While everyone else has picked apart the differences between the Snyder and Whedon cuts of the Justice League films, this film nerd spent 5 1/2 hours poring over the two versions of a little seen film from 2005 which went from fascinating 2 1/2 hour mess to out and out masterpiece on its journey to... Continue Reading →
After her checkout shift at the local supermarket, community college student Cleo (Helena Howard) returns home to hear the devastating news on television that the British new wave band The Smiths have broken up. Her bedroom walls are plastered with Morrissey's image, her Volkswagen Beetle is covered with The Smiths stickers; even the license plate... Continue Reading →
As someone who has lived in Manhattan throughout the pandemic, the black and white shots of the vacant city streets and landmarks which open David Wexler's Disintegration Loops—world premiering at SXSW Online 2021—struck me as one of the most evocative works I've seen so far that captures a sense of what being here was like... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Wes Hurley's Potato Dreams of America, which received its world premiere at SXSW Online 2021, is the inventively told autobiopic of a gay Russian immigrant who falls in love with America as a child through catching pirate television broadcasts of 80s movies as the Iron Curtain falls and emigrates to Seattle when his mother... Continue Reading →
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 to involve her fans—or Angels as they're known—many of whom are LGBTQ+, via zoom and... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
