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 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.

Toon Talk: Love as a Mostly Robotic Thing

Save for a few romantic subplots here and there, love stories have not exactly been at the forefront in the Pixar feature film canon. The “boys’ club” at the Lamp have been more naturally drawn to the “buddy film” concept more often then not, from Buzz and Woody all the way up to Remy and Linguini. Perhaps being absorbed into the Disney family -- known for their fairy tale “happily ever afters” after all -- has rubbed off on them, for if Pixar’s latest computer animated crowd pleaser WALL-E is anything, it’s a love story.

Told with a gentle hand and a big ol’ heart on its sleeve, WALL-E is yet another homerun for the animation powerhouse, proving yet again that no one (not even their parent company) comes close to creating films in their chosen art form quite like they do these days.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of WALL-E at LaughingPlace.com.

UPDATE: WALL-E is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Reverend's Reviews: Hello, WALL-E!

Like all fans of the Disney-Pixar canon, I had high expectations for their new robot tale, WALL-E (in theaters tomorrow). One thing I didn't expect, though, was the film's reverence for the 1969 movie musical disaster Hello, Dolly!

From the opening strains of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" heard over the opening titles to, later, Michael Crawford and Marianne McAndrew crooning "It Only Takes a Moment", Gene Kelly's hugely expensive adaptation of the classic stage musical starring a then-red hot but too young Barbra Streisand in the title role is referenced to the point of overuse in WALL-E. However, Twentieth-Century Fox could yet recoup some of their Dolly losses if the young viewers of WALL-E rush out and give it a renewed life on DVD.

As expected, WALL-E is an intelligent, ingeniously designed, touching -- even, at times, poetic -- animated feature directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo). The title creation is a small trash-compacting machine, the last of his kind still functioning who were left to clean up Earth after people abandoned it 700 years prior due to toxic levels of trash and pollution. With an über-resilient cockroach as his sole companion, WALL-E collects treasures he finds among the waste and, inspired by an old VHS tape of Hello, Dolly!, pines for someone to love.

Hope arrives in the form of a sleek probe droid named Eve, whom WALL-E is immediately smitten by; in his effort to win Eve's heart (assuming robots have hearts), WALL-E follows her into space and to the mother ship where the oddly evolved descendants of those humans who left Earth await a sign to return.

There is considerable humor, intrigue and romance throughout this smartly written fantasy. What's more, it sends a strong but not heavy-handed "Save the Earth" message that could end up being more effective at inspiring viewers to change their mass-consumption ways than An Inconvenient Truth.

Be sure to arrive early before screenings of WALL-E to catch a hilarious Pixar short, Presto, and stay through the end credits for some brilliant animation and a terrific song, "Down to Earth", sung by Peter Gabriel and the Soweto Gospel Choir.

UPDATE: WALL-E 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.

Toon Talk: Hulk Smashin’

It doesn’t happen until late in the movie, but when the emerald-skinned behemoth known as The Incredible Hulk finally says his key comic-born catchphrase “Hulk SMASH!”, it is well worth the wait. After a poorly received Ang Lee directed film version just five years ago, the not-so-jolly green giant is craftily reinvented in this, the latest big screen superhero extravaganza, a lean mean fighting machine of a summer movie, in theaters now.

Indeed, the Hulk does do a lot of smashing in director Louis Leterrier’s (of The Transporter films fame) take on the beloved pop culture antihero; also, a fair share of leaping, howling and general mass destruction. But, as in his original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comic book form, as well as subsequent four color incarnations and the equally classic 70’s television series (which was basically a variation of another tube classic, The Fugitive), the dramatic aspects of a man whose very body is out of his control is explored … amidst all the smashing, of course.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of The Incredible Hulk at LaughingPlace.com.

UPDATE: The Incredible Hulk is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Sexual Positions ... and Sex and the City

When the blockbuster box office returns for the big screen version of Sex and the City rolled in last week, show biz pundits everywhere were shocked -- shocked! -- at how well this filmic feast of fashion, femininity and fabulousness fared. The way some (mostly male, presumably straight) pompously pontificated about this "surprise hit", you would think that women -- and the gay men who love watching them -- never went to the movies.

What has been shocking is how sophomorically sexist -- and, by extension, homophobic -- some of these anti-Sex rants have been; that any male who went to see this movie "just had to be gay" or was dragged to it, kicking and screaming, by their silly female significant other. The message presented, repeatedly, was that even laying your man eyes upon the screen was a threat to your manhood at its very core, as if doing so it would suck out all the testosterone in your body at the very least, castrate you right there in your seat at worst.

