Out Late (2008) +

A simple, quietly moving documentary about five individuals who make the decision to "come out" as lesbian, gay or trans after the age of 55. Each story is distinct, ranging from consciously suppressed desires (as in the case of the eldest subject, a woman who burst out at age 79) to living a completely closeted life with a same sex partner (the youngest subject, a woman who had been living in a committed relationship with another woman for 20+ years but who was out as lesbian to no one). The film maintains an engaging, dynamic tension among these stories by subtly drawing connections among some of the recurrent points of continuity shared within these stories (church, family, erotic longing). I suspect it's this skillful, inconspicuous interweaving that makes this a more effective film than, say, Tal Como Somos or A Jihad for Love, documentaries that adopted the same basic approach (five or so testimonies from folks dealing with the challenges of being gay in this or that particular circumstance). Indeed, I'm somewhat uncertain as to why this film worked for me, maintaining my intellectual and emotional interest, when the subjects are actually less interesting to me than the folks in the other films. (I guess that's where the skill of the filmmakers come in, because I really don't think it's the white, middle classness of this story that I'm responding to, though I do think the nuance of this simple story really shines with such milquetoast subjects.) It's also worth noting that the women came out for specific reasons -- politicized by anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives in one case and, the 79 year old's case, exhilarated by The L Word -- while the men are much more an "I Gotta Be Me" set of stories. I also liked how frank the filmmakers were in addressing some of the more discomfiting subjects. They do not flinch from sharing the base homophobia expressed by family members and friends they interview. Likewise, they "go there" with regard to the active libidos of these folks. There's a simplicity, a frankness and an elegance that I admire in this professionally executed documentary. A solid, smart documentary about the challenges of coming out later in life.

It's STILL Elementary (2008) +

An effective and informative follow-up to the historic 1996 pedagogical film, It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School. The film revisits the making of the film, as well as its incredibly controversial and influential reception, through interviews with the filmmakers as well as a handful of the now college aged students featured in the original film. This basically self-lionizing approach proves incredibly informational, demonstrating just how fundamentally the discourse has shifted since the early/mid 1990s and how It's Elementary was a big part of that shift. (One of the delightful surprises in screening this derives from how the screeching tenor/pitch of the cable news talking heads seems so antiquated a mere 8-10 years later. The discourse of the zealots remains pretty constant, but you would likely never see someone like Ollie North hold forth with the bigoted hostility that was commonplace and uninterrogated then.) Another strategy that serves the film well is it's interpolation of relevant statistics (how many places the film's been screened; how many kids report hearing homophobic slurs; comparisons of, say, the number of HS Gay Straight Alliances in 1990 [2] compared to 2007 [3000+]). The film deals well with the Christianist response to the film, though this film is an unapologetic celebration of the 1996 film and the influence it has had. It's also worth noting that, as one who as not seen the 1996 film, this film stands easily on its own, as an account of the impact of the film rather than an in-depth discussion of the film itself. An absolutely interesting and totally well executed informational documentary that aspires to little in the way of entertainment.

Voodoo Woman (2008) +

A filmmaker travels to Cuba to begin work on an anticipated documentary about the Afro-Caribbean spiritual tradition of santería and is stunned to experience a transformative spiritual and personal awakening. This autobiographical documentary effectively tells the story of Carolina Valencia, Colombian-Canadian filmmaker, and her experience of her gender transition in tandem with her study to become a practitioner of santería. The narrative of the film commences when Carlos' babalao affirms, without much in the way of cuing or provocation, that Carlos has a female soul. This surprise affirmation validates both Carlos's spiritual interest in santería while also validating his long-suppressed desire to express his female identity. So, Carlos begins the process of becoming Carolina and a santería priestess at the same time. This simple, affirming video autobiography successfully tells Carolina's complex story with intelligence, clarity and respect. A solid, simple piece of documentary filmmaking effectively presenting a fascinating life story.

"A Domicilio (o incluso también el amor)"/"At Home" (2008) +

A repressed literature professor hires a prostitute to help her "learn" how to express her physical desire for another woman. After a night of challenging conversation, bubble baths and hot sex, the professor discovers a new confidence in manifesting her true sexual identity. This Spanish short film -- longish at 24 minutes -- is solid: good production values, good actors, good sense of narrative urgency, good sex. However, the film is hobbled -- for me at least -- by the banality of the scenario. Each character is interesting, and well performed. Yet the relationship between these two women is nothing more than "the prostitute" and "the professor" -- everything we learn about/from this specific relationship we learn within the first minute or so. Again, the individual characters are much more interesting than the connection they share together. Also, we don't get to see the characters change. (By the end, we see THAT the professor has changed, but we don't see the actual change. Instead, we are left to presume that the simple power of a sapphic orgasm is enough to completely change a person -- a premise I'm not hostile to, mind you, but one which -- here at least -- feels more a gimmick than an authentic discovery.) I also found it annoying that the professor's breasts were so obviously fake, standing at attention when she was flat on her back -- this distracted from the pleasures (and the plot point) of the sex scene in an especially unfortunate way. (Highlighting the artificiality of a char/actor in precisely the moment -- the pro's going down on her -- that we're supposed to appreciate as the character's first authentic experience of her own sexuality). An interesting enough piece, with subtle -- but formidable -- flaws in execution.

"The Sheep and The Ranch Hand: A Sexyqueer Love Story" (2008) +

A depressed 20something lesbian "reawakens" to the possibilities of her life after experiencing a dream in which she's a spunky sheep involved in a tempestuous relationship with a sexy/butch ranch hand. This strange little short offers a vivid and whimsical depiction of the sensation of erotic longing through a colorful and campy scenario. A strong visual sensibility combines with a distinctly lesbian sense of camp to convey a vivid mood, even though the narrative isn't always sensible. A fascinating, strange and sexy film.

"Supa Sta" (2008) -

The animated adventures of an entertainment attorney and her paralegal as they encounter aliens and perform in a girl-power rock band. This animated short -- done in low-rent, torn-construction-paper stop-action animation -- is nearly incomprehensible, rife with mild racism/racist camp and way too many plot complications. A tedious, unfunny bit of strangeness that I exhausted myself trying to enjoy/like.

"Shall We?" (2008) -

On the eve of departing for a major journey, a young straight woman presses the limits of the charged intimacy she shares with her gay male best friend/roommate. This dramatic short film is well-executed, with solid production values and performances. The main failing of the film is that core character/emotional dynamic remains a touch muddy, with some lack of clarity both in terms of the actions and the motives of the characters. This oblique style seems to be part of the filmmaker's strategy but it's just a little confusing/dissatisfying as presently executed. Decent but somehow unrealized work.

"Two Men Kissing: A Poem" (2008) -

A cinematic interpretation of one of filmmaker Waide Aaron Riddle's more acclaimed poems, "Two Men Kissing." A dialogue scene opens the film in which two attractive 30something men awkwardly discuss the potential future of their erotic/romantic relationship at a party. This scene is followed by an extended scene of oblique, mildly abstract eroticism in which the two men enact various scenes of homoerotic intimacy. At the same time, words flash upon the screen (the words of the titular poem). The fonts are big. This experimental romantic/erotic short is engaging only to an extent. The guys are attractive and the subject -- the particularities of physical and emotional intimacy among men -- is compelling. Unfortunately, the two parts of the film are oddly discordant, with the establishing scene of the relationship seeming wooden and an mildly off-putting and the "music video for a poem" feeling like a huge stylistic leap as a result. I suspect I might have liked the film a whole heckuva lot more had it only included the erotic "music video for the poem" part, as that piece seemed to derive from some more substantial place. (That said, the floating words seemed a little silly-70s to me and I'm not sure that the "word cloud" aspects of the poem presentation actually serve either the film or the poem.) An adventurous experiment drawing upon some interesting material marred by inexpert/inconsistent cinematic execution.

"Dance Dance Baby" (2008) -

An overeager actor arrives to audition for a mildly/majorly skeevy man -- but what, exactly, is he auditioning for? This ostensibly comic short riffs off two things that are creepy about auditions: one, how much auditions sometimes feel like really creepy first dates and, two, how easily actors lapse into a mercenary mindset in which they will adapt everything about themselves, sometimes ignoring their core instincts, to get the job/approval potentially offered by the person conducting the audition. These scenarios are compelling enough, for those who have some direct experience with auditions, but this film makes the unfortunate decision to make everything that is "creepy" about this audition sorta gross and gay. (The ostensibly straight actor imperiled by the creepy man auditioning him -- tank topped, bicycle shorts wearing, hairy man who has little sense of appropriate conversational distance and who dotes on his annoying little dog. It's a tacky cliche, one which is used uncritically to amplify the general sense of unease/dis-ease from which the basic scenario derives all of its narrative urgency.) It's a tacky, unfunny and overlong situation comedy. The actors do their best with this really self-conscious/referential material, and the goofy sound effects are funny (though not entirely integrated with the generally naturalistic style of the rest of the piece). A gimmicky scenario that delivers basically uneven results.

"Dance Party" (2008) +/-

A experimental silent short that utilizes an extended take of three disembodied queerish male bodies dancing to explore questions of dis/connection. The basic gimmick is that that audience is asked to trade iPods with their neighbors and use that stranger's mp3 player (on shuffle) to create their own random soundtracks for the 12 minutes of dancing on the screen. It's a really interesting premise -- something about performatively underscoring the atomization of community, even in those settings (like a theatre) where folks are ostensibly engaging in shared activity. It's the kind of piece that I feel would make great sense as part of an art exhibition. The film makes a faulty, though perhaps understandable, presumption that everyone at the screening would have an mp3 player to trade -- because it really does seem that the film's conceptual dynamism derives more from the oddly interpolated music than from the sense of estrangement afforded by only watching the film in silence. (Though, to be honest, just watching the film does elicit an interesting tranciness.) A very interesting conceptual video piece that I remain uncertain about how to effectively present.

"Diva" (2008) -

A visually arresting tale of a 20something man who flees the recriminations of his small hometown in France to embrace his inner (and outer) diva amidst the freedom and romantic possibilities of Paris. This mostly wordless short maintains a sense of giddiness and urgency, first through the young man's journey to Paris and then through his transformation into a diva in a magenta gown and finally through his very masculine response upon being targeted by a pursesnatcher. There's nothing wrong with this film. It's all very well-executed, with a generally appealing central performance and a strong visual storytelling style. Yet as the film progressed, it seemed like a really well-executed storyboard rather than a well-told story. I was amused and engaged but ultimately unmoved. Interesting work from an interesting filmmaker in a basically disappointing short film.

"Even in My Dreams" (2008) +

A surprise sighting of a Tom of Finland doll in a store window triggers a kind of sexual "awakening" in the sleeping dreams of an elderly man. This seriocomic (and bittersweet) short offers an engaging account of how sexuality remains fluid and dynamic at every age. The basic gimmick is that each of the central character's dreams about "Tom" is interrupted -- first by a friend knocking on the door, then by the character's widow making her own surprise appearance in his dream, and finally by a lamp falling on his head. All told, the film presents a fascinating interpretation of how internalized judgment/homophobia intervenes in the expression of our innermost desires. An amusing, complex short about the lifelong dynamism of erotic desire.

