Category: LGBTQ+ Movie Reviews

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“Kinsey” (2004)

2024 Entry #005 01-04-04 “Kinsey” is a 2004 American biographical drama film written and directed by Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters”, “Chicago” & the upcoming musical adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider-Woman”), who is himself openly gay. The film features a celebrated cast including Liam Neeson (“Rob Roy”, “Breakfast on Pluto”) Laura Linney (“Tales of the City”, “More Tales of the City”, “Further Tales of the City”, “The Laramie Project”), Chris O’Donnell (“Fried Green Tomatoes”), Peter Sarsgaard (“Boys Don’t Cry”, “Unconditional Love”, “The Dying Gall”, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”), Timothy Hutton (“The Substance of Fire”), John Lithgow (“The World According to Garp”), Tim Curry (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, “Clue”, “Will & Grace”), Oliver Platt (“Three to Tango”, “Nip/Tuck”, “The Good Wife”, “Modern Family”), Dylan Baker (“Oz”, “Ugly Betty”, “Happiness”, “The Laramie Project”, “The Matador”, “The Good Wife”, “Political Animals”, “Smash”, “The Good Fight”), John McMartin (“Oz”, “Further Tales of the City”), Lynn Redgrave (“Gods and Monsters”, “The Next Best Thing”, “Unconditional Love”, “The Jane Austen Book Club”), Julianne Nicholson (“Ally McBeal”, “Keep the Lights On”), Veronica Cartwright (“Alien”, “Will & Grace”, “Breaking Fast”), Heather Goldenhersh (“Sex and the City”, “Spin the Bottle”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “Modern Family”), David Harbour (“Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Stranger Things”) and openly gay actor Luke Macfarlane (“Brothers & Sisters”, “Smash”, “Single All the Way”, “Bros”).

The film presents the life of Alfred Charles Kinsey (Neeson), a pioneer in the area of sexology. His 1948 publication, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (the first of the Kinsey Reports) was one of the first recorded works that tried to scientifically address and investigate sexual behavior in humans – including homosexuality, which is featured (refreshingly) prominently throughout the film. Laura Linney’s performance as Kinsey’s wife Clara McMillen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the film received widespread praise (it currently holds a 90% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and was featured on many critics’ top ten lists for 2004, including those working for The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, The New York Times, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, San Francisco Chronicle & The Wall Street Journal. The film won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Best Actor: Liam Neeson), The American Film Awards (Top 10 American Films of 2004: Kinsey) & the National Board of Review (Top Ten Films: Kinsey & Best Supporting Actress: Laura Linney).

I’d seen “Kinsey” once before when it was a new release at my video store. I remembered that the film was appropriately frank, that it featured gay, bisexual and lesbian subject matter and characters throughout, and that I had greatly enjoyed it. This proved true on my second viewing as well. I highly recommend it.

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“Saltburn” (2023)

2024 Entry #004 01-04-24 “Saltburn” is a 2023 black comedy psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by Emerald Fennell (“Albert Nobbs”, “The Danish Girl”, “Vita & Virginia”, “Killing Eve”), starring Barry Keoghan (“Eternals”), Jacob Elordi (“Euphoria”), Rosamund Pike (“The Libertine”), Richard E. Grant (“Withnail and I”, “Warlock”, “Henry & June”, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, “Absolutely Fabulous”, “Bright Young Things”, Colour Me Kubrick”, “Doctor Who”, “Game of Thrones”, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, “Loki”), Paul Rhys (“Food of Love”), Carey Mulligan (“Doctor Who”, “Shame”, “Maestro”), Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe. Set in mid-2000s England, it focuses on a university student who becomes obsessed with a wealthy fellow student within his college, who invites him to spend the summer at his eccentric family’s estate.

I feared that this would be another update of “Brideshead Revisited” (which I’ve never really enjoyed), but instead this film is a clever cross between that pseudo-queer drama and the sinister gay anti-hero, “The Talented Mr. Ripley” – which makes this film much more entertaining than I was expecting! It’s dark and it’s probably not every queer film fan’s cup of tea, but it’s also hilarious, sexy, outrageous and fun. I laughed and I cried, but I laughed out loud a lot.

