Friday night saw the opening of NewFest's 33rd New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival with Jesse Moss' up close and personal chronicle of LGBTQ+ history in the making, Mayor Pete, at Manhattan's SVA Theatre. Before Pete Buttigieg had officially thrown his hat into the ring as a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Moss began capturing footage of... Continue Reading →
New Queer Cinema pioneer Todd Haynes' The Velvet Underground, which had its world premiere at Cannes and recently played the New York Film Festival, is an exquisitely crafted, invigorating time capsule which uses music, contemporary film, archive interviews, and present day commentary from those who were there, to immerse us in New York's avant-garde culture... Continue Reading →
The first two episodes of creator Rebecca Addelman's gripping dark comedy drama Guilty Party premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday October 14th. Making an auspicious screen debut in the ten-part series is recent Juilliard graduate Jules Latimer who gives an impactful, nuanced performance as Toni Plimpton, a woman known in the media as "The Dick Cutter",... Continue Reading →
I’ve always had a soft spot for immigration stories, especially considering both sets of my grandparents came to America from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. By escaping the oppression they faced as Jews, my grandparents traveled to a new world rife with problems of its own. They struggled to fit in... Continue Reading →
Halleloo, it's season two! Tonight sees the return of one of the best LGBTQ+ shows on television, unscripted or otherwise, HBO's Emmy-nominated We're Here, just in time to shine some much-needed queer hope into our lives. Going even deeper into the moving and uplifting stories of the transformative power of drag, the three superstar Drag... Continue Reading →
Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer's riveting feature documentary Cured, which opens the fall season of PBS' Independent Lens on Monday October 11th, examines the fascinating chapter in queer history that saw gay liberation activists successfully overturn the US psychiatric profession's classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. Using archive photographs and video footage, recently discovered... Continue Reading →
Humorous. Funny. Amusing. These are words I freely use to describe comedy shows that make me giggle. Hilarious though, is a word I hold back on using for rare shows like former SNL co-head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider's The Other Two, which recently got renewed for a third season on HBO Max. As... Continue Reading →
Slam it to the left, if you're having a good time. Shake it to the right, if you know that you feel fine. Chicas to the front. From Spice Up Your Life, written by Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Matt Rowe, Melanie C, Richard "Biff" Stannard, and Victoria Adams This Spice Girls hit does not feature... Continue Reading →
The Normal Heart has returned to the UK in its first major production since the original, and taking over the National Theatre's Oliver stage, directed by Dominic Cooke (in a co-production with his Picturehouse production company) it is quite the return. In many ways, Kramer’s is a time capsule of that time of dark desperation... Continue Reading →
Daddy Bond, we've been expecting you. And I'm not just thinking about the way that bespoke slim-fit Tom Ford tux clings to those biceps and quads, or the way that wet white shirt shows off his pecs towards the film's epic climax, that salt and pepper hair, those characterfully creased chiseled features, or Bond sitting... Continue Reading →
The reliably uplifting GALECA Dorian Award and Emmy-nominated unscripted series We're Here, created by Steve Warren and Johnnie Ingram, returns to HBO on Monday October 11th at 9pm ET/PT, streaming on HBO Max. It works within the same proven framework as season one, but enriches and deepens its storytelling and finds more time for some... Continue Reading →
For me, good art is pretty, but great art is confrontational, forcing the viewer to reflect upon the human condition and reveal truths, however inspiring or ugly. The 2021 Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Titane, writer-director Julia Ducournau’s sophomore effort, definitely veers towards the latter type of confrontation. With enough brutal violence to fill all of... Continue Reading →
Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta, which receives its North American premiere at the 59th New York Film Festival this weekend, is a delectable cloak-and-dagger queer period drama. Inspired by real events and based on the 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown, David Birke (Elle) and Verhoeven's... Continue Reading →
