Portrait Of James Dean, A: Joshua Tree, 1951

By: Kelly Burkhardt
In-House Review - Aug 09 2012

The rumors swirling around James Dean and his sexual activities are the subject of this fascinating neo-noir feature that blends the brooding tone synonymous with Dean's style with the gorgeous look of early 1950s cinema. This biopic - starring the striking James Preston - follows the budding actor as he effortlessly navigates finding his place in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Preston vividly captures both the look and charisma of the iconic actor. He bounces back and forth between L.A. and New York and in and out of the beds of honeys, hustlers and Hollywood royalty while intimately living and loving his roommate. Both guys and gals who are fans will immensely appreciate the cool style and tone of Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean. Director Matthew Mishory brilliantly focuses on the breathtaking landscapes of both the California desert and mounds of flesh while vividly capturing the essence of Tinseltown's tragic legend.

By: Night Tim

This is probably the most beautiful gay-themed movie I've ever seen. The cinematography is absolutely lush and pleasing throughout. (Who knew B&W could be so gorgeous?) This film is a work of art and should be seen on that account alone, if one is interested in film to that extent.

The story is a fascinating one of James Dean as he was about to emerge as an actor. All the actors are tremendous except for Dalilah Rain, who plays Violet with a little too much effort, as if it were her first role in a theatre. And my one complaint about James Preston is that he doesn't seem haunted - something I might not have noted except that the characters mentioned his mother's death twice, so I was expecting more of an undercurrent of angst or something. (Maybe I'm just remembering Dean a little too much the way he was in East of Eden.)

I loved Dan Glenn's portrayal of the unnamed roommate (which is so symbolic of the way Dean treated him), full of subtlety and tortured restraint. It was not hard to feel his hurt and disappointment when the roommate relationship doesn't develop into more.

All right, I know you're wondering, so: there's plenty of sex, bare ass, and guys kissing in this film - including one scorching hot, flaming crotch, rewind-several-times hookup scene that unfortunately gives new meaning to the term "quickie," featuring KC Morgan, a little-known actor who walked straight out of my most explosive wet dreams (see "Dock Worker's Apartment" scene).

Plot-wise, it's not absorbing enough for a Saturday night in my view, but it makes for a great Friday night film after a long week of work - something that's highly entertaining without being too demanding, visually beautiful, interesting and provocative. Well worth it. Three Stars (which means Very Good in my book).

By: Amos Lassen

Forget everything you think you know about James Dean and surrender yourself to this nonlinear dreamlike look at one of the icons of American cinema. This beautiful film is full of surprises and James Preston as Dean is amazing with his raw portrayal of Dean before the world knew who he was. We meet Dean as he came off of the farm, full of ambition and hungry to learn everything there was to learn. His roommate who is not named is played by Dan Glenn (who is rumored to be Dean's actual roommate Bill Bast). The two men were in love but in the 1950's this was something that could not be and the roommate paid a high price to be with James Dean.
This is a film that touches the viewer and he feels Dean's talent and his pain. Matthew Mishory who directed this captures the conflict between what an artist has to do for his art and what he is to relinquish, the risks he must take, the life he must forsake to give honor to his art. We see Dean's personal life put on hold as is his family, his friends, his loves and his stability. Mishory shows us that it is all about destiny and lets us decide if the choices an artist makes are inevitable.
I was not prepared for what I saw and quite honestly I had been "James Deaned" to the hilt and figured what can someone show me that is new. There have always been rumors about Dean's sexuality and we see here that he was not the macho hetero male that everyone thought. We realize that his sexuality affected his life and everything that he did and he had to hide, to pretend to be someone else. Visually the film is a feast and it gives us some new facts about Dean and we see why he still endures some fifty plus years after his death. We see his ambition and we see his vulnerability and that he was willing to play the game in order to get a break into the movies. He was a rebel in that he wanted to be true to himself and he had already achieved a lot when he died at just 24. The film itself is set during the period before he was cast in the movies that made him a star. We watch as he becomes an actor and he wants to be a man. In 1951, the year the movie starts in, Dean was just 20 and he was trying to understand who he was and what was important to him.
Filmed in black and white, we get the sense that the film is a dream and the cinematography is beautiful. We get the sense that Dean was moody and alone and we see scenes of him at Hollywood parties hosted by the moguls of the film industry. Dean was a pretty boy that was used by the powers that were and we see that. This is a film noir look at Dean and at the quest for fame and the price paid for it. We see Dean having oral sex in exchange for grooming and we see him flirting with young women but also getting it on with guys-one was his roommate, another was a radio producer with "connections".
The scenes with his roommate was particularly effective and realistic for in them we see the personality of Dean. We learn of Dean through episodes in which he appeared confused and full of anger and doubt. But what we most of all is that James Dean remains forever young, forever gay and has his patented ability to just be on screen.