THEGAYUK

Author: Roger Walker-Dack

  • FILM REVIEW | Getting Go

    For three weeks in the summer of 2012 filmmakers Cory James Krueckeberg and Tom Gustafson (the producer/director behind the cute ‘MARIACHI GRINGO’ and the gay cult film ‘Were The World Mine’) followed two guys all over New York with a camera and a script and nothing else. ★★★★★

    Tanner, a slightly nerdy recent college grad had devised a plan to shoot a documentary about the NYC nightlife scene in order to meet a really hot go-go guy that he has cyber-obsessed with. And this is the film about their film.

    They followed the couple filming each other all over the city in cafes and bars, rooftops, dance clubs, their own living rooms and bathrooms and eventually into their bedrooms too. As the story developed and the relationship between ‘Go’ and ‘Doc’ evolved in front of us, there is a very definite, and somewhat unexpected, shift in the power axis between the two men.

    This really is guerrilla filmmaking at its best. No crew, a kickstarter budget of $10K, one actor and one real life go-go boy in an innovative hybrid of documentary, narrative and art film that is such a delight.

    Following hot on the heels of movies such as Weekend, Keep The Lights On and Hors Les Murs this wee drama is part of a very welcome new movement of edgy queer cinema.

    By no means perfect (like the editing!) but it has many things to really love… such as a rather brilliant soundtrack of new music from gay musicians… not to forget the acting of these two young leads who are not exactly tough on the eye to watch even with their clothes on. It also packs an energy and excitement that is quite infectious.

    The future of gay cinema looks very promising indeed when new work like this is being made… and finding the audience it deserves.

    Buy now from Amazon

     

  • COLUMN | Everything old is new again

    Every summer our movie reviewer Roger Walker-Dack re-locates to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In fact he is there right now to cover their International Film Festival exclusively for THEGAYUK.

    This rather stunning small coastal town that is a prime vacation destination has a fun packed calendar that has literally special events for everyone from Bears to Circuit Boys, to Women of Color & Gay Family Week to ensure that all shades of LGBT people are catered for. But away from silver screen I have noticed a surprising new trend in the roster of entertainers who are flocking to perform on all the main stages here. Whilst there are still most of the regular stars such as the impeccably hot Well Strung Quartet who play as well as they look, so many of the new stars this year are very old indeed.

    So old in fact that it’s a wonder that these legendary Broadway stars can, and are still, performing. At the top of the scale is the original Hello Dolly Miss Carol Channing who is now 92 years old. She is at least sharing her stage with a much younger performer, the long-legged Tommy Tune who’s barely 75 years old. The potty-mouth Joan Rivers who clocks in at 80 years old will be here, so will jazz singer and favorite guest on the late Johnny Carson’s Show, Miss Marilyn Maye who will be 86 years old.

    Donna McKenrick who won a Tony in the original version of A Chorus Line is still doing the high kicks at age 71, and then the week later Helen ‘I am Woman’ Reddy, the queen of 70’s pop and who is now 72, will be doing her stuff.

    One of the youngest of this bunch of Tony Award winners is Liza Minnelli with just 68 years under her belt is probably the most likely one to send a sick note instead especially as she is now more famous for the concerts she cancels than the ones she performs. And then there is Andrea McArdle the original Annie and who is STILL singing The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow as she has done for the past 36 years, is a mere 50 years old.

    P Town does have this wonderful joyous spirit and real sense of community that is both embracing and encompassing. I’m sure then if one of these Grand Dames doesn’t show then they will be generous and forgiving, and at the very least send out one of the plethora of the local talented Drag Queens who can probably do a better Liza (or Carol) than they can do themselves.

  • FILM REVIEW | Bright Days Ahead

    ★★★★ | Bright Days Ahead

    64-year-old Caroline has retired earlier from her dental practice than she had expected too after falling out with a colleague and she now finds herself at a loose end with too much spare time on her hands.

