But my God, that music by Bernstein and that choreography by Robbins is unbeatable. The movie is worth viewing at any time: it won 10 Academy Awards in 1961, including Best Picture, for good reason. In November of this year, a special 50^th anniversary DVD of the film will be released.

But I’m here to tell you about the amazing Broadway revival of the musical that is currently on tour throughout the country. Laurents directed this revival that opened on Broadway in 2009 and closed earlier this year with reworking of some of the lyrics and dialogue to include Spanish in scenes between the Puerto Rican Sharks.

This revival is only the second time the show has been revived on Broadway since it burst onto the stage in 1957. It is hard to believe because since it has become so popular in society, it seems as if every high school, community and regional theater has put on a production. I’m sure many have been good, but I’m telling you this is a stellar production, the kind that you must see if you’re a fan of musical theater and especially if you’re a fan of the show. To hear a full orchestra perform the music, matched with the reproduction of Robbins’ choreography by professional dancers, is not to be missed.

This production moves like lightening, not a dull or dragging moment in it. Every performance is outstanding, every moment is exciting. I’m gushing – please go see it. To see when it is coming to your city, visit www.broadwaywestsidestory.com. Until then, check out this performance from the 2009 Tony Awards of the Dance at the Gym. Mambo!

But until then, I’m going to hide inside and stop complaining. I’ll go back out when it gets below 90 degrees. Okay I’m done. But one thing I will say about this weather is that it does remind me of one of my favorite U.S. cities, Miami. I realize that Miami is in a tropical region and its heat is certainly different from other heat patterns, but no matter. Anyway, I digress…..

As the gateway to Latin America, Miami is unique because of the history that has made it a thriving multicultural metropolis. I try to go down for a vacation during the winter every few years, for a respite from the winter.

But until I return, I’ll hide inside and watch my favorite movies that are set in Miami. Of course, I have episodes of The Golden Girls I can happily watch, as well. Some of my favorites include Some Like It Hot, Miami Vice (I loved the TV show as a kid, and thought Michael Mann’s 2006 adaptation was great too), The Birdcage, and parts of the amazing The Godfather Part II.

So just like a cold winter night, I’ll curl up on the couch and watch a favorite heat-inspired movie. The rest of you can play outside, I’m stayin’ cool.

Midnight in Paris is the prolific Woody Allen’s 41^st film, and simply one of the loveliest films he has made. It is funny, sweet and sentimental (in a good way), while still maintaining those punctuations that are hallmarks of a Woody Allen film, particularly in the writing. It deals with a past that existed, but shows how waxing nostalgic for such times and places may only be creations of a past reality that exist in our own minds.

It tells the story of Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter, who yearns to leave a more lasting impression with his writing in the form of a novel of literary importance. He is engaged to the vain, spoiled, bossy Inez (Rachel McAdams) who cares little for his desires; her and her conservative family just want Gil to keep bringing in the bucks.

But, Gil is bored with this life. Paris excites him and fills him with meaning in a way that causes him to act like, well, an overly romantic American fool visiting Paris in a movie. He dreams of the Paris of the 1920s, when literary and artistic luminaries from around the world gathered in cafes, salons and taverns to discuss the world and have a great time.

He is obsessed with the Paris of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (and here’s your homework, read this book if you haven’t), a wonderful book about Hemingway’s life in Paris during this time, with all of the soon-to-be world-renowned legends that Hemingway kept as his company.

One night, on a tipsy stroll through the streets of Paris, Gil gets lost. He finds himself alone sitting on the steps off of an unknown street, when the clock strikes midnight and a car out of the past pulls up, with guests beckoning him to get in and join them. And suddenly, Gil is transformed to Hemingway’s Paris of the 20s, with his literary and artistic idols all around him, right on the brink of fame. They’re all there: Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dalí, Picasso, Fitzgerald and, of course, Hemingway.

From that night forward, Gil goes back to those same steps, awaiting his car every midnight. He meets the people he’s only dreamed about, conversing with them, enjoying life with them. He meets a woman who understands him and his work and he is entranced. The only problem is that she longs for a Paris of the past in her own imagination — turn-of-the-century — Paris, and cannot see the paradise that Gil sees as he travels back in time.

The culmination of this is simply one of Woody Allen’s most enjoyable movies in years. It brings together his wit and great skill for comedic writing, with his love for the movies and ability to take a city and make it really be alive on-screen. He did it for years in New York, did it recently in Barcelona with the excellent Vicky Cristina Barcelona and has done it masterfully with Paris in this film. For any Woody Allen fan this is a must see, and for anyone with a love of entertaining, smart film and great literature, Midnight in Paris needs to be your next movie-going experience.

I have a query for you.
So let’s say you love your 9-5 job (which I do), and you really like all the people you work with (like I do) — not a bad apple on the team — but you find at times that your job is making you stressed beyond words. How do you manage?

I often wonder what it was like in an office before email and computers. I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes the pace of it all surmounts to something that becomes beyond overwhelming. Say like, you take a vacation day or week and the whole time you know that you’ll be coming back to hundreds of unanswered emails all in need of a response. Can you catch up? Do you just shut down? Sometimes I find not taking time off is less stressful than a vacation. And sick time? God, forget it.

There are some great workplace movies out there, and the opening of the new film Horrible Bosses has made me think about them. Luckily, I haven’t had a boss or job that’s been horrible.

Here are some of my recommendations for great workplace movies:

• Working Girl: Dear God this is a great movie.
• The Devil Wears Prada: Emily…. Emily….
• Norma Rae: UNION
• Office Space: duh, of course
• His Girl Friday: Cant beat the banter of a 1940s newsroom
• The Apartment: Possibly Billy Wilder’s best film
• Sweet Smell of Success: Publicists, gossip columnists, the gritty underbelly of New York City – this is a great one
• 9 to 5: Simply hilarious
• The Company: Altman’s lovely film about a dance company
• Wall Street: Michael Douglas’ iconic Gordon Gekkko rules this film

Enjoy!

