Griffin Heckel: German, gay, muscular, or all of the above? With some bonus Jewish twinks, Michael Carr's cock, and an excellent adventure

 After completing the profile of Francois Göske I realized that, although I read German (it was one of the languages in my Modern Languages major) and know about Germany's strong tradition of gay-themed novels and movies, there aren't other profiles of German actors here.  So I checked the teen idol website, and found Griffin Heckel.  This striking photo shows him in a park, presumably in Berlin.  I'm reminded of Rilke's "Pathways":

Wege will ich erkiesen, die selten wer betritt

in blassen Abendwiesen?

und keinen Traum, als diesen:

Du gehst mit.

Shall I choose the road less traveled

through the pale evening meadows?

And no dream, except for this:

You come with me.

Wait -- he's America, from New York City, and the photo was taken outside the Dia Beacon Art Museum, on the Hudson, about an hour north of Penn Station.

How embarrassing!

But I'm still doing a profile because Griffin is highly cultured. Here he's waiting to see Beckett's Waiting for Godot, with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter playing Vladimir and Estragon.  (Bill and Ted?  Excellent!)

And probably gay: he posts a photo hugging gay actor Ethan Slater, Boq in Wicked (who, incidentally, is 5'7" and built, sigh).

Wait -- it turns out that Ethan is straight. Darn it!  And Griffin took a girl to the homecoming dance.  He must be straight, too.

So not German, not gay.  Does he at least have an impressive physique?

Um...let's just check his roles on the IMDB for gay characters or subtexts.

Griffin is best known for the Netflix "hit" that I never heard of, Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024): a boy (Luke David Blum) is  separated from his parents during a storm, and "lost on a mountain in Maine." Beats those annoying one word titles that don't tell you anything about the movie. 

It's based on a 1978 autobiography by Donn Fendler, who was separated from his boy scount troop and lost near Mount Katahdin for nine days in 1939.

Paul Sparks plays the boy's dad, and Griffin plays his brother.

I'm guessing that there is no gay content, but there are no girls Griffin's age in the cast list, so no heterosexism, either.

Griffin has 12 other acting roles listed on the IMDB, beginning in 2019 with the short Remind Me (father-son squabbles), and episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Deuce, FBI, and Evil Lives Here.

More after the break

"Oz, the Great and Powerful": A walking penis (not in a good way) finds true love, two wicked witches, and a flying monkey

  

Last night for movie night, we saw Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), a Disney retread of the Oz mythos, with reflections of both the original books by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 movie.  It had some visual appeal, but the heteronormativity was so intense and unyielding that it burned.

In black-and-white 1905 Kansas, Oz (James Franco) is a circus sideshow magician who seduces every woman in sight -- three in the first five minutes.

Easter Egg: The circus is run by Mr. Baum.

He has an assistant (Zach Braff), whom he treats horribly, and an ex-girlfriend (Michelle Williams), who is in love with him but plans to marry John Gale instead because he doesn't want a "normal" life, the heterosexist trajectory of job, house, wife, and kids.  Not because he is gay, because he is irresponsible.

Easter egg: It's not mentioned, but the ex-girlfriend is going to become Dorothy's mother, then die, so Dorothy can go live with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, and get zapped to Oz in seven years. 

Oz's act comes to a halt when he admits that he can't cure a disabled girl in the audience.  

Then he has to flee when the circus strongman and clown  (Tim Holmes, Brian Searle) get angry over the seduction of their wives. Oz jumps into his balloon, and is zapped through a tornado into Oz.

I figured a guy playing a strongman would have some beefcake photos,but Tim Holmes doesn't.  Instead, we have him saying that he's visiting his kids "to see his grandchildren"..with his hand on one of their bellies.  No baby in there, buddy; those are your twin sons. 

Left: Eugen Sandow, the original strongman.

Back to Oz.  The wilderness is brightly-colored, with singing foliage out of Fantasia, and things that keep zapping you in the face (the film was originally 3-D).

Oz meets the Good Witch Theodora, who happens to be traipsing around the wilderness with no supplies.  Discovering that he is coincidentally named after her country, she concludes that he is the Wizard prophesied to free the kingdom from the evil Wicked Witch, so of course he seduces her.  Is this supposed to be an endearing trait? 

Next they go to the Emerald City, picking up a flying monkey in a bellman's outfit (Zach Branff) along the way.  Evanora, the Witch in power, will be happy to hand over the throne, as long as he saves them by breaking the wand of the Wicked Witch, which will kill her.  

More Oz after the break