‘Priscilla’, ‘The Boys in the Band’, and ‘The Queen’ make up a three-course meal of queer delights in this episode with Susie Youssef and Alexei Toliopoulos.
Aussie adventure ‘Priscilla: Queen of the Desert’, Netflix Premiere ‘The Boys in the Band’ (starring Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and Andrew Rannells), and drag doco ‘The Queen’ make up a three-course meal of queer delights delving into the legacy of LGBTQIA+ cinema. Also, spanakopita.
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Alexei Toliopoulos:
My drag name would be an Anastasia Toliopoulos.
Susie Youssef:
Okay. And why is that?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It's my mm's name. Hello. My name is Alexei Toliopoulos.
Susie Youssef:
And my name is Susie Youssef.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
This is The Big Film Buffet.
Susie Youssef:
Where we serve up a three-course feast of movies inspired by today's film.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
The Boys in the Band.
Susie Youssef:
We'll begin each week the way that you do a good meal with a classic starter to prepare the palate for our film du jour.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
We'll have our plates cleared in time for the main course of Netflix's premiere feature.
Susie Youssef:
And for dessert, we'll tease your taste buds with a sweet coda of recommendations.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I love that we start so heavy with the food puns right at the top.
Susie Youssef:
Every time.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
But we have to be clear, this is not a food podcast.
Susie Youssef:
Not about food.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
This is about cinema.
Susie Youssef:
Except that every time we start the podcast, we start thinking about food, so we should just get it out of the way.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. What were you eating? What were you cooking this weekend?
Susie Youssef:
Okay, so I attempted a lamb shoulder this week. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it did taste excellent.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
How long we talking?
Susie Youssef:
At first, I thought it would be like an hour, an hour and a half.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
No, no, no.
Susie Youssef:
It wasn't a big piece. No, it took me about three and a half hours.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, minimum three and a half hours. I'm obsessed with roasts.
Susie Youssef:
Oh. Are you good at them?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I am good at them. I bought myself a turkey baster to do roasts.
Susie Youssef:
Oh.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And let me tell you, it's one of the greatest investments I've ever made in my entire life. Nothing gives me more pleasure, more joy and more satisfaction than creeping down next to the oven, getting that baster out, suctioning up all that runoff liquid, and then squeezing it ever so delicately back on top.
Susie Youssef:
Were you roasting turkeys this week or what were you cooking?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
No. No turkeys. It's just whatever I'm roasting.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Just gives me excuse to pop down. I did a chicken.
Susie Youssef:
You did a chicken?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I butterflied a chicken-
Susie Youssef:
Nice.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... and that's what I was doing. But I also, my big venture, I made spanakopita.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, wow. How did it go?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It was great. I used the family recipe.
Susie Youssef:
Did you see how excited I just got at the thought of spanakopita?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
You thought I brought it with me, didn't you?
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, a little bit of me did.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I froze a lot of it, so next time, it will be still ready.
Susie Youssef:
Okay, we've got it out of our system now. We're not going to talk about food. This is a podcast about movies. So let's listen to the trailer of the week.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Load up that trailer and press play, Maestro. Michael, that's you. Press play.
The Boys in the Band:
Oh, and you, Donald, you think is just nifty how I've always flitted from Beverly Hills to Rome to Amsterdam. I'm here to tell you, the only place that I've ever been happy was on a goddamn plane. Run, charge, run, buy, borrow, make, spin, run, squander, run, bag, run, run, run, waste, waste, waste. And why?
The Boys in the Band:
Whose coming?
The Boys in the Band:
Same old tired fairies you've seen around since day one.
The Boys in the Band:
This is going to be fun.
The Boys in the Band:
This old college friend of mine is in town, but he's straight, so.
The Boys in the Band:
Do you really think he doesn't know about you?
The Boys in the Band:
Emory, no.
The Boys in the Band:
I couldn't care less what people do, as long as they don't do it in public.
