This was remade in 2020 for some reason. No clue why, but I’m curious to see it because I can’t imagine this material being done better.

Everyone playing gay in the film was in fact gay but Cliff Gorman and Laurence Luckinbill - and every single one of them died too young from AIDS. Cliff took in one of the actors, who was reduced to prostitution, near the end of his life and supported him until he died. Incredibly tragic.

Michael is angry and the anger at a character is deserved, yet also a mirror of self loathing that must have been and I’m sure still is the life of someone forced to be closeted to most of the world, longing to be different.

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Using all the actors from the stage play, everyone is convincing and comfortable in their roles. Frey and Nelson are the standouts here swinging from fun to vicious, which by the end makes sense.

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It’s hard to speak of the authenticity, as I was not a gay 30 something in 1970 NYC, but it comes off as authentic - never condescending to the characters even as they are to each other and themselves.

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Vacillating between blisteringly funny and devastatingly painful and hard to watch, this is a smartly written and directed film. I would rate it as one of Friedkins best.

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Good is fine. Bad can be good. Awful though is awful. There are very few that are awful though that percentage increases the further you get from the 80’s and the older you get from 1970 (basically the studio system films which are mostly just blah)

So they went from a montage of starting to get into the business to ultra successful and then went to the start of their downfall in a blink of an eye.

The direction is so slack that it brings down the whole thing. As decent an actress as she can be, she is clearly not a good writer or director*. She cannot get decent performances out of anyone, the action is boring, the staging uninventive... just blah.

*this was written before Cocaine Bear

Elizabeth (who is usually so great) took the whole project on herself writing and directing and both are just bad. The script tries to be funny and falls flat, the plot is predictable, the women power angle comes off as preachy...

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Kristen Stewart is actually the best and most comfortable in her roll, unlike what the popular opinion is it seems. Patrick Stewart is incredibly awkward as a bad guy. Is that his fault? I don’t think so.

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