The gut-wrenchingly powerful, deeply moving and ultimately hopeful animated short film, Cops and Robbers, directed by Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill, was written and performed by Ware-Hill in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year. Ware-Hill had initially filmed himself reciting his own impactful poem and posted the video to social media... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review 2020 – LGBTQ+ highlights of the year
With so many queer spaces, bars, clubs, live venues, theatres, and cinemas closed for much of the year, and festivals cancelled or reimagined as virtual editions, we asked some of friends, including prominent culture makers and performers, to tell us their favourite LGBTQ+ art or events of 2020. Get in touch via social media using... Continue Reading →
One For The Records – Film Review: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom ★★★★1/2
The term “Race Records” describes a time from the 1920s to the 1940s in which Black artists recorded songs for Black audiences. Despite selling well and launching such stars as Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, most musicians fell victim to exploitation by white record company management. The late August Wilson wrote about this conflict in... Continue Reading →
Killing Steve – Film Review: Promising Young Woman ★★★★1/2
Emerald Fennell has already established herself as one to watch with credentials such as published children’s author, second season show runner for Killing Eve, and for her magnetic portrayal of Camilla Parker-Bowles in The Crown. Now let’s add maverick director to this impressive list with her stunning debut, Promising Young Woman, a film you won’t... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: real life husbands Ben Lewis & Blake Lee on starring in Lifetime’s LGBTQ holiday movie The Christmas Setup “the weight of it being part of television history didn’t immediately dawn on us”
Was there a convention where TV and film executives decided that this was the year to make the Yuletide gay? There have been a raft of queer-centred movies this season, including the heartwarming The Christmas Setup, Lifetime's first LGBTQ holiday romance, starring the adorable real life couple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee. The film, which... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Drag legend Lady Bunny on clickbait, RuPaul, Larry Kramer & her holiday comedy show What Child is This? “it captures the essence of a Christmas where we’re supposed to feel festive but we’re in dire straits”
Certified drag legend, Wigstock creator and emcee, DJ, actress, singer-songwriter, and RuPaul's oldest friend, Lady Bunny, helps us to celebrate this socially distant holiday season with such aptly festive numbers as Santa's Spreadin' Covid Around, All I Want for Christmas (Is a Vaccine), and It's Beginning to Look Apocalyptic in her new comedy show What... Continue Reading →
Film Review: The Prom ★★★★
While Broadway remains dark after more than nine months, with the help of a little movie magic and an impressively detailed set (production design by Jamie Walker McCall), The Prom, lights up 42nd street once more and delivers a joyous, thoroughly uplifting movie musical where the dialogue scenes pop just as much as the song... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Gay Chorus Deep South filmmaker David Charles Rodrigues, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s Terrance Kelly & San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Artistic Director Tim Seelig “the whole point of this tour was for us to lift up our brothers & sisters across the South”
In the wake of the 2016 election and the heightened divisive climate, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) was joined by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC) on a 2017 tour of the Southern States with the most discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws. The tour was documented in the emotionally potent, thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting Gay... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review meets Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star Colman Domingo “she was fighting so many systems at that time being a gay woman in a male dominated industry”
This Friday December 18th sees the global Netflix release of the hotly awards-tipped Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, adapted from Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson's 1984 play, starring Viola Davis as the trailblazing “Mother of the Blues”. The film, which marks Chadwick Boseman's final powerhouse screen performance, takes place during a recording session with Ma and... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★★
Eryn Jean Norvill owns the stages in Sydney Theatre Company’s endlessly inventive adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, turning the tale of narcissism and vice into a one-woman, multimedia spectacular. Norvill portrays all 26 characters in the show. Dragging up in various guises to play everyone from the titular young male beauty,... Continue Reading →
