Thoms Pays the Rent

Tracie Thoms, who played lesbian lawyer Joanne in the movie version of Rent, will take to the Broadway stage tonight in that role in the long-running Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical hit.

Thoms, who was one of the two film Renters who wasn't in the original cast of the show, will stay with the production through its closing date, September 7.

Fierstein on Getty

Harvey Fierstein pays tribute to his Torch Song Trilogy co-star and longtime friend Estelle Getty.

Men on Film: On the Other Hand, Death - A Donald Strachey Mystery

Today, we have a special double feature review for you today of On the Other Hand, Death, directed by Ron Oliver, premiering tonight on here! TV.

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

After being subjected to hunky but straight private investigators on TV for decades (perhaps most notably Magnum, P.I.), we finally have our own, openly gay mystery-solver! His name is Donald Strachey, and he's played by hottie Chad Allen (currently on stage opposite Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead in Pasadena Playhouse's Looped). Strachey's latest adventure, On the Other Hand, Death, debuts tonight on here!, American's premium gay television network.

This is actually the third filmed Donald Strachey mystery, after Third Man Out and Shock to the System. A fourth, Ice Blues, will premiere this fall. I haven't seen the previous movies and so was unfamiliar with the character, who is featured in a series of novels by Richard Lipez, under the pen name Richard Stevenson.

The plot of On the Other Hand, Death is pretty standard stuff for the genre: someone is terrorizing homeowners in an effort to get them to sell their lucrative property as part of a big-money scheme. Even Scooby-Doo has covered this territory. What is unique here isn't only that the investigator is openly, unapologetically gay (and is married to his partner, an amusingly buttoned-up New York State Senate staffer played by Sebastian Spence), but the victims are a lesbian couple.

Margot Kidder of Superman fame plays high school guidance counselor Dorothy, and Gabrielle Rose (a veteran of numerous TV series including The L Word and Eureka) plays her longtime companion, Edith. It's always great to see Kidder, although she makes some disappointingly stereotypical choices -- including wearing all-flannel and foregoing make-up -- in playing a "butch" lesbian woman. Rose gives the best, most nuanced performance in the film as a woman hiding a secret from the past.

Consistent with the genre, there are many suspects with secret pasts and motivations. One is a teenager struggling with his sexuality, although he serves more as an opportunity to plug a real-life GLBT organization, the Trevor Project, than as a significant plot device. The Trevor Project is mentioned repeatedly, as is Dorothy's mantra "We don't pick our fights; our fights pick us." As a result, they can't help but come across as heavy-handed.

Still, On the Other Hand, Death provides a great opportunity to snuggle on the sofa with your honey for 90 minutes and realize P.I.s on TV have come a long way since The Rockford Files.



Reel Thoughts by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine:
Out actor Chad Allen probably never expected to be the here! network’s Jessica Fletcher, but then again, the kind of scrapes he gets into would never have happened on Murder, She Wrote. Allen plays Donald Strachey, a happily partnered private eye who upends stereotypes while solving crimes having to do with outing, ex-gay therapy, and now gay hate crimes and the challenges of GLBT teens, especially in conservative small towns.

Strachey’s husband, New York State Senate staffer Tim Callahan (Sebastian Spence), is contacted by an old flame who has returned to Albany to help his old high school counselor. Dorothy, played wonderfully by the wry Margot Kidder, and her terrified partner Edith (Gabrielle Rose) have been plagued by increasingly violent attacks on their farmhouse ever since Dorothy came out.

In addition, Dorothy finds herself having to defend herself from a vicious band of parents who don’t want her advising their children. The film does a nice job of publicizing the Trevor Project, a valuable resource for gay teens who are contemplating suicide. One of the possible suspects in the latest string of hate crimes may be the father of a boy who Dorothy was helping. As Donald delves deeper, however, he finds that some people may stop at nothing if it means putting money in their pocket, even murder.

Allen plays Strachey with a cool demeanor that makes him a great gay character. He’s completely trusting in his husband’s love and fidelity, even as Andrew, the old flame, seems to be stirring the pot romantically, playing them both against each other. Kidder has grown into such a warm, comfortably gruff older woman; she really makes Dorothy both a force to be reckoned with and a person you would want to protect.

