Back in May 2022 when promoting Fire Island, filmmaker Andrew Ahn shared with The Queer Review the impact that seeing Ang Lee's Oscar-winning classic The Wedding Banquet had had on him when he watched it at home with his parents when he was only eight years old. "It was really special. It showed me, as... Continue Reading →
Andrew Ahn's contemporary reworking of Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated classic The Wedding Banquet—with a new screenplay by Ahn co-written with the original film's writer James Schamus—is a delightfully warm and uplifting rom-com with heart and soul, and an ensemble cast to die for. Shifting the setting west from New York to Seattle, Ahn and Schamus also... Continue Reading →
A sleep-deprived, highly-caffeinated Chava (Tommy Dorfman) is on edge as she hurriedly rearranges the room of an Upper West Side Manhattan synagogue where she has summoned her ultra-Orthodox Hasidic parents for an "emergency" meeting. It is 2016 and we can hear the sound of Ariana Grande's "Break Free" bleeding from Chava's headphones as she begins... Continue Reading →
Following acclaimed runs in Sydney and London and an Australian tour, Sydney Theatre Company's (STC) production of The Picture of Dorian Gray is now running on Broadway through June 29th. In this inspired adaption of Oscar Wilde's late 19th-century gothic novella by writer-director Kip Williams (former Artistic Director of STC) all 26 roles—including the narrator—are... Continue Reading →
As an 18-year-old newly arrived in New York City, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Zackary Drucker encountered a photograph of European disco icon Amanda Lear and—like so many before her, including David Bowie—was immediately captivated by her beauty, crediting her as her "original trans archetype." Twenty years later, the director was approached by producer Noah Levy with the... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the April edition of The Queer Agenda, The Queer Review’s curated monthly guide to LGBTQ+ cultural happenings in New York City and beyond. April 3-7 - NewFest Queering the Canon: So Obsessed - In-person at BAM, New York & streaming nationwide Courtesy of NewFest. NewFest and BAM's fifth annual retrospective screening series “Queering... Continue Reading →
Award-winning New York cabaret star and actor Kim David Smith's latest concert album, Mostly Marlene, is released on digital and streaming platforms on Friday, March 21st. To celebrate, Smith will perform a show at New York's iconic downtown venue Joe's Pub—where much of the album was recorded live—that same evening. Smith brings charm and wit,... Continue Reading →
In a new interview, Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien says that he agrees with someone who once told him that it doesn't matter what he thinks of the cult show and movie now because it doesn't belong to him anymore, it belongs to its fans. It is a sentiment that comes at the end of... Continue Reading →
Receiving its world premiere at SXSW 2025 as part of the festival's Narrative Short Competition, writer-director Andy Reid's Brief Somebodies offers an enticing premise. The film opens with twenty-something actor-filmmaker Joel (Aldrin Bundoc) reviewing self-tape submissions for an unusually personal role he is casting, an actor to play opposite him in a scene that will... Continue Reading →
Jun Li's alluring third feature, Queerpanorama (眾生相), received its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale—aptly enough in the festival's Panorama section—where it was in competition for the 39th Teddy Award. Strikingly shot in black and white, it is a bold and inventive meditation on self-discovery that really got under my skin. The protagonist, listed in... Continue Reading →
