Today is the semi-official start of the Summer Blockbuster Season, but don't despair! The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar is here to fill you in on cool stuff happening outside the multiplexes in the coming week -- the perfect antidote to mainstream ennui. If you know of something interesting going on near you -- retrospectives, special screenings, etc. -- please let me know! Point your e-mail thingee at Eric.Snider@Weblogsinc.com and I'll put it on the calendar.
INDIE THEATRICAL RELEASES
I don't know if famed critic-hater David Mamet still counts as "independent," but I'm including his new film, Redbelt, here just in case. It's a heady drama about a martial-arts instructor who gets tangled up with a Hollywood film shoot, a misfired policeman's gun, and several other things. ME LIKEY. Opens today on a few screens in New York and L.A.
Son of Rambow was, hands down, the best film I saw at Sundance last year. It was snatched up by Paramount Vantage, which for some reason sat on it until now. It's a funny, creative, and sweet story about two British kids in the mid-'80s who film their own homemade version of First Blood (aka Rambo I). Cinematical's James Rocchi reviewed it at Sundance 2007 and loved it too, in case my word isn't good enough for you. It's in a few theaters today, with more to come.
After the jump, more indie releases in theaters, and a list of special events happening around the country....
He is not the titular Phillip Morris, however. That honor still belongs to Ewan McGregor. If you have forgotten the plot of this love caper, a married Jim Carrey is sent to prison, where he falls in love with his cellmate. When Morris is released, the infatuated Carrey escapes three times to be with him. Somewhere in the middle, though, he hooks up with Santoro.
While this is just now hitting the legitimate newswire, on Tuesday Dlisted had a photo of the happy couple. (Don't ask me what I was doing on Dlisted, I don't have an answer!) So he has already been in the film long enough to get a wardrobe -- if that counts as wardrobe.
Since this is from the team of Bad Santa, and has Leslie Mann as Carrey's dumped wife, I think there's potential even with the erratic Carrey. And I'm anxious to see McGregor in a bonafide comedy, as he was by far the best thing about Down With Love. And it is rather fitting that he's the man Carrey changes teams for -- McGregor has topped that list for most of the guys I know. I bet we'll be seeing the full monty, too.
There is one moment in Tanaz Eshaghian'sBe Like Others that starts by plucking at our insistent hopes for happiness. Hungry for love and affection from his family, Ali Askar tells a story about being thrilled when his father insisted that Ali have breakfast with him. While it was such a simple action, it was one with insistence that Ali had never seen before. This act seemed full of the loving camaraderie and acceptance that the young man had dreamed of. His father poured them tea, but Ali refused to drink it; he realized that this wasn't a warm act of fatherly love. This wasn't a breakthrough moment in their relationship. Ali's father was trying to kill him with rat poison. His father would rather kill his son than allow him to get the sex change that he yearns for.
But it is more complicated than a transsexual wanting a sex change. In Iran, this matter is complicated because homosexuality is punishable by death, and transgendered lifestyles are not an option. However, sex changes are not only permitted legally -- they are also subsidized by the government. It is this strange path of religious, political, and social ruling that Eshaghian focuses on in Be Like Others. She does not argue the particulars of this strange rationale, but rather shows the life and world of those who live it -- lives that reveal a flawed and chilling system for dealing with differing gender preferences and sexuality.
After being a disco roller rink creator in Broadway's Xanadu, Playbill.com reports that Cheyenne Jackson (United 93) is joining a new indie film called Shifting the Canvas. Cabin Fever writer/director Chuck Griffith is bringing the feature together, which "tells the story about a group of artists living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn who struggle to maintain a rather dysfunctional family of friends in a post-9/11 world challenged by gentrification, deception, and sterilization." More specifically, it's a city story of bohemians in Brooklyn, art, relationships, and all that metropolitan flavor.
Jackson will play Jens, a young, gay, Wall Street type who comes to New York from the South, and struggles to adapt to his newfound sexuality. But he's not the only guy attached to this feature. There's Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson, John Paul Pitoc, who dated Claire in Six Feet Under, Gedde Watanabe -- better known as Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles, Matthew Montgomery, Erykah Badu, and more.
Production on the feature won't begin until June 1. However, one Mr. Duk Dong does have another movie coming out this week that you can check out. He's playing the Hotel Manager in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
It's not about that Canadian comic strip, nor is it a remake of one of the handful of movies that have the same title. Taking that same wedding phrase, the upcoming For Better or For Worse is a gay wedding screwball comedy written by Eric Kops, Brad Rowe, and Joshua Tunick, with Kops as the creator, Rowe as the producer and star, and Tunick as the director.
