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eumeliaWill wonders never cease.
No, this isn't the Eames of Inception meta I've been threatening, alas, that will probably be on hold until I have my own copy of the movie so that I can analyse every scene he's in - because dude, it's all about the clothes, mannerisms and his turn of phrase and... yeah.
Any way, ever since I saw Inception I've been going over other movies I've missed due to having awful Hollywood taste and skipping a bunch of indie flicks that had Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page in them.
The films I'll be mentioning are: "500 Days of Summer", "Mysterious Skin", "Shadowboxer", "Smart People", "Whip It", "RockNRolla" and "Bronson".
This post may contain spoilers regarding some characters, but I'll be doing my best to keep plot out of it.
Don't say I didn't tell you!
500 Days of Summer, possibly one of the most charming movies ever. Zooey Deschanel really can't act, alas. She's very cute, but honestly, I've seen her in several roles and in all of them she's this flighty, eccentric, unable to inflect her speech pixie!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was brilliant. As was the little girl who played his sister, she was only in a couple of scenes, but she really kicked-ass (yes that was intentional, as that little girl is Chloe Moretz, she of Kick-Ass fame, the little heroine Hit-Girl).
As a little sister myself, I identified with her mostly, she was also the most straight forward and intelligent character, so yeah.
But god, JGL has eyes that project everything out of whatever he wants.
Mysterious Skin... Jesus. Fantastic movie, I'm never seeing it again if I can help it. Watching it was harrowing. Just, fuck. If you haven't seen it, do. If you have, you know what I'm talking about.
Shadowboxer in which JGL is in only a few scenes as well, but has very funny (yet tragic) banter with Mo'Nique... I don't know how many have seen this film, I'm under the impression that it went under the radar compared to Lee Daniels' newer film (which I haven't seen) Precious (a little slef-allusion going on, or a simple coincidence, as Mo'Nique's character's name in Shadowboxer is "Precious".
Though in this movie the people to watch are Hellen Mirren - who plays an ex-patriot assassin(!!!), Cuba Gooding Jr - Dude... now that was a performance, fucking hell, why isn't he doing more stuff like this! And Stephen Dorff - an actor I've enjoyed for years now (Blade, Blood and Wine, I Shot Andy Warhol), he's bloody fantastic as a deranged villain and I wonder if he's simply been type cast ever since Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, how I love thee, let me count the ways - Divine, Divine, Divine).
By the way, Joseph Gordon-Levitt covers songs by women and listening to him singing "Express Yourself", "Bad Romance" and "Natural Woman" is just fucking grand.
The man is scarily talented.
Watching all those movies made me appreciate him a whole lot more - There's barely an audience here for Indie Cinema and the Cinemateques are not very close by to me and I generally miss screenings and had no idea these movies even existed until I see a mainstream movie, go to IMDB and find out that whoa! These people are prolific!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is awesome y'all!
Ellen Page is lovely. She really is. Obviously I'd seen Juno, because everyone had seen Juno and I saw her as Kitty Pride in the third X-Men movie and she was very sweet there as well.
I've yet to see Hard Candy and yes, I know, it's a huge cavern in my film viewing arsenal, but I saw other movies instead!
Had anyone seen Smart People? Tiny movie, grand actors - though Sarah Jessica Parker always strikes me as a strange choice, as she has zero screen presence and Dennis Quaid has about two expressions in his entire repertoire - miserable and manic - add facial hair and you have a bit of a wooden performance.
But Ellen, oh Ellen, she was so adorable as the bitchy Young Republican teenager, who, unlike Juno, is so insecure in her own superiority she lashes out on an uncle who's presence in the film is reminiscent of that as a guardian angel.
She steals every scene she's in, she has screen presence which really belies her tiny-ness, because really, she is and her banter with the other actors is hilarious. Deadpan snarkers are the best.