The mystery has enough twists and surprises to keep you totally engaged, while the film feels like a rich, satisfying novel brought to life. If you don’t have here!, then watch for the film to come out on DVD later this year.

UPDATE: On the Other Hand, Death is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

With a jump to the left and a step to the right, MTV has announced they are remaking the movie that defines the terms "cult film", "audience participation" and "midnight movie classic", The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Original RHPS producer Lou Adler is heading up the remake, which will use the original story and score by Richard O'Brien, plus possibly a few songs from the original stage production ("Superheroes", "Once in a While") that were cut from the final 1975 movie. No director has been attached as of yet.

As expected, die-hard Rocky fans are up in arms (there is already an online petition protesting the new film), but I'm curious to see how they would do it ... and with a budget this time. Casting would be key, most especially for the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania immortalized on stage and screen by Tim Curry.

If I were making the decisions, I'd pick Alan Cumming for Frank; anyone who has seen his Cabaret Emcee would agree. For Brad and Janet, how about the Enchanted couple themselves, James Marsden and Amy Adams. O'Brien could be Riff Raff again if he's up to it; if not, perhaps Raúl Esparza from the 2000 Broadway revival. His co-star, Dick Cavett, would return as the Criminologist, while Magenta and Columbia could be the totally Wicked pairing of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. As in the stage RHS, Eddie and Dr. Scott would be played by the same person: Jack Black. And as for Frank's ultimate creation, Rocky himself? Why, Cheyenne Jackson of course; he is the perfect man and, as luck would have it, he has played the role before.

Hopes are for a Halloween 2009 release, so we'll likely hear more soon.

UPDATE: In a curious development, Richard O'Brien claims no connection to -- or support of -- this remake. Additionally, although it at first appeared to be a theatrical release, new reports are indicating that it will be aired on television, which may effect the casting (in other words, strike out Marsden, Adams and Black from my dream cast ... sigh).

Say Hello to Ciao

On the heels of its Best Feature win at this year's Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, the critically acclaimed Ciao has been picked up for distribution by here! Films/Regent Releasing.

Dubbed the "best gay movie of the year" by AfterElton.com, Ciao will be released in select theaters this fall.

Reverend's Reviews: No Regrets for No Regret

A few years back, out filmmaker Todd Haynes paid a well-received tribute to the films of Douglas Sirk with his Far from Heaven. Sirk was known for his soapy stories and glossy style, exemplified by such 1950's productions as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life. Haynes created a picture- and style-perfect replica but with a contemporary, overtly gay sensibility, with Dennis Quaid playing the closeted gay husband of oblivious housewife Julianne Moore.

South Korean writer-director Leesong Hee-il has gone Sirk and Haynes one better with his No Regret. This excellent drama was actually filmed before Brokeback Mountain and the gay-themed The King and the Clown became enormous hits in South Korea and made GLBT topics more palatable there. Now recognized as the first true gay film in Korean Cinema, it is finally being released stateside this Friday in Los Angeles and New York by here! Films/Regent Releasing.

No Regret is, according to production notes, "plotted in a style similar to what has become known as 'hostess movies'--which deal with ambitious young women who come to the big city of Seoul only to end up working as prostitutes." Here, attractive male orphan Sumin (a great performance by straight actor Lee Young-hoon) moves to Seoul immediately following his 18th birthday and mandatory ejection from the orphanage. After losing menial jobs in a factory and restaurant due to his quick temper, he is hired as an exotic dancer at an underground gay club.

Sumin attracts the attention of many, but no one is more smitten by him than Jaemin (popular Korean television actor Lee Han). The son of a Korean conglomerate's wealthy vice-president, Jaemin is secretly gay and engaged to a woman. His falling for Sumin creates all manner of personal and public drama.

Much of No Regret, in true Sirk style, has the main characters denying and/or dancing around their true motivations and feelings. There is also considerable critique of Korean social and class distinctions, which is in keeping with the Sirk tradition. Indeed, director Hee-il is quoted regarding the inspiration behind his film, "Through the love of two men, I wanted to explore the themes of desire and class."

