Sebastian Meise's masterpiece of restraint, Great Freedom, opens with a series of police surveillance footage of a men's public toilet, where Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) is caught on camera engaging in various sex acts with other men. Cut to a courtroom where the footage is being shown as evidence, with Hans in the dock, leading... Continue Reading →
Thirty five years after his death, Andy Warhol remains a cultural icon and a purposefully enigmatic figure, whose expansive career took in painting, filmmaking, television, modeling, acting, co-founding Interview magazine, and various branded business enterprises. Far too often, his work and character continue to be misunderstood and dismissed as superficial, taking his comment from a... Continue Reading →
The Perfect David (El Perfecto David) is a dark, brooding look at obsession, control, and the pressure to look perfect, but maybe not in the way you'd expect. David (Mauricio Di Yorio) spends every spare moment working out. From the moment he rises to when he falls asleep. His obsession is taking a toll on... Continue Reading →
Eugen Jebeleanu refuses to pull his punches in his acclaimed and award-winning first feature Poppy Field (Câmp de Maci). What begins as a romance becomes an intensely claustrophobic character study of a closeted policeman in Romania. When Cristi (Conrad Mericoffer) brings his long-distance boyfriend, Hadi (Radouan Leflahi), to his apartment, it’s clear how uncomfortable Cristi... Continue Reading →
Two very different documentaries playing at the Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 focus on individual LGBTQ+ activists in different walks of life: controversial gay rights warrior Peter Tatchell in Hating Peter Tatchell, and progressive Islamic campaigner Seyran Ateş in Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam. Seyran Ateş is a human rights lawyer and Imam, born... Continue Reading →
Country music and heartbreak are natural bedfellows, but T. J. Parsell’s documentary, Invisible (originally titled Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music when it premiered at Outfest 2021), shows us just how much queer heartache has gone into this enduringly popular genre. From the women in country, folk, and blues who were never given a shot... Continue Reading →
It’s not easy making a film with an emotionally distanced lead character, an enigma can only be so interesting without letting the audience in, so it’s a real achievement that writer-director C.B. Yi's Moneyboys is as engaging as it is. Beautifully long takes allow the actors strut their stuff and the juxtaposition between urban and... Continue Reading →
Outfest LA 2021 Audience Award winner, writer-director Lyle Kash Death and Bowling, which gets its Australian premiere at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, is a surprising, surrealistic look at a trans man’s grief and a mediation on trans lives, how gender trans folks are presented on screen and the complex motivation to be seen. Will... Continue Reading →
Luis Mariano García’s Mayfly is utterly endearing. A coming-of-age story, sprinkled with magic realism that steps over many of the clichés to deliver a charming take on a well-worn genre. Emillia (Danae Reynaud) is a serious, studious high-schooler with her eyes on the prize of a place at a prestigious architecture school. In the library... Continue Reading →
The melting pot of L.A. simmers in the heat of the joyous spoken-word musical, Summertime, settling perfectly into the Sydney-summer mood of the Mardi Gras Film Festival. Reader, I tell you the truth when I say it made me love a city I never got along with, and appreciate my own sunny, seaside Sydney even... Continue Reading →
