James Franco is as idiosyncratic a movie critic as he is a media presence.
In the midst of a (it must be said) thought-provoking appraisal of “12 Years a Slave” for Vice, the Yale PhD candidate goes off on a tangent that will do nothing to quell the persistent chatter about his sexual orientation.
It turns out that the “Oz: The Great and Powerful” star had a few problems with “Shame,” the previous collaboration between “12 Years” director Steve McQueen and star Michael Fassbender. In that downer of a cinematic experience, Fassbender portrayed a well-heeled sex addict, struggling to control his raging libido in New York City.
“He wasn’t such an addict in my opinion, though,” Franco writes. “I mean, what did he do? Watch porn and screw a handful of people a week? I could point to quite a few folks who do that.
Also read: Why James Franco Is Drawn to Gay Projects
“And that scene where he’s at his lowest point and wants to fuck and goes into a gay club, and it’s depicted like the seventh level of hell… I mean, it goes back to the horrible representations of gays in the 70s, where the gay club is meant to signify everything dark and depraved,” he added. “Then the guy gets a minor blowjob, from, Oh no,a man! The horror!”
And with that “minor blow job” gets introduced into the critical lexicon. Gay sex clubs have been an artistic interest of Franco in the past. He recreated the lost 40 minutes from the controversial thriller “Cruising,” with “Interior. Leather Bar,” which came out this year, so he’s well acquainted with leather chaps and dim lighting.
As for “12 Years,” Franco said that Fassbender is such a force of nature as a brutal plantation owner that he hijacks the narrative.
“We get to watch an incredible actor behave like a monster and we like it, we love it, because he is so charming, and handsome,” Franco writes. “We like watching humans get beaten, and if such beatings are framed in the right way, in this case, in an important film about American history, then we will lap up all that brutality and want more. I know I did. I watched it two nights in a row. I love this film. I’m beguiled by it.”