Editor’s Pick: Landmark Theatre’s Pride Retro Replay
Brokeback Mountain, the “Retro Replay: Film Classics” series picks up two days after Capital Pride with the 1995 flamboyant star-studded comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar.Essentially an American remake of the global box office smash and Oscar-winning Australian comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Beeban Kidron’s To Wong Foo starred a trio of male action stars — Wesley Snipes, the late Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo — improbably portraying New York City drag queens.We follow along as the trio sets out on a road trip to Tinseltown only to find themselves stuck in a homophobic hinterland after their old Cadillac convertible breaks down.Soon enough, they ride into the sunset, leaving behind a winsome message about the value of community and acceptance.
Local drag queen Noxeema Jackson, named for the Snipes character, and the QTBIPOC collective, will be orchestrating some surprises at the screening. (6/14)It’s followed by But I’m A Cheerleader, director Jamie Babbit’s satirical take on the “ex-gay” movement that was light-years ahead of its time when released in 2000.
Not that Cheerleader lacks for silliness and camp.RuPaul stars out of drag as a counselor at “True Directions,” where cheerleader Megan, played by Natasha Lyonne in one of her earliest film roles, is sent to correct her budding lesbianism.Cathy Moriarty chews the scenery — colored in gender-reinforcing garish pinks and blues — as the camp director. (6/21)The series culminates with the British costume drama Maurice, a tale of upper-class homosexual tendencies crossed with lower-class sexual desire.In this ravishing Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E.M.
