Review: James Franco... To Play Gay-Or-Not... 'I Am Michael'

PARK CITY - I would guess there is no working actor right now more suited to playing the lead in "I Am Michael" than James Franco.

Walking into the film this morning, I didn't know what it was about. That's how I like to try to see as many movies as possible at Sundance, because it leaves the opportunity for surprises. As soon as it started, though, I recognized the material, and I became intrigued to see how they were going to approach telling the story of MIchael Glatze, who is best known for being a former high-profile advocate for gay rights who "went straight" in a very public way after a health scare, eventually becoming a Christian pastor and proclaiming himself heterosexual. That's a tough story to tell without demonizing either side of things, and I wasn't sure I really wanted to see a movie that played Glatze as a hero.

After all, his work was never just about what he personally liked or wanted. He was a major figure in the lives of many young gay Americans for his work on "XY Magazine" and, later, "YGA Magazine," and his work helped untold numbers of people find the courage to come out to friends and family and to live proudly. He fostered a sense of community, and he worked hard to break down stereotypes about what defined someone as gay. When he published a blog post saying that he no longer identified as gay, it was a huge slap in the face to so many people who had taken comfort in his words.

Beyond that, it also destroyed the long-term relationship he had with Benjie Ny (called Bennett in the movie and played by Zachary Quinto), who had been his boyfriend for over a decade. It must have been confounding for Ny to watch this formerly out-and-proud activist suddenly renounce everything that defined him, and it wasn't any easier for Michael, at least according to the film. Instead of playing this as a direct "gay or not gay" binary decision, the film shows that Michael is constantly searching for identity in any number of ways, and that he's the kind of person who will likely never be satisfied, who will never feel finished.

What makes Franco so right for the role is the way he has consistently resisted any effort to put him into an easily defined box, sexually speaking. I can't think of any other mainstream actor who has been so openly willing to explore gay sexuality and our attitudes towards it in his films. There's the playful way his relationship with Seth Rogen has evolved from "Freaks & Geeks" to "Pineapple Express" to "This Is The End" to "The Interview," with subtext gradually becoming text. There are the films like "Howl" or "Int. Leather Bar" where he overtly plays into the way people view him, or where he happily pushes the boundaries of what we are used to seeing our mainstream actors do. People love to make jokes about Franco, but the truth is that there is a fearlessness to him that is driven by what feels like an intense curiosity about people, and more and more often these days, he seems to be following his own muse, completely beyond caring about what people think.

The film certainly doesn't treat Michael as a hero for what he did, but it also doesn't just make him the object of scorn that would have been so easy. As he explores his faith, he takes a brief detour into becoming a Mormon, and there was a fair amount of superior laughter from the crowd here at every mention of that faith. The thing is, this isn't a joke, and there are plenty of people who work to reconcile a life in the church and a life where they are able to proudly self-identify as whatever sexuality they choose. It seems appropriate that I saw this today with a friend who is an openly gay Mormon and who has written about his own attempts to reconcile those ideas. Unlike Michael, many people are able to fully embrace both identities, but Michael seems determined to shut off that part of himself, the part that craved love from Bennett. I can't think of anything worse than completely denying your own heart, and the film actually builds to an ambiguous ending instead of the sort of triumph you would expect from most "based on a true story" films.

It's rare for any film to treat faith seriously unless it's designed specifically to play to that market, and the idea of making a film that is unsparing in its depiction of both gay male sexuality and actual issues of faith seems next to impossible. Justin Kelly, who wrote and directed the film, doesn't do much for me as a visual filmmaker, and I think the entire film has a sort of TV movie aesthetic that doesn't do it any favors. But as the film goes on, it manages to build a genuine sort of emotional strength, and Franco's portrayal of this sad, confused, yearning man ends up being very affecting. Quinto is also very good, and I like that they never turn Bennett into anything other than a disappointed friend, someone who wants happiness for Michael no matter where that lies.

As a theatrical experience, "I Am Michael" is fairly forgettable, but it does manage to pierce in places, and it carries a ulative charge that is bigger than any of the individual emotional pieces.

"I Am Michael" has its first public screening at Sundance today.

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https://tv.yahoo.com/news/review-james-franco-guy-play-090000067.html

Sniffit said:

I don't know why the anonymized link wouldn't work.

I replaced it with a Coded link that definitely does work.

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warp9 said:

It's because of the "https". Delete the "s" and it will work :

http://anon.projectarchive.net/?http://tv.yahoo.com/news/review-james-franco-guy-play-090000067.html

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James Franco is no stranger to Sundance, and this past week, he premiered two films at the film festival: True Story, where he stars as an accused murderer who steals the identity of a disgraced journalist (Jonah Hill), and I Am Michael, where he plays real-life figure Michael Glatze, a former gay activist who leaves his boyfriend (Zachary Quinto) behind after declaring himself straight and becoming a pastor. The latter film has gotten audiences talking, especially since it touches on the sort of hot-button issues of sexuality that Franco often seems compelled to. Yesterday, the actor and his I Am Michael director Justin Kelly sat down with Vulture to explain their movie, Franco's homophilia, and the unlikely love scene he almost shared with his Pineapple Express co-star Danny McBride.