    She feels somewhat depressed and disorientated after the death of her best friend from breast cancer just three months prior, and this has made her even more aware of her own mortality. Her two grown up children with their own busy lives, want to encourage her to move on and so buy her a trial membership to a local seniors club that has the innocuous title of ‘Bright Days Ahead.’

    Caroline’s first nervous visit to the centre ends every badly when she feels patronised by the young woman running the drama classes, but when she gets home and neither she or her husband can work out their new wifi set up, she reluctantly agrees to go back and try the computer class instead. This is led by Julian an attractive 41 year old man who confides in her that he has a toothache and after Caroline takes him back to her ex-surgery to fix it for him, he returns the favour by making a pass at her.

    It’s not exactly the main reason why this man, who is the same age as her daughters, wants to bed her as he turns out that he is quite the ladies man with a small stable of regular ‘dates’. But even when she discovers this Caroline is more happy to indulge in some very hot love-making as she and her husband had stopped being physical with each other some time ago.

    The secret affair brings more than colour to Caroline’s cheeks as it makes her extraordinary happy and gives her such a sense of purpose that she throws herself enthusiastically into most of the activities at the Club and becomes friends with all the other women there. When word eventually gets out about her daily dalliances in Julian’s office etc, her classmates are in awe and egg her on. However Phillipe her husband doesn’t take too kindly at being cuckolded especially as in this small coastal town that they live in, news like this travels very fast.

    It seems like as a respected dentist, a loyal wife and a good mother, Caroline has always put the consideration of others first in her priorities, but now she has done a complete U turn and thought of nothing more than her own pleasure and happiness. With such a past track record, it’s obvious that she will end up doing the ‘decent thing’ in the end, but hopefully with the realisation that there is an alternative to the inevitable after all.

    The movie has received criticism that it portrays a very unrealistic view of old-age greatly enhanced by the fact that Caroline is played by the strikingly beautiful and exquisite Fanny Ardant. One would never ever dream of calling this great French actress a senior citizen no matter what her age. It is her very presence that so radiates in every scene on the screen, and so I for one am more than happy for Caroline to indulge in this fantasy, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

    A very light and enjoyable piece with one of THE grande dames of French cinema out from 20th June

  • FILM REVIEW | The Case Against 8

    ★★★★★ | The Case Against 8

    On the morning of November 5th 2008 our euphoria over the election of Barak Obama as the first African/American President of the US was severely dampened when we learnt that voters in California had passed Proposition 8, albeit by a slim majority. Overnight they had taken away the legal right of same-sex marriages in the State. It was a bitter blow for those still wanting to marry and it created sheer confusion and dismay for the 18000 couples that had wed in the past few months.

    There was immediate talk of mounting a legal challenge in federal court but it wasn’t until someone had the inspired idea of engaging the services of Ted Olsen did the notion take flight. Olsen seemed a highly unlikely choice as he was not only a prominent Republican who had been the US Solicitor General but more famously had been the chief advocate in the US Supreme Court in Bush vs Gore which resulted in George W. snatching the Presidency from Al Gore who had won the popular vote. There was a great deal of opposition to Olsen from many sections of the gay community who thought he was a ‘mole’ planted by the Right wing, and also many in the Republican considered him a traitor to their cause.

    Olsen however soon showed his sincerity and total commitment to fighting for the overturn of Prop 8 by persuading prominent Democratic Lawyer David Boiles, who had been his opposition when he had acted for Vice President Gore, to now be his co-counsel. It was a shrewd move as the two high-flying lawyers not only had a great deal of respect for each other, but they brought different skills to the case and made an invincible team.

    Olsen explained the reasoning for his own stance very clearly in the film. “Marriage is a conservative value. It’s two people who love one another and want to live together in a stable relationship, to become part of a family and part of neighborhood and our economy. We should want people to come together in marriage.’ It was one of the many times in this riveting documentary that Olsen quietly demonstrated what an outstanding humanitarian he really is.

    The legal challenge was mounted by Chad Griffin and the leadership of American Foundation of Equal Rights (AFER) and what strikes you so vividly as this story unfolds is not just the dogged determination and commitment of the vast team but the realisation on how much gay activism has changed. Gone are the rabid well-meaning dis-organised hippies of my youth whose anger always fueled our protests that so often muddied the water rather than help us make progress as the establishment ran rings around us.

