Review: ‘The Boys in the Band’
After a horrific Presidential debate, Americans are waking up with the fatigue that results from being yelled at and lied to by our own President for more than an hour as him and his enablers continue to destroy and devalue our democracy. This is not a new feeling. Unfortunately, it is one that dominated the last four years and too much of this nation’s history. For many, including myself, Trump’s racist, sexist vitriol brought feelings of anger and powerlessness to the surface. The President’s entire performance is meant to do exactly that: create a fear response so strong that it petrifies voters and tears this nation apart. While Trump’s behavior was not unexpected, it piled on more pain in an already excruciating moment.
Feeling the heaviness of that night’s events, I sat down to watch Netflix’s ‘The Boys in the Band’ revival film starring the 2018 Broadway cast, directed by the one-and-only Joe Mantello. Familiar with Mart Crowley’s 1968 play, I braced myself for what lied ahead. While cruel and at times hard to watch, ‘The Boys in the Band’ is an intimate portrait of the shame and self-hatred that is a direct result of being raised to deny your own nature. A birthday party for Harold (Zachary Quinto) turns into a tense evening before it truly begins. As Michael (Jim Parson) prepares for the party, he gets a call from his college roommate Alan (Brian Hutchinson) who’s crying on the phone and subsequently crashes the party. This call makes Michael even more anxious, begging his friends to act straight so Alan does not suspect anything. All the men somewhat laugh this request off, joking that Alan is likely closeted himself. Once Alan arrives, the sense of hiding that permeates the environment transforms a night of witty insults into physical and emotional cruelty.
After a successful Broadway run in 2018, the cast (Andrew Rannells, Matt Bomer, Jim Parson, Zachary Quinto, Brian Hutchinson, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Micahel Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins) is cohesive and their highly rehearsed nature translates somewhat oddly as is common with play-to-film adaptations. All the men know their lines so well and the camera moves at times overwhelmingly quickly to capture all the remarks and eye rolls. Before Alan arrives, it is easy to feel the openness among the men. Their jokes and comfort around one another create the sense that Michael’s idyllic New York apartment is an oasis within the homophobic reality of 1960s America. Alan’s presence, a personification of homophobia and self-hatred, brings out the worst in the men as their oasis turns into a closet.
At Michael’s insistence, they play a game where each man must call the one person they truly love. Revisiting emotions of being closeted and in conflict, Mantello adds dreamlike sequences that represent the men’s memories. While these scenes are not entirely necessary, they capture the mix of apprehension and youthful freedom present in each moment. When Bernard recounts his feelings for the son of a rich white family he worked for, the overlapping bodies in the pool feel beautiful and nostalgic until it is clear that Bernard and the others never gave themselves the space to work out these feelings before. Instead of adolescent moments of burgeoning romance and acceptance, these memories serve as painful reminders of all the teenage moments Queer people are often denied. While it may be easy to brush this off as irrelevant in a more accepting society, there are still too many men and women around the world unable to express their desires without fear.
It is understandable to see how ‘The Boys in the Band’ might feel like a relic of the past and it is easy to question if reviving this work is the best use of some of Hollywood’s most successful gay actors. From the clothes to the slang, a lot feels outdated. However, watching this film in a time where our daily and online interactions are increasingly hateful and tense, it is painfully clear how merely the threat of violence can unravel a group so horrifyingly quickly. In this case, the course of one evening. Juxtaposed with the last four years, Joe Mantello and Ryan Murphy’s film revival of ‘The Boys in the Band’ is a poignant reminder of the infectious nature of hatred and shame. – Hannah Benson
Rating: 3.5/5
‘The Boys in the Band’ is now streaming on Netflix.