At the end of the 28th century, the people of Earth have moved to one of the moons of Jupiter. Advances in biological engineering allow scientists to give people special abilities, such as the ability to withstand alien gravitational forces and extra strength. As these genetic tweaks shift from modifications required to survive on other worlds to a form of government control, an underground radical movement forms. Parker C. Boyd (Claudia Black) is among the many workers resigned to a life of servitude when she catches a performance by rebel singer Naia (Tara Strong) and falls madly in love. Parker joins Naia's band as a sax player, and the pair look to live and love together on the road, but shady record executive Dorlan Mig (Tim Curry) has other plans for Naia, cutting Parker loose and turning the people's musician into a pop star. Teaming up with the pilots of a junk cruiser, Parker knows something's...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Independent drama The Wise Kids is the rare film that tackles the thorny subjects of religion and sexuality without pandering or condemning. Set around a Baptist church in Charleston, South Carolina, the film follows three teenagers as they prepare to go out into the world alone. A preacher's daughter struggles with doubt; the gay son of a single father risks condemnation in a religious community; and a third friend struggles to find balance between her religious beliefs as prescribed and practiced. The Wise Kids is skillfully directed by Stephen Cone, who subtly acknowledges issues of social and religious pressure without condemning one side or resulting to caricature. What could have been a preachy, abrasive film is both ente...Read the entire review

Joe (Veronica Kedar) is a drug dealer, reluctantly visiting her home country of Israel. Belle (Sivan Levy) is an angst-ridden lesbian teenager who feels that her parents don't understand her. Belle is on her way home when she decides to jump out of her mother's car at a stoplight, and she is stopped just short of a rooftop suicide by the sight of Joe's bathroom in the building across the street. When Joe returns home from a drop, she finds Belle lying in her bathtub, having broken the window; it's the beginning of a long night for the pair that weaves its way through unexpected romance, accidental murder, and a flight from the police into a nearby war zone.

Joe + Belle is primarily the work of Kedar, who co-wrote and directed the picture (her feature debut) in addition to starring. Sadly, although she gives a decent performance and there are fleeting moments of sexual electricity between herse...Read the entire review

The Movie

Ready to get down and boogie? The excesses of the disco era get another going-through in the recent French-Canadian production Funkytown. Ugly polyester shirts, glitter balls, snorting coke off a model's tummy ... it's all here in a sprawling, multi-story format that calls to mind Boogie Nights mixed in with some torrid TV soap opera that might have played on a North-of-the-border equivalent of the CW.

Set in the years 1976-1980, Funkytown differs from many of the other disco-era dramas in exploring how the glamour and decadence of the music affected a specific group of people who worked and hung out at Montreal's hottest discotheque. The very Canadian-ness of the film becomes apparent right off the bat as English ...Read the entire review

The road toward equal representation in pop culture and entertainment is a rocky one, where it's easy to accidentally double back. If 50 major movies aimed at, say, black audiences or women are made in a year, that's great, but if all of the former are racial tension dramas and all of the latter are inadvertently sexist romantic comedies, that's hardly progress. What makes C line Sciamma's Tomboy special, then, is the way it tells a story of young love between two girls without any need to frame everything inside any sort of societal or cultural big picture.

Zo H ran plays Laure, a 10-year-old who has just moved to a new city with her family. Her look consists of short hair, a wifebeater, and baggy shorts, so when she runs into Lisa (Jeanne Disson) while looking for the neighborhood boys, it's easy for her to claim that her name is Mikael instead. Although Laure is interested in being accepte...Read the entire review

The Movie:

@SuicideRoom is the story of high school student Dominik whose life is turned upside down after a dare gone wrong. After a night of partying with his friends the gang begin fooling around by having two of his female friends make-out with each other. After all the hooting and hollering is concluded the friends dare him to make-out with his male friend Alex. No big deal. They do and their rich and privileged lives move forward.