    Griffin’s team of lawyers and the lead counsels mounted the whole campaign with such sheer professionalism, micro-managing every minute detail that made for an impressive compelling argument. Their strategy was to focus on the very obvious facts of the matter with the reality that this was about a basic human right. Whereas the opposition who were much better funded, relied on hot-headed rhetoric and their own personal opinions steeped in bigotry and hate with scant regard for the proven facts.

    When David Boiles personally supervised the taking of depositions from all the expert witnesses the opposition put forward, he was so relentless that they all but one, withdraw before the first trial. The remaining ‘expert’ David Blankenhorn was the cause of some merriment when the Team uncovered that asides from the tome he had penned on marriage his only other qualification was his Masters Degree. It was on Victorian Cabinet making! And later on when he was being cross examined by Mr Boiles on the witness stand in court he did a complete U turn and actually agreed that same sex marriage should be legalised. It was, as Mr Olsen described as ‘a Perry Mason moment’ and the start of the collapse of the Opposition’s case.

    AFER’s thorough search to find the perfect Plaintiffs on whose behalf the Law would be challenged was impressive. More so that the two couples who were selected were four of the most self-effacing brave individuals who were willing to step out of their comfort zones and allow every facet of their lives to be examined in minute detail. They were never ever be out of public gaze for the next 5 years.

    Kris Perry and Sandy Steir had married in 2004 and had four sons, whereas Jeffrey Zamillo and Paul Katami had been together for 6 years and wanted to marry before they started a family. The fact that they allowed the filmmakers to record even the very painful experiences of some very brutal and highly personal questioning they faced when they were put through their paces by Olsen as a practice run, endeared them even more to us all.

    The Federal trial before Judge Walker resulting in Prop 8 being struck down, and the subsequent Appeal by the Opposition that failed leading to the whole Case winding up in the US Supreme Court was covered extensively in the media. However what this exceptionally wonderful documentary does is give a fascinating record of all the goings on behind the scenes and in particular a very highly personal look at some of the crucial and personal highlights that made this struggle seem even more poignant. When the victorious four Plaintiffs are finally on the steps of the Supreme Court after the Justices have struck D.O.M.A. down, Chad Griffin passes them his cellphone. Barak Obama is on the line from Air Force One proffering his congratulations. If you were not crying before then, you certainly were then. It is a moment in history which should never be forgotten.

    There is another wee part later on when the tears are of joy. Jeffrey and Paul are at Los Angelas City Hall where they are about to be married by the Mayor himself. It is the first day that same-sex is legal again in California but the Clerk refuses to give them a License as she claims she has not been officially notified. The ACER lawyer accompanying the men makes a quick call passes the phone to the Clerk’ s Supervisor. On the line is Kamala Harris, California’s Attorney General who orders him to issue the license immediately. It’s so good to have friends in high places.

    Filmmakers Ben Cotner and Ryan White approached AFER in 2009 with the idea of making this documentary not knowing how the legal action would turn out. They were giving unprecedented access and so were there filming every single step of the five year battle. They spent endless emotional days and sleepless nights with the entire team and the Plaintiffs and ended up with over 600 hours of footage.

    What they achieved, along with editor Kate Amend, is a remarkable concise and spellbinding account that covered this historic turning point in a style it so richly deserved. It perfectly captured the sheer energy of all the people who put their own lives on hold and gave this fight their all to enable gay men and women should be accorded this basic human right and with such dignity.

    Even though we all knew by now the outcome of this particular fight it’s still impossible not to be somewhat overwhelmed with emotion when you witness this account. You will certainly not be the only one who is reaching for a Kleenex more than once.

