ATTITUDE.CO.UK JANUARY 2015 £4.45 THE UK'S BEST-SELLING &
AWARD-WINNING GAY MAGAZINE
9 7 7 1 3 5 3 1 8 7 0 3 8 1 3
SE
X DISASTERS
MONOGAMY
VS
OPEN RELATIONSHIPS
CAN P
rE
P BEAT HIV?
MEL B: ‘I WAS INTO GIRLS AT 17’
ATLANTIS’
JAC
K DONNELLY
& STEREO
KICKS’ B
ARC
LAY
BEA
LES
STRIP
TRAVIS MATHEWS
IDINA
MENZEL
SEX
CHRIS MEARS
GETS STEAMY WITH THE STARS OF
TEAM GB
THE
ISSUE
They call us the
City of Angels
But don’t let that fool you
If you like your days cool and your nights hot, there’s no better place to visit than
Los Angeles.
Sunny beaches, friendly people, world-class museums, endless shopping, sexy bars
and nightclubs, thrilling theme parks, trend-setting restaurants, bustling ethnic
neighborhoods, wicked comedy clubs, and more.
There is not just one gay neighborhood in this glittering metropolis of 15 million
people. You could explore a different gay enclave every day and night of the week:
Downtown, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Studio City, Venice, and, of course, West Hollywood.
It’s all waiting for you.
What are you waiting for?
discoverLosAngeles.com/gayLA
AttitudeMagzine_LATCB_FA3_DPS.indd All Pages 11/21/14 10:47 AM
They call us the
City of Angels
But don’t let that fool you
If you like your days cool and your nights hot, there’s no better place to visit than
Los Angeles.
Sunny beaches, friendly people, world-class museums, endless shopping, sexy bars
and nightclubs, thrilling theme parks, trend-setting restaurants, bustling ethnic
neighborhoods, wicked comedy clubs, and more.
There is not just one gay neighborhood in this glittering metropolis of 15 million
people. You could explore a different gay enclave every day and night of the week:
Downtown, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Studio City, Venice, and, of course, West Hollywood.
It’s all waiting for you.
What are you waiting for?
discoverLosAngeles.com/gayLA
ONLINE S T ORE: W OLSEY .C OM FLA GSHIP S T
ORE: 83A BREWER S
TREET L
ONDON W1F 9ZN
CONTEXT
IAIN DALE DATING R U COMING OUT? LIFE LESSONS TRAVEL: ZURICH TRULY MADLY DEEPLY PROPERTYHOW GAY? ASHLEY JENSEN
15
ACTIVE
JAKE LOCKHART REAL BODIES DR CHRISTIAN DAN OSBORNEEDIT
THE A-LISTCULTURE CLUB: OUTSIDE MUSIC & FILM REVIEWS GRATUITOUS NAKED: BARCLAY BEALES EASTERN BOYS
JOE STONE IS ON IT PAUL FLYNN IS OVER IT PARIS IS BURNING JUST KEEP SINGING BGF: IDINA MENZEL
JANUARY 2015
•
ATTITUDE.CO.UK8
117
132
68
GETTING COSY WITH
JACK DONNELLY OF
BBC ONE’S ATLANTIS
EDITOR’S LETTER &
INBOX
SEX, SEX, SEX!
EVERYTHING FROM YOUR DILEMMAS TO YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING ANECDOTES, WE GET INSIDE YOUR SEX LIVES IN HIS ROOM
WRITER AND DIRECTOR TRAVIS MATHEWS’ ACCOUNT OF ISOLATION AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY OVER TIME
LET’S GET PREPPED
PATRICK CASH SITS IN ON A RECENT YOUNG PEOPLE’S DISCUSSION OF HIV AND ‘WONDERDRUG’ PREP IN SOHO
MEL B
THE NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERSOLD SPICE GIRL TALKS OPENLY ABOUT HER SEXUALITY AND A BIG YEAR NATT WELLER
WE CHAT TO THE BISEXUAL SON OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK
42
FEATURES
REPLAY HYPERFLEX STORY: THE BETTER YOU LOOK MOST STYLISH READER
91
STYLE
W
elcome to our 2014 Sex Issue – starring the thoroughly delectable Mr Chris Mears and his equally beautiful Team GB friends Tom Haffield, Martin Cremin and Ieuan Lloyd. These boys make Britain great on the international sporting stage – and even better, spend their entire working lives in tiny speedos, which has sure as hell has brightened our winter months.Hopefully you’ll agree this is one of the most delicious celebrations of male beauty we have had in our magazine. It’s more homoerotic than Top Gun-meets-300-meets-Rocky. And that’s before we get to the gorgeous Atlantis star Jack Donnelly or the very handsome eighth of The X Factor’s Stereo Kicks’ Barclay Beales in their pants. And that’s how we like it! There’s more sex in this issue than you can shake a stick at: Good sex, bad sex, sex with and without boundaries.
Hopefully there is more than just titillation but also food for thought – from director Travis Matthews, to dark new thriller Eastern Boys and the latest news on the trials of PrEP in both Britain and France. As we’ve mentioned before, PrEP has the capacity to transform the lives of millions of HIV negative men, but it’s a complicated situation fraught with controversy. If we are to make sense of the challenges which face us as a community, it’s important that we continue to have honest conversations about sex. For all people, but particularly LGBT folk, so much sex still takes place in the shadows. Shame is a hard thing to live down, and many of us – especially those of us who have grown up in a religious setting – still feel the burn of that judgement.
The logical lesson of that experience, of being judged in such a mean-spirited way – is that we grow beyond that and try our hardest not to be judgemental of other people. But as we know, the bullied become bullies and many gay people are among the most judgemental people out there. The painful thing is, they are really judging themselves all over again. Sexual repression can also have other long term impacts – there are some, who stem their continuing pain and shame with addictive sexual behaviour. And there are others, like
one of the people who writes to Joe Kort this month – who respond by withholding sex from partners. Those people may end up living out their sexual lives through pornography. Sex is a-maaazing when it works – but the key question is, is the kind of sex you are having making you happy?
Also this month we delve into the controversial realm of open relationships. It’s hard to get reliable figures about what percentage of gay couples are monogamous – but I think it’s safe to assume the figure is a lot lower than that of those who are labouring under the illusion that they are monogamous. So what is the answer? To all rush headlong into open relationships because it’s not even worth trying to be faithful? That seems unnecessarily negative. As our feature this month shows, there are plenty of examples of successful monogamous and open relationships. The ones which flounder, open or closed, are the ones where there is not an honest dialogue between both partners. That applies to safe sex too. Surveys from the U.S. and Holland in the last few years have shown that more than half of HIV infections have come from main sexual partners. This is no time to be throwing away condoms while blinded by love or lust.
