Best of the Fests: Philadelphia 2008

2008's Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival came to a close last night. Best Feature winners were the sexy drama Ciao (watch the trailer here) and Stewart Wade's dramedy Tru Loved (Jury and Audience Awards, respectively).

Other winners including the fest's closing night feature, Were the World Mine, and the documentaries black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent, Squeezebox! and Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman.

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Awards Night

Drag queen Momma, wannabe drag queen Janice Dickinson, and out actors T.R. Knight, Craig Chester and Rex Lee were on hand in Los Angeles last night to present the "Outie" Awards at the official conclusion of Outfest 2008. Here are the winners:

Audience Awards:

• Outstanding US Dramatic Feature: Hamlet 2 (directed and co-written by Andrew Fleming)
• Outstanding Documentary Feature: A Place to Live (directed by Carolyn Coal)
• Outstanding First US Dramatic Feature: Watercolors (directed and written by David Oliveras)
• Outstanding Soundtrack: Hamlet 2 (Rock Me, Sexy Jesus!)
• Outstanding Narrative Short: I'm Jin-Young (directed by Lee Sung Eun)
• Outstanding Documentary Short: La Corona (directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega)

Grand Jury Awards:

• "Heineken Red Star" Award: Were the World Mine (directed by Thomas Gustafson) -- See review below.
• Outstanding International Documentary Feature: Sex Positive (directed by Daryl Wein)
• Outstanding International Dramatic Feature: XXY (directed and written by Lucia Puenzo)
• Outstanding Narrative Short Film: Countertransference (directed by Madeleine Olnek)
• Outstanding Documentary Short Film: La Corona
• Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film: Tye Olson in Watercolors
• Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film: Nicole Bilderback in The New Twenty
• Outstanding Screenwriting: James Bolton for Dream Boy

Special Programming Awards:

• For Freedom: Football Under Cover (directed by Ayat Najafi and David Assmann)
• For Artistic Achievement: Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (directed by Matt Wolf)
• For Emerging Talent: Dave O'Brien, director of Equality U

The awards presentation was immediately followed by the Los Angeles premiere of Were the World Mine. This gay musical riff on all things Shakespeare, but especially A Midsummer Night's Dream, is imperfect but enjoyable. Director/co-writer (with Cory James Krueckeberg) Gustafson actually expanded his previous short film Fairies into this feature. I think the short is the better movie, as the feature becomes heavy-handed in its literalism. But Gustafson assembled a talented young cast -- including Tanner Cohen and Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams -- for the feature and, with a larger budget to play with, made it visually ravishing. (Watch the trailer here.)

Outfest will conclude tonight with the Los Angeles premiere of Tru Loved, a new film by Stewart Wade (Coffee Date). It's a hot ticket and ... I couldn't get one, so this concludes my day-by-day coverage of Outfest 2008. However, many more movies and filmmakers made an impression during the fest than one can adequately survey in a mere week and a half. I'll continue to post reviews and interviews in the weeks and months to come.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Another Gay Sequel

There are only three movies during the course of my lifetime that I've deemed so wretched I walked out of the theater before they ended. The first was Message from Space, a Japanese Star Wars rip-off from 1978. I was only ten years old, but I knew it was crap. The next was The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking in 1988, which I labeled celluloid child abuse.

I just saw the third movie, as much of it as I could bear anyway, last night at Outfest. It is Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild. I made it through most of the movie but had enough when it reached the climactic "Gays Gone Wild" competition orgy, which is no more than an excuse to show people having sex. My partner had bailed from the screening ten minutes earlier, and a number of other attendees departed prematurely with us.

The film is written and directed by the not-untalented Todd Stephens, who made the very good Edge of Seventeen and Gypsy 83 as well as this disaster's predecessor, Another Gay Movie. While I enjoyed the original, a clever GLBT riff on straight teen comedies like Porky's and American Pie, it hardly demanded a sequel.

It was such a hit, though, that every gay business currently in existence seemingly funded the sequel. An additional orgy of product placement runs throughout the movie, with video companies, lubes, condoms, websites, underwear and travel agencies all prominently displayed.

Stephens was on hand to introduce the Outfest screening. To be fair, he told the packed house up front that the film wasn't yet finished, and the need for additional editing and color-correction was evident while watching it. However, the only way Another Gay Sequel could yet end up a good movie would be to destroy the negative/digital master, re-think and re-write the script, re-cast the movie (Stephens should especially reduce blogger Perez Hilton's supporting role into a one-scene cameo, if he is to participate at all), and create something that doesn't offend the same audience it is pandering to.

