Stonewall - D

Rated R, 129 minutes

Gay Pride Parades, as peaceful and fun as they usually are, have their roots in the bloody Stonewall Riots of 1969 in a section of Greenwich Village in New York City, and while these initial riots weren't near as much fun-loving as the parades are today, they gave a voice to the gay rights movement. The flat, unsatisfying new drama "Stonewall" is the backdrop for a fictional story set around the riots, and while the riots themselves have an important place in gay rights history, this slow, dramatically inert movie lacks that same passion and energy. The movie revolves around the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the violent clash that kicked off the gay rights movement in New York City. It centers on fictional gay character Danny Winters ("War Horse's" Jeremy Irvine), an all-American midwesterner who flees to New York, leaving behind his sister. He finds some unlikely friends in drag queens Ramona (Jonny Beauchamp, stealing many scenes) and Orphan Annie (Caleb Landry Jones) and becomes involved with the handsome, politically motivated Trevor (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) while becoming a part of the first real gay rights movement. Directed by Roland Emmerich, yes that Emmerich of "Independence Day" and "White House Down" fame (Emmerich himself is openly gay and a champion of the LBGT community, though maybe not after this terrible film), and written by Jon Robin Baitz, creator of the hit TV show "Brothers and Sisters," the second-rate "Stonewall," in spite of a few poignant moments, is a sluggish, uninvolving affair that is less concerned about the riots than its boring, fictional plot. The bland, British actor Irvine is not much help here, striking more poses than really acting, and the movie's lackluster story- including a terribly slow middle act that considerably drags the movie down - sheds little insight into the riots, which are given minimal bookended footage in the beginning and end of the movie. Newcomer Beauchamp steals the most scenes and gives the film some much needed life as a fictional drag queen, but the film unevenly blends fiction and true life, including real NYC gay rights activists Marsha P. Johnson (Otoja Abit), Ed Murphy (played by Ron Perlman - and played while Murphy was a bad guy), and Frank Kameny (Arthur Holden), all of whose efforts seem minimal compared to the fictional characters we care little about. The woefully dull "Stonewall" is a bit of a drag all right, and for all the wrong reasons. There's a better 1996 film with the same name with a similar theme, but much darker tone, that's a more worthy effort than this.