The next few days turn turbulent, as the people who he thought were his friends post the clip of him making out with Alex on the internet for the whole world to see. Dominik remains unphased, because it really isn't a big deal. It all culminates with a wrestling match between he and Alex. The events that transpire are what send Dominik into a world of personal oblivion that he isn't so sure he will make it out from in tact.

It also doesn't help ...Read the entire review

Mangus!:
Aiming at the wall and hitting it with a blunt dart can be a refreshing tactic, as writer/director Ash Christian shows with his goofy, loping comedy, Mangus! An homage to the trailer-trash films of John Waters, and other lowbrow comedies, Mangus! lacks the willingness to horrify in the way those Baltimore greats do, but still pulls the laughs and love in easy fashion. With an overall attitude that can best be described as lackadaisical, this movie is a fine companion for those nights when you want laughs you can trust.

Mangus (Ryan Boggus) has one or two simple desires; he wants to know exactly what his name means - his parents told him in Latin it means 'wise one' or something - and he wants to play Jesus in his high school play, just like his daddy did, and his daddy before. The road to greatness is not so easily traveled, though. Mangus' dad ships off to I...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Tracey Wright may not be a household name, even in her native Canada, but despite this she was involved in a lot of great stuff before her untimely passing in June of last year at the age of fifty from pancreatic cancer. When it was found out that she was terminally ill, some of her regular co-conspirators from the decades she had spent working in the Canadian film, TV and theater industries worked together on this project, knowing that in all likelihood it would be her last. And it was.

Directed by Bruce McDonald, best known for Highway 61 and Hardcore Logo, 2010's Trigger begins with a flashback to what we can assume where the grunge ridden 1990s where the titular band, lead by Vic (Tracey Wright) and Kat (Molly Parker), basically disintegrates on stage, some years of alcohol and drug abuse having finally taken their toll. Vic and Kat went their sepa...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Acclaimed indie drama The Green arrives on home video at an interesting time, with the Penn State coaching scandal making the news. That particular story was a devastating example of real abuse at an educational institution, with those in charge taking a cavalier "look the other way" approach. Just as awful, but not covered nearly as much, are the cases in which the abuse is exaggerated or made up* - a situation that is dramatized in The Green.

The Green takes place in a small, semi-upscale community in Connecticut. The bucolic, politically liberal town attracts teacher/aspiring novelist Michael (Jason Butler Harner) and his restauranteur partner Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson), who are recent transplants from New York City. The move was Michael's idea, lured by a history teaching position at the local high school. The reluctant but game Daniel goes along and takes ...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

As a long-time viewer (and part of the "target audience") of gay-oriented cinema, I've become extremely wary of that particular subgenre of independent film. I've learned the hard way that the (perhaps understandable) priority for the LGBT film festival circuit is not necessarily the most creatively considered and most thoughtfully executed filmmaking possible, but "affirmative" films that sympathetically acknowledge the struggles of sexual minorities--coming out, social and family acceptance or lack thereof, etc.--and offer a supportive reminder of our equal right to exist and love. Sometimes, there's an encouraging overlap between the sociopolitical concerns of "queer cinema" and the artistic concerns of filmmaking; movies as interesting and acc...Read the entire review

The Movie
Asking an audience to sympathize with a cheating husband can be an extremely risky proposition, especially if the unknowing wife is so unaware and so likable. Did I mention the wife was also about to give birth to their first child? Yep, it's a fine mess we've walked into here. But it's a huge credit to writer/director Javier Fuentes-Le n--and to his outstanding cast--that everyone in his feature debut comes across as genuine and sincere, making it difficult to shun the lead character despite his less than admirable behavior. This is an intense film filled with emotional complexity, a thought-provoking work that clearly comes from the heart.