The Boys in the Band:
No, it's the delivery boy from the bakery.
The Boys in the Band:
Ask him if he's got any hot cross buns.
The Boys in the Band:
Where the hell could Harold be?
The Boys in the Band:
Happy birthday.
The Boys in the Band:
You're late.
The Boys in the Band:
Oh, Michael, you kill me. When he's sober, he's dangerous. When he drinks, he's lethal.
The Boys in the Band:
That's your surprise.
The Boys in the Band:
Hey, everybody. Game time. We all have to call the one person we truly believe we have loved.
The Boys in the Band:
My God, Michael, you're a charming host.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. And honestly, in this year, when it felt like I'd miss out on all the movies I was excited for, it genuinely feels surreal that I've already seen this now.
Susie Youssef:
It's so good. From the very first moment of this trailer, you hear that ticking clock going, it's building tension, and you get a little bit of a glimpse into that sort of like cinematic pressure cooker that this film is. I was glued to the screen, like basically holding my breath in moments during this film. I was bracing for impact at every turn. It was so full on.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I'm so glad you loved it. I think that's the key to this film is that there are moments that are really fun, but it's all about that escalating tension that keeps building, and it's in a very real and exciting yet theatrical way. When we watch these trailers, I like thinking about the expectations that it sets up for you. What did you feel watching this trailer?
Susie Youssef:
I didn't know very much about this story before I saw the film. So I knew that it was a play beforehand, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure about the content. So the trailer made me think, is this a horror or a murder mystery? Like something big is going to happen. There's going to be a big reveal. I could feel that, but it also had a bit of a rom-com feel, maybe a bit of a friend drama feel to it. Who knows?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, it does have a bit of a whodunit vibe. That's part of the movie that there's this game being played and this almost theatrical chamber-like setting like those classic Agatha Christie type things.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, exactly. But it is kind of all of those things and none of those things at the same time.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It's really fabulous. I can't wait to talk about it, but before we do, why don't we start our feast off. This week's feast is not really genre-based, it's more a category of queer films and queer cinema that we're going to be exploring in this cinematic dégustation this week. I get really excited when I get the chance to talk about queer cinema and queer art, because it's interesting when we have these examples that I think and hope Boys in the Band will be, where they start kind of breaking into the mainstream.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And there are these classic examples of that, but then there's so many more that are these beautiful, obscure cinematic hidden gems. To start this meal, there was nothing that excited me more than bringing to the table one of the most classic pieces of queer art that Australia's ever produced. The film we're going to talk about today really put this '90s new wave of Australian independent, quirky comedy-drama cinema on the map in that world scale. The movie is...
Susie Youssef:
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert:
To travel to the centre of Australia, climb Kings Canyon - as a queen - in a full length Gaultier sequin, heels and a tiara.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
The Australian road movie classic with two drag queens and a transgender woman travel from Sydney to Alice Springs in a bus named Priscilla. And along the way, they are faced with resistance both off and on the bus.
Susie Youssef:
Yes, they are. For both of us, this was the most obvious choice, because it's one of the biggest queer films to break into the mainstream, both in Australia and overseas. And I think it's another great example of this kind of film where tension is building in an environment that looks really fun and colourful, but that the humor in the film is kind of swinging between witty and sharp and bitey. And then it swings back to very cutting and dark. And it does that so quickly.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. I really do love this movie. It had been a long time since I'd gone back to watching it, and I loved how much this film surprised me still.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, it's surprised me so much that I was like, "Did I even watch this film before?" I know that I've seen it before, but there were so many scenes that just came out, and I was like, "I don't remember that happening."
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, that ping-pong stuff, was that in the cut that I saw originally?
Susie Youssef:
I don't remember seeing that.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Or did they add this in for a special director's version?
