Jane Austen was an astute observer of human behaviour. Behaviour that's changed very little in the two hundred years or so since she wrote Pride and Prejudice, the nuances of which can just as readily be found among gay men summering on Fire Island in 2022 as they could in Austen's nineteenth century high society... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 Review: Mayfly (Efímera) ★★★1/2
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 →
Western Side Story – Film Review: The Power Of The Dog ★★★★1/2
Injecting homoeroticism into the Western genre is nothing new, with The Sisters Brothers and Brokeback Mountain being just a couple of somewhat recent examples, but the great Jane Campion’s long-awaited return to features, The Power Of The Dog, feels fresh due to its fascinating tone and examination of today’s hot button issue of toxic masculinity.... Continue Reading →
Spice up your life! NYFF 2021 Film Review: Dune ★★★1/2
Slam it to the left, if you're having a good time. Shake it to the right, if you know that you feel fine. Chicas to the front. From Spice Up Your Life, written by Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Matt Rowe, Melanie C, Richard "Biff" Stannard, and Victoria Adams This Spice Girls hit does not feature... Continue Reading →
Daddy Bond, we’ve been expecting you – Film Review: No Time To Die ★★★★★
Daddy Bond, we've been expecting you. And I'm not just thinking about the way that bespoke slim-fit Tom Ford tux clings to those biceps and quads, or the way that wet white shirt shows off his pecs towards the film's epic climax, that salt and pepper hair, those characterfully creased chiseled features, or Bond sitting... Continue Reading →
NYFF 2021 Film Review: Benedetta ★★★★
Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta, which receives its North American premiere at the 59th New York Film Festival this weekend, is a delectable cloak-and-dagger queer period drama. Inspired by real events and based on the 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown, David Birke (Elle) and Verhoeven's... Continue Reading →
Outfest LA 2021 Opening Night Film Review: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie ★★★★★
Based on the hit West End show, which was inspired by a true story—or as the opening titles put it, "this really happened, then we added the singing and the dancing"—Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a gem of a movie musical. Director Johnathan Butterell's screen adaptation made its Los Angeles debut last night under (and... Continue Reading →
New York Asian Film Festival Review: As We Like It ★★★
Directors Chen Hung-i and Muni Wei’s gender-fluid screen reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (now As We Like It) is a colourful, bold, fresh and often messy treat of a movie that pushes boundaries with unbridled joy. Made with an all-female lead cast (a nod to Taiwanese opera, and to the performance history of... Continue Reading →
Neighborhood, Watch! – Film Review: In The Heights ★★★★1/2
Sometimes a movie comes along and meets its moment, transcending its innate flaws to feel more important, more powerful than it may have been perceived otherwise. In The Heights, the long-awaited film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-Hamilton Tony Award-winner, initially had a Summer 2020 release date, but now lands at a time where we’ve suffered... Continue Reading →
The Play’s The Thing – Film Review: Tu Me Manques ★★★★
Based on his semi-autobiographical and groundbreaking play, filmmaker Rodrigo Bellott’s Tu Me Manques became Bolivia’s official International Feature Film Oscar entry. Roughly translating to “I miss you in me”, the film tells the story of Jorge (Oscar Martínez), who travels to New York following his gay son Gabriel’s suicide to atone for how he treated... Continue Reading →