Well, that's the pot calling the kettle beige

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#36 : The Boys In The Band

Netflix adaptation of Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking 1968 stage hit about gay men gathering for a birthday party; Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto and Matt Bomer are among the cast.

I'd never heard of either the original play or this adaptation - I was expecting it to be worthy but dull, although I was interested to see whether it felt groundbreaking or dated 53 years down the line.  And from the very beginning, it's obvious we're in for the full retro experience - which may well prove to be somewhat tiresome for just over 2 hours.

But woah - 17 minutes in (before anything has really happened) I'm extremely surprised by the appearance of "the c word" - apparently the original 1970 film version of the play is believed to be the first mainstream US film to feature it.  And didn't that lead me down a c-word shaped rabbit hole (that sounds very wrong, doesn't it?!) - allegedly the first person to say it on the UK theatre stage was...

...go on, try and guess.  You ain't ever gonna get it...

...Roy "Chubby" Brown - obviously (or so he says, anyway).  Apparently, until 1968 all UK theatrical productions were reviewed by the Lord Chamberlain's office so no such nonsense was allowed and soon afterwards, he took up his "comedy" and well, "history" was made (and this also lead me on to discovering that his real name is Royston Vasey - how did I not know that?!?)  And the first person to say it on UK telly was Felix Dennis on The Frost Report in 1970.  But the best story was James Naughtie getting Jeremy Hunt's name wrong on Radio 4 - and an hour later on the same station, Andrew Marr was discussing his misfortune saying "we won't repeat the mistake".  And I'll give you one guess what happened next...

Right - back to the film/play, I guess.  So, we're having a birthday dinner but Alan needs to come over and talk about something urgently - I suspect that's not going to improve the birthday mood.  And well, it's safe to say it doesn't.  It gets VERY gay for a bit, but the arrival of Alan does add a bit of intrigue - something is not right, but you're not quite sure what's going on.  And the birthday boy hasn't even arrived yet - and when he does, it's fair to say Zachary Quinto makes quite an entrance.  A stylish but somewhat wordy entrance, to say the least.   And then everyone else gets very wordy as well - somewhat aimlessly at the start, but the introduction of the telephone game where everyone has to call the one person they've truly loved gives it more direction and some interesting background/viewpoints.  I enjoyed that section and the ending, but I'd have to say I wouldn't have stuck with the film so long if I hadn't been watching it for the purpose of this review.

Overall, it feels very play-y with lots of people talking in exactly the way that no-one ever does in real life.  It's also very bitchy - it's obviously written that way but I don't know if it's intended to reinforce or confront the stereotype.  A lot of the bitchy comments don't seem to make a lot of sense either - I'm sure someone has analysed them all, but I don't care enough to search for them and educate myself.  Yes, I'm a terrible person.

It's well acted throughout and it's admirable that they were able to make it with a cast of exclusively openly gay actors - it's not that long ago that such a thing just would not have been possible.  I thought Matt Bomer probably stood out for me in terms of giving a natural performance - I really struggled to remember where I'd seen him but Wikipedia reminded me it was season 3 of The Sinner (he's good in it, but I'd stick with seasons 1 & 2 if I were you).   Most of the rest of them take it very much over the top - as they're not doubt directed to.  One other point - it feels harsh saying it, but it's very hard for me to separate Jim Parsons from Sheldon, however this film makes absolutely no any attempt to do so.

Overall, it's well shot with the retro feel hanging together well - however, I can believe the play felt quite liberating originally, but it feels very dated now.  It might have been interesting to update it to the AIDS era - it would have put quite a different spin on things, but I'm definitely not the best person to comment as to whether it would have worked in the slightest.

So, was it "worthy but dull"?  It's certainly worthy, but I wouldn't say it was dull - just not quite my cup of tea and a bit too obviously based on a play for me to fully enjoy it.  However, I also got the feeling the film wasn't really aimed at me - if it was intended to be an educational experience, I can only apologise for having missed the point entirely.

At the time of writing, the film is available to watch on Netflix - and since it's a Netflix film I imagine it will be available for some time yet.

#37 - An unexpected pleasure
#35 - An odd film, and no mistake