Well, (and I know I'm basically preaching to the choir here, but bear with me) here's a newsflash for you boys: men, both gay and straight and everywhere in-between, can enjoy the escapist escapades of Miss Bradshaw and friends and, get this, have for years now. Being a fan of Sex and the City, the television series and the motion picture, doesn't make one any less of a man, no more so then, say, digging Dirty Harry or Die Hard makes one less of a woman. To say so otherwise is bullshit macho posturing, plain and simple.

In other words, fellas: (said in my best Samantha Jones purr) get over yourselves; it's just Sex.

Reverend's Reviews: Surfin' With the Gays

As GLBT-oriented movies proliferate, I am increasingly amused by how each new release seems to be termed "the gay (fill-in-the-blank) movie." For example, we've had "the gay slasher movie" (Hellbent), "the gay cowboy movie" (Brokeback Mountain), and "the gay soccer movie" (Eleven Men Out). While it can be edifying to hear of and watch gay takes on established genres, such terminology makes each film sound like not only the first but also the last of its kind!

Well, we can now add "the gay surfer movie," Shelter, to the list. It is being released on DVDthis week after a successful, if limited, theatrical run. The first project produced under here! Networks' Independent Film Initiative, Shelter has won numerous awards at various US film festivals.

Talented newcomer Trevor Wright plays Zach, a young aspiring artist living in San Pedro, California. As the responsible member of his dysfunctional family, he works in a local restaurant to support his ailing father and his young nephew. The latter is on the verge of being abandoned by Zach's older sister, Jeanne (a largely unsympathetic role well played by Tina Holmes), who is preparing to move to Oregon with her latest deadbeat boyfriend.

While taking an occasional, well-needed break from the pressures of his home life, Zach starts surfing with his best friend's older brother, Shaun (Brad Rowe, who has become both better looking and a better actor since he played the object of Sean Hayes' desire in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss). An openly gay writer, Shaun takes Zach under his wing in more ways than one, gradually helping Zach explore his budding sexuality.

Written and directed by Jonah Markowitz, Shelter is a better than average coming-of-age story. Though it is somewhat predictable and suffers at times from some rough editing transitions, likely due to budgetary constraints, it is honest and heartfelt. One can't help but be moved by the film's climax, wherein Zach, Shaun and Zach's nephew are realistically presented as a healthier and more loving family than most.

Rowe and Wright have a nice chemistry and laid-back rapport that makes Shelter perfect romantic viewing on a warm summer night. It may be the first "gay surfer movie" (no, Point Break doesn't count), but let's hope it isn't the last.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Speed Junkie

I'm not ashamed to admit I LOVE Speed Racer. Not the animated TV series, with whom I have only a passing acquaintance, but the hyper-stylized, hyper-kinetic new movie adapted from it; bafflingly, I seem to be in the minority among film critics. Despite a number of favorable quotes on the film's newspaper ads, including one by Richard Corliss of Time, most critics have trashed the movie. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker went so far as to call it a work of "pop fascism" (puh-leeze), and warned parents not to take their kids. Such bad advance notices do seem to have scared families away and cursed the film with a relatively meager $18 million dollar opening weekend.

This is a shame, and I've become convinced in recent days (especially after viewing the allegedly family-friendly The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, but more on that in my next review) that most contemporary critics wouldn't know a good family film if it bit them in the ass. Speed Racer even features devotion to family and the importance of family unity as its central themes, but the movie still can't catch a break.

Never mind that, as written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers of Matrix trilogy fame, Speed Racer is also extremely well-acted by a big-name cast. Rising star Emile Hirsch, as the title character, employs a perfect balance of innocence and obsession, which is no easy feat. Susan Sarandon, as Mom Racer, is more down-to-earth and emotionally affecting than she's been in a few years, and John Goodman, as Pops Racer, is the most relaxed and enjoyable he's been on screen since The Flintstones. Christina Ricci is delightful as always as Speed's faithful girlfriend, Trixie, and Matthew Fox of TV's Lost brings unexpected gravitas to the mysterious Racer X. A talented international cast brings the film's remaining assortment of fellow racers, corporate baddies, sportscasters and ninjas to vivid life.

Never mind that the film's creators have seemingly perfected the use of computer graphics and digital environments in their achievement of a stunningly detailed, color-saturated yet organic-feeling world. Critics went ga-ga when Warren Beatty created a similar, cartoon-inspired world in 1990's Dick Tracy (that film's art direction won an Oscar), but some of those same critics are thoroughly unimpressed here.