"F To M" (2006) +

An experimental video short in which the voiceover testimony of a transman describes his experience toward and through the gender reassignment surgery underscores a two panel slide show featuring images of the pre- and post-surgical body. The unnamed speaker details his experiences, from childhood and young adulthood and through the surgical culmination of his gender reassignment. At the same time, a pair of slide shows offer a visual counterpoint to his spoken words. The panel on the left side of the screen presents disembodied body parts, some with magic marker notations on them, suggesting a presurgical body. On the right side, small images -- presumably snapshots from a life lived -- slowly appear, incrementally creating a large mosaic of images. This image mosaic remains static until the actual surgery is described, at which point individual images slowly drop away until the mosaic becomes a blank screen again. The impression created is that the images on the left are the speaker's actual body and the snapshot mosaic depicts the life lived prior to transition. It's never made explicit that the voiceover and the photos are of the same person (I tend to doubt it) but that's the impression. This film is an evocative meditation on the dimensions of transmale experience and identity, with an especially direct affirmation of surgery as a triumphant expression of authentic selfhood. The visual strategy is arresting and artistic. (The effect of the parallel image streams is somewhat disrupted, however, for non-French speakers as the subtitles below the image field reroutes the eye's path, creating what I am certain is a substantially/qualitatively different viewing experience.) The film conveys its main conceit -- that identity is constituted dialogically from internal instinct and external constructions -- with an accomplished visual clarity. A smart, visually stunning piece of work.

"Reclaiming the Pieces" (2008) -

A thoughtful exploration of trans political identity through the testimony of four very different, very articulate trans individuals. Four trans folk (two ftm, two mtf) describe their experiences coming into their trans identity and the ways that has shaped their political selves as well. In such diverse locales as NYC, San Francisco and San Francisco, each subject affirms a subtle but distinct form of political/community action. Mekah, a transwoman who lives in Santa Fe, adopts the strategy of mainstream electoral politics through her candidacy for state legislative office. Cooper Lee, also a Santa Fe resident, endeavors to build community through cultural and artistic networks by opening a coffeehouse/pizzaplace (while quietly longing for a community with more resources for trans people). Naomi, who works as digital designer in NYC, values the ways she's been able to transform her online network into an actual community because of the population density of NYC (and how that helps to affirm her own confidence in claiming her civil rights). Jay, a transqueer in San Francisco, values the queer kink community as he continues to develop an intersectional approach to trans issues through queer and disability rights advocacy work. Filmmaker Ethan Bach artfully interweaves these distinct narratives into an aggregate portrait of the contemporary options for trans political activism/action. An interesting, engaging, low-key film about politics which is at once very affirming and quite informative.

A Finished Life: The Goodbye & No Regrets Tour (2007) +

A startlingly frank account of a man's decision to chart his own path toward the end of his life. Greg Gour is a gay man who, as we meet him at age 48, has lived with HIV for precisely one half of his life. Greg is also a person who, as we meet him, has charted the precise path he plans to follow toward the end of his life. Greg doesn't want to switch HIV therapies and has elected to let the disease take its course until such time as he feels he no longer wishes to live, at which point he will "hasten" things along. In the meantime, Greg has decided to liquidate his possessions, to pack himself and his dog Cody into an RV, and to hit the road on a cross-country pilgrimage to see family and friends. It's a remarkable decision, and Greg's a remarkable guy. What remains largely implicit in the film is Greg's activism and advocacy for the legal "right to die" and it does seem that his incorporation of the film crew into his journey is part of that activism. In the process, however, the film captures this utterly normal, hyper-organized Los Angeles gay guy (with audibly evident midwestern roots) as he undertakes this extraordinary journey. He's got it all planned out, updating hundreds of folks via an email list of his process toward death. Through all of this, the film maintains an extraordinary simplicity -- mostly just capturing Greg as he meets with his devoted circle of mostly female friends and family. The film ends with Greg's self-manifested death, about which he's been telling us the whole time, but the journey toward that moment ends up incorporating the viewer so that we are invited to join the circle of concern that surrounds, with great emotion and ambivalence, Greg as he makes this journey. Astonishingly intimate while almost never feeling exploitative, the film provides an extraordinary glimpse into questions around death and dying that we tend to avoid. The thing I perhaps most enjoyed about the film is that Greg is no superhero or supersaint. He's actually sorta annoying. But, as the film captures the extraordinary integrity and sincerity of his decision, it's hard not to "sign on" as a supporter of his unusual endeavor. His challenge to his beloveds is a strange one: he basically asks that they grieve his death with him in his final days of life. And the camera captures how everyone's individual crazy grief stuff manifests as a result of this challenge, and it's fairly amazing to observe. A startingly simple yet emotionally complex documentary about death/dying; a generous, challenging film.

"Self Control" (2008) +/-

An experimental short film that inquires about the nature of truth, trust and the prophetic power of Laura Branigan in three stylistically distinct vignettes. The first vignette -- "i. city lights (and no flying cars)" -- is an evocative piece about the nature of trust in which a voiceover shares possibly untrue anecdote about the pop singer Laura Branigan while fragmented images of a male body (possibly that of the speaker) pass into and from the frame. The second -- "ii. painted girls (kicked out of the rainbow)" -- shows two hip 20something baking colorful treats in the kitchen. When their elaborately adorned muffins and cakes are prepared, they conjure a small group of friends who they then ask to play a game of "6 Truths and a Lie" drawing from video footage of seven queer Chicago filmmakers quoting from their own work. The third vignette is a loose parody of a television chat show in which the female host (played by the bearded and bewigged filmmaker Latham Zearfoss) interviews independent filmmaker Latham Zearfoss (played by a female actor). Host and filmmaker do not connect and the interview splays into disconnection and irony. These vignettes are linked by a video sequence of a man's shins, 16mm footage of the filmmaker's dried blood on film stock, and the music of Laura Branigan. This experimental short is ineffably queer, deploying an understated visual wit and idiosyncratic camp sensibility. The first vignette is perhaps the most compelling. In it, the disconnection between the voiceover and the visuals maintains a sustaining dynamic tension, underscoring the themes of unknowability and trust that the film seems intent on exploring. The second vignette is no less engaging, the arbitrarily twinned hostesses sustaining the vibe of unknowability but the filmmaker game seems oddly literal. This unfortunate literalism is the dominant theme of the third vignette -- "iii. in the day(time)" -- which lacks the sophisticated visual wit of the first two vignettes even as it lapses in to banal sketch comedy performance style. I loved the first part, liked the second part, and found the third annoying. So I'm uncertain what to make of the film as a whole. I suspect this film operates a kind of cinematic manifesto for filmmaker Zearfoss as he lays the groundwork for his "new subjectivity" of "great trust and sensuality"; Zearfoss seems quite interesting/talented and I'd be curious about his future projects.

A Jihad for Love (2007) -

A fascinating, empathetic documentary portrait of the lives of 13 Muslims and their individual "exhaustive struggles" (the literal definition of the word jihad) to reconcile their (homo)sexual identities with their religious identities. An aggregate portrait of these four women and nine men (in countries as diverse as Turkey, Egypt, Iran, India and South Africa) emerges to affirm the powerful possibility of reconciling faith and identity, even when religious orthodoxy appears to militate against it. It's a stark portrait, one in which the blurring of faces (to protect not only the identity of the subject but also the identity of ones family thousands of miles away) becomes utterly conventionalized. The film's main accomplishment, for Western audiences especially, derives from the film's sophisticated presentation of the liturgical/official Islamic teachings about homosexuality. (As one subject astutely conveys, the Qu'ran's only mention of something akin to homosexuality deals with male-male sexual assault, not love between men, while leaving female homosexuality entirely unmentioned. The explicit prohibitions that have become part of religious law in many Muslim nations have, according to this point of view, emerged largely from generations of clerics and religious scholars whose teachings are now canon. So, the film implicitly asks: is the Muslim prohibition against homosexuality God's law, or man's?) The film, shot mostly on the sly and the sneak over a period of nearly six years, suffers for its aggregate portraiture; this becomes a film less about individual people with individually compelling stories and more about the broad idea of "coming out" as Muslim and homosexual. Not unlike Tal Como Somos, I found this aggregate portraiture cinematically tiresome. The stories accumulate in ways that are interesting, but the viewer is left to draw the connections. The core argument -- there are Muslim's who are gay and don't want to stop being Muslim -- is made forcibly in the first moments of the film, and the urgency of the topic amplifies the stakes for each story. Yet there remains an unfinishedness to the story in cinematic terms that limit the forcefulness of this as a film. In letting the subjects speak for themselves, filmmaker Parvez Sharma does important work but a steadier hand sculpting the film itself might have been helpful. (We do get some sense of closure with a couple of the Iranian refugees finding asylum in Canada and the South African Imam leading what appears to be a productive awareness session with Muslim social workers. Yet the subjects of this film are, to a one, compelling and the viewer is poised to develop substantial concern for each. And there's something unfinished with a film that leaves so many narratives hanging without any gesture of closure.) A solid, fascinating film diminished somewhat by a lackadaisical sense of dramatic/storytelling structure.

The Polymath, or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delaney, Gentleman (2008) +

An impressionistic documentary portrait of the author Samuel R. Delaney. The project of the film is conveyed in the film's subtitle: it's a survey of his "life and opinions" assembled in designedly fragmentary (albeit linear/chronological) collage. The film eschews conventional narrative tropes of biographical documentary -- there are few talking heads, few contextualizing details -- in favor of permitting the subject's own words (both in interviews and captured interactions as well as selected excerpt from his published writings. The result is an idiosyncratic, possibly confounding, cinematic equivalent of a seminar in which Delaney is asked to teach Delaney. Having been warned by a friend who had been frustrated by the film, and having been so fundamentally dismayed by the comparable project about Kenneth Anger (Anger Me), I was unprepared to find this film as provocative and captivating as I did. The film easily accomplishes what is its fundamental goal (introducing Delaney as one of the most important literary/intellectual figures that you've likely never heard of) while, at the same time, providing an appropriately idiosyncratic view of this iconoclastic man. He's basically leading a seminar in himself, with all the necessary contradictions and looping chronologies that such a project might entail. And while this is understandably frustrating at times (the viewer is routinely left wanting just a little bit more context/detail/information) the overall effect is startlingly appropriate: Delaney's seminar in himself is a kaleidoscope of abundant, unanticipated connections in which the viewer must finish the thought. (Much like Delaney's own writing which to always, it seems to me, revel in the ambiguous spaces of the in-between, obliging the reader to finish thoughts and narratives and even sentences following their own instincts.) I'm struck by the startling emotion that Delaney offers in the film's final sequence on a racing train, in which Delaney describes his pedagogy. To allay the problem of folks not raising their hands to speak, Delaney describes requiring his students to ALL raise their hand to volunteer an answer to a question -- even/especially if they do not know the answer. (If they don't have an answer and Delaney happens to call on them, they are invited to "pass" the right to speak to member of the seminar of their choice, in which case they assert their right to listen.) For Delaney, this pedagogical intervention operates to insist that each individual student retain their right/responsibility/privilege to speak, to have something to say. As he describes this pedagogical strategy, Delaney's voice rises in pitch and timbre as the emotion overwhelms him. In this moment, in which the clattering noises of a rushing train threaten to obscure the sound of Delaney's voice and the shape of his words, the documentary finally finds the emotional anchor for its ruminating style. In this moment, all that's come before falls into a kind of relief. Delaney's glibly provocative style as a raconteur is not about self-aggrandizement (something, to be clear, that neither his affect nor the film actually suggest) but, instead, Delaney's provocations are designed as open-ended instigations to his listeners/readers/students to resolve the contradictions he underscores for themselves. He's a stealthy marvel of provocation, and Fred Barney Taylor's documentary finds confounding, though apt, cinematic elaboration of Delaney's own promiscuous, provocative, and expository inquisitiveness. As a film, it's can be a challenging journey, one rife with the intellectual and aesthetic contradictions of its subject. But just as I would likely quite enjoy a seminar in Samuel Delaney (when most folks would likely find such a course terribly annoying), so too did I enjoy this film. A challenging, enthralling experiment of a documentary portrait of a remarkably open, yet somehow unknowable, literary lion.

