FIELD OF STREAMS celebrates Pride month with a look at the career and secret life of one of Hollywood’s biggest movie idols.
Welcome to Field of Streams, Cinapse’s weekly guide of what’s playing on your favorite streaming services. What’s new on Netflix and Amazon Prime? What do we recommend on Kanopy, Fandor, and Shudder? We’ve got it all. From monthly roundups, to curated top 5 lists, to reviews of our favorites available now… it’s here. We built it for you, so come and join us in the Field of Streams.
The month of June now largely belongs the LGBTQ community as major businesses, the media and the public show their support and camaraderie for individuals once considered mentally ill degenerates, but who are now heralded as valuable members of society. Today openly gay individuals have shattered glass ceilings many never thought they could and now enjoy thriving careers in journalism, politics and especially show business. While the appearance of a Jodie Foster or a Matt Bomer in a feature film exists in an era more empathetic than before which values talent over sexuality, such a place was a long time coming. No story proves this more than that of former movie heart throb Tab Hunter.
Throughout the 1950s and into the early 60s, Tab Hunter was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His success in films such as The Sea Chase and especially, Damn Yankees guaranteed his spot on the A-list. Meanwhile his all-American surfer looks and romantic magnetism (highly palpable in his screen pairings with frequent co-star Natalie Wood) turned him into the object of desire for legions of female moviegoers. Yet the enormity of his success made the secrecy of hiding his true sexuality all the more torturous, especially in the scandal-fearing tinsel town of 1950s America. Through interviews with friends, colleagues, co-stars, and Tab himself, Tab Hunter Confidential traces the journey of its subject from a broken childhood with an absentee father, to popular matinee idol, to a man finally embracing who he never felt he could be.
For fans of vintage showbiz tales, Tab Hunter Confidential more than delivers. Loosely based on Hunter’s own memoir, this film by documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz is a solid look into movie studio practices of the day. Hunter recounts how he was groomed and shaped into the quintessential movie star, valued more for his looks than his talent and how such a constructed existence shaped his own self-image. The personal hardships Hunter faced, from a complicated relationship with his mother, the death of his only brother, his need to be taken seriously as an actor and a stormy love affair with Anthony Perkins, all prove revelatory in their own right. But the crux of the story is the star’s struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and the desperate need to keep it hidden. Stories of Hunter exploring the secret gay world of 1950s L.A. as he discovers his true nature, juxtaposed with film clips featuring the star romancing Wood or making female audiences swoon uncontrollably, speaks more to the harsh reality of post-war America more than anything. The doc is loaded with vintage stills and TV footage showcasing the actor’s studly physique, piercing blue eyes and (genuine) boy next door persona. While such elements reinforce the notion that Hunter was never tough to look at, the pain and struggle stemming from the tireless act of keeping his true self a secret can’t help but seep through that perfect smile. Although Tab Hunter Confidential ends with the former movie star shown to now be content with his life and comfortable in his skin, the emotional bumpiness of the road to his present-day state is one which for many, still proves all too relatable.
In continuation of celebrating gay culture in all its forms, here are a selection of streaming titles signifying the different sides of LGBTQ life as seen through the eyes of cinema.
THE HOURS (Vudu)
For those who hadn’t read Michael Cunningham’s acclaimed novel, this 2002 feature starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore seemed like a standard awards-hungry drama. The lives of three women (the aforementioned trio) from different eras and their own personal connection to the classic novel Mrs. Dalloway, is explored. On one side, The Hours is a pensive drama about the questioning of each woman’s life path, but the true heart of the film is the reconciling and embracing of one’s own true self. The scenes featuring each woman’s relationship with their sexuality is made all the more compelling thanks to the norms of their respective eras, from Moore’s repression, to Streep’s acceptance. A sensitive and thoughtful comment about female sexuality.
BEFORE STONEWALL & AFTER STONEWALL (Fandor)
There’s no questioning just how impactful an event Stonewall was in the late 1960s. A series of riots in New York which would give birth to the gay rights movement and forever change the way people from that end of the social spectrum would be seen, remains one of cultural milestones of the 20th century. While this pair of documentaries take their names from the game-changing event, their main focus is on the community itself both pre and post Stonewall. As Before showcases the stigma attached to being gay; the suspicions, secrecy and price paid for such a lifestyle, After chronicles the struggles, fears and determination of a once-hidden part of society now demanding equal rights in the face of unforeseen adversity. Though focusing on two wholly separate eras, Before and After present a true appreciation for the history of the LGBTQ world.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (FilmStruck)
It may have been far from its initial intentions, but few films could have achieved the high status level of gay camp classic more than Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? The horror/thriller paired legendary, fading stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (real-life rivals who by that point were already cultivating gay followings) as two tormented sisters living an isolated existence in a large decaying house in Hollywood. The gay camp moments, including Crawford’s frightened reactions to her food trays and virtually every line Davis spouts out (“But you ARE, Blanche! You ARE in that chair!,”) are the definition of iconic. But looking at the film’s subtext, the two characters’ and their dark backstories, including troubled upbringings, the tendency to live in the past, stunted mental growth, alcoholism and the need for love and acceptance, echo many of the key struggles members of the LGBTQ community continue to struggle with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cth9aakWf38
PRIDE (Prime) This touching true life comedy may not have made much of a splash during its 5-minute theatrical run in 2014, but it instantly became one of the most heralded gay-themed films of the 21st century. Set in the 1980s Britain of Margaret Thatcher, a group of London gay and lesbian activists set off to a small mining town in Wales to lend their support to the working class citizens caught up in the midst of the infamously violent miner’s strike. All of the typical tropes can be found here including the misgivings, the closed-mindedness, the intolerance and the skepticism. Yet Pride doesn’t spend too much time on such elements, choosing instead to focus on this real-life tale of pure empathy and unstoppable unity in the face of dark times while also scoring laughs in the process. For their efforts, director Matthew Warchus took home a special prize from Cannes, writer Stephen Beresford won the BAFTA award and Pride found itself nominated for Best Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes; becoming a testament the power and beauty of humanity in all its forms.
