2024 Entry #007 01-04-24 “The Den” (aka “La tana”) is a 15 minute 2015 Italian short film which was directed by Lorenzo Caproni (“La prima volta”, “The Necklace”, “Lazarus Come Out”) who co-wrote it with Fabio Marson. The story follows Christian (Daniele Mariani), who on a vacation to the beach with his wife (Laura Sinceri) and son (Nicola Luna Maroder) encounters his old friend Luca (Emanuel Caserio), who he had a complex sexual history with… and history often repeats itself.
This is part of the same collection as the previous short I watched, but I liked this entry much better. It left me with many questions about the characters, as shorts often do, but it felt natural. There’s a dangerous edge to the proceedings here but it appears to have a relatively happy ending and I’m not knocking it.
2024 Entry #006 01-04-24 “Lolo” is a 14 minute 2019 German short film which was written and directed by both Leandro Goddinho & Paulo Menezes who went on to create other queer shorts with “It Is Not the Brazilian Homosexuals Who Are Perverse, But the Situation in Which They Live” & “Du Bist So Wunderbar”. The story focuses on Lolo (Zev Starrett), who is an openly gay 11-year-old boy trying to convince Max (Valentin von Schönburg), his first love, to go public with their relationship at the school party, while also spending time with his close friends, Toby (Sam Atlas) and Elena (Rhea C. Tober).
So, this was mostly horrible. The entire cast is made up of children and their performances are not good but with this script it’s hard to blame them for any of this. I do like the poster and the cinematography isn’t horrendous, and I did also like one of the settings – but I wish all of these elements were part of a better film, because this is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I purchased this short from Amazon Prime a couple of years ago as part of a gay short film collection titled “The Male Gaze: Hide and Seek”. I hope the other entries are better than this one.
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.
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.
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.
“Cruising” is a 1980 American crime thriller film written and directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, and Karen Allen. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker about a serial killer targeting gay men, particularly those men associated with the leather scene in the late 1970s. The title is a play on words with a dual meaning because “cruising” can describe police officers on patrol and gay men who are cruising for sex.
Poorly received by critics upon release, “Cruising” performed moderately at the box office. The shooting and promotion were dogged by gay rights protesters, who believed that the film stigmatized them. The film is also notable for its open-ended finale, which was criticized by Robin Wood and Bill Krohn as further complicating what they felt were the director’s incoherent changes to the rough cut and synopsis, as well as other production issues.
I have friends that enjoy this film and others who despise it. Some of the friends that enjoy it claim that the film shares an honest look at the leather community and seeing police officers both abuse and fight to protect the gay community was ahead of its time. Some of the friends that despise it feel that the film suggests that both homosexuality and murder are a contagion; that being gay and being a killer are linked within the film and that such behaviors can be passed on to others. I fall somewhere in the middle. I think it has positive aspects and that some of the film is very forward thinking…but I think most of that is undone by bizarre story choices by director William Friedkin…which some fans of the film either don’t pick up on at all or if they do, view as a successful twist of some kind. I disagree with the latter and view these choices as a failing of the film, which in the end is just a muddled heap of red herrings which needlessly complicate the plot and undermine what the rest of the movie mostly succeeds at.
To describe the strange choices I’m speaking of, which IMO ruin the movie, I’ll need to get into SPOILERS so if you don’t want to know just skip this bit…
However, for those of you who are interested, let me see if I can unravel this mess…
Steve Inwood’s character, Martino, is murdered in a peepshow with a clue left behind which links the crime to Richard Cox’s character, Stuart Richards, the father-hating homophobe whom Al Pacino’s character nails for all of the murders near the end of the film. However, the killer in this scene is NOT played by Richard Cox, but by Arnaldo Santana.
Arnaldo Santana plays a character named Lukas who is murdered by the killer in the St. James Hotel at the beginning of the film, but in this scene the killer is played by Larry Atlas.
Larry Atlas plays Eric, who is murdered in Central Park and in this instance we never see the killer’s face but it’s been stated by various sources that this is actor Richard Cox, the supposed serial killer revealed near the end of the film.
Seriously. The film suggests that all of the victims could be killers. There’s also a scene with another man approaching a gay bar that seems to be suggesting that another killer is on the prowl. It’s been said that this is what Friedkin intended, as he believed that there was more than one killer.
