadcast—suggesting any man with AIDS should have a tattoo indicating same on his ass—a belief he reaffirmed years later.] While the series turned tedious once Sebastian left, that it was
still treasured despite having to sit through Buckley’s slithering-tongue commentary
speaks to how great those first episodes were.