Tal Como Somos/Just As We Are (2007) -

A sincere documentary portrait of the particular experiences of gay Latinos. The film profiles seven Latinos -- most of whom immigrated to the US as a child or a teen (one subject was born here, while another arrived as an adult). The folks, in various ways, "came out" as queer or gay to their families and the film profiles the culturally specific issues that queer Latinos might have to negotiate. (The core issues addressed include -- but are not limited to -- religion, family acceptance/disapproval, internalized homophobia and/or gender normativity, discrimination, ect.) The film is thoughtful and sincere; it will likely prove quite useful in the classroom or in diversity training sessions. The film adopts a self-consciously explanatory tone, "introducing" and "explaining" the phenomena of gay Latino-ness to a presumptive audience which has little to no exposure/awareness. The subjects are articulate, likable and often have compelling stories to tell. (I found the Catholic partner Marcello and transgender Gabriela to be the most interesting figures in the piece.) But because the film follows deadly dull structural approach (one profile after another with little cross-cutting or intermixing) it becomes especially difficult to manufacture emotional investment between the stories. I like all the subjects but the film is utterly tedious. The obvious sincerity on the part of the filmmaker, as well as the extraordinary generosity with which each of the subjects engaged the fiilmmaker's project, does make me root for the film. The documentary's topic is interesting/important; the film's subjects are interesting and appealing; the film is not...which is just too bad. I can see this film, or excerpts from it, being useful in health classes or in outreach endeavors, but as a cinematic experience this film is tough going. A fascinating and important subject diminished by a dry and conventional style of documentary filmmaking.

"Thirteen or So Minutes..." (2008) +

Two attractive guys, secure in their heterosexuality, discover a surprising chemistry that results in "thirteen or so minutes" that change their ideas about who they are and what they want, possibly forever. This short film operates from basically implausible scenario, the sort one reads about in formulaic print porn, in which two straight guys fall into bed together and, in so doing, fall in love. It's a vision of sexual idealism in which homoerotic masculinity is unburdened by anything so distracting as gay identity. (I know. Feh.) Which makes it all the more remarkable that this film is as engaging as it is. The leads are hot. They spend much of the film mostly naked. And the utterly unbelievable dialogue somehow works to spin a very appealing spell. The basic message of the film is that erotic feelings derive from an essence of truth and love, and that things like straight/gay or normal/sick are irrelevant to the experience of the truth of erotic love. (It's a very Buddhist kind of thing and there is something quietly spiritual about this film.) The two actors maneuver the nearly impossible, and quite abstract, dialogue with aplomb. They're both very attractive, although not in any superhuman sort of way, and they are filmed to highlight their basic appeal, not their extraordinary beauty. It's not the most sophisticated or witty film, but it seems to draw from an appealing spirit of eroticism, optimism and openness. A compelling, sexy and surprising vision of the possibilities of gay male love.

"Tokens" (2007) +

A pensive visual meditation on the formation of female sexual identity. Julie Casper Roth's experimental short juxtaposes arresting images of nature, clothing, Barbie dolls and blurred home movies into an oblique narrative about one young woman's experimentations with (proto)lesbianism and Mormonism. A set of vaguely interconnected monologues, interwoven with the measured intonations of a male speaker ("found" audio from a recording of a Mormon sexual counseling lecture/seminar), provide a loose narrative for this quietly intense film. The film offers an evocative, impressionistic portrait of the uncertainties of identity, with religion and sexuality operating as potentially defining poles or navigating points. Beautifully filmed, with a serious but not stentorian musical score, this experimental film is somehow rooted in the emotional sensation of seeking. I especially admired how the filmmaker seemed intent on capturing the sensation of uncertainty with regard to identity -- the sensation of appealing possibility that arrived with each experiment. A strong, evocative experimental film.

Mamma Mia (2008) -

A romantic melodrama that exploits its A-List cast, some beautiful scenery, and the ABBA songbook to configure a giddy romp that's as forgettable as it is colorful. The scenario is, as a neo-classical romance should be, simplistically complicated. Matching trios of elders come together for the wedding of a pair of beautiful young lovers. An essential question of social propriety (the bride's paternity) must be resolved before the marriage can proceed. A greek chorus -- literally, a group of singing greeks -- supervises. The madcap inanities of the elders cause all kind of opportunities for banal amusement (and arbitrary musical shenanigans) but the fact of the wedding obliges an array of necessary, (mostly) heterosexual couplings to resolve the narrative. The young lovers secure their commitment, while two pairs of elders establish theirs, and the two remaining elders adventure in conventionally unconventional ways toward theirs. As plots go, there's little to recommend this phenomenally successful musical entertainment. I'm fine with ABBA songs, and I don't necessarily mind existing pop songs being deployed in service of a narrative, and I'm all for schmaltz. But, golly, I just don't -- and have never -- "gotten" the appeal of this huge hit. As brought to the screen here by original stage director Phillida Lloyd, featuring Meryl Streep in the central role, I'm even more flummoxed. The songs are cleverly, though not always compellingly, placed and most of the performers do fairly well within the absurd challenges of the scenarios. That said, I was disappointed in the casting of the men; none were tapped for their singing voices, it seems, so I can only suspect that Brosnan, Firth, and Skarsgård were selected for their residual appeal from other films. Unfortunately, none of their star personas seem particularly well suited for these particular roles. (I kept wondering what it might have been like to have Bruce Willis in the Brosnan role. Certainly, Willis is no great singer but he can render a familiar melody so that it's aurally recognizable, something that Brosnan sometimes struggles with.) The women do better, with both Julie Walters and Christine Baranski seeming aptly cast in their roles. (This is the first time I've enjoyed Baranski in years. Though it must be said that the scene on the beach featuring Baranski's character fending off the advances of a wildhaired young black man seemed like a post-menopausal cover version of that "other" great musical From Justin to Kelly.) Meryl Streep, in the central role, is great -- though even Streep struggles to convey her character's emotional climax through the banality of one of ABBA's least appealing anthems. Only the kids -- the infectiously adorable Amanda Seyfried and the impossibly sexy Dominic Cooper -- come off completely unscathed. The main problem with the film is that Lloyd has no idea what to do with the camera. It's all swooping longshot or embarrasing close-up. Lloyd's simplemindedly literal direction is not quite as bad as Susan Strohman's deadly flat work on The Producers, nor as bombastically tonedeaf as Chris Columbus's work on Rent or Joel Schumacher's rudderless direction of Phantom (each of which I consider less effective than Mamma Mia). Honestly, if ever a musical adapted for the screen could have benefitted from a high-concept cinematic conceit ala Marshall's Chicago, this is the picture. Couldn't it have all been some fever dream of the Streep character? You know, she's rummaging around the goathouse, discovering old pictures of her daughter's possible fathers as well as mementos of her brief success as a glamrock diva -- then maybe she looks out the window to see the daughter talking to all three beaus and she panics, falls, knocks herself out, and has some Dorothy-style big ass crazy ABBA dream? A little bit of "clever conceit" might have really helped. (Alas, the cinematic fun of ABBA is much better had in Muriel's Wedding and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and the shameless thievery of both films by Mamma Mia pales in comparison.) It's too bad. It's always a treat to see Meryl sing and it would have been nice if this film really delivered as a musical fantasy (instead of a cheesy postcard). It was cute, relatively harmless, and nowhere near as bad as some might have it. An occasionally pleasant -- though often discomfiting -- diversion, with only one true pleasure: Dominic Cooper wearing the fuschia glitter-rock ensemble during the closing encore. I want that poster on my wall.

"helping hand" (2008) -

A gay man struggles to make a deposit at the sperm bank. This ostensibly comic short details the basic anxiety of a gay man feeling performance pressure as he endeavors to donate sperm as a favor for his lesbian friend/s. The clinic anticipates that he's heterosexual and provides no "appropriate" visual aids in the masturbatorium. Only the kindly efforts of the clinic supervisor finally enable him to accomplish his goal. The strong production values and generally professional performances are hobbled somewhat by a tonedeaf screenplay (the screeching butch girlfriend character is completely tedious) and the narrative conceit is limited in its actual urgency/relevance. An utterly conventional sperm bank comedy.

"In Twilight's Shadow" (2008) -

A fantasy thriller depicting the dilemma of a female immortal struggling to live between the light and the dark, the day and the night, as she discovers love with a beautiful mortal woman. This short film doesn't really feel much like a film at all but more like a teaser reel for a proposed television series. The piece, in execution and tone, owes much to Buffy while the core romance/relationship feels very much like Xena Vampire Princess, at once cheesy and sincere. Holds great promise as a serial, but isn't entirely effective as a self-sustained short.

"Relax" (2008) -

A (very bad) day in the life of a regular clown, living in a world of clowns. This short film follows a clown on his day -- a rough morning leading to a bad day at the office (entertaining crabby clown kids at a trashy clown party) and battles with other clown cars in traffic until he finally makes it to the clown salon where even his attempts to relax in the sauna are disrupted by other male clowns asking him to "c'mon, just pull on it." This absurdist comedy is visually striking, presenting no end of memorable visual images. Yet there's little story beyond the conceit: an accumulation of a bunch of clever story ideas depicted with a strong visual wit. The only queer content -- three clowns cruising each other for handjobs in the sauna -- culminates in the film's final clown pun (they're pulling balloons into shapes). A generally well-executed, simply cute gimmick that results in a basically uninteresting film. (Plus, for anyone afraid of classic white-faced clowns, this film will haunt your nightmares forever.)

"Breaking Glass: My David Bowie Movie" (2008) +

A very strange and totally entertaining videographic confessional in which experimental music/video artist Michael Trigilio offers his multimedia appreciations of David Bowie. Blending animation, self-interviews, abstract dance numbers, and "Death Metal David Bowie", Trigilio presents a consistently engaging -- by turns hilarious and poignant -- account of "his" David Bowie. Trigilio himself bears an easy charisma as a storyteller and screen presence and it's his curiously tender presence in the dance numbers that amplifies basically oblique queer subtext of the entire film. I don't understand the film. (Most anecdotes are incomplete, the beginnings and endings severed, thus frustrating any impulse toward imposing narrative coherence.) Nor am I confident in Trigilio's veracity as a storyteller. (He could be making all this shit up, though somehow I doubt it, but -- then again -- how would I know?) It's a hilarious sort of queer irreverence that makes this film totally engaging on multiple levels.

"Love Cream Pie" (2008) -

A grrlpower video romp in accompaniment of the college radio hit, "Love Cream Pie." This video collage -- lots of interesting stock images, plenty of pretty colors, even more pretty girls (of all shapes, sizes & ages) -- is interesting enough and the cameos from contemporary indie rock divas amplify the pleasures of the viewing. As a video, it feels a little long in that most of the visual wit and surprise happen in the first 90 seconds or so and the remaining 2.5 minutes are variations on those same themes. I suspect if you knew (and/or had feelings about) the folks featured in cameos it might be easier to maintain the excitement of the first minute or so. A solid, entertaining but unremarkable music video.

