(screen capture via DSquared2) Some news items you might have missed: • Instinct Magazine: The acclaimed indie film, Ma Belle, My Beauty, a queer polyamorous love story that was embraced by critics when it debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has scored a distribution deal. • AP News: A federal judge has dismissed a discrimination lawsuit by a transgender fire chief due to a technical flaw with the initial complaint she filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Rachel Mosby led a rural Georgia city’s fire department for more than a decade, then got fired 18 months after first coming to work as a woman. • DSquared2: Model Malik Delgaty (top image) puts on a private show in this provocative one minute spot for the brand’s Stripped2 underwear line. “What happens in the Secret Room will remain at the Secret Room.”
• BosGuy: It’s ‘Furry Friday’ at the Boston-based LGBTQ blog and this week’s hottie ticks the “fur” and “ginger” boxes 🙂 • HuffPost: Six Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay and 29 others are under investigation for their alleged roles in the riot last month. According to Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), one of the suspended officers took a selfie with a person who was part of the mob that overtook the Capitol. Another wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and appeared to direct rioters around the building. • New York Post: Wait – Sen. Ted Cruz’s Mexico vacation blunder gets even worse. After telling reporters his home, like many Texans, had lost water and heat – he apparently left the family poodle Snowflake behind in the cold.
Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t trust with your dog.
L-R Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth in Supernova (image via The Bureau) In the upcoming romantic drama Supernova, a gay couple, together for 20 years, set out on a road trip in an attempt to revisit their past as one of the men is slowly losing the ability to remember due to early-onset dementia. Today we get our first look at the film starring Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) as Sam and Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones, The Devil Wears Prada) as Tusker, a loving couple who in the two years since Tusker’s diagnosis have seen their lives change. Putting their careers on hold – Sam is a classical pianist and Tusker a celebrated novelist – they decide to travel the country in a cluttered RV reconnecting with family and friends. But soon it becomes clear the two have diverging ideas on how to face their future. “‘Supernova’ is a deeply romantic, modern love story,” writer/director Harry Macqueen told Variety when the film was announced in October 2019. “It follows two people who are bound together by their love for each other but being pushed apart by the situation they find themselves in.” Macqueen described the movie as “an intimate, naked portrayal of a relationship facing a fissure that threatens to cut it to its very core.” In the trailer, Tusker stands at a family dinner to address his failing faculties, but the writer finds he’s unsure about reading his own words. And as Sam steps up without pause, we are devastated. We also get cute ‘longtime couple’ moments that put the two stars’ chemistry on display like when they share a narrow bed or, while traveling in the RV Tusker asks Sam is they could perhaps “explore the outer regions of 5th gear.”
In his review for Variety, Guy Lodge writes, “As a couple staring down the barrel of early-onset dementia, a peak-form Firth and Tucci give nuance and ballast to Harry Macqueen’s small but beautifully formed sophomore film.” Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw was effusive in his praise: “The veteran pair are on magnificent form in a drama about love and mortality that is all the more powerful for its restraint.” And noting the “two finely calibrating performances,” The Hollywood Reporter’sStephen Dalton observed, “It is also refreshing, even in 2020, to see a drama about a gay couple that does not make sexuality a key theme or problematic plot point. The film is premiering today at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain and is also slated for its UK debut on October 11 at the BFI London Film Festival. Expect to see the film’s release in time for the upcoming awards season as the duo (who each raise the daddy factor in the film) are already generating a lot of honors buzz.