One of most poignant, moving sequences in Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the screen adaptation of the hit West End musical now streaming globally on Amazon Prime Video, features a bittersweet, rousing new song, This Was Me, written specifically for the film by Dan Gillespie Sells with lyrics by Tom MacRae, the original show's co-creators. As... Continue Reading →
Ahead of today's global launch of Everybody's Talking About Jamie on Prime Video, The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann spoke exclusively with the film's breakout star Max Harwood. Based on the hit West End show, which was inspired by a true story—or as the opening titles put it, “this really happened, then we added the... Continue Reading →
Tony-nominee, or "one-time Tony-loser" as his husband Gerold apparently likes to playfully tease him, Rory O'Malley recently returned to the role he took over from Jonathan Groff on Broadway, King George III in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. While the nation's theatres were dark, one of the things that helped... Continue Reading →
At Tuesday night's New York premiere of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann was on the hot pink carpet to speak with the film's producer and star Jessica Chastain, her co-stars Cherry Jones and Mark Wystrach, director Michael Showalter, and screenwriter Abe Sylvia, along with World of Wonder founders Fenton... Continue Reading →
For some people, life starts at 40. For miserable, corporate manager Wallace Price, life started when he died. Better late than never. TJ Klune’s new novel, Under the Whispering Door, takes his breezy fantasy stylings and tackles a love story beyond the grave. When Wallace attends his own sparsely attended funeral, he meets Mei—a reaper... Continue Reading →
NewFest has just revealed the full lineup for the 2021 New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, which runs October 15th - 26th both in NYC theaters and virtually throughout the United States on NewFest’s on-demand platform. In-person screenings at the 33rd edition of New York's biggest LGBTQ+ film festival will take place at The SVA Theatre... Continue Reading →
Schitt's Creek creator and star Dan Levy stood on the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art at his first Met Gala on Monday night wearing a rendering of the work of artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz. A name many of Levy's younger fans had likely never heard before. In honoring the artist's work... Continue Reading →
Creators Stephen Warren and Johnnie Ingram's Emmy-nominated We're Here, one of our TV highlights of 2020, returns to HBO for an eight-episode second season on National Coming Out Day, Monday October 11th 2021 at 9pm ET / 10pm PT, with new episodes dropping weekly on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Fresh from the All... Continue Reading →
Three-time Daytime Emmy winner Chandler Massey, who has portrayed gay character Will Horton on Days of Our Lives since 2010, and Daytime Emmy-nominated Zach Tinker, who has taken on the established role of Will's husband Sonny Kiriakis, speak exclusively with The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann about being part of the weeklong special event on... Continue Reading →
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced the winners of their Dorian TV Awards during tonight's Dorians TV Toast 2021 on Here TV and PlanetOut's YouTube channel, hosted by radio personality and LGBTQ activist Karel. For the third time, FX's groundbreaking series Pose took the society's award for Best TV Drama, while Best LGBTQ TV... Continue Reading →
On the last full day of programming at Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday August 21st, the world's largest LGBTQ+ film festival centered trans, non-binary, intersex, and gender-nonconforming storytellers with its fifth annual Trans and Non-Binary Summit with a rich and exciting lineup of events at the Directors Guild of America. The event opened with Kieran... Continue Reading →
For the first time in history, songwriter Paul Shaffer's 1982 high energy dance hit It's Raining Men, originally performed by The Weather Girls and later by Geri Halliwell in 2001, has been reworked into an inclusive, gender-neutral LGBTQ+ instant classic cover version by New York City pop singer and "artivist" Mila Jam in support and... Continue Reading →
Outfest has just announced the award winners of the 2021 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, which ran from August 13th—opening with the LA premiere of Everybody's Talking About Jamie—until August 22nd, closing with Fanny: The Right to Rock. Sunday's closing night gala also saw Outfest's annual honors bestowed upon Octavia Spencer, who received the... Continue Reading →