"Reunion" (2008) +

A queer bedroom farce set amidst the various identity crises instigated by a 20-year high school reunion. Kenny is somewhat famous for his home-decorating television show and he finds himself strangely anxious about bringing the love of his life, BJ, along for the reunion. Kenny is especially anxious about seeing his high school crush, the formerly hunky Ty (who, according to reports from the 10-year is now fat and selling tires). Both Kenny and BJ end up having a great time drinking and mingling at the reunion, until Ty shows up hunkier than ever (he now does triathalons) with his adorable and sweet wife. When Ty corners Kenny in the kitchen, confessing his lustful desires and designs on Kenny, Kenny's completely flummoxed. Later that night, BJ encourages Kenny to realize his fantasies with Ty, a proposition Kenny dismisses as insane. But, sure enough, a chance encounter leads to a realization of both Ty and Kenny's fantasies. (With, possibly, a participatory assist by BJ.) The next morning, as Kenny and BJ ready to return to their normal gay lives in Los Angeles, they are accosted by Ty's wife who presents them with their final surprise of a surprising weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed this short comic film. The characters were vivid and funny. The scenario proves just farcically implausible enough (while also realizing an everygay fantasy) to amplify the delights of its comic resolution. The supporting female performances were plenty funny and the guys were plenty swoony. A savvy, skillful blend of genre pleasures that really landed for me -- especially as a short. (The pleasures of this scenario hold up very well at this length.) A sweet, sexy hoot.

"Fair Enough" (2007) -

In the not-too-distant future, a male couple anxiously undergoes a governmental interview to approve their engagement for marriage. A brusque governmental official, using an identity scanner and polygraphic gloves, asks a variety of mildly intrusive questions, teasing out the internal dynamics (and conflicts) of this clearly devoted couple. Basically inappropriate questions ("Who's the man?") and comments ("Lesbians in Bushwick - what'll they think of next") contribute to the impression that the government official is a homophobe working in service of a probably homophobic governmental agency. This impression is complicated by the film's final moments, when the interrogator joins her girlfriend after the interview. This short film is shot nicely, demonstrating the filmmaker's clear sense of timing and tension. The film is really diminished by an awkward performance by Kerri DiFiore in the central role of Ms. White, the interrogator. She's nearly very good but the film really needs for her to be a fascinating, strange hurricane that blows through the lives of these two guys and, somehow, DiFiore remains oddly tentative and/or self-conscious when she needs to be the precise opposite. She's a commanding presence but the role requires an actorly precision that she does not deliver. The film maintains its basic tension through its final twist with clarity and wit but I'm left wondering "so what."

"Remember the Eyes" (2007) -

A sincere romantic film depicting the moment when two women discover each other, as well as some unexpected things about themselves. The film is built around a strange flirtation -- one woman, in her car, observes another woman practicing martial arts -- that builds toward a first date. Camille (the martial artist) is an exuberant, athletic woman; Kindra (the woman in her car) is a bookish artist. Camille's interest stokes Kindra's deep insecurity about their differences; these insecurities quickly build into a resentment and Kindra lashes out at Camille upon their first meeting. Camille pursues Kindra, offering a heartfelt expression of her love and hope. The film ends as the women begin to flirt again. (Spoiler alert: This summary skips over the fact that the narrative pivots upon the revelation of the "twist" that Kindra is dependent upon a wheelchair and fears that Camille won't accept her different ability. When Camille expresses her empathy and understanding of feeling different, Kindra blows into a rage about Camille's arrogance, professing to understand something she will never know.) These particulars amplify the drama, but the film is mostly concerned with the basic fear of intimacy. The film is entirely competent. The women are very attractive in a distinctly (hot) lesbian way. The acting is a bit broad, in the manner of theatrically trained actors are doing their first work on film, which does little to assist the basically declamatory screenplay. As such, the delicacies of this piece about intimacy/anxiety is quickly overwrought with declamatory drama. A heartfelt piece about the emotional challenges facing any relationship in which one partner lives with a disability while the other does not. (The film seems to want to build awareness as it also tells its story, much like "Being Lisa", and encounters some of the same dramatic challenges as a result.)

"Open Door" (2007) -

A sweet movie date between two young men turns into a nightmare when a simple goodnight kiss instigates a gaybashing which leaves one young man bleeding in the parking lot. This is an accomplished student film, demonstrating a solid scenario, decent performances and a sophisticated ability to wordlessly map relationships among characters. I especially admired how, once the gaybashing began, filmmaker Bryan Blaskie managed the presence of witnesses to the violence. My main issue with the film, beyond its occasionally clumsy editing, is that it feels like a set-up; I don't gather any urgency from the scenario beyond its potential to allow the filmmaker to accomplish this/that. An entirely competent short film about transformative violence of gay bashing from a filmmaker with clear potential.

"Sombrero" (2008) +

A lighthearted blind-date comedy with a engaging, absurdist twist. Two men -- one very nerdy, one very trendy -- finally meet at a Mexican restaurant after beginning to know each other online. Both seem surprised by the looks and demeanor of the other, but work gamely to see the evening through. When the trendy guy arranges for the restaurant to bring out a birthday surprise for his companion, the nerdy guy insists that its not his birthday...revealing that this pair has met up by accident. The trendy guy thought he was meeting a guy he had met online. The nerdy guy thought he was meeting his fraternal twin from whom he was separated at birth. Attention turns to another table, where a comparable couple -- one nerdy guy and one trendy guy -- appear to be having a comparably awkward date. The film resolves when the tables meet each other and everyone joins up to celebrate chance encounters. This short film develops its fairly contrived scenario with wit and whimsy, permitting the film to become a likable little meditation on the arbitrariness of interpersonal connections in the contemporary moment. The setting (at Casita del Campo in Silverlake) adds a colorful campiness to the whole thing, and the fairly conventional use of the mariachis is actually pretty funny. I've seen a gay short film hit this basic scenario before (2006's "Available Men") but actually found this treatment to be a little more affecting.

Another Gay Movie (2006) +

A savvy -- and, surprisingly, often smart -- gay spoof of teen raunch comedies. The basic scenario (riffing on American Pie) follows four attractive young gay men (the jock, the nerd, the queen, the everyguy) on their quest to have anal sex before the final party of the summer. This basic scenario provides the narrative alibi for a wide-ranging series of sketches, some of which riff directly on various teen movies but all of which end of offering parodic comment on gay male sexual culture in the 2000s. The film is loaded with cameos from gay-list celebrities (Ant, Michael Rush, Lypsinka, Richard Hatch) and features a supporting performance from Scott Thompson as the main kid's dad. I liked the film a lot more than I expected, even though there was plenty to cringe at. The boys are uniformly very pretty. They're also exceptionally appealing and generally very solid as comedic performers. Each is able to inhabit the "guyness" and the "gayness" of their characters with an appealing ease which lends essential credibility to the basic fantasy scenario of the film. This ia a world in which kids aren't tortured while coming out, in which the gay jock can be close friends with the supersissy, and in which each guy can struggle with the particularly gay variations of developing sexual confidence. What I especially admired about the film is that it offers a sustained examination of how the byzantine elaborateness of explicit gay male sexual culture doesn't necessarily help young gay men develop their own sexual confidence. In some ways, this film is a very 21st century version of Larry Kramer's Faggots, a satiric critique that is also a witty paeon to the delightful and devastating excesses of gay male sexual culture. I admired how Todd Stephens was able to maintain a quiet critique within his broad satire while also never lapsing into easy righteousness or homosexphobia. (The treatment of lesbian sexuality, on the other hand, is shallow and offensive in comparison.) The cast is often nearly naked and seemingly game for all that comes their way. In particular, Michael Carbonaro as the everyguy and Jonathan Chase as the jock are especially adept at balancing the various demands of the piece. (I'm really sorry they're using different actors in the sequel.) I can't think of another film (other than Shortbus, of course) that is so brazenly homosex affirmative while also being so assertively diverse. The boys may be generically attractive but the film has room for (and the confidence to make fun of) all sexual tastes but remains startlingly affirmative of them all. The film also is nicely "meta" -- comments about teen comedies, camp classic films, and gay independent cinema punctuate the film with a clarifying intelligence. (The running riff on Carrie is hilarious, with a nearly pitch-perfect send spoof of the prom scene being a delightful surprise.) I had dismissed this film as being a raunchy, sexually over-the-top exploitation picture...which is precisely what it is -- but in the best possible ways. An unexpectedly engaging, and surprisingly interesting, movie.

Pinky (1949) -

A basically effective social problem melodrama dealing with the dilemma of passing and the vicissitudes of white privilege. Jeanne Crain (in a competent but clueless performance) plays Pinky, the super light-skinned granddaughter of an illiterate washerwoman somewhere in the generic south (Ethel Waters in a charismatic but unmoored performance). Crain's Pinky returns to her visit her grandmother after completing school and just prior to marrying a white physician from a good Boston family. Of course, the twist is that Pinky's been "passing" while up north, a fact which the film understands as a betrayal of one's own authentic personhood (rather than a strategic manipulation of social identity). When the elderly white woman whose dilapidated plantation has shadowed Pinky's whole life falls ill, Pinky's grandmother "guilts" Pinky into staying on as a volunteer nurse for the old woman (Ethel Barrymore in an adept, effective performance). After some initial squabbles, Pinky and Miss Em develop a mutual respect that verges on affection and the older woman rewrites her will to include her formidable young caregiver. After Miss Em's death, her only surviving kinfolk -- the deliciously awful Cousin Melba, played expertly by Evelyn Varden -- contest Pinky's inheritance and a courtroom drama plays out to resolve the dilemma of a black woman inheriting Miss Em's estate. When preparing to view the film, I anticipated that the emotional core of the story would follow Pinky's fraught relationship with her black grandmother and so was surprised to discover that the core relationship in the film is between Pinky and Miss Em. Indeed, the film is not so much about the phenomenon of "passing" as it is a critique of the unearned (and uninterrogated) privileges that automatically accrue to whiteness. (As a film about whiteness, the film is actually sorta interesting; as a social problem drama about blackness or civil rights, it's banal.) The film is generally ok, though Crain's strangely clueless performance really hobbles the overall effectiveness. Only Barrymore -- not Waters, not Crain -- seem astutely aware of the stakes of Pinky's initial transgression and her subsequent resistance to the default racial codes of her time and place. Elia Kazan's direction is occasionally good, though he lapses to an easy chiaroscuro expressionism at times that seems odd/ostentatious. It's a social melodrama painted in broad strokes and only Barrymore and Varden are able to develop the necessary nuance. A decent film, with little to recommend it beyond its potential interest as a historical and/or sociological document.

"Beautiful Daughters" (2006) +

A mostly effective backstage documentary about the staging of the first production of The Vagina Monologues to be staged with a cast comprised entirely of trans women. Helmed by actress/activist Calpernia Adams, in collaboration with Eve Ensler and co-produced by Jane Fonda, this documentary (part of the LOGO Channel's documentary series, Momentum, charts the process from Ensler's interviews with a range of transwomen from around the nation through to their performance at which Ensler's new monologue addressing transwomen's issues into the play premieres for the first time before a Hollywood audience. So the three acts of the documentary feature, in turn, the interviews and development process, then some backstory on about five of the featured performers, and then a brief coda in which the monologue (or most of it) is presented. The film does really well in the sections that are specifically about developing the theatre piece and the documentary does lose a great deal of clarity/momentum as it delves to only superficial depths in telling these other stories. But the framing with the theatre piece, as well as the testimonies that Ensler's process elicits, is effective and often quite poignant/moving. The first 13 minutes or so are a wowza as are the last 3. Worth seeing, if only for those segments. (A shallow side note: I love Jane Fonda connection, which probably happens through Calpernia. Fondaspawn - and hunkahunka - Troy Garrity can be seen briefly in the crowd at the premier performance and it seems more than likely that Calpernia and Jane became friends because of Troy's involvement in Soldier's Girl [2003], in which Troy does such an amazing job as Barry Winchell opposite Lee Pace's Calpernia. I really should see that film again...) A basically effective backstage documentary which is about 1/3 excellent and 2/3 entirely fine.