“Saltburn” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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“Aikāne” (2023)

2024 Entry #003 01-03-24 “Aikāne” is a 14 minute 2023 animated short film based on a mythical love and adventure story rooted in the Hawaiian tradition of aikāne, or intimate partners of the same sex. Co-directors Hamer and Wilson, a married couple, were inspired to make the film by their belief that everybody, especially young people, deserve to see a queer love story with a happy ending. The film was produced by Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, also known as Kumu Hina, who is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies “a place in the middle” between male and female, as well as a modern transgender woman.

The story follows a valiant warrior, wounded in battle against foreign invaders, who falls deep into a mysterious underwater world. When the octopus who rescues him transforms into a handsome young man, they fall in love and an epic adventure begins.

This was charming, brief and unexpectedly lovely. I know nothing of Hawaiian mythology and was not expecting the sea creature love story – but it was cool nonetheless.

The film has been awarded at multiple children’s, indigenous, LGBTQ+ and other film festivals around the world, and has qualified for the 96th Academy Awards by winning top jury awards at the New Hampshire and Hawaii International Film Festivals.

“Aikāne” is currently streaming for free on YouTube.

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“Dark Harbor” (1998)

“Dark Harbor” is a 1998 thriller film written and directed by Adam Coleman Howard. It stars Alan Rickman (“An Awfully Big Adventure”, the Harry Potter films, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”), Norman Reedus (“Floating”, “The Boondock Saints”, “Beat”, “Luster”) and Polly Walker (“Scenes of a Sexual Nature”, “Caprica”). The aimless story follows David Weinberg (Alan Rickman), a lawyer in his 50s, and his much younger wife Alexis (Polly Walker) when they cross paths with an injured young man (Norman Reedus) at the side of the road, whom they reluctantly drive to the nearest town.

To discuss this film I’ll need to somewhat SPOIL the ending, so be warned.

I’d seen this film once before when I purchased it for my collection, having heard that there was a gay storyline. I remembered being relatively distracted by it, though when I tried to remember anything in detail I could clearly remember the final 5 minutes of the film and little else. Having revisited it, I can see why that is. For most of the film’s runtime, it plays like a timid, well meaning, but rather disjointed television film which leads to a twist ending involving a murder, followed by an unexpected nude scene from Rickman (which works well thematically but feels oddly risqué after the bulk of this prudish tedium), followed by a big gay reveal at the end, which ineffectually attempts to recontextualize much of what we’ve seen up to this point. But even knowing the twist and watching to see how the film played out given these previously hidden details, it still felt scattered and emotionally incoherent – leaving this so-called thriller bereft of any thrills beyond the twist itself, which is too bad. I enjoy all of these performers much more in other pieces and the movie isn’t exactly horrible so much as deeply flawed. But unless you’re a completist I’d suggest skipping this one.

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“Nuovo Olimpo” (2023)

“Nuovo Olimpo” is a 2023 semi-autobiographical Italian romantic drama film by openly gay director Ferzan Özpetek (“Hamam” / “Steam: The Turkish Bath”, “The Ignorant Fairies”, “Facing Windows”, “Saturn in Opposition”, “Loose Cannons”, “Magnificent Presence”, “Fasten Your Seatbelts”, “Red Istanbul”, “The Goddess of Fortune”) who co-wrote the film with Gianni Romoli. The story centers on Andrea Di Luigi as Pietro Gherardi & Damiano Gavino as Enea Monte, two men who meet and fall in love in late-1970s Rome, only to be separated unexpectedly. The film premiered at the Rome Film Festival on October 22, 2023 and was released on Netflix on November 1, 2023. Elements of the film’s story were taken from writer and director Ferzan Özpetek’s own life and career. He stated, “The starting point of the film is a true story that happened to me in the ’70s and that for a long time I wanted to use as an inspiration to make a film.” Nuovo Olimpo was shot entirely in Rome, specifically in Municipio III and Monte Sacro. Principal photography began in November 2022.