With Undertow (Contracorriente), Fuentes-Le n wastes no time pro...Read the entire review

The Collection
Considering the showcase film in this collection of gay-themed shorts is also called Boycrazy, I guess I can't blame Wolfe Video for the unfortunate title--one in a line of many that seems a little too juvenile to be taken seriously: Boy Crush, He Likes Guys, Available Men, S is for Sexy, and...oh lord...the long running series Boys Briefs. These collections usually feature some mature, inspired, respectable shorts; is it too much to ask that their compilation titles reflect the same?

Sadly, this collection of six shorts probably isn't the best example to prove my point. It's one of the weaker...Read the entire review

The Movie
I've always hated the "fag hag" label. Not only ugly, it also includes the word "fag"--a term I loathe and never use, not even amongst my gay peeps. Louise hates it, too--but with virtually no straight friends, she's used to it: "I just get along with gay men. It's not a crime, is it?" Maybe that's why she's unlucky in love--and as the self-described "cautionary tale" Mr. Right begins, she fears that her most recent boyfriend may actually be gay. Lesson learned, shares Louise: "I never introduce my man to my gay friends again."

Except us, of course. There's best friend Alex (Luke de Woolfson), a young waiter for a catering company who's trying to get his big break in acting (while also dealing with his ...Read the entire review

The Movie
Nearly nine years ago when I was leaving my apartment for work, the valediction I uttered to my friend apparently wasn't masculine enough for him. While sitting on my couch--during a hellacious period in which he was living rent free with me as he "got back on his feet"--he looked up at me and said, "Be a man, Cameron." It was one of many red flags I received during our unhealthy friendship, and an odd attack on my manhood that seemed random, misplaced and mean-spirited. Did I not say goodbye loud enough? Did I use girly words? Did I come across weak? Did I want to strangle him then an...Read the entire review

The Movie
As the credits rolled on the feature film debut of director Jason Bushman, I rushed to my computer to look up the filmography of lead actor Eric Debets. So enraptured with his charm and presence, I was convinced he must have a long and illustrious career in his native France. Imagine my surprise when the only other film to show up by his name was the short "Serene Hunter", another project from Bushman that I had already seen. Surely, this had to be a mistake--how can this immensely engaging actor have such a modest history on camera?

Suddenly, the story in Hollywood, je t'aime had new meaning--and a repeat viewing was in store. Perhaps Bushman was making a sta...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Jennifer Phang's Half-Life wonders what it would be like if someone threw an apocalypse and nobody came. The film takes place in a world on the brink of some sort of unavoidable environmental catastrophe. Chaos could break at any moment, but in general everyone just goes about their angst-loaded lives.

Writer/director Phang can't be faulted for her lack of ambition. She intersperses multiple character arcs with fantastical animated sequences, shades of science-fiction and a tapestry of emotional misery. Unfortunately, the film inspires more admiration for its concept than its actual execution. I wanted it to work, I wanted the beautiful, scenic cinematography of fields and the roaring sun to amount to something moving. Instead, I continually found myself drawn away from its emotional center and thoroughly annoyed by the unavoidable emptiness.

The various storylines in...Read the entire review

The Movie
Us homosexuals have what we call "gay giveaways", little tidbits about ourselves and our passions that feed the big pink elephant in a room of raised eyebrows (remember the comedy classic Heathers, where all it took was a candy dish, a Joan Crawford postcard and a bottle of mineral water?). In many respects, I'm an anomaly: I don't care for Broadway musicals, my apartment is a mess, I love sports and I'd be fine if I never heard another Madonna, Cher or Barbra Striesand song in my life.

