Many years ago, Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann thought it would be a fluffy good time to follow around one of the world’s leading gay adult film stars in service of a sexy, funny documentary. Little did he know at the time that his years of filming his star, Jonathan Agassi, would instead result in something... Continue Reading →
Have you ever felt that the films of Baz Luhrmann and Michael Bay dragged a little? Do you need more edits? Faster action? More kablooey and kablam? Well, to paraphrase SNL’s Stefon, “America’s hottest movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once has everything! Talking Rocks! Hot dog fingers! Backwards whooshing office chairs! A Sharpie wielding Halloween... Continue Reading →
As a little budding gay growing up in a small town, I surprised even myself by really being into baseball. I knew everything about the players and their stats. I collected the baseball cards and even rooted for the Pittsburgh Pirates despite being an Ohioan who should have supported the Cleveland Indians. Even as a... Continue Reading →
It’s been almost 20 years since Adrian Lyne’s last feature film, Unfaithful, and a lot has changed in cinema. The hyper-successful 80s and 90s erotic thrillers virtually disappeared or were relegated to cheap, straight-to- [insert non-cinema format here]. Along with them went the romcoms and the wacky adventure blockbusters like When Harry Met Sally and... Continue Reading →
On paper, Finland’s official entry for the International Feature Film Oscar sounds like a claustrophobic, two people talking in a room bore. In the right hands, however, and co-writer-director Juho Kuosmanen has a very good pair of hands, this blend of bleak and heartwarming proved completely captivating. Imagine Before Sunrise without the sunrise, beautiful surroundings,... Continue Reading →
With more time than is healthy spent alone in 2021, I had the opportunity to see literally hundreds of films…way more than I could ever possibly review. One of the great perks of being a film critic are the free screenings, be they in person, on DVD, via links, or loaded onto my Apple TV.... Continue Reading →
As a young, Jewish boy growing up in small town Ohio, I was in awe of the B’nai B’rith girls such as Sue Malkoff, Jodi Raven and Sharon Marks. They had such supreme confidence, mercurial tempers, and smarts. I was always jealous of how put together they were with their Izod shirts, corduroys, and suede... Continue Reading →
Injecting homoeroticism into the Western genre is nothing new, with The Sisters Brothers and Brokeback Mountain being just a couple of somewhat recent examples, but the great Jane Campion’s long-awaited return to features, The Power Of The Dog, feels fresh due to its fascinating tone and examination of today’s hot button issue of toxic masculinity.... Continue Reading →
With so much attention paid to the late Diana Spencer in recent times, with the most current season of The Crown and the Broadway musical among the high profile endeavors, it may seem a film entry would not have anything new to say on the subject. Luckily, with Pablo Larraín (Jackie) directing Steven Knight’s (Locke,... 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 →
