Full of Heaven. Directed by Dolph Lundgren, Starring Chester Copperpot, Matt Damon, Ian McDiarmid and Mandy Moore. Edited by Amanda Vacuumhindu. 20th Century Vole, all rights reserved . Hair by Aime Echo. Catering by Wendy’s.

One of the most difficult things to sell the public on is the musical. Musicals require far more willing suspension of disbelief than the average movie goer is willing to engage. Dancing, singing, tap-dancing, choral singing or any other such performance in the middle of ordinary events is hard to swallow. While Hollywood is always pumping out cookie-cutter genre stories (action, comedy, drama) musicals seem just far too enlightened for Middle America. It’s sad that musicals are only popular on cruise ships.

What was most exciting about Full of Heaven is not that it’s a musical, but rather its pure artistic boldness. Through its telling of the story of struggling screenwriter Harold Ramus and his star-crossed lover Dan Makroyd trying to discover their love in the midst of the 1950s McCarthy Hearings, Full of Heaven invites the viewer to critique the hypocrisy of contemporary American society (always a difficult prospect).

As the story begins we learn that Ramus’ latest script, a story about Abraham Lincoln’s obvious but ignored homosexuality, has brought him under the oppression of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Makroyd, the Democratic Representative from Greenwich Village, comes to his rescue with an impassioned speech and impromptu dance number/homoerotic lap dance on the House floor.

The two fall in love, even as the ruthless Republican radicals in Congress seek to destroy them. It’s a touching romance, replete with the realistic portrayal of two young men in love; their love revealed through a series of delicate and artistically rendered love-making scenes which show every aspect of the characters’ emotion, physicality and various penetrative ennui.
Continue reading →