A scene from STALLS (screen capture) An opera house men’s room stall that features a hidden golden glory hole is the setting for the acclaimed queer short film, STALLS, now available for viewing (for free) on YouTube. Written and Directed by João Dall’Stella, the 3-minute short stars Andrew Ableson (The Gymnast, The Polar Express), and Matthew Jain (“General Hospital”). In the film, Jonathan heads into the lavatory as a glorious aria is heard in the background. Assuming his position in one of the stalls, the next couple of minutes play out as a tap dance of cruising excitement. As a member of the LGBTQ and Latin communities, João (who holds an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute) began making movies to create his own world where he celebrates queer/Hispanic stories and characters. (screen capture from STALLS) In a statement, the Brazil-based director shares that the idea for the film came from “many of my personal experiences looking for the perfect partner in the most creative environments.” “I wanted to create a love letter to the act of cruising,” says João. “Making a glory hole look glamorous and capturing the excitement and adventurous feeling that it can give to you.” “One day realized that cruising is a dance and that prompted me to make this film,” he added. STALLS has been screened at over 45 LGBTQ+ Festivals around the world including Outfest 2020, Los Angeles Queer Film Festival, NewFilmmakers NY, Oslo Fusion Film Festival, Gaze Film Festival, and the Madrid International Film Festival. You can watch the 3-minute short below.
L-R Blake Lee, Ben Lewis (via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • TVLine: Blake Lee (Parks and Recreation, Mixology) and Ben Lewis (Arrow, Shadowhunters) – a married couple in real life (above) – have been announced to star in Lifetime’s first-ever holiday movie with an LGBTQ storyline, The Christmas Setup. Fran Drescher, of The Nanny fame, will play Lewis’s mother in the TV flick. • Boy Culture: Madonna’s biopic has been fast-tracked by Universal, and today we learn not only is the Queen of Pop co-writing the script with Diablo Cody, but Madge will direct the film of her life as well. • LGBTQ Nation: A city councilwoman in Minot, North Dakota, came out & delivered an epic smackdown to man complaining about a Pride flag. “So Mr. Walker, if you’re not aware, and I think a lot of people in this room are not aware and have come here just because this is a gay issue, I am proudly the first openly elected lesbian in North Dakota. So that is why I am not paying any heed to your crap.” • Pew Research: A new 13-nation Pew Research Center survey indicates America’s reputation has declined among many key allies and partners since Donald Trump took office. In several countries, the share of the public with a favorable view of the U.S. is as low as it has been at any point since the Center began polling on this topic nearly two decades ago. • Edge Media: An Italian man has been accused of killing his 18-year-old sister in a rage because she was dating a transgender man. The suspect told authorities that he “wanted to teach her a lesson.” • CNBC: More on the death of civility – CNBC host Jim Cramer called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “Crazy Nancy” to her face during an interview on Tuesday morning — a derogatory term usually used by Donald Trump. The Mad Money host was asking Pelosi about stalled negotiations on a 4th coronavirus stimulus package when the nickname popped out. “What deal can we have, Crazy Nancy — I’m sorry, that was the president,” Cramer said, realizing the moment didn’t play as well as he’d planned in his head. “I have such reverence for the office, I would never use that term.” Pelosi (D-Calif.) stayed calm telling Cramer: “But you just did. But you just did.”
Paramount’s ‘Rocketman’ was one of the more prominent LGBTQ-inclusive movies of 2019 Last week, GLAAD released its 8th annual Studio Responsibility Index, tracking LGBTQ representation in major studio films in 2019. This report is essential for assessing the quality, quantity, and diversity of LGBTQ characters in films released annually and setting the path for representation moving forward. One of GLAAD’s most significant contributions to the media landscape is assessing LGBTQ representation, and holding major players accountable when there are efforts to erase the experience of LGBTQ people. The report is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film. GLAAD found that of the 118 films released from the eight major studios tracked in 2019: • 22 (18.6%) included characters that were LGBTQ representing a slight increase from the previous year’s report (+0.4 percentage points) and the highest percentage of inclusive films found in the eight-year history of the report. • 56% appeared for less than three minutes of total screen time, with 21 of the 50 receiving less than one minute of screen time. Only nine films from the 8 major studios included an LGBTQ character who had more than ten minutes of screen time. • More bad news – there was a significant decrease in the racial diversity of LGBTQ characters in major films for the second year in a row. In 2019, just 34 percent (17) of LGBTQ characters were people of color. This is down from 42 percent in the previous report and from 57 percent in the year before that. • The report found zero transgender characters in major studio films, and only three movies included bisexual characters. In 2018, GLAAD issued a challenge to major studios asking for an increase to 20 percent representation by the end of 2021, and up that to 50 percent LGBTQ representation by the year ending 2024. GLAAD is extending that challenge to ensure that within the next two years, at least half of LGBTQ characters in major studio films are people of color. For more information how you can help GLAAD fight for more fair LGBTQ representation in the media, click here. (source: GLAAD)
Directed by Darko Štante in a stunning debut, Consequences joins the recent list of celebrated indie films with a focus on closeted queer young men.