Fortunately, No Regret doesn't end as tragically as many of Sirk's melodramas did. Full of lovely, intimate moments between its various players and providing a unique travelogue of modern South Korea, I recommend No Regret to any adults, GLBT or otherwise, in the mood for a timeless romance.

Watch the No Regret trailer here.

UPDATE: No Regret 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.

Canvas to Remain Blank

In a MySpace bulletin posted by film director/ screenwriter Chuck Griffith this morning, he states that the production of his Shifting the Canvas that we reported on previously has been halted due to financing problems. He writes, in a post titled "We Are Dead":

"So, with the economy the way it is, it appears that this film may not get made ... We have a letter of intent to distribute the film from over three distributors ... Cheyenne Jackson as the lead, Scott Thompson, Margaret Cho and Alan Cumming, and it wasn't enough."

In hopes of raising more financing, he has posted the script on the website of his production company, Roaring Leo Productions. Let's hope some luck comes his way, as this sounds like a worthwhile story to tell.

In addition to the actors mentioned, Christian Campbell (Trick), Matthew Montgomery (Socket), Will Wikle (Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild) and Gedde Watanabe (Sixteen Candles) were cast in the drama, described as a story "about art, family, longing, failure, and renewal".

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.

Tru Gets Some Love

Congratulations to Stewart Wade and the cast of crew of Tru Loved: the recent Outfest fave has been picked up for distribution by here! Films/Regent Releasing for theatrical release this fall.

The comedy/drama, about a high school girl setting up her school's first Gay-Straight Alliance, stars Jasmine Guy, Jane Lynch, Alec Mapa, Nichelle Nichols, Bruce Vilanch and Marcia Wallace.

Days of Our (Sordid) Lives

Del Shores' Sordid Lives, the cult fave movie based on the cult fave play, is now aiming for that cult fave trifecta with a TV show: Sordid Lives: The Series premieres tonight on LOGO.

The 12-episode series will actually be a prequel to the play and movie, which starred Bonnie Bedalia, Beth Grant, Leslie Jordan, Olivia Newton-John and Ann Walker, who all return as members of the outrageous Texas family at the center of the story, originally billed as "a black comedy about white trash" (the Ewings they ain't). Joining them in the fun are new cast members Jason Dottley, Rue McClanahan and Caroline Rhea, plus such guest stars as Candis Cayne, Margaret Cho and Carson Kressley.

AfterElton.com has both a preview and a review to get you primed for opening night; click here to watch a sneak preview (NSFW for language).

The Latest on DVD: Here Comes the Spider-Woman

Long absent from DVD, the gay-themed indie classic Kiss of the Spider Womanis now available in an Amazon.com exclusive two-disc collector's edition on both standard DVDand Blu-ray.Included in the set is the feature-length documentary Tangled Web: Making Kiss of the Spider Woman.

The 1985 film, based on the Manuel Puig novel, was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. William Hurt won the Best Actor Oscar, the first for an openly gay character.

Check out the Latest on DVD widgets located in the sidebar for more of this week's new DVD releases available today from Amazon.com.

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.

Sonny and Sal, Together Again

Then and now.

Dog Day Afternoon, a new play based on the events that inspired Sidney Lumet's Academy Award winning film, makes its world premiere tonight at the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row Theatres in Manhattan.

If anything, the actors cast in the roles played by John Cazale and Al Pacino in the film sure have the right look. "Attica! Attica!"

The Latest on DVD: Chance Encounter

Remember all those 80's teen comedies by the likes of John Hughes? Well, imagine a long-lost gay entry in that genre and you have The Curiosity of Chance,on DVD today.

Tad Hilgenbrink stars as the title character, the Ferris Bueller-type new kid at school who finds it's hard to fit "in" when he's "out". This fest fave (written and directed by Russell P. Marleau), with its cute actors, retro songs and a drag queen or two, looks like a fun romp, a pinker Pretty in Pink, if you will.

Check out the Latest on DVD widgets located in the sidebar for more of this week's new DVD releases available today from Amazon.com.

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.