As the 39th annual Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival drew to a close with the LA premiere of Bobbi Jo Hart's rousing documentary feature Fanny: The Right To Rock, Oscar-nominee Elliot Page was honored by Outfest with the organization's 2021 Achievement Award, making him the first publicly identifying trans person in the history of... Continue Reading →
As another Outfest draws to a close, I can honestly say this has been a pretty incredible program of films. I’ve seen such growth in filmmaking styles, narrative experimentation, and a great amount of diverse stories and voices on display. So many films featured characters who just happened to be LGBTQ+ without it being the... Continue Reading →
Queer cinema history is littered with enough coming out stories, hot shirtless guys, and campy comedies that they’ve been labeled “Bad Gay Films” as if that’s the norm. For sure, filmmakers have stepped up their game and have produced artistic, challenging, cinematic masterpieces, but often it’s been at the expense of dismissing, sometimes rightfully so,... Continue Reading →
When Outfest LA 2021 spotlight artist Natalie Jasmine Harris turned 17 she was invited to take part in a cotillion ball, just as her mother and grandmother had been before her, but she decided to break with tradition and declined. At that time she was secretly struggling with her queer identity while attending a conservative... Continue Reading →
Based on the novella by Johan Theorin, Swedish filmmaker Frida Kempff's unsettling debut feature Knocking (or Knackningar in Swedish, such a delicious word) which played Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday night, is a sophisticated psychological horror and a masterclass in tension, spare dialogue, and intricate sound design. At its centre is a compelling performance by... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Natalie Morales' Language Lessons, which played Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday August 14th, is an absorbing two-hander starring Morales as Cariño, a Costa Rica-based Spanish teacher who has been hired to give California-dwelling Adam (Mark Duplass, who's also co-writer) 100 weekly lessons as a surprise birthday gift from his husband. Initially taken aback by... Continue Reading →
Watching so many films in a row can prove daunting at times. You can almost picture a room full of filmmakers shouting at once, “Look at me here!” or “My topic is most important!” As you ping-pong from one subject to another, it feels difficult to digest one before quickly, and kind of grossly, moving... Continue Reading →
After graduating from Southern Methodist University, Texas born and raised writer-director Lauren Hadaway went on to forge a career as a dialogue and ADR supervisor, working on movies like Justice League (both cuts), The Hateful Eight, and Whiplash. Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning film proved particularly impactful on her, and she describes her intense, utterly gripping debut... Continue Reading →
Wow! Hats off to the programmers and filmmakers of Outfest LA 2021. As an alum who has had seven films screen at Outfest over the years, I’ve seen the festival truly grow and take the initiative to shine a spotlight on a larger and larger world of stories. It makes me proud as a filmmaker,... Continue Reading →
It’s that favorite time of the year for queer people and our allies in Los Angeles as Outfest kicks off another year with a stellar lineup of films, one which is more diverse than ever before. I would typically write longform reviews, but because I intend to watch so many features and shorts over the... Continue Reading →
Based on the hit West End show, which was inspired by a true story—or as the opening titles put it, "this really happened, then we added the singing and the dancing"—Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a gem of a movie musical. Director Johnathan Butterell's screen adaptation made its Los Angeles debut last night under (and... Continue Reading →
As the 39th edition of the world’s largest LGBTQIA+ film festival, Outfest LA 2021, opens this Friday August 13th—boasting 175 titles, with a mix of outdoor events, indoor screenings for vaccinated moviegoers, and online streaming options—Outfest's Director of Festival Programming Mike Dougherty offers an exclusive insider's guide to help you get acquainted with some of... Continue Reading →
Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its Los Angeles premiere at Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday August 14th (also screening virtually August 15th-17th), is a rousing, celebratory, and considered examination of London's rebel dyke subculture of the 1980s and its legacy. The film's punky, DIY aesthetic captures the anarchic spirit... Continue Reading →
