Nothing gives me more cinematic pleasure than when John Waters characters shout their lines. Every booming rant seems like something I’d never say myself, but wished that I had. Can you imagine Divine whispering, “If I don’t get those cha-cha heels for Christmas, Mom and Dad are dead”? It doesn’t work. It MUST be loud... Continue Reading →
Where have you seen this one before? A grizzled, graying gay filmmaker fixates on a past relationship which prevents him from moving forward in present day. If Pedro Almodóvar’s wonderful Pain And Glory comes to mind, you have just won the trivia contest, but not so fast, as Before We Forget, co-written and directed by... Continue Reading →
schnook: noun - informal - def: a person easily duped, a fool - “Don’t be a schnook! It’s a scam!” I love comedies about schnooks. From the intrepid duo at the heart of American Movie, Beavis And Butt-head, Dumb And Dumber and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, I’ve always had a soft spot in my... Continue Reading →
I love dark comedies and big swings. They’re among my favorite movie flavors. With such titles as Dr. Strangelove, Heathers, War Of The Roses, and Fargo offering us peak form, I found myself studying their mastery of tone and ability to somehow make us care about a gallery of unsavory characters. It’s an exceedingly fine... Continue Reading →
“I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River. My father worked on a steamboat. His name was Steamboat Milton.” So begins Paul Reubens at the start of Matt Wolf’s remarkable documentary Pee-Wee As Himself, placing himself squarely in the role of unreliable narrator to his own life... Continue Reading →
I know, I know, my review title is crass and probably a little inappropriate, but I’m frustrated at the moment and will take sexual innuendo any way I can. It’s hard out there for us singletons. I’ve often said that I’ve never felt more alone than when in a roomful of other gay men. I’m... Continue Reading →
I’ve often wondered what people really mean when they say, “They don’t make movies like they used to”. Are they talking about the scripts, directing, cinematography, subject matter, overall tone or something else? When I look back on films from the 1940s, for example, I often experience empty sound editing, flat staging, and tin-eared dialogue.... Continue Reading →
Really good romantic comedies have had a tough time melting my cold, dead heart as of late. For me, the formula wore thin right around the time Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan started exchanging those pesky e-mails. Despite a resurgence in the past couple of years with such films as Anyone But You and Hit... Continue Reading →
Every year, instead of making a Top Ten List of my favorite movies, I like to pay homage to a long-discontinued but influential annual column called “Moments Out Of Time” from Film Comment magazine. Their critics would cite their favorite scenes, images, or lines of dialogue, even from films they may not have liked. As... Continue Reading →
All of the great musicals I’ve seen have what I like to call “lift”. Call it a key change, increase in tempo, clever wordplay, or a simple crescendo, but it’s that you’ll-know-it-when-you-feel-it burst of energy almost willing you out of your seat. I knew Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the creators of Six, had the... Continue Reading →
