Arts & Entertainment
Laughing with Lily
Tomlin on getting married, Ernestine and Edith, Lucy, Carol and more
Lily Tomlin’s live show updates her classic characters with modern situations. (Photo by Greg Gorman)
Lily Tomlin
Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Lane
Mar. 28 at 8 p.m.
Comedic legend Lily Tomlin plays the Strathmore Friday night. Last week she spent a delightful hour with us by phone from her Los Angeles home in — as is typical for the actress — a leisurely, rambling-in the-best-way conversation that few stars of her caliber make time for. Her comments have been slightly edited for length.
WASHINGTON BLADE: How has comedy changed since you began? This show revives some classic characters and bits, but do you find some elements might have been a scream in the ‘60s but fall flat today?
LILY TOMLIN: I imagine you wouldn’t find a whole lot that would still be relevant. I couldn’t say that in a totally general way but overall, I would say the humor then would have been relative to something that was going on then. We didn’t deal so much with universal truths in the sense of the human condition. We did a lot of snappy stuff that was going on at the time. When we were doing “Laugh-In,” Ronald Reagan was the governor and later he was the president so a lot of stuff we said was just Reagan and you’d be watching “Laugh-In” on some cable show or something and they wouldn’t say governor or president, they just said Ronald Reagan or Reagan, so much of what we said still applied when he was president. But in general, the values and taboos of society have changed a lot in 40 years.
BLADE: Is it hard, then, to take your classic characters and make them work now on stage in a way that doesn’t feel frozen in time?
TOMLIN: Well, it’s just what you choose to put in their mouths. The last job Ernestine had was working for Health Care Insurance Corporation denying health care to everyone and prior to that she had a reality webcast chat show all during the Bush administration so she could call the president and presumably she had a webcam so she could see what he was doing. She could call Cheney or anybody and talk about something that was going on at the time.
BLADE: You don’t think Ernestine would still be funny at the switchboard?
TOMLIN: No because we hardly even have switchboards anymore and people barely know what an operator is. But that overbearing bureaucratic dominance still serves in other places. She left the phone company because they were no longer, you know, powerful or omnipotent. She would have had to compete for business.
BLADE: What would Ernestine think of the revelations last year that Big Brother is listening in on everything?
TOMLIN: I’ve been trying to come up with a really great NSA sketch. The secret of it would be (slipping into Ernestine’s voice): “A gracious hello — this is the NSA, the only government agency that actually listens (snorts).”
BLADE: I’ve seen you use her in unscripted formats, too. I remember Ernestine being interviewed once by Joan Rivers. I have no idea if she gave you the questions ahead of time or not, but that would seem quite nerve-wracking to me — the pressure to be funny outside of the sketch format. Was it?
TOMLIN: Well, I know her attitude. It’s not like Ernestine doesn’t live somewhere in my body, she does. Certain characters are especially good for that if they’re really opinionated and fairly short sighted or self interested and don’t care about other people’s feelings. Then they probably improvise fairly well.
BLADE: There was an op-ed shortly after you got married in which a lesbian wrote “we came of age in a time when her one-woman shows changed how we understood ourselves as lesbians and feminists.” To what degree in the ‘70s were you aware or were you aware that your work was not just being enjoyed by lesbians but sort of exalted and claimed in a sense?
TOMLIN: Maybe claimed a little. My mother and dad are from Kentucky and even though I was born in Detroit, because I’m well known and presumably semi-liked in Kentucky, I don’t know for sure, but Kentucky sort of claims me in a way. Very often I read that I was “Kentucky’s own” or “born in Kentucky.” In fact, I put my hands in cement there in some Kentucky hall of fame or something. I told them, “But I’m not really from Kentucky,” and they said, “No one will care. They’ll be glad and they’ll hope you are from Kentucky.” So I’m sure lesbians and other feminists, if I was good and doing good stuff and strong and intelligent, I’d think they’d want to claim me in a sense that, well, you know, “She’s one of us” or whatever people might say in that kind of reference. I’m sure even Mrs. Duggar, if she had one kid that became president of the United States, she might single him out. In any other case, she might not. “These are my kids. Oh, this is Robert, my son, the president.” I don’t know how that stuff goes but even if it did, I’m grateful for it in a sense because, you know, I want to communicate with people. Very often I really want to validate people, validate humanity to some extent. We’re so invalidated in so many other ways and disregarded. Dismissed or thought of as just some lump mass of humanity that’s disposable and exploitable. Rotten to the core.