Unknown White Male (2005) -

A potentially fascinating tale about one man's sudden amnesia made banal by an utterly nondescript documentary treatment. The film endeavors to examine the real-life medical mystery in which Doug Bruce -- a 30something wealthy British man - suddenly discovered that (a) he was on the subway in the depths of Brooklyn and that (b) he had no idea who he was. The film, made by one of Bruce's friends, explores the mystery of this moment as well as the surprises and discoveries made as Bruce reacquaints himself with a life he has no memory or knowledge of. The ostensibly real scenario is so remarkable that it seems both to be perfect material for an excellent documentary and also utterly unbelievable. The premise's (im)plausibility has provide ample fodder for an array of conspiracy theorizing in which the "case of Doug Bruce" is considered to be an elaborate hipster hoax. Yet, to my eyes, perhaps the most compelling evidence against such a position is the curious banality of the film itself. The filmmaker, to my eyes, sets up the conspiracy theorists through his own conflicted fascination, his own disbelief that Doug Bruce is a different person than he is before. This impacts the filmmaking in one important way: through the whole film, we are waiting for the final shoe to drop -- which it never really does. We are waiting for Godot but Godot doesn't come. So of course everyone's cracking out theories about what everything means. However, the filmmaker (who's apparently a genuine believer that Bruce has lost his memory/identity, or is a really perfect collaborator in the hoax) seems mostly, selfishly, understandably concerned about whether or not his friend will come back. The questions about the composition of self (ie. can authentic personhood exist without independent memories?) is a fascinating question but the filmmaker doesn't really have the tools to make those high concepts translate into experiential realities for a dispassionate viewer. Instead, the whole endeavor feels a little creepy and basically uninteresting. Grizzly Man made this kind of scenario work by developing an audience's craving for answers which amplified the starkness of the core mystery of the scenario. A potentially fascinating scenario hobbled by a curiously muddy filmmaking style.

Ha-Sodot/The Secrets (2007) +

A profoundly beautiful film depicting the challenges facing intelligent, passionate young women as they struggle to find their place within contemporary Orthodox Judaism in Israel. Naomi (the heartstopping Ania Bukstein) is the daughter of an esteemed rabbi, betrothed to her father's star yeshiva student, when her mother's death instigates a crisis of confidence in her predetermined path toward marriage and family. In part to delay her nuptials, Naomi beseeches her father's permission to study for the year at the midrasha in Safed. Soon after her arrival at the religious school for young women, Naomi meets Michal (the radiant Michal Shtamler in her screen debut), a rebellious young woman from France, sent to the midrasha by her exasperated father. The young women clash almost immediately, Naomi's studious righteousness a stark contrast to Michal's worldly cynicism. Soon, however, the two are paired in a community service assignment, delivering food to the mysterious and scandalous Anouk (Truffaut muse Fanny Ardant). Anouk, recently incarcerated for the murder of her lover and now beset with a terminal illness, reaches out to the young women charged with delivering her food. Michal, in particular, is drawn to the Anouk's need for spiritual absolution and soon enlists Naomi, who's something of a prodigy in her religious studies, to assist in meeting Anouk's requests. For her part, Naomi is both scandalized and intrigued and soon succumbs to the thrill of realizing her spiritual and liturgical gifts in service of Anouk. Working with Anouk fortifies the emerging passionate friendship between Michal and Naomi and soon the two fall into a kind of love. When some of their shared secrets are revealed, and after Naomi and Michal are expelled from the midrasha, the future of their relationship -- especially outside the protective veil of Orthodox Judaism's culture of gender segregation -- becomes anything but certain. This enthralling film is intellectually and culturally fascinating, with astonishingly beautiful camera work and excellent performances amplifying its aesthetic appeal. The characters are thrilling. The drama is both poignant and profound. The music is gorgeous. And there are some good laughs and some intense but tasteful sex that elevate it even further as an entertainment. The only fault I can name is an uneven pacing and some unsubtle character development in secondary roles. All told, it's an enthralling, moving and thought-provoking movie. (And though I could watch the two leads forever, I especially adored the use of the character of Yanki, the doofusy Klezmer clarinet player inclined to swoon for Michal. Yanki, a character clearly developed to underscore that not all Orthodox men are awful self-serving reactionaries, is charismatically and adorably played by Adir Miller. His is a vivid, welcoming performance that adds something marvelous to the central relationship between Bukstein and Shtamler). Director Avi Nesher develops Naomi's story to tell an exceptionally specific tale that nonetheless speaks poignantly to the challenges faced by culturally, intellectually and sexually self-determining women in tradition-bound societies. A tenderly triumphant film.

"Kompisar"/"Flatmates" (2007) +

The exuberant friendship shared by two young men is forever changed when one friend's actions cross an invisible line. Björn and Hampus are two 20somethings, excited to be moving into a small flat together. Their relationship is characterized by an aggressive yet easygoing banter. This mildly taunting dynamic is amplified by frank physicality, in which the line between rough-housing horseplay and easy intimacy is not altogether clear. Both young men seem to enjoy the bond, but Björn (who's gay and out to his friend) seems to crave more from his relationship with Hampus (the ladies' man). The newly close proximity seems to amplify Björn's cravings and he begins to traverse the boundaries of Hampus's privacy (spending time in his room when he's away, savoring the smell on his pillow). One evening, when Hampus arrives home especially drunk and collapses into Björn's tiny bed, Björn presses the limits even further, stealthily masturbating Hampus while he sleeps. When the force of Hampus's ejaculation awakens (and sobers) Hampus, Björn's caught and their relationship never recovers. This beautifully shot short film deploys an exhaustingly familiar scenario to travel somewhat fresh terrain. The film explores the moment when a gay man's erotic fascination with a straight man borders on, or crosses the line into, sexual abuse. What's interesting about this scenario -- which is acted very effectively by the two young men -- is that it takes a well-rehearsed fantasy scene and plays it toward the non-fantasy ends. Neither guy comes off the villain, though Björn's actions are the only ones that edge toward criminally actionable, or the victim, as Hampus's exertion of a thoughtless masculine privilege carries its own aspects of exploitation. This short film from Norway is not exactly pathbreaking but it is an intelligent elaboration of one of the most overplayed character dyads in independent gay cinema. Plus, the light in this film is undeniably gorgeous, making the regular guy looks of the two leads radiate with an amplified beauty. A strong, evocative short film about the limits of platonic intimacy.

Lost Everything (2007) -

A densely-plotted puzzler about the deadly consequences of self-seeking deception. The story is superficially quite intricate but actually boils down to two nearly distinct narratives addressing the “outing” of prominent figures. These two narratives are conjoined by separate murder plots involving the same pair of hired killers. The first story features a closeted movie star whose passionate affair with a male bartender threatens to end his career and, by extension, his life as he knows it. Also in this story are the movie star's "handler" (a vicious bloodseeking agent/manager), the movie star's "Katie" (a recent prostitute, friendly with the bartender, who lands the role of her life when she's tapped to "play" the movie star's new love), and a tabloid reporter who's on the trail to "out" the movie star. The second story features the out gay son of the leader of an evangelical mega-church, his boyfriend and the boyfriend's beatiful, straight and female business partner. The evangelist father and the vicious agent bring these storylines to connection by contracting a pair of hired guns to manage the "affairs" of their wards. The male hired gun intervenes when the female business partner is assaulted and the two commence a surprising love affair, a connection which causes the male hired gun to "lose his touch" as a mercenary. As the deceptions accrue, the stakes get higher and higher. Ultimately, the challenges of maintaining these deceptions (the movie star staying "in" the closet; the evangelist keeping the lid on his gay son's identity) become higher and higher until things spiral into a devastating cycle of violence that leaves most of the principals dead or on their way to jail. The film is neither especially bad nor especially good. Some of the acting is good and the plotting maintains enough intrigue and specificity to keep it from becoming too confusing. The main problem I found with the film, though, was that it's not dramaturgically balanced. Rather than being an enthralling multi-storyling puzzler involving a vivid ensemble, the film becomes a caper with rotating protagonists, all of whom are following their own distinct moral compasses, few of which are compatible/complementary. In effect, the film tries to have it both ways: an ensemble piece in which each character is the protagonist of their own story. That can work, but typically requires either (a) a more refined moral/existential moral question that all the characters are dealing with or (b) a clearer sense of purpose as to why these separate stories are conjoined. Indeed, I felt the film could have been broken into two separate features. One with the movie star, the whore, the manager, the bartender and the tabloid reporter; the other with the evangelist, the gay son, the lover, the pretty lady, and the repentant hitman. Either/both story would have been interesting on its own but, entwined together as they are here, the noirist potential of each story is compromised by the open question: when are all of these narrative strands going to converge? I guess I'm of the mind that these stories are not served by their integration with the other. The cast is generically appealing and no one's awful (well, almost no one) but there's something off-balance in the narrative center of this otherwise engaging storytelling style. Finally, I think I'm most dismayed by the half-hearted resolutions afforded each narrative. The payoffs are scant and there's little sense of triumph or schadenfreude. The narratives are resolved but in fairly sophomoric ways (in one the whore makes off with the money, in the other the reunited friends gather in trust and remember the sacrifices of the hitman) which might have worked, were there more depth to any of the characters beyond their "7 Dwarves" mode of character development. An attractive, appealing cast gathered in a complex puzzler of an "adult contemporary" saga of crime, deception and redemption -- a complex story that buckles under its own weight.

Beatific Vision (2008) -

A meddlesome ghost manipulates the lives of the people he left behind. Basically, this self-designated "gay spiritual comedy" is Blithe Spirit &/or Ghost updated for the queer, polyamorous new millennium. Michael is devastated by the death of his lover Chad and, when he begins to hear Chad's voice offer him instructions (and to suspect that Chad has hidden his bag of sex toys), Michael is even more confused. Unbeknownst to Michael, however, Chad is also speaking to his former therapist Damian. What's more Chad seems invested in helping Michael and Damian discover an attraction for each other. Chad also seems to like Bryan, the younger partyboy that both Michael and Damian have met online. Through Chad's manipulations, as well as their own investment in pushing through their fears of real intimacy, these three men discover a new mode of life partnership, all with the blessing of their Angel, Chad. (There's also a subplot about two lesbians but that's really tangential to the story.) The film is a sincere effort to affirm a variety of what might seem to be unconventional life choices (leathersex, polyamory, therapeutic use of MDMA and ecstacy, belief in the active presence of angels) and there's a core of sweetness to this story. Yet the film is compromised by a complicated storyline that fails to illuminate its characters. More fatally, however, the performances in the film are widely disparate in both style and effectiveness. In particular, the character of Damian (performed by Joe Higuchi) is performed in a broad, over-the-top, comic style that really compromises the plausibility of the romance that ostensibly develops between the two main characters. Higuchi's Damian is like an Asian-American Urkel pushing 40 and the actor's vocal/character choice muddies both the clarity of the dialogue and the comprehensibility of the story. Michael Vega (as Michael) and Norm Munoz (as Bryan the partyboy) are both fine, but the balance is tossed by Higuchi's misguided performance. The incompatibility among acting styles really compromises the general effectiveness of the piece. I like the idea of a gayangel story, but this one just doesn't work. The conceit is somehow both way too complicated and a touch simplistic. I also just didn't get all the drugs or all the business with the leather/fetish shtick or all the symbolic tchotchkes. They became things the characters did or quirks the characters had, rather than actions or behaviors that illuminated the characters. I suspect that gay romantic films that "queer" religious tradition as this one endeavors to do might prove to be really popular because the "spiritual" and "metaphysical" aspects of this film are among its most compelling threads but the filmmaker seemed to get gummed up in style questions. (A story in search of a genre.) Two other wierdnesses: one, I thought it odd that, in a cast loaded with Latino and Asian American gay characters, that the voice of a dead white man would be calling the shots; two, the sex scenes and the nakedness seemed just very idiosyncratic -- strange without being either erotic or narratively significant. A sincere film that suffers for its awkward, confusing execution (and one really misconceived central performance.)