Whip It, yes I know, it was a hit and I missed it the first time in came around, but I watched about a week ago and damn, if I wasn't a scardy cat I'd put on a pair of wheels and fly. Lovely, just lovely. Feminist Third-Wave, with a little bisexual allusions... it's all good.
Ellen Page kicking ass and taking names, that's what I'm talking about!
Tom Hardy is a curious case. As it happens, except Bronson (which I will get to), I'd actually seen most of the feature films he'd been in! (he's acted in a few British mini-series and drama shows, which I've yet to see). Like Layer Cake - I've seen that a few times, because of Daniel Craig and Burn Gorman! And there he is on IMDB, Mr. Eames!
Not to mention Star Trek: Nemesis, which really, let's not mention it.
And Rock N Rolla the underrated (and also not as good as previous) Ritchie film. The first Guy Ritchie film (correct me if I'm wrong) with a canon gay character! A canon gay character played by a much thinner and inelegant Tom Hardy. Dude, I saw that movie over a year ago and I did not recognise Tom Hardy in Inception as an actor I'd seen before - none of that "Hey, it's that guy!" which I had with Tom Berenger and Pete Postlethwaite. Nothing, I just did not recognise him.
And then, of course, I did.
The man is a real chameleon, so once again, when I saw Bronson in which he packed on I dunno how much weight in muscle and looked like a demented Strong-Man who escaped from the side-show I really didn't know what to think.
Add to that extremely disturbing scenes in which there was surprise nudity of the un-erotic kind, cross dressing and a script in which the humour managed to contain the violence in a manner I hadn't seen since A Clockwork Orange (yeah, really!) I was totally enamoured of Tom Hardy as an actor.
See that movie. The violence really isn't gratuitous, and that makes it all the more disturbing and amazing.
God I love movies.
Getting back to Rock N Rolla for a mo'.
When I saw it all those many moons ago I expected to go online and find a whole slew of fanfiction! A canon gay character! A canon gay character with a crush! A canon gay character in the same 'verse as Jason Statham! (*wink-wink nudge-nudge*)
And 'lo, there was none. Or more to the point, barely any.
What with Tom Hardy's sudden popularity, the movie is getting rewatched and there were at least ten new fics I've found since I'd seen Inception back in August.
I find that interesting. I'm not really all that sure what to make of it. Especially considering that Eames, as a character, most definitely put ambiguous vibes sexuality and gender wise, there's nothing in the actual text to suggest that he's queer in any way - he's just got excellent chemistry with everyone.
Handsome Bob (Ritchie, you love your Statham*, don't you?) played by Tom Hardy is very much not ambiguous, seeing as he comes out to the audience and protagonist early on and would appear to have been out to everyone else since before the events of the movie!
I'm wondering if it's because of this lack of ambiguity and the very real reaction that came from the character to whom Handsome Bob came out that there were barely any takers. I have a few fic ideas, but it takes me forever to write and I'm not very prolific, so don't expect anything from any time soon.
The more I think about, it really could be the fact that there was a reaction to the fact that here's a masculine bloke who likes the romantic and erotic company of other blokes, and the other blokes in the movie make it clear that being gay isn't as good as being straight in various and sundry ways - most of them are ambiguous in their malice, as in, clearly the actions were homophobic but it's unclear how much of it came from actual hatred of gay men and how much of it a part of macho gangster life.
That kind of ambiguity is rare. So often, you see a polarised split in reaction, not to mention the gay characters themselves are usually so stereotyped it's hard to watch... but in this film, the performances felt... friendly... a dangerously awkward moment in which I feared there would be yet-another-dead-queer-on-screen... but ended up being sweet and touching, throughout the film.
I think the fact that there was this reaction existed on screen, jostled the slash goggles a bit.
Your own thoughts on this?
Footnotes
* In case you weren't aware, Jason Statham played a character named "Handsome Rob" in the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, where he plays a fast driving British lady's man. Handsome Bob, is also the driver for the East End gang he's a member of - he's also referred to as a "lady killer" at a certain point... only, he's a gay man. Yeah.
