2 Gay: Liza With a Z/Cruising

I just had the gayest TV night ever. I watched Liza With a Z on DVD and the Al Pacino film, Cruising.

These movies were so gay it made me feel straight.

Liza With a Z is...I can't even find words to describe it. It was like a time capsule from 1972 exploded in my living room. I'm not one of those queens obsessed with Garland, Liza, Streisand, etc., but I love a good drag show as much as anyone else and watching Liza With a Z was like watching a great drag show choreographed by Bob Fosse. Also on the DVD is a Q and A from the Toronto Film Festival where a beaming female fan says to Liza, "I believe you and your Mom Judy Garland were the two greatest performers ever." Liza looks shocked and says, "Were???" Liza then goes on to explain that she wears sequins so you can't tell when she's sweating. Most interesting though is a conversation between composer John Kander and Liza where an uncomfortable Kander looks like he's putting up with his crazy Aunt at a family reunion.


Cruising is a movie about the search for a gay serial killer, I think. It takes place in the "gay S&M underworld". I mean it takes place in some retards version of a gay S&M underworld. In my favorite scene Al pacino is in a leather bar wearing a gay handkerchief in his back pocket. This is to indicate that he's into watersports. Another guy wearing a yellow hankie approaches Pacino and say, "Are you into watersports?" Pacino says, "No. I just like to watch." The pissed off leather queen yells back,"Then take the yellow hankie out of your back pocket, asshole." This movie really sheds light on how frustrating it must've be to find people to pee on you in 1980. Ultimately, the movie is incredibly confusing. The killer is played by different people and there's a "twist" at the end that implies Pacino is himself the killer he's been searching for. Whatever. There's lots of shots of leather guys with shoulder length hair and muscular bottoms. Hot! (NOT!)

Go here for an interesting discussion of Cruising starring Al Pacino.

I think I would have enjoyed Liza With a Z and Cruising much more as a double-bill at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a packed audience of howling "friends". These two movies are too scary (and too much fun) to watch alone.