Talking of honesty, this month also features the never-knowingly undersold Spice icon, Mel B. She’s the perfect accompaniment to our Sex Issue having spoken openly about her relationships and desires for men and women – and her choice to not be labelled. Sounds fair enough to me. Human sexuality is a complex and thrilling subject which is unlikely to be adequately covered in its entirety by the letters L, G, B and T. Have a great, sexy Christmas – and stay safe.
8
Andrew FrAser
deputy editor
the uk’s best-selling gay magazine
@attitudemag
Matthew Todd is away
Copyright © Attitude Media Ltd 2013 all rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. Unsolicited contributions must be accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope if they are to be returned. We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs or for material lost or damaged in the post. Letters submitted to Attitude or its editors are assumed to be intended for publication in whole or in part. The mention or appearance or likeness of any person or organisation in articles or advertising in this publication is not to be taken as any indication of sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organisations. Newstrade distribution by Seymour Distribution Limited, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT. Tel 020 7429 4000. Published by Attitude Media Ltd. Printed by Benham Goodhead Print Limited T R A V I S M A T H E W S
Travis is an award-winning fi lmmaker whose fi lms focus on gay men and intimacy. He is best known for I Want Your Love, and Interior. Leather Bar, which he created with James Franco. Promoting the latest instalment of fi lm series In Their Room, he enriches this sex issue with his thoughts on the diff erent sexual behaviours of gay men in capital cities around the world.
C O N T R I B U T O R S
RDS is a fresh new voice, with his fi rst Attitude feature in this month’s issue, discussing open relationships and monogamy. When he’s not writing features he’s writing epic synth pop songs. His cat just disappeared which is super sad, her name was Lucy Fur but that got changed to Pussycat – she was black. In fact, Russell only wears black and still isn’t sure if the beard he’s been growing is a good idea or not.
R U S S E L L D E A N S T O N E
Editor MATTHEW TODD [email protected]
Deputy Editor ANDREW FRASER [email protected]
Assistant Editor CHRISTIAN GUILTENANE [email protected]
Art Director DAVID GRAHAM [email protected]
Designer LUCY HENDEL [email protected]
Editor at Large PARIS LEES [email protected]
Editorial Assistant & Staff Writer BEN KELLY [email protected]
Sub Editor AARON TOUMAZOU [email protected]
Acting Fashion Editor JOSEPH KOCHARIAN [email protected]
Fashion Assistant NICK BYAM [email protected]
Acting Web Editor WILL STROUDE [email protected]
Web Reporters SAM RIGBY & JOSH HAIGH
Books Editor WILL DAVIS [email protected]
Film Editor MATT MUELLER [email protected]
Senior Contributing Editors
SIMON EDGE / PAUL FLYNN / SIMON GAGE / JAMIE HAKIM / JOHANN HARI PHILIP REAY-SMITH / TIM TEEMAN (US EDITOR EAST COAST)
Interns MATTHEW LANGHORN, JACKSON FORSTER ELLIOT BERRY, JAMIE SHAW
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ANDY GODDARD [email protected] 020 7608 6305
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K E V I N M C D A I D
Former Attitude cover star Kevin McDaid has made a successful move from Noughties boybander (remember V?) to celebrity photographer, working his pop connections and natural Geordie charm to put the likes of Jessie J, Cheryl Cole and Cher Lloyd at ease in front of the camera. For this issue he shot Stereo Kicks’ chief hunk Barclay Beales, thus passing the boyband baton to the next generation. Aw.
Chairman JUSTIN SANDERS
Finance Director VINCE NICHOLLS
Web Development ADAM OSBORN [email protected]
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Attitude Magazine 33 Pear Tree Street, London EC1V 3AG [email protected]
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ATTITUDE MEDIA LTD
Next issue available to download January 2 In shops January 7Chris wears swim briefs by HOM at figleaves.com Martin wears swim briefs by Addicted at Bang+Strike Tom wears swim briefs by Speedo
Ieuan wears swim briefs by WearMeUnder Photography: Sven Arnstein Styling: Joseph Kocharian
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THE UK'S BEST-SELLING & AWARD-WINNING GAY MAGAZINE
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@DaleDiddly
Catching up on some essential reading @AttitudeMag loving the @jwaltonmusic interview too!
@nickjonas
Thanks to @attitudemag for having me on the cover!
@dazgale
I don’t buy @AttitudeMag that often but Nick
Jonas is on the cover of the latest issue so it
would just be plain rude not to get it.
@benjamingardner
Thank you @guy_interruptd and
@AttitudeMag for an amazing and insightful feature on HIV and testing
positive.
@StapleGayLife
@harryhitchens great article in @AttitudeMag a-teen this month. Hope it guides a lot of
people well! T I N Y U R L . C O M /FA C E B O O K A T T I T U D E T W I T T E R . C O M /A T T I T U D E M A G A T T I T U D E @ A T T I T U D E . C O . U K 3 3 P E A R T R E E S T R E E T , F I N S B U R Y , L O N D O N E C 1 V 3 A G
C O N TAC T
T H E M AG
In this vintage Sex Issue, we gave you the lush Welsh hunk Steve Jones, stripped down, and it’s held a strong spot in our er, memory ever since. Also in that issue we had pre-hipster Solange, readers getting naked (what would a Sex Issue be without...) and John Barrowman exploring what it means to be gay. No better man for it.
THE ARCHIVE
AUGUST 2008 - ISSUE 169
A NEW SURVEY HAS REVEALED THAT WHILE A MAJORITY OF
PEOPLE SAY THEY SUPPORT GAY RIGHTS, FAR LESS ACTUALLY
‘APPROVE’ OF SEEING MEN KISS IN PUBLIC.
I don’t get how a quick kiss or holding hands in public is seen as disgusting or disrespectful. It’s two people showing love and aff ection for each other, and surely sharing love is better than displays of hatred or violence in public?
ADAM, READING
I kind of agree. Not just gay PDAs though... ANY! Just makes me uncomfortable when any couple gets slurpy in front of me. Yuck!
TOM, BRIGHTON
Why don’t you just ignore it if you don’t like it? If I had a boyfriend and we were comfortable we would kiss and hold hands in public. What’s happening to this world?
CHRIS, CAMBRIDGE
A quick kiss, little signs of aff ection; these things are adorable no matter what combination. When what you are doing is borderline foreplay, then you should probably save that for the bar or your house.
JAY, TEXAS
The diff erence is that even if you don’t like to see anyone kiss in public, straight people are unlikely to get abuse at best or risk a beating at worse. The social integration of gays into a multicultural and multifaith country is going to take much longer than legal rights. Evolvement will come from the actions of some brave gay men and women of whom, sadly I am not one.
PAUL, ROMFORD
12
I hate public displays of aff ection in general. Gay or Straight!
DEREK, LONDON
A kiss is one thing, making out and jamming your tongue down somebody’s throat is another, be it hetero or homo.
RICHARD, FLORIDA
I kiss and cuddle my partner in public all the time. When I know homophobes and people who get off ended by ridiculous stuff are around it just makes me want to do it more.