Premiering at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie explores the chaotic, destructive and complex nature of closeted youth.
From the official synopsis:
Centered on a powerhouse performance from charismatic newcomer Matej Zemljic, the film takes an unflinching look at the raw impulses of adolescence and the insecurity that lies beneath.
Sentenced, with the approval of his exasperated parents, to attend a youth detention centre, a handsome and muscular teen is thrown into the correctional facility’s intimidating and testosterone-fueled hierarchy.
Standing strong against its violent initiations, Andrej finds his anchor of approval and companionship in Željko, the aggressive leader of the center’s gang, which he soon joins in a carefree spiral of sex, drugs, and violence. Yet Andrej’s tough posturing belies an intimate fragility. Revealing this would unravel everything around him.
Director Štante has said in interviews he based much of the film on his own experiences working in a correctional facility.
Consequences is set for a limited theatrical release on August 2nd. Check out the official trailer below.
(from the award-winning short film ‘First They Came’)
Check out this moving short film that interweaves images of mass shootings with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and the Martin Niemöller poem, “First They Came.”
The competition asks student filmmakers in schools and colleges to create and share digital stories about significant LGBTQ+ people, places and events that have shaped our world and are impacting the future.
Goldberg was inspired by Niemöller’s poem which addresses complicity and passivity during the Holocaust. It reads:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Goldberg’s film updated the text to meditate on the victims of deadly mass shootings in recent U.S. history, including the massacre at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 dead and 50+ wounded.
“The film illustrates how passivity in the face of injustice is complicity during World War II, but instead reframes and rewrites the 1946 poem to focus on the prolific, devastating shootings in schools and public institutions,” said Odessa, a Tamalpais High School student in Mill Valley, California.
“One of the horrific shootings commemorated is the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016 targeting the LGBTQ+ community,” added the young filmmaker. “The final call to action of the video reminds the viewer to take action against gun violence by voting.”
All of these films stand on the shoulders of other LGBT films that have come before. Our list of the 200 Best LGBT Movies of All Time – expanded from our original list of 150 movies, released last year – stretches back almost 90 years to the pioneering German film, Mädchen in Uniform, which was subsequently banned by the Nazis, and crosses multiple continents, cultures, and genres.
There are broad American comedies (The Birdcage), artful Korean crime dramas (The Handmaiden), groundbreaking indies (Tangerine), and landmark documentaries (Paris Is Burning). In this thorough update and expansion of the list, we added films from the last year in cinema that qualified (from 2018’s We the Animals and The Miseducation of Cameron Post to this year’s The Heiresses and Giant Little Ones and more) and worked to include more stories from outside of the U.S.
To be considered for the list, a movie had to prominently feature gay, lesbian, trans, or queer characters; concern itself centrally with LGBT themes; present its LGBT characters in a fair and realistic light; and/or be seen as a touchpoint in the evolution of queer cinema.
And it had to be Fresh. The final list was culled from a longlist of hundreds, after which the films were ranked according to the Adjusted Tomatometer, which acts as a kind of inflation adjustment, taking into consideration the Tomatometer score, as well as the number of reviews a film received relative to the average number of reviews for films released that same year.
It’s a pretty comprehensive list to be sure. Some folks are surprised at the ranking of certain films versus others, but I think it’s a great list.
