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Mamoushka!

Well you lucky dogs! Two Raul Julia posts in one week? Who could have possibly imagined anything so wonderful ever happening. Sophie and I watched The Addams Family, probably for the first time since I was a preteen. And OH. IT WAS GOOD. It has reminded me of everything that is good and sacred in this world. Namely, my love of all things colorfully gothic. And that's where this movie is most successful --capturing an archaic but rich aesthetic-- rather than when they try to clash it with modern day lawyers and other annoyingly contemporary anachronisms like MC Hammer. (Except for when they go to sleepover camp in The Addams Family Values. Like Hammer said, you can't touch that.) I can see how this film was nominated for best costumes for the Oscars. I know it's probably dated and pointless to review movies from 1991, but seriously, this is one of the more imaginative movies I've seen in a long time. And it's definitely creepy that I loved it with my under-a-decade of life experience 1991 original viewing of it.

In other words, Gomez Addams can be my papi chulo any day.

That's right, the man I marry is going to be a mixture of Raul Julia in The Addams Family and Bill Paxton in Apollo 13. Urinary Tract Infection and all. To well-neededly digress, can we also talk about Angelica Houston being SO. DAMN. DEAD ON. in this movie? Pun intended, because I am awesome like that. And Christina Ricci. AND CHRISTINA RICCI. She's like two-years-old in this movie. And skinnier now. OH I WENT THERE.

But watching this movie again also made me realize just how brilliant of a cartoonist Charles Addams was.

I mean, how hilarious and weird and slightly off is that? Just the right amount.

And apparently they're turning the Addams Family into a musical? Does this mean someone is thinking about combining my loves of macabre comedy with musical comedy? ARE ALL MY DREAMS FINALLY COMING TRUE??

Obscure Celebrity Crush of the Week!: Raul Julia

Alright, it's probably tasteless of me to usher in the new blog by objectifying the talented yet deceased Puerto Rican superhunk Raul Julia, but ever since the very funny TBS played The Addams Family Values, thus bringing me back to my childhood when I had some sort of eerie obsession with that cinematic gem, I realized just how hotter as a faun Mr. Julia could be. Ok, but without the faun. I mean, look at that! The one slightly bulging eye, the subtle debonair smile, the ability to grow impressive facial hair at a moment's notice.

I've slowly been working my way through the Iowa City Public Library's collection of Señor Raul's tantalizing film canon. Homie made a ton of movies! Seriously, who hasn't he played? Gomez, Othello, Selena. I still have quite a few of his films to work through, most direly Frankenstein Unbound and Street Fighter.

What can I say; he looks good in a tux.
But boy oh boy, I just rented the masterpiece One From the Heart --a Francis Ford Coppola picture that he made between Godfathers II and III*. I think of it as the '80s answer to Moulin Rouge, but with less quality and more of Teri Garr's boobs. It's fantastic; he plays the perpetually topless Garr's fantasy man, and Lainie Kazan as the totally against type Jewish best friend character has to keep over-compensating, saying things like, "Ooh, he's so gorgeous!" Clearly she got the memo too. As a Raulphile, this rates as not one of his better flicks, though he does both sing AND dance --a fate that has saved almost all of his movies**.

Cute!

Oh! And let me not forget Kiss of the Spider Woman. I can't believe it took a Raul Julia movie marathon to discover this movie, since I like to pride myself on having seen every film in the That's Rentertainment! queer cinema section. This movie is fantastic. It's super gay (namely, William Hurt, with his red hair, make up, and kimono), has a bearded Raulia, and discusses politics blah blah but no one really cares about that. They totally kiss. "Move over, you're squishing me!" Amazing.

I've officially sunk to a new low.

*a.k.a., a time when his career was still salvagable.

**Namely, Mack the Knife, the contemporary movie version of Brecht's Three Penny Opera starring an aged Richard Harris doing his best Sean Connery impression, a young hot Bill Nighy, and Roger Daltry, lead singer of the Who -who until this point I thought could do no wrong. I WAS WRONG.