Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke with Jack Lowden about BENEDICTION via zoom on May 23, 2022, the first thing I wanted to know was what it was like being directed by such an auteur as Terence Davies. This biopic of the life and English poet Siegfried Sassoon, as with… Read More »
SOUTHWEST OF SALEM — The San Antonio Four and filmmakers Deborah S. Esquenazi and Sam Tabet
I spoke to the San Antonio Four, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez,on June 20, 2016, it was the afternoon before their film, SOUTHWEST OF SALEM screened at the 40th Annual Frameline Festival. When they and director Deborah S. Esquenazi and producer Sam Tabet appeared on stage after that screening, it was to a five-minute… Read More »
Matt Sobel Says TAKE ME TO THE RIVER
Matt Sobel dedicated his feature film debut, TAKE ME TO THE RIVER, to his grandmother. She didn’t live to see the film, but her spirit pervaded the shoot. Sobel had considered several other locations other than Nebraska, where the story is set, but it soon became clear to him that only her farm could capture… Read More »
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
There is no getting around the prurient interest that STRANGER BY THE LAKE evokes. Set entirely on the rocky shore of the titular lake, it teems with beautiful young men madly in lust both with each other and with being in a state of nature. It is the stuff of porn flicks and of classical… Read More »
NASTY BABY
It’s a toss-up which is more unpredictable: creative impulse when given full rein, or that same impulse when it is stymied, though, perhaps one is a little that is more dangerous than the other. The struggle, be it artistic or procreative, is the theme of Sebastian Silva’s NASTY BABY, a modern fable about family, friendship,… Read More »
Julianne Moore and Ellen Page Bring FREEHELD to Life
Click here to listen to the interview. Ellen Page optioned the rights to FREEHELD when she was 21. Eight years later, Cynthia Wade’s Oscar-winning documentary short is a feature film co-starring Page and Julianne Moore as Stacie Andree and Laurel Hester, the same-sex couple who challenged the Freeholders of Ocean County, NJ for Hester’s right… Read More »
STONEWALL
STONEWALL is a sudsy, underwritten, overwrought effort that is less than the intended tribute to the unsung heroes of the eponymous riots that accelerated the gay liberation movement into the social mainstream. Instead, it is a melodrama of truly epic proportions told with every cliché of gay life as lived in less enlightened times, and with… Read More »
Why BLACKBIRD Soars
I have rarely been as moved by a film as I was by BLACKBIRD. A thoughtful, poetic, compassionate film that uses truth, humor, and tragedy into an elegiac story that transcends the specifics of its plot, transmuting them into a timeless story of love, acceptance, and moving on. When I spoke with director/co-writer Patrik-Ian Polk… Read More »
Sandra Bagaria Unveils A GAY GIRL IN DAMASCUS: THE AMINA PROFILE
Sandra Bagaria was not raised to be a victim, and so when her online with a woman blogger named Amina half a world away took an emotionally wrenching turn, the last thing she wanted to do was walk away.
The Last BOULEVARD
Robin Williams gives one of his finest performances in BOULEVARD, a film that allows him to explore the profound loneliness of a gentle man living a painful lie. Alas, it is a story far too fraught with convenient coincidences to be much more than a vehicle for Williams’ considerable depth and humanity. It is elevated,… Read More »