BLADE: How does comedy validate?
TOMLIN: Just showing what you love and human situations and human attitudes and you show the bad parts, but you show them in a way that we all possess them. We’re all really in the same spaceship together. Politicians, to me, are a separate entity because they’re in a place where they’re actually affecting our lives in profound ways and attempting to do so and not always with the absolute soul of integrity.
BLADE: I found (partner) Jane’s (Wagner) blog a few years ago quite funny when she wrote the blow-by-blow of trying to find the right hot dogs and sunscreen on the Fourth of July. If that was any indication of the interplay between the two of you on something as trivial as finding hot dogs, how on earth did you discuss and settle on when, how or if to get married? (Tomlin and Wagner were married on New Year’s Eve after 42 years together.)
TOMLIN: We didn’t talk about it for a long time because we lived together so long where that wasn’t even a glimmer of a hope or a possibility. … She and I would have liked to have been married and last fall, maybe October or November or something, I said, “You know, maybe we should.” We were both of the same mind … so we just decided to get married. I don’t know if you’ve been on our Facebook, but we made a little thing about it and showed where we went to the license bureau and we just wanted a nice, simple, sweet, quiet little ceremony so we went to Van Nuys, we went out of the way because we didn’t want to be usurped, our control of the situation, you know, “Oh, Jane and Lily were at the license bureau.” But there was so much there, that we made this little vignette of it and it shows us in front of the building. It’s just this old, one-story kind of flat motor vehicle kind-of place. There’s nothing grand or majestic about it, like some old courthouse from another era or anything. And then you stand in line with a bunch of other people and there were young people in tuxedos and bridal dresses. Then you go in another room and this woman who looks like Ruth Bader she has on a black cloak, and she takes them in there and marries them right on the spot. Families were there and they’re so dear. These couples getting married, and you think, “Oh God, help us, all these young kids getting married and you don’t even —,” you know, I worry about them like a mother. Do they have a place to live, any kind of a decent job, are they gonna have kids, and they don’t have any idea what it takes to raise those kids, the money it costs. So we get up to the window and we get our license and then we go outside and there was a hot dog stand with a little cart and a multi-colored umbrella, so we used that as our backdrop. It’s just like four little photos. Now you’re gonna go and expect like a feature film or something, but it was just our little way to acknowledge it. We didn’t post it till after we got married, which we did on New Year’s Eve.
BLADE: Does it feel any different? Was there any psychological shift or anything you weren’t expecting?
TOMLIN: I haven’t perceived it. Maybe there is, kind of. The nice part about it is that it’s out in the public. Not that that many people would have known we were together anyway, but when it’s reported that you’re married, it’s so kind of official. The best part is that Jane is from Tennessee and my parents are from Kentucky so we have southern families and my family more than hers were more fundamentalist …
BLADE: You were raised Southern Baptist, right?
TOMLIN: Well, my dad wasn’t really. He was a drinker and a gambler and I went to the bookie joints with him and every Sunday when I was a kid, because of all the fire and brimstone that goes on in the fundamentalist church, I would sit up in the kitchen with my dad. We had an old Formica table and I was maybe 5 or 6 or 7 and I was worried about my father not going to heaven. My dad would be having a beer and some sardines and crackers like on a Sunday morning and my mother is getting ready for church and I’d be up there in the middle of the table trying to get daddy to go to church with us. Argh. Anyway, my mother and dad are both totally individual and funny … so I would go to the bookie joints with my dad on Saturdays and to church with my mom on Sundays. Let’s see, where was I going with this — the best part of the marriage thing, aside from us being together, was that we heard from a lot of relatives, not my mother’s generation really, ‘cause they’re mostly gone, they would have been a little taken aback, but the next generation, we got lots of cards and messages from relatives that you never would have gotten even 10 years ago, congratulating us. Very loving, very sweet. So I thought that was the most miraculous part of it.
BLADE: You were on the “Merv Griffin Show” several times early in your career. Did you have any awareness at the time that he was gay?
