Cloudburst

This is a gay themed film about two older lesbians going to Canada to get married when one's family tries to separate them. Based on a play.

The two women, Stella (Olympia Dukakis) the butchy one, and Dot (Brenda Fricker) the gentler female, live together in Maine. Stella is brassy, drinks and swears. Dot is more of a homebody and is slowly losing her vision, making her pretty dependent on Stella although they are both in their 70s. Dot's granddaughter doesn't like that her grandmother's quality of life is not good (she apparently has no real knowledge of what a real lesbian is like and doesn't see the signs that her grandmother is one; she believes the pair are just good friends). The granddaughter tricks Dot into signing over power of attorney, then puts her into a senior home.

Stella is incensed and breaks Dot out of the home, then remembers she read somewhere that gays can get married in Canada. They go on the road and, suspecting the police are after them, pick up a young hitchhiker to change their M.O., even taking him home to see his sickly mother, and eventually he helps Stella and Dot also.

In the Family

If you missed the stellar film In the Family earlier this year when it played at the Gene Siskel Film Center, you can catch it in a handful of shows at Facets Cinematheque in September.

This drama is about a gay man fighting to understand the prejudice of people he trusted once his partner dies, leaving behind their son in his care. Joey Williams (Patrick Wang, who also wrote and directed), is a southern gay designer/renovator, currently living with his partner Cody and their son Chip, who is Cody’s biological son. One morning Joey gets the dreaded phone call that Cody has been in some kind of accident, and rushes to the hospital with Chip. They are greeted by Cody’s worried family—sister Eileen and brother-in-law (Kelly McAndrew, Peter Hermann) and mother (Park Overall). After a time the family is allowed to visit Cody, but not Joey, since he is not “family.” But Joey takes this in stride and takes a moment to calm the anxious Chip and encourage him to visit with his unconscious “Pa.”

Joey continues his work, helping an affluent southern couple renovate their home’s library, even offering to rebind some old leather books for the husband, a former lawyer (Brian Murray). But after the funeral, Cody’s family, namely Eileen, keeps Chip away from Joey and severs contact between them with no explanation. Understandably Joey is perplexed, and we see in a few flashbacks how the two men met and became a couple, with some complex aspects of their relationship that might explain Eileen’s attitude. Joey’s friends console and offer help, and his client ends up representing him in a legal fight. Through a very honest and forthright deposition, Joey hopes to explain to Cody’s family that being a parent and a loving person has nothing to do with his race or his sexual identity, and that people not related by blood can be just as important and loving as role models and parents.

Wilby Wonderful

Canada has such quirky comedy movies.  Other than sketch comedy I don't find them as broad as some of the stuff I see coming out of America.  They're certainly more about quirky characters than grossout humor.

With an ensemble of Canadian actors, this movie is about a day in the life of island town Wilby.

There's the local cop (Paul Gross) who's having an affair with a single mom (Rebecca Jenkins) whose daughter (Ellen Page) has a clingy boyfriend (I don't see what she sees in him, he seems immature and only interested in sex). The cop's wife (Sandra Oh) is trying to promote the town as a tourist attraction and is more concerned with her work than with her husband (hence his infidelity I guess).  She's been trying to sell a home to the mayor (Maury Chaykin) and the stress of trying to do everything is getting to her. The laid back but dyslexic handyman (Callum Keith Rennie, he ruins a banner by painting "Wilby Wonderful" instead of "Wonderful Wilby") makes a friend by saving a suicide (James Allodi) getting over a marriage breakup, and they become more than friends, if you know what I mean.

Your Sister's Sister

The story begins a year after Jack's brother has died. Jack (Mark Duplass) hears his friends revering his brother at a gathering but angrily insists they didn't really know him as he knew the whole picture and said he was a bully too. His best friend Iris (Emily Blunt), who was the brother's ex girlfriend, says he needs some space so tells him to go up her family cabin to be alone, which he does.

 There he meets her sister Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt) who also decided to go there to be alone, to nurse the pain of a breakup. That evening they commiserate, mostly about her, and end up having drunk sex, even though Hannah is a lesbian.

The next day Iris decides to visit on a whim and the threesome spend the weekend together in the cabin and many sibling emotions, good and bad, come to the surface.

I Hate Valentine's Day!: Hollow Reed

Now that Valentine's day is over, here are a few where love doesn't always go right.

This story shows how a gay man can be a loving father, and how a more "traditional" couple doesn't always have a child's best interest at heart. Martin Donovan plays Martyn, a gay man whose ex wife (Joely Richardson) has custody of their son Oliver. Oliver escapes to his dad's one day with a severe injury to his face that he says was caused by some bullies. Martyn discovers Oliver was home alone with the mom's boyfriend (Jason Flemyng, whom I think is too young for the role). Martyn feels something is odd with the whole situation. When Oliver is injured again, and his story doesn't match his injury, Martyn starts proceedings to get Oliver back into his custody, accusing the boyfriend of abuse, which the ex claims is not true.

