Here’s a new post on my scariest viewing experiences on my Huffington Post blog, a place where I occasionally post general interest items.
Hot Off the Presses: New Festival Coming to Town
A news release has just gone out announcing a new film festival coming to Winston-Salem — OUT @ the Movies Fest ’14!
Here is the release:
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — OUT at the Movies, Winston-Salem and the Triad’s LGBT Film Series, is proud to announce our first film festival – OUT @ the Movies Fest ’14!
The festival, a recipient of an Innovative Projects Grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, will take place November 14th – 16th at a/perture cinema and on the campuses of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Wake Forest University
Highlights of the festival include a screening of the acclaimed Brazilian film, THE WAY HE LOOKS, at WFU on Friday evening, Bishop Gene Robinson will join us Saturday at WFU for his documentary, LOVE FREE OR DIE (immediately followed by a Q & A) and Shiv Paul and Chip Hines will be in town for two screenings of QUEENS AT COURT. Rodeo star and QUEENS AND COWBOYS: A STRAIGHT YEAR ON THE GAY RODEO subject, Char Duran, will be here from Colorado Springs, and JC Calciano and Jack Turner will travel from L.A. to join us for the screening of the romantic comedy, THE 10 YEAR PLAN. The festival will conclude Sunday evening with a celebrity reception and awards ceremony at Jeffrey Adams on Fourth.
Other films include A LAST FAREWELL, HELICOPTER MOM, LILTING and RUBI GIRLS. Pastors Brenda and David Poteat (FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO) will join us for a panel discussion immediately following a screening of THE NEW BLACK. In addition, there will be a selection of shorts, including several from UNCSA School of Filmmaking alumni. The full slate of films is available at www.OUTattheMoviesWinston.org.
Individual tickets are $8.00 and will be available for all films at each venue, an hour before showtime. Tickets are also available at www.OUTattheMoviesWinston.org or by calling 336.918.0902. A limited number of All-Access Festival Passes with reserved seating are available for $60.00.
The festival will benefit North Star LGBT Center, OUT at the Movies and OUT @ the Movies Film Fest ’15.
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Can’t wait to check out the films I’ve not seen, and you know I’m a huge fan of The Way He Looks, which is Brazil’s submission to the Academy Awards this year. I’ve also written in the past about Live Free or Die, The Ten Year Plan, and Queens at Court. It’s a great lineup!
GONE GIRL
There are films by David Fincher over the years that have had me on the edge of my seat (Fight Club and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and others that have had me covering my eyes (Se7en and Panic Room), but Gone Girl doesn’t fall into either category.
There are debates about how it compares to the book (haven’t read it) and debates about whether or not it is misogynistic (I could argue either way).
While I think the film stands alone as a solitary work (by which I mean that you don’t have to have read the book to “get it”), I find it both lacking in sustained suspense and a bit self-conscious in its construction.
The film is not bad, but with this much hype, not bad is not good enough.
Not bad is disappointing.
LOVE IS STRANGE
Love is Strange is one of the best movies I’ve seen in months. It is tender, authentic, and even delicate in its interplay of family dynamics.
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play Ben and George, two men who have lived together in love for decades. When they marry, George loses his job as a music teacher at a Catholic school, a scenario that seems “ripped from the headlines” and, thus, more than plausible.
The financial jeopardy caused by his firing causes Ben and George to sell their apartment and temporarily move in with family members – separately. Given the constraints of New York City real estate, this, too, is a believable turn of events.
No matter how much family members may love and respect one another, close quarters and different lifestyles are bound to take a toll, as is separation for partners whose lives have been inextricably linked for so many years.
On its own merits, I would love Love is Strange, but there is more for me to admire about the film in the form of three intertextual strands.
First, I have mentioned how the film addresses a relevant issue that Frank Bruni writes about today in his New York Times op-ed column – the Catholic church’s policy of firing employees who marry same-sex partners even when their status as partners has been known beforehand.
And, there is a second strand that, frankly, dazzled me when I was watching the film. Love is Strange is essentially an updated version of one of the saddest movies I have ever seen, Leo McCarey’s 1937 film Make Way For Tomorrow in which Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore play the deeply in love couple forced to separate over financial difficulty that leads to the loss of their home.
Sigh. Just thinking about this film makes me weary and heartsick, which may not make you want to see Make Way For Tomorrow, but you should anyway.
Finally, the film strikes me as an interesting addition to cinematic depictions of “good teachers” who (usually unsuccessfully) challenge institutions of education and the status quo. George does that when calls the priest who fires him out on the hypocrisy of the church and, later, communicates with the parents of the students he taught music.
One of the marvels of Love is Strange is its surface simplicity and accessibility overlaying a much more complex story. The performances are strong, the storytelling subtle, and the situation is thought-provoking, but it is the tension between the simplicity of the situation and the complexity of finding a solution for it along with the intertextual narrative elements that makes me a fan…and I am a fan of Love is Strange.
