Check out My Books!

Sunday 18 November 2012

Longhorns Movie (An LGBT Dramedy)



     Who said that lgbt movies have to be sad or even serious? Okay, Longhorns has its serious side, but so much of it is tongue-in-cheek that the seriousness is extremely easy to digest. I recently saw this movie on Netflix and wasn’t sure what to expect. Let me tell you it had me laughing right away and for mostly the right reasons.
     Set in 1982, Longhorns explores the lives of Cesar (Derek Villenueva), an openly gay student at the University of Texas, and Kevin (Jacob Newton), a frat boy who cannot entirely come to grips with same sex attraction. Therein is the film’s appeal from an intellectual standpoint. What makes someone gay? Can you engage in homosexual activity without actually being gay?
     My answer to the latter is yes. Absolutely. Experiencing same sex attraction does not necessarily make someone gay. Wanting to have sex with members of the same gender—even if you act on it—does not necessarily change your sexual orientation. What makes someone gay or legitimately bisexual is the emotional attraction that one feels. At the risk of adding a spoiler, Kevin does eventually acknowledge some emotional attraction to Cesar, though the rest of the cast only ever admits to lust for other men.
     What this film does is clarify the fact that sexuality isn’t black and white. Human sexuality is far more complex and diverse than “gay” and “straight” and that same sex attraction by straight people is not only normal but is fairly common. My only criticism of the film is one situation that I felt was too unbelievable. This situation involved Kevin and one of his frat buddies in bed masturbating to porn. Straight guys do masturbate together, but only in the same general vicinity. They wouldn’t be naked. Side by side. In bed. And if one guy reached over to crank the other guy’s dick, it would be much more of a shock because it would be of a completely different sexual nature.
     For you skin buffs, there is a ton of full frontal nudity in this film. In fact, I don’t think there’s a guy in this movie that doesn’t strip down and show his junk off to the viewer. So, if that turns your crank, you’ll definitely want to see this movie.
     Overall this is a movie worth seeing so long as you don’t try and take it too seriously. Sit down to view it with a sense of humor

No comments:

Post a Comment