#62 - Nina's Heavenly Delights

Who knew cooking could be so sexy? Well, after watching this Indian/Scottish movie (which made for some awesome accents, albeit a bit difficult to understand at times), I am now a believer.

So I just finished watching Nina's Heavenly Delights (number 3 on the Amazon happy lesbian list, number 62 on the 101 movies to see for lesbians). I've got to say it was a good movie. It had all the elements of one. Great cast, great acting, great script, story line, etc.

Yet, now I must refer to something Nina said at a couple points in the movie when talking about good vs. great cooking - just because a meal has all the ingredients, if the chemistry isn't right, then it won't taste that great. Unfortunately, I must use her own words against her when describing this movie. There was something that was missing. I feel like the chemistry between Nina and her main squeeze was just not... there. They both played their part well, and it wasn't awkward, but I guess it also wasn't very believable. There was no intimacy between them - just a relationship. Don't get me wrong, there were scenes where this was the case. Nina teaching Lisa how to cook, them tasting the food, meeting at the club... all great scenes acted out wonderfully. But there wasn't any chemistry between the actresses. I couldn't believe that the two characters were in the love. It all felt a little empty.

However, that is not the say that in general the movie wasn't that good, or that it didn't leave me smiling. On the contrary, I was laughing, tearing up, fuming, all within a period of 120 minutes.

What I liked about the movie was that the lesbianism wasn't obvious, or at least not the focus of the film for at least 30 minutes into it. Illusions were made of course (Nina left her fiance at the altar before going off to London for a few years), eye contact, side comments Nina's flamboyantly gay friend makes upon her arrival, but if you weren't watching close enough, or didn't know anything about the movie before watching it, you would have been surprised when Nina's orientation came to play.

Nina's love life came second to the bigger story arc. A family getting over a death and also trying to win a competition for the title of best curry restaurant. Nina's love life, and the secrets her brother and sister held were also amusing and in the end tied well together.

I also particularly liked Nina's internal conflict of whether to come out to her family or not to. She had much to lose if she did and if she didn't. And that heartfelt conversation with her friend was one that I'm sure many of us could relate to. I appreciated how the character voiced the fears that are often just left unsaid mainly because it's already pretty obvious as to why the character cannot come out.

(Spoiler ahead)

I did find the ending to be a bit cliche. We've already seen it before in Imagine Me & You and in Saving Face. Lisa leaves Nina because she won't come out, Nina is heartbroken, and then her mother comes to the rescue, gives her the advice, courage, and approval she needs to get her girl back. But then again, it is a nice touch to add. Sure Saving Face did it a bit better, but that's up to the taste of the viewer.

(End of Spoiler)

I've got to say, Nina's Heavenly Delights was heavenly to watch. Like I said, it had all the elements of a really great (chic flick) movie and I really enjoyed it. But in the end, when all the ingredients were in the pot, I think it was just the chemistry that did it in. It wasn't amazing, and it wasn't memorable. However, it was a better movie that others that I've seen and and it's one that people can enjoy and even love (as I am sure that there are some would probably not agree with what I've just said).

So... Buen Provecho!

Positive Lesbian Movies

So I was on Amazon.com and ran into a list of positive lesbian movies. To give you a short run through of the list:

Top 5:

1. Imagine Me & You

2. Fingersmith

3. Nina's Heavenly Delights

4. Rome & Juliet

5. I Can't Think Straight

Top 10:

6. D.E.B.S

7. But I'm a Cheerleader

8. Saving Face

9. It's in the Water

10. When Night is Falling

I've seen 2 from the top 5: Imagine Me & You and Fingersmith, and number 6-8 from the Top 10. This list has now made me interested in finding the other movies that I have already heard of and see what I think of them.

Honestly, I think Saving Face was a much better film than Imagine Me & You. The list is based on the idea that "If you're tired of lesbian movies ending with you wanting to cry, then here's a list of movies that will leave you smiling." Saving Face beats Imagine Me & You with this description. It also has a better story line, better acting, and a better ending. While it's not completely ridiculous, it still is cute (which is not the case at all for Imagine Me & You).

I can't really say if D.E.B.S and BIAC deserve to be on the top 5, since I haven't sen the other movies, but I'd rather have seen D.E.B.S ahead of Imagine Me & You. And I don't see why people like Fingersmith. I thought it was really boring, I could barely get past the first 5 minutes. Maybe it picks up after that, but I didn't watch it long enough to know.

Can't wait until I've seen these movies so that I can modify the list! :)

Facts of Life

I've to got to say. I don't have much of a gaydar, but the character Jo from the Facts of Life totally turns it on. Sure I'm about 20 years too late, but I, like so many others, am going to make a case for said theory.

She has a very masculine, "tough guy", persona. She dresses like a complete tomboy and is often in male clothing. She rides a motorcycle. Even if she wasn't gay, she is some kind of queer.

And now let's talk about her relationship with Blair. This relationship can best be described as a love/hate relationship with a chemistry that is so thick that it can be cut with knife. The tension, interaction, and attraction cannot be denied. So many slash fics have been written about the two of them is amazing. Even though they do add love interests and etc, I'm not completely won over by those distractions.

In one of the beginning episodes of the first season, the Facts of Life discussed lesbianism, and how one of the students was picked on. Unfortunately, I have never seen the episode, but the fact that it was talked about does show that it's not a subject they were unwilling to approach.

What do you think? And who else do you think is an "in the closet" character that probably will never come out. Darlene from Rosanne comes to mind, who by the way is played by a gay actress (this I did not know until about 2 months ago!)

