Hot Pink Shorts

Hello Hot Pink Short-ers!  Dan here; pleasure to meet you all.  I’d like to introduce myself as your new HPS ‘community manager’ (so to speak).  I’ve recently joined the team to act as your liaison to all things queer film.  I'll be writing articles for this site every week, tackling everything from festival news, interesting shorts to watch out for, and even juicy movie star scandals.  Holler at me if there’s a subject you’d like to learn more about, someone you’d just die to read an interview with, or any intel into upcoming flicks.  User feedback is key… we want to hear from you!

To start things off this week, I’d like to look at one of the summer’s most-anticipated releases - I Love You Phillip Morris.  On the heels of Brokeback, Transamerica and Milk of recent years’ past, Phillip Morris brings a gay-focused storyline to a mainstream Cineplex near you.  Or at least, it’s been trying to (stay tuned for film industry drama).

What’s Phillip Morris about?  Well, Phillip (Ewan McGregor, that is) is the object of one Mr. Steven Jay Russell (Jim Carrey)’s affection.  The film’s a dark comedy loosely based on the true story of Russell, a real-life convict whose claim to fame is having broken out of prison four times! The story centers largely on his jailbreaking ways, but begins when he was a simple family man living in Georgia. 

A respected police officer, an organ player at the local church, a father of two and a happily married man (to the terrifically funny Leslie Mann), Russell starts off the story leading a relatively normal life.  Then, a violent car accident puts Russell in a coma.  After he wakes, having come so close to death, Russell is forced to confront his fears of immortality.  Suddenly, he leaves his wife and kids and vows to pursue his authentic self: Russell turns gay.

In Act 2, our new antihero moves to Miami, meets new boyfriend Rodrigo Santoro (sweet damn, Google image this guy) and begins a new chapter as an overtly camp gay man, living an absurdly lavish lifestyle.  Russell soon discovers however, that "being gay is really expensive".  He turns to con manning in order to afford his luxurious tastes.  This, however, quickly lands him behind bars.

Cue McGregor, stage left, as the sultry southern title role.  From here, a love affair blossoms between Phillip and Steven Jay, with certain obligatory obstacles that stand in their way.  Overall, it’s an offbeat, endearing, uniquely told story with an A-list cast – a film one might expect to be rushed into box offices for mass release, no? 

Stage right: drama.   Despite Phillip Morris’ (relative) critical acclaim at its Sundance premiere last year (yes, in January of 2009!), the film has yet to see a larger audience.  Not to get bogged down by the business of it all, but a company called Europa Corp. funded the initial production of the film.  After its completion and festival screenings, distributors Consolidated Pictures Group came onboard in May 2009 to take charge of release.   Three pushed-back release dates later (Feb 12, Mar 26, Apr 30), Phillip still hasn’t hit North American theatres. 

Now, rumour has it that Europa is suing CPG for violating their initial agreement, and wants to have Newmarket Films come in and take over distribution.  Europa promises Phillip will be out this summer, despite all of these corporate shenanigans.  One could argue though – do you think any of this dramz has to do with the fact that the film has two loving, leading men?  Is some uptight CEO afraid mainstream audiences aren’t prepared for an overtly camp, gratuitous gay love story?  Let us know your thoughts.