Prick Up Your Ears

Prick Up Your Ears

Joe Orton was briefly the embodiment of a certain kind of '60s rebel, and Stephen Frears's film adaptation of the British playwright's biography successfully conjures up that outrageous spirit. The hostile, fussy codependency between Orton (Gary Oldman) and his brooding lover Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) forms the centerpiece of a story that features not only Orton's success and his brutal demise at Halliwell's hand, but also a vivid depiction of what gay sexuality meant in a repressive era. What really propels it are the performances--Oldman's naughty, overgrown boy could believably have written Orton's romps, and the powder-keg priss rendered by Molina helps establish motivations that the script lacks. It's always good to see Vanessa Redgrave (ideal as Orton's agent), and Julie Walters has a hysterically unrecognizable bit as Orton's exasperated mum. If the film is a bit aloof, it's also crisp and often acidly funny (Orton and Halliwell do jail time for writing luridly phony synopses in library books). Frears has done a memorable bit in bringing both a man and his time to life. --Steve Wiecking

Genre: Biography, Drama
Director(s): Stephen Frears
Production: Curzon Film Distributors
  Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 5 wins & 7 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
93%
R (Restricted)
Year:
1987
111
1,281 Views

Share your thoughts on Prick Up Your Ears's quotes with the community:

0 Comments

    Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

    Would you like us to send you a FREE inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily?

    Please enter your email address:

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this movie page to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Prick Up Your Ears Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.quotes.net/movies/prick_up_your_ears_quotes_9022>.

    Know another quote from Prick Up Your Ears?

    Don't let people miss on a great quote from the "Prick Up Your Ears" movie - add it here!

    Browse Quotes.net

    Quiz

    Are you a quotes master?

    »
    Who said: "If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today."?
    A Barack Obama
    B Ron Paul
    C Larry Elder
    D Thomas Sowell