It isn't just that the film is outrageously graphic in its depiction of sex, bodily functions and even violence. It's that it isn't really a spoof or good-natured satire like Another Gay Movie was, and instead becomes a derogatory depiction of the GLBT community. The sequel features distorted and either heavy-handed or not-very-funny-to-begin-with takes on reality TV competitions, venereal disease, fetishes, Catholicism, penis size, sexual positions and incest. It also claims to endorse monogamous GLBT relationships while simultaneously indulging in three-ways, bathhouse sex and anonymous encounters.

The funniest moment in the film is actually its smartest: a brief, barbed comment that RuPaul (who looks good and manages to emerge from the wreckage around him unscathed) makes about gay people taking over historically black neighborhoods. Oh, how I wish the script had more such moments tinged with truth rather than dominated by caricature.

I don't offend easily but I was offended, obviously, by Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild. If this represents the current high point of GLBT cinema in terms of artistic response to a predecessor's success, the number of companies endorsing it and the wide theatrical release (relatively speaking, for an GLBT film) it will receive later this summer, then it is a definite setback.

UPDATE: Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Gay Muslims & Porn Stars

In the tradition of Trembling Before G-d and For the Bible Tells Me So, which have screened at Outfests past, comes this year's documentary centerpiece of the festival, A Jihad for Love. Those earlier films explored, respectively, Jewish and Christian attitudes toward homosexuality. A Jihad for Love, produced by Sandi DuBowski (who made Trembling Before G-d) and directed by Parvez Sharma, turns the lens on the experiences of GLBT Muslims.

What the film reveals is by turns disturbing, encouraging, horrifying and hopeful. Some Muslim leaders and predominantly-Muslim countries speak unapologetically of their desire to behead, burn, hang or otherwise execute gay men and lesbian women in their midst. They cite a small number of passages in the Qur'an (or Koran) as authorizing such punishment for homosexual behavior. A Jihad for Love partly focuses on the effort of four gay citizens of one hostile country, Iran, to immigrate to Canada.

However, the documentary reveals that other Muslim leaders and countries are more tolerant. They appreciate the spiritual struggle, or jihad, that virtually all GLBT people undergo in reconciling their personhood with their faith. Just as not all Christian or Jewish communities condemn GLBT people, and some openly welcome them, neither do all adherents of Islam.

Watching the powerful A Jihad for Love as a gay American, I couldn't help but be thankful for the considerable acceptance we've found and advances toward equality that have been made in the US as opposed to many other nations, Muslim or otherwise. Globally, we still have a long way to go.

Turning from the sacred to the profane, Outfest also premiered Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, about 1970's gay porn icon Jack Wrangler. Born into a successful Hollywood family, Wrangler set out to become a legitimate actor. Both attractive and talented, he found himself in demand as a model, which soon led to modeling for gay publications, which then led to appearing in gay adult films. He subsequently became the most popular gay porn star of his time.

But Wrangler's success didn't end with gay porn. He was one of the few openly gay actors to cross over to straight porn and become equally popular. In time, he retired from adult films and became a sought-after theatre actor/director. Most surprisingly, he fell in love with and married a woman, singer Margaret Whiting. He did so without renouncing his homosexuality, which confused and angered more than a few of his fans.

Since Wrangler's film success was before my time, I wasn't familiar with him and so found Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon fascinating as well as entertaining. Well-directed by Jeffrey Schwarz and featuring interviews with both Wrangler and his wife, the film re-enforces the truth that when it comes to sexuality, career success and, most significantly, love, there is little that is black and white.

Watch the trailers here: A Jihand for Love and Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon.

UPDATE: A Jihad for Loveand Wrangler: Anatomy of an Iconare now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

See NSFW pictures of Jack Wrangler in The Back Room.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Loving Otto

I've long had a fascination with zombies. Neither completely dead nor completely alive, they terrify and intrigue in countless ways, consciously and subconsciously. George A. Romero's series of movies about a contemporary attack of the living dead has been going strong for forty years now but I felt his latest, an attempt at a "reboot" entitled Diary of the Dead, was lifeless (pardon the pun).

