Tag: queer cinema

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Queer Cinema: “Princess Cyd”

Queer coming-of-age movie Princess Cyd, from writer-director Stephen Cone, is now playing in Los Angeles and will be available On Demand and all digital platforms beginning December 5.

Official synopsis:

16-year-old Cyd (Jessie Pinnick) decides to take a break from her depressive single father and spend a summer in Chicago with her aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence), a well-known novelist. Soon after her arrival, Cyd encounters Katie (Malic White), a young barista behind the counter. The two make plans to meet up after Katie’s shift and a new, charged relationship begins. The Chicago landscape expands, and we navigate intimate and fragile moments between Cyd and Katie as they explore their new attraction. Miranda functions as a counterpart to young Cyd’s new explorations of sexuality and love, and as the summer continues they develop a strong relationship founded on a shared openness and healthy criticism of particular personal moments.

The Los Angeles Times raves:

As comfortable to slip into as an afternoon in the sun, as satisfying as a late-night piece of cake, “Princess Cyd” is a jewel of a film that plumbs thematic depths far below its surface.

“Princess Cyd” is many things: a queer coming-of-age story (Malic White is fantastic as Cyd’s summer fling Katie), a tribute to intergenerational friendship, a redemption tale. But it also captures one deeply significant thing, that moment when family members transform from strangers to loved ones.

Naming Princess Cyd one of the “Ten Best Films of 2017, ” Vanity Fair‘s Richard Lawson wrote, “As kind a movie as there was this year. Cone quietly asserts himself as a major talent. How heartening to see big topics – like faith, like sexuality – discussed in such warm, considerate terms by two such gifted actresses.”

You can check out the trailer below.

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Trailer: “Love, Simon”

A new coming-of-age film from director/producer Greg Berlanti – Love, Simon.

The film looks to be reminiscent of those 1980s big studio, John Hughes romantic dramedies about teenagers in love.

Except for this time – the lead is gay.

Via press release:

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year-old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online.

Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters), written by Isaac Aptaker & Elizabeth Berger (This is Us), and based on Becky Albertalli’s acclaimed novel, Love, Simon is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love.

“No matter what, announcing to the world is pretty terrifying, cause … what if the world doesn’t like you?”

I know a few folks who might relate to this (as I raise my hand “Me! Me!”).

The film’s production team has an awesome pedigree across the board. Looking forward to seeing this.

Love, Simon arrives in theaters everywhere March 16, 2018.

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Queer Cinema: “Call Me By Your Name” Wins At Gotham Independent Film Awards

Timothée Chalamet (L) and Armie Hammer (R) in Call Me By Your Name

Acclaimed gay coming-of-age film Call Me By Your Name had a great start on the awards season last night at the Gotham Independent Film Awards picking up “Best Feature” and “Breakthrough Actor.”

I predict it’s going to be a fun couple of months for Timothée Chalamet, who plays the young male lead in the highly anticipated film.

Click over to The Hollywood Reporter for a full list of winners.

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Gay-Themed “Call Me By Your Name” Opens To Highest Per Theater Average Of The Year

It was an awesome opening weekend for gay-themed indie film, Call Me by Your Name.

Not only did the movie receive 6 Independent Spirit Award nominations, but the film racked up about $404,000 in its opening weekend for the domestic box office.

Screening in only 4 theaters (Los Angeles and New York), Call Me By Your Name averaged $101,219, reports Deadline.

That means the flick has this year’s highest per theater average in the United States.

Based on the coming-of-age novel by André Aciman, the highly anticipated Call Me by Your Name follows Timothée Chalamet as “Elio,” a young man who falls in love with American exchange student “Oliver” (Armie Hammer) at his family’s home in the Italian countryside.

Reviews for the film have been almost universally glowing with a 98% “Fresh” rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and there’s serious Oscar buzz around the movie.

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Gay-Themed “Call Me By Your Name” Leads 2017 Independent Spirit Award Nominations

This year’s Independent Spirit Award nominations have been announced and the highly-anticipated gay drama Call Me By Your Name starring Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet received six nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Male Lead (for Timothee Chalamet), and Best Supporting Male (for Armie Hammer).

Call Me By Your Name bows in New York City and Los Angeles this Friday before opening nationwide.

Also, Sundance favorite Beach Rats picked up two nominations, one for Best Male Lead (for Harris Dickinson) and Best Cinematography,

Additionally, French AIDS/ACT UP drama BPM (Beats Per Minute) got a nod for Best International Film, as did A Fantastic Woman from Chile, in which trans actress Daniela Vega plays a transgender singer faced with discrimination and loss when her lover dies.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best Feature
“Call Me by Your Name”
“The Florida Project”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“The Rider”

Best First Feature
“Columbus”
“Ingrid Goes West”
“Menashe”
“Oh Lucy!”
“Patti Cake$”

Best Director
Sean Baker, “The Florida Project”
Jonas Carpignano, “A Ciambra”
Luca Guadagnino, “Call Me by Your Name”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, “Good Time”
Chloé Zhao, “The Rider”

Best Screenplay
Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”
Azazel Jacobs, “The Lovers”
Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Mike White, “Beatriz at Dinner”

Best First Screenplay
Kris Avedisian, Story By: Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman, “Donald Cried”
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani, “The Big Sick”
Ingrid Jungermann, “Women Who Kill”
Kogonada, “Columbus”
David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer, “Ingrid Goes West”