SAXON, MANCHESTER
“Gosh, what a dilemma! I just saw a gay couple kiss!”
PHILLIP, MELBOURNE
Get the hell over it, no one wants to see straight people kiss in public either, but we endure it every day and still manage to keep our lunch down!
THOMAS, ARIZONA
Who asked for their approval?
ED, NEW YORK
I am surprised that almost everyone is preaching against PDA as if it’s some real problem and they’re aff ected by it. “Its gross”, “Its wrong”, “Its disgusting” – Why? It’s a public display of aff ection. Not a live show for your benefi t or a public execution! It’s aff ection. By defi nition the very marriage ceremony can be viewed as the ultimate PDA as well.
JIRI, PETERBOROUGH
R E A D E R S ’ T W E E T S
The
Heated
Debate
M E A N D M R . J O N ES
@robgillett
Just read the excellent interview with
@CherylOffi cial in new issue of @AttitudeMag. Cheryl: 1 - Cheryl’s PR: 0
NOMINATIONS FOR THE BEST CROSS-GENERATIONAL DIVA PAIRING OF THE MONTH
ADELEAND BETTE MIDLER:
Adele took time out from doing nothing to enjoy fi ne dining and top laughs with the Divine Miss M. We’d die to be a fl y on the way.
TAYLOR SWIFTAND BARBRA STREISAND: Babs ‘grammed this photo of her and La Swift
and labelled it “Chart toppers” #iconic
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PROOF 3 Attitude.pdf 1 21/11/2014 12:26PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSEPH SINCLAIR
MEET BARCLAY BEALES, HOTTEST MEMBER OF STEREO KICKS
PG. 30>>
FILM TV
MUSIC
OPINION NEWS
PERFORMANCE
BOOKS BOYS
FILM TV
MUSIC
OPINION NEWS
PERFORMANCE
BOOKS BOYS
252_EDIT_OPENER_Barclay#.indd 15 26/11/2014 17:0116
L
I S T
THE THINGS WE LOVE TH
IS MONTH
WORDS: BEN KELLY & JOSEPH KOCHARIAN
↑FASHION
FESTIVE FASHION:
WINTER JUMPERS
• Kopparberg have cosied up with London-based designer knitwear label Leutton Postle this winter to create ‘The Kopparberg’, a luxurious knitted jumper that brings to life the warm and festive Spiced Apple cider and is the perfect piece of clothing to embrace the colder weather in. Available for £150 from kopparbergleuttonpostle.bigcartel.com
↑TRAVEL
GAY TRAVEL EXPO
• Discover the hottest gay destinations for 2015 at the Gay Star Travel Expo, taking place at London’s Heaven nightclub. The expo hosts tourist boards and top travel brands ready to help you plan the best year of your life in travel. Stick around afterwards and enjoy a holiday themed club night!
17-18 January. Tickets are free, but book in advance from eventbrite.co.uk.
↑EVENT
L A S O I R E E
• If panto’s not your thing, why not try La Soiree? It’s a Cirque du Soleil-type performance show with men stronger than the paint-stripping vodka at G-A-Y, and of course they are all spectacularly scantily clad.
Southbank Centre, London, until 11 January.
EDIT
_A LIST
17EDIT
_A LIST
EDIT
_A LIST
↓FASHIONB A C K T O B A S I C S
Burton have tapped into their prestigious roots this season, using vintage references to bring sophisticated modernity to their collection, with inspiration from their eponymous founder Montague Burton. With a great selection of both formal and casual wear, inspired by fashions of the 1960s and the 90s, and there is plenty to keep you warm in the form of parkas, quilted jackets and double breasted overcoats. Their tailoring is slim fit, sleek and simple, for the everyday man looking to sharpen up his look.jacket, £89; trousers, £40; roll neck, £22; monk strap shoes, £55 burton.co.uk/montagueburton
↑FILM
I N T O T H E W O O D S
After nearly 20 years in the offing, Sondheim’s magical musical finally makes its way to the big screen this month, and it’s been worth the wait. An all star cast of Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, and even Tracey Ullman play out the story of what happened to your favourite fairytale characters after the happy ever after. WARNING: Everyone will sing.
Released nationally on 9 January.
↓MUSIC
B E T T E
M I D L E R : O N E
N I G H T O N L Y
Miss M will take to our screens for her very first UK TV special,
performing all the hits, and being interviewed by the equally
fabulous Joanna Lumley.
ITV, 15 December.
18
IS ON IT
2015 WILL BE A YEAR OF NOT REPEATING THE MISTAKES I MADE IN 2014
twitter @Joe_Stone_
I’m old enough and bitter enough to know that New Year’s resolutions don’t work. 2015 probably won’t be the year that I give up mainlining family bags of Minstrels in front of old episodes of Drag Race when I should be working. It’s unlikely that this will be the year when I stop pretending I’ve bothered to see the awful fi lms of actors I’m sent to interview, when actually I just watched the trailer and read the plot summary on Wikipedia (sorry guys). If I’m honest, I probably won’t desist checking the internet history of any computer which I am left alone with for more than 40 seconds. By managing my expectations of what I can hope to achieve next year, I can minimise the degree of self-loathing usually associated with any (failed) attempt at self-improvement. But hey, I’m not a total pessimist. Instead of attempting any fundamental overhaul of my character, I’ve instead decided to set myself the smaller target of not repeating any of the same mistakes that I made last year. In 2015, I hereby pledge not to:
Be sick on my boyfriend’s mum
Ingratiating yourself to your partner’s family can be tricky, so take some advice from someone who learned the hard way – don’t vomit on them. The time I recently vommed on my boyfriend’s mum was as bad, if not worse, than it sounds on paper. It happened at her older son’s 30th, when she found me outside with my head in my hands and took the words “I’ve had too much to drink and I really just need a bit of space and air” to mean “please hold me to your breast and try and engage me in a heart-to-heart until I violently chunder between your legs.” Needless to say I won’t be celebrating
Joe Stone
NEEDLESS TO
SAY I WON’T
BE CELEBRATING
CHRISTMAS WITH
MY IN-LAWS. AND
IF I DO, I WON’T
ACCUSE ANYONE OF
SPIKING MY DRINK
DOWN
UP
COMING OUT TEXT CONVOS
Whether it’s between a father and a son or two 13 year old ‘bros’, it’s been a right
old month for it.
GAY BULL RESCUED
A gay bull destined for the abattoir in Ireland was rescued by the creator of The Simpsons: amazing.
HARRY STYLES
Says gender doesn’t matter to him when choosing a parter. #halfwaythere
S CLUB 7 COME BACK
It’s all fun and games until Jo is caught sexting Nigel Farage.
THE COMEBACK COMES BACK
Lisa Kudrow’s genius comedy is the best sitcom about a reality
TV show following the making of a sitcom about the
making of a reality TV show about the making of a sitcom.
