GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

August 3, 2007

eve

Yep, it's as bad as we feared

'Chuck and Larry' lives down to its TV commercials

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Let's face it: More often than not, Hollywood has had no clue when it makes films

about anyone living on the margins of the culture. In the past, movies about outsiders wouldn't even get green-lighted by a studio, let alone get made.

Women, non-Caucasians, the handicapped and LGBT characters have either been short-shifted with one-dimensional, stereotyped depictions or been ignored altogether. One only need look at the days of blackface, then later when black actors actually got the roles, they played denigrating stereotypes of white folks' ideas of who they were. Who can forget the early Hollywood renditions of Asians where white actors were painted a pallid yellow, had their eyebrows tweezed thin, eye-slits taped narrow and adorned with Fu Manchu mustaches.

Until today, many female characters have had to fit the three dominant categories of the madonna-mother-whore triptych.as deigned by the Hollywood movers and shakers mostly elite, heterosexual white men.

The historical treatment of LGBT characters isn't surprising. Most often they are faithful sidekicks, often of few stereotyped professions: hairdressers, interior designers, florists. Even in a pathbreaking film like

1993's Philadelphia, the leading gay characters were completely desexualized, neutered for Hollywood's consumption.

So you would think that in 2007 when a film like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry opens, all the stereotypes of women,

'In this film's stereotypes, the gays actually get a better deal than the

women and Asians."

gays and Asians would have come a long way. Think again.

I felt my blood pressure rise uncontrollably during the first 15 minutes of the film, where some ridiculously preposterous things are fed to the audience. It doesn't stop

there, but the film does manage to redeem itself at times, creating one of the most bizarre film-going experiences for thinking audiences in recent memory.

Yes, it's just a comedy from the Adam Sandler school-farts, burps, and toilet humor from an adult who never got past teendom. But it needs to be understood for the culture that birthed it and the society that consumes it.

The premise of Chuck and Larry is interesting, one that hasn't been tackled much in cinema, let alone mainstream films. The issue of domestic partner benefits for LGBT citizens has long been a hot button issue, rising even more in temperature as the next presidential election approaches.

Larry Valentine (Kevin James) and Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) are firemen in Brooklyn who go about their usual day, putting out fires, playing the local heroes (particularly after 9-11) and making women swoon, all the while sharing macho moments with their fellow firefighters. There are ass jokes, homoerotic tension, and Sandler's metrosexual moments, all before the gay plot has even entered the picture.

Larry's wife has recently died and there is some technical snafu in his life insurance. His children will lose out if he doesn't do Continued on page 10

Mrs. Pitt

Dykes Towatch Out For by Alison Bechdel

summer of vice

WHAT ARE OUR

FRETFUL FRIENDS UP TO

8/8

THIS LAZY AUGUST SUNDAY?

GOOD, APPARENTLY.

511

EXPLORING S/M

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY COMPUTER?

READING YOUR EMAILS WITH MADELEINE.

HOW VERY DICK CHENEY OF YOU. WILL I BE RENDERED TO A BLACK SITE IN ROMANIA AFTER BRUNCH?

Mrs. Timberlake

Adam Sandler and Kevin James as Chuck and Larry

YOU TOLD HER YOU LOVED HER.

MO, THAT'S JUST A BREAKING THE SABBATH FIGURE OF SPEECH! I LOVE YOU.

DO YOU REALLY WANT

IT?

ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE READY?

OKAY, BETH. WE ACCEPT THEIR COUNTEROFFER.

BUT THEY'RE STILL GOING TO FIX THE LEAKY DOWNSTAIRS TOILET, RIGHT?

PREACHING AND NOT PRACTICING

MO, WHY DO YOU STAY WITH HER WHEN SHE TREATS YOU LIKE THAT?

PROBABLY FOR THE SAME REASON YOU KEEP LIVING WITH TONI EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE MAKING EACH OTHER MISERABLE.)

AVAC

HELL, PROBABLY FOR THE SAME REASON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLINGS TO THEIR IRAQ POLICY.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH YOU THERE. I'M PRETTY SURE HALLIBURTON'S NOT MAKING A CENT OFF THE IMPLOSION OF MY LIFE.

www.DykesToWatchOutfor.com

YES.

HARRY

POTTER VICIOUS VEEP

AND THE

YES!

YES! DO IT!

LIVING IN

DREAM.

SO THIS IS REALLY IT. I KNOW IT'S HARD, BUT TRUST ME, NO ONE'S SADDER THAN I AM. I'LL

BE MOVING RIGHT AFTER MY CLOSING ON THE THIRTIETH.

PETITIONS

OH. I KINDA THOUGHT YOU'D BE OUT SOONER. I'M EXPANDING OUR OFFICES INTO YOUR ROOM NOW THAT THE MOVEMENT'S FINALLY GAINING SOME TRACTION.

IMPEAC

CHENEY www

MPEACH

S&CHENEY