Random Thoughts

Two things I've been giving a great deal of thought to over the past week are (1) the governor's race in Illinois and (2) Billy Eichner's new movie Bros which (full disclosure) I haven't seen.

So, let's start with the governor's race. Our choice in Illinois is between the current Democratic incumbent, JB Pritzker or the downstate Republican challenger, Darren Bailey. For me, the choice is obvious. There's no way I would ever vote for a pro-Trump, MAGA, pro-life farmer who wants to force his hard-core religious views on others. Bailey and his wife run a "Christian" school that uses educational materials provided by Bob Jones University. Ugh. Hard pass. I can't wait for the election to be over and done with so I don't have to keep seeing commercials with Bailey and hearing his Gomer Pyle voice. God help us if he actually wins. I don't think it'll happen, but stranger things have happened. We did have Donny T as POTUS for four years, so what do I know?

I watch a number of gay-themed movies because I write gay-themed books. Sadly, a lot of the gay movies that are out there are not great. There are some really good ones, but for every good one, there are three awful ones. Still, I'm always on the lookout for gay films. When I read about Bros and watched the trailer, I figured I'd pass. Why? Mainly because Billy Eichner isn't the kind of leading man I want to see in a gay film. I need to leads to interest me and Billy just doesn't. I enjoy the occasional Billy on the Street segment, but to watch this guy as the lead in rom-com? No. In fairness, his co-star, Luke MacFarlane, doesn't do it for me either. I felt the same way about the lead actors in the film Fire Island that came out earlier this year. I think the problem with both movies is that the leads (who also served as writers) felt that they could do double-duty. Unfortunately, a lot of the gay-themed movies I've seen over the years suffer from the same problem. Just because you wrote the script (or co-wrote it) doesn't mean you're the best person to be the lead actor in the film. It's hard enough to get a gay-themed movie out there, but you'd sure as hell better have lead actors who have the looks and the acting chops to put asses in the seats and eyeballs on the screen. Lest someone think I'm being hard only on gay movies, I feel the same way about heterosexual movies. When I looked at the lead actors and the trailer for the film Licorice Pizza, I had no desire to watch those folks in a feature film. If Hollywood is going to sell me a fantasy, they'd better bring some actors who can make me believe that fantasy.