Which brings me to a project that has come to the attention of The New Gay, and I think it’s worth you knowing about. The project is a documentary film called I am the Water, You are the Sea. It is the story of Alex, an American Peace Corps volunteer, and Ali, an Iranian Muslim, who met and fell in love in Iran in 1977, just before the fall of the Shah and the beginning of the Iranian revolution. As danger erupted across the country, Alex had to leave, and left his love behind.

It is the hope of the filmmaker to take Alex to Iran and reunite him with Ali, but without proper funding, it won’t happen and the film won’t get made. Such an idea ties together so many of the important issues facing our world today – what it means when same sex couples from different countries fall in love and try to stay together, the oppression of the LGBT community in many nations to the point where their lives are in extreme danger, and the unrest and protests in the parts of the world, like Iran, that have lived under oppressive rule for decades, where people are standing up and are ready for a new day.

But more importantly, it is a simply a story of love between two people who were torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Pride month that to lend your support to this project.

Visit the project’s Kickstarter page here.

I love Sondheim, the man is tops in my musical theater book. No one writes lyrics like Sondheim and Company is one of his best. It won six Tony awards in 1970, including Best New Musical (it also won Best Revival of a Musical in 2006).

More than telling a linear story, the musical focuses on the character of Bobby on and around his 35^th birthday and his various married friends and the women he dates. It is mostly told through vignettes with the various characters as Bobby slowly comes to the realization that being an avowed bachelor may not be the life for him. It contains two of Sondheim’s most beloved songs, the knockouts The Ladies Who Lunch and Being Alive, and the hilarious Getting Married Today.

Stage icon Elaine Stritch has owned The Ladies Who Lunch since she originated the role of Joann. If you want to watch a great video, look up Elaine Stritch in studio recording the song, it’s crazy amazing.

Company is a musical for adults about adults, it’s about relationships and their complications, what it means to be with someone, what it means to be in love and what it means to be alone. It doesn’t paint the happy-go-lucky portrait of love that most musicals do, instead it shows the areas of grey that are the reality of life and relationships.

The Company on screen now stays true to the original, set in the late 60s/early 70s, and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Jon Cryer, Stephen Colbert, Patti LuPone and Christina Hendricks. LuPone and Hendricks shine the most in this lively concert version of the show.

While this version is certainly worth your time, even more, I recommend getting your hands on the PBS Great Performances taping of the 2006 Broadway revival. This is the Company you should see. It sets the show on a bare stage with the actors dressed in all black, in a timeless setting, and the orchestra being the actors themselves. It brings forth all of the underlying tones of the show by keeping it simple, stripped-down and intimate, while firmly grounding it in a place that does not seem dated, which the show (and the version at the movie theater now) often can slightly feel like.

But no matter if you rent this version or go see it at the movies now, see Company, and if you can get to a live production of it, don’t miss it.

Two of my favorite things in the summer:

1. A book on the beach on a sunny day.

2. A movie at home on a rainy day.

So here are my recommendations for each:

Books

1. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf – because Ms. Woolf had the ultimate in family vacations before you did.

2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami – because it’s my current summer read of choice.

3. People Like Us by Dominick Dunne – because you need some high-quality trash in  your summer.

4. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - because you’re gay and you should.

5. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – because there’s nothing like the beach and the crash of the waves for some peaceful contemplation.

Movies

1. The Color Purple directed by Steven Spielberg – because you need to be uplifted on a rainy day and because you already miss Oprah.

2. Bring It On directed by Peyton Reed – because of Big Red and Sparky Polastri.

3. Suddenly Last Summer directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz­ – because you need a classic.

4. Peyton Place directed by Mark Robson - because you need a trashy classic.

5. Breaking Away directed by Peter Yates - because even though you’re not a Hoosier like me, you love a good underdog story.

What are you reading and watching this summer?

The cast of Bridesmaids

What happens when you mix raunch comedy with a chick-flick? Bridesmaids.

The new Judd Apatow-produced, Kristen Wiig-starring (and co-written) film, Bridesmaids, is, however, due much more respect than the simple high-concept Hollywood idea of mashing up two successful genres. It is in fact, a hilarious, well-written, genuinely acted, sometimes sweet, great time at the movies.

Above all else, the most important thing that a movie can do for an audience is deliver. And when I say deliver, I mean to treat its audience with respect through all those components that makes a good movie, like acting, direction, production value, and so on. Not every movie needs to be some sweeping epic like Out of Africa to be a great, nor does it have to be a thought-provoking, contemplative art house film either. When I judge a film, I do so on its own merits, and not against others, and dare I say, that Bridesmaids is pretty damn close to a great movie.

Fine, you may not find vomit and diarrhea be funny. In fact, you may even find it to be childish and uncreative. But try this: using it as a comedic centerpiece to reveal about our heroine that she will not back down in the face of certain humiliation, that she’ll hold her head high in the face of an adversary, and prove to all ends to be the most loyal of friends, while all at the same time plainly exposing her deep insecurities. My friends, that’s a well-written and played poop-and-puke scene. And just try not to laugh.

Kristin Wiig plays Annie, the recently down-on-her-luck pastry chef, whose bakery has recently gone belly-up and who just desperately continues to hook-up with the same hot asshole guy to make herself feel better, while only feeling worse by his rejection. Maya Rudolph plays her life-long best friend Lillian, who has just recently gotten engaged and asks Annie to be her maid of honor. The pressure of being in the position mixed with her life going down the tubes has Annie in over her head, and when she meets the other bridesmaids (Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper), including her soon-to-be nemesis, the perfect Helen (Rose Byrne), all hell breaks loose.