I’d previously seen and enjoyed both “Steam: The Turkish Bath” and “Facing Windows”, but until the release of this film in late 2023, I had no idea they shared the same creative team. But when I learned that Özpetek had directed both of those films and this one, I was immediately interested in seeing it.

I liked this though I’m not sure if I enjoyed it as much as his previous work. There are some wonderful sequences here and I adore the music he uses, and many elements of the story resonate for me in interesting ways. But I had a headache when I watched this which got progressively worse throughout, and this affected my experience and how I viewed it. I generally insist on subtitles vs. dubbing when I view foreign films because I love to hear the languages but because of the headache, after the film started and I found it was dubbed, I chose to keep watching because I wanted to see the movie so badly but I thought reading all the subtitles while I was impaired would be painful. I don’t think this choice ruined the movie, but I do feel like it added an extra level of camp, and if I ever view it again, I plan to view it with subtitles on.

The story features two bisexual men, Pietro & Enea, who fall in love with one another but are separated. Throughout their lives they consider one another and are haunted by their past relationship, despite moving on and finding happiness with other people. Their relationship pops up in all sorts of ways in the lives they choose to lead and eventually they are reunited, many years later, but to what end? This resonates with me. I’m demisexual; I form strong emotional bonds with nearly all the people I choose to have sex with, which is why I’m not good at one night stands and I’ve dated most of the people I’ve been with. These people, mostly men, who have been part of my life and drifted apart, I’ve often used their memory to create art (which is something the Enea does here) – and this has led to reunions, however brief, which feature old lovers speaking with some of the same results seen here. The film is a fiction based on real life, and that is exactly what it feels like. There are meta elements which are interesting and add something to the equation, pushing the life as fiction narrative…which border on gimmicky, but are really just another side of the truth. And the film features several supportive female roles that I found quite moving, if a bit underwritten; I liked all of these women but I’m not sure I truly knew them by the end of the film or that I fully understood them – and I wish we got more of that somehow. It’s not a perfect film but it’s a beautiful attempt.

“Nuovo Olimpo” is currently streaming on Netflix.

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The Architect (2006)

2022 Entry #027 02-09-22 “The Architect” is a 2006 American drama film which was written and directed by Matt Tauber & based on the 1996 play by David Greig.

The film is a bit of a mixed bag and seems to lack focus but it has an amazing cast which includes: Viola Davis (“The Substance of Fire”, “Far From Heaven”, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Isabella Rossellini (“Heights”, “Closet Monster”, “Vita and Virginia”), Walton Goggins (“Red Dirt”), Anthony LaPaglia (“Autumn in New York”), Hayden Panettiere (“The Object of My Affection”, “Ally McBeal”, “Normal”), Paul James (“Greek”, “Torchwood”, “Shameless”) and a very young Sebastian Stan (“Black Swan”, “Gossip Girl”, “Avengers: Endgame”).

The gay elements are somewhat muddled, but feature James’s Shawn, a smart gay teenager living in a crime infested Chicago neighborhood, in a building designed by LaPaglia’s Leo Waters, the title character. Through six degrees of separation, Leo’s son Martin (played by Stan) crosses paths with Shawn and the two have a revelatory if devastating series of interactions that results in Martin’s growth and Shawn’s death (by suicide). This storyline could have been better, but it also could have been worse. The storyline is one of several strands, most of which feel underdeveloped and an expansion of this storyline could have explored the relationship between the two characters in greater depth and provided more insight into why Shawn ends his life and what this means for Martin. Yet if this was the only story being told it would likely be extremely depressing and possibly offensive. But as it is, Shawn’s death is used to mirror the death of another boy (who doesn’t appear in the film) and manages to resonate in that capacity, providing the film with the focus that it often seems to lack. In the end, while these moments aren’t always set up for success by the rest of the film, they also manage to make the best of a clearly flawed and seemingly aimless narrative.

