By J. Bryan Lowder and June Thomas
Really thought out article
Really thought out article
J. Bryan Lowder: Well hello, June. I must say, after watching Ryan Murphy's take on Larry Kramer's loud and moving and blunt and unrelenting old play, I am acutely aware of our relationship as gay man and lesbian woman—your people are, after all, the ones who were so crucial in helping mine get our shit together during the AIDS crisis, so thanks for that. And I am also thinking a lot about generations: You lived through the events depicted here; I was born in 1987, two years after The Normal Heart first ran off-Broadway. AIDS has certainly been a presence in my life as a gay man, but it is not defining for me in the way I know it is for older queers. There are a lot of things to talk about with an object like this film—it's a work of art, a historical document, a piece of propaganda, and one fairly narcissistic man's memoir all at once. I find it very difficult to appraise without reams of caveats and sidebars. Perhaps a place to start: Did you think this movie worked as a movie?
