Among the queer highlights at last month's SXSW Online 2021 was the short film Femme, by co-writers-directors Ng Choon Ping and Sam H. Freeman. The film stars I May Destroy You's Paapa Essiedu as Jordan, a femme queer man in London who leaves the safety of a night out clubbing with his friends and gets... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Moffie ★★★★★
As writer-director Oliver Hermanus' Moffie opens in Apartheid South Africa in 1981, Nicholas (Kai Luke Brümmer) has just turned 16 making him, along with all other white men of his age, eligible for mandatory military service at a time when the country is engaged in a military operation at the border with Soviet-backed Angola in... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Oliver Hermanus on his BAFTA nominated Moffie “I didn’t want the film to get stuck in the weeds of becoming a queer fantasy of men in the military”
In 2009 queer South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus' debut feature Shirley Adams, which he made while still a student at the prestigious London Film School, premiered in competition at Locarno, with his subsequent film, Beauty (Skoonheid) winning the Queer Palm at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, where it played in the Un Certain Regard competition... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Moffie star Kai Luke Brümmer “It was really interesting to interrogate being a young man who’s turned into a weapon”
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 →
It’s A Sin: Dr Emily Garside’s guide to the HIV/AIDS narratives to read & watch next
Dr Emily Garside's guide to which HIV/AIDS narratives to read and watch next after Russell T Davies' acclaimed series It's A Sin. There is a vast array of work to choose from. Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic those affected began telling their stories, both as an act of memorial, remembering those the government... Continue Reading →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: Disintegration Loops ★★★★
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 →
SXSW Online 2021 Film Review: Swan Song ★★★★★
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 →
LGBTQ+ highlights at SXSW Online 2021
Ahead of tomorrow's SXSW Online 2021 launch, we take a look at some of the LGBTQ+ feature, short, episodic, VR, and panel discussion highlights at this year's virtual festival. SXSW Online 2021 runs Tuesday March 16th to Saturday March 20th. Explore the full festival lineup at Online.SXSW.com. SXSW Online 2021 LGBTQ+ Panels: Expanding Queer Cinema... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Dramarama ★★★★
Jonathan Wysocki’s debut feature Dramarama, part of this year's virtual BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, is about the last summer after high school, after the curtain has fallen in the high school auditorium for the last time, just before the cast is about to split up and head their separate ways, everyone going off... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Review: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson ★★★★1/2
Tunde Johnson is a normal 17 year old boy. He’s Black; he’s gay; he loves his parents; and he’s been sleeping with the hottest guy in school, even though he’s dating Tunde’s best friend. Oh, and, no matter what he does, every night Tunde is murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department. And then he... Continue Reading →