Reverend's Reviews: An Easter Threesome

Peter Cottontail and his pals at Gay.com have brought a special treat to all you good queer boys out there, at least those in LA and NYC. In conjunction with Regent Releasing/Here Films, a split triple bill of festival hits Manuela & Manuel, Dream Boy and Just Say Love is now playing at LA's Laemmle Sunset 5 and the Chelsea Clearview Cinema in NYC.

Manuela & Manuel is a hysterical, not-to-be-missed delight from Puerto Rico. The charming Humberto Busto (Amores Perros) stars in the title roles as a female impersonator whose boyfriend has recently left him. As Manuel pines for his lover's return with the help of a video diary and a teddy bear named Brad (for Brad Pitt), he receives surprising news from his female best friend, Coca. She has learned she is pregnant by a soldier who has since shipped out of town. Unable to inform her parents of the news without also telling them she and the father-to-be are getting married, Coca asks Manuel to pose as her fiancée.

Needless to say, complications ensue. Upon meeting Coca's father, Manuel recognizes him as a frequent patron of the bar at which he performs as Manuela. Manuel's fundamentalist-Christian landlady, Rosa, becomes increasingly excited by what she sees as her tenant's apparent attempts to become straight. And Manuela's bitchy co-star, Faraona (the very funny Marian Pabon), tries to manipulate the situation in order to seize the spotlight all to herself.

Director Raul Marchand Sanchez and screenwriter Jose Ignacio Valenzuela milk their comedic scenario for all that it's worth, but it never feels strained. The great script and performances — Ineabelle Colon is also a riot as Coca's alcoholic mother, appropriately named Margarita (note how she blesses herself before brunch) — result in a near-masterpiece of comic timing. My partner and I laughed pretty much non-stop through the film's 94 minutes.

Definitely not as funny but almost as worthy is the second film in Gay.com's current triple feature, Dream Boy. Written and directed by James Bolton (Eban and Charley) and based on the acclaimed novel by Jim Grimsley, it weaves a gay coming-of-age tale that unexpectedly becomes a gothic ghost story.

When shy teenager Nathan (played by Stephan Bender, who made a brief impression as young Clark Kent in Superman Returns) moves to a rural farm in the deep South, he begins to find himself attracted to his schoolmate next door, Roy. Roy also serves as their school bus driver, and it doesn't take much of an invitation from Roy for Nathan to start sitting in the seat right behind him!

The two become study partners and, gradually, lovers. Roy is predictably conflicted, since he has a pseudo-girlfriend and is friends with two of the school's more athletic, seemingly straight guys. When Roy invites Nathan to join the three of them on a weekend camping trip, things take a decided turn in an old, reportedly haunted plantation house.

While I'm generally over coming-of-age stories at my curmudgeonly middle age and find they rarely have anything new to offer, I discovered Dream Boy to be surprising and genuinely affecting. Bolton's approach to the material is subdued and rarely exploitive, aside from occasional, shirtless shots of hunky Randy Wayne (who plays Roy's buddy, Burke). Diana Scarwid, Christina Crawford herself in Mommie Dearest, also lends credibility as Nathan's mother.

The chief attribute to Dream Boy, however, is Max Roeg in the role of Roy. Max is the 25-year old, British-born son of actress Theresa Russell of Black Widow and Spider-Man 3 fame (whom he resembles closely) and director Nicolas Roeg, and Dream Boy marks his feature film debut. Max gives a sensitive yet strong, assured performance, which is all the more impressive for his authentic-sounding Southern accent. Anyone tempted to think British actors can easily master Southern US accents needs to listen to the London cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind, and learn first-hand how nearly impossible it can be! Roeg, Bender and Dream Boy will more than likely haunt you.

The third — and weakest — film in this special triple-header is Just Say Love, a meditation on Platonic love adapted from David J. Mauriello's play. Sole cast members Matthew Jaeger and Robert Mammana play two very different men; one is gay and mourning the recent death of his cat, while the other is seemingly straight and expecting a child with his girlfriend. Doug (the sexy Mammana) is the bi-curious construction worker who comes on to Guy (Jaeger) on a park bench one day during his lunch break. Doug just wants a blowjob, while the Plato-reading Guy is longing for a soul mate.

Though talky and unnecessarily stagey (wasn't a real park and bench available?), Just Say Love is often compelling. If viewers overlook the characters' heavy-handed jokes about each other's names and even more heavy-handed lines of dialogue such as "You'd be my wings if I had 'em," one can appreciate the men's deepening attraction and the actors' heartfelt performances.

So, boys, arrange your baskets, head to the cineplex, and have a happy Easter! For more information about these films, visit the Regent Releasing website.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts Interview: Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb!

Kristen Stewart trades Bella’s problems with vampires and werewolves in the Twilight movies for a ride on the wild side as Joan Jett in The Runaways. The movie, which also stars Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon, is about the girl group The Runaways that formed in 1975 and launched the careers of Jett, Cherie Curry and Lita Ford with hits like “Cherry Bomb”.

