➤ WE DON’T TALK ABOUT, from p.32
of Christine Blasey Ford — instead
of Kavanaugh’s easily provable
acquiescence, as assistant White
House counsel, to US policies of
torture (sexual and otherwise)
in outposts like Abu Ghraib and
Guantánamo. Why don’t those victims
matter?
Who are the predators among
us who embody pure evil? Styles
change. Wypijewski mentions the
“poisoned solidarity” created by
guilt-ridden white liberals whose
media voices righteously condemn
“the enemy” as being rich and
white: “The enemy may be poor and
➤ THE BOYS IN THE BAND, from p.28
they attempt their confessions.
The creative team and cast
were fortunate to have Mart Crowley
as a consultant to the fi lm as
well as the Broadway version. He
proved to be an invaluable sounding
board as well as an inspiration.
Sadly, Crowley passed away this
past March while recovering from
a heart attack.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why
this movie is so affecting, so amply
satisfying. For starters, Mantello
has a keen command of the
material. Under his guidance, the
performances, honed for months
onstage, are pitch-perfect. Apparently
they only had to shoot half
the typical number of takes since
the actors often nailed it on the
fi rst try. Somehow the connections
between the characters feel softer,
more nuanced. For all the kvetching
and rancor, genuine warmth
and affection shine through. This
was not the case in the earlier fi lm
version.
Then there’s Bill Pope’s artfully
stunning cinematography and
Judy Becker’s production design.
The fi lm exudes a gorgeous sheen
that’s highly appealing; the attention
to period detail is remarkable.
Michael’s apartment, with an enviable
terrace, is a riot of clutter, revealing
his confl icted psyche. There
are beautiful antiques, knickknacks,
and homoerotic paintings.
But we also see a messy bureau
crowded with half-used bottles of
cologne, and dirty smudges around
the light switches. He can’t afford a
maid and it shows.
The creative team did their best
black tomorrow… The validating enjoyment
from demonizing ‘the right
people’ is as dangerous as ever and
unchanged. The situational view
of rape is unchanged too: rape is a
heinous crime, except when wished
upon those accused of it.”
Much of Wypijewski reminds me
of the best of prison abolitionism
— people like Angela Davis, for instance,
contending how locking up
George Zimmerman for decades for
the murder of Trayvon Martin constitutes
broken justice, good only
for the prison industrial complex.
But I wanted Wypijewski to investigate
alternatives to prison, such
as restorative justice programs.
Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer in “The Boys in the Band.”
to cinematize the story, inserting
moody fl ashback sequences while
the men are making their phone
calls to underscore the poignancy
of their choices. Plus, they added a
coda of sorts, following each man
after the party ends.
Mantello has a much lighter
touch than Friedkin, which proves
more engaging. Pivotal scenes of
heightened emotion (when the
thunderstorm hits, when Alan
snaps, when Michael has his inevitable
breakdown) that were overwrought
in Friedkin’s heavy hands
feel more natural in the remake.
In the Broadway play, Quinto
was criticized for turning Harold
into an impenetrable, cartoonish
monster. In this fi lm iteration, his
spiky Howard has a welcome whiff
of vulnerability. Racial epithets
pitched at Bernard, who is Black,
have a renewed sting in the age of
Black Lives Matter.
Maybe next book…
You may quarrel with some essays
here. I had some misgivings
in a chapter on the Catholic priest
sexual abuse scandal, in which
Wypijewski defi nes the North
American Man/ Boy Love Association
mostly in free-speech terms.
“NAMBLA is to sex in the 2000s,”
she writes, “what the Communist
Party was to politics in the 1950s.”
I might have thrown the book
across the room at this point, but
it’s the 21st century, and I didn’t
want to break my iPad. Whatever.
Any movement concerned with liberation
needs this book.
Wypijewski is inclined to discredit
SCOTT EVERETT WHITE/ NETFLIX
Screenwriter Ned Martel, along
with Crowley, tweaked the original
script, making cuts to shorten the
running time and refresh some of
the stale references. A mention of
the long-defunct Le Pavillon restaurant
is swapped out with Joe
Allen. We now spy Hank and Larry
writhing naked and passionately
kissing, a racy detail that the censors
would not allow in the fi rst
recovered memories of abuse,
which, in deciding people’s legal
fates, makes sense. Yet, regardless
of the truth or believability of longrepressed
trauma, people who feel
they have been hurt still deserve to
be heard — defi nitely not by “The
View” but by us— fully and sympathetically.
It’s our having to live
with pent-up terror that leads us to
create monsters in the fi rst place.
WHAT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT
WHEN WE TALK ABOUT #METOO:
ESSAYS ON SEX, AUTHORITY
& THE MESS OF LIFE | By
JoAnn Wypijewski | Verso | $21.56
| 320 pages
movie.
When the boys spontaneously
do a line dance, Larry whips out
a bottle of poppers, also not in the
original. The bottle of scotch that
Alan clutches in the 1970 fi lm is
J&B. In the Netfl ix reboot, it’s the
decidedly more upmarket Johnny
Walker Black Label.
For decades, many gay men have
scoffed at “The Boys in the Band,”
wanting to disassociate themselves
from the self-deprecating
gaggle of bitchy queens. Evem today,
some wince at the suggestion
of revisiting the work, perhaps because
it still cuts a bit too close to
the bone. The play has held up as
an outstanding piece of dramatic
literature, cut from the same cloth
as Edward Albee and Tennessee
Williams.
This superb, refreshed rendition
will teach a new generation what it
was like to be queer 50 years ago.
Perhaps “The Boys in the Band”
will fi nally attain the respect and
admiration it so richly deserves.
THE BOYS IN THE BAND | Premieres
exclusively on Netfl ix, Sep.
30
GayCityNews.com | October 8 - October 22, 2020 33
/GayCityNews.com
