Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.Michael Douglas may have taken home the Emmy for his performance as Liberace in this biopic, but the movie belongs to Matt Damon who gives an uninhibited performance as Liberace’s on-again, off-again lover Scott Thorson.
As directed by Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra isn’t so much a biopic of the Las Vegas-loving, oh-so-gay pianist as a biography of the very weird relationship between Liberace and Thorson.
As Liberace says in the film: “I want to be everything to you, Scott. I want to be your father, brother, lover, best friend.”That, folks, is a recipe for disaster.By now the details of Liberace’s final years.