TAYLOR SWIFT
Basically became queen of the world this month, on t’cover of TIME and all sorts.
BAND AID 30
So the re-record is a bit shit, let’s be honest, and on top of
it people have just realised the whole thing’s a bit patronising and smug.
SLAMMING BAND AID 30
I mean, they are raising money and awareness, and what have you done for
Ebola lately? Just let it go innit.
SLAMMING IN GENERAL
Yeah, stop doing that.
WE CAN LAND ON A COMET TRAVELLING 55,000 KM PER HOUR
But phone batteries can still barely last the day.
QATAR
They’re going to fi nd ‘creative’ solutions for LGBT visitors of the 2022 World
Cup. So generous of you guys!
CLASS WARFARE
In which taking photos of houses in a smug manner is the greatest crime.
KLASS WARFARE
Who died and made Myleene leader of the opposition of the opposition?
EDIT
_OPINION
Christmas with my in-laws. And if I do, I won’t accuse anyone of spiking my drink, just in case the person I drunkenly accuse turns out to be a close family friend. Again.
I won’t get overexcited during work drinks and drop trou in G-A-Y
You know when you go for getting-to-know-you drinks with new colleagues and one things leads to another and you end up in G-A-Y Late? And the drinks keep fl owing, and the hits keep coming and suddenly [•] Taylor Swift is ringing in your ears and you realise that no dance move can adequately express your love for her, so in the moment you decide that the only thing for it is to take your shorts off ? I promise not to do that – once was more than enough.
Or tell someone about to have a baby that all human life is futile
“Would you ever have kids?” asked my friend Dan, unintentionally spurring me into a ten minute monologue about how I’d read a piece claiming that global warming would see the planet reduced to a pulsing mass of diseased warlords within the next 50 years. “What’s the point in having kids if you’re only going to have to watch them die miserable deaths?” I mused. “It’s selfi sh really to reproduce out of sheer narcissism when the whole of humanity is on a downward trajectory. Besides, wouldn’t you just adopt?” In case you’re wondering, the reason Dan had asked was because he was about to tell me that his girlfriend was pregnant. Hope I didn’t kill his buzz.
And I defi nitely won’t tell embarrassing anecdotes about myself to fi ll the silence
This is your lot. Next year I’m going to be a picture of restraint, dignity and decorum. And if I can’t manage that, I’m defi nitely not going to puke on anyone. Baby steps.
EDIT
_
gaDgETs
Fleshlight launchpad
Holding your iPad is so last year. You’ve probably heard of the Fleshlight, but a new accessory from the company, the Fleshlight Launchpad, is a case that will allow you to hold your iPad at the same time as the Fleshlight, bringing a whole new hands-free experience to the, er, experience.
Fleshlight.com,£20
19
Rends a10 ultimate piston VibRating male mastuRbatoR
Promising to throb, suck and stroke you, this Japanese monster comes with a remote control, seven intense vibration modes and even the option to pause mid-enjoyment if you need to build your stamina. Those looking to turn up the power can opt to plug it into the wall so it never runs low on batteries.
loVehoney.co.uk,£250
Gadgets
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going it alone neVeR Felt so good with these FouR hot new selF-loVe gizmos
woRds by stuaRt miles, FoundeR oF pocket-lint.com
pulse
The Pulse is made from flexible silicon and fits around your penis offering gentle vibrations to stimulate you while wearing. Chargeable via USB, you can vary the speeds depending on what you are after via the buttons on the side. Thankfully the device expands as you do.
hotoctopuss.com, £68.99
tenga black Flip hole Tenga’s most innovative male sex toy, the case flips open to reveal a number of different bumps, nodules, nubs and ridges to offer maximum pleasure. But if that isn’t enough, it comes with three different lubes (including menthol). loVehoney.co.uk. £63.99
WORDS: BEN KELLY
T H E R U L E S : O F G A Y S E X O N S C R E E N
NO LUBE
(OR EVEN WARNING)
IS NEEDED: HURRAH!
THE SEX DIDN’T
REALLY HAPPEN IF
JAMES FRANCO DIDN’T
VIDEO IT.
PRISON TURNS EVERYONE
GAY. EVEN LESBIANS.
‘ANAL SHAME’ CAN
BE CURED WITH A
GOOD BUGGERING FROM
RUSSELL TOVEY.
ERR, NOT EVERY GAY
CHARACTER HAS TO
HAVE SEX ON SCREEN.
HOT SEX ADDICTS
WILL RECEIVE A GAY
BLOW JOB ONLY WHEN
DESPERATE.
GAY FIRST BASE IS
RIMMING: SORRY, BUT
IT’S FACT.
IF YOU’RE ON SCREEN
WITH BARROWMAN, YOU
WILL HAVE SEX WITH
BARROWMAN.
WEEKEND LONG SEX
SESSIONS MUST BE
BROKEN UP WITH
PHILOSOPHICAL CHAT.
THE TABLET EDITION OF
ATTITUDE. WITH A MOVING
COVER, EXTRA PHOTO GALLERIES,
INTERACTIVE MUSIC, FILM AND TV
REVIEWS, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE
D O W N L O A D
THE TABLET EDITION OF
ATTITUDE
COVER,
INTERACTIVE MUSIC, FILM AND TV
REVIEWS, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE
D O W N L O A D
Film and TV can be all smoke and mirrors, especially when it comes to gay sex scenes...
EDIT
_THE RULES
21
DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT BEING TRANS NEED A NEW ANGLE
Did you see that documentary on the shocking state of transgender healthcare in the UK last night? No? That’s because there wasn’t one. There never has been. No one wants to make it. In fact, there haven’t been any transgender documentaries on TV for a while. The last ones I remember were a BBC Three one on trans beauty queen hopeful Jackie Green and Channel 4’s My Transsexual Summer, which aired in 2011. A lifetime ago!
Maybe broadcasters got bored. Do you remember the days when gay people were invited on to talk shows just to talk about being gay? Me neither, but look up chat shows from the 80s and early 90s – it really is something else. Have documentary makers also realised there are only so many times you can fi lm a trans woman putting on lipstick at her dressing room table while babbling on about her designer vagina like it’s the frigging Higgs boson machine? No one is more bored of transgender people prattling on about being trapped in the wrong body than me. The conversation’s moved on.
So when are the powerful documentaries coming where we learn about what life is really like for trans people in 21st century Britain? Don’t hold your breath. I recently got an email passed onto me from Sundog Pictures, and it’s the same old story: “I’m currently working on an idea alongside Channel 4 following transgender individuals who have come to regret their sex changes and are keen to undergo further treatment to reverse the change… I’m looking for real life cases to include in my pitch document and was wondering whether you might be able to recommend people I could speak to.”
Reverse sex change? Could this
be any more tabloid? Don’t worry
though, it’s going to be “insightful and sensitive!” Said every television producer making a fi lm about transgender people over the past 40 years. Yeah right.