But once you get to know me, t...Read the entire review

The Movie
Let's see...I'm gay, single and spend a lot of time on my couch watching TV and DVDs. Is The New Twenty trying to tell me something? Should I be a lot more morose than I am? Am I not successful enough? Is this Ben character patterned after me?! [*reaches for Kleenex*]

Calm down, Cam...it's only a movie. I sometimes get a little skeptical reading summaries for films, like this tidbit in reference to The New Twenty: "A tight and queer Big Chill for the new millennium"! Trying to force a comparison to such a popular film can easily backfire, and unnecessarily pointing out character ethnicities (Julie is a "fierce Asian") doesn't earn the film ...Read the entire review

The Movie
Energetic 10-year-old Josh Dowd is a walking motivational poster: "A positive attitude, determination and a whole lot of moxie are all key factors to success!" He also wears a pink watch with--remember these?--a Swatch Guard, and a homemade button with the face of Mike, his favorite varsity wrestler. He doesn't quite fit into the conservative structure of the conveniently named Normal Heights, the small town where he lives with single mom Andy. She wishes Josh was more into wrestling than cheerleading, but the persistent kid is on a mission to make enough money for cheer camp (if he sells 10 magazine subs...Read the entire review

The Movie
Maybe I expect too much from friends and family. Regardless, I just can't fathom a world in which my libido is so strong that I'm unable to stop myself from having sex with my best friend's father. And while I don't have children, I imagine my better judgment would prevail before I made out with my son's best friend. Sure, people make mistakes...but are gay men so uncontrollably horny that the bonds of family and friendship become so easily expendable? Canada's Mulligans seems to think so. Can you forgive the film and its characters enough to enjoy the experience?

The college year has come to an end, and student Tyler (Derek Baynham) ...Read the entire review

The Movie
If you ever wondered what a gay Woody Woodpecker might look like in real life (actually, make that gayer Woody Woodpecker), meet Drake--an instigating troublemaker of the highest degree. His presence quickly rattles the close-knit bond shared among five friends in director Richard LeMay's Whirlwind, a low-budget indie that tries to channel The Broken Hearts Club and Sex and the City.

The film starts with the five thirtysomething New Yorkers talking about sex and life over dinner: Desmond (Brad Anderson) is the handsome player, a love 'em and leave 'em heartbreaker; J.D. (Desmond Dutcher) is unhappy with...Read the entire review

The Movie
It took me a moment to snap out of my Pulp Fiction haze when starting to watch this Italian import starring Maria de Medeiros, the actress responsible for one of my favorite moments in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit. To this day, I still recite "blueberry pancakes" with that cute-as-button accent to any friends willing to tolerate my pointless Fabienne impression (sadly, I can't come close to matching her equally adorable doe-eyed expression). Having humored myself enough after a few seconds, I was finally able to settle into this drama about three lonely people--all lost souls looking for an escape.

The film wastes n...Read the entire review

The Movie
Winner of the best film and actress trophies at the 2007 German Film Awards--and recipient of numerous other nominations and wins at various other festivals and shows--Four Minutes (Vier Minuten, from writer/director Chris Kraus) is a dark and lonely tale that seems familiar yet still packs an emotional punch, led by moving performances from two women who embody their powerful yet fragile characters.

Traude Kr ger (Monica Bleibtreu) spends her later years in life as a piano teacher at a women's prison in Germany. But with little support--she pays for tuning herself, and has just four students out of 300 prisoners--her program may soon be cut. After handin...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

The DVD of Itty Bitty Titty Committee I received for review is a pre-release screener that does not reflect the final product. There are no menus, no special features, and a disclaimer that appears over the picture at regular intervals. Thus, you will find the technical sections of this review to be a little sparse, as what I am viewing does not reflect the final product.

In her two previous films, director Jamie Babbit has explored various aspects of gender and sexual politics via genres as disparate as comedy and horror. Unfortunately, neither of those films, But I'm a Cheerleader or The Quiet, got a fair shake at the box office despite garnering a loyal fanbase. For her newest film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, s...Read the entire review

The Film:

An unconventional love affair between two women, a web-cam performer and a tattoo-artist, is the focus of attention in Taiwanese lesbian director Zero Chou's critically acclaimed Spider Lilies (2007). Blending folklore with ultra-chic tunes pic effectively addresses a myriad of dilemmas modern societies are plagued with.

