Annoying Homophobic Movies

In the new movie The Extra Man — SPOILER ALERT! — Paul Dano plays a guy who likes to try on women’s clothes.

At the climax, he dons full drag for sex with a woman, at which point he realizes that this is awful and “I just want to be a man!”

This twist is presented as some heartwarming last-inning revelation, similar to the fact the the messy John C. Reilly character has suddenly combed his hair and the wacky Kevin Kline guy becomes a sort of walking Hallmark card full of gratitude.

Movies shouldn’t bother to try on quirks and kink if they can’t deal with them.

Meanwhile, in the documentary realm, I was amazed that two docs that I liked — Troll 2 and Winnebago Man — didn’t at all touch on the fact that their lead characters seemed to be so very gay.

Again, it’s a case of “We’ll tell you everything…except that.”