But the real kicker here is the cast. The Hollywood Reporterhas posted that Janeane Garofalo, Rebecca Gayheart, Stanley Kamel, Ruta Lee, and Patrick Muldoon have signed on for the film. Oh, and those '80s TV stars? Soliel Moon Frye and Chad Allen have also signed on for roles. Yes, in one movie, we have both Punky Brewster and Our House's David Witherspoon... who also happened to play "Brian" in a few episodes of Punky. Be still my '80s heart.. Luckily Rudy, or Ralph, or Mallory isn't involved.
The flick follows "a grounded pair of grooms whose family threatens to go off the rails at their nuptials." Strangely enough, the grooms don't seem to have been cast yet, but the rest of the people make up the craziness -- Punky is all grown up as a lesbian minister who will preside over the ceremony, Lee will play one of the grooms' moms, Muldoon will take on the jilted ex role, with Allen being his new lover, Kamel will play a closeted neighbor, Gayheart will be, believe it or not, a wallflower sister, Rowe will take on the gig of family-man brother, and Garofalo will play Rowe's nanny, "who has a bombshell to drop."
It's sounds wacky, fun, and a bit irresistible due to its players. Now the question is: do the grooms show up in this, or is it all about the crazy group of family and friends?
As Jasper, the narrator and protagonist of The Lost Coast, begins to describe the events of Halloween night, he says, "We found a dead body -- but more on that later." You know it's an eventful night when discovering a corpse isn't even the lead story.
In this moody, occasionally dreamlike drama, it's not what happens to Jasper and his friends that's important, so much as what happens within Jasper's soul. Yes, most of the drama here is internal, and while writer/director Gabriel Fleming falls prey to some of the missteps typical of new filmmakers, he gets a lot right, too, with a lot of emotional insight.
The film is constructed around an e-mail that twentysomething Jasper (Ian Scott McGregor) is writing to his fiancee overseas, in which he explains what happened the previous night. We gather from his tone that the events were of some importance, and the fact that it was Halloween in San Francisco -- one of the most raucous nights in a raucous city -- suggests there may have been shenanigans (if you know what I mean).
The secret was let out back in October of 2006 -- Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno would follow in the wake left by Borat. Since then, news about the production has been almost nonexistent. In May of last year, Defamer spies saw Baron Cohen and his Bruno entourage at a Foreign Trade Association luncheon. But that was it, until now. A new Defamer source says that the actor was spotted doing his shtick in Sherman Oaks on February 21.
The source says [sic]: "He was dressed in tight leather black pants with a bedazzeled g-string showing. his hair was frosted blond and straight. He was interviewing parents with their children pretending to be an german / austrian ad agent looking for a child to do a car commercial. He asked questions like : are you willing to film your child with ants? bees or wasps? dogs? ect. very funny."
If both of these sources are to be believed, it looks like the wacky actor is spreading out the filming. I imagine Baron Cohen's time is being split between Bruno, family Q-T, and his other gigs. While it would be nice to get some solid news, it's probably better this way until the film is wrapped and ready. Still, I'm getting antsy. But how about you?
Yesterday, I wrote about the upcoming movie Shelter, which will star Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. But did you know that there's almost twenty "Shelter" films listed over on IMDb? Some are foreign, a couple were on television, and the rest all just have the same name. (I guess no one checks their title on that wonderfully handy database.) While one gears up to get bloody, another is going into limited release this April.
I was alerted to this other project by a certain Mr. W, who was reading Cinematical and was so excited to see that I was writing about Shelter. Then he saw that my Shelter wasn't his Shelter. This other movie, all wrapped up and waiting for the big screen, is a romantic sports drama written and directed by Jonah Markowitz, and it's just as worthy of a post.
The story: Although he has dreams of going to art school, a young surfer named Zach works in a crappy job and helps take care of his sister's son. When his best friend's older brother Shaun comes home and the two fall for each other, Zach is caught between his own passions and his family's needs. It looks like a great film, and it's already won a bunch of awards at Gay & Lesbian fests -- from Best Film and Best Cinematography to Favorite Feature. But don't just take my word for it, or the word of all the people behind the films 6 awards, check out the trailer after the jump.