    N.B. the final word must go to Ted Olsen, who along with David Boiles, deserve nothing less than our utmost respect and deep gratitude (and maybe the Presidential Medal of Freedom too!) Mr Olsen simply said that equal rights are always worth fighting for.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Test

    ★★★★★ | Test
    When the AIDS epidemic first started back in the early 1980’s the air was rife with panic and dramatic rumors that took the place of hard facts about the disease that were so few and far in between. Nowhere more so than in San Francisco home to a significantly large gay community. By 1985 when the first ever test for HIV was introduced nearly every gay man was living in fear of being diagnosed positive and facing an imminent death.

    Chris Mason-Johnson’s excellent narrative is about one such young gay man… Frankie… who was a standby for a leading contemporary dance company in San Francisco at the time. He is quite skinny and scrawny compared to the 6 hunky hot men that he understudies and is often taunted by the choreographer to ‘dance like a man’ but that is only part of his worries as each day he listens and watches the onslaught of media coverage on the health crisis… ‘should Gays be quarantined’ one paper’s headline screams. He finds himself checking his body for any of the new tell tell signs that have just been announced.

    He is not alone, as most of the other male dancers are doing this in private too. Even hirsute Todd, the ‘bad boy’ of the company that Frankie obviously has a crush on, is convinced that he is now doomed to an early death. The girls in the troupe start to get nervous of dancing with their partners who are sweating in case this is one way the disease can be spread, and they even go as far as trying to encourage Frankie to turn ‘straight’ to save himself. It’s something that his roommate Tyler decides to do anyway and he announces that he is moving in with his new ‘girlfriend’ Tracey.

    The one relief throughout all this angst and dread is the dancing. Frankie and the others come alive on stage and are momentarily transformed with an uplifting feeling of hope and beauty as they dance their hearts out with their bodies intertwined and their minds for once full of joy. The despair may come back when the curtain falls but at least for them this is one very important reason for living right now.

    As Frankie and Todd come to the point where maybe they have more than just a casual connection, there is a glorious moment of much needed humor when they wrestle with the novelty of having to use condoms for the first time. ‘What’, asks Frankie, ‘would it be like if from now on we had to only have sex with just one person to be safe? Would we really have to be monogamous?’ he adds with a grin on his face.

    It’s a powerful tale particularly as for once it is a story about very gay young men, and is serves to reminds us of how free and easy their (and our) lives where in the days before the crisis. Despite including all the paranoia and the homophobia that were so prevalent at the time, Mason Johnson’s tale is also very much one of hope, and that despite the inconceivable amount of people that so tragically lost their lives, others survived and society did eventually heal.

    It was a stunning acting debut from dancer Scott Marlowe as Frankie and he had great chemistry with hunky Matthew Risch as Todd (see opposites do attract). And the dancing itself which was a major part of the story was exquisite and so fluid… and the fact that writer/director Mason Johnson playing the choreographer was also an ex-dancer no doubt had a lot to do with it.

    The story is slow to unfold as it take us to the place where Frankie must decide about taking the test but its worth each one of its 89 mins to get him/us there.

    Unmissable

  • FILM REVIEW | Blood Brother

    ★★★★★ | Blood Brother

    This is one of those real life stories that you come across now and again that re-affirm your faith in the goodness of (some) human beings. Rocky Braat’s story is especially moving and relates how one very ordinary and regular young American man, who is exceptionally unselfish and wonderfully generous, made a real difference to the lives of many children that society would like to forget.

    Rocky grew up in Pittsburgh with a drug addict mother who had a whole string of abusive boyfriends and as he struggled academically at school they put him in special ed classes. He is however far from stupid and graduated from design college, and got a good job on a magazine. After a while he got the travel bug and quit his job and went off to see the world and ‘find himself’.

    His chosen destination was India, and one day on a whim he went to see an AIDS orphanage in Chennai. He thought that the visit would be tough seeing the kids suffering, and it was indeed and he found himself crying a lot, but he still felt compelled to stay there for one whole month. When he resumed his journey he couldn’t get the kids out of his mind, because despite all their troubles, they found such joy in living, so he immediately turned around and went back.

    He stayed the rest of the summer, and when it was time to go back to the US, he promised the kids he would return in one year, and he did.