TOMLIN: No, I don’t think so. Well, by the time I was in my 20s, I suppose I did. There were these rumors that young men were always kind of in his sphere somewhere so yes, I heard all that kind of gossip, especially being gay, other gay people fostered that kind of gossip. They were glad to hear about something like that. So yes, it was probably fairly well considered and I’m sure I was privy to that conversation at some point.
BLADE: I know the story about the Time magazine offer (in 1975, they offered her the cover if she’d come out) but then years later, like maybe in the late ‘80s or ‘90s you were doing stuff like “Celluloid Closet,” “The Band Played On” and “Will & Grace.” Was there a point where you decided to start saying yes to those kinds of projects that you might not have done, say, a decade before?
TOMLIN: I never would have said no to them but I might not have called a press conference to declare my sexuality. At that time, first of all, it gets to be a little bit grandstandy for someone like me. … I called Vito Russo and told him about the Time offer and said, “I just don’t know if I can handle it, I’m a little bit insulted, I’m a little bit everything,” because it was more like they just needed a gay person. It was like with the actor Cliff Gorman who was in “Boys in the Band,” he was straight but he was very worried about his career so whenever he gave an interview, he’s always make sure you knew he wasn’t gay. So we just flipped it around, you know, and when I did end up giving an interview to Time, we made sure they understood I wasn’t straight and we put a little bit about that on the album we were working on at the time, “Modern Scream.” And of course nothing was ever said about it, written about it, anything. The album wasn’t a big hit. It wasn’t like I was some big recording artist who sold a lot, but my early albums had been fairly successful because of “Laugh-In,” Ernestine and Edith. … I didn’t want to decline it, but I didn’t want to accept it, so I decided, “I’m not going down without throwing a punch.”
BLADE: Now at times, some up-and-comers use it in reverse — being out as part of their marketing campaign. For people who are genuinely talented, do you think that’s harmful?
TOMLIN: It depends on what kind of work they’ve done or they’re doing. Look at Neil Patrick Harris. He’s hugely popular and sought after, but of course, we knew him as a kid. But he’s a very good singer, actor, dancer and he’s got a lot of charm. Things have turned around so profoundly but the thing that terrifies you is if some right wing evangelist kind of person gets in, or we lose the Senate or we get a Republican president, you don’t know how far they will go to repeal something. There’s such a sense of celebration now and it’s kind of taken for granted but if some crazy person gets in there and there’s that limitation and philosophy where they spiritualize everything, they just nail down on these issues and they want to repeal any kind of progressive advance. It’s pretty scary when you see what’s going on in other parts of the world.
Lily Tomlin won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in 2003. She’s in the region this weekend for a show at the Strathmore. (Photo by B. Patterson)
BLADE: Yeah, like what we saw in Russia during the Olympics.
TOMLIN: Right. We did a little thing — actually I wish we could have been in D.C. when we did it, but I say I was thrown in jail but thank God, I knew Ernestine and she got us out. So we make fun of it. We made a graphic where we show Putin bare-chested on a horse and Ernestine is riding bareback behind him.
BLADE: So your show isn’t just Lily’s greatest hits then.
TOMLIN: No.
BLADE: Do you enjoy working on the material?
TOMLIN: I do. We have some pieces that we still do that work well because I love them so much and I think they’re terribly funny. So it’s kind of a mix. We’re trying to do something worthwhile but that is also fun and hopefully thoughtful, hopefully even moving in some way at some point. How old are you?
BLADE: 39, but you know gay men often know pop culture before their time way more than straight men.
TOMLIN: Oh my God, yes. Paul, this photographer and musician who works with me, he kills me because there’s nothing that happens on a daily basis at our house, office or anything, that he can’t relate it to a Lucy episode.
BLADE: That’s a great quality to have.
TOMLIN: Oh, it’s so dear. I just scream laughing.
BLADE: What’s your favorite?
TOMLIN: Well, when I was a kid, “slowly I turn,” because it looked like the kind of performance piece I could do. The ballet class, too.
BLADE: You guested on “The Carol Burnett Show” right?
TOMLIN: Oh yeah.
BLADE: Lots of people are on sitcoms but you and Carol and a few others are known for certain characters. Did you feel comedic camaraderie with her?
