Jonathan Wysocki’s debut feature Dramarama, part of this year's virtual BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, is about the last summer after high school, after the curtain has fallen in the high school auditorium for the last time, just before the cast is about to split up and head their separate ways, everyone going off... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Review: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson ★★★★1/2
Tunde Johnson is a normal 17 year old boy. He’s Black; he’s gay; he loves his parents; and he’s been sleeping with the hottest guy in school, even though he’s dating Tunde’s best friend. Oh, and, no matter what he does, every night Tunde is murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department. And then he... Continue Reading →
Salem Horror Fest 2020 Review: Roommate Wanted ★★1/2
Horror-comedy Roommate Wanted, from director Michael McCartney, is a classic case of housemates-gone-bad. It’s a tale of all of the different ways white male privilege runs wild; it’s a typical horror story about a man with many personalities in his head; and it’s also a surprisingly sweet look at a young woman coming to terms... Continue Reading →
Salem Horror Fest 2020 Review: Hunger ★★★
Judah (Judah Vivancos) is a dancer. He’s a beautiful dancer and a beautiful man, lithe and muscled and with perfect razor-angled stubble. He dances primarily with the alluring Rebekah (Leonor Campillo), and while their choreographer and director have a lot to say about how they can improve, director Manu Herrera’s camera captures their performance with... Continue Reading →
Salem Horror Fest 2020 Review: The Strings ★★★★
One of the more esoteric films premiering this weekend at the digital Salem Horror Festival is director Ryan Glover’s debut The Strings. I’d call the film a slow-burn, except The Strings doesn’t burn at all. Instead, it’s a deeply unsettling film that sticks to your bones like a deadly winter chill, seeping under your skin... Continue Reading →
Salem Horror Fest 2020 Review: Death Drop Gorgeous ★★★★
The Salem Horror Festival is typically held every year, as you might expect from its name, in witchy Salem, Massachusetts. This year, though, as in-person events aren’t possible, the festival has moved its program online, offering a number of worthwhile and enjoyable movies to kick off October with some respite from the real-world horrors this... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Rialto ★★★
Colm (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) is a forty-something man in crisis. His father recently died, sending him spiraling about his relationship with his own son, who hates him. He’s unhappy with work, he’s unhappy at home, he’s drinking way too much to compensate; and, oh yeah, when he’s approached by a young blond hustler, (Tom Glynn-Carney) in... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Summerland ★★★
I love a road movie. They’re inherently cinematic — full of new locations, new sights to see, and characters always in motion — and they literalize the idea of characters “going on a journey” over the course of a film. Summerland, the new road-trip comedy from directing team Lankyboy (Kurtis David Harder & Noah Kentis),... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass ★★★★1/2
“Welcome to our crisis, already in progress,” says fellow camper Darcy Culpepper to Connor Major, the hero of Adam Sass’s phenomenal new debut YA horror novel Surrender Your Sons. It’s Connor’s first morning at Nightlight Ministries, the gay conversion therapy camp to which he’s been dragged by the burly men his mother hired to kidnap... Continue Reading →
TV Review: Away ★★★1/2
New space drama Away, which launches on Netflix today Friday September 4th, feels like a show out of time. The series focuses on mankind’s first mission to Mars, with a crew of international astronauts led by an American, Commander Emma Green (Hilary Swank). In her crew are a Russian cosmonaut and engineer Misha Popov (Mark... Continue Reading →