All of these women deliver their laugh-out-lines to perfection, with the most scene-stealing moments belonging to the film’s breakout star, Melissa McCarthy as Megan. But the real credit needs to go to Kristin Wiig, who along co-writer Annie Mumolo (who makes a very funny cameo in a scene on an airplane), has written a great comedy, and has the chops to act it out too. This is one to see in a packed theater. The laughs will have you leaving with a smile on your face.

Uncle Boonmee film poster

Last month, I wrote a review of Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s beautiful 2004 film Tropical Malady. I recently had the opportunity to see his latest film, the winner of last year’s prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. It is another strange and hauntingly triumphant work from this unique director.

Weerasethakul, who has adopted the nickname Joe, creates films that share much with the magical realism genre of fiction in which dream-like situations co-mingle with the seemingly normal. Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is the granddaddy of the genre and “Joe’s” films are a cinematic descendent. They are at times bizarre, but always in a manner which never betrays his intention of creating a cinematic universe that allows the viewer to let his films wash over them completely, ensconcing them fully into his world. And once he grabs you, he doesn’t let go.

Uncle Boonmee requires a patient audience; one that requires the viewer to go with it. Its beauty lies in the simplistic tale it tells while intricately weaving in the dream-like apparitions and happenings that highlight the film from start to finish. It need not be confusing because we are dealing with a world that is not our own, no matter how much it may seem to be. Or more accurately, just as is done in myths, legends, and other forms of storytelling, we are given a fantasy-like story that speaks volumes about the world that we all walk in.

A non-human apparition in Uncle Boonmee

As Uncle Boonmee is approaching the end of his life, his sister-in-law and nephew return to his rural farm for a visit. Upon their visit all sort of strange happenings begin to occur: Boonmee’s dead wife appears to care for him, his dead son returns in a non-human form, just to begin with. To the characters though, none of this seems strange, and they interact with the dead and the increasingly out-of-the-ordinary as if all is not that unusual.

This film, like his others, speaks to a sense of connectedness between nature and humanity, and a universal view where the lines between life and death, and the past, present, and future, exist together. It’s just that in his films, we can see the connection, in our own lives it’s not so easy. And at the end, this is where the power lies in Uncle Boonmee. It’s reflection on this world that we all inhabit patiently makes for a more thought-provoking and inspiring movie-going experience than most other films could only dream to offer.

He's baaaaccckkk...

Last week I went on a brief rant about my love of the Scream movies and my anticipation of Scream 4, or as they write it, Scre4m. So this week, I would like to continue that rant this week, with a review of the film…

First, all cards on the table: this was going to have to be a disaster for me not to like this movie. Certainly I could have been terribly disappointed, but it’s not like this was going to be The Godfather III for me. All I asked for was for it to deliver with the wits, scares, and surprises of the first three. And I can report, yes, delivered!

It is the fifteenth anniversary of the Woodsboro murders of the first film, and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has returned to her hometown on the last stop of her book tour. Sidney has written a bestselling self-help book about overcoming all of her horrific experiences. She certainly seems at peace too, as she is unfazed by all of the prank Ghostface masks put up all over town to mark the anniversary; just kids having fun she says.

Soon though, the masked killer makes his reappearance and starts slicing and dicing his or her way back through Sidney’s life.

Making reappearances are also Deputy – now Sheriff – Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and his wife, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Having married since the last film, Dewey and Gale seem to be losing the spark in their lives, and a return to their Ghostface-battling ways is just the thing to bring them back together.

While in Woodsboro, Sidney stays with her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell) and cousin Jill (Emma Roberts), who reminds Sidney of herself as a teenager, creepy boyfriend and all. As monsters in most slasher films do, Ghostface has a particular taste for teenagers, and is soon going after Jill’s friends and classmates with a vengeance.

Listen, this is not Oscar material, and I’m not giving this film a pass simply because it is a slasher film sequel, it is legitimately another cleverly crafted installment in an entertaining franchise. It toes the line of its genres conventions, while continuing to scare us, make us laugh, and entertain. More than anything, it’s a breath of fresh air from all of the nasty Saw-esque torture porn films.

Once again, what you’ll get is a good time at the movies, a plot-twisting mystery (always part of the fun), and lots of great one-liners. Wes Craven has still got it, and what he gives is a jump-out-of-your-seat ride that will keep you laughing along the way.

For me, each of the Scream films holds up, even the third installment‚ where many others have a problem. But, come on, Parker Posey is hilarious in it, and it is just as fun as the first two. The opening scene of the first installment with Drew Barrymore is iconic and stands alone as a great mini-film in itself.  I can’t wait to see what Wes Craven and the rest of his crew do with the series to bring it into 2011. Scream 4 is in theaters today. If you see it, let me know your thoughts.

It is not just Scream 4 that has me all excited these days in the realm of entertainment. While certainly not of the horror genre, there is a new television show also dealing with murder, AMC’s The Killing, and it is simply spectacular.

AMC is on a roll: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and now The Killing. It is a slow-burning, intelligent, patient tale of the murder of a teenage girl in Seattle. It carefully follows the investigation of the crime by focusing on the police and the suspects with each episode covering about a day. We see the pain caused to the family, the fear of the dead girl’s friends, and the anguish of the lead investigator. This is a much more nuanced crime show than most, and it is spellbinding.

So this weekend, after you go see Scream 4, spend your Sunday night taking in the engrossing The Killing.

Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce

Last Sunday, HBO premiered the first two installments of its five part miniseries, Mildred Pierce, to great interest both for its revisitation of a classic Hollywood film of the same name, and for its lead actress Kate Winslet, who seems to impress both critics and audiences more and more as her career continues forward. The next three installments will happen over these subsequent Sundays, and you can bet it won’t be long before the mini-series is out on DVD.