Well, good luck to them. I doubt they’ll fi nd anyone. Genital reconstruction surgery for trans people is one of the most successful procedures carried out on the NHS. There are strict guidelines on who is suitable for the surgery, and patients at gender identity clinics have to go through years of psychological assessments with several gender specialists – and you have to jump through enough hoops just to get to the bloody gender clinic. I’ve yet to meet a GP who has had the slightest bit of knowledge about trans people. The point is: they don’t just hand out fannies on the NHS. Trust me. If there were huge numbers of people who regret their transgender
surgeries, we’d know about them. I’m not saying they don’t
exist. This Morning recently interviewed 30-year-old Chelsea Attonley, who is going back to being Matthew after fi nding life as a woman too tough. Attonley was featured in pretty much every newspaper in Britain – precisely because cases like this are so very rare. Most trans people are very happy with the outcome of their surgery and indeed it has been shown to be the eff ective treatment for those who seek it.
Ten years ago a law was passed enabling transgender people to legally change their gender. It was a huge victory. You won’t have watched a documentary on that or the activists like Stephen Whittle and Christine Burns who spent over a decade devoted to political lobbying. I suppose changing the law isn’t as sexy as a reverse sex change.
THIS MONTH:
JAMES BECAME ZACHARY QUINTO’S
LOVER FOR UPCOMING FILM MICHAEL.
GO JAMES! (AND ZACHARY).
BURNING
EDIT
_OPINION
Paris
FRANCOFILES
the 80s and early 90s – it really is something else. Have documentary makers also realised there are only so many times you can fi lm a trans woman putting on lipstick at her dressing room table while babbling on about her designer vagina like it’s the frigging Higgs boson machine? No one is more bored of transgender trapped in the wrong body than me.
documentaries coming where we learn about what life is really like Britain? Don’t hold your breath.
transgender individuals who have come to regret their sex changes and are keen to undergo further treatment to reverse the change… I’m looking for real life cases to include in my pitch document and was wondering recommend people I could speak to.”
Reverse sex change? Could this any more tabloid? Don’t worry
the bloody gender clinic. I’ve yet to meet a GP who has had the slightest bit of knowledge about trans people. The point is: they don’t just hand out fannies on the NHS. Trust me. If there were huge numbers of people who regret their transgender
surgeries, we’d know about them. I’m not saying they don’t
after fi nding life as a woman too tough. Attonley was featured in pretty much every newspaper in Britain – precisely because cases like this are so very rare. Most trans people are very happy with the outcome of their surgery and indeed it has been shown to be the eff ective treatment for those who seek it.
Ten years ago a law was passed enabling transgender people to legally change their gender. It was a huge victory. You won’t have watched a documentary on that or the activists like Stephen Whittle and Christine Burns who spent over a decade devoted to political lobbying. I suppose changing the law isn’t as sexy as a reverse sex change.
HISTORIC LANDING ON
HUGE BODY OF MASS
History was made this month
as scientists managed a
seemingly impossible feat
they’ve been working
towards for decades:
landing a fountain of
champagne on the fast
moving arse of Kim
Kardashian. Reports back
from the large body of mass
have revealed conditions to
be dark and oily, with
experts believing they
are not the first men to
have made impact with
this surface
22
Paul Flynn
IS OVER IT
Paul Flynn
MY FAITH IN WATCHING LIVE MUSIC IS RESTORED, COURTESY OF SLEAFORD MODS
I want to tell you about my favourite night out of 2014. Last year I stopped pretending and conceded that, unless they’re Beyonce or you’re backstage, watching anyone play live is my least favourite way of ingesting music. Then, wham! A friend invited me to see Sleaford Mods.
It was at a place on Pentonville Road I’d never been to. An upper room in a pub with sellotaped fl yers over the stucco details, the sort of place I hadn’t stepped in since I was a teenager and watching whatever the next Manchester band was that week. It is the sort of place I look embarrassed in because I am embarrassed in it.
I scanned the room and everyone looked like me: forties, bald, overweight, wearing Patagonia anoraks, like a Kylie concert for straight people. I didn’t know whether this made me feel better or worse. Over there was the Kim Kardashian and Kanye West of Guardian readers, Islington’s fi rst comedy couple Bridget Christie and Stewart Lee. Over here was conceptual art for Manic Street Preachers fans, Jeremy Deller. It started to look funny. A support act dressed like Iggy Pop drinking cider in Bradford slagged off The Fall. That felt quite special.
We went outside for a cig in the rain and one half of Sleaford Mods, a gentle sort called Andrew came over to say hello to my friend, who’d interviewed them not long since for another magazine we both work for. I immediately took to him. The other one, Jason, who you’d nominally call the singer if his entire performance was not hot-blooded rants aimed at perfectly perpendicular targets, joined us. Andrew mentioned a festival they’d played to a small crowd and had attracted a maniacal fan at the front, a fat lad dancing and mouthing
all Jason’s complicated, unpleasant words back at him. “That’s all you need really, isn’t it?” he said.
The show blew my head off . Sorry, you can keep your Kate Bush. Direct, brutal, funny, speedy and tense, Sleaford Mods make something brilliantly adjudicated, the polemics [•] Russell Brand can’t access because he’s infected by the rusty needle of fame. They address the state of the nation without being idiots. Five minutes after he stepped sweating from the stage carrying a can of lager I saw Jason on the stairs and said “that was beautiful”, a comment that seemed to unsettle him in a nice way. We sat upstairs for a bit. His impulses were so quick, like rock stars half his age ought to be. He isn’t a rock star. He’s a hot mess you can’t help looking at, listening to and feeling for. Andrew said something about him being the gay one and Jason being the straight one, a detail I’d missed earlier but that made sense of their otherness and familiarity. The next day they were fl ying to Switzerland to play. I really love the way the world turns sometimes. It does reward the good folk.
I’ve thought about that night a lot since. It wasn’t about hanging around with pop stars because who, honestly, outside of a tiny loving subset knows who Sleaford Mods are? It was about watching special people making something special. It was about getting to know and understanding the world better, because an angry man spoke up. 2014 was the year I got bored rigid of that Twitter elite invocation for everyone to be nicer to each other. Shit doesn’t get sorted that way. Sleaford Mods are perfect for now because now is exactly the right time to get aggro. Hear them at
sleafordmods.com.
...POLEMICS
RUSSELL BRAND
CAN’T ACCESS
BECAUSE HE’S
INFECTED BY THE
RUSTY NEEDLE
OF FAME
GREEK GODS Male same-sex relationships are littered across Greek mythology, with studs like Achilles, Zeus and Hercules all engaging in a bit of how’syerfather.JOE DALLESANDRO
Andy Warhol took this gorgeously chiselled nobody and made him into a legend of gay subculture in fi lms like Flesh,
Trash and Heat.
TOM OF FINLAND
This Finnish artist took his homoerotic festish drawings of well hung beefcakes in leather uniforms and made them a gay institution in the second half of the 20th century.