    This movie, shot by Steve Hoover, Rocky’s childhood friend tells of the next few years of how this remarkable man with no real qualifications at all, and with no official paid position lives there in the orphanage and became an amateur dentist, teacher, clown, carer, friend and father to all these abandoned children who absolutely adored him. He lives in a rat infested hovel, exists on a daily diet of rice, and has to keep leaving the country because of visa problems.

    It is a highly emotional story (there wasn’t a dry eye in the house even with the cynical Sundance audience I watched it with) as we live through all the many traumas the kids and Rocky endure. Kids get very sick and some die as they can only have access to the very basic of AIDS drugs, and Rocky Anna (as the kids call him) is there every inch of the way. What is so endearing that Rocky, unlike a professional AIDS worker, is never ever detached from any of the happenings and gets totally distraught and frustrated at times and often cries.

    The fact that he is there and chosen to remain with the kids is simply explained as that’s what he wants to do. There are no lofty claims that he is doing God’s calling (or anyone else’s for that matter) or for any religious conviction or any other profound reason. This is where he wants to be, and he certainly is making an enormous difference to all these children’s lives.

    I am totally in awe of the man, and it was interesting too that as Steve Hoover witnessed and filmed Rocky insitu over the years he grew to understand and appreciate why his friend is so committed to the kids and the country itself. However, there is a lighter note to the story too, because just as Rocky ‘finds himself’, he also finds a beautiful Indian bride to marry.

  • FILM REVIEW | Advanced Style

    ★★★★★ | Advanced Style

    Five years ago Ari Seth Cohen took to the streets of Manhattan armed with his camera looking for old ladies. Not just any elderly dears but photographing fashionable women in their ’70s, ’80s and beyond having being inspired by his own grandmother who made him appreciate senior style icons who life live to the fullest.

    His blog which became de-rigour reading for myself and many of my friends developed into a book and is now a delightful documentary. A project that started out with Cohen being inspired by this tight band of eccentric women with a zest for living and a passion for their fashion has almost turned full circle as they are now enjoying the fame and celebrity that his attention has brought them from a curious world.

    The ladies’ stories are inspirational and a sheer joy to listen too, and the highly individual and colourful personal styles their adopt in their traffic-stopping outfits are just part of their well-conceived mantras of living every moment of the lives to the hilt, especially as they recognise that they are now in their twilight years. Tiny red-headed 92-year-old artist Illona Royce Smithkin with the biggest eyelashes I have ever seen sums it up aptly when she say that she no longer buys green bananas as she simply cannot afford to wait for them to ripen.

    Each of the group has a swathe of stories to tell and none with more than a hint of regret of lives well led (‘I wish I had children’ says one coyly, but adds quickly that ‘taking care of all her handmade clothes is much more hard work than playing house.’ There’s 81-year-old Jacquie ‘Tajah’ Murdock who was one of the original ‘Apollo Girls’ in Harlem and during the course of the film, is chosen by Steven Meisel no less to be the new face of his campaign for Lanvin. And Lynn Dell Cohen, also in her 80s, who has run a Vintage Frock Store Off Broadway for 40 years and still politely hectors each of the customers to find their own style.

    It’s refreshing and a real treat not simply because these elderly women look so ravishing but because they dare to be different and are such a delightful anti-dote to mainstream UK who slavishly try to keep up with ever-evolving fashion trends that few can afford and most look hideous in. But they are also up there on a pedestal as wrinkled and challenged as they are (‘at my age for everything in my body that I have two off, one hurts like hell’) simply refusing to either act the way society expects them too, or just die quietly in the corner. In fact one of their number, Zelda Kaplan a mere 95-year-old had a heart attack whilst she is the front row of a fashion show. Zelda must be so happy in heaven now.

    Style, as these elderly icons will show you, is much more than just about fashion. It’s an innate quality that not just enriches your own life, but also those of the people that are part of yours too. And each of these irrepressible ladies reminds us yet once again that life is not a dress rehearsal.

    Unmissable.

