Behind the Candelabra

[jarrycanada 2483]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1291580/

Behind the Candelabra

 

They say a picture says a thousand words.

 

Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas,Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula,Paul Reiser

 

This the story of Liberace and his boyfriend. they made this movie once before under a different name. it was bad too. you can bet money that this one is going to be too.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I told you guys this was amazing and it delivers......

[PhillipMedoc 648]

It's bad? I heard only positive word of mouth and I'm totally excited to watch it tonight.

 

On a side note I was so upset that the Liberace Museum was closed when I went to Vegas a couple years ago. And then found out it was closed for good.

 

Then my sadness went away when I realized I could spend the entire rest of my day at the Pinball Hall Of Fame down the street.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Have you ever been to the Liberace Museum? , it's in like a scary part town vegas or so i've been told. I wanted to go by my sister woudln't let me who lived there.

 

but I have been to the Elvis museum, it was magical.

 

has anyone opened a Michael Jackson Museum yet?

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Scary part of Vegas? Pffft. It's like 10-15 minutes away from the strip. And no, I've never been but really wanted to see it. Big fan of kitsch and camp. I better get my ass out to Dollywood before they pull the plug on that.

 

It's totally worth flying out to Vegas (tickets are pretty cheap usually) for the Pinball HOF alone; it's incredible.

[jarrycanada 2483]

That figtures, knowing my sister. but I swear I've heard that before. I've been to vegas more times then I ever care to..I am a bit over loaded on vegas holidays. when i watched the trailer for the new hangover 3 movie. when they say burn this place down, I was smiling and cheering.

 

I've heard of that Pinball place on john dvorak cranky geeks show. forward 3mins into it.

 

is this the same place your talking about?

[PopeyeJones 0]

It's bad?

 

It's not bad like Liz & Dick is bad, it's just disturbing as all get up. I mean, three things to know are it's about Liberace fucking a 1) minor who he 2) wants to adopt as his son while he fucks him and 3) forces to get plastic surgery so Liberace can fuck his son-child who looks like him.

 

That's not even the most disturbing part of the movie, though. More disturbing is that Liberace SUCCESSFULLY lived in the closet for his whole career. How batshit does the whole world have to be not be able to put it together that fucking Liberace might not be straight?

 

Wanting to fuck your legal child who has been forced to get plastic surgery to look like you is a typical Tuesday compared to how crazy that is.

 

That's all just the actual story though. The movie itself? Not bad.

[sillstaw 414]

That's not even the most disturbing part of the movie, though. More disturbing is that Liberace SUCCESSFULLY lived in the closet for his whole career. How batshit does the whole world have to be not be able to put it together that fucking Liberace might not be straight?

 

Isn't this acknowledged in the film, like near the beginning? (Haven't seen it yet; wish I had HBO.) My best guess is that it probably has a lot to do with the fact that gay culture was not as mainstream as it is now. (And yes, I know gay culture isn't really mainstream; I'm talking in relative terms.) Also, the fact that most of his fans were old women might have something to do with it.

[PopeyeJones 0]

Isn't this acknowledged in the film, like near the beginning?

 

Yeah. Damon's character is completely perplexed by what's happening (never seen Liberace perform before, apparently), and Bakula's character fills him in that Liberace's audience thinks he's straight. It's just funny IMO in that Liberace's stage show is so glam and queeny that the best way to describe the situation would be that straight society was so in the closet about the existence of homosexuality that they couldn't see something staring them in the face. The early Damon/Bakula scene at the concert is definitely playing with that dynamic.

[BagguhMcGuirk 104]

I think most people assumed he was gay but the press wasn't like it is today so he just never admitted it and nobody really made a big deal about it. I know it's hard to believe now but I guess people cared more about the art he made than who he was fucking.

[PopeyeJones 0]

^^^^ Agreed the press was different, but he was definitely closeted. IIRC he won several defamation lawsuits from reporters insinuating he might be gay.

 

In any case, back to the flick.

 

Rob Lowe was awesome, per usual.

[thestray 361]

Confession: I have no idea who Liberace is/was. The only reason I know his name is from tv shows using it as a gay punchline since before I can remember. Literally all I know about him is that he was apparently a flamboyant gay person from the past.

 

So, it will be interesting to watch this movie having practically no preconceived notions or context. I'm super curious to learn about him.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

Yeah. Damon's character is completely perplexed by what's happening (never seen Liberace perform before, apparently), and Bakula's character fills him in that Liberace's audience thinks he's straight. It's just funny IMO in that Liberace's stage show is so glam and queeny that the best way to describe the situation would be that straight society was so in the closet about the existence of homosexuality that they couldn't see something staring them in the face. The early Damon/Bakula scene at the concert is definitely playing with that dynamic.

I missed it when it debuted this last weekend, but I'm watching it right now, and holy shit, Michael Douglas in that scene is the sparkliest damn thing I've ever seen. And then his equally shiny doppelganger shows up?!?!?

 

Forty-five minutes in, Rob Lowe just showed up. He looks kinda like Michael Jackson...

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Hour and ten minutes in, Douglas is hanging out at a dingy glory hole, and he's glowing like all those people on Krypton at the beginning of "Superman".