TOMLIN: Well, I’d known her a long time. One very hot moment for me, one very happy moment, I was at CBS maybe I was doing my first special or maybe I was just guesting on some show like Glen Campbell or something. When I got “Laugh-In,” Glen Campbell was the first show I guested on and Carol, of course, shot at CBS. I was in the ladies’ room and she came in and threw her arms around me and called my name. That just made me very happy that she knew who I was and was so demonstrative with me. She’s an extremely dear person anyway.
BLADE: Did you know Lucille Ball?
TOMLIN: I read an article with her once and they were asking her about new young comedians, mostly girls, and when they got to me, she said, “I don’t get her.” My heart broke but later I met her and she told a very funny story, and acted it out for about 20 minutes, about how she had had to get a root canal the day of the Tonys. … To hear her tell it in person was just sublime.
BLADE: She seemed like she could be a bit of a tough customer. Crusty, maybe.
TOMLIN: Everybody says that, yeah.
BLADE: Maybe she felt more liberated as she got older. More candid. Do you ever feel that way?
TOMLIN: Not really. I have a hard time realizing I’m as old as I am. I don’t feel that old. I still feel innocent in some ways.
Arts & Entertainment
Queer actors celebrate Golden Globe nominations
Koch, Gadd, Domingo among year’s standout performances
Awards season arrived earlier this week with the announcement of the 2025 Golden Globes, which takes place on Jan. 5, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount +. Several LGBTQ actors are over the moon to be nominated.
Trans queer actress Karla Sofía Gascón was nominated for Best Female Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for the musical “Emilia Pérez,” making her the first out trans woman to be nominated for Lead Actress in a film category.
The riveting film, which tells the tale of a cartel leader who transitions to a trans woman, has received numerous Globes noms, for Best Motion Picture (musical or comedy), acting (for Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña), Jacques Audiard for Best Director (Motion Picture), Best Screenplay (Motion Picture), Best Original Score, and two nominations for Best Original Song.
“This has been an overwhelming morning,” acknowledged Gascón in a Netflix statement. “Tears filled my eyes when I heard the news. I want to thank all the members of the Golden Globes for this nomination. It’s incredible to be recognized alongside my costars. I’m so grateful to Jacques for the gift of Emilia. We couldn’t have created the world of ‘EMILIA PÉREZ’ without the amazing artistic technical team on the film. Thank you to Netflix and to all of you who support me and live with my successes as if they were yours. This nomination gives me hope for humanity.”
Bisexual actor Richard Gadd has been nominated for best television male actor in a limited series, anthology series or television motion picture for his hit Netflix series, “Baby Reindeer.”
In a prepared Netflix statement he said: “I am beyond thrilled that ‘Baby Reindeer’ has been nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Almost every year, I have watched the event, hoping that one day I might be there in the audience, sitting amongst the industry’s finest, getting roasted on an international scale. So it is a dream come true. Thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press for all they have done in championing the show.”
Gadd offered his “sincere gratitude” to Netflix for “taking a chance” on greenlighting the series, as well as Clerkenwell Films for their “enormous efforts” in producing it.
“And all the amazing cast and crew who worked tirelessly to bring the best version of the series to screen, a special shout out to my incredible team who I have the joy and privilege of working with every single day too. Whatever happens on the 5th of January, I cannot think of a better way to start the year. Javier Bardem, I’m coming for a photograph!”
Gadd is up against gay stars Cooper Koch for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and Andrew Scott for “Ripley.”
Noted Scott: “It was a true honor to bring Patricia Highsmith’s iconic literary character to life in this new way, to spar with the glorious Dakota Fanning and to work with a cast and crew of truly extraordinary talent. Thank you to the Golden Globes; I never dreamed murdering people on the Amalfi coast for a year would be recognized in this way. Grazie Mille.”
Also in the category are Colin Farrell (“The Penguin,”) Kevin Kline (“Disclaimer”), and Ewan McGregor (“A Gentleman in Moscow.”)
Gay castmate Jessica Gunning is also nominated for best supporting female actor-television.
“Wowza. Words can’t really do justice to how thrilled I am to be nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress alongside some of my idols as well no less! I think I might need someone to pinch me to check I’m not dreaming. Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this incredible honour, to the amazing cast and crew of Baby Reindeer, to Netflix and Clerkenwell Films, to my friends and family for all their support along the way. And a huge thanks of course to Richard, without whom none of this would even be possible. This genuinely is such an incredible honour and I can’t wait to be in LA in January… what a way to kick off 2025! Thank you.”
