Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

VividSimon Simply Perfect

GazerRise Fantastic!

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

J Kendall Dane One of the best gay-themed films of all time. Definitely in the top five!This movie takes you on a roller coaster ride of feelings as it touches every emotion possible...so be prepared to laugh hysterically sometimes, on your feet cheering at others, and you'll be reaching for the Kleenex occasionally, too. But one thing's certain, you will be smiling at the end and will watch it over and over.Brilliantly written and portrayed by the stars. The kiss Matthew Broderick shares with Brian Kerwin in the barn loft was so well done even Johnny Carson dared ask him on the Tonight Show if he was coming out?Bottom line is: You don't fully qualify for a pink card unless you've seen this one! ;)

S.R. Dipaling Sixteen years ago,while an undergraduate in college,I decided to take an acting class for the proverbial,(bleeps)and grins,since my actual major was something else. They had us put on various selections from a limitless range of work,and they usually had us in groups,no big than four(the class was only about thirteen people). Everyone,however,was supposed to do a selected monologue. Previously reluctant to portray a gay man,I was turned on to this show primarily because Matthew Broderick had done it BOTH on stage and screen(as well as the fact that William Hurt won an Oscar playing a flamboyantly gay man and at the time I was hip to the fact that likable everyman Tom Hanks' next big role would be playing a gay man dying of AIDS,actors I also both greatly admired)and figured if Matt Broderick was up to the challenge so was I. For a class. Seen by exactly thirteen other people,my teacher included.So to do my "homework" for the show,besides reading,rehearsing and memorizing Harvey Fierstein's play(brilliant,by the way),I rented this movie,at the time already five years old and comfortably in the cheap renter bin of wherever I'd gotten it. To say I was impressed,enchanted,touched or even thoroughly entertained would be,while all accurate,seem to fail to grasp the feelings I got from this.Culled from experiences from his years as a popular Cabaret lounge performer during the early to mid-seventies,Harvey Fierstein's play was adapted for screen by the author and,in a move that might've surprised some,the playwright was again cast as the main character,Arnold Beckhoff,a brash,showy,sharp wit and bold stage presence for his adoring fans,privately a much more tentative,sensitive and angst-ridden gay man looking for love in a culture that seems to be less interested in coupling or mating(he'd love to settle down and start a family)than they are in back-room sex and secrecy. He finds love--in differing degrees--from two different men:bi-sexual schoolteacher Ed(Brian Kerwin,who actually makes the most out of what could be considered a bland,easily unsympathetic role)and full-on gay model Alan(Matthew Broderick,somewhat muted and in a hair style that will seem like AGES ago). The movie breaks down almost exactly like the play,in three vignettes tracing the stages of Arnold's painful yet often humorous tribulations towards finding that love and trying to reconcile with the love that is mutually difficult to connect:his mother(Anne Bancroft,not afraid to be unlikable,obstinate and even a little bit stereotypical).Director Paul Bogart must have some theater background,or else he was so impressed by the play that he is careful to keep this story very tight on the characters,only straying occasionally to set up the narration. Even though I'd come to believe this film as a wondrous object of viewing(and far less hyper-sentimentalized than,say Philadelphia),I hadn't seen it again and had almost forgotten about it until recently,when I ran across it in the library stacks. Seeing it again reaffirmed what I'd felt before and felt like reacquainting with an old friend,mostly fleshed in the main character,who--and this may be overstatement but I gotta say it--truly IS the embodiment and spirit of this show,and a lovely one at that.By the way,I think I graded well for doing the monologue(it was,incidentally,the opening monologue,done by Harvey in drag).I don't now honestly rightly recall.

sethness There are so many touching scenes in this movie, both funny and tearful. It's wildly unfair to characterize it as a "gay" film as though gays are the only people who'll love this film and want to own a copy.It never fails to make me cry in the first 5 minutes. How many films do that for you? ...And it has the good sense to balance that crying with laughter moments later.The bunny slippers... oh, God, the bunny slippers in the school...! Trust me, you'll laugh till your breath doesn't know whether to come in or go out.It was a little distracting to have Matthew Broderick in one of the lead roles, because he was a star when the film came out. I kept seeing Matthew Broderick the star, not his character (through no fault of his acting). Maybe if the hairstyle and makeup had been radically out of character for him....? Meh. Historically, though, I understand the necessity: his first big break was in another role in the Broadway play, and this was payback.The script is almost as clever as a Douglas Adams book or Neil Simon play, yet deals with far stronger emotional topics: family love, romantic love, light friendship, loss, dignity, respect, and self-loathing. It's deeply, deeply involving without being heavy-handed, and comedic without being insulting to the audience.Even the smaller roles are perfectly cast and well written: Alan's large black friend, Anne Bankroft as the mother, Ed the lukewarm conflicted lover, and Ed's wife were particularly memorable. Likewise, even the small elements of set dressing and stage direction are endearing.People who like "Crossing Delancey" and "Sense and Sensibility" will love this film, and watch it at least once a year. It's got an industry slot on my "often watched films" shelf.

leroysemail I remember watching this movie in my early years of coming out (but not after my mother found out and had her hissy fit). This movie I think is all our lives, from coming out to coming of age to find peace in our own skin. It tapes into everything, partners, mothers and the yern to be ourselves. Ann Bancroft in this role surpassed any other I have seen her in (even The Assisn), the scene in at the gravesite will bring you to tears and laughter as we all have been there. Trying to justify our live to someone who we love and suppose to love us (I am tearing up writing this). Harvey also does a great job. We all got lost in the gay scene, trying to find who we were. First you think, well I am gay so this must be what I do. Soon later you realize what Harvey is saying. Your not a gay, your someone who just happens to be gay. To finish up, the end scene when they come back to the house after the gravesite, I remember thinking, has my mother seen this movie, she was saying things that my mother said to me, "I AM THE MOTHER", there comes a time we all deserve respect from everyone including our parents and if they can't they have no place in our lives.Thank you Leroy Box