I recently spoke with The Runaways co-producer David Grace, who has worked on films like American Gun and the lesbian fave What’s Cooking? He was also executive producer on the television show Even Stevens, which launched Shia LeBeouf’s career.

NC: Kristin Stewart's career is on fire. How did her involvement help or hinder the production? How do you feel about her performance as Joan Jett?
DG: Kristen's involvement was a real help to the picture, getting someone of her caliber to play Joan Jett made the project go, and she's amazing in the role. She and Joan spent a lot of time together and I think it really shaped her performance. She really became Joan.

NC: What about Dakota Fanning? How do you feel about her work in The Runaways?
DG: I've worked with a lot of great young actors in my career, but Dakota's in another league. She has such amazing instincts as an actress, she is really remarkable. I think one of the things that makes this movie special is the fact that we have teenagers playing these roles. The Runaways were so young when the band formed, and I think having people who are the same age as they were when it happened makes the story much more powerful. I don't think it would be the same if there were 23-year-olds playing these parts.

NC: As a producer, what kind of thought goes into choosing your projects? What film or films are you most proud of having done?
DG: The most important thing to me is the story, because a film is only as good as the story it tells. That is what drew me to The Runaways. It's amazing what these girls went through as teenagers. The Runaways is certainly one of the movies I'm most proud of, along with What's Cooking? and a little movie called Keith.

NC: What was it like premiering The Runaways at Sundance?
DG: There is nothing like being at Sundance with a movie that has that much buzz going.

NC: What is your favorite thing about The Runaways?
DG: It really has the feel of the period down, it looks great and I think the three leads, Kristen, Dakota and Michael Shannon, are all amazing. I think those performances are what stands out the most for me.

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend's Reviews: Scared Sheepless

No one can tell a ghost story quite as effectively as the Irish, and the new supernatural thriller The Eclipse (from Magnolia Pictures, opening today in NYC and southern CA) proves it. Directed and co-written by acclaimed playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir, Shining City) and drawn from a story by co-writer Billy Roche, I guarantee it will both move you and scare the bejeesus out of you.

Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds) is still grieving the death of his wife two years prior, while trying to raise their son and daughter as a single parent and looking after his late love's elderly father (played by Jim Norton, who recently starred as Finian in the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow). Michael is a local school teacher who is also involved in organizing his town's annual, popular literary festival.

As this year's festival looms, Michael begins to see and hear ghostly phenomenon while he becomes simultaneously attracted to a woman for the first time since his wife passed away. The woman who catches Michael's interest is Lena (Danish actress Iben Hjejle), a novelist who happens to write — you guessed it — ghost stories.

Complicating matters even more is another writer in town for the literary festival, Nicholas Holden (a great, surly turn by the usually noble Aidan Quinn; case in point: Quinn played a gay man dying of AIDS in the mid-80's TV classic, An Early Frost). Holden has a crush on Lena bordering on the obsessive, and matters of the heart build to an explosive confrontation between him, the object of his affection, and Michael.

Like the best ghost stories (and I'm thinking most immediately of the classic The Turn of the Screw by Henry James), The Eclipse leads viewers to question whether the spooky visions Michael is experiencing are truly supernatural or figments of his delicate psychological/emotional state. Even though director McPherson occasionally makes the film's scares louder and ickier than they need to be, they are most effective. I jumped in my seat several times.

Hinds is wonderful as the bereaved husband and father questioning his sanity. Usually cast in authoritative and/or villainous roles (Richard III, King Herod in The Nativity Story, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life), Hinds is down-to-earth and sympathetic here. Whether it's a good fright film or a resonant love story you're looking for, The Eclipse satisfies on both counts.

Cut to a different continent and a different genre for another satisfactory movie opening exclusively at the Landmark Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles today, Sweetgrass. This unique documentary about Montana sheepherders and their flock will no doubt evoke memories of Brokeback Mountain for gay viewers, even if none of the cowboys featured here are gay.

Described in the film's press notes as "an unsentimental elegy to the American West," Sweetgrass recounts a final, summer-long pasture drive covering approximately 300 kilometers that occurred in 2003. Beautiful, unspoiled expanses of nature await the shepherds, but so do unpredictable weather, harsh terrain posing risks of injury, and hungry grizzly bears.

Sweetgrass, which was directed and largely photographed — superbly — by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, is mostly wordless and better for it. One shepherd's foul-mouthed tirade late in the film reveals the depths of his frustration, but it also throws off the tonal equilibrium established by that point.

Indeed, Sweetgrass is best when focused on the sheep. At times, they stare silently at the still camera, seemingly daring it to venture deeper beneath their fluffy exteriors. The flock is multi-generational and probably couldn't care less about what the filmmakers are trying to capture: the end of a tradition spanning at least 130 years. The sheep may be more aware than us that life will go on.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend's Reviews: Dysfunction Junction

Two exceptional films opening in limited release today, Kimberly Reed's award-winning, autobiographical documentary Prodigal Sons and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, help illuminate the often painful experience of people trying to move on from dark personal and family pasts. These families don't quite put the "fun" in dysfunctional, cinematically speaking, but that's a good thing.