James, many people won't be surprised to see you in a movie like this, because as a major male movie star, you've been unusually willing to play gay roles and investigate gay themes in your projects. What is it about the gay experience that you relate to so strongly?
Franco: Some of it's coincidence, or the gay aspect of the project — like Hart Crane in The Broken Tower or Allen Ginsberg in Howl — is secondary. It wasn't like, "We need to do this because he was gay." It's because of their art, and then their art was partially informed by their sexuality. But then with something like Interior Leather Bar or Milk, those are obviously engaging with gay themes, gay rights, gay politics. In the case of Milk, once I did that movie, it kind of opened me up to a lot of things I hadn't really thought about because they hadn't been a part of my life. Lee Daniels says that gay rights are the civil rights of our era, so I like doing a movie like Milk or Interior Leather Bar where I can bring themes and ideas I've been engaged with, and do it in such a way that those ideas are pulled into the mainstream more. I feel like that's my place: I can in some ways lend myself and say that these are important issues of equal rights, though on the other hand, I'm very much about preserving this queer kind of space of defying identity and defying labels. I think there are a lot of those themes in this movie as well.

Justin, this is your feature debut, but you worked on Milk as an assistant editor. What did you learn about James by viewing the entirety of his performance through that lens?
Kelly: That he has an ability to immediately turn on and embody a character. I ran all the dailies on Milk, so we'd watch everything — even the nude scenes.

Franco: No, you didn't get to watch those!

Kelly: I watched them later. [Laughs.] But I was always impressed by how even if something else was going on before the slate comes in, he could snap into character really quickly. We needed that on this film because we had a tight schedule.

James, you're no stranger to gay love scenes, but how do the threesome in I Am Michael — where you're working with gay actors for a gay director — compare with, say, the love scene you directed in The Broken Tower, where you hook up with Michael Shannon?
Franco: It was very different. Michael Shannon is an awesome actor, one of the best actors of our generation, and a good friend of mine who prides himself on being the guy who will do anything, but he was uncomfortable in that scene. I had to take him to dinner before we shot it because he was so uncomfortable ... he was like, "We've gotta talk about this." So I went in to New York, and as soon as we sat down, he was like, "Aw, now I feel stupid that I'm such a wimp. All right, I'll do it, I'll do it." Once we got to set, we set up the lights and everybody else cleared the room. It was my DP and focus-puller, and that was it. We did one take, and if you look closely at the scene, you'll see that I am pulling his face close to me because he [refused to get close], and we're supposed to be passionately making out. And he's a strong dude! But in the end, it worked … half-assed love scenes are the worst. Straight or gay! So I was just doing my job on [I Am Michael].

The real Michael Glatze sat in on a Sundance panel with you guys this week, right?
Kelly: He came up about halfway through to answer some questions, and told everyone how much he loved the film. I could kind of feel the vibe from the audience that they were pretty surprised. People definitely expect to see him vilified because of the people involved, but we really went for this nonjudgmental approach — even though I know the film might be different if a Christian pastor had made it. But yeah, he came up and talked about how the film has changed his life. The whole process of development has let him reconnect with his ex-boyfriend Benji, the character that Zachary plays. Benji flew to Wyoming to see him for the first time since 2007.

What went down when they reunited? Do we know?
Kelly: Well, they videotaped everything.

Of course they did.
Franco: It was kind of weird because Benji had such an ambiguous relationship and engagement with the project, and after we finished shooting it, it seemed like Benji opened up a bit more.

Kelly: He made us change the character's name the night before shooting.

Franco: That's why the character's called Bennett in the movie.

Kelly: He had distanced himself. That's why I was pretty surprised to hear that he was going to do this project, and that he had asked for our support first. But yeah, they reconnected, and they did a little doentary on how they feel about their lives since Michael first wrote that pretty hateful article, now that he's changed and become a little less dogmatic.

James, I've seen 20 movies here at Sundance so far, but I hear you've seen even more.
Franco: I've seen 30.

Jesus.
Franco: Well, 30 including my own. So, 29. [Laughs.] I thought The Witch was awesome, I liked Noah Baumbach's Mistress America, I liked Jared Hess's new one, the Cobain doentary is great …

Did you see The D Train, with Jack Black and James Marsden? The way that it deals with sexuality almost seems of a piece with I Am Michael.
Franco: I was supposed to be in The D Train!

You were going to play the James Marsden role?
Franco: Yeah, because Danny McBride was supposed to do it. He brought it to me and I was attached to it, but when he couldn't do it, I was sort of like, ehhh … But it was a cool script.

One thing I liked about The D Train is how it turns that comedic standby of gay panic on its head. What's your queer-theory take on why that continues to be such a source of humor in a lot of the movies that your friends make, including Seth Rogen's The Interview?
Franco: I think it varies from person to person. One of the reasons that I was originally interested in The D Train is because Danny is uncomfortable with that kind of material, so there would be a real situation there, I thought, where he would actually be uncomfortable doing that sex scene and playing out the aftermath.

So the movie would almost be operating on a meta level.
Franco: Yeah. Not that he's homophobic, but just engaging with that himself, he would just be uncomfortable, I know. There are things in Your Highness that he wouldn't do, even for a laugh!

I'm surprised — I usually think of Danny McBride as one of those performers who's game for anything. In This Is the End, after all, he keeps Channing Tatum as his "bitch."
Franco: Yeah, and notice he didn't touch him at all. [Laughs.] But with people like Seth, it's a completely different thing. I think what they're playing on is not so much gay panic in themselves as in larger society. We still kind of laugh at dudes getting uncomfortable with each other because it's a real thing for a lot of people. They're playing on that, rather than any kind of personal discomfort.

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