Surely that’s the end of this, right? Nope.
With the post-climax, off-camera murder of Ted (Don Scardino), the gay next-door neighbor who befriends Steve (Al Pacino) when he goes undercover to catch a serial killer preying on New York’s gay community, it is at least suggested that Ted has become a victim of Steve’s, who has been repressing desires he has discovered in himself, and has taken the place of the murderer, who also killed gays because he couldn’t face the truth of his desires. If that seems like too much of a stretch, this is what actually, conclusively happens in Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel on which the film is based, and Friedkin leaves us wondering if it has happened in the film, although he gives us a possible alternative: Ted may have been killed by Gregory (James Remar), his jealous roommate / lover / boyfriend.
Oh. And I didn’t even mention the police interrogation scene in which a big man in a jock strap saunters in and slaps people around. I’m not making this up.
That was a lot to unpack. And I’m tired. But suffice it to say that without the wacky twists of stunt castings and suggested multiple murderers (and a big man in a jock)…the film could have been very good and it still has its moments, but they get lost in all the “art”.
Your mileage may vary. 🏳️🌈
Much of this film’s plot and imagery, along with it’s odd choices (like said jock strap wearing police station moment) are recreated in the 11th Season of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story”, which is titled “NYC”. So if you like this, then I’d recommend checking that out. One of the more interesting interpretations of the film “Cruising” is that the killers are not men at all but the then unknown AIDS epidemic, which would have been really clever, but very unlikely given when the film was made and released, so while the interpretation solves a lot of the issues with the movie, it feels like like a rationalization to “save” the film, rather than anything that the film intended to achieve. Having said that, “American Horror Story: NYC” makes the link that the film could not, which is maybe why that season of television far more than the film / novel it was so clearly based on.
Entry 17 on my LGBTQ pandemic marathon. Today I needed comfort food…and I also realized I’d not been watching any lesbian movies so I went for this borderline awful guilty pleasure which I love with almost every fiber of my being. ❤ 🏳️🌈 It’s one of those queer movies where it’s almost great, isn’t quite up to snuff but has it’s heart in the right place. I re-watched it last year or the year before for the first time in at least a decade so I hesitated to make it part of this new viewing party thing but I’ve decided I’m just starting from scratch and can watch anything I want. lol And I really needed this today.
For those wondering, the movie was released in 1992, when such films were far more rare and it was a passion project, which I can respect. The film score (which is available to stream on Amazon Music) is beautiful. And I have happy memories of seeing this with a dear friend on video in 1994. I’m glad it’s part of my collection.
Edit: I have a more indepth review of this from my 2026 re-watch.
I just finished rewatching one of my all-time-favorite LGBTQ films: 1998’s “Edge of Seventeen”, directed by David Moreton, written by Moreton and Todd Stephens, starring Chris Stafford, and co-starring Tina Holmes and Andersen Gabrych. I hesitated on watching this one as I felt I maybe knew this one too well and I’ve been mostly viewing movies in my inclusive collection which I’ve either never seen or I’ve only seen once or twice…but I’d actually forgotten a lot of it, which just means I’m getting old.
The movie is set in 1984 / 1985 and is partially set at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (though the name of the park is changed for legal reasons and long shots of the park are clearly from the 90’s as the Raptor can be seen). My family spent a lot of time at that park and the first time I went was 1984 / 1985. The soundtrack is a love letter to the 1980’s and the movie manages to capture that era in a way that many others fail to do.
For example, I watched another movie from the collection on Friday which I’d never seen before called “The Curiosity of Chance”, which came out in 2006, is set in the 1980’s in Europe and features some of the same songs…but it just feels unreal; and it’s not helped by some less successful acting choices and a muddled script. I didn’t hate watching it though I’d never put it on a top 10 list. “Edge of Seventeen” though is TOPS for sure. Take it from a bottom who knows! ❤ 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧
I hadn’t seen this one before, and sadly I was bit disappointed. I’ll talk about this a little more after I watch the next movie, which it reminded me of, but if I remember correctly, I liked the other film, “Edge of Seventeen” far more.
I should write a real review of this. Maybe I’ll revisit it someday and do that. But see the next entry and I’ll talk about it more.
