It’s not easy making a film with an emotionally distanced lead character, an enigma can only be so interesting without letting the audience in, so it’s a real achievement that writer-director C.B. Yi's Moneyboys is as engaging as it is. Beautifully long takes allow the actors strut their stuff and the juxtaposition between urban and... Continue Reading →
Outfest LA 2021 Audience Award winner, writer-director Lyle Kash Death and Bowling, which gets its Australian premiere at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, is a surprising, surrealistic look at a trans man’s grief and a mediation on trans lives, how gender trans folks are presented on screen and the complex motivation to be seen. Will... Continue Reading →
Luis Mariano García’s Mayfly is utterly endearing. A coming-of-age story, sprinkled with magic realism that steps over many of the clichés to deliver a charming take on a well-worn genre. Emillia (Danae Reynaud) is a serious, studious high-schooler with her eyes on the prize of a place at a prestigious architecture school. In the library... Continue Reading →
Hong Kong director Ray Yeung’s Suk Suk (released as Twilight’s Kiss in North America) has been drawing rave reviews since its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why; gentle, subtle, and deeply moving, Suk Suk is a real gem. Pak (Tai-Bo) is a married taxi driver and grandfather coming... Continue Reading →
Thomas Wilson-White’s The Greenhouse (receiving its World Premiere at Queer Screen's Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney) is a queer fairytale, but if that sounds like it’s all prancing twinks in tight shorts running around the woods, I hate to be the one to disappoint you. Like all good fairytales, this one is about bigger,... Continue Reading →
Can a prison romance exist in the outside world? That’s the central question filmmaker Jon Garcia asks with Luz, the story of Ruben (Ernesto Reyes) and Carlos (Jesse Tayeh) who struggle to translate their secretive relationship into an open one when released. The dynamic between the men changes and evolves from reluctant cellmates, to mentor/mentee,... Continue Reading →