Prodigal Sons is the more compelling of the two for GLBT audiences, since Reed is herself transgender and one of her brothers, Todd McKerrow, is gay. As the former high school football-team-captain-turned-filmmaker notes in her director's statement, she started out making a movie about her other, adopted brother's journey. Marc McKerrow is an untrained piano prodigy who, sadly, suffered a life-altering head injury in a car accident when he was 21 years old. Prone to violent mood swings, Marc has since estranged himself from Kim and Todd. When Marc and Kim meet for the first time in ten years at their Helena, Montana high school reunion, the situation inevitably reopens old wounds stemming from their childhood sibling rivalry and Kim's later sex change.

Intent on reconciling with both her older brother and her past life as a young man, Kim extended her time in Helena from one week to over three months. She documented as much as possible on video, so viewers subsequently get glimpses of Marc's rages as well as of the siblings' compassionate mother, Carol, and Kim's dedicated partner, Claire.

We are also privy to the unexpected revelation that Marc was born to Rebecca Welles, the daughter of silver screen legends Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Marc does bear an uncanny resemblance to Orson, which is confirmed by the late actor-director's one-time lover, Oja Kodar. As a result of this, Prodigal Sons becomes a multi-generational exposé of family secrets stretching from Hollywood to Montana to New York, with a stop at Kodar's home in Bosnia.

I came away from the film, though, wishing that Kim had spent as much time focusing on her own journey and difficulties as she does on Marc's. As much as their stories are intertwined, Kim's own story is unique and interesting in its own right. While we see vintage home movies of Kim in her prior incarnation as star athlete Paul McKerrow, we don't see or hear much about her actual transition or about her life as an aspiring professional filmmaker. I also would have liked to have heard more from Todd, who seems too often on the sidelines.

Since Prodigal Sons is her first feature-length documentary — and an effective, interesting one at that — I'll cut Kim some slack. It opens today in Los Angeles and Irvine, CA, in Arizona and San Diego on the 26th, and in other US cities come April. No doubt, one will find something to identify with in the McKerrow-Reed family's travails.

Meanwhile, Roger Greenberg, the central character in Baumbach's new movie Greenberg, is in so much denial about his past that he denies his Jewish heritage to friends despite his last name and the fact that his family lives in a predominantly, and obviously, orthodox Jewish neighborhood. He also refuses to own up to the fact that he is an alcoholic (his diet consists almost solely of whiskey and ice cream bars), and that he single-handedly torpedoed his friends' dream that the high school band they formed together would go professional.

Roger's day of reckoning comes when his Vietnam-bound brother (played by Chris Messina, who was Julie/Amy Adams' husband in Julie & Julia) lures him from New York to Los Angeles to house- and dog-sit for a month. While there, he makes a very tentative romantic connection with his brother's personal assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig, an actress on-the-rise best known to date for the Duplass Brothers' goofy Baghead). Florence is an aspiring singer living a simple life, and is nearly 20 years younger than Roger. While she is attracted to Roger, Florence naturally finds his non-committal nature and periodic, nasty tirades unappealing. Still, something begins to grow between them, and Roger sloooowly starts to grow up.

Ben Stiller plays Roger, thinner than usual and keeping his typical, exuberant schtick in check apart from a scene where he snorts coke with some college students, when wild-eyed mania is appropriate. It's an affecting performance and Stiller's best dramatic turn yet. As Florence, Gerwig is refreshingly — and attractively — naturalistic. I found her character a bit of a cipher and would have liked to know more about Florence's past and what makes her tick, but Gerwig can't be blamed for this. Rhys Ifans (so memorable in Notting Hill, and some readers may recall his pseudo-gay stalker role in Enduring Love) is also quietly effective here as Roger's former best friend.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for his 2005 film, The Squid and the Whale, which focused on the members of a dysfunctional family. He most recently co-adapted the Oscar-nominated Fantastic Mr. Fox with his filmmaking soul mate, Wes Anderson. Greenberg has an even more low budget, indie feel to it than Baumbach's previous works as director, which makes his new film all the more poignant. And poignant it is, especially when it reaches its hopeful finale.

Greenberg is produced by the openly gay Scott Rudin, which should be a strong selling point for GLBT filmgoers if the fact that this is a great film isn't enough. As one of its characters says, "Hurt people hurt people." Those of us from dysfunctional families — which is most of us — have been hurt, and we've all hurt others at times; turns out that there's at least a little bit of Greenberg in all of us.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend's Reviews: A Bisexual Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Prior to meeting Lisbeth Salander, the talented computer hacker at the center of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (scheduled to open in limited release this Friday), a man is warned: “Lisbeth is a pretty odd girl.” Glum, leather-clad, and sporting multiple piercings in addition to the skin art of the title, Lisbeth quickly proves herself not only a startling sight but a force to be reckoned with.