PEDRO ALMODOVAR
Not Pedro himself, bless, but rather for the ream of steamy gay sex scenes he’s delivered, including Antonia Banderas getting bummed in
Law of Desire.
FRANCOIS SAGAT
Probably the most famous face in the 21st century gay porn world. A fully versatile performer, you can realise your desires by buying an exact dildo mould of his cock.
Gay sex has cropped up all over
the place throughout the ages,
in many shapes and er, sizes.
Here’s a few people who have
contributed above and beyond
to our collective wank bank.
EDIT
_OPINION
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24
words: AAron ToumAzou & ben kelly
Queenofthe Clouds / Island
Swedish pop sensation Tove Lo’s debut is all big hooks and self aware emoting in three sections, The Sex, The Love and
The Pain, each marked by questionable
spoken words. Starting light (she channels her inner-Madonna on Like Em
Young), Moments sees Tove assert “I’m
not the prettiest you’ve ever seen, but I have my moments” in the same self-depricating manner as her chart-topping single Habits. It’s safe to say Queen of the
Clouds is one of them moments (and we
think she’s super pretty, too). at
TOVE LO
lIve: her Greatest PerformanCes / sony
Despite being considered the greatest voice of her generation, Whitney’s live recordings have never before been released. Now, this compilation of her greatest performances – curated by Clive Davis – is a must have for all music lovers. I defy the goose bumps not to bristle as she joyously belts How Will I
Know at the 1987 BRITs, or as she croons You Give Good Love in her earliest TV
appearance – pure perfection. bk
WHITNEY HOUSTON
ANATOMY OF A WEDDING PHOTO: SOLANGE
CHarLI XCX
suCker / asylum
In 2014 Charli XCX fast went from having a bit of a moment to finally getting some much-deserved recognition - catapulted into the charts from LA to Tokyo when she provided vocals to the catchiest chorus of the summer in her collaboration with Iggy Azalea on Fancy. She went on to chart on her own with the breakthrough single she penned for The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack
Boom Clap.
The iconic Clueless inspired music video for Fancy certainly flagged how Charli meant to go on. Should she make a ‘thing’ of writing for movie soundtracks, Sucker lends itself perfectly to a rescore of the 90s cult classic. She’s skipping school in Break the Rules, crashing parties in Famous, seeing dollar signs in Gold Coins and unapologetically casting off a mate in favour of some self love in Body of Mine, the most explicit track of Charli’s much preferred explicit rethink of the LP.
Born and raised in Hertfordshire, Charli addresses how she “never thought [she’d] be living in the USA, doing things the American way” in London Queen, and as she gears up to tour with Katy Perry in February 2015, it feels like a very modest sentiment considering the superstardom coming her way. at
VarIOUS arTISTS
annIe / roC natIon reCords
The soundtrack for the third cinematic adaption of Annie since its original 1982 theatrical film is no Lorde-curated epic, opting instead for the sheen of a modern, urban edge care of Sia and producer/songwriter Greg Kurstin, who were charged with creating new arrangements for the classic songs.
Along with Sia herself, songs are performed with Broadway eccentricity by a cast of Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and the new Annie, Quvenzhané Wallis; surely one of the next generation’s leading ladies of Hollywood. An Academy award nominee at just 11-years-old, Quvenzhané’s raw vocal resonates most on
Opportunity, while she reaches epic heights on
modern reworks of signature songs like It’s a
Hard Knock Life and Tomorrow. She’s bursting
with theatrical enthusiasm in I Think I’m Gonna
Like it Here and even adopts an Ellie
Goulding-esque husk on Foxx ballad The City’s Yours. Diaz’s turn as Miss Hannigan is set to be camp as Christmas if Little Girls is anything to go by, while the original classic You’re Never
Fully Dressed Without a Smile is a Sia special, an
offering that’s a touch more upbeat than her own album 1000 Forms of Fear earlier this year.
Revamping an iconic score to the modern age without straying too far from the original; this is a sensitive and most enjoyable feat. at
5
/5
4
/5
4
/5
4
/5
edIT
_musIc revIews
Hipster angel bride Hot Mama Shabby chic
Wasn’t even there but
photoshopped for symmetry Just shabby This picture’s Poor Michelle
Bey doing a Pippa All the single ladies
Broke the no smiling memo/is now dead
26
Betty could sip her wine, make alluring glances towards the girl and still be part of the conversation.
“Bloody hell, Stephen.” Betty was impressed. “You can stay.”
And he did.
We chatted about all sorts: freshers’ week, Hull, peanut butter. Stephen was doing textiles so he had a lot of good stories about experimental knitting, which I enjoyed a bit too much. At one point I laughed and coughed at the same time and started crying wine. It stung a bit. He was handsome too, if you like smiley, scruff y lads in nice jumpers, which I do. I was probably giving out good signals. That’s probably why he asked me out.
“Just for a coff ee or something,” he said. “Just if you fancy it.”
And for about three seconds, I considered it. Then I must’ve frowned.
“Ok,” Stephen laughed. “That’s a no.” He didn’t seem fazed or anything, just carried on chatting. I don’t know how he did it. I briefl y wished I was Stephen.
Betty downed her wine.
“Jonny, I think you should explain your pathetic love-life woes to Stephen,” she said. “I’m going in for the snog with fringe girl. Wish me luck.”
Betty headed towards the fi re escape and Stephen smiled. I think in his head he was
taking me out of the date box and putting me into the mate box. It didn’t take long.
“Another minging wine?” he said. “And then just: tell me everything.”
The thing about me is, I’m a massive lightweight. Wine number two got me pouring my heart out and by wine number three Stephen knew quite a lot more than he needed to know about the past few months. He didn’t seem to mind. He just smiled.
“You properly like Will,” he said. “I do,” I said. “I just do.”
“Well then,” he said. “Better get him back.” The trouble was, I hadn’t heard from Will since I’d turned up soaking wet on his doorstep in Harrogate. The more I thought about this, the more it felt like a bit of a clanger, and I wasn’t surprised he hadn’t been in touch. I’d given up ringing him about three missed calls after he stopped picking up the phone, and that was where I’d left it. At fi rst I thought he just needed a bit of space but now I fi gured he didn’t want anything to do with me at all. It was pretty gutting to be honest. Especially now cos I knew he was back in town. I bumped into his housemate Sam by the tins in Lidl. I managed to play it fairly cool – kept things breezy, picked up some pineapple chunks and left – but it was still quite awkward. Will turning up at choir again was my last
Part 9
I realised how much I wanted Will to be my boyfriend about three seconds after a lad called Stephen asked me out. It was at this meet and greet drinks thing for gay students organised by the welfare people at college. We all just stood around while they handed out plastic cups of white wine and leafl ets about rimming. It wasn’t really my thing to be honest, but I’d promised Betty I’d be her wingman for the night. Betty’s doing my course – I really, really like her. She laughs all the time, and takes photos of caravans, women she fancies and spelling mistakes. I was keeping her company so she could smile meaningfully across the room at this girl with a fringe from performing arts. It was going alright. Then Stephen turned up and stood in the way.
