Queens Logic

I finished watching a movie called Queens Logic just now, and it struck me as a really brilliant and underrated movie for one main reason, which I'll get to later.

As an overview, its one of those nearing-thirty crisis movies where everyone seems to be coming to terms with who they are and where they fit in the world, if they fit at all. The cast was a great ensemble cast of people who were about to make it, some who were in a fallow period, and some who never did. It has Joe Mantegna and John Malkovich in possibly their finest roles, as well as Tom Waits, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Bacon. I don't usually like Kevin Bacon, but he played an asshole, so its alright. It had a few great lines. My personal favorite, for obvious reasons to those who know me, is when Kevin Bacon falls down and hurts himself dancing. Someone asks whats wrong with him and John Malkovich says, "oh, he's just a white boy who thinks he's James Brown." I also have to give kudos to the soundtrack, which was absolutely amazing. I have never seen Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye and Benny Goodman mix so eloquently together. Not to mention Sly & the Family Stone, David Bowie and Cheap Trick.

What really struck me about this movie, though, was its portrayal of homosexuality. The group basically follows a group of friends reconvening as the second member of the group moves towards marriage. Meanwhile, another member's marriage is falling apart. John Malkovich is the gay friend. Gays in films are often portrayed as a bit flaky and quite a bit feminine. There is a scene where John Malkovich explains why he is lonely; gay men fall into a trap of emulating otherness because society expects that of him, and he doesn't want to give up his sense of himself as being naturally masculine, and thus he is doomed to being alienated from relationships with either sex. Basically, he's a tough gay guy.

This was a pretty odd yet liberating image for 1991, but its still fresh. Here's why. The most memorable film about masculine gay guys in the mainstream public's mind is Brokeback Mountain. The problem with that is the two guys know their gay, and we see that they are gay when they are together, but they are in denial to the rest of the world. Along with their image of "straightness," namely their masculinity, they put up a front of being straight in public. What this means is that the movie is really saying that society isn't ready to accept masculine gay men. If society was, then they wouldn't have felt the need to repress their relationship in public. Queens Logic is built on an ensemble cast, though, and that means Malkovich's character is constantly surrounded by a variety of people, both straight and gay, but he's still open about it. John Malkovich's character is the most openly gay masculine character I've seen in a movie, which is what I think makes the movie worth one viewing. (I'm probably leaving someone out, but at the moment, he's the most mascuiline openly gay character I can think of, especially in an American film pre-1992.)

Overall, Queens Logic isn't a great film. In the end, it's rather predictable and none of its promising aspects (the cast, the soundtrack) carry it enough for it to fully succeed. Still, if you see it in a bargain bin (like I did) or at your local video store, it might be worth picking up.