This bracing new film is based on the novel by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. Unpublished at the time of his death in 2004, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first in what is referred to as Larsson’s Millennium series. The first two books (the second is The Girl Who Played with Fire) have become international bestsellers and the third, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, is due out in the US later this spring.

The books have sold over 8 million copies worldwide to date. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been #1 on the Los Angeles Times paperback bestsellers list for the past two months. The film version is the highest-grossing Swedish film in history, and won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at January’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Lisbeth Salander is the heart of the series, but she isn’t your typical literary or cinematic heroine. Despite being on probation and under a court-ordered conservator’s care following a crime she committed as a child, Lisbeth is an avenging angel who has zero tolerance for bullies, misogynists and unethical business people. She faces all three, as well as murderous Nazi sympathizers, in this initial mystery-thriller adapted from Larsson’s works.

What’s more, Lisbeth is unapologetically bisexual. She beds men and women, both on the page and on the screen. As played memorably by Noomi Rapace in the film, Lisbeth is physically strong but emotionally fragile. She’s also undeniably sexy. The character’s intellectual and moral superiority make her all the more attractive, and Rapace fully conveys Lisbeth’s complexity. Lisbeth bemoans the male domination of the Internet during a web search by asking, “Why do female names always take you to porn sites?”

In the novels and film, Lisbeth comes to the aid of a crusading financial journalist, Mikael Blomqvist (well played by Swedish superstar Michael Nyqvist). Blomqvist becomes a pariah in the wake of a fraud trial involving a powerful banker. Not only does the tycoon get off, but he also slaps Blomqvist with a libel suit. Suspended by the publication he writes for, Millennium, Blomqvist must find a way to clear his name.

He receives significant assistance from Salander, who is herself locked in a battle of wills with her vile new caretaker. At first, Salander keeps her identity a secret from Blomqvist. Good journalist that he is, though, Blomqvist soon tracks Salander down and discovers her in bed … with another woman.

Despite this, Salander and Blomqvist gradually become sexually involved. Salander is a refreshing character in terms of her refusal to be stereotyped or categorized. As she tells Blomqvist at one point, “You choose who you want to be.” Thus, Salander sums up her approach to life, including her bisexual orientation.

The pair of crusaders eventually become involved with the mysterious Vanger family, a wealthy, secretive clan that recruits Blomqvist to resolve the disappearance of one of their members in the 1960’s. While doing so, Blomqvist and Salander uncover a number of possibly-related serial killings inspired by the biblical book of Leviticus.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo weaves a dark, complex tale. While it isn’t as gruesome as the 1995 film Seven, to which it is being compared, it has enough sexual and physical violence in it to likely cause viewers to occasionally avert their eyes.

However, it is an engrossing, extremely well-made movie thanks chiefly to the lead performances, Niels Arden Oplev’s direction, Eric Kress’ cinematography and the adapted screenplay by Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel. The book’s author was reportedly very concerned about anti-democratic, right-wing extremism as well as with efforts to keep women regarded as inferior to men. Although he was only 50 when he died, the Millennium books are proving to be the embodiment of Larsson’s extensive knowledge and work against neo-Nazism and anti-feminism.

Anti-GLBT sentiment would also be of concern to Larsson. While the author is gone, his greatest creation — Lisbeth Salander — is clearly carrying the torch for an end to all forms of oppression.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Toon Talk: Through a Looking Glass Darkly

When he first sent a certain young girl down a certain rabbit hole 145 years ago, it is unlikely that author Lewis Carroll had any idea of the longevity of his fantastical creation known as Alice in Wonderland. From movies to stage to television to theme parks to comic books to video games, Alice and the bizarre denizens of Wonderland have endured many, many incarnations over the decades, all of varying degrees of quality and arguably none as iconic as its original literary form.

Director Tim Burton, seemingly a perfect fit for the material, has taken the latest crack at breathing new life into Carroll’s classic creations and the results are, like a lot of his work, mixed. On the one hand, his take on Alice (in theaters now) is a visual treat overflowing with his usual twisty whimsicalness and ironic sense of the absurd. But on the other hand, it has a frustrating lack of focus, characterized by his penchant to be a little too wrapped up in putting his unique imagination on display. If anything, this film’s computer generated landscapes and digitally enhanced characters (plus the added gimmick of 3-D) make this even more obvious.

Promisingly enough, Burton’s Alice is not a direct adaptation of the oft-told tale, but more of a sequel of sorts, a continuation (penned by Beauty and the Beast screenwriter Linda Woolverton) of what would happen if an older Alice returned to Wonderland. Now on the cusp of adulthood, we find our heroine (played by the lovely newcomer Mia Wasikowska) about to be married off to a rich snoot she doesn’t like, let alone love. To escape, she retreats into her childhood fantasies, namely a longtime recurring dream where she visits a fantastic land inhabited by all sorts of curiouser and curiouser beings, from mad hatters to disappearing cats to talking rabbits.