Susie Youssef:
Another thing I discovered for the first time is that Margaret Pomeranz is in this film.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yes, she has a small little cameo playing Guy Pearce's mother. She doesn't have any lines, but you just see her for a moment. And I knew immediately. I know that hair, I know those earrings dangling by it. And I was like, "That's Margaret."
Susie Youssef:
Yes, it is.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I got so excited. One of my heroes, one of my all-time heroes.
Susie Youssef:
So what surprised you about watching it this time around?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
There is a moment in this film that used my favourite, favourite cinematic technique, which I am obsessed with. So when it came up, I was so excited, because here's this technique called a split diopter, which-
Susie Youssef:
I have no idea what that is.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Let me explain it to you then. It's basically a technique where you can have multiple focus points on the same shot. So someone in the foreground will be in focus, but then you can have something in the background in focus as well.
Susie Youssef:
Okay. So give me an example in the film.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
So in the film, there's one that is just so well done and so exciting and kind of subtle, where it is Guy Pearce driving the bus and that's in focus. And then we've got in the background, we've got Hugo Weaving and Terence Stamp in focus as well. It's an interesting thing of storytelling where you know that you should be looking at everything and paying attention to everything-
Susie Youssef:
Oh, okay.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... and the way they do it, it's kind of like bifocal glasses. Like I remember my grandma had those glasses with like a little magnifying point in them, and that's so you can have... The way they have it is it's like a special lens that goes on the camera that's got one little extra sheet of convex glass that allows the focus to change and to just have two different points of focus. And I just love it. It's my favourite cinematic technique. It always looks so cool. I think in a movie like this, it really works for creating the idea of space. And because that bus is such a beautiful space as production designed by Owen Paterson and Colin Gibson, it creates the idea of geography within that area. And I think it's just, it's so stunningly done.
Susie Youssef:
I love that I'm learning something as we're doing this podcast.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
My dream is to become a film lecturer. And this is how I'm going to do instead of studying teaching as a degree.
Susie Youssef:
I will happily be your first student.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I think one of the other things I just really love about this movie and I think why it holds a special place is because it is such a great portrayal of performers and what it is like to be a performer when you're on stage and what it's like to be a performer when you're not onstage.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, and touring, that whole life of packing and unpacking and preparing and nerves and anticipation of meeting a new audience, all of that. I definitely felt it. And as someone who has toured quite a bit in their work, it was definitely triggering at moments, but it made me think of all the time that I've spent on planes in the last few years.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Not recently.
Susie Youssef:
Not so much anymore. But I kept getting closer and closer to getting gold status and just missing out. I know it's not the most important thing in the world, but once you start chasing those status credits and you start chasing those points, it's really hard to stop. It became quite an obsession for me. And because I kept missing out, I was like, this has inspired for me a drag king name.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Really?
Susie Youssef:
Yes. So I've already got the aesthetic. I always wanted to do something kind of a bit high status, something with a large moustache, because I've mastered that in the past, in previous roles. So I thought I'll get something with hats and shoulder pads.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Little Sergeant Pepper is what I'm picturing.
Susie Youssef:
A little bit Sergeant... Yeah, you're on the right track. And so I thought my drag king name would be General Boarding.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Oh, I can see it right now.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, it's painful, but it's also very true. I know there's some kind of formula to creating a drag name, but I'm not exactly sure what it is anymore. So do you have a drag name?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I've thought about it, and I've come to the one conclusion. And my drag name would be Anastasia Toliopoulos.
Susie Youssef:
Okay. And why is that?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It's my mom's name. I think it would be the best way to honor her.
Susie Youssef:
I think that's beautiful. In that case, my drag name would be Salam Youssef. I did mention that it's in 1994, and I have to tell you that I did go a little bit Beautiful Mind on this at one point.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Oh my God, this is-
Susie Youssef:
I know, it's so nuts.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... this is great to see someone else lose their mind like this.
Susie Youssef:
So I'm not very good at math, but my mind sometimes goes into this weird space where I'm constantly adding, subtracting and trying to find number patterns in everything.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Where my eyes roll into the back of my head, and I go into a trance.