  • INTERVIEW | Cory Krueckeberg

    Getting Go – The Go-Doc Project is one of the hottest and sexiest independent films we have seen in a very long time and it is finally being released here on DVD and VOD. To celebrate we caught up with Cory Krueckeberg, the director and writer who sat down with THEGAYUK to give us this exclusive interview.

    Firstly congratulations on the film that THEGAYUK review was happy to give a well-deserved 5 out 5 rating. We are intrigued to know how you actually came to making this film in the first place.
    Well, the whole process of getting a movie off the ground can take years and requires not only a lot of money but a great deal of patience too. I had many projects in the works but was getting so frustrated with waiting so I pitched the idea of Getting Go to Tom (Gustafson) my filmmaking partner as something to do whilst we waited.

    We raised $10,000 quickly via Kickstarter, and polished off a script and then he and I spent the summer filming. Just us, the two actors, and no crew whatsoever. Real hard-core guerilla filming at its best.

    And where did the idea of the slightly nerdy film student boy pursuing this hot go-go dancer that he obsesses over come from?
    To be honest, it was slightly autobiographical, as I had spotted someone online that was as hot as Go and I was thinking about how to meet him, but the way it panned out in the movie, especially the hot make-out scene, was purely fictional.

    Are you sure?
    Sadly yes! Lol.

    And how did you find your two leading actors who were so key to the success of this film?
    Well, I found Matthew Camp online via a NY nightlife blog and I reached out to him with a very similar email as Doc does in the film. I quickly discovered that beyond the dancing he is also a successful clothing designer and a very committed artist and he was more than happy to come onboard once I outlined my idea to him. Tanner Cohen had worked with us before and starred in ’Were the World Mine’ and was a natural fit as Doc once we had signed up Matthew.

    There was not only a great on-screen chemistry between the two actors, but all of their scenes were very fluid. Were you shooting from an actual script or just an outline?
    A little of both. It seemed natural to let them improvise at times especially when they both got so into their characters.

    How important was it to you that the two men were more multi-dimensional than we could have expected in a low budget film of this genre?
    Well with Matthew in particular as he is an artist off the screen it seemed an easy fit to make that part of his character. I also always look for something in culture to help root my movies in real life and in this case I was doing a wee homage to Warhol which seemed very relevant also in how this film was being made.

    The lovemaking scene was tender, extremely sensual and very hot. Was that easy for the actors to play?
    Matthew wanted to shoot that scene right away to get it over and done with, but Tanner favoured leaving it to the end hoping that the connection they made by then would propel them along.

    Well, who won?
    We actually filmed the entire movie in sequence as you see it on the screen, which is a very rare organic thing to do.

    Well, it certainly worked as by the time that these two very different characters were getting down to it, we were all rooting for them to succeed.
    Thank you.

    You mentioned your reasons for why this was made on a micro-budget using video cameras and even laptops to feel, but did you have any sense at the beginning of this whole project that the end product would be hailed as part of this breakthrough of new queer cinema?
    We set out to make something that was both informing and entertaining but more importantly to me we treated their sexuality as part of their psyche and not what totally defined who these men are. That made it much easier for audiences to relate to them and the fact as characters they were very related.

    And why do this story in particular?
    This story follows a path we all wish we could take. To come face to face, body to body, with our obsessions, our idols… and I felt this particular connecting of a naively academic country boy to the object of his desire, who turns out to be a nuanced, thoughtfully provocative soul, could satisfy the audience’s need for both sex and substance.

    Oh, and I wanted to meet Matthew Camp.

    GETTING GO is out on DVD and on demand from Peccadillo Pictures. It can be ordered now from Amazon.

  • FILM REVIEW | Getting Go, The Go Doc Project

    ★★★★★ | Getting Go, The Go Doc Project

    For three weeks in the summer of 2012 filmmakers Cory James Krueckeberg and Tom Gustafson (the producer/director behind the cute ‘MARIACHI GRINGO’ and the gay cult film ‘WERE THE WORLD MINE’) followed two guys all over New York with a camera and a script and nothing else.

