Thursday Movie Picks - Deserts

Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join us on our journey by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and writing a bit about them!

This week, on Thursday Movie Picks, it's hot and dry. Not a drop of water to be found, we are surrounded by the yellow sands of the desert. Feel the sun beating down with oppressive heat, feel the grits of sand that get caught in orifices you didn't even know you had... it's not fun, but thankfully, we only have to watch, not actually experience it ourselves!

Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Marlene Dietrich, in a tuxedo, swanning through a French song with nary a care, kissing a woman full on the lips. Ah, the glorious days pre-Hays Code! Movies have never quite recovered from that, have they? Anyway, Morocco is all about how the heat of the desert can inflame passions to the point of explosion, as Gary Cooper's foreign legionnaire romances Dietrich's lounge singer despite the fact that they both admit that neither one of them is in a good place to be having a romantic relationship. If you've never seen it, it's VERY much worth a watch.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994) From the sublime to the ridiculous...ly FABULOUS! Three Australian drag queens hop on a bus to travel to a gig across the country, upending expectations and bringing fabulosity wherever they go. When they aren't squabbling, that is. Featuring some beautiful scenery, mind-blowing costumes, and three unbelievably against-type performances by Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce. Priscilla looks at how the harshness of the desert landscape can bring out the harshness within us, if you aren't careful.

Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) Extrapolating Herman Melville's famous novella Billy Budd into an elliptical examination of toxic masculinity and repressed homosexuality, Claire Denis's Beau Travail is completely brilliant, if you have the patience of a saint. Not gonna lie, this is a tough sit, but an utterly beguiling one, as a group of foreign legion soldiers in Djibouti is disrupted by the arrival of a pretty, young, innocent thing by the name of Sentain, who invokes the ire of their leader, Galoup. Passions can run high in the desert, so you need to watch your back.

Thursday Movie Picks - Road Trip Movies

Written for the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join us by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling us something about them. It's fun - I promise!

There's a bit of a theme with my picks this week. Allow me to explain: June was Gay Pride Month. And not only was this year my first Pride in NYC, it was my first time attending a Pride parade March EVER. I can't even tell you how incredible it was, ESPECIALLY since the tremendous Supreme Court decision on gay marriage came down the Friday of Pride weekend. I was so thankful I had that day off from work, because I would NOT have gotten ANY work done. Between reading news items, watching CNN, and checking/posting to Facebook, that was all I did that day.

Well, that and crying.

I haven't ever thought about getting married - I'm not sure that it's something I want - but the fact that now the highest court in the land has affirmed my right to do so ANYWHERE in these fifty United States of America, well, it's a pretty powerful feeling, and was a bit overwhelming at the time. That night I went to down to Greenwich Village, to the Stonewall Inn (site of the famous riots that started the Gay Pride movement, the subject of Roland Emmerich's upcoming film) and it was a mob scene. You could barely move anywhere, but you could feel the LOVE permeating the air, the joy of everyone's spirits. And then you looked up and saw Freedom Tower and the Empire State Building lit up in rainbow colors... I am so glad I was in New York for this. There have been several moments since moving here in September that I've been happy I moved here, but none more so than that night. It was truly special, something magical.

All of which was a long way of saying: The gays have been on the brain. So, these Road Trip picks are LGBTQ-centric.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994) Surely the most fabulous road trip ever filmed. "Priscilla" is an old bus taking three Australian drag queens (Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce - yes, THAT Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce!) through the outback to a gig on the other side of the continent. Come for the (deservedly) Oscar-winning costumes (some of which cost all of $7 to make out of stuff from a K-Mart!), stay for the revelatory performances from the three leads, all of whom have become famous for far different kinds of roles.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (Beeban Kidron, 1995) This pseudo-remake of Priscilla written by the great Douglas Carter Beane isn't as subtle or quirky as its predecessor, but I still kinda love it. John Leguizamo, Patrick Swayze, and Wesley Snipes (of all people) turn in some of their best performances in this as two veteran queens and one newbie Q.I.T. (that's Queen In Training) driving across America for a beauty pageant. It's formulaic sure, but it's surprisingly funny, and all the performances (especially Chris Penn and Stockard Channing in supporting roles) are generous of heart and spirit. Think of the balls it took for these stars to take these roles when they did! I still almost can't believe it.

Transamerica (Duncan Tucker, 2005) Felicity Huffman was robbed of an Oscar for her stunning work as Bree, a male-to-female transsexual on the verge of completing her transition when she gets a phone call from a son she didn't know she had. The kid (Kevin Zeegers) is a hustler, of course, and before you know it he's talked his way into having Bree drive him cross-country, even though he may be onto - and may not like - the fact that Bree is transitioning. The film pulls no punches, but Huffman finds plenty of funny in places you'd never think of. Bonus points for the lovely Dolly Parton song "Travellin' Thru", also robbed of an Oscar.