"The Isolationist" (2008) -

A nightmarish comedy about one man's struggle to "get away" from his workaday life as a telemarketer. Ethan Sharrett plays Thomas Shore, a man who's miserable at his job and whose single goal is to take his one-week vacation in a place where no one from his work or personal life might find him. Unfortunately for Thomas, he's got a coworker whose flirtations are becoming a bit terrifying, a boss whose supervisory attentions are stalkerish, and a best friend whose concern for Thomas borders on the obsessive. When Thomas does sneak away to a beach retreat, he's mortified to discover not only that Barbara has followed him (in the hopes that they might have lots of sex) but that his boss has too (in the hopes that he might tell Thomas of his passionate love for him). At the same time, Thomas's best friend won't stop calling. (And then there's the creepy hotel towel lady, not to mention the Karaoke bully.) Events culminate with Thomas collapsing into a glass coffee table as he's being pursued by everyone, only to wake up with Barbara, his boss, and best friend all looking at him with concern. He's now in the hospital after attempting to take his own life. And as his visitors surround Thomas in a group hug, he gasps for air as they threaten to crush the breath/life from his injured body. The film is beautifully shot, with energetic competent performances. The absurdist tone works, for the most part, to convey a comic ominousness (the tone is reminiscent of Scorsese's After Hours). The main problem with the film is tha the conceit is a little unrealized. I couldn't tell if Thomas's nightmarish fears were justified (ie. that we were observing a comically pitched view on reality, ala Office Space) or if we were observing things through Thomas's Walter Mitty-esque fantasies of his own self-importance. I didn't really understand the characters (especially the best friend) and couldn't tell what was so great about Thomas that everyone was so obsessed. This became a problem in that, by the last few minutes of this 17 minute short, I was more annoyed with Thomas than any of his stalkers. I felt there was a piece missing to the mystery of the story: is Thomas terminally ill? did he check into the hotel to commit suicide and is all the stalking part of his fevered imagination? is he a drug addict/alcoholic trying to get enough space so he can use the way he wants to? All these questions might have helped to amplify the actual "stakes" of this narrative, which feels a little lost in space right now. (And so far as I can tell the only thing "queer" about the film is that the boss has fallen in love with Thomas, which he says is his first time having feelinsg for a man.) A generally well-executed black comedy that suffers for an underdeveloped/uninspired central conceit.

Come to the Stable (1949) -

A giddy sentimental comedy about some French nuns who shake things up by doing good deeds in a rural Western Connecticut hamlet. The film seems to be a Hollywood "good deed" about, of all things, doing good deeds. The story is simple. The nuns arrive with the laudable but implausible goal of building a Children's Hospital in the middle of nowhere. Of course, they have no resources and no assets beyond, of course, a faith that God will provide all they need to realize their calling. And, of course, God does provide, in ways that surprise all but the nuns. The film is clearly designed around Loretta Young's face which seems ideally suited to beam beatifically from within a nunly wimple. Young's Sister Margaret arrives with Celeste Holm's Sister Scholastica, a naîve French nun who's always dispensing St. Jude medallions (and who, in a crucial plot point, is revealed to possess a surprising athletic talent). The two are greeted with kindness by Elsa Lanchester's Miss Potts, an eccentric painter of religious paintings whose work first drew the sisters to this particular corner of Connecticut. A pop music composer (Hugh Marlowe) lives next door, with his amiable "Negro" servant (Dooley Wilson). That this wispy sentimental entertainment was nominated for 7 oscars (colonizing the Supporting Actress category with one each for Holm and Lanchester) seems nearly inscrutable. Sure, it's cute but jeepers. The only moments of genuine emotional power come from the sisters' brief encounter with Luigi Rossi, the mafioso-type who owns the land the sisters want to build on. Thomas Gomez is absolutely fabulous as Rossi, delivering empathic dimension as well as a few well-placed comic licks in what might be an utterly typical character. His brief scenes with Young and Holm amplify the complexity of their performances and it's only his character that I found myself to be interested in &/or at all moved by. Less effective is Hugh Marlowe, giving what is essentially the same performance he was to give in the following year's All About Eve, His approach to the good-hearted, self-impressed but ultimately spineless artsy type that who proves no match for the formidable women in his path is attractive but tedious, and does little to amplify the necessary urgency instigated by the character's function as the amiable antagonist for the central NIMBY (aka "not in my backyard") storyline. Lanchester is almost completely negligible in a fairly interesting role. And Young and Holm are just fine. Thankfully, Dooley Wilson is there to jolt the energy from time to time. [And 'twas a genuine thrill to notice Mike Mazurki in the role of Rossi's main henchman, Sam. Mazurki will always hold a special place in my heart for his turn in "The Friendly Physician" episode of Gilligan's Island, the one where the castaways end up on a remote island inhabited by a mad scientist who's developing a personality-switching machine. Mazurki plays the mad scientist's assistant Igor who, in a blast of madcap hilarity, gets switched with Ginger. In a quick scene, Tina Louise lumbers like a giant thug and Mazurki prances and minces like a princess. This episode was perhaps my first real introduction to the pleasures of cross-gender performance and the episode thrilled me to no end, ranking along with the radioactive seeds (and The Honeybees and opera-version-of-Hamlet and the MaryAnne-thinks-she's-Ginger) as my most treasured/anticipated episodes of the entire series. And as the Mazurki episode recurred in strangely infrequent rotation as compared to my other faves, everyday I would arrive home from elementary school hoping that afternoon would bring the personality switch episode. Everyday.] There's nothing really to hate about Come to the Stable, except -- perhaps -- the astonishing lameness of its 7 Oscar nominations. Yet, all told, it's a generally innocuous genre piece, a glibly sentimental foray into religious feeling -- as ephemeral as the sentiment itself.

"A Kind of Ache" (2008) -

A queer erotic short featuring three semi-explicit vignettes, each of which presents two partners who subtly challenge established conventions of cinematic erotica. The first duo is comprised of two normal looking men, one black and the other white. The second brings two transwomen together. The third features a conventionally attractive man and woman, who "switch" roles when the woman straps on a dildo and penetrates the man, much to his apparent delight. Each scene is characterized by an exploratory tenderness amplified by a subtle charge of passion. The short film is pleasant enough to watch, with the third scene becoming the most interesting (possibly because of the attractiveness of the performers, the relatively unusual scenario, and the extended full-frontal nudity of the male performer). The music was good, establishing both the mood and a general sense of experiment that seemed appropriate for both the film and each vignette. Yet the film didn't really go anywhere for me. I didn't find any of the pairings as radical as the film seemed to anticipate. (Indeed, after Shortbus, I suspect the bar has been raised in the presentation of hipster/queer sexuality.) I guess I needed something a little dimensional in terms of the narrative scenario OR a more surprising set of connections between these three scenarios. My sense is that filmmakers wanted this to be a fairly radical intervention into the modes of cinematic representations of sexuality (tender interracial sex between two normal looking guys; affirming/empowering sex between transwomen; joyful genderfuck sexplay between a man and a woman) but I'm not sure what field of references the film is intervening in. If they're attempting to disrupt the dehumanizing superficiality/commodification of pornography, I sorta get it; if they're attempting to intervene in the ways sex is depicted in independent/queer cinema, I don't really see their point. A potentially interesting film for an erotic film festival but I'm not sure about anything else.

"But Some Are Brave" (2007) -

A compelling animated short that offers an intuitive/meditative take on how the bodies of women of color served as an enduring source of labor and strength for all of human history. The animation style is impressionistic, with kaleidoscopic imagery swirling and morphing to convey the passage of time. The painterly images are striking and the chanting/toning soundtrack is haunting. Though the film is beautiful and captivating, its central polemic is neither particularly clear nor especially queer. The journey is fascinating but the culminating insight is a little thinner. This animated short is impressive and captivating and it seems to have an important message to impart; unfortunately, I remain a little unclear about what that message might be.

"Working On It" (2008) -

A reverie of riffs, rants, and musings among a smallish corps of variously queer artists/intellectuals/activists in Berlin. Preparations for an art opening provide the setting for a collage of seemingly arbitrarily interspersed interviews in which the documentary's 15-20 mostly "female" subjects offer their critical self-theorizations, their explications of how they maneuver the presumptions of otherness in their daily lives. The jargon of gender theory is used to describe what one subject calls "micro experiences of identity politics" while another wishes that Judith Butler and Judith Halberstam were required reading for every member of society. The interviews are painfully academic with most speakers reflecting that curiously righteous sincerity and studied idiosyncrasy so common in a graduate seminar. Much of the discussion in the film addresses the "work" of resisting, opposing, transforming, or revising the social construction of identities that are routinely imposed upon the individuals featured in the film. These analytic ruminations are counterposed with sequences depicting the assembly of the art show (an event which is featured under the concluding credits of the film). Everyone's smart and articulate. Much of the art/performance is interesting. Yet the film feels like the cinematic version of an advanced graduate seminar about post-modern feminist theories of sexuality, identity and resistance. In short, it's a lot of work. Even with my fairly well-rehearsed literacy in the academic theory informing much of the conversations, the film remains fairly rough going, even at a comparably short running time of 50 minutes. As a device to amplify discussion in an advance cultural studies seminar, this film might prove to be an excellent tool. As a piece of cinema, it remains a highly accomplished piece for a highly specialized audience. Admirable craftsmanship, savvily conceptualized -- a brainsprainer of a movie.

"Stalking Ava Gardner" (2007) -

An experimental serio-comic short film in which a young lesbian struggles with her obsessive love for Ava Gardner. Visually, the film presents a sometimes clever montage in which scenes featuring 50s-era screen sirens (Gardner, Novak, Monroe, Kelly) are edited to enact lesbian desire. Interspersed within these scenes are blurred images and occasional scenes featuring a young contemporary woman who we tend to presume is the central voice in the voiceover. This voiceover voice tells us, first in conversation with a therapist and then in consultation with a rent-a-psychic, that her sense of self is configured by her love for Ava Gardner. The voice expresses hopes that she and Ava Gardner might find each other. The film concludes when the voice's attempts to contact Ava through a psychic result in the report that "Ava's busy" -- a revelation that inspires a surprising peace for "the voice." The film gathers a pile of potentially very clever ideas but fails to resolve them in an emotionally or aesthetically compelling way. The more expressionistic visual aspects are good, but become random/indulgent as the voiceover overtakes them. The voiceover is not especially well-scripted, thus diminishing the resonance of the often fascinating visual montage. An ambitious student film, demonstrating strong ideas and some potential, ultimatedly derailed by the film's/filmmaker's refusal to prioritize either central instinct (the visual irreverance of the montage; the banal literalism of the voiceover). An almost interesting film.

