THEGAYUK

Tag: Film Review

All the latest film reviews for LGBT themed films and others.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Normal Heart

    ★★★★★ | The Normal Heart
    Larry Kramer is perpetually angry. This prominent loud-mouthed writer and gay activist has been shouting out his highly personal take on some of life’s iniquities and inequalities for the past 40 years and has made himself famously unpopular.

    It was his exasperation with the apathy of the gay community when the AIDS scare first started that made him co-found the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in his living room in 1981. And it was his unfettered bursts of outrage against an indifferent and immovable culture and a bureaucratic stonewall that got him unceremoniously forced out of the organisation just two years later.

    Retiring to Europe to lick his wounds, Kramer sat down and wrote an autobiographical piece of his whole experience of those past constantly changing years. It opened Off Broadway in 1985 when the AIDS Epidemic had really started to take a tight grip in New York (and many other major cities) and ‘The Normal Heart’ became the seminal play of the period. It would be another 6 years before Kushner’s ‘Angels of America’ would be seen.

    Now nearly some three decades later the play finally makes it to the silver screen after many false starts and broken promises, but along the way it has not lost a single iota of its potency with its powerful story that never fails to stun its audience into sheer silence.

    The movie opens on a typical care-free speedo-clad beach in Fire Island summer in the late 1970’s where sex is the first and second thing on the minds on this happy gay crowd. When one of their number suddenly collapses without warning on the sand no-one has the slightest idea that he is one of the early victims of what the New York Times will later describe as GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) i.e. the Gay Cancer.

    As the virus spreads writer Ned Weeks played by Mark Ruffalo (Kramer’s ‘stand in’) tracks down Dr Emma Brockner (Julia Roberts) who is the first physician in NY dealing solely with the epidemic and she simply cannot cope. She is overwhelmed with the increasing number of patients, with the indifference of the medical community who in denial, refuse to help or provide funds; and the apathy of the gay community who refuse to give up their newly gained hedonistic liberty to stop having sex just because this disabled doctor says it could kill them.

    Brockner recognizes a passionate true spirit in Weeks and eggs him to start trying to both persuade the gay community to change their practices and also organize an official support system.

    Even with the figures of gay men getting sick and dying escalating at an unprecedented pace Weeks is frustrated at the very little headway the newly formed GMHC is making. Finding himself as the unofficial spokesman, mainly due to the fact that he is not only the most articulate of the bunch, but his anger at a system that refuses to pitch in and help makes him a compelling anti-Establishment figure that the media are happy to cover.

    It may help them sell newspapers but it doesn’t achieve any of Week’s more lofty ambitions, and in fact only serves as the reason for the Board of GMHC to fight him tooth and nail and try and control his activities. Even with a Mayor, a President and a whole medical community that refuses to do anything to help stop all these men dying, the GMHC still wants to take a very cautious and overly polite approach so as not to upset either anyone in power or a gay community that do not want to curb their lifestyles.

    Whilst all this is going down 30-something-year-old Weeks finds love for the first time in his life in the shape of a younger New York Times Reporter Felix Turner (Matt Bomer). This unlikely seeming couple turn out to be a perfect match and their very passionate relationship is the one happy part of Week’s life even though it is sadly doomed when Turner falls ill and his young life is unseemly ended way before its prime like so many others of his generation.

    The movie ends soon after that (although the story in real life didn’t with Kramer going on to co-found ACT UP the AIDS activist organisation that unapologetically demanded help and support to help fight the plague and whose many successes included the releasing of much needed drugs and funds).

    Kramer’s anger may also have been one of the reasons that it took so long to get this on to our screens, but it was worth every minute of the wait. In Ryan Murphy, the openly gay creator of ‘Glee’ and ‘American Horror Story’, he found a filmmaker who not only put his own money where his mouth was by buying the Rights himself, but he proved to be a collaborator who created a masterpiece movie true to his vision.

    Murphy deserves credit for many things, not least the fact that he took the almost unheard of decision of casting many openly gay actors to play gay men. With not one mis-step in his selection which included the actor & director Joe Mantello as Mickey Marcus (fresh from his Tony nominated turn playing Ned Weeks in the recent Broadway revival); Jim Parsons repeating his role in the same production as Tommy Boatwright; Jonathan Groff, Taylor Kitsch, Alfred Molina, Frank De Julio, and the ultra handsome Matt Bomer as Tyler who quietly shed 40 lbs to play his dying character without any of the inflated brouhaha of a certain Oscar Winner who had trouble mentioning the word AIDS in public!

    Mark Ruffalo gets nominated as an honorary gay for his convincing portrayal of Ned Weeks who was equally passionate berating politicians as he was making love to his boyfriend. And last, but not least, Julia Roberts very competently played the part that Barbra Streisand had lusted after years, the physician who was sadly dabbed as Dr Death.