Never mind that nobody dies in Speed Racer's moral/ethical universe, not even the vilest of the villains. The drivers involved in the film's explosive car crashes are delivered to safety via what look like form-fitting soap bubbles, and live to race another day. The Wachowskis' refusal to indulge violent impulses apart from a couple of comical fistfights struck me as truly refreshing, especially with Iron Man blasting presumed, not necessarily confirmed, terrorists in the next auditorium.

And never mind that Speed Racer's script features some great, timely and occasionally even poetic dialogue about corporate greed, family values, personal achievement and social responsibility. Even if some of it does, admittedly, go on a bit too long, it beats anything currently masquerading as dialogue in big-budget studio films.

My partner and my 40-year old self enjoyed watching Speed Racer as much as, and possibly more than, the children who were seated around us. We all found it entertaining, engrossing and exhilarating. For two hours and fifteen minutes on Sunday night, we were on "speed" and we loved it. Go see it!

UPDATE: Speed Racer 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.

Toon Talk: Hot Wheels

From Popeye to George of the Jungle, many a cartoon has tried to make the transition from pen and ink to flesh and blood, but none so spectacularly as Speed Racer. Zooming onto the big screen with a mixture of pedal to the metal pyrotechnics and hyperactive visuals, this live action take on the old school anime series is all kinds of crazy cool fun.

Speed Racer began its pop culture life in the 1960s as a Japanese manga (comic) and animated television series called Mach GoGoGo. Created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida for Tatsunoko Productions, the show (inspired by such western influences as Elvis Presley and James Bond) was quickly picked up for American syndication and given its now familiar name and iconic theme song. Over the years, the original series became a touchstone for both Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers alike, so a full-fledged movie version was inevitable.

And it is finally here; after seeing the kaleidoscopic images that only today’s digital technology could create, you’ll be glad they waited. Helmed by the visionary minds behind The Matrix trilogy, Larry and Andy Wachowski, this Speed thrills, exploding off the starting line and never letting up, laws of physics and plot densities be damned.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Speed Racer at LaughingPlace.com.

UPDATE: Speed Racer is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Reverend's Reviews: Iron Deficiency

I'm not as familiar with the Marvel Comics character Iron Man as I am with other superheroes, but I do in general like the big-screen, big-budget treatments of those courageous men and women in tights. Some (Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man) have fared better than others (Sheena, Brenda Starr, the Punisher, Captain America) to be sure. On paper, Iron Man has great credentials. The first release from Marvel's own production company, it boasts a budget in excess of $100 million, a cast full of Academy Award nominees and even a winner (Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges) and a good director in Jon Favreau (Elf, Zathura).

Unfortunately, a sloppy script and so-so special effects result in a decidedly underwhelming movie. It starts promisingly enough, with a "36 hours earlier" flashback sequence revealing much about morally questionable protagonist Tony Stark (a winning Downey Jr.). Stark is a US weapons manufacturer taken hostage by Afghani terrorists and forced to build a doomsday weapon for them. Despite constant surveillance by his captors, Stark is somehow able to create a weaponry-endowed iron suit that is virtually impenetrable and indestructible. After busting loose and returning to the US, he renounces his company's production of weapons of mass destruction, streamlines the suit, learns how to fly and takes to fighting crime as "Iron Man".

Oddly, it's the crime busting that is largely missing from the film. Too much time is devoted to Stark developing his suit and abilities than taking on the baddies. Only in the film's final twenty minutes, when Iron Man takes on a deranged Bridges (clearly having fun in a rare villainous role) in his own super-powered iron contraption, do the good versus evil dynamics get full play. There's way too much talk until then, and some of the allegedly romantic dialogue between Stark and his devoted assistant, Pepper Potts (a largely wasted Paltrow) is downright laughable.

And then there are the special effects. While there is a lot of build-up to Iron Man's first supersonic flight over the California coastline, the final result bears more similarity to the muses of Xanadu zipping around the world than to anything Christopher Reeve was able to do as Superman with "primitive" non-digital technology. At any rate, Iron Man looks to be a huge hit, and a sequel's release date was announced within days of its premiere. Hopefully, the ensuing franchise and other upcoming Marvel Studio adaptations will correct the deficiencies of this initial effort.

UPDATE: Iron Man 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.

Toon Talk: Heavy Metal

Tired of seeing their classic superhero characters make tons of money for other people, Marvel Comics has set up their own film production shingle, with Iron Man, the first big blockbuster wannabe of the 2008 summer movie season, as their first offering. And if this one is any indication, it was a move they should have made long ago.