It is based on the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James Cain, whose books have also been turned into the classic film noirs The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. When his novel was turned into a film the first time in 1945, director Michael Curtiz made it following the conventions of the classic film noir, playing up the violent and darker aspects of the story. The movie is, of course, also famous for its Academy Award-winning performance by Joan Crawford, proving that she was much more than the queen of camp. If you’ve never seen it, its one of the great film noirs, with the interesting spin of both the antagonist and protagonist being female.

Flash forward to 2011, and the team of director Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon (both important figures in the history of queer filmmaking and in filmmaking period) have brought a more faithful adaptation of Cain’s novel to the the small screen. This mini-series focuses more closely in on Mildred Pierce’s struggles as a woman trying to stay afloat and keep her pride during the Depression, especially against a nasty little daughter.

This is a much more contemplative and quiet film than the 1945 version, with Kate Winslet giving another nuanced and impressive performance. As a fan of the original, it’s great to see a new version that tells the story in such a different manner and not simply miming what originally made it famous. If you have HBO this is one not to miss.

Elizabeth Taylor at the American Film Festival of Deauville (Normandy, France) in September 1985, by Roland Godefroy.

This week, we lost one of the great classic Hollywood actresses and a constant champion of HIV/AIDS advocacy, Elizabeth Taylor. Battling health problems for many years, she died on Wednesday of congestive heart failure. Her life was filled with ups-and-downs, controversies, and of course, all of those husbands. In so many ways, she was the perfect Hollywood starlet- a vision on screen, a strong actress, a great beauty who became a brand on her own, and the fountain from which endless gossip fodder spewed into the tabloids.

Her storied film career began in the early 1940s and reached its pinnacle throughout the mid-50s through the 1960s. It was her move into adult roles that solidified her as a real actress with great performances in Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

Before these, start your Elizabeth Taylor film festival with A Place in the Sun (1949), which stands on my list as one of the great Hollywood classics. I think this is the film that really showed her acting chops, as she matched knockout performances by Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters. Also along the stop, spend a lazy Sunday afternoon watching the over-the-top spectacle that is Cleopatra. Clocking in at 192 minutes, this film became notorious for nearly bankrupting 20th Century Fox, Taylor’s near death from illness during the shoot, and her affair with Richard Burton. It is beautiful to look at, but it is worth a watch simply for the famed history of its production.

But if you must see one of her films above all others, rent Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), where Taylor plays the crazed, alcoholic Martha in the film adaptation of Edward Albee’s monumental play of the same name. She called this her proudest film. For this movie, she won her second Academy Award, the first being for BUtterfield 8 (1960), also worth a viewing. Shedding every bit of her starlet image, Taylor tears across the screen in a powerhouse, unforgettable performance, gnashing her teeth and spewing all manner of vile at her husband, played by Burton. This is a film not to be missed, one that stands up still as a monument to great writing and brilliant acting.

As great an icon of the silver screen she was, her work as an AIDS activist from an early point in the crisis in the 1980s perhaps will have the greatest and most lasting affects of any film work that she did in her life. As I was reading different reports on her death, I found a mention from one of her last interviews, with US Weekly. In it she recounts “25 Things” that people don’t know about her. Number 25 was “My family and people with HIV/AIDS are my life.”

She was a tireless fundraiser and advocate for those effected by HIV/AIDs, having been profoundly effected not only as a human being by what she was seeing around her, but also by the death of her friend Rock Hudson. Her outrage at the complacency and silence from the government and the public at large helped give birth to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundations.

She stood out front courageously at a time when no one else was, and remained there her whole life.

Tropical Malady, courtesy of the Environmental Film Festival © Strand Releasing

As I’ve touched on before in this column, there are countless film festivals taking place all over the United States and throughout the world. In just about any major city and many of the smaller ones, as well, you can find a film festival that has the courage to show films that are often left out of the mainstream and likely wouldn’t be shown at your local multiplex. From festivals celebrating the art of film in total to those that seek to expose the creative work happening within niche categories based on demographic or interest, the recognition of the art and craft of film is alive and well.

This week in Washington opened one of these festivals. From March 15 – 27 runs the 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival, dedicated to “further the public’s understanding of environmental issues – and solutions – through the power of film and thought-provoking discussion with environmental experts and filmmakers.” Exhibiting over 150 films, attending the festival is a great way to not only learn about issues important to the world, but to also take in some great art and entertainment at the same time. There are films for every interest, including the LGBT community.

On March 26 at 7:30 pm at the AFI Silver Theatre, the Festival screens Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s hauntingly exquisite 2004 triumph Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad). As the first Thai film to be in main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, it won the Special Jury Prize in 2004.

Tropical Malady is a film split into two sections, telling seemingly different stories, with both seeking to provide a greater understanding of human interaction and our interplay with the world around us, seen and unseen. It is about loneliness and desire, and an attempt to contact on a deeper level with that which is beyond the confines of our own bodies. It strives to tell us that such connections take place between people on all levels, boundless of sexual and gender identity, and further penetrates through the idea that nature and our environment holds a deep sway over our relation to ourselves and others.

The first half of the film is the story of Keng, a soldier, and Tong, who lives in the rural city that Keng has been assigned. The connection between the two deepens into a romance of innocence and flirtation, deeper than merely a sexual attraction. What develops is not bounded by sexuality, but instead by the limitless nature of meaningful human interaction.

Tong exits into the night and the film shifts dramatically to a different story of a soldier, played by the same actor who portrays Keng who enters the jungle surrounding the rural village to find a young man gone missing. Interweaved into this storyline is the fable of a tiger shaman, and this shaman (portrayed by the same actor who plays Tong) begins to challenge the soldier in his struggle to find the villager as he gets lost deeper into himself and the jungle.

Tropical Malady is a challenging film that is patient in its storytelling and asks for a deep engagement and thoughtfulness from its audience. The connection between the two sections of the film may not seem apparent upon initial viewing and is often disorienting and confusing. But this disorientation is exactly the point, and what is accomplished is a thought-provoking, beautifully-filmed work that asks us to ponder our existence in this world and the one beyond, where the main character may not be us, but the world itself.