Ashish Gupta, best known for his eponymous fashion label, has departed from his usual creative practice to photograph intimate, frequently unashamedly explicit portraits of men, that capture the queer male gaze with tenderness, joy, and humour, while challenging established notions of masculinity and sexiness in mainstream gay culture and porn. The result is GAZE for... Continue Reading →
Directors Chen Hung-i and Muni Wei’s gender-fluid screen reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (now As We Like It) is a colourful, bold, fresh and often messy treat of a movie that pushes boundaries with unbridled joy. Made with an all-female lead cast (a nod to Taiwanese opera, and to the performance history of... Continue Reading →
I became an instant fan of the BBC sitcom, Absolutely Fabulous, in the early 90s when visiting my sister Wendy in Melbourne, Australia. We were at a bar called The Exchange when the Season One Episode “Iso Tank” was played on the monitors. I was hooked the moment Edina (the genius show creator Jennifer Saunders)... Continue Reading →
Filmmaker Todd Stephens returns to his hometown of Sandusky, following 1998's Edge of Seventeen and 2001's Gypsy 83, to complete his Ohio trilogy with Swan Song, "an instant queer classic" (TheQueer Review), now playing in US theaters. The bittersweet comedy which premiered at SWXW Online 2021, stars the legendary Udo Kier as Mister Pat, a... Continue Reading →
Inspired by J.M. Barrie’s 1902 novel The Little White Bird, which introduced the world to Peter Pan, writer-director Justice Jamal Jones’ lyrical debut short film, How To Raise A Black Boy, reframes that tale of childhood and adulthood within a queer Black narrative. Following its inclusion in April’s Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Film Festival, How To... Continue Reading →
As the final two episodes of the second season of Making The Cut land of Amazon Prime Video today, The Queer Review shares the passion of one of the show's judges, Moschino's creative director Jeremy Scott, for designer Gary Graham. He worked through the stress and pressure of the competition and consistently wowed us with... Continue Reading →
Award-winning artist, performer, musician, and filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to Outfest this month with his deeply personal feature North By Current, following its world premiere at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for both Best Documentary and a Teddy Award. The raw, unflinching portrait of his Mormon family reeling from tragedy... Continue Reading →
Jeffrey Schwarz, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind Vito, I Am Divine, and Tab Hunter Confidential, returns to Outfest this month for the world premiere of his latest feature, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story. The fascinating film unearths the little-known attempt by actress Gloria Swanson to stage an original Broadway musical based on the movie she is... Continue Reading →
In Oscar-winning Spotlight filmmaker Tom McCarthy's suspenseful new movie Stillwater, which world premiered at this month's Cannes Film Festival, Abigail Breslin plays Allison, a young American woman serving time in a Marseille prison for the murder of her girlfriend while studying in France, a crime she insists she did not commit. When her estranged conservative... Continue Reading →
The lineup for the 2021 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, running Friday August 13th to Sunday August 22nd, has just been announced with a mix of outdoor events, indoor screenings for vaccinated moviegoers, and online streaming. The 39th edition of the world's largest LGBTQIA+ film festival boasts an impressive range of narrative features, documentaries,... Continue Reading →
Among the highlights at this year's Sundance was creator-writer-star Jibz Cameron and director Mariah Garnett’s Weirdo Night. It's a specially filmed version of the ordinarily monthly LA-based underground cabaret-style event that centres queer, female, and POC comedians, artists, and musicians, curated by Cameron and hosted with flair and a touch of filth by her performing... Continue Reading →
Groundbreaking Emmy and Grammy-nominated comedian, writer, actor, and director, Tig Notaro's animated stand-up special, Tig Notaro: Drawn, debuts on HBO on Saturday July 24th, before streaming on HBO Max. From an unlikely hospital bed proposal, to a macabre road trip fantasy featuring Dolly Parton, and a meditation on the Kool-Aid man's gender, this is one genre-spanning, hilarious... Continue Reading →