It's time for a new approach to the zombie mythos, and gay filmmaker Bruce LaBruce (Hustler White, Super 8½) has answered the call with his outrageous Otto; or, Up with Dead People. An official entry at this year's Sundance Film Festival, it also screens this week at Outfest.

Otto (charmingly portrayed by Jey Crisfar), recently risen from the dead, is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn (the very funny Katharina Klewinghaus). She has been long at work on her magnum opus, a pornographic attack on the political establishment that has defeated past zombie insurrections entitled Up with Dead People. As one character says, "Medea's underground movies put her on the map ... if the underground has a map."

Medea is taken with Otto, even though she refuses to believe he is an actual zombie, and turns her camera on him in an effort to uncover his past. In the process, she details the emergence of "a new wave of gay zombies" which the horrified populace terms "the Purple Peril."

Otto; or Up with Dead People is a movie within a movie within a movie that takes the zombie genre in welcome new directions. It is a clever satire, a sexy gay romance, and a traditionally gory horror flick all at once. There's also a theological critique of the religious right's response to the AIDS crisis thrown in. LaBruce employs what could be termed "zombie vision" and "zombie audio" in what is, to my knowledge, the first cinematic attempt to gain a zombie's literal point of view.

I loved Otto, even though (or perhaps because) it is one of the stranger films to be shown at Outfest this year. It's likely too graphic to receive a wide theatrical release but it definitely has the ingredients to make it a cult success. Something tells me Otto's rise is just beginning. (Watch the NSFW trailer here.)

UPDATE: Otto; or, Up with Dead People is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Remembering Derek

The late British writer-director Derek Jarman wasn't known for subtlety. Prior to his death in 1994 from AIDS-related complications, he had taken an unapologetically gay, often erotic approach to such historical subjects as Caravaggio, Edward II, William Shakespeare and various queens of England. We should also be grateful to Jarman for highlighting actress Tilda Swinton in nearly all of his films, leading to her current status as a GLBT favorite and recent Oscar winner.

Jarman sparked international controversy with his first feature, Sebastiane. His all-male, nearly all-nude depiction of the final days of early Christian martyr St. Sebastian manages to both titillate and provoke. Sebastiane, originally released in 1976, will be receiving a special screening at Outfest this Saturday night. It is also available on DVDfrom Kino Video.

Little is known about the historical St. Sebastian other than that he was a Roman soldier ultimately put to death for his Christian faith when Christianity was still illegal. Artistic depictions of Sebastian's athletic young body, clad in a minimal loincloth and pierced with arrows, have similarly excited and repulsed the devout for centuries.

Jarman's imagined biography actually caused a riot upon its premiere at an Italian film festival. Religious conservatives were furious that the filmmaker would situate the beloved saint in a homosexual hothouse atmosphere. They seem to have missed the point, however, that Sebastiane (played by truly beautiful Leonardo Treviglio) remains resolute in his faith despite constant abuse and temptation by the fellow soldiers charged with his execution.

Also, while modern filmgoers may be under the impression that Mel Gibson was the first director to make a movie completely in Latin with his 2004 The Passion of the Christ, it was actually Jarman who first did so with Sebastiane. Of course, the anti-gay Gibson likely hasn't seen Jarman's homoerotic historical epic ... or at least hasn't admitted to it.

If you've never seen Sebastiane, I can't recommend it highly enough as both a pioneering work in gay cinema and a serious study of religious faith under persecution. I also recommend his films The Garden and Edward II for the same reasons.

A new documentary about Jarman, simply titled Derek and written by Swinton, is making its debut at Outfest this week. I hope to see it by festival's end.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Trinidad

Who knew that a small, predominantly Catholic town in Colorado is also one of the world's leading providers of gender-reassignment surgeries? Thanks to the new documentary Trinidad, which made its debut Friday night at Outfest, the community is about to become considerably better known.

Since 1969, men who have long felt they were meant to be women and, to a lesser extent, women who've felt they should have been born male have been flocking to Trinidad, Colorado. It was in 1969 that the first such surgery was performed there in, of all places, a Catholic hospital. The doctor who did the surgery (and thousands since then) had to petition the Vatican for permission. The Vatican said yes, which may shock people in light of the Church's current, less-than-supportive climate. The approval wasn't so unusual, though, in the immediate wake of the Second Vatican Council, which ushered in an all too brief period of liberalism in the Catholic Church.