For more information on this film and the rest of the Environmental Film Festival, please visit www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org.

Zombies from Night of the Living Dead

For awhile it was vampires everywhere we looked. In books, movies, and television, we have been so beaten down by them that the bloodsuckers have started to lose their bite. As soon as the tweens got a hold of the undead charmers, we should have known that this monster was going to jump the shark. But vampires have held a place within pop culture since Bram Stoker brought us Dracula exactly because of that charm, that mysterious and sexy way they seduce their victims and bring them, often willingly, into their own world.

On the other end of the undead movie monster spectrum is that sluggish, bloody, organ-eating grotesque: the zombie. The zombie is in every way the antithesis of the vampire, instead of seducing and charming you into their trap, the zombie just grabs you and tears you to pieces, eating your organs right out of your body while you’re still alive.

Gross.

Over the past five years or so, the zombie genre has risen faster from the dead than one of the brain-hungry stumblers. It is as if the zombie genre has come back into horror vogue in direct reaction to the popularity of those slick vampires. I’d love to see someone try to turn those nasty zombies into a cutesy love story. Good luck.

As far as monsters go, zombies are one of my least favorites. They are a rather boring bunch as they growl and look disgusting while they stumble toward their victims. They certainly do deliver quite a gory bang for their buck when they go in for the kill, but outside of that, I remain largely unimpressed.  George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is most certainly the classic that gave birth to the genre, and his brilliant Dawn of the Dead is as funny in its satirical take on consumer culture as it is frightening and truly, truly disgusting. But, besides these zombie films, only 28 Days Later really had me at the edge of my seat.

So it was with great trepidation that I approached AMC’s television series The Walking Dead. Premiering in a six-episode first season last fall, the series, based on a comic book of the same name, follows a group of survivors outside of Atlanta in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies have seemingly taken over the entire planet. And these zombies are hungry for human. The zombies are characterized by the stereotypical traits that are the hallmarks of the genre, and the story itself is not completely original. How many times have we seen the small group of feuding survivors try to make their way through a confusing, frightening world, while they get picked off one by one.

But The Walking Dead has that something that so many other forays into the zombie genre have lacked: great writing. After all, it often is all about the writing isn’t it? The writers of this show have found the perfect mix to deliver both compelling drama and frightening, ghoulish horror. Wow, I honestly can’t believe how gory this show is for basic cable; if you are a fan of extreme gore with your horror, I promise that this show will completely deliver.

I found myself mesmerized throughout the series, just not wanting it to end. It moves methodically and with patience often, which makes the terror of the zombie attacks all that more shocking. Solid acting accompanies throughout, but it really is the quality of the writing and the excellent production values that have me barely able to wait for a Season Two.  Season One of The Walking Dead came out on DVD and Blue-Ray this week and is also available to watch on iTunes, Amazon, Cinema Now, Xbox, and Playstation.

So what I want to know is when we’re going to get a gay epic. Brokeback Mountain? Great movie, not an epic. I think Angels in America is pretty close to an epic, it is without a doubt a beautiful representation of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, but what I mean is more of a straightforward Hollywood epic without the amount of theatricality of the HBO adaptation of that great play.

Now I know what you’re thinking, Spartacus, right? No, a pseudo-homosexual epic doesn’t count, even with the insertion of the famous bath scene.

I want a damn big, balls-out, over-the-top gay Hollywood epic. I feel like every gay movie I see is either a cutesy romantic comedy, a ridiculous attempt at comedic farce, or a poorly acted dip into a traditional movie genre. This is not to say that there isn’t truly original and creative filmmaking happening in gay cinema. In particular, there are many experimental films, shorts, and especially documentaries that I think are making a splash.

But let me tell you what I’m thinking. A few weeks back in the Friday Staff Survey, we were asked what time period in history we could go back to and experience. I said that I would love to go back to New York at the turn of the last century to see what gay New York was like. I know that there is an epic movie in there somewhere. Can’t you just see it now? The drag balls, the dandies, the hidden affairs, and the out and open luminaries– I’m telling you there is a great movie in there. Maybe I should write it and stop whining? Maybe… What gay epic would you love to see made?

Gypsy Rose Lee

In the opinion of many (including myself) in theatre circles, Gypsy is one of the great American musicals, if not the single greatest American musical. It is the story of how the famous burlesque star, Gypsy Rose Lee became one of the most famous women in the world. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents, the musical was based on Gypsy’s memoirs.

For the unfamiliar, Gypsy is the supporting character in the musical, going by her real name Louise for almost the entirety of the show. It is her mother, Rose, the stage mother to beat all stage mothers who is the lead character, and one of the most sought-after roles on the stage. And Rose is quite the character; she is demanding, brash, and borderline abusive to both the young Louise and her sister June as they tour the country as children of the Vaudeville stage.

There have been two film adaptations, neither very good in my opinion. The first was in 1962 starring Roasalind Russell and Natalie Wood and the second was made for television with Bette Midler in 1993. It was reported last month that Barbra Streisand is currently in negotiations to star in a new film version. I hope for the best, as Gypsy finally deserves a stellar film treatment.

Now that the story of Gypsy Rose Lee has been told from stage to screen, America’s most famous stripper has been given a new biographical treatment in Karen Abbott’s new book American Rose. Subtitled A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee the book not only tells the story of Gypsy, but offers a fascinating look at the Depression-era America that allowed for such a star to rise.

Abbott’s last book was the rousing Sin in the Second City, about Chicago’s famous Everleigh Club in turn of the century Chicago. In that book, she deftly told the story of the country’s most famous and glamorous brothel and the Everleigh sisters who ran it. In that book, she was able to weave into the story the changing tide in American society, to not only explain why such a place was able to thrive in the first place, but also the forces that ultimately led to its downfall.