Menage (Evening Dress)

I don't know what to make of the characters in this film. Gerard Depardieu is a gay house robber Bob (most reviews and such say he is bisexual but I think he can only get off with a woman if he is thinking about a man or if a man is watching). He hears a couple, Monique and Antoine, arguing (Miou Miou, Michel Blanc). She is tired of being poor, so Bob invites them into robbing homes with him. Monique takes to this readily, finding it exciting and dangerous. Antoine is nervous and is scared of the passes Bob is making to him.

Butterfly Kiss

This bleak road film is directed by Michael Winterbottom.

In England, Eunice (Amanda Plummer) wanders the highways looking for "Judith" and happens upon gas station clerk Miriam (Saskia Reeves) instead. Although Eunice acts openly unbalanced, Miriam for some reason is taken with her personality.

The film is told in flashback as Miriam is relating things in some sort of interview. Eunice overtakes Miriam's life, but after the initial shock of Eunice revealing her murderous nature, Miriam wants to follow. The two are reminiscent of other volatile couples, Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Lousie, Aileen Wornos and Selby, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. It is apparent that one is the leader and one is the sheep.

Der Sprinter

It is rare that I will not finish a movie. There is usually something that will keep me around til the end, or at least for me to say, "I survived that."

Der Sprinter is a "survived that" German movie. A young gay man, Weiland, struggles with his sexual identity, and wants to be "normal" after pressure from his parents to cut his hair and take up sports. He does so, taking up sprinting after seeing a well built (male) athlete, but then falls for a well built (female) shot putter. She and Weiland inspire each other to excel at their sports, despite Weiland never having had any previous training or talent.

His coach, who was pressured to fill up the team, sees the potential in Weiland when the shot putter is around, and takes advantage of this talent. Later he worries that since Weiland is in love, he no longer needs to impress the shot putter and will lose his athletic drive.

Weiland's mother, now more accepting of him, travels to see him compete.

Skip this confusion of a film! Weiland is just a vapid and dull character. He portrayed nothing of the gay experience, and if the film was trying to be a comedy or satire it failed in that respect too because it's unfunny and everything is played too straight. It seems more like the film is making fun of specific German types rather than any real statement about homosexuality. The humor could not have been that subtle throughout the film for me not to have gotten one joke.

Sure, you can have a gay character "switch teams" but it needs to back that up and say something, or make fun of him or the people who look down on him, which this film didn't.

The lead actor and director co-wrote this miserable oddball script. What the heck were they trying to say? I don't know. Whoever bankrolled this project--shame on you! Thankfully these guys seem to have few movie credits to their name and have hopefully gone on to other pastures.

Camp

Camp is about a performance arts camp in New York State. It's an indie film so production values aren't super high and there are no real stars. It is written and directed by Todd Graff, himself a student at the camp this movie fictionalizes (and is filmed on location there). He also wrote and directed the new movie Joyful Noise.

The film focuses on one summer, and specifically on three teens: Ellen (Joanna Chilcoat), the plain jane "fag hag" (straight girl who hangs out with gay boys, usually because she can't get her own boyfriend); Michael (Robin de Jesus), a gay boy whose parents practically disown him when he wears a dress to the prom; Vlad (Daniel Letterle), the new straight boy who wants to be an actor, whom everyone lusts after (gay boys and straight girls).  Also included is the camp's guest director, Bert (Don Dixon), who only had one hit show and is pretty bitter he didn't find more success.  Vlad manages to help Ellen, Michael and Bert work through their problems.

Pariah

This new independent film, written and directed by Dee Rees, is about a black lesbian teen who struggles with her sexual identity and coming out to her parents, although both sense it while denying it in different ways. Alike, known as Le, has friendships with a lesbian dropout whom her mother doesn't like and a straight girl who kisses her. Le also has to deal with her mother who wants her to remain girly, and her father, a policeman, who wants to avoid the issue of his daughter's sexuality.

This was a pretty good film, the lead actress Adepero Oduye was very natural in her role and believable in her performance. Her character was complex yet we could see the many facets of her confusion caused by the social cues everyone gives her, which contributed to her anxiety and anger at not being able to express herself. Each of the supporting characters represented different views of Le's sexuality, both good and bad. The script was pretty tight and well written. It also looked pretty well put together for a small budget indie. Kim Wayans as the mom was the only actor I recognized, but otherwise it was an all black cast, and overall the acting was very good.

CIFF 2011: Tomboy

**You have another chance to catch Tomboy if you missed it at CIFF.  It is playing at Reeling, the Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival.**

Kicking off my CIFF schedule is a French film written and directed by Celine Sciamma.  Tomboy is about a girl who is mistaken for a boy, and decides to continue this deception amongst some new friends.