When the latter starts appearing in her reality, Alice once again follows him through the portal to Wonderland, and her adventures there begin again, as she curiously has no memory of ever being there before ...

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Alice in Wonderland at LaughingPlace.com.

Reverend's Reviews: Mother Lode

Most gay men have what we might politely describe as "unique" relationships with our mothers. For some of us, dear old Mom is our biggest fan, while others of us would say Christina Crawford had it easy!

Mother, a new film by the extraordinary, Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho (whose last production was the great giant-monster-on-the-loose thriller The Host), has its own unique take on the love of a mother for her son. It opens today in LA and NYC courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Drawing inspiration from equal parts Oedipus Rex and Alfred Hitchcock, Bong weaves an engrossing murder-mystery.

Do-joon (Won Bin) is an immature young man who townspeople frequently refer to as "retarded." At the age of 27, he still lives with — and sleeps with — his doting mother (Kim Hye-ja, who gives a great, award-worthy performance). When a local high school student is murdered and Do-joon becomes the #1 suspect, his mother's protective instincts kick into high gear in an effort to prove him innocent.

There are twists, turns and revelations galore in this well-written, beautifully-shot movie. It also features a fine, suspenseful music score by Lee Byeong-woo that includes appropriate nods to Hitchcock's favorite composer, Bernard Herrmann. Mother will likely receive a gradual, national release, so watch for it. Just think twice about taking your mother to see it if it plays your town!

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts: Ghost Busted

Roman Polanski has crafted a suspenseful thriller with The Ghost Writer, even if the mystery at its heart is somewhat inert. Based on a novel by Robert Harris, the film benefits from recent revelations about Britain’s involvement with CIA terrorist interrogations.

Ewan McGregor plays a professional ghostwriter (never named) who is hired to finish the autobiography of a Tony Blair-like former prime minister. Already over his head, the ghostwriter has no idea how much worse the job will get. Britain’s former golden boy, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan, in a richly layered performance), is being investigated for “war crimes,” after allegedly having permitted British citizens to be tortured by the CIA. Oh, and the previous ghostwriter was found washed up on the shore after supposedly committing suicide.

The prime minister’s compound on Martha’s Vineyard is a hotbed of intrigue, from a manuscript kept under lock and key, an overly attentive assistant (played by Kim Cattrall) and Lang’s unhappy wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams from The Sixth Sense). It doesn’t take McGregor's character long to uncover conspiracies everywhere. Outside the gates, protesters demand Lang’s head on a platter, while inside, “the ghost” wonders if he’s about to lose his head for uncovering too many secrets. He’s unable to stop digging, though, leading to some cool plot twists and a bang-up ending.

Polanski infuses the film with politics and Alexandre Desplat fills the film with a rich Bernard Hermann-like score that plays up its resemblance to Hitchcock’s best thrillers. You can’t help but notice the parallels between the exiled Lang and the exiled Polanski, both men unrepentant about the crimes they committed. Sadness and fury hang over Lang, and you wonder whether the same hang over Polanski as well.

The cast, including Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Hutton and Eli Wallach, are all great, although casting Cattrall seems odd among all the real Brits (and her accent is just short of working). Williams, McGregor and Brosnan rule the film, and their scenes are riveting.

Strangely, the mystery of “what Lang knew when” regarding Iraqi War detainees left me cold; maybe the fact that Bush, Cheney and company were so much worse makes Lang’s actions seem too tame to care about. Nevertheless, Polanski’s film looks amazing, and it’s hard to believe that it was filmed in Germany rather than in Cape Cod and London. It’s a thriller for adults that almost works.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reviews: The Best Gay Film of the Year is Here

It has been four years since Brokeback Mountain touched the hearts of gay viewers, and many of us have been pining ever since for another movie to reflect and evoke our experiences in an authentic way. Well, I’m happy to report the wait is over! A Single Man opens in limited release this Friday and will expand across the US on Christmas Day.

Colin Firth stars as George Falconer, a college literature professor grieving the loss of his lover, Jim (Matthew Goode, who played the sexually ambiguous Ozymandias in the recent Watchmen). Jim died eight months earlier in an automobile accident. The men met at the end of World War II and were happily together 16 years (the film is set in 1962).

Increasingly lonely and unable to function effectively without Jim, George resolves to end his life. The film follows George during the course of what is intended to be his last day. As he goes about getting his affairs in order and making other preparations for his suicide, we gain glimpses into George’s past and George himself sees unexpected signs of hope for his future should he choose not to kill himself.

We meet Charley, a life-long friend of George’s played by the always-great Julianne Moore. Charley has a particular affection for Tanqueray gin (“I like the color of the bottle,” she tells George. “You like what’s inside it,” he replies in one of their comically honest exchanges) as well as for George. Viewers are also introduced to one of George’s students, Kenny (young cutie Nicholas Hoult), whose own unique feelings for George develop during the course of the movie.