Emmy-winning director Jamila Wignot's Ailey, a compelling and moving portrait of a towering figure in modern dance, Alvin Ailey, world premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. "Unlike many documentaries about artists, Ailey gives us a substantial insight into his creative process", writes James Kleinmann in his five... Continue Reading →
“Everything is about sex. Except sex, which is about power”—the quote, apocryphally attributed to Oscar Wilde—sums up much of the machinations at the heart of Neil Blackmore’s brilliant The Dangerous Kingdom of Love, a thrilling retelling of the later years of Francis Bacon’s life with the seductive frisson of Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses... Continue Reading →
One of the standout acting performances at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival came from 21-year-old Reid Miller who portrays gay teenager Jadin Bell opposite Mark Wahlberg in Joe Bell. Based on true events, with a screenplay by the Oscar-winning duo being Brokeback Mountain, Diana Ossana and the late Larry McMurtry, the film follows the... Continue Reading →
Cameron Maddock, who goes by Cam, isn’t just your average twenty-something gay tech guy in San Francisco avoiding his less-than-accepting family. He’s a cyber-security genius. But that doesn’t explain why an apparent alien assassin is pursuing him. Robert Roth’s Into the Lightning Gate is a fast-paced, pulpy sci-fi snack with a solid, high-concept base that... Continue Reading →
Angelo Madsen Minax's remarkable documentary feature North By Current—which world premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, had its US premiere at Tribeca and plays Outfest LA on Sunday August 15th—sees the filmmaker return from Brooklyn, New York to his rural Michigan hometown where his Mormon family is dealing with an unthinkable tragedy. Minax's infant... Continue Reading →
Ahead of the season one finale of the beautifully queer comedy drama Genera+ion on HBO Max on Thursday July 8th, The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann spoke with its creators, daughter and father Zelda Barnz and Daniel Barnz, who executive produce the series alongside Zelda's other dad, and Daniel's husband, Ben Barnz. Zelda and Daniel... Continue Reading →
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has revealed the nominees for their second annual Dorian TV Awards, with the final season of Pose leading with a total of six nods including Best TV Drama, followed by WandaVision with five nominations, and Mare of Easttown and I May Destroy You each garnering four nominations, while... Continue Reading →
Photographer Charles Moriarty's last book, Before Frank—later reissued as Back to Amy—revealed many of his unpublished images of Amy Winehouse and provided a rare and intimate glimpse into her life before the release of her debut album. Using just one roll of film, the Dublin-born photographer's shoot with the singer in London, when he was... Continue Reading →
This Pride Month the Criterion Channel is showcasing the Oscar-winning work of filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman with the eight film collection, Pride and Protest. In 1977, Friedman, who was working as an assistant editor in New York, was struck by the power of queer filmmakers putting queer lives on screen when he encountered... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Todd Stephens returns to his hometown, and the setting of his 1998 gay coming of age movie Edge of Seventeen—Sandusky, Ohio—for his latest feature Swan Song, which received its world premiere at SXSW Online today. Screen legend Udo Kier stars as Pat Pitsenbarger, a retired gay hairdresser living a monotonous existence in a hospital-like... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: The Sparks Brothers is released in US theaters Friday June 18th, 2021. BAFTA-nominated British filmmaker Edgar Wright, known for his adept and creative use of music in movies like Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, has devoted several years to making his feature documentary debut about his favourite band, Sparks. Whether you're... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: Ailey opens in New York on July 23rd, Los Angeles on July 30th and expands to theaters nationwide on August 6th via NEON. Emmy-winning director Jamila Wignot's feature documentary Ailey, which just had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, is a captivating and deeply moving portrait of the celebrated dancer and... Continue Reading →
Featured in Tribeca 2020’s Awards Competition, Pray Away—which opens at New York's IFC Center on Friday July 30th and debuts globally on Netflix on Tuesday August 3rd—looks at the destructive history of conservative Christian “reparative therapy”, a shocking misnomer for a practice with no medical or psychological basis. Through the stories of key “defectors” from... Continue Reading →
