A Hard Place: Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed

For those looking for some head-spinning holiday viewing, Stephen Kijak’s Tribeca-premiering, HBO-streaming Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed is a biopic chockfull of hall of mirrors contradictions: first and foremost it centers on a world-famous, well-adjusted, publicly closeted gay man who proudly (miraculously) lived his truth by hiding in plain sight. Indeed, for over three decades the titular Hollywood heartthrob succeeded in simultaneously abiding by the (straights and closeted folks-only) facade of the studio system that micromanaged his career and media persona – the omertà code unbroken until minutes after Hudson died of AIDS-related complications in 1985 – while unabashedly embracing all the perks naturally afforded an Adonis-hot friend of Dorothy. (You go girl!)

To read the rest of my review visit Global Comment.