'Cher: The Film Collection'
Cher's throwing herself back onto the big-screen with "Burlesque," but let's turn back time for a second to the enduring, do-it-all icon's breakout role, one that required some same-sex loving. You know the one: "Silkwood," the based-on-a-true-story 1983 film that cast the actress as the Meryl Streep-doting, frumpy (no Bob Mackie for you, Cher!) lesbian roomie, Dolly Pelliker. That dramatic fare, which rightly earned her the first Oscar nod of her career, is one of six films featured in this Cher retrospective – a collection that likely goes back farther than the actress/musician/fashionista would've liked: all the way to the '60s with "Good Times," her campy musical-comedy with Sonny Bono, and "Chastity," which epitomized the hippie era it grew out of. And that opening beach scene with Cher running, and running, and running? Yeah, that happened. But Cher, because she's Cher, was able to rebound and make us believe in life after… a bad movie run. Besides "Mask" and "The Witches of Eastwick" (two films unfortunately not part of this six-disc deal – but 1990s faves "Mermaids" and "Tea with Mussolini" are!), she starred in her signature, Oscar-winning role as a transcended-by-love Italian woman, Loretta Castorini, in "Moonstruck." Cher was fantastic – hilarious and emotionally uncaged and pushing outside her comfort zone. She wasn't a lesbian, however – not even close – but believe me, she would've been better off. Instead, she got Nicolas Cage. You can't win 'em all, and this set doesn't: No commentaries? No how-to-dress-like-Cher feature? Consider this one a gift for the new gay.
'The Kids Are All Right'
Lesbians will be lesbians – and watch gay-dude porn? Sure it struck me as strange that this goes down (mmm… so to speak) in director Lisa Cholodenko's hearty indie sleeper, but these aren't conventional people raising a conventional family. These are Nic and Jules (respectively Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), two moms whose kids are stuck on maintaining a relationship with their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo). Cholodenko's film, her most successful to date (both "High Art" and "Laurel Canyon" wooed critics, but didn't catch on commercially), is being called a shoo-in come Academy Awards season, many predicating Moore and Bening going head-to-head in the Best Actress category. Both deserve it, as they run the gamut of emotions, mostly bitchy and needy, that unfurl when a long-term relationship's flaws are revealed in the midst of a donor dad diving into their clan. Bening's slo-mo dinner part, where shock isolates her from everything else, is her Oscar moment; Moore's comes later, when Jules gives a heartfelt love lecture to the family. It's serious stuff, one that succeeds in dimming the flashing "gay" sign, but Cholodenko lightens up the family drama with offbeat humor, including the awkwardness of the first dinner together with dad and moms, and surprising sex romps. Too bad the DVD extras aren't as impressive, because there are none. But Blu-ray collectors are in luck: There's an intriguing Cholodenko commentary and, however brief, some behind-the-scenes featurettes. Get this for the movie, though – it's more than all right.
'The Sound of Music (45th Anniversary Edition)'
However pointless it seems to actually review a film so part of cinematic history – and my fifth-grade chorus class – this reissue of "The Sound of Music" isn't without lots to talk about. Being the only boy with enough guts (and falsetto) to sing along to "My Favorite Things" in school was a pretty good precursor of how gay my life would turn out, but watching the 1965 musical again for the first time – over 15 years later – means something completely different. It means, for one, that I get it beyond the music: Julie Andrews, as Maria, is a bearer of hope in the midst of World War II tension, a fairy godmother-type whose wand is her voice, which she uses to restore faith in the von Trapp family and to win them over with her darling charm. As enchanting as it is, so are the extra features on the three-disc edition: an interactive experience (on-screen lyrics, trivia and more) and sing-alongs; previously released audio commentaries with Andrews, co-star Christopher Plummer and director Robert Wise; and "rare treasures," like from-the-vault interviews and performances. The movie itself, with its glorious Blu-ray transfer, practically pops through the tube with the hi-def restoration, its once-muted watercolors zinged to life with glowing vibrancy – an incredible new way to view the classic. And the best way, as the most memorable scenes – especially that iconic opening of Andrews twirling atop the Austrian mountains (now retouched with a beautiful brightness) – shout, and sing, like never before. The hills are very alive, indeed.