"Tomboy" (2008) +

A sweet animated story about schoolyard bullying around one child's gender nonconformity. Alex is constantly seen to be a boy and her assertions that she's a girl often confound people in her community, especially her classmates at school. One day, after a "show & tell" lesson in which Alex talks about her favorite bouncy ball, and after she leads her recess soccer team to victory, Alex becomes the subject of increased bullying from two classmates, one male and one female, who mistrust and publicly disparage Alex's nonconformity, insisting that Alex "decide" whether she's a boy or a girl. During class and at recess, the bullying double-team attacks Alex's choice of colors, toys, athletic ability and all-around personhood, leaving Alex devastated by the end of the day. Alex's mother discovers her daughter crying in her room and, when she learns of the bullying, affirms her daughter's sense of self by sharing stories of women in history who were sometimes mistaken for men. The animated short is sweet, affirming and absolutely appropriate for its target audience (5-9 year old girls). The flash-animation is simple, though not amateurish, and the visual style works very effectively in service of the story. The serious storyline maintains a sweetness and lightness, and the film is a pleasure to watch. I especially appreciated the diversity of the characters and the filmmakers handled the linguistic diversity (the mother speaks bilingually, several of the children have accents) with clarity and accuracy. The film presents a somewhat idealized portrait (for example, no adults participate in the bullying but are reliably affirming) but that serves, in an interesting way, to model appropriate behaviors for adults. The kids, on the other hand, are permitted to be both as kind and as cruel as kids can be. An intelligent and sensitive animated film for kids that will likely speak powerfully to audiences of all ages.

Pageant (2008) +

A hoot of a documentary detailing the spectacle, drama, and duct tape of the 32nd Miss Gay America Pageant. This behind-the-scenes documentary follows all the conventions of your standard backstage documentary, following five men as they prepare for and finally compete in the finals of the Miss Gay America Pageant. The important thing to note about this competition is that this is old-school female impersonation, emphasizing the hypertheatrical craft of gender illusion that really only still finds acclaim in Las Vegas and in certain Southern gay nightclubs. (Pageant rules ban performance enhancements like surgery or hormones.) There is not much gender identity stuff happening here. There is no gender theory. And there is little in the way fo wild campy irreverance in these performances. Simply put, these mostly working-class, mostly Southern sissy gay men dress up as women mostly for fun and the hopes of vast profit. And it's just fascinating to see this old-fashioned style of drag in a post-RuPaul universe. As such, the competition places its emphasis on each contestant's PERFORMANCE (in five parts: male interview, female interview, evening gown, solo talent, floorshow talent). The film establishes each of the five contestants profiled with broad character strokes: The Contender; The Runner-Up; The Professional; The Outsider; and The Underdog. These folks are generally likable, if a tad grandiose, and their commitment to the craft of female impersonation is astonishing. (I especially thrilled at the style and stylings of Victoria Parker, aka Pork Chop, a plus-sized gal with extraordinary talent and ability, as well as a face that might stop a clock.) Like any subcultural documentary about some strange comptetition or another, this film is marked by a recurrent sense of "can you believe they put so much _____ into this" which is not an exactly pathbreaking or especially insightful documentary approach, but -- boy howdy -- the entertainment value of it is strong. It is simply a hoot to watch these folks, their mild diva turns, their generally grandiose pronouncements, and of course their star turns on stage. I was touched at how several of the contestants were surrounded by passionately devoted/supportive family and friends. I was frankly stunned at how elaborate the "show talent" pieces were -- huge set pieces, back up dancers, and of course fabulous costumes. I was also fascinated by the "male interview" component of the competition in which each contestant must dress in full male drag (typically, business attire) and conduct an interview with the judges only. The footage from these interviews proves invaluable to the film as a whole. The film breaks down into the conventional three act structure (Introduction; Preparation; Competition) of competition documentaries and the suspense is delightful, especially when the results bring mild disappointments and genuine surprises. All told, this is not a brilliant documentary -- it's utterly conventional at nearly every turn -- and, perhaps as a result, it's an absolute delight. An intelligent, humane and fascinating portrait of an old-fashioned, but enduring, performance tradition in gay culture.

"Tranny McGuyver" (2008) +

A campy send-up of teevee crimefighters featuring Tranny MacGuyver and her two pals (the hunky guy and the chubby girl). The comedy short is good, trashy fun, with loads of raunchy laughs and an appealing central performance by William Belli. (Though I thought the chubby girl was a hoot too.) The raunchy humor was a plus -- especially when it edged toward racial camp with the black prostitute and the asian masseuse -- but the genre spoof was a little loose. (I'm no expert on MacGyver but, if you're going to riff on the name, you really should riff on the show/genre or even the now conventional notion of "I'll MacGyver it"...) It's a funny and fun entertainment but not an especially effective short film/pilot.

"The Pull" (2007) +

A fascinating experimental documentary that tells the story of the filmmaker (Andy Blubaugh) and his former partner's decision to place a finite time limit on their relationship (ie. they would stay together for a specific amount of time, at which point they would go their separate ways). Through reenactments, selected interviews, voiceover and extended sequences of the two on bike rides, the film offers a visually arresting portrait of the nature of intimacy. Much of the film is devoted to explaining/defending the merits and rationale behind the somewhat arbitray imposition of an "expiration date" for the relationship. And the arguments are variously compelling. Yet where the film derives its power is (a) in the cycling metaphor and (b) the hauntingly beautiful use of split screen. Early in the film, we are told that what brought the two men together, separate from a connection deep in their past, was their shared passion for cycling. Later, one -- Blubaugh I think -- observes that a relationship is a lot like a bike trip: you're taking the journey together but you each have your own experience of the ride. The film amplifies the poignancy of this intimate estrangement by utilizing split screen. The juxtaposition of two, equally-sized rectangles -- cinematic fields which hold occasionally contrasting images, occasionally overlapping images, and very occasionally dissolve into a single image -- becomes a visually stunning metaphor for intimacy. I adored this film. Haunting, poignant, idiosyncratic -- I felt the film was radical in its honesty about the emotional journey toward (and away from) emotional intimacy. My screening partners felt obliged to weigh in on their opinions about the decision to reinvent commitment this way, often adding their thoughts about which partner was more or less likeable. Reactions to the film morphed almost immediately into reactions to the relationship, in ways I thought -- echoing the film -- more revealing of the respondents' values/biases than the film itself. For my part, I really identified with the film and its distinctive take on the how gay relationships, especially gay male relationships, often innovate and experiment with the dimensions of "commitment." Most usually, we talk about this in relationship to non-monogamy but this film (and this relationship) take on the undergirding premise of futurity: that a worthwhile commitment imagines itself going on forever. Theirs was a radical choice, and the film does a mostly brilliant job of depicting it. The main fault I find with the film is the relatively brief treatment of the relationship's end, when Blubaugh ended the relationship a week prior to its scheduled expiration date. It seems to me that Blubaugh dodges the issue a bit on this, rationalizing his choice but not addressing it as a fundamental betrayal of the terms of commitment (as infidelity might in a committed monogamous relationship). The filmmaker dodges the hard question, because he can, and that's too bad. All told though, this experimental documentary short is a visually stunning treatment of the idiosyncracies of intimacy -- a truly accomplished short film that's worth seeing.

"Skip & Bud" (2008) -

An ostensibly comic short about the charged relationship of Skip and Bud, two rising businessmen who share a history of sneaking off for to pursue a secret, shared physical pleasure. Together, they maintain the secret of this particular form of embodied joy, one which -- if discovered -- might threaten their carefully composed masculinity. Of course, this "secret physical pleasure" is not homosex (the actual activity is referenced in the film's title) though the short takes great pleasure in amplifying the innuendo toward the "gotcha" of the final reveal. The film's effectiveness is stymied by a simplistic premise, awkward writing and turgid pacing. The innuendo is neither funny nor erotic. And much of the acting in the piece is at "porno" levels of stiffness. A well-intentioned misfire.

"Lezbro: Dontcha Know" (2008) -

An often witty, high-concept contemplation of the friendships between lesbians and certain men (straight and gay) who the film considers "lezbros" (a complementary category to the familiar, if disparaging, "faghag"). The first, more successful half of the film is an ironic, whimsical documentary exploring the intellectual, cultural and personal definitions of the idea of "lezbro" through interviews with selected men and their lesbian buddies. The second, more tedious half of the film includes more interviews with the same men as well as an extended techno-pop music video featuring most of the folks who had been previously featured. The film suffers for being overlong and inexpertly edited. All the elements -- the interviews, the music video, the strange interstitials featuring an Australian accented faux-academic -- are good but, as presently configured, they don't add up to much. Moreover, the whole film seems to draw from a self-flattering San Francisco insularity, like "I'm going to make a movie about me and my very cool San Francisco friends and our particular style of cultural vanguardism," which is oddly off-putting. As a gay man who might actually qualify as a lezbro, the film didn't seem especially interested in the phenomenon beyond the folks featured in the film. Someone I screened it with actually termed it a "clique flick" -- which seems an apt description of precisely what's annoying about what should be a very fun and interesting film. Plus it doesn't help that the song is pretty lame. A smart, silly and imaginative treatment of a really interesting subject which, unfortunately, results in a sprawling, self-congratulatory and inexpertly executed short film.

"Love Bite" (2008) +

A witty stylish short detailing the terror involved in "coming out." The basic premise depicts two school chums smoking weed after school. One, clearly agitated about something, eyes his friend intensely as he struggles to find the courage to tell him something. The friend anticipates that his buddy's about to come out as gay only to be stunned when he reveals something much more sinister. This is a stylishly filmed goof of a film, with an attractive cast and striking imagery throughout. It builds effectively toward its punchline, using strong images and efficient pacing/tension. However, the film remains a single-joke piece with little insight or wit beyond the one "gotcha" twist. As far as shorts built upon a single plot point, this film is well-executed. Yet I remain curiously unsatisfied with this mode of short filmmaking. When it works, as it does here, it's cute...but that's about it. Entertaining and well-executed humor/horror with truly excellent closing credits.

"Howie" (2006) +

A radically simple "oral" history of one gay man's pursuit of his erotic vocation: eating ass. Director Charles Lum trains his camera on an idiosyncratic gay man of a certain age named Howie. Howie's the kind of gay who can chatter you ear off, probably about pretty much anything. Yet as Howie's fascinating accent (a mix of hardcore working-class Bostonian and all-American screeching gay) and his astonishing pace combine to describe how his ass-eating is a sign of God's divine grace, Howie's loopily tangential storytelling feel like the verbal equivalent of a rollercoaster. A shocking, delightful thrill ride diguised as a startling anecdote. To his credit, Lum maintains the visual interest of this static scenario with simple but amplifying camerawork to create an utterly hilarious and fascinating short documentary.

"Saint Jude" (2008) -

A personality profile of visual artist Mary Lynch, a NYC-based painter/photographer. Nerina Penzhorn's impressionistic, neo-documentary short does little to detail Lynch's work, in either processual or historical terms, but instead offers Lynch an opportunity to speak about herself. The result is a somewhat confounding portrait of a talented but strange lesbian/feminist artist with an idiosyncratic spiritual bent. (She's perhaps best described, based on the interviews presented in this film, as a "misanthropic buddhist" -- which is a fascinating paradox/oxymoron that's perhaps the most interesting thing about her and this film.) The film's mild obtuseness ends up compromising its effectiveness as a piece of cinematic art/entertainment.