“Wicked’s” Cynthia Erivo was equally elated: “Now that my feet are hovering off the ground, I cannot even come close to properly expressing what this moment means to me. Not just because of this individual nomination but because I get to watch as this project and my ‘WICKED’ family is celebrated too. Being a part of this project has been a dream come true, and playing Elphaba, a woman who speaks to everyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong and lets them know they have the power to defy gravity, has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Erivo’s best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy nomination is the fourth for her — she earned her first nominations for best drama actress and best original song for the 2020 film “Harriet.” The British actress and singer also received a nom in 2022, for best actress in a limited series nomination, portraying Aretha Franklin in Nat Geo’s “Genius.”
She also sent heartfelt wishes to director Jon Chu and producer Marc Platt. “Thank you for entrusting me with her. Donna Langley, Peter Cramer and the entire Universal team, thank you for all of your love, care, collaboration and hard work. Jon, you and your wonderful dedication to this work, your love of cinema and storytelling and care for each one of us on your set is why we’re all experiencing this now, thank you.”
“Wicked” has several nominations, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Ariana Grande-Butera for Best Supporting Female Actor.
Addressing Grande-Butera, Erivo said: “My little sister, baby girl I love you. I’m so proud of you. You’re so deserving of this moment and I’m glad I get to share the seconds and the moments and the days and the years with you. This journey has been so unbelievably special, and I believe it is the company we have kept together that has made it as special as it has been and will continue to be. May there be many many more journeys to take both on and off screen, it is an honor to be able to hold your hand.”
Angelina Jolie is also nominated for best female actor-drama for “Maria,” the Maria Callas biopic.
“Thank you to the Golden Globes for this honor,” she said in a Netflix statement. “I am humbled to be nominated alongside so many artists I deeply admire. I share this with my director, Pablo Larrain and all who were a part of making MARIA such a rewarding experience. It’s a privilege to have played Maria Callas and to be able to share her legacy with the world.”
Nonbinary star Emma D’Arcy also received a Globe nomination for Best TV Drama Actress for her work in HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”
“I feel completely delighted. This season felt very personal to me, and at times it was hard to make, so I’m really moved by this recognition. Making a show like this is the most extraordinary team effort — I’ll be honoured to represent my colleagues at the Globes in January.”
D’Arcy’s co-nominees are Kathy Bates (“Matlock”), Maya Erskine (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), Keira Knightley (“Black Doves”), Keri Russell (“The Diplomat”), and Anna Sawai (“Shōgun”).
Hannah Einbinder has now been nominated at the Golden Globes for all three seasons of “Hacks.”
“Getting to make ‘Hacks’ with the hardest working, most talented and lovely crew, saying words written by Paul Downs, Jen Statsky, and Lucia Aniello, looking into the eyes of Jean Smart and every actor on this show is a once in a lifetime, lightning in a bottle experience. I cherish this show so deeply and to be recognized for my work on it is a sincere honor.”
Luca Guadagnino is nominated for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for “Challengers” as well as for Best Song.
“I am so proud today to the Globes for the recognition and love for Daniel and Zendaya in both drama and comedy. I am in awe of their talent. To then share best picture and song nods with more people I love — Amy and Rachel, Trent and Atticus, it is a beautiful and wonderful thing and I am grateful.”
Other LGBTQ highlights:
“Nickel Boys” and “Moana 2” were nominated for Best Motion Picture and feature queer actors Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Auli’i Cravalho.
“The Wild Robot,” which features queer actor Stephanie Hsu, is nominated for Best Motion Picture (Animated), Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Grammy-winning country-pop star Maren Morris, who identifies as bisexual, co-wrote and performed “Kiss the Sky.”
Singer Miley Cyrus is nominated for Best Original Song for “Beautiful That Way” from “The Last Showgirl.”
Both Jodie Foster and Kali Reis are nominated for “True Detective: Night Country.”
Colman Domingo is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, for “Sing Sing.”
Friday, December 13
“Center Aging Friday Tea Time” will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more details, email [email protected].
Women in their Twenties and Thirties will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social discussion group for queer women in the Washington, D.C. area. For more details, join their closed Facebook Group.
