Goddamnit, Trailer For James Franco Gay Movie I Am Michael

^{I Am Michael}

I Am Michael premiered at Sundance in early 2015, but it just recently found a distributor and is set for a January 2017 release. This means that you can catch gay baiter extraordinaire, James Franco, in yet uh-nother gay role. Like really, are we actually doing this? I Am Michael tells the real life story of Michael Glatze - an LGBT activist turned conservative Christian pastor. Michael's boyfriend Bennett (Zachary Quinto) has to witness in frustration as his lover denounces homosexuality to follow the straight and narrow, eventually ending up with Rebekah (Emma Roberts). Good luck with that. We reported in 2015 about a rumored three-way with Franco, Quinto, and Charlie Carver, but it's yet to be seen if it makes the final cut. Here's what Deadline has to say about the flick:

Based on Benoit Denizet-Lewis’ New York Times article My Ex-Gay Friend, the film tells the true-life story of Michael Glatze (Franco), a high profile queer youth activist who created national controversy when denounced his gay lifestyle and became a straight Christian pastor. It follows Michael from his life in San Francisco with his boyfriend Bennett (Quinto),  to his days of personal self-discovery and religious reawakening. He lands at a Christian Bible school in rural Wyoming where he meets his girlfriend, Rebekah (Roberts), and becomes the pastor of his own church.

^{I Am Michael}

At this point I'm actually not amused at all about James Franco's involvement in the gay community. It's almost embarassing how much we tolerated this man. A straight actor playing gay roles is fine, I guess, but it's the relentless gay baiting that makes Franco so exhausting. Here are just a very few of his finest pearls of wisdom: Via HuffPo

I guess I mean that I like my queer public persona. I like that it’s so hard to define me and that people always have to guess about me. They don’t know what the hell is up with me, and that’s great. Not that I do what I do to confuse people, but as long as they are confused, I get time to play.

and

I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life. Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I’m straight. In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would fuck guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren’t considered gay.

These, of course, insinuate that he could potentially at some time put a dick in his mouth. It's honestly brilliant, and ballsy, how Franco has thrust himself into this community. He identified his market way back in the Milk days, and doesn't seem to have plans of letting go. And why would he? I'm feeding the flame right here, right now because it's like programmed in me that as part of the Gay Internet I have to write about him. 

^{I Am Michael}

James Franco has worked to make his name synonymous with progress, understanding, acceptance, etc, but he's gotten to this point through being so freaking douchy and misleading. Guys, another gay Franco movie in theaters? Jesus. This next lil' tidbit is slightly tangential, but just give it a shot. I recently read an article about the hazards of attaching corporations with humanitarian or charitable causes (Dove commercials promoting body positivity, Dawn saving all the earth's wildlife) because once the boundary has been blurred, the multi-billion dollar corporations with marketing budgets up to here have a streamlined path into our unquestioning wallets. "It's a bottle of Dawn, I just saved a duck!" Actors are a brand, and they're here to make some moolah, so I don't see much difference. "James Franco's pandering to us in another gay role, let's stick him on a rainbow float and worship him!"  

Franco should also know that when he plays young gay characters (and sports a blonde blowout like in I Am Michael) he looks like a really tired 29-year-old. Check out the coherent international trailer below and tell us what you think! 

Via Deadline