Susie Youssef:
So because Priscilla was made in 1994, it made me think-
Alexei Toliopoulos:
You look so embarrassed right now.
Susie Youssef:
I know, I'm so... My whole face is burning up. Boys in the Band was remade this year, so 2020, which is 26 years after 1994. And 26 years before 1994 is 1968, which is when the first version of this play is set and made.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
You've got the number 26 written all over your face, your body, your hands.
Susie Youssef:
Is there any point to this? Not really, but it did make me think that it was pretty staggering how much the themes and the emotions resonated throughout all of those 52 years, between 1968 and 2020.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Truly, that's a good point.
Susie Youssef:
I think I've scared you.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I am a little scared. It also excites me, because I like to be scared.
Susie Youssef:
This brings us to the premiere flick of the week, which is The Boys in the Band.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I'm going to tie up my bed, because I am ready to tuck into this one. The blurb that Netflix provides goes as follows. "At a birthday party, 1968, New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths."
Susie Youssef:
Sounds saucy already.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
What this film does that excites me so much is it's based on a classic play, but I think it really rides that line between being cinematic and being theatrical in a way that I find very satisfying.
Susie Youssef:
Yes, and you can see this in the set design. So it was a play and then it very much feels like it continues to be a play in parts, but it doesn't get that kind of claustrophobic New York apartment feel to it, even though that's where most of the film is set. It has flashbacks. It has a lot of mirrors. The set is so beautiful, and the way it's filmed is so beautiful. But it just kind of moves in and out of this tiny apartment in a way that doesn't make you feel cramped in any way.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Unless it's when it means you to feel cramped.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, yeah. It's very deliberate.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
When it has those moments of claustrophobia, I think it really works in escalating that tension. This is a kind of theatrical adaptation that I really like, where it does honour that classic text, which I'm familiar with. I read it back in uni when I was studying theatre.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, okay. So did you study it?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I didn't study it, but a lecturer recommended it to me, because I liked the idea of drama and tragedies that have funny characters and funny casts, because I thought it was a great way to find a more true to life tone. They were like, "You got to read this. You'll love it." And I read it, and I loved it. But I wish they had just said, "You're probably queer. You should read this." Would have saved me a few years of questioning myself.
Susie Youssef:
There you go.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
But I love this play. And there's also a great adaptation of it from the 1970s, I think exactly 1970 actually. And it's directed by William Friedkin, who is one of the great masters of cinema, who would go on to do The French Connection right after this and The Exorcist right after that.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, gosh.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
So it's kind of like this little landmark queen cinema blip, because it is the first time a fairly mainstream-ish movie was all about queer culture and gay characters.
Susie Youssef:
And it was being driven by an entirely openly gay cast and production team.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, pretty much. And sadly, the original cast of the 1970s adaptation are largely unknown, not only because of the AIDS crisis where some of them lost their lives, but because they live their lives as openly gay men and were largely ignored by Hollywood because of that. And considering how far we've come, even though sometimes we take it for granted that this new adaptation now stars these openly gay actors that are some of the biggest stars in the world in TV and cinema right now.
Susie Youssef:
So this is the entire Broadway revival cast.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I was very keen to see that Broadway revival of this play. And now that we're getting a great translation of it, that stars Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells and everyone else in that film. That's why I was so excited for this, because that very rarely happens.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, it actually never happens.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I actually cannot think of another version-
Susie Youssef:
No.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... where that's ever happened.
Susie Youssef:
If you're ever in a play, and then it becomes a movie, everyone's like, "We're going to be famous." Then they're like, "Nope. See ya." And you're out.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Sorry, excuse me. We got John Travolta replacing you in this version. It's, in a way, honouring the past, like this great work and the great work of these actors and honouring and cherishing their memory by having these big, openly gay megastars in these roles now. I find that very moving.
