Roland Emmerich's 'Stonewall' Bombs at Box Office

No surprise it tanked, it's said to be a disaster of a film. Boy Culture actually had the patience to sit through it and concludes:

The film's chief failure is not as a piece of history or as a politically empowering fable, but as an interesting, well-acted, credible entertainment. 

 Read his take HERE.

Review: Charge of 'Stonewall' White-Washing Isn't Entirely Accurate

I've read a dozen reviews of Roland Emmerich's "Stonewall" and based on what I've gathered -- still without having seen the film, which has been universally panned -- Guy Branam's seems to be the one that sizes it up most honestly, at least as far as the so-called whitewashing goes, which never sounded quite right given the cast of characters we knew were involved.

He writes, emphasis his:

Much has been made of the film’s erasure of trans people and LGBT people of color from the film. Most articles about criticisms of the trailer described it as "white washing," but the criticism isn’t entirely accurate. Emmerich TRIES to present a vibrant, multi-ethnic New York by dropping Danny into a band of racially diverse street hustlers who shout their lines so that we do not have opportunity to forget how fabulous they are. It’s not that Emmerich doesn’t show us effeminate, non-white or trans people, it’s just that he can’t imagine what they would do other than dress like a touring company of "Hair" and lust after Danny.  

Also, let’s be clear: This movie’s most harrowing moment is Danny almost getting a blow job from a fat guy, NOT the Stonewall raid. That is because this movie is bad. A special, important kind of bad. It purports to tell the story of a dramatic moment in civil rights, then gives no care or attention to the people who were actually affected. Rather, it fictionalizes a white, male straight-acting Fagssiah to lead us out of oppression, then realizes the ethnic, femme homos of the Village aren’t worthy of his help.

Fair enough. We've known all along that the film is a fictionalized account. What the reviews tell us new is that it's a (boring, unfocused) fictionalized coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the seminal moment in gay rights history, not a film about "Stonewall." Bad PR. Worse movie is my guess.

A Whiter Shade of Stale

Ouch. In his well-thought-out review for Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson writes that Roland Emmerich's "Stonewall" may actually be worse than we originally feared. (I never said it was good, I said it was fictional and we shouldn't judge it until we've seen it -- and by all accounts it's a really bad fictional tale.) Read HERE.

He Who 'Throws' the First Stone ...

There was a reason I didn't put all my eggs in the "The Stonewall movie may be more accurate than the trailer hints basket," but no one ever said it wasn't a fictionalized account. I had a feeling it was going this way when Roland Emmerich made a snide comment about people reviewing it based on the trailer, but then turned around and said: "It's definitely a film about Danny's story." (Yes, that's what people were complaining about, Roland!) Again, if you want to hear from the real people, watch a documentary.

Michael Musto writes:

Speaking of our community being weird to itself: I saw just Stonewall and was amazed to find out that it was a fictional white guy—a real cutie, by the way—who started the whole legendary revolt while wrinkling his pretty brow and yelling: “Gay power!" How perfect for a movie whose most repeated soundtrack song is “A Whiter Shade of Pale!" Gosh, you learn something every day—like how our history can be twisted to sell a hokey plotline (albeit with some good scenes and ambience and wrapped in a welcome message about gays battling oppression). The lead character’s throughline doesn’t ring true as he transforms from deer in the headlights to rabble-rousing activist, which results in the riot scenes failing to make an impact since you’re not fully invested in the people by that point. In fact, the screening crowd tittered in the subsequent scene, where cute Danny tells a pal, “I’m too mad to love anyone right now!” After the screening, SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile suggested that the film might come off better if they didn’t even say it had anything to do with Stonewall. “True,” I replied. “It should be called Monster Bar or Pieces!” Or maybe they should have saved their money and instead shopped the true story of Stonewall regulars Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Titus Montalvo to HBO.

More than anything, it doesn't sound like a good film so I think I will pass on this one.

United Colors of 'Stonewall'

New promotional material for Roland Emmerich's "Stonewall" shows further proof of diversity,

Jonny Beauchamp as Ray/Ramona in STONEWALL.

Jonny Beauchamp and Vladimir Alexis in STONEWALL

Yet I'm still trying to figure out how the original poster -- where two of three are POC -- was part of an uprising that was nowhere to be found when an all-white crew was featured on a Stonewall documentary in 2010 (left).