Director and co-screenwriter Olivier Peyon exquisitely captures both the heady ups and downs of young gay romance and the melancholy of memory in Lie With Me (Arrête avec tes mensonges), an adaptation of Phillipe Besson’s acclaimed novel. Excellently shot and filled with pitch perfect-performances, this is a real treat. Novelist Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec)... Continue Reading →
Prolific documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz’s (Vito, I Am Divine) latest feature, Commitment to Life, valuably adds more threads to the tapestry of our understanding of the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States by focusing on Los Angeles and the entertainment industry, in particular the work of the AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA).... Continue Reading →
Ira Sachs’ films tend to examine the complexities of adult relationships using a quiet, dry naturalistic tone which has often reminded me of the style of French New Wave cinema. So it feels fitting that his latest, Passages, his fifth collaboration with writing partner Mauricio Zacharias, would have Paris as its background. Featuring three stellar... Continue Reading →
Some of my favorite filmmakers say or show things nobody else will dare expose to the world, whether it’s the dark underbelly or something as commonplace yet rarely seen as graphic nudity and sex. They let their characters have flaws, outsized egos, mood swings, and make mistakes, all parts of the human experience which cookie... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Georgia Oakley’s impressive directorial debut Blue Jean is a compelling character study set in northern England in 1988, as Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass the notorious Section 28 of the local Government Act which stigmatized the nation's gay and lesbian population, stoking homophobia—both societal and internal—at the height of the HIV/AIDS... Continue Reading →
With the 2023 Tribeca Festival opening tonight in New York, running until June 18th, we take a look at some of the LGBTQ+ highlights in this year's exciting lineup of narrative, documentary, and animated feature films and shorts. The fact the festival lands in the city during Pride Month is not lost on Faridah Gbadamosi,... Continue Reading →
The 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival opens tonight with Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s outstanding The Stroll which received its world premiere in the US Documentary Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, going on the win that section’s Special Jury Award for Clarity of Vision. It tells the collective history of the transgender... Continue Reading →
Following its Grand Prix-winning premiere at Cannes, writer-director Lukas Dhont's tender, heartbreaking, and healing sophomore feature Close, has gone on to be acclaimed at festivals around the world, and is among the five works nominated as Best International Feature Film at this weekend's 95th Academy Awards. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Frank van den Eeden, Close... Continue Reading →
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has just revealed the winners of its 14th Dorian Film Awards, with Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's breathtaking Everything Everywhere All at Once named both Film of the Year and LGBTQ Film of the Year. Distributed by A24, the genre-defying movie which features a touching storyline between a... Continue Reading →
Georgian queer cinema is in the spotlight again with Elene Naveriani’s evocative Wet Sand, a heartbreaking look at the power of repression in a parochial community and the hate that lurks behind the faces we see everyday. Amnon (Gia Agumava) runs the local café, serving beers and meals to the locals. He’s a calm, stable... Continue Reading →
