Did you know that legalizing gay marriage could turn the economy around? Well, don’t take my word for it, but Neil Patrick Harris presents a pretty convincing argument…in song. He and a whole slew of big name comedic actors, including Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, Andy Richter, Margaret Cho, Kathy Najimy, Rashida Jones and Craig Robinson, have united for an exclusive video from FunnyorDie.com that functions as a hilarious and tuneful protest of Proposition 8. And the songs are well-written too, since the whole thing was conceived and written by five-time Oscar-nominated composer Marc Shaiman. Hairspray director/choreographer Adam Shankman directed it.
In additon to supporting a cause, the video provides another surprising reason for me to regain interest in Jack Black. He’s terrific as Jesus here, and thanks to other recent online performances, such as his silent turn as Ben Franklin, I have a newfound enjoyment of his talents. Maybe he can somehow limit his career to the web and I can ignore all the obnoxious films he’s made in the last decade.
Anyway, check out the Prop 8 musical after the jump.
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Even as the champagne was still flowing across the nation in celebration of Barack Obama’s historic victory, protests were raging in California after Proposition 8, defining marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, passed with nary a hitch. By chance this was also the week I finally got around to watching Fatih Akin’s stunning follow-up to his rightly lauded Head-On, The Edge of Heaven, recently released on DVD. It’s hard to believe Akin, the biggest talent to come out of German cinema since Fassbinder, is only 35 years old. Indeed, the depth of the script, the subtlety of the Turkish score, the nuanced camerawork and self-assured editing are that of a master director. As is the poignancy with which Akin invests the breathtaking lesbian love story, which both connects the first and last parts of his international trilogy, and is the beating heart of the film. If those same-sex marriage advocates are ever in need of a cautionary tale that could serve as a Prop 8 teaching tool, “Lotte’s Death” (as part two is titled) is it.
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