Similarly accomplished, American Rose drops its reader firmly into the time and places that allowed for a stripper to become a star.

Even more intriguing, however, is the relationship between Gypsy and her sister June and their mother Rose. Rose is far worse than the demanding mother in the musical, teetering somewhere between sociopath and psychopath in the book. And that’s on a good day.

The book is meticulously researched, and like Sin in the Second City, reads more like an engaging, page-turning piece of fiction than a work of history or biography. And this is Abbott’s greatest accomplishment. Her skill as a writer masks her mastery as a researcher, as every detail is meticulously documented. She also was able to gain access to June, not long before her death at age 97, and from those conversations are given even more fascinating details into the life of Gypsy and the family.

For any fan of the musical, or anyone interested in historical fiction, American Rose will keep you turning the pages faster than Gypsy pulled off her gloves.

The Oscars!

Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the decision to extend the Best Motion Picture of the Year category to 10 films, instead of the five it had for decades prior. Part of the idea was that lesser known films and limited release independents would have a chance to nudge into the list. Outside of Winter’s Bone, I’m not so sure that’s the case this year. At least it is nice to see films like The Kids are All Right and Toy Story 3 included on the list. Below I’m going to take my first shot at my predictions.

This is not who I think should win, just who I think is going to win in the major categories. Yes, I know, we complain about the Oscars, but these games are still fun to play, right? And if you outguess me, then you win… the satisfaction of outguessing me.

***

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids are All Right

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

127 Hours

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

*The popular bet is that this one comes down between The King’s Speech and The Social Network. It looks like The Social Network has the momentum, but I say it’ll lose it soon and the Academy will go for The King’s Speech.

***

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)

Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

*Poor Annette Bening. I love you in just about everything you do, you’ve deserved an Oscar so many times, and I think you’re going to lose again; this time to Natalie Portman for her descent into insanity in Black Swan.

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

James Franco (127 Hours)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

*It’s about time Colin Firth gets his due, and I think it happens this year with The King’s Speech.

***

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale (The Fighter)

John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)

Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are All Right)

Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

*Christian Bale, I think you should win an Oscar for that crazy rant caught on tape, but I have a feeling that you’re going to make it happen with your role in The Fighter.

***

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams (The Fighter)

Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)

Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

*Again, I say an actor from The Fighter takes this one, this time Melissa Leo. A good argument can be made that Amy Adams and Leo will split the vote, but I don’t see it happening. I say Melissa Leo still comes out on top.

***

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3

*Please, this is a given. Toy Story 3 all the way.

***

Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

*Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay for The Social Network is killer; the man must win.

***

Original Screenplay

Another Year

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids are All Right

The King’s Speech

*This is a tough one, but I say this is the category where The Kids are All Right gets its just due.

***

Achievement in Directing

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)

David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

*No matter if The Social Network wins or loses Best Motion Picture, I can’t see how David Fincher doesn’t win here.

Now, what do you think?

Jafar Panahi

Just when you find yourself ready to complain about the state of the American government, a repressive foreign government comes along and reminds you of how valuable it is to be able to live in a country where an expression of speech typically does not get you thrown in jail. It is, of course, no surprise that under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that freedom of speech has not been held up as one of the core values of the Iranian government, but a recent act by his government has caused an international outcry in the human rights and film community.

Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films for 20 years for working on a film about Iran’s “green revolution” after its 2009 elections. If you remember, it looked as if real change my come to Iran in reaction to the election that most thought was just another rouse by the ruling, oppressive government. Panahi was an ardent supporter of this revolution, being vocal about it long past its eventual end by the ruling government.

This story has now been widely reported throughout the media around the world, and protest screenings of Panahi’s films have been shown. There is an online petition as well. I doubt that the Iranian regime cares much about such a petition, but at least here, you can voice your solidarity and opinion.

Or better yet, rent yourself a copy of his film from 2000, The Circle (Dayereh) in a show of protest and support of this outrage.

Image by Alexaes, Photo Stock xchng

So, am I the only one who was completely underwhelmed by the movies released this year? As a movie-lover and cinephile, I usually don’t know how I’m going to fit in all the movies I’m going to see in a given year, especially during the end of the year when all of the “award-quality” movies clamor to be released. But this year I found myself struggling to get myself to the cinema at all, even with living in a city where almost all films in U.S. distribution are released.

It wasn’t that I was just underwhelmed by Hollywood, but also by the indies and foreign films; nothing got me excited. I’d say the best thing I’ve seen is probably Black Swan and I don’t even think that it is superlative compared to films of previous years. Sure, it’s entertaining and engaging, but to my mind, lacks both a compelling statement or profound narrative that the best of the best films possess.

Many will argue that The Social Network is that movie. As much as I liked it, I must disagree. I certainly didn’t find it generation defining as many did. And further, I am bothered by its manipulation of reality to fit the story it wanted to tell. I’m all for creative license, but when your movie’s statement largely rests upon the loneliness of your main character and his lack of a girlfriend, when in fact he had a girlfriend (and still has the same), that seems to knock down your argument a bit. Aaron Sorkin, you’re a great writer, but this seems a bit unfair to me. And remember, I really liked this movie, so imagine what its detractors have to say.

Next weekend, the Golden Globe Awards will begin the movie awards season, and while there were certainly award-worthy performances, the films are another story. With entries like Burlesque in the Best Musical/Comedy Film, you can see that they were reaching. It amuses me to no end that last year the Oscars decided to grant ten nominations instead of five for Best Picture. Good luck finding a truly worthy ten. Underachievers, this is your year.

In fairness, there are still a number of films that were just recently released that I have yet to see. In particular, I look forward to seeing the Coen brothers’ True Grit, Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, and the film that may get Colin Firth his Oscar, The King’s Speech. But this year just didn’t do it for me, so here’s to a much better 2011.

What do you think? Did you have any standouts or overlooked gems? I know they must be out there.