    With Murphy refusing to shy away from any of Kramer’s rhetoric or the scary visuals of the violent and cruel deaths these young men suffered, this is the story of how it really happened, warts and all. There are no flowery allegories or sightings of Angels as in the Kushner play but just sheer unadulterated screaming and angry rants at a world that we thought may actually kill us all

    If you were around at any of these times from the early 1980’s on, then this powerful heart-wrenching piece will make a lot of unpleasant memories flood back. It is shockingly disturbing and serves to remind one that the nightmares that we lived through were not imagined in the slightest and were very real indeed.

    If it hadn’t been for Larry Kramer’s loud mouth, it would been a whole lot worse. If on the other hand you are approaching this drama having been born after these events then I can only assume that this near apocalyptical scenario may even appear like an historical event that is nothing to do with you. Trust me it does. AIDS may longer be considered a gay plague, but as the closing credits of this movie remind us all too clearly, even now 6000 people are diagnosed with HIV every single day to increase the present world total of 35 million infected. It still affects as us.

    P.S. The last word goes to Murphy when he simply summed it up after this movie was Premiered in NY. with ‘You were right Larry’. I never thought otherwise.

    The Normal Heart airs on 1st June on Sky Atlantic

     

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  • FILM REVIEW | Mariachi Gringo

    ★★★★ | Mariachi Gringo

    When Edward was a young boy growing up in rural Kansas he dreamed of running away to join a band.

    However, he’s now about to have his 30th birthday and he’s still living at home with his parents, and still taking the mind-numbing drugs his paediatrician had prescribed, and he’s about to lose his dead end job.

    The one small joy in his life is occasionally going out to a small Mexican Restaurant in town which is owned by Alberto a mariachi player and his wife. Alberto takes a shine to Edward when he discovers a mutual love for music and he starts to mentor him with his guitar playing and teaching him how play mariachi style.

    Alberto loves telling stories of his hometown Guadalupe and how he longs to go back there and play once more in the Plaza de los Mariachis. When one day Alberta has a near fatal stroke it’s a wake-up call for Edward who finally realises that life is too short and he needs to follow his dream now before it’s too late.

    So he ups sticks and runs off to Mexico and to Alberto’s hometown but when he hears all the bands playing there he soon realises that he is a very inadequate musician. Luckily by chance, he meets Leila whose family runs a restaurant in the Square and she takes him under her wing, points him in the way of accommodation, gives him a part-time job working in the kitchen, and promises to find him the right people to help to turn him into a true mariachi.

    Leila is a live wire and a total opposite to quiet slow Edward and he soon mistakes all her kindnesses as an invitation to romance. As do we all thinking that we are about to see a boy meets girl and they all live happily every after story. Turns out this girl would prefer to meet another girl, but luckily by then Edward has his music to throw his pent up lust into, and for a white boy he turns out to be a pretty good musician after all.

    This rather charming story is the 2nd feature of director Tom Gustafson (his first was ’Were The World Mine) Has a great cast: Shawn, one half of Ashmore Canadian acting twins, played a very cute Edward, and beautiful Mexican actress Martha Higareda was wonderful as Leila; and Oscar nominee (for Babel) the indomitable Adriana Barraza played her mother. BUT undoubtedly the best thing about this whole movie was the incredible music. Totally uplifting and so hypnotic especially when it was sung so stunningly by Grammy award winner Lila Downs who I now know is a something of a Mariachi legend.

    If I have one niggle it would be that the film started out really slow and awkward with the acting really quite stiff even by stalwarts such as Kate Burton and Tom Wopat, but once we left Kansas it picked up and became an engaging piece. So maybe Dorothy was right after all!

    In Cinemas in the UK from today

  • FILM REVIEW | Fading Gigolo

    ★★★★ | Fading Gigolo

    Murray is about to close down his rare book store in New York that has been in his family for three generations. It will mean that he and his 50-something-year old assistant and life long friend Fiorovante will be unemployed and strapped for cash.

    Murray however tells his pal that his wealthy female dermatologist had mentioned that she and a girl friend of hers had always fantasized about having a menage a trois. Not that she expected Murray, somewhere in his 70’s, to do this but she asked if he knew of a suitable candidate, and so he had suggested Fiorovante for the job. Not that he was particularly handsome or even muscular, but as the ladies were looking for a ‘real man’ Murray thought that he would be the perfect candidate. That, and the fact the doctor had offered a fee of $1000.

    The reluctant Fioravante accepts the challenge as the other part time job he has in a florist shop barely keeps him in orchids. To his surprise he likes the trial run with the doctor, and so with Murray acting as his ‘pimp’, starts hooking up with other older women who are not getting any action from their husbands.

    Meanwhile Murray lives with a much younger black woman and acts as a surrogate step-dad for her four young kids. When one of them contracts lice at school, he drags the kid off to see a head lice expert in Willamsburg. She is the widow of an Hasidic Rabbi and the mother of five young children that she is bringing up on her own. Murray sensing her loneliness and the lack of any adult companionship, suggests to her that he knows a ‘therapist’ who could help. The initial encounters between her and Fiorovante are awkward to say the least, but for some weird reason this very odd and ill-matched pair start to fall in love.