Susie Youssef:
It does. Because it feels like they're honouring the cast that came before them by making the brilliant film that it is.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
So this film is directed by Joe Mantello, who's a great actor, especially on Broadway, been in lots of iconic things, but he directed the theatrical revival of this. And that's another rare thing that never happens. The theatrical director coming to direct the feature film? And also it's produced by Ryan Murphy and David Stone, who are super producers.
Susie Youssef:
This team works so well with each other. And every single piece of this film kind of fits together in a way that could have gone into an awkward space, but absolutely doesn't. There's a moment where four of the characters kind of get up and do a little dance scene, and if that's not done well, you go, "Oh, gosh, they've just tried to shoehorn another dance scene into a movie."
Susie Youssef:
But it's just, they look like a bunch of friends who have done this every single weekend. They're always mucking around with each other. They're always having these lavish dinner parties. I mean, there's even this really gorgeous moment where Charlie Carver's character, the Cowboy, is just innocently eating dinner.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And it's a lasagna that's been prepared by one of the other characters, and he's never eaten it before. And I think it shows like the naiveté of this country mouse coming into the city as this Midnight Cowboy-esque character. And he describes it as...
The Boys in the Band:
Spaghetti and meatballs sort of flattened out.
Susie Youssef:
It just breaks your heart.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It just got me thinking like, how could you weirdly describe any other ethnic food? It'd be like if I serve someone spanakopita, and I was like, "Oh, this tastes quite nice. It's like if you've got a chocolate croissant and took the chocolate out and put grass and cheese inside. It's quite lovely, actually."
Susie Youssef:
It's a perfect description.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
One of the things I loved about this adaptation that I think makes it so cinematic because it's an invention for this film version is a lot of the action of this film is set around this telephone game where they are calling-
Susie Youssef:
This terrifying telephone game.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Really, it's really, really tense. And there's this beautiful moment where they each have to call someone that they've loved in the past and profess their love to them. And in this film version, they have these really poetic and cinematic flashbacks to the moments they shared with those people. And I think the most successful one in capturing that emotional feeling is this flashback with the character Bernard played by Michael Benjamin Washington.
Susie Youssef:
This breaks my heart.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It's so beautiful because it's like this blue moonlight kind of cinematography of him and this other young man nude, swimming in this pool. I think it captures just like the essence of either first love or first attraction and those important feelings that are so universal.
The Boys in the Band:
We went swimming in the nude, in the dark, only the moon reflecting in the water.
The Boys in the Band:
How romantic. And the next morning you took him as coffee and Alka-Seltzer on a tray.
Susie Youssef:
It's quite a quick flashback. But what it does is because they've interspersed the film that is mostly set in that one room with these flashbacks, the world feels so much bigger and it feels like it spreads across times, so you've got this timeline that goes from their childhood to their future. It's just so well done.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. I think it's a great way to take this text, and while still being very faithful to it being a play and capturing that beautiful staging and blocking that they would have done countless times on stage, and elevating to that cinematic level.
Susie Youssef:
The thing that is terrifying about this game that they play is that if I was ever at a party and someone said to me, "We're going to play a game where you have to..." And we're a few gins in, by the way. "We're going to play a game where we call the person that you love that you may not have declared that love to." If someone asks you that question, what would you even say?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I'm actually very open. I tell everyone that I love them. I think when I say goodbye to you last week, I said love ya and then walked off.
Susie Youssef:
You definitely did.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
So I guess there's no one that I could call.
Susie Youssef:
No, but I could think of a bunch of people, but I'm not playing that game. If that game gets brought up at a party, I'm leaving that party immediately.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
That's the difference between you and I is I just try and find someone that I haven't said it to you yet. And you're too scared.
Susie Youssef:
And I'm not telling anyone. I don't like those parties in general. If someone says, "Oh, we're having a games night," I will find a way not to go to that party. But if the games organically happen-
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yes.