Based on a 1964 novel of the same title by gay writer Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man marks the screenwriting and directorial debuts of fashion designer Tom Ford. Ford’s fine eye for detail is evident throughout the film, from the fluctuating photographic color scheme to the amazing period props, cars and set pieces to, of course, the costumes (the exquisite fashions in the film weren’t designed by Ford but by Arianne Phillips). Indeed, A Single Man is the most slavishly-devoted-to-period-detail film since 2002’s Far from Heaven, which also starred Moore and was written and directed by out filmmaker Todd Haynes.

I can’t say enough about how good A Single Man is in terms of both its overall artistry and depiction of homosexual life. Not only is it the best gay-themed film of 2009 (and I’m not forgetting this year’s earlier Little Ashes, an excellent exploration of the love affair between artist Salvador Dali and poet Federico García Lorca), but I dare say it is one of the best ever. While the gay characters are necessarily closeted for 1962, they are far from the self-loathing homosexuals of many movies of the past with queer characters. This includes Brokeback Mountain.

George and Jim are fully accepting of themselves and are unapologetically gay. They remain so despite Jim’s parents’ condemnation of their relationship, as well as the straight family man next door’s assertion that the neighbors are “light in their loafers.” George delivers a powerful, impromptu lecture to his students — intended to be his last — on how social minorities are the victims of the majority’s fear. Though George doesn’t mention homosexuals specifically among the minorities he lists, his point is so strong and truthful that he doesn’t have to for listeners to get the point.

A Single Man is also undeniably erotic. Firth and Goode have romantic and sexual chemistry to spare between them, and Hoult does a striptease for George (after they have both gone skinny-dipping) during the film’s surprising climax. All three actors show plenty of skin in the film but Ford presents the nudity artfully, which makes it all the sexier in my opinion. I would be remiss if I didn’t note the über-sexy Jon Kortajarena as well, as a James Dean-ish hustler who tries to pick George up.

The film may traffic in dark themes and issues of mortality, loss, loneliness, oppression and suicide, but it certainly isn’t humorless. Ford, co-writer David Scearce and, no doubt, original author Isherwood infuse George’s plight with unexpected wit without it being in bad taste. I predict gay men will be quoting the script’s funnier lines in the future.

Finally, Firth (who also played gay in last year’s Mamma Mia!) is emerging as a likely Oscar contender for his performance as George. He has already won the Best Actor award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and it would be the British actor’s first, somewhat overdue nomination for an Academy Award. Firth is simply wonderful in A Single Man.

Anyone — gay, lesbian, straight or other — who has lost a loved one will identify with George’s experience. As much as I expect gay men to fawn over this film, it tells an ultimately universal story that I hope will touch mainstream moviegoers as well.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Embraceable Cruz

Penélope Cruz reunites with director Pedro Almodóvar for his neo-noir Broken Embraces, opening in Los Angeles this Friday.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Reverend’s Reviews: On a Scale of 1-10, Nine Disappoints

In 2002, director-choreographer Rob Marshall helped to revitalize movie musicals with the fantastic, Oscar-winning Chicago. Hoping to strike gold again, Marshall and most of his earlier film’s production team have reunited for an adaptation of the stage musical Nine, opening nationwide on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, the filmmakers fall short this time around.

The original Broadway production of Nine debuted in 1982 and won that year’s Tony Award for Best Musical. It had a successful revival in 2003, starring Antonio Banderas in the lead as Guido Contini, an Italian movie director patterned on Federico Fellini. Nine is actually an adaptation of Fellini’s semi-autobiographical 1963 film 8 ½.

For the new film, Daniel Day-Lewis was cast as Contini and surrounded with a bevy of international, female superstars (most GLBT faves) as the various significant women in his life. Nicole Kidman plays Contini’s favorite leading lady; Penélope Cruz assays the role of Contini’s mistress; Marion Cotillard, a previously-unknown French actress who won the Best Actress Academy Award for her turn as Edith Piaf in the 2007 film, La Vie en Rose, plays Contini’s wife, Luisa; Judi Dench serves as his devoted costume designer; Kate Hudson has a great turn as a fashion journalist out to undress the filmmaker; and pop singer Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas makes a strong impression as Contini’s first, boyhood prostitute.

Completing the roster is the perfectly cast Sophia Loren, beautiful as ever, as Contini’s mother. Loren even gets to sing, as all the women do. Few of them are trained singers or dancers, but Marshall generally works the same magic with them that he did with Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones — neither known much for their musical ability — in Chicago.

Dench, who actually started out her illustrious career in musicals and was the original Sally Bowles in the London production of Cabaret, fares best. She is in great voice during her number, which recounts her character’s early years with the Folies Bergeres. It is a glamorous evocation of the famed Parisian show.

