Thread by @_ClaireConnelly, I am resting by watching Angels in America. That should keep me [...]

I am resting by watching Angels in America. That should keep me immobile for four or five hours. Physically, anyhow. Emotionally... not so much.

Opening on Meryl Streep as a rabbi, delivering a eulogy as a parable on the diaspora...

.

Roy Cohn... will I grow to hate him more now in a post-Trump age? I suspect... probably.

I don’t know what it is about Patrick Wilson but I feel like he has been playing the same role his entire career. A repressed wasp struggling to conceal his anger? It leaves me completely cold.

Aaand phone call from the accountant. Typical.

I always choose the absolutely wrong time to sit down and watch something. TBC...

I got twenty minutes in and was interrupted by a phone call and then dogs and then dinner. Will resume tomorrow.

Ok. My work and chores are done. I am finally sitting down for the r&r I have been prescribed. Mary-Louise Parker. Bring it on.

“Things aren’t right with me.”

Jeffrey Wright as Harper’s personal international travel agent prophet / vision. These two people have more chemistry than anyone else in this play / film.

Oh he’s an angel! I didn’t get that before.

Justin Kirk! My beautiful, tragic, queer idol, Prior. I love him so much.

Gawd I hate Louis so much. People are not more important than ideals. You don’t just quit when stuff gets hard and reality doesn’t match your fallacious vision of humanity.

“Sharper than the serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child... you want to confess better you should find a priest. Catholics believe in forgiveness, Jews believe in guilt.”

Hell yeah , Meryl Streep!

Ugh. Joe Pitt, I get you have your personal struggles but if you could see fit not to be the most atrocious, repressed gaslighter that would be great. Trying to be more sympathetic for him as a character... not having a lot of luck.

It’s bizarre hearing people speak fondly of Reagan in present tense. He solved crime?

Mary-Louise Parker is just magnetic and heartbreaking as Harper. She deserves better.

From weeping over your dying partner to hitting on a closeted republican in the office bathrooms. Classy, Louis.

“I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille. One wants to move through life with elegance and grace, blossoming infrequently but with exquisite taste and perfect timing. Like a rare bloom, a zebra orchid. One wants... but one so seldom gets what one wants, does one? No. One does not.”

Why are there no gifs of this scene?! It’s a titular scene!

Prior was 30?! What?! Eff this cruel world and eff that disease and all of the people who abandoned and continue to abandon the queer community when they could have saved lives.

‘In my church we don’t believe in homosexuals.

In my church we don’t believe in mormons.’

Why. Are. There. No. Gifs. Of. This. Scene?!

I could just watch this scene over and over again.

“Nothing unknown is knowable.”

Random moving statue... what’s that about, eh?

That’s a lot of time in the chair for a cumulative 30 second close-up.

Be brave, Harper. Ask the question.

Gurl, run.

“I like this; very zen. It's reassuringly incomprehensible and useless.”

“What about us? If I walked out on this would you hate me forever?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a shell. There’s nothing left to kill.”

“You want to destroy me but I’m not going to let you do that.”

For a hot second I finally found some compassion for Joe. My heart broke. Until he made his wife the enemy and not, you know, religion, the church, himself, the world.

She’s the best and only real thing he has in his life. And she loves him. In spite of everything.

James Cromwell!! I forgot he was in this.

Why is he not credited in this?

Anyhoo. That concludes the first of three “acts” / episodes. Time to do laundry and other fun admin.

Aaand we’re back for the second act. Don’t know how long this will last, but at least I’m off cooking duties tonight.

Butch Emma Thompson the nurse, silently shaming Louis the shit for bailing.

Jeffrey Wright as Miss Thing! The love!

This is a small point but there is no way Patrick Wilson downs three vendor hot dogs for lunch and still maintain his physique. So far he has not offered one to Louis. Also, how many takes did they shoot? How many snags did he eat?!

“You’re eating three of those?”
“Well I’m hungry.”
“They’re really terrible for you. They’re full of rat poo and beetle legs and wood shavings and shit.”
“You’re eating one.”
“Yeah well, the wood shavings, I can’t help myself.”

“Sometimes you have to be willing to... break the law. Know what I mean?”

“Yes”.

Terrible photoshop wedding!

That scene with Joe and his mum (Meryl Streep) on the phone...

.

The scenes that follow are too cruel and heartbreaking and real and beautiful and sad to tweet about. But that brings us to the end of act 2. Harper has escaped with Mr Lies through the fridge and Prior is alone and Louis and Joe can be happy together, I guess.

[Intermission].

(I really wasn’t planning to tweet the thing but here we are. Me and AIA and my feelings).

For what it’s worth, I’m happy for Joe, having the bravery to find himself and admit to Harper that he’s gay, and as heartbreaking as the inevitability is, there’s real love there. Love you can heal from. Louis on the other hand... not so much.

Ok. Onto the final act. Because I have time I didn’t think I had tonight. Also because my heart can’t take another day of this.

Gambon showing up dressed as the ghost of Xmas past or something. I forgot he was in this!

Gawd, Louis, spare us all this exhausting pity party.

“He’s dying... you just wish you were.”

Which came first, Angels or Rent? Getting some real Rent vibes from this scene. And I’ll bet Angels came first.

(‘Perhaps it’s becaaaause I’m the only one of us to surviiiiive.’

‘Poor baby!’).

Harper and Mr Lies in Antarctica. Mary-Louise Parker is simply adorable.

PS Angels came first, (1991). Then Rent, (1996).

Rent is basically Angels without the Angels. And replaced by hipsters.

And of course singing and dancing.

Mrs Pitt (Meryl Streep) accosting a homeless person, (Emma Thompson) with her problems and demanding directions without so much as a dollar. Rude.

I have barely mentioned Roy Cohn. Joe Pitt tells him he loves him. After meeting him three scenes ago? I get time is meant to have passed but I don’t believe this relationship. It’s been almost completely unestablished. Also, curse Roy Cohn, he doesn’t deserve mention.

Pacino’s Roy Cohn is a little too Frank Slade for my liking. Should have been a more grotesque performance. May as well have shouted “hoo-ah!”

I recognise this hallway. Where have I seen this hallway before? Was it that Kate & Leopold with old Hugh?

The ghost of Ethel Rosenberg enters from stage right. Bring it.

“History is about to crack wide open.”

Honey, you have no idea.

This play / film is prescient in the most horrific ways.

“I really don’t think I deserve being loved.”

“See, there, we already have a lot in common.”

Joe... everyone deserves to be loved. Even Louis... maybe. Well, almost everyone. Not you, Roy.

I want to know how they shot the ‘revelations’ scene in Prior’s bedroom.

Greetings, prophet!

There’s a fourth act? I have to go to bed. I guess my emotions will have to survive another sitting.

Forgot there was a fourth act. We’re on. Opening credits looks like Full House redubbed (by which I mean it features the Golden Gate Bridge).

Hey, ‘Perestroika’. Haven’t heard that term in a while.

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