Tom Hanks winning the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia was a momentous occasion for multiple reasons. It proved that he had fully evolved from being a spunky comedic charmer into a well-rounded force who could now tackle heavy drama. It served as the capstone in the push to have Hollywood's first major production about the AIDS crisis be openly accepted and embraced as a breakthrough moment in mainstream film history. If nothing else, it was a remarkable moment to see the biggest star in Hollywood win the biggest accolade for representing such a deeply stigmatized and mocked kind of society member, a moment that Hanks was ready for. He gave an acceptance speech that was so touching in its sincerity that it improbably inspired the existence of another film that got Oscar recognition, In & Out, just a few years later.
Tom Hanks' Oscar Speech Honored His Gay Drama Teacher
In Hanks' speech, he tearfully referenced his high school acting teacher, Rawley Farnsworth, as one of the "finest gay Americans." He also bestows this compliment to his fellow student under Farnsworth, John Gilkerson, who had passed away from AIDS just a few years before the release of Philadelphia. Hanks had previously called Farnsworth to ask for permission to refer to him as gay, and since Farnsworth had retired from teaching for over a decade by that point, he saw no harm in such an act. Farnsworth was one of the first teachers who recognized the talent that Hanks had, and Farnsworth said that while Hanks initially showed a lot of comedic promise, he advised him that it was important to be versatile and stretch beyond that.
Considering that Hanks would soon become one of only two actors to win back-to-back Oscars the next year for Forrest Gump, a seriocomic odyssey with a tricky tone that falls apart without his emotional gravitas, it appears he took his teacher's words to heart. In turn, somebody who took Hanks' words to heart was infamous super-producer Scott Rudin, who was inspired by Hanks' sentiment and thought up a comedic scenario involving a gay teacher being outed, and got Paul Rudnick to write the script. Rudnick was, at the time, an up-and-coming playwright-turned-screenwriter most known for script-doctoring The Addams Family and being the sole writer of Addams Family Values, and his streak of satirical-harshness-meets-softly-sentimental humor is very evident in In & Out.
The Satire of 'In & Out' Is Dated But Has a Good Heart
In & Out is about a beloved English teacher named Howard (Kevin Kline) who's set to be married to Emily (Joan Cusack) and is the apple of his community's eye. One of his former students, Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), has quickly become a famous actor and just won the Oscar for Best Actor for playing a gay soldier. In his acceptance speech, he thanks Howard, but haphazardly blurts out that Howard is gay, much to the surprise of Howard, Emily, and the entire community, all of whom are watching the Oscars. Now, news networks are hounding his existence, Emily is in a free-fall panic attack at her perfect life falling apart, Howard's parents are totally confused, and Howard is at a loss as to how anybody could think he's gay. So what that he's never been physically intimate with Emily the entire three years they've been together, or that he, gasp, rides a bicycle??
It's easy to assume that In & Out is horrifically offensive in its queer representation, but Rudnick's script and Frank Oz's direction ensure that everything is pitched at a wholesome angle, where any dated jokes are simply groaners or satirical jabs that don't quite land. For instance, you know the film is making fun of the immaturely ignorant teens who have asinine ideas as to why it goes against nature to be gay, but it also seems lazily stereotypical to have the primary evidence of Howard's queerness be his love for Barbra Streisand and that he dances in an effeminate way. Despite the film's total erasure of the possibility of bisexuality and unconscious reinforcement of traditional masculinity, it rights the ship enough to be a gooey preaching of tolerance and acceptance that goes down easier because the cast sells the material with the right kind of screwball energy.
Kevin and Kline and the Cast Are Great, but Joan Cusack Is the MVP of 'In & Out'
This might be strange to say about a beloved Academy Award-winning actor, but Kevin Kline didn't really get his flowers in his time. I marvel at how easily he could fit almost any genre, how he could be a strapping romantic lead, a buffoonish fool, an erudite intellectual, and a standoffish fop, sometimes at the same time. Howard runs dangerously close to being a two-dimensional doormat who whinges and flop-sweats his way through a predictable character arc, but Kline provides a great amount of subtle detail that paints a convincing portrait of someone who always knew he was gay but repressed it to a depressing degree. He brings a lived-in discomfort that awkwardly melts into an embrace of himself, ensuring that the sitcom premise is never laughing at him. He's especially funny in scenes involving a news reporter named Peter (Tom Selleck without his mustache!!), an out-gay man who gradually pulls Howard out of the closet and is a charismatic paragon of self-acceptance and pride without being too much of a punchline about it.
But if anybody gets the last laugh in this film, it's Joan Cusack in a bravura performance of shameless excess and despair. She got an improbable Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and I maintain the stance that the Oscars need to go back to nominating these types of comedic performances. Without an ounce of nuance or subtlety (and all the better for it), she's a hurricane of anxiety and betrayed dreams that serves as a deceptively salient critique of the heteronormative misogynist pressures put upon women. Her plotline is essentially one long crash-out where Cusack gets to drunkenly demand peanuts in a bar while wearing a full wedding dress, throws herself in front of a car for sex, and screams "f**k Barbra Streisand" at the top of her lungs. Come for In & Out's well-aged celebration of a world we should have had by now, stay for Joan Cusack reminding us of how good comedy fans had it in the '90s.
Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Like In & Out PG-13 Comedy Release Date September 10, 1997 Runtime 90 minutes Director Frank Oz Cast See All Joan Cusack Emily Montgomery Kevin Kline Howard Brackett Tom Selleck Peter Malloy Matt Dillon Cameron Drake Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY
Writers Paul Rudnick Producers Scott Rudin Powered by Expand Collapse