Cruz sizzles during her sexy song, deceptively titled “A Call from the Vatican.” Most impressive — even to a gay man like myself — is her toned body and frequent, spread-eagle dance moves. Cotillard, who could barely speak English two years ago when she accepted her Oscar, reveals perfect diction and a lovely singing voice during the well-staged “My Husband Makes Movies”, even if she appears a little young for the role.

The aforementioned Hudson tears up the screen with a new song written especially for the movie, “Cinema Italiano” (the songs for both the stage and screen versions of Nine were written by Maury Yeston). While the lyrics are silly and the choreography Hullabaloo-esque, the film truly comes alive during the number.

Day-Lewis also makes a fine impression in his musical debut. The two-time Oscar winner (for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood) conveys well Contini’s anxiety over his new film, which is due to begin filming in 10 days but lacks a script. Day-Lewis even leaps and bounds exuberantly up and over soundstage scaffolding during the first of his two songs.

Indeed, all the movie’s elements, with the exception of the irritatingly hyperactive editing during the musical numbers, are top-notch. So why isn’t Nine more satisfying in the end? Primary blame must be laid upon the episodic, predictable adapted screenplay, which is credited to Michael Tolkin and the late screenwriter-director Anthony Minghella. The film is less a cohesive character study than a collection of clichéd vignettes about an unfaithful, womanizing husband, enlivened by the occasional song and dance. If viewers become bored by the narcissistic Contini’s antics, just wait ten minutes and a lovely, more-often-than-not scantily clad woman will sing something.

Yeston’s score isn’t one for the ages either. Apart from “Be Italian,” which Fergie performs in the movie accompanied by a gang of sand-tossing harlots, none of the songs in either the stage or screen versions of Nine is particularly memorable. Actually, the tune viewers will likely find themselves humming on their way out of the movie is “Cinema Italiano,” partly due to the fact that it is reprised over the end credits.

While Nine probably won’t kill the renewed genre of movie musicals adapted from Broadway shows (Spring Awakening and a remake of Damn Yankees are reportedly up next), it is also unlikely to become either the box office hit or laurel-laden film that Chicago was. Chicago benefited from truly interesting characters and catchy songs. Nine is a melancholy tribute to a by-gone era in filmmaking and male-female relations … perhaps one better left without tribute paid to it.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Hollywood Wild Things

It’s somehow fitting that I finally saw Spike Jonze’s big screen version of Where the Wild Things Are right after viewing Jason Bushman’s romantic film Hollywood, Je T’aime (now on DVDfrom Wolfe Video). While they seem from different worlds, they’re essentially the same story, with a few important differences:

In Where the Wild Things Are, a lonely boy named Max (Max Records) leaves his home after a devastating fight with his mother (Catherine Keener), crosses a rough ocean by boat and lands on a strange island filled with weird but lovable creatures ... who threaten to eat him. In Hollywood, Je T’aime, a lonely French man named Jerome (Eric Debets) leaves Paris after a devastating break-up with his boyfriend, crosses the Atlantic Ocean by plane and comes to a strange place filled with weird but lovable characters ... who want to sleep with him.

Max becomes the creatures’ king, due to his wit and imagination, and he brings together a wildly dysfunctional “family” of, well, wild things (voiced by the likes of James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper). He realizes that he can’t fix everything when the creatures’ self-destructive natures drive a wedge between them. He decides there’s no place like home. Meanwhile, Jerome becomes a working actor (a “king” in Hollywood), due to his wit and French charm, and brings together a dysfunctional family of social outcasts (a.k.a. "wild things") — Kaleesha, a homeless trans prostitute (Diarra Kilpatrick), Norma Desire, a jaded, aging drag queen (Michael Airington), and Ross (Chad Allen), an HIV-positive pot dealer, and his dog, Foxy Brown. Ross’ internalized homophobia drives a wedge between Jerome’s new friends. Jerome decides “Il n'y a pas de petit chez soi” (there’s no place like home).

Now of course, Max never visits a bathhouse, gets stoned with his new friends or discovers the mind-numbing horrors of riding mass transit in Los Angeles, or Jonze’s Wild Things would be even more controversial than it is. Jonze’s film is a visually stunning reimagining of Maurice Sendak’s beloved book that weighs down the book’s spare prose with too many unrelated plot elements, making it a hard film for kids to appreciate.

Bushman’s Hollywood, Je T’aime succeeds in showing us people who don’t get much exposure in gay cinema, through the eyes of an understated lead whose foreignness gives him carte blanche to do whatever he wants. That he can’t forget his wispy and annoying lover back home shows that he’s a flawed dreamer like the rest of his newfound family. Debets’ main charms are his resemblance to Adrien Brody and his warm French accent. Allen gives the best performance, as a medical pot permit-carrying stoner, while the rest of the cast does a fine job fleshing out their unusual roles, especially Airington, as the life-weary den mother.