    The Widow also has a fervent admirer in the shape of a neighborhood Hasidic cop who has been waiting for for two years for the right moment to make his move. Now as he notices her leaving the house regularly and going into the city, he follows her to find out what she is up too. Fearing the worse but really not knowing what exactly is going on he and his fellow cops abduct Murray and take him to an Orthodox Court to face charges that he is ruining the widow’s reputation in the hope that all will be revealed and/or she will be saved.

    It is one of the oddest plots for a comedy, which for reasons that I am still not totally clear about, actually works rather well. Even the far fetch concept of offering a young religious widow a roll in the hay was convincing, although the slapstick routine of the Courtroom was an uneasy fit in this otherwise gentle drama. The fact that writer/director/star John Turturro has his old chum Woody Allen playing Murray as Woody Allen is a major contributor to the success of the piece. Allen is perfect as the wisecracking opportunistic peddler who has no morals at all about making a quick buck especially when he doesn’t have to do much work for it at all. And Turturro with his sad soulful eyes and his gentle manner makes Fiorovanti the most perfect reluctant hooker.

    They are joined by Sharon Stone as the very sexy frustrated dermatologist, Sofia Vergara as her friend (and for once there is no trace of her ‘Modern Family’ character Gloria), Liev Schrieber is the sulky cop, and with a beautifully understated performance as the widow by Vanessa Paradis who is really not on our screens nearly enough.

    Turturro makes New York look so inviting and he greatly enhances the visuals with a beautifully scored soundtrack of vintage jazz, maybe a touch of Allen’s influence too.

    A sweet and funny movie.

    Fading Gigolo is released 23rd May

  • FILM REVIEW | Concussion

    This is the story of a mid-life crisis where a marriage between a lawyer and an ex-real estate house flipper turned housewife who live with their two kids in a comfortable affluent NY suburb starts to get stale. ★★★★

    The housewife busy with running the home, taking Pilate classes with her friends, and hanging out with the other soccer kids’ mums doing the daily school runs etc., is bored out of her head. The same head that gets hit very hard one day when her son accidentally manages to throw a ball at it causing some bloody damage.

    It results in not just concussion but some sort of epiphany that she needs to make some changes to her life.

    The edge that this story has over similar tales of marriage woes is that this couple are lesbians which doesn’t alter the reality of marital disharmony but it makes it take on a whole different resonance.

    Abby goes back to work and buys a Loft in the city to refurbish and flip throwing all her energy into the project. It’s a start, but she is still sexually frustrated as her wife Kate, a divorce lawyer, seems to prefer celibacy. So Abby hooks up with hooker, but the woman she picks from a newspaper ad turns out to be dishevelled drug user and the experience is far from happy, something she confides to Justin her contractor/friend who is working on the loft with her. Justin’s girlfriend just happens to run a call-girl service out of her college dorm and so she insures that Abby gets a very hot date for her next encounter.

    It whets her appetite for sex, but at $800 a pop this is more than she can afford on a regular basis so Justin suggests that maybe the answer would be for her to turn tricks herself. Evidently there is a need for a beautiful older woman… Abby is 42… especially to service young wealthy women looking for an experienced lesbian. It takes time to persuade Abby to decide and even then when she accepts she insists on doing it in her own terms i.e. meeting clients in a coffee shop first. And thus ‘Eleanor’, Abby’s new persona, is born.

    At the beginning most of the clients are indeed young but when Eleanor gets one who is even older and sexually more experienced, she really starts to relish her new role. And then to top it all one of her new clients turns out to be Sam, a married ‘straight’ woman friend from her own town who she has always quietly lusted after, the fantasy of her new life becomes very real indeed.

    Abby insists that ‘Eleanor’ only has a few clients a week so that she can maintain all her usual routines at home, and very conveniently now that the loft is finished she even has a place for her assignations. Her wife Kate is so wrapped up in her work and being the ‘other’ mother at home that she is completely unaware that Abby has created this other life just to get some sexual fulfillment, and even when the penny eventually drops, she really doesn’t want to accept when she sees.

    It’s an intriguing drama that is primarily convincingly real because of exceptional and sensitive performance by Robin Weigert as Abby/Eleanor. She insures that we empathise with her from the very beginning, and although it is essentially all about satisfying her needs there is something very laudable about Eleanor as she goes out of her way to insist that the other women get the fulfillment they are craving too.

    It is an impressive writing/directing debut from Stacie Passon, and it was very beautifully filmed so that the sex scenes were never explicit but extremely erotic. The plot started to waffle slightly towards the end as if it was unsure of how to resolve the drama, but that still doesn’t stop it from being an extremely watchable fine piece.