Back to Text
No, this isn't the Eames of Inception meta I've been threatening, alas, that will probably be on hold until I have my own copy of the movie so that I can analyse every scene he's in - because dude, it's all about the clothes, mannerisms and his turn of phrase and... yeah.
Any way, ever since I saw Inception I've been going over other movies I've missed due to having awful Hollywood taste and skipping a bunch of indie flicks that had Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page in them.
The films I'll be mentioning are: "500 Days of Summer", "Mysterious Skin", "Shadowboxer", "Smart People", "Whip It", "RockNRolla" and "Bronson".
This post may contain spoilers regarding some characters, but I'll be doing my best to keep plot out of it.
Don't say I didn't tell you!
500 Days of Summer, possibly one of the most charming movies ever. Zooey Deschanel really can't act, alas. She's very cute, but honestly, I've seen her in several roles and in all of them she's this flighty, eccentric, unable to inflect her speech pixie!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was brilliant. As was the little girl who played his sister, she was only in a couple of scenes, but she really kicked-ass (yes that was intentional, as that little girl is Chloe Moretz, she of Kick-Ass fame, the little heroine Hit-Girl).
As a little sister myself, I identified with her mostly, she was also the most straight forward and intelligent character, so yeah.
But god, JGL has eyes that project everything out of whatever he wants.
Mysterious Skin... Jesus. Fantastic movie, I'm never seeing it again if I can help it. Watching it was harrowing. Just, fuck. If you haven't seen it, do. If you have, you know what I'm talking about.
Shadowboxer in which JGL is in only a few scenes as well, but has very funny (yet tragic) banter with Mo'Nique... I don't know how many have seen this film, I'm under the impression that it went under the radar compared to Lee Daniels' newer film (which I haven't seen) Precious (a little slef-allusion going on, or a simple coincidence, as Mo'Nique's character's name in Shadowboxer is "Precious".
Though in this movie the people to watch are Hellen Mirren - who plays an ex-patriot assassin(!!!), Cuba Gooding Jr - Dude... now that was a performance, fucking hell, why isn't he doing more stuff like this! And Stephen Dorff - an actor I've enjoyed for years now (Blade, Blood and Wine, I Shot Andy Warhol), he's bloody fantastic as a deranged villain and I wonder if he's simply been type cast ever since Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, how I love thee, let me count the ways - Divine, Divine, Divine).
By the way, Joseph Gordon-Levitt covers songs by women and listening to him singing "Express Yourself", "Bad Romance" and "Natural Woman" is just fucking grand.
The man is scarily talented.
Watching all those movies made me appreciate him a whole lot more - There's barely an audience here for Indie Cinema and the Cinemateques are not very close by to me and I generally miss screenings and had no idea these movies even existed until I see a mainstream movie, go to IMDB and find out that whoa! These people are prolific!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is awesome y'all!
Ellen Page is lovely. She really is. Obviously I'd seen Juno, because everyone had seen Juno and I saw her as Kitty Pride in the third X-Men movie and she was very sweet there as well.
I've yet to see Hard Candy and yes, I know, it's a huge cavern in my film viewing arsenal, but I saw other movies instead!
Had anyone seen Smart People? Tiny movie, grand actors - though Sarah Jessica Parker always strikes me as a strange choice, as she has zero screen presence and Dennis Quaid has about two expressions in his entire repertoire - miserable and manic - add facial hair and you have a bit of a wooden performance.
But Ellen, oh Ellen, she was so adorable as the bitchy Young Republican teenager, who, unlike Juno, is so insecure in her own superiority she lashes out on an uncle who's presence in the film is reminiscent of that as a guardian angel.
She steals every scene she's in, she has screen presence which really belies her tiny-ness, because really, she is and her banter with the other actors is hilarious. Deadpan snarkers are the best.
Whip It, yes I know, it was a hit and I missed it the first time in came around, but I watched about a week ago and damn, if I wasn't a scardy cat I'd put on a pair of wheels and fly. Lovely, just lovely. Feminist Third-Wave, with a little bisexual allusions... it's all good.
