UPDATE: Charli XCX: Alone Together is on Hulu and on-demand from Friday January 28th 2022. In the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, global pop star Charli XCX announced that she would write and record an entire new album, along with creating the visuals, from self-quarantine in her home in LA, while promising... Continue Reading →
Style Over Substance Abuse – Film Review: Cherry ★★1/2
Some filmmakers start out small and dream of hitting the big time with a major studio contract. Once they’ve reached that pinnacle, which would no doubt have included great compromise and a whittling away of their authentic voices, some dream of scaling back and making a little indie. Take the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony,... Continue Reading →
TV Review: 4 Feet High ★★★★
4 Feet: Blind Date, which gave viewers the perspective of a teenage wheelchair user, won Best Narrative VR Film at SXSW 2019. It has since spawned 4 Feet High, a six-part Argentinian high school set made-for-television series and an accompanying four-part VR series, both of which world premiered at this year's Sundance, with the first... Continue Reading →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: Swan Song ★★★★★
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 →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: See You Then ★★★1/2
In Mari Walker's captivating feature debut See You Then, which is currently receiving its world premiere at SXSW Online 2021 until Saturday March 20th, two former lovers, performance artist and teacher Naomi (Lynn Chen) and tech whizz Kris (Pooya Mohseni), are reunited more than a decade after they abruptly broke up and lost touch. In... Continue Reading →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: The Beauty President ★★★★
While the drag queen presidential debate challenge on RuPaul's Drag Race might seem a little far-fetched, like so much on the show it is actually a homage to real queer history. Following an earlier bid for mayor of Chicago as detailed in the film Drag in for Votes, in 1992 Joan Jett Blakk announced, "We're... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Rebel Dykes ★★★★★
UPDATE: Rebel Dykes opens in UK cinemas and is released on digital Friday November 26th 2021. Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its world premiere as part of the virtual 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival running March 17th to 28th and its Australian premiere at the Melbourne Queer... Continue Reading →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: Femme ★★★★★
I May Destroy You's Paapa Essiedu gives a captivating performance as the fiercely femme queer Londoner Jordan in Ng Choon Ping and Sam H. Freeman's gripping and unsettling short film Femme which world premiered at SXSW Online 2021 today as part of the festival's Narrative Shorts Competition. Beautifully dressed in a sparkly top and studded... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: AIDS DIVA The Legend of Connie Norman ★★★1/2
With an overview of the ACT UP story having been told in compelling and detailed documentaries such as Jim Hubbard's United in Anger: A History of ACT UP and David France's How to Survive a Plague, it's pleasing to now see significant members being focused on individually, such as trans trailblazer Connie Norman, a broadcaster,... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray (on demand globally) ★★★★
One thing we’ve learnt through this pandemic is that “Zoom theatre” is gawdawful. And while previously recorded theatre productions (like London’s brilliant National Theatre Live) have gone some way to filling the gap, new productions have been rare and of vastly varying quality. Which is why this production of The Picture of Dorian Gray is... Continue Reading →