Susie Youssef:
... I'm fine with it.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
That idea of planned fun, I cannot stand.
Susie Youssef:
No, not into it.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, and it captures this increasingly manic feeling of a dinner party going wrong, kind of like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as well.
Susie Youssef:
Kind of like any dinner party I've ever been to in my whole life.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And kind of any play, really.
Susie Youssef:
It's just this masterclass of creating tension and capturing that kind of hostility that happens when a bunch of old friends who are catching up and it seems harmless. But then alcohol gets into the mix and all of that tension just starts to simmer, because there's this misconception that they're the closest people in the world to you. Really, they're the most dangerous people in the world, because they know which buttons to push.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Exactly. Jim Parsons really captures this so well in like... It's a lead performance, but this is such a true ensemble film. He announces very early on in the film that he's off the sauce, he's no longer drinking.
Susie Youssef:
Which is almost an invitation for the tension of the film to build to the point of him drinking.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It's basically Chekhov's gun being shown at the start of the film. And so there's a moment when you see him lift that glass to his mouth and then his energy changes, where he becomes the antagonistic character of this film.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, yeah. All bets are off at that point. But even though he's the lead character, we're waiting the whole time for the character of Harold to arrive, because it's Harold's birthday party, right? So Zachary Quinto, who is phenomenal in this movie, we're just waiting for that moment where he enters the room.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And everything changes when he arrives as well. It's such a big, big moment when he arrives. It's like if Waiting for Godot had Godot actually arrived halfway through.
Susie Youssef:
And then we got another half an hour of the film after that.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And Godot is cool, amazing and exciting.
Susie Youssef:
Great shoes, smokes a lot, speaks slowly.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Beautiful neckerchief, sunglasses on inside at night.
The Boys in the Band:
Life is a goddamn laugh riot. You remember life?
The Boys in the Band:
You're stoned.
The Boys in the Band:
Happy birthday, Harold.
The Boys in the Band:
You're stoned, and you're late. You were supposed to arrive at this location at approximately 8:30 dash 9:00.
The Boys in the Band:
What I am, Michael, is a 32-year-old ugly, pock marked Jew fairy. And if it takes me a while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a little grass before I can get up the nerve to show this face to the world, then it's nobody's goddamn business but my own.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I love this performance. I think Zachary Quinto is perfect as Harold.
Susie Youssef:
Every single line you're just waiting for the penny to drop on whatever's going to happen.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. I like that this film is all about these friends, but each of them takes turn in being antagonising towards each other in that way that just feels so real and so natural, like it speaks to a true life experience.
Susie Youssef:
Totally.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
The other performance that I really liked, and I know that you loved as well, is the character of Emory played by Robin de Jesús.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, he's so beautiful. The character of Emory was like a lot of humor and relief for the play, but also built a lot of tension, because the more camp that you are in 1968, the more dangerous it is to exist.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. And I think the way that he does it is he is able to capture the essence of people that are naturally camp in the real world-
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, totally.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... and translate that to the screen in a way that doesn't feel as heightened as the other performance in this film, which are big capital A acting. He's able to bring a nuance to a character that is otherwise the most heightened in the reality of the film.
Susie Youssef:
And at the same time, it was kind of heartbreaking because you know that he's towing a line that feels quite dangerous.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah. I really hope that this is a breakout movie performance for him, because he's found a lot of success on Broadway and onstage. Fabulous screen actor as well. I hope to see more from him.
Susie Youssef:
Me too. Speaking about simmering tensions, short of knocking on the glass, Producer Michael has something to say on this film and we knew it would happened. So just come in here Michael and tell us what you think. Come on. Okay. Producer Michael has arrived. He has a chair, he has a microphone and he definitely has something to say.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And Michael is one of my favoyrite film buffs, so I cannot wait to hear your thoughts.
Susie Youssef:
Oh, I will go one step further and say he is my favoyrite film... No, you're equal. You're equal.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Okay, thank you.