Just a few of my favorites here are (in no particular order): Torch Song Trilogy, The Sum of Us, Cabaret, Trick, The Birdcage, Philadelphia, The Hours, The Color Purple, Beach Rats, Boy Erased, The Way He Looks, Rocketman, Longtime Companion, Brokeback Mountain, Victor Victoria, The Kids Are Alright, God’s Country, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight and Love, Simon.
Matt Bomer stars in the upcoming buddy comedy, Papi Chulo.
Bomer plays “Sean,” a gay weatherman who hits a rough patch of depression following a major breakup.
Written and directed by gay Irish filmmaker John Butler (Handsome Devil), Papi Chulo made its world premiere last fall at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
The official synopsis reads:
“After a newly-single TV weatherman is put on leave following an on-air meltdown, he directs his energy into home improvement and hires a middle-aged Latino day laborer named Ernesto (Alejandro Patiño) to help. Despite a language barrier and having nothing in common, the two men develop an unexpected but profound friendship in this darkly comedic reflection on class, ethnicity, and companionship in contemporary Los Angeles.”
“My ex has been gone for six months now and I have to admit I’m not good at being alone,” Sean tells Ernesto in the trailer. “I never have been.”
The film also features Elena Campbell-Martinez (The Big Bang Theory), Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs, Bridesmaids), and D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place).
Matt Bomer and Alejandro Patiño (Blue Fox Ent.)
Variety’s Joe Laydon praised the film in his review, describing Bomer’s Sean as “played with admirable fearlessness,” and the film as a whole as a “scrupulously low-key and unassumingly ingratiating dramedy.”
“A warm-hearted tale of emotional healing through an unlikely friendship.” – The Hollywood Reporter
“The film captures something universal and profound: the fleeting human connections that can change a life forever.” – Screen Daily
Bomer earned an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe Award for his performance in HBO’s The Normal Heart, and recently appeared on Will & Grace as news anchor McCoy Whitman, Will’s love interest.
The 41-year-old made his Broadway debut last year in the acclaimed revival of the groundbreaking gay drama, The Boys in the Band. Producer Ryan Murphy has announced he will produce a screen version of the production for Netflix.
The Magic Mike actor is currently starring in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol.
Ryan O’Connell’s unconventional comedy series is based on his own experiences as a gay man with cerebral palsy navigating sex and a career in TV. He not only stars in the series, but also serves as writer and executive producer.
Critics are loving the depiction of a physically challenged gay man through O’Connell’s lens. In one episode, he is convinced by a friend to hire a sex worker in order to lose his virginity. Instead of being ‘tragic,’ the sequence moves from awkward, to touching and eventually to a sweet, sexy resolution.
O’Connell recent told NBC News he’s still in “shock” the series happened.
“It feels very surreal, because I didn’t think that any of this could be possible,” he said. “I’ve been working in Hollywood for six years now, and I know that even the best ideas, even the best shows, with the best talent attached, the odds of one actually getting shot and made and released is very medium rare.”
Now available on Netflix.
Sauvage / Wild
Leo is 22 and sells his body on the street for a bit of cash. The men come and go, and he stays right here — longing for love. He doesn’t know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding.
Felix Maritaud plays Leo, a French hustler who’s a beguiling homo-goulash of low self-esteem and empathy, who falls in love with gay-for-pay Ahd (Eric Bernard), who doles out tenderness, disgust, and violence in equal doses.
“A powerful portrait of a gay male prostitute in free fall” – Guy Lodge, Variety
Official synopsis: “On the 10th anniversary of his dad’s death, Joris still tries to come to terms with his father s absence when he meets the free-spirited Yad, who returns back home to his family after living on his own. Although very different, there is an instant spark between the two and they want to be more than just friends , but both have issues with their mothers that threaten to jeopardize their relationship.”
Cindy Lou Peeples at Frameline wrote, “Refreshingly, the family conflict in this romantic comedy is not that Joris and Yad are gay, but that they are defying family expectations in other ways and must make a new set of choices about how to be themselves.”
“‘Supernova’ is a deeply romantic, modern love story,” writer/director Harry Macqueen told 