Ellen Page kicking ass and taking names, that's what I'm talking about!
Tom Hardy is a curious case. As it happens, except Bronson (which I will get to), I'd actually seen most of the feature films he'd been in! (he's acted in a few British mini-series and drama shows, which I've yet to see). Like Layer Cake - I've seen that a few times, because of Daniel Craig and Burn Gorman! And there he is on IMDB, Mr. Eames!
Not to mention Star Trek: Nemesis, which really, let's not mention it.
And Rock N Rolla the underrated (and also not as good as previous) Ritchie film. The first Guy Ritchie film (correct me if I'm wrong) with a canon gay character! A canon gay character played by a much thinner and inelegant Tom Hardy. Dude, I saw that movie over a year ago and I did not recognise Tom Hardy in Inception as an actor I'd seen before - none of that "Hey, it's that guy!" which I had with Tom Berenger and Pete Postlethwaite. Nothing, I just did not recognise him.
And then, of course, I did.
The man is a real chameleon, so once again, when I saw Bronson in which he packed on I dunno how much weight in muscle and looked like a demented Strong-Man who escaped from the side-show I really didn't know what to think.
Add to that extremely disturbing scenes in which there was surprise nudity of the un-erotic kind, cross dressing and a script in which the humour managed to contain the violence in a manner I hadn't seen since A Clockwork Orange (yeah, really!) I was totally enamoured of Tom Hardy as an actor.
See that movie. The violence really isn't gratuitous, and that makes it all the more disturbing and amazing.
God I love movies.
Getting back to Rock N Rolla for a mo'.
When I saw it all those many moons ago I expected to go online and find a whole slew of fanfiction! A canon gay character! A canon gay character with a crush! A canon gay character in the same 'verse as Jason Statham! (*wink-wink nudge-nudge*)
And 'lo, there was none. Or more to the point, barely any.
What with Tom Hardy's sudden popularity, the movie is getting rewatched and there were at least ten new fics I've found since I'd seen Inception back in August.
I find that interesting. I'm not really all that sure what to make of it. Especially considering that Eames, as a character, most definitely put ambiguous vibes sexuality and gender wise, there's nothing in the actual text to suggest that he's queer in any way - he's just got excellent chemistry with everyone.
Handsome Bob (Ritchie, you love your Statham*, don't you?) played by Tom Hardy is very much not ambiguous, seeing as he comes out to the audience and protagonist early on and would appear to have been out to everyone else since before the events of the movie!
I'm wondering if it's because of this lack of ambiguity and the very real reaction that came from the character to whom Handsome Bob came out that there were barely any takers. I have a few fic ideas, but it takes me forever to write and I'm not very prolific, so don't expect anything from any time soon.
The more I think about, it really could be the fact that there was a reaction to the fact that here's a masculine bloke who likes the romantic and erotic company of other blokes, and the other blokes in the movie make it clear that being gay isn't as good as being straight in various and sundry ways - most of them are ambiguous in their malice, as in, clearly the actions were homophobic but it's unclear how much of it came from actual hatred of gay men and how much of it a part of macho gangster life.
That kind of ambiguity is rare. So often, you see a polarised split in reaction, not to mention the gay characters themselves are usually so stereotyped it's hard to watch... but in this film, the performances felt... friendly... a dangerously awkward moment in which I feared there would be yet-another-dead-queer-on-screen... but ended up being sweet and touching, throughout the film.
I think the fact that there was this reaction existed on screen, jostled the slash goggles a bit.
Your own thoughts on this?
Footnotes
* In case you weren't aware, Jason Statham played a character named "Handsome Rob" in the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, where he plays a fast driving British lady's man. Handsome Bob, is also the driver for the East End gang he's a member of - he's also referred to as a "lady killer" at a certain point... only, he's a gay man. Yeah.
Back to Text