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Cicada (2020)

2022 Entry #026 02-08-22 “Cicada” is a 2020 American romantic drama film directed by Matthew Fifer and Kieran Mulcare. Fifer co-wrote the film with Sheldon D. Brown, both of whom starred in leading roles. A New York love story that toes the line between narrative and doc with two actors reliving parts of their own experiences. The film follows the relationship between Ben (Fifer) & Sam (Brown). Both have troubled pasts which complicate their possible romantic future together.

I loved most of this. The leads are great. The direction is assured with some fun flourishes. The New York setting is beautiful as always. The only quibble I had was with Cobie Smulders as a quirky therapist whose methods just felt a bit over the top, while nearly everything else in the film felt very grounded. Now, she does have a fantastic moment in the film, so she’s not completely without value, but every other time we came back to that character, the film lost its focus and started feeling a little too unbelievable. Thankfully, that’s a relatively minor flaw in what is, overall, a very good movie.

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As I Am (2020)

2022 Entry #025 02-02-22 “As I Am” is essentially an extended short at just 1 hour and 2 minutes long, which was written & directed by Anthony Bawn (“District”, “The Catharsis Project”). The story concerns an awkward and deeply troubled young man named Emmanuel (Andre Myers) who must come to terms with both his sexual identity and the emotional scars he’s suffered through years of abuse.

I wanted to enjoy this and there are pieces of this that work, but those pieces don’t actually seem to fit together. This feels very much like a rough draft, but it is not as well planned as similar shorts that feel this way. The length itself speaks to this: it’s not exactly a short but it’s not exactly a feature either and the story that’s told doesn’t seem to justify the length; it just feels like a storyteller with no discipline. I wouldn’t say any of the performers are necessarily bad because each one seems to rise to the occasion throughout the production…they just never rise at the same time, which was off-putting and frustrating. Some of them also feel like they should be starring in completely different films. And then there are several clumsy production choices which either made no sense or were not well executed. One example involves the lead character, who wears his glasses all the time, even in the shower or when he’s supposed to be asleep. Do people do that? Or there is a scene in a club where the soundtrack features the sounds of a busy nightclub with lots of people, despite the fact that the two characters in the scene are mostly alone. Maybe this was filmed during Covid-19 restrictions? But if so, then change the location. Don’t contradict the truth and undermine the scene.

I’d recommend skipping this. The story is worthwhile but the execution of that story is flawed

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Alaska is a Drag (2017)

2022 Entry #024 02-02-22 “Alaska is a Drag” is a 2017 drama film which was written and directed by Shaz Bennett, who also wrote and directed the short film of the same name that this feature remakes and expands on. The story follows an aspiring drag superstar named Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.), working in a fish cannery in Alaska as he’s forced to defend himself from bullies with the support of his cancer stricken twin sister (Maya Washington).

I loved the short version of this story and was excited to see the feature length version, but somewhere between the two, it went a bit off the rails. It’s not horrible. But it’s not great. I think I’m just disappointed because the short was so good! They definitely try to expand on what they started with, but these new facets are often left unexplored. The most developed is the twin sister, who wasn’t featured before. But there’s a weird thing about their father being gay, which I’m left wondering if I fell asleep and imagined it because it really didn’t go anywhere. Then the bully is revealed to have basically been a past lover or could-have-been lover for the lead – which is fine – but the way they get over all that at the end is rushed and wholly unbelievable. And much of the drama caused by the bullying is so over-the-top and poorly written that it just pulled me out of the movie for long stretches at a time. There are good moments here, which are mostly just remakes of the short, but the bad outweighs the good for me.

I recommend watching the short 2012 version.

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Violets (2017)

2022 Entry #023 02-01-22 “Violets” is a 23 minute 2017 short which was written & directed by Maren H. Jensen. The story focuses on Scott St. Patrick’s John, a police officer, son, husband and father who is struggling with gender identity…and how that struggle affects those around him.

Wow. This was great! I’d really like a feature length version of this. I thought this had some really interesting things to say and I loved how it ended.

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