The new gay-themed film Boy Meets Boy asks the question, “Have you ever fallen in love in one day?” Continue reading “BOY MEETS BOY: Have You Ever Fallen In Love In One Day?”
BOY MEETS BOY: Have You Ever Fallen In Love In One Day?
Amazon Studios Developing ‘Big, Gay Divorce Comedy’ Titled EX-HUSBANDS
Deadline reports Amazon Studios is developing a new movie titled Ex-Husbands about a married gay couple who end up in an epic War of the Roses-style divorce. Continue reading “Amazon Studios Developing ‘Big, Gay Divorce Comedy’ Titled EX-HUSBANDS”
Trailer: Emotional Story Of Father’s Tribute To Son ‘Joe Bell’
Mark Wahlberg in ‘Joe Bell’ (all photos: Quantrell D. Colbert)
Reid Miller and Mark Wahlberg in ‘Joe Bell’
Sadly, the issue of mental health and bullying is not just a story for a dramatic film. The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health notes that:
• 75% of LGBTQ youth reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their lifetime.
• 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless or suicidal, our trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386 via chat www.TheTrevorProject.org/Help, or by texting START to 678678. 
LGBTQ Critics Honor The Best In 2020 Cinema
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has its Golden Globe Awards, the Screen Actors Guild has the SAG Awards, but now its time to find out what the queer entertainment critics thought represented the best in cinema this past year. GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics will present its first-ever Dorians Film Toast 2021 awards special Sunday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on the free LGBTQ+ streaming service Revry at revry.tv. Hosted by gay entertainment and broadcasting veteran Karel, the Dorians Toast offers a queer-centric twist on the standard awards show combining tributes, interview segments, music, and comedy. Plus, members of GALECA take part in lively round-table discussions on nominees in several categories. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNqe76cpLVx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Those categories include Best Film, Best LGBTQ film, Best Documentary, Best LGBTQ Documentary, Best Unsung Film, Campiest Flick, ‘We’re Just Wilde About You!’ Rising Star Award, Wilde Artist Award (To a Truly Groundbreaking Force in Entertainment), as well as honors for best actor and actress in leading and featured roles. Best Film nominees this year include First Cow, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, and Sound of Metal. Among those nominated for Best Director are rising Hollywood firebrand Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and actress Regina King for her feature film directorial debut in One Night in Miami. Emmy Award winner Leslie Jordan (“Will & Grace”) will receive the Society’s Timeless Star career achievement honor, and transgender writer-director-actress Isabel Sandoval accepts the inaugural GALECA Trailblazer Award. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNqkbfapy2C/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link For a full list of nominees, click here. Presenters for the virtual event include director Lee Daniels (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Cheyenne Jackson (Call Me Kat), Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious, Antebellum), Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight, Concrete Cowboy), Rafael Silva (Fluidity, 9-1-1 Lone Star), Harmony Valle-Ramirez (Room To Grow), comedian Margaret Cho, the legendary Charo, and more. Dorians Film Toast 2021 is coproduced by Brandon Riley Miller (Life in Segments, High) and John Griffiths for GALECA. In order to be eligible for the Dorians Film Toast 2021, films were required to have a theatrical or digital theatrical release from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021. Don’t miss this year’s Dorians Film Toast 2021 on Sunday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on the free LGBTQ+ streaming service Revry at revry.tv. Founded in 2009, GALECA (formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) boasts a membership of nearly 290 professional LGBTQ journalists covering film and television. GALECA hosts two Dorian Awards events during the year – one honoring the best in film and another acknowledging the finest in TV – from mainstream to LGBTQ fare. Last September, the organization celebrated their Dorians TV Toast 2020 with appearances by Billy Porter, Dan Levy, Hugh Jackman, Shangela, Thomas Roberts, Bruce Vilanch and many more. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFIrYsUpbBl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Note: I’m a proud voting member of GALECA.
Review: MOFFIE Scores Amid Testosterone, Tension & Toxic Masculinity
Kai Luke Brummer in ‘Moffie’ (images via official website)Set in South Africa in the early 1980s, Moffie follows Nicholas (Kai Luke Brummer), who dutifully leaves home to serve a mandatory stretch of military service as required of all white men over 16-year-old at the time.
The title of the film comes from the Afrikaans derogatory term for gay men.
Nicholas is shipped off to boot camp where life is brutal, bleak, and harsh. As he and his fellow grunts prepare to defend the Apartheid regime from a conflict at the Angolian border, Nicholas contends with survival in an environment that reeks of toxic racism, homophobia and machismo.
All while quietly coming to terms with his burgeoning homosexuality. Kai Luke Brummer in ‘Moffie’
As we’ve seen in previous military movies, the new recruits’ basic training is humiliating and violent on both physical and psychological levels.
