One of the LGBTQ+ highlights at last month's 48th Toronto International Film Festival was the feature debut of writer-director Fawzia Mirza, The Queen of My Dreams, based on the filmmaker's 2012 debut short of the same name. It's a vibrant, blissful, and emotionally cathartic comedy drama that spans thirty years in the life of a... Continue Reading →
Ahead of the US theatrical and on demand release of the acclaimed, BAFTA-nominated fourth feature from writer-director Oliver Hermanus, Moffie, this Friday April 9th, The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann had an exclusive chat with its star Kai Luke Brümmer. Brümmer, who makes his impressive big screen acting debut in the film, portrays sixteen-year-old Nicholas... Continue Reading →
Luchina Fisher’s feature documentary Mama Gloria, currently making its New York premiere at the virtual 11th annual Athena Film Festival at Barnard College until March 14th and receiving its international premiere as part of the UK-wide 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival starting next week, tells the captivating life story of Chicago's septuagenarian Black... Continue Reading →
Pedro Almodóvar's intoxicating English-language debut, the thirty-minute short film The Human Voice, is "freely based on" the play by Jean Cocteau that was first staged in Paris in 1930, which the filmmaker previously referenced in 1987's Law of Desire, and initially inspired him to write 1988's Women On the Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. A... Continue Reading →
Peter Murimi's I Am Samuel, part of the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival March 17-28th 2021, is an intimate portrait of Samuel, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and his partner Alex. Shot in verité style, the documentary opens with footage of the two men visiting a beauty spot, a waterfall in a forest,... Continue Reading →
There is something quintessentially Australian about finding privacy in a wide expanse of nature, and My First Summer, part of the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, uses the depths of Australian forests as a furtive playground for big emotions. A teenage girl, Grace (Maiah Stewardson), witnesses a reclusive writer, Veronica Fox (Edwina Wren),... Continue Reading →
As writer-director Harry Macqueen's Supernova opens we're invited into the old, now seldom used camper van of pianist Sam (Colin Firth) and writer Tusker (Stanley Tucci), who've been together as a couple for decades, as they head to the Lake District. The rich history of their years together is immediately apparent in their rapport and... Continue Reading →
This year's London Film Festival has a larger-than-usual array of short films, all free to watch online in the UK until Sunday October 18th via BFI Player. Here are some favourites so far. Dungarees. Courtesy of LFF. Dungarees, written and directed by Abel Rubinstein, is a 5-minute 3-hander (now there's a phrase to conjure with)... Continue Reading →
Shirley, directed by Josephine Decker, is a thrilling psychodrama based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell; nominated for the Teddy at this year's Berlinale it now arrives in the UK at the BFI LFF. Starring Elisabeth Moss in the title role, who also produced, it's the tale of Shirley Jackson, a renowned horror writer... Continue Reading →
Update: I Am Samuel will be available to stream for free across Canada from February 18-22 and a Q+A will follow screening. Tickets are free and must be reserved in advance through Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema website. Peter Murimi's I Am Samuel, which has its European premiere at the London Film Festival on October... Continue Reading →