    Tanner, a slightly nerdy recent College Grad had devised a plan to shoot a documentary about the NYC nightlife scene in order to meet a really hot go-go guy that he has cyber-obsessed with. And this is the film about their film.

    They followed the couple filming each other all over the city in cafes and bars, rooftops, dance clubs, their own living rooms and bathrooms and eventually into their bedrooms too. As the story developed and the relationship between ‘Go’ and ‘Doc’ evolved in front of us, there is a very definite, and somewhat unexpected, shift in the power axis between the two men.

    This really is guerrilla filmmaking at its best. No crew, a kickstarter budget of $10K, one actor and one real life go-go boy in an innovative hybrid of documentary, narrative and art film that is such a delight. Following hot on the heels of movies such as ‘WEEKEND’ ‘KEEP THE LIGHTS ON’ and ‘HORS LES MURS’ this wee drama is part of a very welcome new movement of edgy queer cinema.

    By no means perfect (like the editing!) but it has many things to really love… such as a rather brilliant soundtrack of new music from gay musicians… not to forget the acting of these two young leads who are not exactly tough on the eye to watch even with their clothes on. It also packs an energy and excitement that is quite infectious.

    The future of gay cinema looks very promising indeed when new work like this is being made… and finding the audience it deserves.

  • FILM REVIEW | Grace Of Monaco

    This story of the beautiful Oscar Winning movie star who swapped being Hollywood royalty for her own real life Prince Charming who swept her off her feet, starts almost at the beginning. It’s the final day on the Set of ‘High Society’ the last movie that Grace Kelly will ever make, and the very next day she and her entire family set sail across the ocean. There she will have the fairytale wedding that every little girl dreams about after which she will naturally live happily ever after.

    We then fast forward a few years and the new Princess’s two children are already school age but the magic of living in her own palace is wearing thin, especially as she rarely sees the Prince who is always so busy with affairs of state. She is tempted then when the director Alfred Hitchcock turns up one day clutching a new script of his next movie with a role of a lifetime for her and a paycheck of $1 million.

    However the offer has come at a most inappropriate time as the Monaco Treasury is broke and the country is in the middle of a big row with France. It is essentially about money, but in reality it is also more about which leader can shout loudest: De Gaulle or Rainier. The spat is littered with threats and scaremongering and as it escalates the two neighbors edge closer to the real possibility of war.

    The French media, fed by their Government, are stressing that Grace is the real problem for both Rainier and Monaco which causes more friction between the Prince and his Princess. Listening to the wise old priest that she runs to every time she is upset (she’s there quite a lot…) and taking his advice, Grace launches an all-out charm offensive to not only turn herself into the most perfect Consort the Principality has ever seen, but also to turn the tide of media coverage to her favor.

    Her idea of stopping the impending hostilities is to throw a Grand Ball and invite tout society and world leaders, including De Gaulle, to attend. Naturally they all show up and the Princess all glowing in her white ballgown, and bedecked with the crown jewels, addresses the guests with a simpering speech about how love conquers all. There is naturally not a dry eye in the house during the standing ovation. Amongst the crowd is Robert McNamara the US Secretary of Defense who turns to the President of France and literally says ‘Well, you won’t be dropping any bombs on Grace now will you Charlie?’

    De Gaulle is speechless, as we are too, although having sat through almost 90 minutes of this drama that is funny in all the wrong places, we are now quite used to howlers like this. Despite an ‘A’ list cast led by Nicole Kidman playing Grace who is playing Nicole Kidman, and being directed by the respected award-winning Olivier Dahan, this is one of the worst biopics I have sat through in ages. How Miss Kidman kept a straight face saying lines like ‘Colonialism is SO last century’ I will never know. Or hearing Frank Langella as the Priest churn out ‘You have come to Monaco to play the greatest role of your career.’

    And Rainier (played by Tim Roth) didn’t look that amused when his wife trying to cheer him up when she blurted out ‘who wants this old throne anyway?’ Well evidently he and the Grimaldi family who had been hanging on to it for centuries. If only they had turned up the heart-tugging overly-dramatic soundtrack just a tad more, they could simply have drowned all of this out.