Many of those who have undergone gender-reassignment surgery in Trinidad (the name is Spanish for "Trinity," also interesting to Catholics like myself) have subsequently opted to stay in the town, which has resulted in one of the highest per capita populations of transgender people in the US. While the documentary reveals that not all of the locals are pleased with this, many more of the locals have been supportive and hospitable.

Trinidad, the movie (directed by P.J. Raval and Jay Hodges), succeeds at shedding significant light on a largely unknown true-life subject in an effort to develop greater understanding, as the best documentaries do. It also illustrates how powerfully a community can change lives for the better when the majority of its diverse constituents -- families, businesses, churches, etc. -- are united in that goal. Trinidad inspires, both as a municipality and as a documentary. (Watch a clip from Trinidad here.)

More than 20 documentary features are screening at Outfest this week. I'll have reviews of several of them later this week, including the anticipated A Jihad for Love and Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon.

UPDATE: Trinidad is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: A Gorgeous Weekend

Outfest 2008's first weekend is ending with several films drawing attention not only for their storylines but also for their visual style. Clearly, although a GLBT film may have a minimal budget, that doesn't mean it has to be ugly to look at.

Last month, I criticized applying the term "gay surfer movie" to the DVD release Shelter, implying that it risked being identified as the only gay surfer movie out there. Little did I expect another to emerge so quickly! Newcastle is a gorgeous movie, full of gorgeous guys, gorgeous gals, gorgeous Australian beaches, and gorgeous photography. It focuses on three brothers longing for success as competitive surfers, although one of them is secretly, primarily longing for his first gay romance.

During a weekend-long surf trip, secrets are revealed and tragedy strikes. In the wake of these developments, the characters come to better terms with themselves and with one another. Great performances from its teenaged cast, thoughtful writing and direction by first-timer Dan Castle, and Richard Michalak's exceptional cinematography are all commendable. Newcastle is scheduled for theatrical release this October. (Watch the trailer here.)

The Way I See Things is of a decidedly less linear, more metaphysical bent, but is also very good and stylistically noteworthy. The film's quintuple-threat star, Brian Pera (he also wrote, directed, produced and co-edited it), plays Otto, who is still grieving the unexpected death of his partner one year earlier. His friend, Rob (the talented Jonathan Ashford, who also performs multiple roles) kidnaps him and takes him on a road trip in an effort to help Otto get over the loss.

Suffice to say, Rob's plan doesn't work very well. Otto ends up escaping from him and falls in with a quasi-cult. The commune members, intent on their leader's goal to help them "separate the 'I' from the 'me'," take Otto in but also grow increasingly suspicious as to whether he's fully investing himself in the process. But it is also at the commune that Otto falls in love with a member who looks identical to his former partner. Has he been reincarnated? Did he even really die? Has Otto somehow resurrected his partner in order to properly say good-bye? Has Otto lost his mind completely?

To accentuate Otto's journey to potential recovery through the metaphysical, Pera and the film's director of photography, Ryan Parker, utilize both black and white and color photography. Exactly how it applies to each scene and what happens at the end of The Way I See Things are open to debate, but they certainly got the Outfest crowd talking. Pera, who is also a novelist, is a talent to watch. (Clips for the movie can be seen on the movie's MySpace page.)

Finally, The Lost Coast has gained positive notices for its dark, sometimes spooky visual style. It's appropriate, since the story takes place on a Halloween night in San Francisco. I didn't find the film's script as compelling as some, since it depicts the meanderings of some generally directionless twenty-somethings.

Jasper, Mark and Lily have been friends since their days together in high school. Mark still harbors a crush on Jasper, with whom he used to fool around. However, Jasper has since declared his heterosexuality and is about to get married. Before the night is over, Mark seems intent on making Jasper change his mind.

In the meantime, the trio (with another friend they bump into in the Castro) tries to score drugs, goes to the dullest gay party ever, finds a dead body, and confronts various unresolved issues among them. While the performances are good and writer-director Gabriel Fleming also displays talent, The Lost Coast feels a lot longer than its 74-minute running time. (Watch the trailer here.)

UPDATE: The Lost Coastand Newcastleare now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

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

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Mamma Mia!