“Hey” he said. “I’m Stephen.” “Alright,” Betty said. “Can I just…?” Betty moved Stephen to the left. “Oh.” Stephen looked a bit confused. “This is Betty” I said. “She’s long-distance fl irting with that girl near the fi re escape.”
“Oh shit. Sorry. Hang on.”
Stephen angled himself round a bit so
THE FINAL INSTALMENT
OF OUR EXCLUSIVE MONTHLY
FICTIONAL STORY
hope really. Then that disappeared as well. “What you on about Wales?” Biscuits said. “Wales,” Neil said. “Wales.”
Neil had got a new job doing singing workshops and running a handful of choirs in the villages around Anglesey. One of his old mates from uni had sent him the ad from the local paper, he’d applied on a whim and got it. This would be his last choir practise – he was leaving on Saturday.
“Just thought: fresh start,” he said. “Think I’m ready for a change.”
Dev had gone to stay with his sister while he got some help, sorted his head out a bit, and Neil had been doing his best to carry on as normal, but he was a little bit wounded too. Something to get stuck into, in a new place, somewhere diff erent was probably just the thing. That’s what Neil thought anyway. Biscuits disagreed. He looked like he was going to say something angry, then looked like he might cry. He didn’t do either. He just shoved his chair back and left.
I waited for Jizzy J to say something funny. She didn’t. We were all a bit stunned.
In the end I said “I might go check he’s alright,” grabbed a couple of Tunnock’s Caramels for the journey and left. The door caught the wind as I closed it and slammed shut. I hoped it wasn’t a sign. Then I felt like a knob – I spend a good quarter of my life hoping things aren’t signs. Nothing’s ever a
27
sign. I don’t know why I do it.
Back at ours, I put the kettle on. Biscuits took a few deep breaths and got his head round Neil’s news. Biscuits had enough friends round here not to be lonely, he decided and he’d been wanting to visit Wales since seeing the fi lm Pride seven times over the summer. The thing to do, he said, was to give his best mate in the whole wide world a really good send off .
“You know what that means Jonny” he was grinning again by now “karry-bloody-oke!”
Jizzy J sorted it for Friday night at the pub and Biscuits got busy rounding up everyone from choir. Ark and Mandy were in, as long as Barry Manilow was banned, and Mr Cartwright said he couldn’t wait. Biscuits got through to Sam eventually who said he’d pass the message on to Ben and Will. I thought this was shaky at best – Sam’s quite forgetful – but Betty and Stephen said I should put that to the back of my mind. They’d decided this was my last chance to get Will back, and they’d got a plan.
“Some things, you can have a chat about,” she said. “And that’s fi ne, if you can manage it. For some reason, you two can’t seem to do that. That’s okay. You just have to sing. Sing all the stuff you wish you could say, but can’t, cos you’re 19, and a lad, and a bit shit at life.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Helpful.”
“The world is rammed with soppy, vommy, cringingly earnest love songs designed to do this exact job. You just need to pick the
right one.”
Stephen nodded in agreement, and clicked on Spotify.
From a shortlist of three, I went for Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again. Partly cos it’s beautiful, partly cos Will once sang it to me after I got lost on my moped and he saw me go round a roundabout twice. If he ignored the bit about lying and I managed not to make the word “come” sound dirty, it felt like it’d do the trick. I practised in my room til it sounded alright and tried not to get nervous. Friday night came a bit too quickly.
We nearly didn’t get there at all. Biscuits got a bit tearful before we set off . He’d got Neil a
t-shirt that said Hull on it, nothing else, in a really boring font, and he had to stop in the middle of wrapping it to have a good sob. In the end though, we were just a couple of minutes late. Mr Cartwright and Jizzy J were halfway through quite a touching rendition of Somethin’ Stupid. I had a look round – no sign of Ben and Sam and Will, not yet. They probably weren’t coming – I knew that. Still, my heart sank a bit. Ark and Mandy put on sunglasses, started marching and did The Proclaimers 500 Miles – it was just a rough guess how far away Wales was, they said. They hadn’t checked. Neil and Biscuits went for all-out karaoke meltdown with My Way followed by Angels and Jizzy J joined in with a bottle of Cava. And then, in the middle of all that, Ben and Sam and Will turned up. Ben and Sam went straight in with a Cheeky Girls cover. Will looked horror-struck – he hated karaoke at the best of times, but touch-my-bum housemates was a new low. He looked over but I couldn’t quite meet his eye. I ducked outside. I was fi ghting the urge to just leg it.
Jizzy J stuck her head round the door. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah.”
“Get back in here then,” she said. “In a bit.”
“No” she said. “Fucking, now.” Normally I’m thrilled to hear Dolly Parton. But I heard the fi rst jangly bars of Here You Come Again start up and I felt like the world was ending. It was a panic like I’ve never felt before. I couldn’t do a thing. Jizzy J grabbed me, started shoving me inside.
“No,” I said.
Jizzy J ignored me. Before I knew what was happening, I was through that door, shaking, wobbling, as close to vomming as you can get without actual vom. I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t do it.
And that is when I spotted Will. Up on the stage, microphone in hand, petrifi ed. Doing his best, and singing in my direction. Defi nitely. Singing it to me. And I knew how hard he must be fi nding it, but he just ploughed on, kept singing. He grinned at me, dead embarrassed, and I grinned back. It felt like the whole world fell into place a bit. And then, at the end, we kissed.
So this is it – the last page of my diary. And this is just the beginning. There’s more twists and turns and fuck ups on their way, for both of us, I know. But both of us together. Wish us luck.
‘THE WORLD IS RAMMED
WITH SOPPY, VOMMY,
CRINGINGLY EARNEST LOVE
SONGS DESIGNED TO DO THIS
EXACT JOB. YOU JUST NEED
TO PICK THE RIGHT ONE’
EDIT
_FICTION
28
EddiE REdmaynE, FElicity JonEs, chaRliE cox
There’s a plainness in the telling of Stephen Hawking’s life story, but the fact that it still packs a weighty and emotive punch is down to its unflinching honesty and two phenomenal performances: Redmayne as the genius astrophysicist and Jones as his first wife Jane. Redmayne’s ability to chart Hawking’s gradual physical disintegration through motor neurone disease, from merry student gamboling about Cambridge to contorted, wheelchair-bound shell, is nothing short of a marvel; the actor also expertly conveys Hawking’s boundless curiosity and even an impish sexiness. Jones, too, delivers as the solicitous but not always willing-to-suffer Jane. This biopic is extracted from her memoirs so while it ploughs towards the messy end of their marriage, it’s also more an uplifting tale about the power of love than an exploration of Hawking’s radical ideas about the universe. Team Cumberbatch seized the early awards-season momentum for his Alan Turing, but on this evidence we’re backing Team Redmayne to bag more hardware.
