February 23, 2001

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Who will get Hollywood's golden boy?

This year's crop of gay and lesbian films is not as strong as last year's

by Kaizaad Kotwal

It's Oscar time already, and after last year's very gay friendly ceremony, this year's nominations had a hard precedent to meet. With Hilary Swank's devastating performance as Teena Brandon in the brilliant Boys Don't Cry, and with American Beauty winning best-film with its gay subplots, the 2000 Academy Awards were awash in a rainbow glow.

This year, several nominations have been given to gay-themed films or actors playing gay characters, but there have been some glaring omissions as well.

Javier Bardem

In the best actor category there is Javier Bardem's nuanced and no-holdsbarred performance as Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls.

In the best actor category there is Javier Bardem's nuanced and no-holds-barred performance as Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls. Bardem, a Spaniard, has turned in a per-

Jamie Bell

formance very worthy of his nomination and if the Oscars were truly about deserving the award, as opposed to politics or marketing, then Bardem would be a sure-fire contender to actually win in this category.

Bardem plays an exiled Cuban author who is persecuted for his homosexuality and comes to New York to find freedom, only to succumb to a devastating death from AIDS. The film and Bardem's performance are unmitigated in their honesty.

Russell Crow, who got his start playing gay in the Australian film The Sum of Us, has been nominated for Gladiator, while Tom · Hanks, who has won before for his gay turn in Philadelphia, is nominated this year for

"Bell's performance is explosive, energetic and brilliant as a young boy whose talent for ballet makes him the focal point of a lot of ridicule. “

Castaway. Both Crowe's and Hanks's nominations are well deserved. Geoffrey Rush has been nominated this year for playing the Marquis de Sade in the film Quills. Some may argue that this nomination is undeserved.

Who should have been nominated in his place is the young Jamie Bell, who plays the title role in the small but amazing film Billy Elliot. Bell's performance is explosive, energetic and brilliant as young boy whose talent for ballet makes him the focal point of a lot of ridicule. Bell's acting and dancing are a rarity in film these days, but sometimes Hollywood doesn't give credit where credit's due.

Billy Elliot should also have been nominated as best film, but it wasn't. It is one of the most touching tales in recent memory to deal with issues of growing up male and different in a world filled with the falsehoods of machismo.

While the film was snubbed in so many ways, its director, first-timer Stephen Daldry, has been nominated for Best Director. That nomination is not necessarily deserved. If the film has any flaws, it is in the occasionally heavy-handed direction. But the Oscars are a funny business.

Lee Hall, who wrote the screenplay for Billy Elliot, has been nominated for Best Original Screenplay and that nomination is well deserved.

Billy Elliot's four nominations make it the most-nominated film of specific interest to gay audiences.

The sweetly observant film Chocolat, about tolerance and accepting difference in a repressive society, is a cinematic metaphor that GLBT folk could identify with strongly. But while Chocolat was a good film, it doesn't deserve a few of its nominations in a year filled with better movies and performances. Harvey Weinstein, infamous for his marketing campaigns, has been able to buy some more nominations for his Miramax Studios this year.

Wonder Boys, with great performances by Michael Douglas, Francis McDormand, Toby McGuire and Robert Downey as a gay literary agent, was also shut out in all the major categories.

This year was simply not as strong as last year for GLBT films. There was no American Beauty or Boys Don't Cry, and the nominations this year reflects that paucity of good gay and lesbian films.

As for who will win on Oscar night March 25, it is anybody's guess. Besides, the Oscars are not really about the best of the year any more. Rather it is about making up for past snubs and giving in to strong marketing by the incomparable likes of Harvey Weinstein. So if you have Weinstein on your side and you have been snubbed in the past, your odds of winning are extremely strong. In the next few weeks, as Oscar fever rises, it will be interesting to see who gets, deservedly or not, to walk away with Hollywood's golden boy.