The must-attend events of day 2 of Outfest 2008 were the back-to-back screenings Thursday night of the film version of Mamma Mia! (opening in theaters July 18). Both screenings packed the Directors Guild theater, and I was there to testify that there's nothing quite like watching an ABBA-inspired musical with 500+ gay boys. The temptation to turn the screening into a sing-along was high but most restrained themselves until the final credits, when Meryl Streep actually encourages the audience to join her, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters in singing "Dancing Queen."

I should confess that I'm no fan of the stage version of Mamma Mia! I saw the original Broadway production and felt ripped off by the jukebox musical's strained, flimsy plot ... and I hadn't even paid for the $100 tickets! However, the movie's cast, trailer and more affordable ticket prices had me looking forward to it.

In a couple of ways, the film is an improvement over the stage version. The plot, centering on a young woman's plan to identify her unknown father out of three candidates she has invited to her wedding on a Greek island, is still strained and flimsy but the screenplay (adapted by Catherine Johnson, who wrote the theatrical book) wisely pares it down to the barest of essentials. The movie's lean, 108-minute running time is definitely preferable to the stage version's 2½ hours. Additionally, the actual Greek locations in the film are breathtaking.

The film's big-name cast is a mixed bag. La Meryl is, as always, fabulous as Donna. She looks great, sings and dances very well, and obviously had a lot of fun. While the story's serious moments are few and far between, Streep invests them with her trademark emotional authenticity. The lovely Amanda Seyfried, who plays Donna's "bastard" daughter Sophie, gives a breakthrough performance. Their wedding-day duet, "Slipping Through My Fingers", is the movie's highlight.

As Donna's former band mates, Baranski is wonderful (especially singing "Does Your Mother Know" to a beach full of hot, shirtless young men) but Walters mugs shamelessly and can't really sing or dance. Her rendition of "Take a Chance on Me" stops the show all right, but not in a good way.

The men -- Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper -- fare a little better, both in terms of their performances and their singing. Firth, in particular, reveals a lovely singing voice. Brosnan's singing voice is odd, often sounding like he is in pain and threatening to become more of a bellow, but he can't be faulted for the earnestness he brings to his songs.

Mamma Mia!, the movie, is weakest in the technical department. The stage version's original director, Phyllida Lloyd, was employed to direct the film and she does so with a relentlessly heavy hand. She either encouraged or allowed nearly every line of every song to be illustrated as graphically as possible with gestures and facial expressions. The cinematography and editing, especially of the dance numbers, are downright awful (with the exception of "Voulez -Vous"), most likely due to Lloyd's apparent inexperience.

While most in attendance clearly enjoyed the screening and applauded vigorously at the end, I didn't share their enthusiasm. It wasn't painful to sit through (although my partner, an ABBA devotee, strongly disagrees) but ends up being a merely OK entry in the growing number of modern movie musicals.

UPDATE: Mamma Mia! is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

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

Out in Film: Alec Mapa

Idol worship: Alec Mapa, actor/comedian.

- As "America's Gaysian Sweetheart" (self-proclaimed), he is a multi-talented actor of stage and screen and a very very funny comedian, who is also an advocate for several GLBT and Asian American causes.

- Remember R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" video? He was the boy tied to a tree with an arrow piercing his heart. Talk about your show biz debut!

- In addition to his own stand-up specials, he co-starred in the short-lived, based-on-Kiss Me, Guido sitcom Some of My Best Friends Are. Other television appearances include recurring roles on Desperate Housewives (as Vern, Gabrielle's gay pal) and Ugly Betty (as fabulous fashionista Suzuki St. Pierre); he also recently hosted LOGO's reality/dating show Transamerican Love Story.

- At the movies, he has had small but memorable roles in Bright Lights, Big City; Connie and Carla; Dirty Laundry; You Don't Mess with the Zohan and current festival fave Tru Loved.

- It has been an eventful week for him: not only did he just celebrate a birthday, he is being honored by the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival tonight as their "2008 Entertainer of the Year". Get her.

Reverend's Report from Outfest: Love My Life

One of the most exciting developments in GLBT cinema the last few years has been the growing number of Asian films dealing with subjects of interest to our community. Countries where the mere mention of homosexuality has historically been taboo -- Japan, China, Korea and Thailand, among others -- are suddenly turning out GLBT movies by the dozens. This is good news not only for reasons of artistic diversity but political and cultural tolerance.