RElEasEdon 1 JanuaRy.
BIRDMAN
Jim caRREy, JEFF daniEls, KathlEEn tuRnER
Speaking of dumb comedies… Twenty years after Carrey and Daniels first played braincell-deficient morons Lloyd and Harry comes this too-belated sequel, which strives to recapture the anarchic gross-out spirit that made the 1994 original a minor classic. Carrey and Daniels are certainly game for further adventures in (a)dolthood and no depths are left unplumbed in the quest for laughs. But the best of them are all in the trailer, leaving the rest of this gagfest looking just plain stupid.
RElEasEdon 19 dEcEmbER.
DUMB AND DUMBER TO
2
/5
3
/5
2
/5
4
/5
reviews: matt mueller
channing tatum, stEvE caREll, maRK RuFFalo You can tell we’re in awards season when a new film starring Tatum and Carell turns out not to be a dumb comedy but a haunting true-crime drama about an insecure billionaire (Carell) and his bizarre patronage of the US Olympic wrestling team. Carell’s prosthetic nose is a sure sign he’s truffle-hogging for Oscar, but he’d deserve it for his creepy blueblood. Tatum and Ruffalo, as wrestler brothers who end up in his talons, are also superb in a precision- crafted procedural that unfolds with quiet menace.
RElEasEdon 9 JanuaRy.
FOXCATCHER
4
/5
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHINg
michaEl KEaton, EdwaRd noRton, naomi watts Everyone’s going gaga for Keaton’s comeback as an ageing movie star trying to recapture public attention by staging a highbrow play. Frankly, though, he’s the least interesting thing in this surreal black comedy. It’s the supporting cast that makes Birdman soar (plus nifty camerawork that makes the film appear to unfold in one breathless take), including Norton as a nightmare A-lister, Watts, Andrea Riseborough as an insecure actresses and Emma Stone as Keaton’s brusque daughter. They stop this backstage satire from becoming an over-indulgent wallow.
RElEasEdon 1 JanuaRy.
MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN
adam sandlER, JEnniFER gaRnER, ansEl ElgoRt Chad Kultgen’s 2011 novel offered a frank, unjudgmental take on the internet’s vast hypersexual landscape. This adaptation by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) is less frank, drearily cautionary and as incisive as an afterschool special, exposing a gaggle of suburban Americans in various stages of sexual distress and disconnection due to their naughty cyber habits. The young cast fare better than the old, but this is destined for an afterlife as a disapproving schoolmarm’s favourite.RElEasEdon 5 dEcEmbER.
eDit
_film reviews
Queer cinema pioneer, Travis
Mathews (I WANT YOUR LOVE,
INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR with
James Franco) returns with a
collection of erotic portraits of
gay men.
“Beautifully shot, deeply intimate
and voyeuristically tantalising”
Ira Sachs
DIRECTOR OF KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
PECCADILLO PICTURES
Available On DVD
Cinema for insomniacs
peccapics.com
30
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juggling the intensely hot gay potatoes of paternity, prostitution
and possessiveness – eastern boys is not for the faint-hearted
F
or the first few weeks after completing filming on his ambitious, striking, tense thriller Eastern Boys, the French film director Robin Campillo found it unnerving each time he stepped back into his own home. At Eastern Boys’ scripting stage, the auteur had imagined the main body of the action to take place in his apartment. To give the piece a verité mood and to keep to a tight budget it made sense to shoot there. It’s a strange flat, he says, a high rise in an unfashionable arrondissement in which Paris looks “like an illusion of a city” through the windows. You are in the city but disconnected from it, a perfect visual metaphor for Eastern Boys’ astringent subject matter; a film that joins unlikely, plausible dots between the gay experience and immigration in modern Europe. “It was a little bit strange coming back to my apartment and getting in bed at night,” he says now.After watching Eastern Boys, a piercing dissection of the sort of gay relationship you don’t often see on screen; one which intelligently, often scarily hoovers up the hot potato subjects of paternity, criminality, prostitution, ownership and prescriptive sex roles, it’s not difficult to reason why. “When I made my first film,” he says of
Les Revenants, a spookily episodic return-of-the-living-dead drama
which he rebooted as a TV series and found a critically loved home for at Channel 4 last year, “I had the feeling that directing was about controlling everything.” Because of the subject matter in Eastern Boys, he needed to lose some of that control. “In this film I wanted to be invaded by reality.” He found himself invested with a Hitchcockian spirit, with particular reference to Vertigo.
Though made at the opposite ends of the country and with neither of their prior knowledge that they were building formidable companion pieces to one another’s work, Eastern
Boys feels – emotionally at least – like a follow-up to last
year’s noir gay classic, Stranger By The Lake. Both French films have unpicked gay experiences at tough, unforgiving angles, stripped away their surface gloss and inserted their own versions of hard truth into ailing love stories. They are not comfortable viewing, but they feel like a new vanguard for gay cinema, as exciting and irresistible in their own way as the birth of the queer cult of the late 80s and early 90s. “They both, I suppose, address the relationship between threat and desire.”
Both directors, Campillo and Stranger By The Lake’s Alain Guiraudie open their masterworks with cruising moments at a direct antithesis to the titillating, smoky, leathery scenarios that straight directors have tended to fall back on when imagining themselves into the world of anonymous gay sex; from William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) to Steve McQueen’s Shame (2011). Campillo and Guiraudie, both gay
themselves, extract the potential for boredom, repetition, desperation and adroit danger in the act of wordlessly picking up someone of whom you have no prior knowledge. They are savvy enough storytellers to leave these situations free from judgement too.
When Campillo says “I must say, I don’t try – when I make this kind of film – to be a provocative guy, I’m not trying to shock,” you believe him. Both he and Guiraudie have a deep understanding of a floating, actualised danger implicit in some strands of gay life that has been swept somewhat under the carpet in the societal shift towards conservative family values – the gaybies, marriages and alimony conversation that has traced the new century so far.
Campillo began working on Eastern Boys not long after Les Revenants hit cinemas in 2004. “I was invited to a friend of my boyfriend’s to dinner,” he explains. “He is 52 and has a son who was maybe 30-odd. He was Russian. As he said goodbye to his son I assumed he was his lover.” His mistake was quickly corrected. “When I say this story it sounds shocking. But that’s why I do films. To understand how these things happen.” So he began writing a script about a gay relationship that blurred the lines between paternity and sexuality. It didn’t quite work out as he expected. “A few years after I started to write another script, which I worked on for a year and a half. I didn’t want to shoot that either. It was more like Stranger By The Lake, actually, set in the south. A man cruising finds a former soldier and is afraid and excited by this guy. I abandoned that script and he turned into two characters in Eastern Boys, Boss and Marek.’