Drill Sergeant Brand (Hilton Pelser) takes the hyper-masculine environment to levels reminiscent of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket.
The direction by Oliver Hermanus is taut and sensitive as he artfully plays elements of the film against each other.
During a barracks game of ‘spin the bottle’ where those chosen by fate must fight for the entertainment of the other soldiers, Hermanus offers a classical fugue as sonic soundscape in contrast with the bare-knuckle brawling. 
A scene from ‘Moffie’
Throughout the film, Hermanus deftly balances scenes of war and brutal machismo with momentary touches of intimacy and humanity. The screenplay (by Hermanus and Jack Sidey) displays an economy of dialogue allowing the actors to express achingly tender moments of sensitivity.
In one episode where the soldiers are forced to dig (and then sleep) in trenches during a nighttime downpour, Nicholas’s fellow grunt Dylan Stassen (Ryan de Villiers) convinces him to huddle together under a blanket to keep warm. While the moment leads to a mere brush of Stassen’s hand on Nicholas’s face, the sexual tension is palpable.
Brummer is especially impressive in his first major screen role offering a compelling and continually nuanced performance.
Matthew Vey and Kai Luke Brummer in ‘Moffie’Additionally, the riveting score by Braam du Toit and gorgeous cinematography by Jamie Ramsay become almost full-fledged characters in the film’s storytelling.
I’ll warn readers that the beginning of the film can be difficult to watch as Hermanus sets the tone and emotional scale of harsh journey ahead. Ultimately, the film – built on testosterone, tension, and trauma – resolves with a surprisingly delicate touch.
The BAFTA nominated film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was released in South Africa two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic closed cinemas there.
Moffie is available in select theaters and digital streaming sites in the U.S. today.
Out Movies: Friendship Turns To Romance In Gay Prison Drama ‘Luz’
Ruben-Ernesto Reyes in LUZ (promo photo)
Synopsis:
Ruben Gonzales (Ernesto Reyes) is a young latino man who’s fallen into the world of the mafiosos. When an accident leads him into incarceration, his relationship with the cartel and with his family is strained.
While in prison, he falls in the complex hierarchical system until his cellmate and eventual lover Carlos (Jesse Tayeh), comes to his side and helps him find emotional and financial stability.
When the two men are released from prison 2 years apart, they again meet on the outside and while dealing with the circumstances that had them incarcerated in the first place, they ponder whether what they once had was real or just two people hoping to seek light in a dark place.
The film is available now for streaming/digital download on iTunes, Vudu, FandangoNow, and GooglePlay. 
LGBTQ Critics Announce Nominations For Best Films Of 2020
L-R Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth in Supernova (image via The Bureau)
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, comprised of 250+ active professional journalists covering film and television, has announced the nominations for its 2021 Dorian Film Awards.
Due to the pandemic’s affect on the industry, GALECA extended the consideration period for full-length theatrical releases and digital theatrical releases to January 1, 2020 through February 28, 2021.
The highly-acclaimed Minari leads the list of nominations with six nods including Best Film and Best Foreign-Language Film.
YAY! Dorian Film Awards: ‘Minari’ Tops Nominations From LGBTQ Entertainment Critics https://t.co/AwMqZspslS via @thr
— GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (@DorianAwards) February 11, 2021
Nomadland scored five nominations including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay (Chloé Zhao), Best Actress (Frances McDormand), and Most Visually Striking Film.
Rounding out the Best Film category are Promising Young Woman (4 nominations), First Cow (3 nominations), and Sound of Metal (3 nominations).
Emerald Fennell, another double-nominee, garnered nods for both writing and directing Promising Young Woman.
In the Best LGBTQ Film category, the queer critics nominated the romantic period film Ammonite, Spanish-language love story I Carry You with Me, the intimate Stanley Tucci-Colin Firth helmed Supernova, writer-director Alan Ball’s comedy Uncle Frank, the all-star screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band, and the acclaimed bio-pic Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
A scene from Ammonite (courtesy of See Saw Films)The folks at GALECA also like to have fun with their awards, so other featured categories include Campiest Flick and the “We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award.
Additionally, the Wilde Artist Award honors “groundbreaking” artists in the world of entertainment. This year’s nominees include the late Chadwick Boseman, Chloé Zhao, Regina King, Elliot Page, and international superstar Dolly Parton.
Last September, queer streaming platform Revry presented the star-studded Dorians TV Toast of 2020 which featured appearances by Hollywood heavy-hitters including Hugh Jackman, Regina King, Janelle Monáe, Billy Porter, Dan Levy, Laverne Cox, Shangela, Thomas Roberts, Bruce Vilanch, Stephanie Miller, Dave Koz, Rafael Casal and more.