No, this isn't a biblical tale about a hairy dude who collects animals while God wipes out the human race. This is about a television show called Noah's Arc, which had two seasons on the Logo television network. Centering on a collection of gay African-American men, the show dealt with social issues like same-sex marriage and parenthood, HIV awareness, sexual curiosity, etc. My favorite thing -- Wikipedia says that it's been cited as a version of Sex and the City, Queer as Folk, and -- wait for it -- The Golden Girls. How the last one fits in -- well, that's beyond me, but it's enough to make me want to see the show. (Anyone know!?)
After two seasons and a cliff-hanger finale, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Logo has greenlit a feature film based on the series, called Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom. The film will pick up where the cliffhanger left off, and was written by series creator and director Patrik-Ian Polk and John R. Gordon. According to the show's MySpace blog, which is only viewable to friends, location scouting has begun in Canada, it will be released in late 2008 or early 2009, and could lead to more sequels and maybe television specials. THR, meanwhile, says production will begin next month.
Admittedly, I'm one of those women who abhors the term "chick flick," though more because I find it an insult to the men in my life than to my fellow chicks. The mere existence of the term implies a film that "manly men" would only go to see if their wives or girlfriends drag them to it, because they couldn't possibly, all on their own, want to see a film about the relationships between women (unless, of course, there are some hot pillow fights or sex scenes involving the fairer sex). Caramel, directed by and starring Nadine Labaki, is a Lebanese version of the chick flick, but most of the men I know would enjoy it just as much as I did.
Set in and around a Beirut beauty salon, the film follows the lives of five women, each going through her own personal struggles. Layale (played by Labaki -- and I'll add here that she has a pair of the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen onscreen) is caught in a go-nowhere affair with a married man who has no interest in leaving his wife for her; he honks his horn outside her shop, and Layale comes running. Her friends stoutly disapprove, not so much of her having an extramarital affair, but of the willingness with which she allows her lover to use her. Layale cannot seem to break free of the affair, to the point that she develops an obsession for finding out more about her lover's wife and child, the better to understand the ties that bind him. Meanwhile, a lonely cop pines for Layale from afar.
Yesterday, Erik brought us the first look at Sean Penn as the famous Harvey Milk. But look a little closer and there are just a few more tidbits to be had. Slashfilm's pictures from the set of Gus Van Sant's biopic gave us Penn in a full hippie beard, but you can also get a look at Emile Hirsch (Speedracer) as Cleve Jones in all his 70's glory. As a child of the 70's it never fails to surprise me the truly 'interesting' fashion choices that were happening back then. At what point did we all agree that those glasses were a good idea?
Now for a quick history lesson on Harvey Milk for the uninitiated. Milk was one of the first openly gay city supervisors in San Francisco. His career highlights were sponsoring a bill for gay rights as well defeating the controversial Briggs Initiative. Well that and a poop and scoop ordinance, but such is the life of city councilor. Despite Milk's growing popularity in the city, it wasn't all hearts and flowers. Milk's life and trailblazing career came to a tragic end when Dan White, a fellow public servant (and rampant homophobe), shot and murdered Milk along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978.
Along with Penn in the title role (surprisingly doing a good job of capturing the perennially upbeat Milk), the cast also includes Josh Brolin as Dan White and Victor Garber (Alias) as Mayor Moscone. Hirsch will play Cleve Jones, a friend of Milk, and a gay rights activist who had worked for Milk as a student intern. Milk is still filming on location in San Francisco and set to arrive in theaters later this year.
There are not just Razzies and Oscars to read about this week. Yesterday, GLAAD -aka- Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, announced their nominees and honorees for the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. (Which they did from the depths of Sundance at the Queer Lounge in Park City.) The awards honor everything from print journalism to cinema, and celebrate "fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation."
As Stephen Fry would probably respond: there's still a long way to go, but here are the cinematic achievements and progress that GLAAD recognizes this year. There's singing, breasts, and even gay pirates:
Film -- Wide Release Across the Universe The Jane Austen Book Club Stardust
Film -- Limited Release The Bubble Dirty Laundry Itty Bitty Titty Committee Nina's Heavenly Delights Whole New Thing
Documentary Camp Out Cruel and Unusual: Transgender Women in Prison For the Bible Tells Me So Freddie Mercury: Magic Remixed Small Town Gay Bar
The cinematic Harvey Milk has got himself another lover. Entertainment Weekly has reported that Diego Luna, the Mexican actor famous for his role in Y Tu Mama Tambien, has joined Gus Van Sant's upcoming biopic, Milk. He will play Jack Lira, a supporter of Milk and also his lover. We've already got Sean Penn as Milk, the first openly-gay city supervisor of San Francisco, Josh Brolin as Milk's assassin, Dan White, Emile Hirsch as gay rights activist Cleve Jones, James Franco as another lover and campaign manager Scott Smith, and further cast played by Victor Garber (Alias), Denis O'Hare (The Anniversary Party), and Stephen Spinella (24).