Michael:
Oh, look. I'm hot in the face. I'm flushed. One thing I loved about this film though, is that it was so accurate in its depiction of, honestly, what a queer social gathering is really like. When I watched the film, I was like, "This is what me and my friends really are like." This idea of the queer drama and the gossip and the simmering tension slowly building and building. And it's like all fun and games until it's not, right?
Michael:
But I think looking at it from the angle of the fact that it is a period film, and I think often in period films, you have two types. You have the type where you're meant to watch it and realise just how much we've changed. You watch it-
Susie Youssef:
Oh, yeah. Life isn't like this anymore.
Michael:
Exactly. It's like a movie that's set in maybe the 1800s and you're like, "Those values are so outdated." And then you have this other type of period film where you watch it and you realise that some values really are quote unquote universal. Maybe there is one singular human experience after all. It's like you can relate to those characters, because obviously this is a movie that's set before the '80s. It shows us a very different side of the queer film and the queer experience, where it's not necessarily defined on screen by death and doom and gloom. But at the same time, you still get this sense of queer repression that comes through in this movie that is still very relevant in 2020.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Absolutely.
Michael:
We see a character like Jim Parsons, Michael, go through internalised homophobia and Catholic guilt. And I think that is something that is unfortunately still part of the queer experience, is learning to deal with guilt and learning to deal with self-hatred and learning to deal with that through perhaps a facade.
Susie Youssef:
So who do you think watches this film and enjoys it besides everyone?
Michael:
Obviously, it's a must watch for any queer viewer, I'd say. But it's also just a really beautiful, tender experience.
Susie Youssef:
And I think it honours the theatrical side as well. So I think if you love the play, you're still going to love this movie.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And also, on something that Michael said before that so many of the big films of queer cinema that break into the mainstream, they do have to be representative in this way or feel the need to and they do lean on that tragedy. Someone dies at the end, whether they're murdered or what. It's not nice, whereas I think that this is a rare example of a mainstream queer film that does not have that aspect to it.
Susie Youssef:
Or does it? No spoilers.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Well, yeah, no spoilers, but no, it doesn't.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Follow The Big Film Buffet on Spotify to get new episodes as soon as they come out every single Tuesday and comment wherever you get your podcasts. And for goodness sake, tell your friends, okay? Podcasts live on word of mouth.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
All right. It is time for us to cleanse our palates by playing the world's newest and most favourite game: film or movie.
Susie Youssef:
Where Producer Michael gives us the title of a motion picture, and Alexei and I decide whether it's a film, which is...
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Artistic, beauty, thematic, cinematic, poetic.
Susie Youssef:
Or a movie.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Which is nice, popcorn, comfortable, fun.
Susie Youssef:
Still great.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Still... I mean, they're both great. They're two of my favourite things in the world.
Susie Youssef:
So Producer Michael, what is our motion picture for the week?
Michael:
The screen delight this week is an iconic movie that also stars Matt Bomer. It's Magic Mike.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Magical Michael himself gives us the title Magic Mike. And I think this is a classic film or movie, because it is often debated whether it's a film or a movie.
Susie Youssef:
What do you think Alexei?
Alexei Toliopoulos:
I have to go this is film.
Susie Youssef:
Wow.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
This is Steven Soderbergh, one of the great artistic American auteurs, coming back with a classic that hearkens back to the musical motion pictures, films of the past from the MGM classic era. This is song, this is dance, this is the magic of the films, not movies.
Susie Youssef:
Okay. And I'm going to say Channing Tatum. This is a movie.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Okay. Yes. That's hard to argue with that. Why else do you think it's a movie?
Susie Youssef:
Well, for the same reasons that you think it is a film. It is song, it is dance. I think that this is big bucks, hot bods, movie magic.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And this on the box I, handsome little fellas.
Susie Youssef:
So Producer Michael, what do you think?