Go Gay DC will host “First Friday LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at Puro Gusto. This event is ideal for making new friends, professional networking, idea-sharing, and community building. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Saturday, December 14
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including Allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host “Vogue Sessions” at 2 p.m. Sessions is open to all ages, genders, and experience levels and will be facilitated each-one-teach-one. No shade, no drama, no categories. DJ Tony Play starts spinning at 3PM. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.
LGBTQ People of Color Support Group will be at 1 p.m. on Zoom. This peer support group is an outlet for LGBTQ People of Color to come together and talk about anything affecting them in a space that strives to be safe and judgement free. For more information and events for LGBTQ People of Color, visit thedccenter.org/poc or facebook.com/centerpoc.
Sunday, December 15
Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Dinner” at 6:30 p.m. at Federico Ristorante Italiano. Guests are encouraged to come enjoy an evening of Italian-style dining and conversation with other LGBTQ+ folk. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
AfroCode DC will be at 4 p.m. at Decades DC. This event will be an experience of non-stop music, dancing, and good vibes and a crossover of genres and a fusion of cultures. Tickets cost $40 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Monday, December 16
Center Aging: Monday Coffee & Conversation will be at 10:00a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of their choice. For more details, email [email protected].
Queer Book Club will be at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. This month’s read is “How to Excavate a Heart” by Jake Maia Arlow. For more details, email [email protected].
Tuesday, December 17
Genderqueer DC will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a support group for people who identify outside of the gender binary. Whether you’re bigender, agender, genderfluid, or just know that you’re not 100% cis. For more details, visit genderqueerdc.org or Facebook.
BiRoundtable Discussion will be at 7 p.m. This is an opportunity for people to gather in order to discuss issues related to bisexuality or as Bi individuals in a private setting. For more details, visit Facebook or Meetup.
Wednesday, December 18
Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.
Asexual and Aromantic Group will meet at 7 p.m. on Zoom and in person at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This is a space where people who are questioning this aspect of their identity or those who identify as asexual and/or aromantic can come together, share stories and experiences, and discuss various topics. For more details, email [email protected].
Thursday, December 19
The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. To be more fair with who is receiving boxes, the program is moving to a lottery system. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5:00 pm if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245.
Virtual Yoga with Charles M. will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a free weekly class focusing on yoga, breathwork, and meditation. For more details, visit the DC Center for the LGBT Community’s website.
Movies
Daniel Craig shines in raw and romantic ‘Queer’
Drug abuse, alcohol, sex, and squalor figure in new Guadagnino film
In an awards season largely devoid of LGBTQ content, one movie asserts itself as the exception by its very title.
Much-anticipated after its Venice Film Festival premiere, and buoyed by the buzz around star Daniel Craig’s performance and its well-publicized sex scenes, Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” has begun rolling into theaters. Naturally, queer cinema buffs are eager to see a move from the same filmmaker who delivered “Call Me By Your Name” and its leading man is arguably the sexiest of all the James Bonds – but if you’re expecting a feel-good story about LGBTQ Pride, this adaptation of a novella by famously countercultural “Beat era” writer William S. Burroughs is definitely not it.
Its setting in 1950s Mexico City is enough to let you know that any queerness it presents for us is likely to be furtive, conducted in secrecy and shrouded in a sense of forbidden desire. Against this backdrop, brilliant-but-dissolute American William Lee (Craig) trolls the streets and clubs looking for sex, love, and connection among the other expatriates who gather nightly in the bars that cater to them. When a much-younger ex-Navy man named Eugene (Drew Starkey) catches his eye and seems responsive to his bold-but-clumsy flirtations, he becomes enamored – despite his own insecurities and his uncertainty over whether his new crush is even queer to begin with – and persists in his effort to get close to this much-younger fellow American.
There’s definitely a spark; the two move quickly from being mere drinking companions when an after-bar nightcap at his place turns into a naked overnight stay, and they become de facto lovers, though Eugene continues to maintain an emotional distance. Eventually, Lee proposes a trip together to find a rogue botanist (Leslie Manville) in South America and experiment with ayahuasca; the young man agrees, and the two set off to share an experience that may push the boundaries of their relationship – and their consciousness – further than either of them are prepared to go.