The winners will be announced on April 18 in a special event, the Dorians Film Toast 2021, set to air on queer streaming platform Revry.
Launched in 2009, the nonprofit GALECA celebrates both mainstream and LGBTQ-centered content.
View the complete list of nominations below. (Disclaimer: I am a voting member of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics)
BEST FILM First Cow Minari Nomadland Promising Young Woman Sound of Metal
BEST LGBTQ FILM Ammonite The Boys in the Band I Carry You With Me Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Supernova Uncle Frank
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Another Round Bacurau I Carry You With Me La Llorona Minari Two of Us
BEST DIRECTOR Chloé Zhao, Nomadland Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman Kelly Reichardt, First Cow Lee Isaac Chung, Minari Regina King, One Night in Miami
BEST SCREENPLAY (original or adapted) Chloé Zhao, Nomadland Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman Lee Isaac Chung, Minari Radha Blank, The Forty-Year Version
BEST UNSUNG FILM Driveways First Cow The Forty-Year-Old Version Miss Juneteenth Never Rarely Sometimes Always Shirley The Assistant
BEST DOCUMENTARY Collective Crip Camp Dick Johnson Is Dead Disclosure Time Welcome To Chechnya
BEST LGBTQ DOCUMENTARY A Secret Love Born To Be Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado Welcome To Chechnya
BEST FILM PERFORMANCE — ACTRESS Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman Frances McDormand, Nomadland Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
BEST FILM PERFORMANCE — ACTOR Anthony Hopkins, The Father Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal Steven Yeun, Minari
BEST FILM PERFORMANCE — SUPPORTING ACTRESS Amanda Seyfried, Mank Candice Bergen, Let Them All Talk Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Movie Film Olivia Colman, The Father Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari
BEST FILM PERFORMANCE — SUPPORTING ACTOR Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah Leslie Odom Jr., One Night In Miami Paul Raci, Sound of Metal Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
MOST VISUALLY STRIKING FILM Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Mank Nomadland Soul Wolfwalkers
CAMPIEST FLICK Bad Hair Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga The Prom Wonder Woman 1984
“We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award Alan S. Kim Kingsley Ben-Adir Maria Bakalova Radha Blank Sidney Flanigan
Wilde Artist Award (to a truly groundbreaking force in entertainment) Chadwick Boseman Chloé Zhao Dolly Parton Elliot Page Regina King
News Round-Up: December 3, 2020
A moment from Todrick Hall’s “Bells, Bows, Gifts, Trees”
• The Hill: Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are offering to publicly take the COVID-19 vaccine to prove its safety and encourage Americans to be inoculated. • NowThis News: This is the Trump campaign’s star witness before Michigan state legislators today whose unhinged voter fraud testimony broke the internet. “With friends like this, who needs enemies?”
• The Gaily Grind: Also at the Michigan hearing today, another of Rudy Giuliani’s witnesses said she thinks “all Chinese look alike” while making the argument for a voter ID requirement in Michigan. • Instinct Magazine: Sleigh what!? Todrick Hall has reworked his now-legendary track ‘Nails Hair Hips Heels’ for the holidays, serving up a brand new version titled “Bells Bows Gifts Trees” that is sure to help get us through a holiday season like we’ve never seen before.
Trailer: Paramount TV Serves Up A Cowboy Christmas ‘Dashing In December’
Peter Porte and Juan Pablo Di Pace in Dashing in December (screen capture/Paramount)
Hulu Makes The Holidays Super-Gay With ‘Happiest Season’
L-R Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis (image via Hulu)
Meeting your girlfriend’s family for the first time can be tough. Planning to propose at her family’s annual Christmas dinner — until you realize that they don’t even know she’s gay — is even harder. When Abby (Kristen Stewart) learns that Harper (Mackenzie Davis) has kept their relationship a secret from her family, she begins to question the girlfriend she thought she knew.
When the couple arrives at Harper’s parent’s house, she’s introduced as that go-to status of ‘orphan roommate.’
Abby calls her bestie, played by Levy, who finds it difficult to believe folks aren’t picking up on the truth:
Levy: So her parents believe she brought home her lesbian friend for Christmas? Stewart: Not exactly. They also think that I’m straight. Levy: Have they ever MET a lesbian?
With fresh and funny performances, Happiest Season combines all too familiar issues like balancing your family’s acceptance, being true to yourself, and trying not to ruin Christmas. Look for Happiest Season to premiere on Hulu on November 25. Plus, the movie features a soundtrack with LGBTQ artists like Tegan and Sara, Shea Diamond, and more. And don’t forget the Lifetime Channel and the Hallmark Channel are also sending us LGBTQ-themed romantic comedies, so expect your holiday to even more merry and bright!