Writer-director Carmen Emmi's debut feature Plainclothes, which world premiered at Sundance 2025, winning the festival's US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, has an enticing premise. In Syracuse, Upstate New York, a young police officer, Lucas (Tom Blyth), has been placed on undercover "plainclothes" duty tasked with entrapping gay men. The assignment involves lingering... Continue Reading →
A few days before this year's Sundance Film Festival began, the President declared in his inaugural address that "it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female". As Sundance 2025 takes place, five anti-trans bills continue to advance in the legislature of the... Continue Reading →
Mathias Broe's seductive debut feature Sauna, which just world premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance, is both super sexy and has something to say. Based on Mads Ananda Lodahl's novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by Broe and William Lippert, this contemporary queer story of love and self-discovery set... Continue Reading →
Gianluca Matarrese's GEN_, which just premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance, employs an absorbingly intimate vérité style to explore the fascinating work of Dr. Maurizio Bini. On the cusp of retirement, Bini runs a department in Milan's publicly-funded Niguarda hospital which offers both fertility and gender-affirming care treatments free of charge. Matarrese,... 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 →
"They wanted her", performer Jim Caruso—who made his Broadway debut in Liza’s At The Palace! alongside Liza Minnelli—recalls his friend having observed after spending an evening at a party where she could tell that those gathered wanted to be around Liza! the effervescent red sequined star, not simply Liza the person. Director Bruce David Klein's... Continue Reading →
Kaye Adelaide's debut feature, The Rebrand, takes the frightening world of queer influencers and transforms it into a literal horror show, all while sporting a sly twinkle in its eye. Through what is framed as a found-footage documentary, we discover what “really” happened to Blair and Thistle (Andi E McQueen and Nancy Webb), a lesbian... Continue Reading →
Just when I thought I'd seen enough biopics about musical artists in recent years to last me a lifetime, The Greatest Showman filmmaker Michael Gracey's remarkable Better Man brings us the story of Robbie Williams and thrillingly breathes new life into the genre. All of the ingredients are there for a compelling narrative. A self-absorbed... Continue Reading →
William S. Burroughs’ unfinished novella, Queer, tells the story of an alcoholic, junkie American writer named William Lee, who, while escaping legal issues in the States, finds himself among other expats in Mexico City circa 1950. He spends his time at a local watering hole or cruising for men in the streets. There he meets... Continue Reading →
Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s anarchic experimental sci-fi documentary Doppelgängers³, which received its world premiere at SXSW and was nominated for Best Documentary at Frameline, had me questioning whether it was a parody at times. If the quote “microbes may have rights”, said with a completely straight face, doesn’t set your eyes rolling then welcome to an... Continue Reading →
