Taking Stock: 2015

Favorite Film: I saw thirty-four feature length films and nine short films in the theater. Add another fourteen films on DVD, thanks mostly to my teaching an Introduction to Film Studies class in the fall, and you’ve got a pretty good year at the movies. I did, of course, watch dozens more on TV and streaming, far more than I’ve had a chance to watch in recent years. Of the theatrical films I watched, my favorite was The Martian, featuring a very loose, often quite funny Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet. It’s Ridley Scott’s most accomplished and entertaining film in years, and watching Damon filming himself trying to survive alone was much more intriguing that a simple plot summary might suggest. It also features the best-ever use of David Bowie’s “Starman” in a movie.

Favorite Film (Runner-Up): Amy, the documentary chronicling the short life and career of British singer Amy Winehouse, is one of the best nonfiction films of the past decade. Notwithstanding the opportunity to witness her creating some of her most indelible songs, what I most admired about the film was how carefully it presented the events leading up to her premature death. Amy should be one of the finalists for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, and it should be a strong contender for the top honor. This is a documentary that is more riveting that the vast majority of fiction films out there.

Favorite Male Film Performance: Michael B. Jordan takes on the title role in Creed with such a sense of star power that he tends to eclipse Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in every scene that they share. Jordan plays the illegitimate son of Rocky’s famous first opponent, and he provides as much magnetism as Carl Weathers did in the original 1976 film. Hopefully, the franchise will now follow Jordan’s character, and we will have the opportunity to see this young actor continue to develop what will undoubtedly become an iconic role while continuing to headline the kinds of indie films for which he is also known.

Favorite Film Performance (Runners-Up): Chris Pratt in Jurassic World and Paul Rudd in Ant-Man rewrote the rules for being the kind of male lead that action-adventure/superhero movies should have. Pratt, already a star thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy from 2014, interjected a real sense of energy and humor into his role as dinosaur wrangler in the blockbuster sequel; it is no wonder that Bryce Dallas Howard’s ice princess role (and how annoying was it to have the female lead so stereotypically written) falls for him. Didn’t we all? And Rudd, who has always been one of my favorite actors, took on an unconventional role for himself and used his considerable charm to make a more complex, interesting superhero than most of the rest of the Marvel universe.

Favorite Female Film Performance: Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road takes a movie that is supposed to be centered around Tom Hardy’s title character and forces us to watch her instead (and miss her whenever she’s not on screen). It’s no small feat to steal a movie from Hardy, and the entire movie is a non-stop rush of adrenaline, so for Theron’s character to steal a group of enslaved women in order to rescue them from a terrible future and find her homeland after years of captivity. The Mad Max movies have a history of male-centeredness, but the plot to Mad Max: Fury Road turns that paradigm on its head. Theron, who has been underutilized in movies since her Oscar win for Monster, frankly, was the most compelling presence on screen—male or female—for me this past year.

Favorite Female Performance (Runner-Up): She has a relatively small part and only a few key scenes, but Phylicia Rashad really makes the most of them in Creed. As Mary Anne Creed, the wife of Apollo Creed, she has to navigate the difficult terrain of adopting his illegitimate child and trying to keep him from going into his father’s profession. She fails at that, of course, but the scenes where she watches her adopted son fight for the championship adds to the excitement of that sequence. Rashad has not been getting much attention from the awards groups, but her performance is one of those that makes one acknowledge what a true “supporting” performance is.

Favorite Book of Poetry: I only managed to read twenty-one books this past year, far fewer than in years past. To be honest, some of them were quite long and took a great deal of time to read. For example, I tackled a collection of Wallace Stevens poetry for the first time since graduate school, and given the complexity of his writing and the esoteric nature of his subject matter, I just couldn’t read it quickly. I did manage to reread one favorite book of poetry, Why God Permits Evil by Miller Williams. Williams died earlier this year, and his passing sent me to Amazon to find copies of his books of poetry. Why God Permits Evil was a book that I read for the first time back at Mississippi State as part of a Contemporary Literature class, and I had fond memories of it. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost it over the years with all of the moves to different residences, so I had to buy a new copy. It was definitely worth it, and I intend to be more careful in holding on to this copy.

Favorite Fiction Book: The Days of Anna Madrigal is a fitting finale to Armistead Maupin Tales of the City series (if it is, indeed, the last chapter). I kept reading with the expectation that the beloved transgender character of Anna Madrigal would die, and the rest of the residents and former residents of Barbary Lane would grapple with the loss. What I got instead was an uplifting, life-affirming story that delves into people’s pasts and provides some key historical contexts for many of the characters I have been following since I read my first Tales of the City book in 1990. I’ve never been to Burning Man, and to be honest, after reading this book, I’m not really inspired to go, but the description of it is certainly detailed with a great sense of affection.

Favorite Non-Fiction Book: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah” by Alan Light traces the development of the famous song from its writing through various significant interpretations of it over the years. Light does fine work examining and analyzing the ways that the song has been rewritten and deconstructed, and his discussion of the ways that Cohen, Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, k.d. lang, and a host of other people have changed the lyrics to suit their style is enlightening. I didn’t expect a book about just one song, no matter how famous, to be this interesting.

Favorite Non-Fiction Book (Runners-Up): I read two biographies this past year by noted gay men who were born in the South: Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son by Kevin Jennings and Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums. Both reminded me why I was so adamant about leaving the South more than twenty-five years ago and why I determined that I would overcome my background and become a success. Jennings and Sessums have accomplished a great deal in the fields of education and journalism, respectively, and their stories will, I hope, serve as inspiration for future generations of young gay people, perhaps most especially those still living in the South.

Favorite Theatrical Event of the Year: I attended five theatrical productions this past year, three of them at my college and the other two by professional companies. The one that I enjoyed the most was a revitalized Twelfth Night that featured acrobats and a fantastic young singer in the role of Feste, the clown. I’ll admit that our college’s Theatre Arts Department does fine work, and my friends and I really enjoyed Clybourne Park and The Drowsy Chaperone too.

Favorite Event of the Year: This is a tough choice for 2015 because I had opportunities to see some great musical talents. Bette Midler put on the most fantastic show at the Honda Center in Anaheim. She sang most of her great hits and chose some songs like Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” to turn into new classics. Of course, she also understands what a sense of showmanship entails, and her backup singers were quite game for the fun. I’ve long been a fan of Midler’s and have owned almost every album she’s released, but this was the first time I had a chance to see her perform live. I went to the show with several friends, and getting to share the experience only heightened our enjoyment.

Favorite Event of the Year (Runners-Up): A couple of other events deserve special mention. The Boyfriend and I got to see Heart at the Hollywood Bowl in August after my first day back at school, and it was such a pleasure to sing along with Ann and Nancy Wilson’s songs from throughout their long career. They even did a couple of Led Zepplin songs for good measure, and they totally rocked the Bowl. And we finally got to see Culture Club at the Greek Theatre (with Boy George in fine voice), a group the Boyfriend only knows from their later years and Boy George’s solo career. A particular highlight of that evening was getting to see Caitlyn Jenner introduce the band; she walked out without any announcement, and it only took the crowd a few seconds to recognize her and go completely crazy. Boy George has grown fond of outrageous hats in recent years, so each reappearance on stage was cause for another round of aahs.