Outfest 2008 is debuting several of the latest productions from Asian filmmakers, including Drifting Flowers, by Spider Lilies writer-director Zero Chou, and The Love of Siam. First up, though, is Koji Kawano’s Love My Life, which is premiering tonight.

Adapted from a popular Japanese manga by Ebine Yamaji, Love My Life is a very good romantic comedy about a teenage lesbian’s coming of age. Its plot and style recalled for me such 1980’s John Hughes comedies as Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, and its peppy song score by the pop-rock band Noodles cements the comparison.

Ichiko (funny and cute Rei Yoshii) takes her girlfriend, Eri (played by Asami Imajuku), home to meet her widowed father, thereby announcing her homosexuality to him. But Ichiko’s father has a surprising announcement for her: he and her late mother were both gay! Ichiko first struggles to come to terms with this news, and later with Eri’s withdrawal from her. But don’t worry: true to the spirit of Molly Ringwald, everything ends up sunnily for the best.

If you are interested in seeing Love My Life but can’t make it to Los Angeles for Outfest, don’t fret: the film is being released on DVDby Wolfe Video on July 15. Whether you are lesbian or gay, Asian or Latino, its story is, as the best stories always are, universal.

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

Best of the Fests: Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Along with Outfest on the west coast, another GLBT film festival begins this week on the east coast: The 14th Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Tonight, the opening night screening will be the eastern premiere of Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild, Todd Stephens' follow-up to the raunchy (and hilarious) Another Gay Movie. Like its predecessor, the Gay Sequel features a host of queer cult cameos, from the fabulousness of The Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore and RuPaul to the hottness of Brent Corrigan, Colton Ford and Michael Lucas.

The musical fantasia Were the World Mine closes the festival on July 22. Other events scheduled include special awards for Jane Lynch and Alec Mapa and a screening of the queerish classic, John Schlesinger’s Oscar winning Midnight Cowboy.

UPDATE: Check out Philadelphia City Paper's complete coverage of the fest, including reviews, an interview with Jane Lynch and a profile of author Samuel R. Delany, the subject of the documentary The Polymath, The Life and Opinions of Samuel Delaney, Gentleman.

Reverend's Interview from Outfest: Ready? OK!

My early fave movie being shown at the 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, a.k.a. Outfest, is the perfectly delightful Ready? OK! This GLBT must-see, written and directed by James Vasquez, premieres at Outfest this Friday.

Its plot centers on young Josh, a fifth-grader who desperately wants to join the all-girl cheer squad at his Catholic school. Carrie Preston (who also co-produced the film) plays Josh’s loving but often flummoxed mother, Andy, and Michael Emerson plays their gay neighbor, Charlie. He is so unconditionally supportive of Josh that, when the students are required to dress as their favorite religious figure for Halloween, Charlie makes the boy’s dream costume: Maria Von Trapp!

It amazes me that Emerson and Preston aren’t yet household names, especially in gay circles. Emerson made his mark off-Broadway in 1997-1998, giving an extraordinary performance as Oscar Wilde in the acclaimed Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (which I was privileged to see). Preston, Emerson’s real-life wife, was (around the same time) stealing the show every night in the play Straight-Jacket, as a naïve secretary tricked into marrying a closeted gay actor in 1950’s Hollywood. Preston and Emerson co-starred in the enjoyable 2004 film adaptation of Straight-Jacket, in which the two give more assured and memorable performances than the lead actors did.

Both have made guest appearances over the years in such popular TV series as Law & Order, Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City, The X-Files and Arrested Development, and Emerson won a 2001 Emmy for his role on The Practice. Preston has had supporting parts in GLBT favorites Transamerica (playing Bree’s/Felicity Huffman’s sister), My Best Friend’s Wedding and the campy remake of The Stepford Wives. They remain the kind of actors whose faces we readily recognize, yet we don’t recall their names.

I believe that’s about to change. Over the last two seasons, Emerson has caused a stir on the hit TV show Lost as Ben Linus, leader of the mysterious Others and chief keeper of the island’s many secrets. And Preston has several high-profile movies awaiting release: Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Duplicity, by Michael Clayton writer-director Tony Gilroy; and the film version of the Broadway smash Doubt, acting alongside Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Preston and Emerson about their work on Ready? OK! But first, let me get a couple of things out of the way for my fellow Lost fans: yes, it was cool and a little creepy to hear the voice of Ben coming through my telephone and, no, he doesn’t know where Ben moved the island to at the climax of the recent season finale.