Michael:
I'm going to say it's a movie, purely because of the quota of hot bods in this motion picture.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yeah, this is more than The Avengers when it comes to hot man bods.
Susie Youssef:
Which brings us neatly to dessert. So obviously after hearing that, you're going to want more. So it's time for the sweet recommendation of the week.
The Queen:
Let's open up the curtain and take a look at our beauties. Let's hear it for them.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
The Queen is a 1968 documentary, which is the very same year that the original Boys in the Band play was produced.
Susie Youssef:
It's true, but this is a documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty pageant run by a drag queen called Flawless Sabrina. It's directed by Frank Simon, and it only runs for about a little bit more than an hour. I think it's 68 minutes.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
A very watchable short documentary. And queer cinema is really important to us here on the podcast, but shamefully, unlike Priscilla, a lot of films don't break through to the mainstream and remain a bit obscure and hard to track down and watch. So I really want to recommend something that while still being a bit of an obscure landmark classic, it was one that anyone could find on Netflix, and The Queen is on Netflix. So it's a documentary film from the same pre-Stonewall rights era of New York as Boys in the Band. It's pretty surreal watching it right after Boys in the Band-
Susie Youssef:
Totally.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
... because it literally is the same world, and people are wearing the identical costumes of everyone.
Susie Youssef:
It's incredible. It confirms our feelings towards Boys in the Band that it's such an authentic representation of that time, because this is an actual time capsule. So The Queen shows us this kind of very rare backstage, behind the scenes look into the drag world and the queer world of the late '60s in New York.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
It was prescient. And I think that there's an iconic moment in this movie at the end where Crystal LaBeija, who's this iconic figure of the underground drag balls in America, in New York City, just basically loses this competition and then storms out.
Susie Youssef:
And storms out.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
And has this incredible monologue talking about how none of the true beauties are the winners, and it's incredible.
Susie Youssef:
It's kind of unexpected because you don't think that there's going to be this storm out. It's such a warm environment beforehand. Everyone's helping each other out backstage. Anyway, it's gorgeous. You couldn't have scripted something like this. It's so incredible.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
As always, we want to leave you with a few extra little recommendations.
Susie Youssef:
Yeah, petit four, if you will.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Yes. For power in community, you can check out BPM, which is a great French film. For queer pop culture references, I love this movie. It's like my top 10 films of all time. The Watermelon Woman directed by Cheryl Dunye, which is the first feature film to be directed by an openly queer black woman. If you want another great stage adaptation to film, check out Mike Nichols's Closer.
Susie Youssef:
And if you want to watch something with a younger person in your life, or you just want to get involved in a new queer film that is a rom-com and very accessible because it's also on Netflix, I cannot recommend enough The Half of It.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Oh, I love that movie as well.
Susie Youssef:
So gorgeous. What a delicious podcast. The menu for today was a starter of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Then we moved on to a delicious premiere peak, which was our main course of The Boys in the Band. And then we finished with a little dessert with The Queen. Well, that's it for another week. I am full and satisfied.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
As am I, even though I can never get my fill of motion pictures. If you are hungry for a little more movie talk from me, you can listen to the podcast I host called Total Reboot. We talk about reboots, remakes and ripoffs.
Susie Youssef:
And if you're hungry for a little bit more of me, you can go back to the beginning of this podcast and listen to me again.
Alexei Toliopoulos:
Or rewind, listen to it in reverse. Next week on the podcast, we're going to be discussing the Netflix premiere of the week that I am excited for, because it stars one of my comedic idols. If it weren't for him, there would be no Alexei. We're talking about Adam Sandler in Hubie Halloween.
Susie Youssef:
We'll see you next week. This episode was hosted and written by Alexei Toliopoulos and Susie Youssef. It was produced by Michael Sun and Anu Hasbold. Edited by Jeffrey O'Connor, executive produced by Tony Broderick and Melanie Mahony. What a good bunch of eggs.