Catherine Deneuve in A Christmas Tale

The Christmas holiday season is glut full of movies: movies to make you cry and feel all warm inside, and movies to make you realize how miserable the holidays can be with demanding children and bickering adults.  Too often the problem with modern Christmas movies is that they copy the classics from the past- It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and the various incarnations of A Christmas Carol to name just a few. The recycled feel-good revelations found in today’s copy-cats have lost the cache from their predecessors, and with some exceptions, there aren’t many modern Christmas classics.

The most unique and thoughtful modern Christmas movie you can watch this season is Arnaund Desplechin’s beautiful 2008 French film A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), starring Catherine Deneuve leading a cast of wonderful performances.  In competition for the Palme d’Or in 2008, the film made quite a splash with the critics and wowed art-house audiences.

The film tells the story of the Vuillard family as they reconnect during the holidays. It would be an insult to simply call them dysfunctional, but they certainly have their problems. Of the three adult Vuillard children, the youngest Ivan appears the most stable, having escaped the problems of his youth. The eldest, Elizabeth is a mess of depression, and the middle child Henri is the pariah of the group. Years prior, Elizabeth devised a way to push the free-spirited and argumentative Henri out of the family, and until now, he has largely stayed away.

But it is just before Christmas, and their mother Junon has just discovered she has leukemia and not long to live without a bone marrow transplant. Her three children and their families return home for the Holidays after they have all been tested to see if any are a match, and then the fun begins.

The film maintains a cohesive plot while still finding moments of originality to break the traditional constructs of narrative film. The characters speak at times directly to the camera and Desplechin utilizes storytelling devices ranging from off-screen narration to flashbacks told with shadow puppets. His characters are interestingly unique to the point of odd, and the film itself possesses that brand of quirkiness that too often turns into a twee sensibility in less adept hands.

But the triumph of this film is that it never seems pretentious or bizarre, only lovely and thought-provoking about the nature of love, family, and the existence of life itself. It explores the questions surrounding happiness in this life on Earth, and never forces an easy answer, but instead, revels in the unclarity and beauty of the path that is tread before us. And if Christmas is supposed to be about sitting back and taking stock of those things in life that we value most, there is not a better film to cozy up to this Holiday season.

The dual nature of the individual has persisted as a thematic centerpiece to tales as far back as storytelling goes. It is after all the yin and the yang, the equal balance of duality, that supposedly keeps this world spinning on a spiritual level.  Such stories of both sides of human nature seem to follow two typically set paths: the balance of duality between two individuals, and the balance within a single person.  With countless examples in the cinematic world, some of the more interesting such as De Palma’s Sisters and Woo’s Face/Off in the latter and Fincher’s Fight Club and Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. in the former, prove that the old storyline is alive and well.

In a new entry into the doppelgänger psycho drama comes Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a disturbing exploration into the descent of the compromised human mind, featuring a knock-out performance by Natalie Portman. Supported by a stellar cast of Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder, Portman stands firmly as the wobbly center of this emotionally exhausting but mentally rewarding thriller.

Aronofsky is no stranger to exploring the depths of the human mind. His Requiem for a Dream still stands out to me as one of the more disturbing films I’ve seen. He makes you feel like you’re going through the drug addiction of the characters in that film right along with them, and it’s extremely unpleasant. Black Swan similarly puts the viewer right into the evaporating mental state of its protagonista ballerina, making for both a particularly stressful and beautiful cinematic experience.

Portman portrays Nina, a ballerina in New York’s leading ballet company, who appears to suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder mixed with a nasty dose of perfectionism.  She is introverted and an innocent to those around her, vulnerable while building a thick wall between her and the rest of the world. Her distance excludes her from friendships with the other ballerinas and makes her the perfect target for the sleezy and controlling artistic director Thomas portrayed by Cassel. When Thomas dumps the prima donna (portrayed with high bitterness by Winona Ryder) from the company he announces his intent to find a new Swan Queen for the season premiere of Swan Lake. He seeks a ballerina who can command both the beauty of the White Swan and ooze the sensuality of the Black Swan.

It is Nina’s dream to be the star and her obsession for the perfection of the role of the Swan Queen is the driving force that unleashes her underlying psychosis from being a minor disability to a major threat. The stress put on her from Thomas is matched by that of her equally controlling mother (Hershey), and is pushed over the edge by the entrance of Lily (Kunis) a new dancer who exudes all the elements of the Black Swan that Nina can’t seem to get in touch with inside her own self.

The film unfolds through the mind of Nina, as she delves further and further into her own insanity, creating a cross-genre hybrid dance-psycho-sexual-horror-mystery-thriller-tragic-drama. Whew, got all that?

At times the film walks right up to the line in which it is about to go just a bit too far and cross into parody or comedy. But through Aronofsky’s steady hand and Portman’s controlled performance it manages to toe the line of excellence with the perfection of any ballerina. In particular, as Nina’s transformation moves throughout the film, the manifestation given on-screen to that within her mind is stunning. I do not want to give anything away, but for those of you who have paid close attention to the trailer Nina doesn’t just feel a change inside, she sees a change outside too.  It’s powerfully accomplished.

Much has been made of the sex scene between Portman and Kunis, and while I understand why it makes the headlines, the tone of the scene is never exploitive and really shows the acting chops of not just Portman, but Kunis as well, as they both maturely tackle a scene that could have easily delved into campy Wild Things territory.

I found myself continually thinking about Black Swan for some time after seeing it, it stayed with me and provoked all manner of thoughts about the way it told its engaging story. This is a movie that will keep you thinking and may just keep you up at night, I feel a second viewing will be in order to really jump into all of its complexities. Black Swan is a welcome entry of art-house faire gone mainstream, and I look forward to watching it dance its way up the box office charts and through awards season. Bravo.