"Fagette" (2008) +

A witty music video featuring transman MC KillaWatts and the Athens Boys Choir. Synchronized dancing and saturated colors lend visual wit to this irreverently sexy story about a preppy boi in search of the kind of man who's game for some transtastic sexual fun. MC KillaWatts (who is, I believe, an alter-ego of filmmaker Ali Cotterill) is powerfully attractive as the exuberant, horny preppy boi at the center of this video. (MC KillaWatts "passed" in ways that disturbed several of my screening companions). The premise is strong; the style is witty and entertaining. My only fault is that the track and, by extension, the film feels a little unfocused -- the premise is brilliant but the hilarious, stylish execution of it (both musically and visually) is a little sprawling. Very interesting film, both diverting and challenging. With a great crew of drag cheerleaders to boot!

"Toi et Moi" (2007) +

A giddy musical short in which two "gangs" of miscellaneous fabulons prepare for a glittery big80s dance-off under a bridge in the big city. Equal parts Pat Benatar and Ziggy Stardust, drawing evident inspiration from West Side Story and Thriller, this high-style spoof of big80s synth pop stylings is witty, sweet fun. The whole thing -- from the bad French accents on the vocal to the gaudy genderblending dance ensemble to the absurd choreography -- made me smile. A delightful, affirming diversion.

"Dyke for a Day" (2008) -

A spoofy, serio-comic short in which Lola pretends to be lesbian so that she can join the "Gay Club" and, thus, find a place to fit in at her scary new high school. Lola's plan mortifies her popularity obsessed sister and the sisters' clash ends up gathering the attention of the other students, with surprising results. This student-directed short proves to be an awkward execution of a potentially promising premise. The acting is subpar and the plotting is erratic. The whole things veers perilously close to being an unconscious spoof of the idea of school Gay-Straight Alliances (and the attempts at humor seem at times to be at the expense of the actually queer students). An awkward, unentertaining short film.

All the King's Men (1949) +/-

A sweeping parable of political principle transformed by power. Robert Rossen's adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's acclaimed novel endeavors a portrait of the populist instinct in American political life, especially the curious preference among the working-class polity for charismatic demagogues. Here, the demagogue is Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford, in a performance of astonishing visual and vocal power) -- a self-educated, hard-working "hick" with righteous instincts and the stirrings of a formidable ego. (Warren's fictional narrative is largely understood to be an adaptation of the life of Huey Long.) An impetuous, though ill-fated, run for County Commissioner, brings Stark to the attention of regional media as well as leaders in the state's political machine. Before long, Stark's running for Governor, as a vote-splitting patsy of the machine, and proving a quick-study in the mechanics of the political process. By the next election, Stark's combination of barnstorming charisma and backroom savvy have secured him enough votes (and cash) to send him into the Governor's mansion on a landslide. Once there, Stark's autocratic leadership style and taste for power confirm his administration as more of a dictatorship than a grassroots movement. As scandals and resignations and controversies erupt, Stark's megalomania exerts itself even more, with his closest relationships becoming the main casulaties. That is, until he finds himself the target of an assassin's bullet. That's basically it, a parable of the rise and fall of a distinctly American dictator, as prescient of the political realities of the earliest twentyfirst century as it is a document of the early twentieth. This plot summary, as well as the original novel, emphasize the character of Willie Stark in ways that don't match Rossen's treatment. In this film version, Stark's narrative provides the dramatic urgency, while the actual story emerges from the curious romantic intrigue among John Ireland's Jack Burden, Joanne Dru's Anne Stanton, and Mercedes McCambridge's Sadie Burke. Each fancies him or herself to be the single person who understands Willie Stark best, and they each thrive in the glow of his attention -- to the point where they (addictively) abandon pretty much everything else that matters to them in the single-minded, obsessive pursuit of Stark's success (and whatever subsequent gratifying praise or attention they might receive as a result). Through each of these characters, Rossen demonstrates how this demagogue's meteoric rise (and disastrous fall) destroys not only his life but also the lives of those around him. The film is a quickly plotted epic, loaded with artuflly (often ironically) framed shots and inhabited by vivid character actors doing generally good work. The main failing with the film, in my estimation, is a curious overdependence on visual images and vocal performances, often at the expense of grounded performances. Each performance is vocally perfect, and each actor looks the part. Yet there's a strange lack of integration between the two. I can recall vivid images and the piece is a treat to listen to, but rarely can I recall an emotionally vivid moment when all the elements (visual, aural, narrative) combined in an emotionally significant moment. There's much to admire about this film, and I find it absolutely fascinating/haunting in our current political moment (Stark reminds me of both Bush and Obama). Yet I found the film to carry surprisingly little emotional impact. (I found it neither as emotionally chilling as, say, Citizen Kane nor as basically frightening as, say, The Manchurian Candidate.) Moreover, the depiction of populism as akin to mass hysteria or groupthink is a tedious trope that this film traffics in mercilessly. A profoundly mixed bag with much to recommend it, nonetheless.

Hancock (2008) -

A clever-ish action-comedy that offers some amusing twists on the "superhero having an identity crisis" subgenre. Will Smith plays Hancock, a reluctant superhero whose sloppy, arrogant and generally drunken style of rescue have made him superhero-non-grata in the mean streets of Los Angeles. Hancock's chance rescue of PR agent Ray (Jason Bateman in an almost brilliant performance) from certain death places Smith's Hancock on a new path of self-reinvention and image-rehabilitation, a process that Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) views with enigmatic anxiety. Madcap hilarity as well as "movie of the week" redemption follow as Hancock tries to behave as something other than the "asshole" he's become so accustomed to being. Secrets are revealed; mysteries are resolved; balance is restored. The film could have been amazing but unfortunately they cast Will Smith in the lead. I've never been more acutely aware of Smith's limits as an actor as I was in this film. He seems to have two main registers: "intense right-seeker" for drama and "above-it-all irreverence" for comedy and, in both, he taps into his "little boy in big man body" sense of fun to lighten the mood. It's a style that can work (as it did in I Am Legend). But such an "easy bake" style emphatically does NOT work in the role of Hancock, a role that requires someone to "play" surly and guarded and emotionally closed off while still registering interesting depth and vulnerability while ALSO reliably nailing the laugh lines. For the first 3rd of the film, Smith's Hancock is merely a dick, not someone in genuine pain battling fundamentally competing instincts. I became convinced that, as an actor, Smith is just incapable or uninterested in playing complexity. (Indeed, and placing Scientology aside, watching Smith's performance made me realize how awful it would have been to see Tom Cruise play the lead role in Iron Man.) Theron sorta gets it, and there's stuff in her performance that digs three layers down (what's happening right now, the sensible response to what's happening right now, and something deeper that makes all that's happening right now mean something much greater than it might first seem). And there's the rub: Smith goes one layer down and Bateman goes two, leaving Theron the only actor among the principals to do what actually needs to be done. (Yet I thought her oddly cast in the role. Her exuberant whiteness made the pre-history of the characters seem a little confusing; casting a racially more ambiguous performer might have amplified things in ways that did not open unresolved questions.) I liked much of the film's extra bits, especially the incarceration stuff and I wished that the 12step aspects had delivered something more than easy laughs. It's annoying that the film does seem a little obsessed with anal penetration as the most fundamental assault on masculinity possible and I kept expecting them to make the kid a real character. Bateman's character was abandoned by the film and the screenplay during the third act, leaving the actor on his own in scenes that are basically beyond his most established strengths. I was annoyed in the first act, enthralled in the second, and annoyed in third. A disappointingly superficial treatment of what might have been a really amazing character/story.

WALL*E (2008) -

A cleverly framed tale of the redemptive power of love in action. This Pixar opus tells the story of a robot named WALL-E, a robot-droid-trashcompactor thing who's tooling about an environmentally ravaged earth. Somehow WALL-E has continued to function long after everyone and everything on earth has run down or run out. Day after day, he putters about the surface of an abandoned city, compacting little cubes of trash which, when piled carefully atop one another, construct towering skyscrapers of waste. WALL-E's only companions are a tenacious cockroach and the voices of Tommy Tune/Michael Crawford (as some of the featured singers/dancers on an old videotape of Hello Dolly). What makes WALL-E special is his being a packrat. He saves selected objects -- zippo lighters, a rubik's cube, a fateful seedling -- that catch his mechanical eye, storing them within the bunker where he lives. Most of all, WALL-E pines for an ostensibly female companion with whom he might hold retractable, robotic hands. One day, a gleaming white robot descends to earth and WALL-E falls, immediately, in love. He woos the shiny suppository-shaped robot with gifts and, when he presents the fateful seedling to her, a series of events unfold which are way complicated and ultimately unimportant. Basically, WALL-E -- fearing that his beloved suppository is in danger -- pursues her into the far depths of space where, together, the two robots realize that the fateful seedling holds the hope of the future for a vast diaspora of post-humans living on a giant space (cruise)ship. After a series of run-ins with police robots charged with maintaining the status quo on the space (cruise)ship, the WALL-E and "his" beloved are designated "rogue robots"...and the chase is on. In the course of his efforts to protect the plant and his gleaming suppository love, WALL-E ends up raising the consciousness of some misfit robots, as well as a handful of post-humans, while also saving everyone/everything on the giant spaceship because -- well -- WALL-E's just special that way. All the while, the film presents an extraordinarily textured cinematic landscape, the contours and dimensions of which are punctuated with consistently haunting wit. The construction of an earth ravaged by rampant corporate consumerism is simultaneously terrifying and poignant and hilarious. Likewise, the post-human landscape of the virtual space (cruise)ship is comparably incisive in its humor/horror. And the character of WALL-E is absolutely adorable. The problem I ended up having with the film is that, for all the cleverness of the high-concept surround, the narrative at the center of the film is basically dumb, a reactionary warrior dream for the whole family. On the one hand, the narrative's sentimental thrust is lame, hackneyed, familiar shtick: a schlub pursues a mysterious glamor gal who's a pawn/slave of an evil empire and, through the radical genuineness of his love, inspires her to stop pursuing her evil ways and work with the schlub to save the day. On the other hand, the urgency of the action/adventure/hero half of the story derives from a logical inconsistency -- specifically (spoiler) if the autopilot was executing the command to abandon plans to return to earth, then why does it continue to send life-probes like EVE to the planet's surface? Clearly, nobody's monitoring the periodic missions as none of the post-humans know enough to care. (And we won't even get into the dumbness of having these giant boneless baby-shaped post-humans coming back to a desolate earth landscape to become farmers. As MrStinky observed, they'd all be dusty, crusty toast after the first windstorm.) But really my main difficulty came from the fact that I didn't care enough about the romance that provided the narrative skeleton for the entire film. (Stalker narratives passed off as sublime romances tend to test my patience. Sure, WALL-E's totally sweet and he does all kinds of heroic things but he's basically a stalker. What's worse is that the whole romantic narrative really feels like a Mona Lisa or Taxi Driver kind of thing, where the anti-hero loser guy tries to save the worldly prostitute and for what?) And I just didn't think the character of EVE made sense, nor did I find her to be a compelling counterpart for the "amazing" WALL-E. (The only relationship I truly enjoyed was that between WALL-E and MO, the obsessive cleaning robot.) There is truly much to admire about the execution of this film but (as with most Pixar stuff) I found the emotional journey of the film to be utterly, depressingly conventional -- laden with cheap sentiment, incoherent neo-conservative politics, and garishly retrograde gender roles, all compromising the more visionary aspects of the gloriously executed premise.