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Reviews
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)
It brought back Richard Ganoung
I scanned the comments to see if this had come up, but unfortunately it had not.
Richard Ganoung, who plays the older friend who does in fact plant the titled kiss, starred in one of my all-time favorite (and rarely seen) gay movies.
Ganoung was the male lead of 1986's Parting Glances. I had only sought the film out a couple of years back, because a couple of clips were featured in The Celluloid Closet. In checking out his filmography, this is his first good role in the 12 years since.
While Ganoung may not be the most spectacular of actors, he does display depth. Contrasting both of his roles will probably give you a better appreciation of the role he plays in this one. He went from being the youthful object of affection to the older man longing for his younger friend.
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss can't hold a candle to Parting Glances, which also features early work from Steve Buscemi and Kathy Kinney before her Drew Carey fame.
I highly recommend getting the video and watching both films to see the different ways gays and relationships are portrayed.
Ratings..... Billys: 7 Parting Glances: 10
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Disappointing
I was all set to be blown away by outrageous South Park humor.
So much for expectations.
I have 3 gripes with the film:
1) Spouting profanities through the entire movie will not shock anybody who is familiar with the series. Ultimately the profanity gets real boring. It had a dulling effect.
2) 1 or 2 musical numbers would have been campy fun. By the 3rd and 4th songs I was squirming in my seat. Can you say tedious? And much of the songs were rather forced.
3) Biggest complaint....over-the-top on the gay-bashing. I do no want political correctness and have no problem with the way gays are treated in the TV series. But the Satan/Saddaam sodomy scenario, not to mention the use of the word 'faggot' in casual conversation was extremely annoying. And Big Gay Al was just part of the evil townsfolk, a relative non-entity.
Again, disappointing. There was a chuckle or 2, but not enough to justify the price of admission.