Commentary – Why Hollywood Avoids Gay Movies
An essay from Edge Boston by Scott Stiffler.
As we mentioned in last week’s story on gay Israeli cinema, in the three years since “Brokeback Mountain,” the American film industry has failed to deliver on the promise of delivering mainstream films with gay themes. Instead of, say, the long-awaited film of “The Front Runner” (a project that has lingered for 30 years), we get “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry,” a comedy whose jokes are at the expense of a gay marriage. And aside from a handful of more thoughtful gay independent films (”Shelter,” “Ciao”), there have been the plethora of harmless, though hardly edifying sex comedies, such as “Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!” and “Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds” that qualify as guilty pleasures at best.
It’s as true today as it was last week; and the truth hurts. Is the absence of mainstream LGBT-themed films a matter of economics, lack of quality, or the reluctance of studios to greenlight and market “niche” films? All of the above and more, according to our panel of experts – who weighed in on the current state of American LGBT cinema, recent homo-friendly Sundance films, the curious case of “Milk,” and the thorny question of Sean “Harvey Milk” Penn’s possible homophobia.
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