Over on The Hot Blog, David Poland has the weekend box office numbers up, and the one thing that popped out at me, probably because I just saw and reviewed the film last week, is that Lake of Fire, which opened at Film Forum in NYC this weekend, did not do nearly as well as might have been expected. There's some discussion in the comments on Poland's post speculating on the whys and wherefores of the film's less-than-stellar opening, the main gist of which is that either the film did not appeal to people because no one wants to see the abortion process on a big screen while they're munching their popcorn, or because the film doesn't take a side on the abortion issue, and people who are passionate about it on one side or the other do not want to see the other side treated fairly.

I pondered this for a while this morning as I lingered over my Monday morning coffee. As I noted in my review of the film, Lake of Fire does give both sides of the debate equal weight, but I also think that the way each side will be perceived is in the eye of the beholder. I could see the film playing well in red states, because the film doesn't portray right-to-lifers (on the whole) as a bunch of nutcases. Sure, there are some some interesting folks in there, but there are also attractive women in there talking about why they are pro-life. And even the folks that a liberal might view as off-their-rocker (such as Assembly of God preacher John Burt and Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry) would probably be viewed by a lot of fundamentalist Christians as good, God-fearing guys who are simply passionate about their beliefs on the subject.

The Toronto International Film Festival is over, we have a couple months respite before Sundance, so naturally thoughts turn to the Oscar race. While I'm as curious as anyone else which films will end up garnering the big nod (and I will be really surprised if Juno doesn't get a few noms, especially for screenwriting), as an indie girl I'm most interested in the docs and foreigns. I'm a documentary dork, and one of the things I most look forward to covering at any given film fest is the doc slate -- which, as both David Poland and Anne Thompson have noted in post-Toronto columns, have been weak this year relative to the past couple years. No one really seems to be sure why this is, exactly, although the surprising success of March of the Penguins in 2005 fueled an interest in documentaries that led, perhaps, to a bit of a glut.

The trouble with documentaries is that, penguin love aside, docs are not something your average person is going to go out of their way to shell out ten bucks to see at a theater. Rent from the video store or add to your Netflix queue, perhaps, but when you're looking for a film to see on date night, the depressing topics that tend to make up much of the available documentary fare are not really the first thing that comes to mind. When's the last time you said, "Hey, honey, I know what to do tonight -- let's get dinner at that place over in Little Italy we like, and then let's go see that new Iraq war doc!" Given a choice between a bummer doc and, say, Superbad, most folks are going to opt for the laughs over the conscience-pricking dose of reality.

One of my fave films at Sundance this year was For the Bible Tells Me So, a documentary exploring the disconnect between what most Christians believe about homosexuality versus what the Bible actually has to say on the subject and,in particular, the way the Christian right has used misinterpretation of the Biblical take on the issue to shut homosexuals out of their faiths.

Director Daniel Karslake scored some amazing interviews to flesh out the film, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Zachary Mayer, and, at the center of the film, Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be elected Bishop of that denomination. Robinson's election was controversial and divisive, and he and his partner received so many death threats that he had to wear a bullet-proof vest under his robes at his consecration (because Jesus was all about the death threats, right?)

Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen, in his speech accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival, told movie fans that although his own mainstream movie career opened up after he came out of the closet, it's still very difficult for gay actors to be open about their sexuality, and even harder for lesbian actresses. McKellen spoke of Hollywoods "old fashioned attitudes", very different from the attitude in theater, where actors are "at ease with being open and honest".

McKellen makes a good point. How many openly gay or lesbian actors can you think of off the top of your head? In spite of efforts of groups like Focus in the Family to highlight the supposed homosexual agenda in Hollywood, I'll bet you can't think of more than five current A-List (heck, I'll even take B-List) actors who are both gay and out of the closet.  Rock Hudson, Raymond Burr, and Montgomery Clift don't count; I'm talking actors or actresses you're likely to see in current People's 50 Most Beautiful or Sexiest Flavor of the Month Alive issues.