angels in america (2003)

directed by mike nichols

"failing in love is not the same thing as not loving. it doesn't let you off the hook. it doesn't mean you’re free to not love."

i don't know that anything like this exists. or will exist. it is such a time capsule, and also a wine that becomes more refined and more valuable the longer it exists in our cultural memory. angels in america, a film-series adaption of a play by tony kushner, depicts the parallel lives of republican lawyer joe pitt, his valium-addicted paranoid wife harper, AIDS-infected prior walter, his neurotic lover louis ironson, and scum-of-the-earth roy cohn, who is a real life historical figure and skillfully depicted by al pacino.

i don't understand how this film doesn't get more hubbub. i mean, i wasn't cognizant in the time of its release and i know that it is beloved among it's niche, but we should be celebrating angels in america and making it part of the public consciousness even more than we do rent (and this is a hot take coming from me, a full-time rent apologist).

every single actor put their entire heart and soul into these characters, whether the role be big or small. meryl streep as closed-minded mormon mother was a WILD thing to see. i couldn't tell if mary-louise parker is just strange by nature or really embodied what psychosis does to a person, regardless of whether or not they are actively experiencing psychosis. i appreciate that the delivery of the script from all actors does sound like a script for the stage, but doesn't sound unnatural or strange. just accurate to the format. every single line belize utters is absolutely breathtaking.

actually, let me talk about belize for a second because jeffrey wright's character in this production is by and far the mvp of this whole thing. his delivery is always quiet and self-contained, he won't let his tone rise above a level 4. and still, there is years, generations of rage, frustration, and oppression that live within him. he is a black gay femme man in america (wikipedia says he is a drag queen but i dont recall any scenes where he is in drag beyond a feather boa, could be different in the play though), and he knows very well that the moment he lets that rage take over, he loses his credibility. his role is one that turns this movie from the cliffside of insufferable white suffering into one with depth and vision and insight to the structural racism of america and within LGBTQ+ communities, and how critical black queer figures were in the fight against AIDS and in the queer community at large.

“the white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. he set the word free to a note so high nobody could reach it. that was deliberate. nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me.” there is nothing in the american canon that is more poetic and true than this line. it breaks me.

the series is rough around the edges; the cgi and effects are certainly of it's time and not all of the shots and blocking are seamless. still, it is the roughness that adds value. this series of short films pulls no punches; it is just raw emotion and performance.

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