The World Unseen / I Can't Think Straight

Yay! The World Unseen and I Can't Think Straight were released on DVD in the US on August 15th! Very exciting stuff. Both movies have been written and directed by Shamin Sarif who first wrote the books that were then made into the films. They also star the same actresses which is awesome because come on....they are quite pretty. However, the movies are not a continuation of each other.

Now, I haven't seen either movie, but I've heard really great things from both of them. The World Unseen came out in 2007 and I Can't Think Straight premiered in film festivals in 2008. Sarif has received a lot of praise for both movies, and the trailers make the movies look pretty entertaining. While I don't have the money to buy said movies, I can't wait to ask old Cornell to purchase the copy (might as well put my tuition dollars to good use). Although, I have already asked for The Secrets and Quemar las Naves...hmm, maybe I should use my girlfriend's account (with her permission of course!).

The main reason I'm mostly excited about these couple films is that we are finally seeing some multicultural diversity on the big screen. Most of the movies, save Saving Face, usually do not have a mixed array of cast members, unless they are done abroad (Quemar Las Naves, but even then, that's a gay movie, not a lesbian one), but even then the movies don't really become popular and pretty much sink to oblivion. Hell, even these couple movies were done in England. Regardless however, I think it's really great that we are finally seeing some diversity on a film that doesn't need English subtitles.

I think that's really important because I know of many people, myself included who have used television/movies as a tool to further become comfortable in their own skin and orientation. Be it the L Word, But I'm a Cheerleader! or any of the other movies we have mentioned, they have been priceless tools for the young gay teenager, or at least the young gay teenagers I've talked to. So it's great that now even the minority, young gay teenager can have a movie that we can better relate to.

Google is pretty funny

You know when you are typing something in the search box, a list of suggestions appear under what you are typing? I find it amusing that when you are looking up porn or sex toys (or even certain names of toys), suggestions don't appear. Meanwhile when you actually search those terms a whole bunch of links appear.

Even though I don't have safe search on at all, Google's more conservative than I thought. :P

Fuera de Carta

So, I just finished watching a movie from Spain called Fuera de Carta. It's a movie about an owner of a restaurant who happens to be gay, his matre'de/fag hag that happens to hump everything that moves, and the ex-professional soccer player that moves in right next to them, and the hilarity that ensues. Oh, and I should also mention that the owner, Max, has to also take care of his 15 year old son, and 5 year old daughter who are now under his care after their mother (his ex-wife) dies in the beginning of the move. He has to find a way to balance his in-the-closet boyfriend, insane friend, misbehaving kids, and goals of being rated one of the top restaurants in Spain.

Not the best movie I've seen by a long shot. But it was good enough. It's just a gay chick flick, and since I do love my chick flicks... I'll tolerate it. The acting could have been better, and the writing needed some work, as did the camera angles, but all in all, it was decent. The characters were believable. None of them were particularly good or bad, just... troubled. Which, in itself was a good thing. It made the characters easier to relate to, even if they were frustrating.

I don't know much about gay movies to really compare it to anything else. The only two I've seen other than this one is Quemar las Naves and Brokeback Mountain. Of course I've seen a plethora of lesbian movies...but these are out of my realm of knowledge!

If you're looking for a couple good laughs, zanny story plots and characters...go for it. Don't buy it...just rent it. But a word of caution... even if you are proficient in Spanish, I'd recommend using subtitles. Even for a native speaker...those Spaniards sure talk fast!

Ani DiFranco and the like

Ani DiFranco is coming to Cornell! Well, sort of. She's coming to the State Theatre of Ithaca in November, which has a lot of affiliation with Cornell, and that also means that the crew might be made of Cornell students...like me!

To be honest, I'm not actually one of her fans. There are a couple songs that I do like (you can blame Lost and Delirious for that one) but for the most part her voice is too irritating to listen to for long periods of time.

Actually, I don't really like most lesbian singers. It's not that I don't like them because they are gay (actually if that was the case, that would be pretty hilarious- all things considered). I just can't get over their style of music and the songs themselves. Yet, I know many gay girls who happen to love all gay singers, or at least a good number of them. Hell, I even have a couple friends whose entire iTunes consists of just gay singers.

Meanwhile, I'm much more inclined to the lesbian movie genre. I find that entire genre of movies fascinating (and be forewarned that a lot of my posts will probably be related to them :p). It has a pretty rich history that I've barely sunken my teeth into. Yet, most of my gay friends don't really care for them, and instead opt for the gay music.

A part of me does think it might just be cultural differences. A lot of the gay girls on campus are a bit crunchy/hippy/veggie type girls. I on the other hand love meat and cement. In that order :p. I've also come across articles and studies in Human Development about how hispanic households in the US also tend to incorporate television more in their lives in comparison to say hippy white people (and of course this is because of so many reasons that could just be a post on its own). Which could explain why I grew up watching a lot of tv and some of them don't even have tv's in their homes. As a hispanic kid in a hispanic household, I've just grown up appreciating the more visual side of things? Ahh, me and my negligible magic window.

It could just be that these girls just have more of an inclination to the outdoorsy folk music-y type, while I just like to stay in doors and watch some movies. Or I'm over-thinking this, but that I doubt (now thats just the HD side of me talking). There has to at least be some precursor to these differences!

Interestingly enough, I haven't really found a person whose into both without having a major preference towards one or the other. What gives yo?

(Also, as a side note...I just use lesbian and gay interchangeably throughout this entire post and blog)