On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: MAKING THE BOYS (Gravitas).

MAKING THE BOYS About THE BOYS IN THE BAND
By Kris Scheifele

MAKING THE BOYS traces the development of the off-Broadway play THE BOYS IN THE BAND and its subsequent transformation into the Hollywood film by the same name. Not such an unusual trajectory except THE BOYS IN THE BAND, written by Mart Crowley, was the first of its kind: it depicted openly gay men. Amidst the oppressive homophobia of the sixties, this was a revelation, a point underscored by the doc's inclusion of clips from anti-gay propaganda films.

This doc also maps the historical framework intimately linked to the artist and his work through interviews with writers, historians, theater folk, actors, and activists. Among these pundits, playwright Edward Albee points out that even The New York Times was unapologetically biased against gays at the time with their chief drama critic, Stanley Kauffmann, accusing gay playwrights of disguising gay characters in their work. In so doing, Kauffmann inadvertently inspired Crowley to "let it all hang out," forgoing straight stand-ins for the real McCoy.

When the play came out in 1968 it was a smash hit. MAKING THE BOYS, however, is a reminder that timing is everything. When the film was released in 1970, the intervening Stonewall Riots had fueled the burgeoning gay rights movement creating the expectation that art mirror life. What was groundbreaking bravery one year, seemed retrograde to some the next. That's a lot of baggage to carry for a story about a birthday party.

Well, there's more to the plot than that. Witty quips become lacerating barbs when a tightly knit group of friends get their interpersonal dysfunction on. It's Drama (with a capital D), but if everyone got along in a magnanimous embrace of gay solidarity, it wouldn't be very interesting. The doc suggests that this sort of modern conversational skirmishing owed something to Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. This correlation provides the best line in the doc when Carson Kressley, of "Queer Eye" fame, says of THE BOYS, "It makes WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF look like an Olsen Twins' movie." Oh Carson, it hurts so good!

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: THE TOPP TWINS: UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS (Gravitas).

THE TOPP TWINS: UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS -  The Hilarious Lightness Of Being
By Kris Scheifele

There's something irresistible about people who genuinely love what they do, love who they are, and consequently, love the world they live in. Few among us can embody this kind of joie de vivre like the lesbian–twin sister, country western–comedy duo, Jools and Lynda Topp. Raised on a New Zealand farm, these two down-home gals possess an infectious glee that touches everything they do, and I'd guess, everyone they meet.

This must have been the case when seasoned filmmaker, Leanne Pooley, entered their lives to tell their story in the affectionately crafted documentary THE TOPP TWINS: UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS. The twins are definitely not camera shy and participate on more than one level.

Now middle-aged, Jools and Lynda put on a special concert written and performed especially for the film during which they tell stories and sing songs about the landmark moments in their lives. This concert footage provides an effortless structure, woven throughout the film's narrative, which doesn't linger too long on the songs. The pacing is lively!

Other collaborative moments in the film include interviews with the alter ego send-ups the twins have been dressing as for years as part of their stage performance. They have a drag act, the two Kens, a couple of cheeseball, beer-guzzling fellas in bad suits as well as a variety of busty matrons and high-waisted stereotypes such as Camp Mother and Camp Leader and the socialites, Prue and Dilly Ramsbottom. The twins claim, “We’re not really comedians; we're singers that're funny!" but this array of characters became so popular, they even had a TV show.

The Topp twins aren't just a mercilessly wacky good time. They bring the same zest for life to political activism having stood up for everything from no nukes and Maori land rights, to apartheid and the legalization of homosexuality in New Zealand.

They claim they won the gay rights battle simply by being fun because that stood in such stark contrast to the opposition's sturm und drang. Who would you rather hang out with, a squadron of fist-shaking, finger-pointing grumps or the ebullient Topp twins? I know my answer; you get more flies with honey—funny honey.