CC: What drew you both to Ready? OK!?
Preston: James (Vasquez) and I were at Julliard together. When he first started talking about a germ of an idea he had about a little boy who wants to be a cheerleader, I really wanted to develop a character who showed the mother’s/parent’s coming-out process.
Emerson: I’m friends with James and I like his aesthetic, his artistic mission of showing social outsiders but not in a glamorized or sexualized way.

CC: The “gay neighbor” character in movies and on TV has become something of a cliché. Did you have concerns about playing such a role in this film?
Emerson: I liked Charlie’s drollery and humanity. The gay neighbor is a type that’s out there, but I thought Charlie’s peacefulness and quiet centeredness set him apart.

CC: There’s a lovely scene in the film between the two of you, where Charlie is fitting a dress on Andy. Does being married to each other add something different to acting together?
Preston: Yes. James, Michael and I talked a lot about that scene and how it should be the scene where Andy breaks apart. It was made easier and meant much more to play it looking into the eyes of my partner of thirteen years.
Emerson: It did make the scene easier to play and added to my character’s serenity. We know and trust each other. Interestingly, the role of Charlie was bigger and more detailed in earlier drafts of the script, but much of it was deemed excessive and unnecessary as we developed it. It seemed appropriate for the character to become simpler.

CC: The young actor who plays Josh, 10-year old Lurie Poston, is great in Ready? OK! What was it like for each of you to act with him?
Preston: We got really lucky with him. We saw 30-40 boys in Los Angeles and Lurie was really the only choice. He’s really natural and was so easy to work with.
Emerson: You always approach working with children with a little trepidation. A lot of the time, a great performance by a child can be attributed to a great director. But Lurie was so natural and so easy to work with.

CC: You’ve both done a number of GLBT-oriented projects. Is this an area or audience of particular interest to you? What draws you to such films and plays?
Preston: For me, I feel that these are the stories that are still finding their way to the screen and to a general audience. With our production company, Daisy 3, we are trying to make movies you can show to parents and others who aren’t LGBT themselves.
Emerson: It just happens to have worked out that way with the roles I find interesting and my artistic circle. And it might be that my “skill set” inclines me toward roles where I kind of float along or play characters who skirt gender norms and expectations. I also love to play comedy, and parts where I have a few comedic zingers as in such films as Straight-Jacket and Ready? OK!

CC: Does either or both of you have a particular message you’d like to send to the GLBT community?
Preston: Try not to label anybody, whether in terms of sexual orientation, politics, et cetera. In this film, Josh simply is, and it falls to his mother to accept him for who he is.
Emerson: I’d just like everybody to try to break formulas and formulaic thinking. There’s too much of that out there.

CC: What are your plans for Ready? OK! beyond Outfest?
Preston: We are in talks with distributors regarding a potential theatrical release, but we don’t have delusions of grandeur because it is a small film. At the very least, it will get a DVD release.

So, dear readers, get ready for Ready? OK! (watch the trailer here), in theaters and/or on DVD soon.

UPDATE: Ready? OK! is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

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

Best of the Fests: Outfest in LA

Outfest, the 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, kicks off today.

Laurie Lynd’s Breakfast with Scot, recently picked up for distribution this fall by here! Films/Regency Releasing, will be the opening night feature, while Stewart Wade’s Tru Loved will close the fest on July 21. In between, over 200 GLBT-themed films will be presented, plus Donna Deitch, director of the landmark Desert Hearts, will receive the "2008 Outfest Achievement Award".

Out in Hollywood's Greg Hernandez has been counting down to the event by highlighting some of the films that will be screened at the fest, including the aforementioned Tru Loved, plus Charlie David's Mulligans, The New Twenty, Ready? OK!, Whirlwind and Chad Allen in the latest "Donald Strachey Mystery", On the Other Hand Death.

Most exciting for all of us here at Movie Dearest, our own west coast critic, Chris Carpenter, will be checking in throughout the run of the festival with a series of breaking Reverend's Reviews, and perhaps an interview or two. So be sure to check back here for all the latest from Outfest!

Best of the Fests: Frameline 2008

Celebrating its 32nd year, Frameline, the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival, began today. Notable films on the schedule include the period mystery Affinity (based on the novel by Sarah Waters of Tipping the Velvet fame); the romantic drama Ciao; Ready? OK!, a comedy about a boy who just wants to cheer (co-starring Lost's Michael Emerson); the documentary Call Me Troy, about renowned out minister Troy Perry; and (closing the festival on June 29) Breakfast with Scot, the comedy that mixes gay parenting with Canadian hockey.