Detail of the Reeling poster from ReelingFilmFestival.org

As the second oldest LGBT film festival in the world (San Francisco’s Frameline is the oldest), Reeling: The Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival has been celebrating films by and for an LGBT audience for 29 years.  I had the pleasure of being an intern with the film festival two years ago, and was a supporter long before that time.

Produced by Chicago Filmmakers, a non-profit organization that according to its mission “fosters the creation, appreciation and understanding of film and video as media for artistic and personal expression, as well as media of important social and community impact,” Reeling has not only stood as a leader in LGBT film festivals, but has also lived up to the mission outlined by Chicago Filmmakers.

This year, between November 4-13, Reeling is presenting 54 programs in venues across Chicago.   Highlighting the best in feature and short form narrative and documentary film, the programming reflects the spectrum of the Rainbow, and offers films for not just the entire LGBT community, but the film community as a whole.  For those who simply appreciate the art of filmmaking, I cannot recommend highly enough the films and events at Reeling.

There are many films to highlight, but of particular interest, the closing night film Undertow was the Audience Award winner this year at the Sundance Film Festival.  For a full list of the films showing at Reeling, visit www.ReelingFilmFestival.org.  Even if you are not in Chicago or are unable to attend, I recommend taking a look at their website to find the best in LGBT film this year.

LGBT film festivals play an important part in the community as they not only offer filmmakers a chance to express themselves artistically through the medium of film, but they give a greater audience the opportunity to view the lives and stories of the community in a manner in which they may have not seen before their film-going experience.  I encourage you to find and support your nearest LGBT film festival.

Rosemary's Baby movie poster

This Halloween, I will maintain, again, that my favorite horror movie (one of my favorite films for that matter), and one of the oddest films to ever be a major box office hit, is Roman Polanski‘s 1968 classic, Rosemary’s Baby.  I put it in my list of favorite horror films last year, and while I would recommend any of those films for a scary night in, this one tops my list.

If you haven’t seen it, I implore you, see it.  I am not sure of another film that I find so strangely frightening and humorous at the same time.  Seriously, you will be in actual horror over what happens in the film, but will be completely unable to not laugh at much of the action, particularly as it moves closer and closer to its end.

In a nutshell the plot is as simple as follows: Mia Farrow is Rosemary, a young, country-raised wife moving into a new apartment with her actor husband in Manhattan; the building is full of funny old people (in both the ha-ha and odd way); she gets pregnant; her husband begins to act strangely; and things go downhill from there for Rosemary.  See, either Rosemary is losing her mind or her worst fears are real, and for Rosemary you can only hope that she’s just losing her mind.

This isn’t the kind of film that is going to make you jump out of your seat in terror, but it will stick with you.  Polanski knows exactly how to make the normal seem as terrifying as can be, exemplified just as well in his other psycho-horror film from the 1960s, Repulsion with Catherine Deneuve, also worth a rental.  By placing the audience squarely in Rosemary’s feet, seeing the world around as she is experiencing it is an intense and confusing movie-watching experience.   To not know if you can trust your protagonist is a challenging experience, and Polanski accomplishes it with just the right amount of fear.

Trust me, spend two hours with Rosemary, and you will have a Happy Halloween.

Outrage poster

By now, I’m sure we’ve all seen the absurdity that is Carl Paladino, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, and his reprehensible comments concerning homosexuality.  This is nothing new and we really shouldn’t be surprised in seeing LGBT issues once again used as a political tool of ignorance and fear to win votes.  I will say this, it was refreshing in a way to hear his disgust put so bluntly (of course, he has spent the time since backpedalling in political speak).  Still though, I think my comedic highlight of the week was watching him on the Today show talk about men in Speedos grinding on each other in New York City (now that sounds like a party).

But, as I was saying, at least his disgust wasn’t couched with the usual love the sinner hate the sin crap. I for one am sick of hearing nasty social conservatives talk about how they are not discriminatory and that they have no problem with the LGBT community existing, they just don’t want the community to marry, raise children, teach in schools, or really exist in any way that would be of equivalence to the “normal” life they lead.  Clearly though, Paladino has gotten himself into more trouble by making these comments in the wake of so many gay-teen suicides and around National Coming Out Day.

There has been grumbling in the gay rights community on the emphasis on equal marriage, and while I must say that I am fully committed to the cause in every way, I can understand how some think an emphasis needs to once again be placed on the gains of equality across the board.  I’m not up for bickering though, I’m more for calling out those who seem to try to walk all over the civil rights of the LGBT community every chance they get.

Well if you’re pissed off too, and you think it’s time to call out the powers that be, then I have the movie for you.  In 2009, Kirby Dick released his documentary Outrage and caused quite a stir; those of you in Washington D.C. may even remember it or be more familiar with the cause of the film than most.  Dick’s film went out to expose how numerous political leaders (almost all Republican) had spent their entire political careers doing all they could to suppress gay rights, all the while living secretly in the closet.  He outed them one be one, with a load of evidence to support his claims.

Previously he had made the excellent This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a documentary exposing how the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system is basically nothing more than a way for Hollywood big business to continue to keep a stronghold on the industry, and not allow the little guys any chance at success.  This also is a film worth your watching.

In Outrage, his motivation is the same, call out the bullshit where the bullshit needs to be called out- right out of the closet.  He doesn’t go after those just simply trying to live a quiet life, he only seeks to out those closeted politicians who have used denying rights to the LGBT community as a major part of their political record.  I say, more power to you, Mr. Dick.

It’s not outing for the sake of outing, it’s outing to show the laughable absurdity and unbelievable hypocrisy hidden behind the political motivations of our leaders.

When the film was released, the press was terrified to cover it, and often wouldn’t allow him to mention names in interviews, when he was able to get an interview at all.  Makes you wonder about the press and who they are in bed with, maybe this should be his next film.

Rent this movie if you haven’t, it’s important and still should be talked about today, more than ever.  There is no better movie to watch to speak to the importance of National Coming Out Day.