And although you may not know this Iron Man from the Iron Chef, this is an action-packed superhero flick with a brain … and just the right amount of a sense of humor about the whole enterprise … that makes any ignorance of the character’s history irrelevant.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Iron Man at LaughingPlace.com.

And in related news: What does $200 million worldwide in one weekend get you? Iron Man 2 in 2010. Plus: Thor, Captain America and The Avengers.

UPDATE: Iron Man is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Toon Talk: ¡Ay, Caramba!

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, Disney has re-released two of its minor animated pictures, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, in a one disc Classic Caballero Collection ...

Below are some excerpts from my Toon Talk review of the new DVD release(click here to read the full article at LaughingPlace.com):

Born out of the Disney Studios involvement with the war effort in the early 1940’s, Saludos Amigos was commissioned by the US State Department to improve relations with our Central and South American neighbors (hence the “hello friends” title … as in “hello friends, don't join the Nazis”). Walt Disney and a staff of writers, artists and composers flew down to Rio, as it were, to soak in the local colors, music and cultures of the various Latin American regions as inspiration for future cartoons and features.

Surprisingly (in retrospect), Saludos was a big hit, necessitating a follow up: The Three Caballeros. However, aside from their humble origins and a few superficial details, these two films couldn’t be any more different. Where Saludos is a thin documentation of some nice folks traveling through exotic lands, Caballeros (the first feature film to combine live action characters with animated ones) literally bursts with outrageousness. You’ll be wondering what exactly the artists found in those foreign ports to “inspire” them to exceed even Fantasia-levels of surrealism.

Bursting out from a piñata, Panchito shows up, a sharp-shooting rooster from Mexico, launching the threesome into their classic title song production number. The trio hops aboard a flying serape for a tour of Panchito’s native land, where Donald gets an eyeful of the “hot stuff” on Acapulco Beach (this duck was quite the wolf back in the day). Dora Luz pops up to croon the future standard “You Belong to My Heart” to the love struck Donald … and then things get really weird. What follows is a psychedelic, neon-colored fever dream with Busby Berkeley bathing beauties, a chorus line of dancing cacti and a very randy leading duck, leading up to an explosive finale. This one is just too weird not to miss.

It's Showtime!

A must-see for theater fans, Show Business: The Road to Broadway takes a look at the typically not-so-typical 2003-04 Broadway season, from the promises of the fall to the thrilling opening nights to the devastating closings to the big upsets at the Tony Awards and more. Focusing on four of the most anticipated musicals of that year -- Avenue Q, Taboo, Wicked and Caroline, or Change -- the documentary offers all the behind-the-scenes drama of a life in drama.

Filled to the brim with Big Apple stage faves and legends -- Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Raúl Esparza, Harvey Fierstein, Boy George, Tony Kushner, Idina Menzel, Euan Morton, Rosie O'Donnell, Tonya Pinkins, Anika Noni Rose, Stephen Schwartz, John Tartaglia, the list goes on -- what really sets this one apart is the presence of the highly influential (and, more often then not, equally loathed) New York stage critics. Shown periodically throughout the year, this elitist cabal chimes in with their snobbish thoughts on the season, predicting gloom and doom at every turn. But what is most enlightening here is the revelation that they are not that much different then any of the rest of us; after all, we've all gathered together in similar round table bitch sessions about what we do and do not love about the theater.

The DVD includes a host of delicious bonus materials for Broadway geeks to gorge on, including the one brief appearance of the season's man of the year (noticeably absent in the main feature), The Boy from Oz himself, Hugh Jackman.

Click here to buy Show Business: The Road to Broadwayon DVD from Amazon.com.

Potent Quotables: Michael Clayton on His Job Description

"I'm not the guy you kill, I'm the guy you buy. Are you so f***ing blind that you don't even see what I am? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I'm your easiest problem, and you're gonna kill me? Don't you know who I am? I'm a fixer. I'm a bagman. I do everything from shoplifting housewives to bent congressmen, and you're gonna kill me? What do you need, Karen, lay it on me. You want a carry permit? You want a heads-up on an insider-trading subpoena? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand and a contract, and you're gonna kill me?"

The above monologue, delivered by George Clooney's seemingly desperate Michael Clayton to a flummoxed Karen Crowder (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), is just a taste of the brilliant confrontation scene between the two morally ambiguous lawyers that is the gripping climax of Tony Gilroy's taut -- and terrific -- legal thriller.

Click here to buy Michael Claytonon DVD from Amazon.com.