The fest will also feature special screenings of such classics of queer cinema as Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche, Pedro Almodóvar's Law of Desire and the Wachowski Brothers' Bound.

For more on this year's Frameline, see the coverage at AfterElton.com and PlanetOut.com.

Do You Solemnly Swear ...

Brian de Palma's Scarface, recently named one of the top ten gangster movies of all time by the American Film Institute, will get the audience participation treatment in a unique way with a special presentation at the Los Angels Film Festival this week.

Taking a cue from the concept of such far more wholesome offerings as the "Sing-a-Long" Sound of Music, would-be Tony Montanas will get to drop all of the many-many F-bombs along with their idol with the "Swear-a-Long" Scarface, screening Friday night.

All together now: "Say hello to my little friend!"

Reverend's Reviews: Paper or Plastic?

Don’t go in the woods, boys and girls: Baghead may be waiting! This initially goofy, ultimately soulful riff on out-of-work actors’ angst and classic slasher movies screens this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival, after premiering at April’s Philadelphia Film Festival. It is scheduled for theatrical release by Sony Pictures Classics later this summer.

Mark and Jay Duplass, credited as “the Duplass Brothers,” wrote and directed Baghead as their second feature, following their acclaimed 2005 debut The Puffy Chair. Here, a group of unemployed actor friends (played by Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig, Ross Partridge and Elise Muller) escape to a cabin in the woods for a weekend. There’s no threat of danger at first, although there is sexual tension as the guys try to manipulate events to bed the woman each likes most.

Once the group decides to collaborate on a screenplay, however, creating roles intended to showcase their acting talents, strange things begin to happen. A man wearing a paper bag on his head begins to appear in their dreams (?) and in the woods, and one by one the friends start to go missing.

The film takes a while to get going. At first, the characters, especially the men, are sex-obsessed and unlikable, although their humorous moments help. Eventually, though, the film becomes both downright funny (after all, how scary can the Unknown Comic from TV’s old Gong Show really be?) and truly frightening (the answer: pretty scary).

What struck me as both subversive and GLBT-friendly on the Duplass Brothers’ part is that, by the film’s end, the guys are more genuinely freaked out than the women. The men here also reach a deeper point of emotional connection than the guys in the semi-comparable Scream movies ever did.

A low-budget horror-comedy with a soul, Baghead is definitely worth a look (take a peek at the trailer). But the next time you’re checking out at the grocery store and are asked, “Paper or plastic?”, you might want to stick with plastic.

UPDATE: Baghead is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

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

Best of the Fests: NewFest 2008

NewFest 2008: The 20th Anniversary NY LGBT Film Festival begins today and continues through June 15.

Two very different high school-set films bookend the fest, which opens with the New York premiere of Stewart Wade's coming of age dramedy Tru Loved (starring such gay faves as Alec Mapa, Bruce Vilanch, Nichelle Nichols, Jasmine Guy and Jane Lynch). The film is Wade's follow-up to his popular Coffee Date.

The festival will close with Tom Gustafson’s sexy musical ode to Shakespeare, Were the World Mine (based on his award-winning short Fairies), which is already being touted as the next Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Best of the Fests: Cannes Winners

The 2008 Cannes Film Festival came to a close yesterday, which means that prizes were handed out to a bunch of films that we all really haven't heard much about yet, let alone actually seen. Nevertheless, The Class (described as "an evocation of contemporary society as seen through a year's events in a Paris junior high school classroom") became the first French film in 20 years to win the big award, the Palme d'Or, while some recognizable names did take home some of the other honors given at the famed fest's 61st annual festivities.

Special Prizes went to Catherine Deneuve for A Christmas Tale and Clint Eastwood for Changeling, proving that even the French love their Clint (although I'm sure jury chairman Sean Penn had a say in the matter). Benicio del Toro won Best Actor for his title performance in Steven Soderbergh's Che, the four-hour epic biopic of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, best known around these parts as that guy in Evita.

Best of the Fests: Blueprint

Opposites attract in Blueprint, Kirk Shannon-Butts' feature film debut screening today at the Cannes Film Festival.

Watch the trailer here.