I have to say, I agree with Christopher Campbell's previouscoverageof the film. Penn being bright and cheery? I'm not so sure. Hopefully, however, he'll surprise us, because there's a heck of an interesting group of actors attached to this movie. The film is said to focus on Milk's story as the third openly-gay elected official in America (in 1977), and how he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by White, who was another city supervisor.
A lot has changed in the last 30 years, but it will be interesting to see how Van Sant's film does with the movie-going public, and whether "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door," will become even more recognized, lauded, and followed.
What a coincidence -- I was just thinking that the world needs a documentary about gay Muslims, and up pops the news from Varietythat First Run Features has acquired US theatrical and DVD rights to A Jihad for Love, evidently the first doc on the subject.
If I'd been paying attention, I'd have noticed that the film, directed by Parvez Sharma, debuted at TIFF back in September. Reviews so far have commented on the "impressive" bravery of the interview subjects (Dennis Harvey, Variety) and the way that "dignity and despair are woven tightly together" (Jeremy Kay, The Guardian). It took Sharma six years to complete the film; the original inspiration came from his experiences after he moved to the United States in late 2000. As he toldThe Guardian: "Those forces came together and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to start a discussion of Islam that hadn't been heard before ... This was very necessary for my being a Muslim and a gay man." The doc was produced by Sharma and Sandi Dubowski, who directed Trembling Before G-d, a revealing look at the lives of gay Orthodox Jews.
A Jihad for Love will play in the Panorama section at the Berlin film festival next month. First Run plans a theatrical release in May, starting in New York City, and has already booked an engagement with the IFC Center. Variety points out that the company has experience with both gay and religious-themed films, counting For the Bible Tells Me So and Before Stonewall among its releases. A Jihad for Love certainly sounds fascinating, and may raise a few eyebrows when it opens. The film's official site has much more information, including a link to Sharma's blog.
I always get a kick out of hearing Stephen Fry's take on different matters. There's nothing like usually-solid rationale mixed with humor -- that's why dudes like Stephen Colbert are so big. In March of last year, I shared his views about America's obsession with British accents. He pondered the possibility that Americans are fooled into thinking performances by British actors are good because of their accents. Now the BBC reports that he's taken on a more serious topic and is giving his two cents on this current tendency to congratulate straight people for taking on gay roles. You know -- Jake and Heath (or any other actor) is lauded for daring to take on the role, as if it is some super-challenging deed.
According to Fry: "People say: 'Ooh, how brave of you.' Why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man?" He goes on to discuss the fact that gay actors aren't called brave for kissing women, and continues: "It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman -- I'll kiss a frog if you like. It's difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn't difficult." You can always count on Fry for a humorous, yet rational, take on an issue. There is a definite stigma attached to male-male sexuality in any form. Ladies can kiss and cavort until the cows come home, but once two stubbly faces smooch each other, all hell breaks loose.
If only we could all be as evolved as Captain Jack, who believes orientation classification is "quaint."
Today is the semi-official start of the Summer Blockbuster Season, but don't despair! The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar is here to fill you in on cool stuff happening outside the multiplexes in the coming week -- the perfect antidote to mainstream ennui. If you know of something interesting going on near you -- retrospectives, special screenings, etc. -- please let me know! Point your e-mail thingee at Eric.Snider@Weblogsinc.com and I'll put it on the calendar.
I saw into the casting future, and it was through Dlisted. 
After being a disco roller rink creator in Broadway's Xanadu, 
It's not about that Canadian comic strip, nor is it a remake of one of the handful of movies that have the same title. Taking that same wedding phrase, the upcoming For Better or For Worse is a gay wedding screwball comedy written by 
The secret was let out back in 
Yesterday, I wrote about the upcoming movie Shelter, which will star Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. But did you know that there's almost twenty "Shelter" films listed over on 
No, this isn't a biblical tale about a hairy dude who collects animals while God wipes out the human race. This is about a television show called 
Yesterday, Erik brought us the 
There are not just Razzies and Oscars to read about this week. Yesterday, GLAAD -aka- Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, 
The cinematic 
What a coincidence -- I was just thinking that the world needs a documentary about gay Muslims, and up pops the news 
I always get a kick out of hearing 
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Full 'G.I. Joe' Cast Photos!