    Billed as a fictional account of real events, the movie strived so hard to be light and frothy that even in the deeper moments an immaculately coiffured Grace still radiates like she didn’t have a skin care in the world. Pretty to look at, this travelogue for the Monaco Tourist Board however was very careful not to include many of the poor people that Grace kept pleading she cared so much for.

    There were some odd casting decisions too with Parker Posey really misplaced as an officious straight-laced Aide, and an unrecognizable Robert Lindsay who seemed so uncomfortable trying to play the arrogant shipping magnate Onassis. Sir Derek Jacobi couldn’t have been more outrageous as the Chief of Protocol, and he made me think if only the whole movie had been as odd as he, it could well have turned into a fun piece of camp.

    The present Grimaldi family have objected to this movie in very strong language ostensibly because they vehemently hate the way that they have been portrayed, but probably also because they loathe bad Lifetime TV biopics too. Harvey Weinstein the American distributor has disowned the movie too now that it hasn’t a chance in hell of getting a single one of those Oscars he loves to collect. If he does relent and actually releases the movie in the US, he’ll be lucky to get his costs back.

    The last word goes to Peter Bradshaw, Film Critic of the UK’s The Guardian Newspaper who wrote that a new level of mediocrity in biopics had been established with the recent appalling ‘Diana’ about the Princess of Wales. Now there is a new critique term he has coined which is ‘it’s worse than Diana’ and Grace is the first one to achieve that and set the bar for mediocrity even lower.

  • FILM REVIEW | Truth

    ★★★ | Truth

    When middle-aged Jeremy turns up at the coffee shop for a first date with Caleb a young barista he met online he thinks he has hit the jackpot. The boy is a hottie and a total charmer too, and before you can say ‘I’ll have a latte’ the two men are sitting on the couch holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. Back home in Caleb’s rather large house, the sex is hot (it’s sensuous rather than explicit) and a good time is had by all.

    Caleb wakes up alone next morning with no sign of his new silver fox lover who has left without even a phone number and who remains incommunicado until he shows up unannounced at the coffee shop three days later. His explanation for his absence is feeble but Caleb thinks ‘this’ could be the real thing so he just accepts Jeremy’s lame excuse. They have some great make-up sex and declare their undying love to each other and are prepared to live happily ever after. But it’s what they don’t tell each other over the next few months that is going to shape their futures and not in a way that either had hoped and wanted.

    Pill popping Caleb suffers from a borderline personality disorder and has not disclosed that the mother he claimed had died is a psychotic alcoholic, who had abused him, is now in an institution. When Jeremy hearing part of the story thinks he is helping by locating the mother, Caleb, and the plot, start to fall apart.

    Jeremy it turns out has also his own big secret and when Caleb uncovers this nine months into their relationship he loses it completely. This overwrought melodrama suddenly changes tack and turns into a psychological thriller as Caleb holds the older man captive until he learns the whole truth.

    Caleb is played by Sean Paul Lockhart, who in a previous life was Brent Corrigan a porn actor/star. To give him full credit Lockhart gives his all, clothed and often naked -and shows that he put in a very credible performance even given some of the howlers that pepper this whole script.

    Written and directed by Rob Moretti (Crutch) who also cast himself to play the part of Jeremy which was probably not the best decision. Moretti is a competent actor but had he kept behind the camera he may have noticed that there were too many histrionics (don’t get me started on the foul-mouthed speeches of Caleb’s over-the-top mother…). And including such a loud dramatic soundtrack will (sadly) not drown out some of the wince making script.

    There’s a message in here somewhere about child abuse and how it can create monsters about the victims too, but the oddest thing about a movie with a title like this, is none of it seemed remotely truthful at all.

    If you are a fan of Brent Corrigan than you will like seeing him all grown up and showing so successfully that he has a life beyond porn. His wardrobe/costume provider quite rightly gets its own mention in the Credits: it’s Andrew Christian.