Hollywood, Je T’aime (i.e., Hollywood, I Love You) is an odd name for a film that doesn’t particularly love the city, but it is a well-made character study and a bittersweet addition to the “making it in Hollywood” canon.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reel Thoughts: Avatar = Déjà Vu

After all the hype, you might feel like you’ve already seen James Cameron’s three hundred million dollar Avatar (in theaters Friday). Guess what? You have! Although it’s undeniably stunning visually, the story is a Frankenstein’s monster of a movie made of bits and pieces of dozens of other better films. To spare you a raging case of déjà vu, I’ve compiled a handy list to clip out and take to the theater with you:

In Avatar, A clueless marine (Sam Worthington, barely concealing his Australian accent) is turned into an alien, but ends up bonding with the reviled creatures and fighting the cruel government’s attempt to eradicate them. Meanwhile, in District 9, a clueless bureaucrat (Sharlto Copley) is turned into an alien, but ends up bonding with the reviled creatures and fighting the cruel government’s attempt to eradicate them.

As a rite of passage, Avatar's Jake Sully (no relation to the heroic US Airways pilot, we think) must tame a flying dragon and become its master. Ditto the hero of Eragon ... and Dragonheart ... and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ... and The NeverEnding Story ...

And the Avatarian familiarities continue:

• Dances With Wolves: A military man bonds with an indigenous people and ends up fighting the evil and greedy “good guys” bent on taking their land.
• Pocahontas: The wise indigenous people are one with nature and worship a “mother tree” (not, alas, played by Linda Hunt).
• Aliens: Gung-ho Marines, including a hard-ass Hispanic woman, invade a hostile planet, unprepared to fight the native creatures. Cameron also reuses the two-legged loader that Sigourney Weaver manned so heroically.
• Total Recall: The alien planet’s atmosphere is always a danger to the hero, leading to scary scenes of near suffocation.
• More Pocahontas: The hero faces ridicule and the threat of death by the tribe’s leader, but he is saved by his love, the chief’s daughter.
• King Kong: In the alien jungle, the hero is nearly trampled by a group of dinosaurs, then is nearly eaten by a bigger, more ferocious dinosaur.
• 10,000 B.C.: The hero must unite warring peoples to topple the corrupt and evil oppressors. Both movies stink.
• The Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland: Garish fluorescent plants and creatures are everywhere, and both are best experienced under the influence of some sort of hallucinogen.

Avatar has some of the worst dialogue ever uttered, and most of it comes out of power-mad Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Referring to the film's exotic planet setting in one of the more picturesque examples, he barks, “Pandora will shit you out".

Finally, just when you think you’re safe, Leona Lewis sings “I See You”, the Love Theme from Avatar, over the credits. It’s a derivative retread of "My Heart Will Go On" (minus Celine Dion) and it’s the perfect capper to an overlong sci-fi slog through the jungles of clichéland.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Toon Talk: Down in New Orleans

“The evening star is shining bright,
so make a wish and hold on tight.
There’s magic in the air tonight,
and anything can happen …”

This simple lyric is the “once upon a time” that begins Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. More than just the revival of traditional animation or the debut of their first African American princess, this is Disney’s return to magical, musical storytelling as only they can do.

A Southern-flavored take on the classic fairy tale "The Frog Prince", The Princess and the Frog immerses the viewer in a colorful, tune-filled fantasy world where alligators play musical instruments, fireflies speak in Cajun accents and there’s a happily ever after (if you work hard enough) around every bend in the bayou.

Our heroine is the strong-willed Tiana (voiced by Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose, best known as one of the movies’ Dreamgirls), an independent young woman and master chef who dreams of owning her own restaurant “down on the river” in New Orleans. That dream is sidetracked though when she meets a handsome prince … yet she doesn’t know it at first as he’s been turned into (you guessed it) a frog.

See, the Prince charming-yet-frivolous Naveen (Bruno Campos, of Nip/Tuck 's penisless bisexual serial killer fame) has run afoul of the neighborhood voodoo “shadow man”, Dr. Facilier (voiced by Keith David; a character reminiscent of Sammy Davis Jr.’s Sportin’ Life from Porgy and Bess mixed with Geoffrey Holder’s Baron Samedi from Live and Let Die).

In a devilish plot to get his hands on the riches of the local “Big Daddy”, La Bouff (John Goodman), Facilier facilitates the prince’s amphibian transformation and recruits his put-upon valet Lawrence (Peter Bartlett, best known as the put-upon butler Nigel on the ABC soap One Life to Live) to masquerade as his master. This allows the faux prince a chance to cozy up to La Bouff’s eligible-yet-shallow daughter Charlotte (Broadway babe Jennifer Cody) at her masquerade party.

And this is where the frog-ified Naveen finds Tiana, fatefully attired in a princess costume. Borrowing a page from the fairy tale, Naveen naturally asks the “princess” to kiss him to break the spell … except (as we know) she’s not a princess and the smooch results in Tiana’s own transformation into a frog as well. Talk about “one froggy evening” …

continue reading my Toon Talk review of The Princess and the Frog on LaughingPlace.com.