Five for Pride
With Pride Month in June, there’s no better time to revisit, or maybe discover, some of the best arts and entertainment under the rainbow. From dance-club bangers and groundbreaking series to heartwarming rom-coms and poignant documentaries, and more, there’s no shortage of material that speaks, and sings, to the LGBTQ+ experience. Here are five for Pride:
Ultra Anthem
It’s safe to say that since 1997, Ultra Naté’s now-classic house track, “Free” has been a Pride-parade staple. The heartfelt message is right there in the chorus (“Cause you’re free/to do what you want to do/You’ve got to live your life/Do what you want to do”). And to drive home that empowering message, the tail end of the bridge (“Don’t be scared, your dream’s right there/You want it [you want it], reach for it!”) provides that soulful burst of encouragement to anyone about to embark on a new chapter. There are a number of variations of “Free,” but the “Mood II Swing Radio Mix” is essential for any Pride playlist.
(Chosen) Family Ties
And speaking of embarking on new chapters, in more ways than one, the 1993 limited TV series, “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of City,” set in San Francisco in 1976, follows sheltered Ohio-native Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney’s breakout role) as she decides to go from visiting vacationer to full-time resident. She moves into a utopian-inspired apartment complex on 28 Barbary Lane, run by an eccentric landlady, Anna “Dear, I have no objection to anything” Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis).
Mary Ann befriends her fellow tenants, whose lives are also explored, including Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a gay hopeless romantic. She also begins a new job, dabbles in dating a couple of questionable men (Mary Ann’s namesake says it all: single-ton), and broadens her horizons in the city by the bay. Mary Ann undergoes a kind of “coming-out process” of her own, moving from straight-laced Ohioan to straight ally San Franciscan.
As this six-episode series progresses, the characters’ lives become intertwined, with the series taking on a mysterious, even at times a mystical, tone, with hints of Hitchcock’s Vertigo referenced throughout. Most importantly, the series serves as a love letter to the free-spirited (gay) oasis known as 1970’s San Francisco. Maupin penned several Tales of the City novels, with three additional limited TV series airing over the decades. The original, in particular, remains a clever, comforting celebration of “chosen family” at its finest.
Trick is Full of Treats
The 1999 rom-com, Trick is a smart story that turns what was supposed to be a casual hookup between a shy composer, Gabriel (Christian Campbell, left) and a go-go boy, Mark (J.P. Pitoc, right) into something heartwarming and hilarious. (The scene featuring a monologue by Miss Coco Peru [Clinton Leupp] is one of the many memorable moments.) The film and its soundtrack are perfect companions for Pride: Gabriel pours his heart into writing the catchy “Enter You,” as performed by his friend, Katherine (the comedic revelation that is Tori Spelling); ‘70s soft-pop classics (Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver”; Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman”) get reimagined as ‘90s dance mixes
(Erin Hamilton—Carol Burnett’s daughter—sings the former; Jessica Williams the latter); the instrumental “Trick of Fate/Enter You” plays over a pivotal moment between Gabriel and Mark, sure to induce a googly-eyed sigh. Trick is a testament to kismet, and all the promise and possibility that can unfold when you take your time in life and love.
Pop-Art Portrait
Soup cans in the ‘60s; Studio 54 in the ‘70s, likely two of the many things that come to mind when people think of the legendary artist, Andy Warhol. But in the Netflix documentary series, “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” based on Warhol’s 1989 non-fiction work of the same name, as edited by Pat Hackett, one learns more about the artist’s life behind the canvas and the camera shutter, particularly his personal relationships with interior designer, Jed Johnson, and Hollywood studio executive, Jon Gould, as well as Warhol’s complicated collaboration with fellow influential artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat.
What makes the series so profound is hearing Warhol narrate some of his diary entries, achieved by the use of an AI voiceover program. In his deadpan delivery, Warhol not only shares the mundane moments, but goes deeper to express various insecurities, and later his worries about the AIDS crises in the early ‘80s. It’s those vulnerable revelations that allow the series to become an insightful, poignant portrait.
Ford. Firth. Fab.
Fashion designer, Tom Ford made his directorial debut with 2009’s “A Single Man,” which is based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. Colin Firth plays a 1960s professor named George Falconer, who is devastated by his partner, Jim’s sudden death (the “phone-call scene” was reason enough for Firth’s Academy Award nomination). Heartbroken, George tries to “just get through the goddamn day,” and it’s through flashbacks that the viewer sees how George and Jim met, as well as a few of the ordinary, yet not any less significant, moments from their life together.
In one such flashback, we see both in domestic bliss, lounging together on opposite sides of a couch, reading, and listening to a record, their two dogs sleeping next to them. A proponent of living, and finding the beauty, in the moment (the overarching message of the film), Jim unexpectedly expresses how content and complete his life is with George: “What could be better than being tucked up here with you.” Practically every moment in the film is beautifully shot. A Single Man is chic; poetic; the epitome of style meets substance.
In summary, whether you’re a member or an ally of the community, hopefully you’ll be able to incorporate one or some or perhaps all five picks to celebrate during the month, and beyond. Happy Pride!
Dark Passage: Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals
Intensity permeates Tom Ford’s chilling 2016 thriller, Nocturnal Animals. Amy Adams stars as Susan, a wealthy L.A. art dealer, who’s married to the handsome Hutton (Armie Hammer). One day she receives a novel written by her ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). He dedicates the devastating, deeply disturbing novel to her, which causes her, with every turn of the page, to reflect on her past actions (via flashbacks to Susan and Edward at the promising start of their relationship), present (unhappy) situation with Hutton, and her growing dissatisfaction with her career.
As Susan delves deeper, the viewer also sees the “story-within-a-story,” with Ford jolting the viewer back and forth between the sleek, cold confines of Susan’s ritzy home, and the isolated highways and barren backroads of West Texas, including some menacing inhabitants, that serve as the setting for Edward’s horrifying tale.
Although Nocturnal Animals is written and directed by the famous fashion designer, it offers, in part, provocative commentary on substance vs. style, romantic vs. pragmatic, enough vs. more, and sheds light on the harsh consequences when someone is consumed by the latter instead of the former.