The first Big Gay Movie Night of 2004!

A random collection of friends. A tablefull of pizza. A pile of DVDs. And a blustery, snowy Chicago evening. The perfect setting for a Big Gay Movie Night. This time, we voted to watch my new Xanadu DVD -- which wasn't as train-wreck horrible as I remember it being.

Sure, there are plot holes big enough to drive ten shoulder pads and a sparkly headdress through. Sure, Olivia's dancing body-double looks nothing like her. Sure, poor Gene Kelly's entire career must have flashed before his eyes during his big-band flashback pantomime. But the movie perfectly captures a world on that magical cusp between the innocent sexuality of the peasant dress and the war-paint hostility that inspired makeup trends well into the 1980s. And Kenny Ortega's choreography is still fresh and inventive and shamelessly exuberant.

And best of all, the movie is really funny in French!