Jade (Rainie Yang) is a frivolous web-cam girl who decoys men willing to pay for a bit of nudity. Takeko (Isabella Leong), a tattoo-artist with a motley crew of clients, has an enormous yellow spider lily tattooed on her arm.

When Jade enters Takeko's studio she is immediately captivated by her spider lily. She is ready to pay and have the same tattoo on her body. But Takeko isn't willing to have Jade as a customer. She points to a large yellow lily, placed in an elegant holder, and explains that it is a source of bad luck. Misinterpreti...Read the entire review

The Movie
The latest collection of short stories from across the globe focuses on gay men looking for love, and has some hits and misses.

Serene Hunter (France/United States, 13 minutes, directed by Jason Bushman, anamorphic widescreen) revolves around handsome Frenchman Luc (Eric Debets), a heartbreaker who prefers not to date as he makes his way through meaningless hookups--before he moves in with one of them. But the memory of an American man who visits Paris every summer (director Jason Bushman) lingers in his mind, and when Jon visits again, it threatens to destroy the already troubled relationship Luc has with Sebastian (Jonathan Stringat). The ending may be a happy o...Read the entire review

The Movie:
I had to laugh when, shortly into direct-to-video You Belong To Me, Jeffrey tries to convince his potential landlady to rent him an apartment by saying, "I'm stable! I have good credit!" You see, Jeffrey is far from stable.

In the opening scenes of writer/director Sam Zalutsky's thriller, Jeffrey (Daniel Sauli) is instantly established as a lovelorn architect who can't see the clear signs that French friend/f-buddy Rene (Julien Lucas) is all wrong for him. Besides the clear disinterest in anything more meaningful, Rene seems to be hiding something. So when Jeffrey spots him with another man outside, he follows them to a building and is spotted by Gladys (Patti D'Arbanville), who mistakenly thinks he's interested in renting one of her apartments. Rather than simply walk away,...Read the entire review

The Movie
This collection of seven short films from across the world all deal with gay love, and the struggle for acceptance that most gay men go though.

Summer (Great Britain, 10 minutes, directed by Hong Khaou, anamorphic widescreen) finds Leung (Peter Peralta) walking through the woods with Will (Jay Brown) with the two talking--and making wishes when they catch leaves. Leung's feelings for his supposedly straight friend come to the surface, and the emotional aftermath provides the bulk of meaningful dialogue. There's nothing that really stands out about this entry, and there's only a minute or two that makes you pay attention.

Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=32869 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:56:13 PDT Rent It Taiwanese director Zero Chou, the woman behind Spider Lilies, has a strong grasp on the permanence of circumstance and decision. It shows through her respect for the artistry that goes into tattoos, from the almost torturous initiation into the artform to the addiction that can follow. Her delicate love story Spider Lilies draws an interesting parallel between marking your body and falling in love with someone. It's a painful yet beautiful process that, no matter the satisfaction that comes with its outcome, will be etched into the target's body forever. Zero Chou's film, with its thoughtful magnetism, draws you into the belief that a strong connection between individuals can be a permanent fixture in someone's life, no matter the age or sex of the other person. The Film: Spider Lilies features the relationship between Jade (Rainie Lee), an eighteen-ye...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=29186 Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:32:06 PDT Rent It The Movie Just the Two of Us is the second (of two) new releases from Wolfe video spotlighting gay-themed exploitation films of the 1960s and 70s (the other one, That Tender Touch, is reviewed elsewhere on this site.) Denise (Elizabeth Plumb) and Adria (Alisa Courtney) are two bored California housewives; both of them are married to men whose work - "for the government" - takes them out of town for long stretches of time. Out for lunch at a vaguely hippie-ish cafe, they spy a lesbian couple at the next table, cuddling and holding hands. Overcoming their initial feelings of discomfort, they come to admire the women for their lack of inhibition; Denise in particular sees in them a kind of affection that she feels is missing from her own life. One night, Denise confesses that she feels an attraction to her friend, which leads to a night of (softcore, fairly restrained) passion...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=29039 Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:48:06 PDT Rent It That Tender Touch, the new release from gay-themed Wolfe Video, is probably not meant for me. This late-60s drama of forbidden attraction between two middle-class women shows its age with an overwrought, play-to-the-peanut-gallery visual style, a somewhat blinkered view of same-sex desire and, most obviously, a mise-en-scene that exemplifies the worst excesses of the era. Wolfe seems to acknowledge these defects in their pitch to the target audience, calling it a "rediscovered camp gem" that is a "classic example of the lesbian exploitation genre, or what we like to call Dykesploitation!" Terri (Sue Bernard, who you'll no doubt remember from Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and Marsha (Bee Tompkins) are two young, single women living together in a small apartment. We barely make it through the opening credit sequence (over which is played the hilariously melodramatic title song) befor...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=28275 Sun, 27 May 2007 15:50:03 PDT Skip It "3 Needles" opens with an African circumcision ceremony. A group of teens cake themselves head to toe with mud, have their genitals cut, dance around the fire, bathe in special waters. Over the course of several days, they become men. Take very special note during this opening sequence, as all of it will be of great importance to nothing at all that follows. How wonderful. The film, written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald ("The Event"), is an anthology of three tales of HIV-AIDS as it affects the many corners of the globe. In a bit of useless faux-cleverness, the screenplay refuses to use the terms "HIV" and/or "AIDS," insisting instead that the disease be referred to only as "the virus." Which is odd, considering the film ends with a particularly preachy chunk of narration, in which Olympia Dukakis laments humanity's inability to get together and fight the "common enemy" of AIDS. Indeed, it see...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26995 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:02:32 PDT Rent It The Film: Introduced from three separate angles the story of Gypo (2005), a British Dogme-inspired production, concerns a low-income family from Kent and a duo of Eastern European asylum seekers. Director Jan Dun takes a great risk in betting on a motley crew of characters, some less than satisfying, and a dialog which is largely improvised. The result is watchable and at times engrossing picture which could have been substantially better. Helen (Pauline McLynn), a fortysomething housewife, is living a life full of daily disappointments. Her family is constantly involved in abusive quarrels which more often than not end as abruptly as they start. When she encounters the beautiful Tasha (Chloe Sirene) and her mother (Rula Lenska), both refugees of Roma...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26078 Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:50:16 PST Skip It The Movie: First of all, I need to preface this review with a few words. I'm a straight, married female, and one of my favorite shows is The L Word. Homosexual storylines do not bother me in the least. What does bother me, however, is a movie pretending to be a mystery / thriller, that's really just a porno, which sums up Open Cam. This movie centers around a group of D.C.-based gay men who enjoy online chatting (and more) with others. But there is a killer in their midst, one who is picking off the online fornicators one by one. From comical scenes where characters are car-jacked with plumbing pipes, to contrived situations set up only for the sex scenes, Open Cam fell short of everything it was and wasn't trying to be. While I'm not a gay male, and can certainly stomach attractive men in intimate situations (hello, Six Feet Under!), Open Cam's sex scenes vascilated between gross and...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26039 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:02:22 PST Highly Recommended The Movie: Simone is a teacher at a stuffy Catholic boarding school for girls. Annabelle is a rebellious, cocky Senator's daughter. When she arrives on campus and enters Simone's class, Annabelle is instantly attracted to Simone, however Simone resists due to the power imbalance she is after all, Annabelle's teacher and the strict rules of the school that forbid a close relationship between teachers and students. Regardless, the two spend increasing amounts of time together as their attraction for each other builds, culminating on one rainy night that results in each woman's life changing forever. It's difficult to know where to start with this film, as it works on so many levels. First of all, it is an absolute visual treat. Such care has been taken in filming, from the set design, to costuming, to the magnificent lighting, which helps to create a sense of hope and melanc...Read the entire review ]]>