It’s not a particularly “story-oriented” film; the plot flows, almost like a stream of consciousness, through the repetitive patterns of daily existence, moving between concrete reality, jarring memory, and hallucinatory exaltation to approximate an inner narrative rather than propel an outer one. This reflects the similar fluctuation in Burroughs’s writing, but also takes the audience into the subjective experience of Lee – a fictionalized version of the author himself – and allows us to see the threads of consistent meaning that turn the hedonistic blur into a visceral reminder of the intensity with which life often takes place, especially when longing, desire, and loneliness are involved. Ultimately, the adaptation by screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes treats the material almost as a “meta-biopic” of Burroughs himself, a bittersweet and characteristically raw collection of impressionistic memories given narrative structure by the conceit of fiction.
In keeping with that choice, Craig delivers a masterful performance that succeeds in channeling the late author’s uniquely unfiltered personality while never feeling like an attempt at mimicry. The former 007 reminds us of the insightful talent that made him a star even before his run as the iconic super agent, discarding the familiar suave charisma for a nervous awkwardness that underscores Lee’s eternal sense of being an outsider, but conveying with equal clarity the euphoric heights and humiliating lows of his emotional and intellectual landscape. Already the winner of the National Board of Review’s Best Actor prize, it’s a star turn that anchors the film and helps it achieve the homage to Burroughs – an under appreciated pioneer and alternative icon for the queer community, though he reportedly once disowned what was then called the “Gay Rights Movement” by saying “I have never been gay a day in my life and I’m sure as hell not a part of any movement” – that it rightly intends to pay.
As the object of his affections, costar Starkey brings more than just his compelling yet somehow unconventional good looks to the mix. He makes Eugene at once an enigma and a familiar archetype of sensitive-yet-callow youth, a pleasure-seeker able to embrace and delight in the joys of the moment with full authenticity. He has a palpable chemistry with Craig, only enhanced by those much-touted sex scenes (which manage to leave little to the imagination without showing anything explicit) and makes us feel both the deep bond that forms between them and the pang of inevitable loss that comes along with it.
Other strong performances come from Jason Schwartzman (almost unrecognizable in body padding and makeup) as a queer compatriot and confidant of Lee’s, and Manville (also almost unrecognizable under her character’s visual design) as the doctor-turned-shaman who serves as gatekeeper on his quest for psychedelic enlightenment; the always-winning Drew Droege also scores in a memorable supporting turn.
As for the direction, Guadagnino is at his best, guiding the actors through the story with insight and specificity while making sure his film gives them the best visual showcase to deliver it. Beautifully shot in a lush color palette on sumptuously designed sets, and composed with the visual eloquence of a painterly sensibility from start to finish, “Queer” very much evokes the big screen Technicolor aesthetic of the 1950s era in which it takes place, an effect that’s both reinforced by its romanticized international settings and jarringly contrasted by an anachronistic soundtrack that includes not only a distinctly contemporary-sounding score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross but numerous songs by artists like Nirvana, Prince, and New Order.
Yet excellent as it is, it’s a film that might disappoint some viewers. Though its name and its primary characters are queer, the “queerness” of the story has ultimately nothing to do with sexuality; for Burroughs, it was perhaps the way he saw through the madness of the world that set him apart from others, that kept him feeling alone in a crowd unless it was made up of the fellow “freaks” who were among his close circle. While “Queer” certainly offers plenty of celebratory, sex-positive scenes of intimacy, conveying a truth that the author knew first-hand, it also goes to the dark side, portraying Burroughs’s Gonzo lifestyle – including explicit scenes of drug use and seemingly endless appetite for alcohol – in all its matter-of-fact squalor. Some commentators have already pointed out the story’s echo of an old narrative trope, a “Death in Venice” style story of an aging gay man lured to despair by an obsession with a beautiful youth. If you’re after positive queer representation – or at least the generally expected kind – you’re not going to find that here, either.
Still, while such things may disturb our assumptions about what queer life – or any type of life, for that matter – is “supposed” to look like, they nevertheless represent a true lived experience, and truth is sometimes just as important as presentation. And “Queer” gives us plenty of beautiful moments, too, offsetting the ugly ones and often even turning them into something beautiful, too. That’s why, while it may not be the kind of inspirational call to arms many of us feel we need right now, it still earns our recommendation as one of the standout films of the year.
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