Best Cinematography
Thimios Bakatakis, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Elisha Christian, “Columbus”
Hélène Louvart, “Beach Rats”
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Call Me by Your Name”
Joshua James Richards, “The Rider”

Best Editing
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, “Good Time”
Walter Fasano, “Call Me by Your Name”
Alex O’Flinn, “The Rider”
Gregory Plotkin, “Get Out”
Tatiana S. Riegel, “I, Tonya”

Best Female Lead
Salma Hayek, “Beatriz at Dinner”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Shinobu Terajima, “Oh Lucy!”
Regina Williams, “Life and nothing more”

Best Male Lead
Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Harris Dickinson, “Beach Rats”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Robert Pattinson, “Good Time”

Best Supporting Female
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Lois Smith, “Marjorie Prime”
Taliah Lennice Webster, “Good Time”

Best Supporting Male
Nnamdi Asomugha, “Crown Heights”
Armie Hammer, “Call Me by Your Name”
Barry Keoghan, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Benny Safdie, “Good Time”

Robert Altman Award
“Mudbound”

Best Documentary
“The Departure”
“Faces Places”
“Last Men in Aleppo”
“Motherland”
“Quest”

Best International Film
“BPM (Beats Per Minute)” (France)
“A Fantastic Woman,” (Chile)
“I Am Not a Witch,” (Zambia)
“Lady Macbeth,” (U.K.)
“Loveless,” (Russia)

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Podcast: Australia Says ‘Yes’ To Marriage Equality; Bi Gossip Queen Liz Smith Passes At 94; Ohio State Lawmaker Resigns After “Inappropriate” Behavior

In this week’s podcast:

• Australia’s mail-in survey shows a whopping 62% of Aussies support marriage equality which means gay wedding bells will soon be ringing ‘down under.’

• Monday, November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance. For more info, visit www.glaad.org/tdor

• Legendary gossip columnist and openly bisexual Liz Smith passed away this week at the age of 94

• Philadelphia gay-basher Kathryn Knott settles a civil lawsuit with the two men she helped put in the hospital after a violent gay bashing in Philadelphia

• Supposedly straight Republican Ohio state Rep. Wes Goodman resigns after reports of “inappropriate” consensual behavior in his office with another man

• Plus, I share two new documentaries I think you should see: Rebels On Pointe and Dream Boat.

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

By the way, you shiny happy people, I would really appreciate it if you enjoy my podcast to subscribe and/or leave a review on my iTunes page here. 

Those actions go a long way to make The Randy Report more visible to others looking for LGBTQ podcast content.

And, it’s free! Thanks for listening. Hit the play button below.

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News Round-Up: November 13, 2017

(via Instagram – Justinickpgh)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I love following these guys (above) on Instagram – totally “doggie-daddy” kinda guys 🙂

• Out actor Daniel Franzese says his co-star Bijou Phillips in Bully taunted him tirelessly throughout filming by body-shaming, outing and sexually harassing him on the set. Phillips says she “doesn’t remember that time well” but wants to apologize if she wasn’t the friend she thought she was.

• An upcoming documentary, Dream Boat, follows the journey of five men on holiday at sea facing body-image issues, HIV anxiety, loneliness, and pounding dance music. Watch the trailer below.

• The results of the Australian “vote-by-mail” survey on same-sex marriage will be announced Wednesday at 10AM, that’s 6pm ET / 3PM PT USA time.

• A group of young HIV-positive chefs utilize food and humor to dispel myths and stigma around HIV+ folks.

• Check out the trailer for sci-fi thriller Thelma, which chronicles a college girl’s emerging psychic powers as she figures out her attraction to another female student at her school. Now in select theaters.

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Sony Pictures UK Attempts To Straight-Wash Upcoming Gay Romance “Call Me By Your Name”

The Twitter feed for Sony Pictures UK was shamed into deleting a tweet that appeared to “straight-wash” the upcoming gay-themed indie film, Call Me By Your Name.

Pairing an image of two of the film’s young actors with the quote, “It’s a romance overwhelming in its intensity, a heart that swells until it has to burst,” you would have thought this was a movie about budding young heterosexual romance.

Of course, being one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, movie fans know it’s actually a coming of age story centered on a burgeoning gay romance between a young college professor and a male teenager.

Boo, Sony Pictures UK…

Call Me By Your Name is in theaters November 24.

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Podcast: Trump Addresses Anti-LGBT Conference, National Parks Service Pulls Out Of Rainbow Flag Event, Colton Haynes Shares Struggles With Depression

In this week’s Randy Report podcast:

• The National Parks service pulled out of an event where the rainbow flag would fly, for the first time, on federal land

• Donald Trump became the first sitting president to address anti-gay hate group’s Values Voters Summit

• Out actor Colton Haynes (Arrow/Teen Wolf/American Horror Story) shared his struggles with depression & anxiety on World Mental Health Day

• In queer cinema, Tom of Finland and Professor Marston & the Wonder Women open in theaters

• Randy Rainbow parodies the summer mega-hit “Despocito” with a sharp as nails commentary on Donald Trump

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

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Film Review: “Tom Of Finland”

Niklas Hogner as Tom of Finland’s character “Kake.”
Photo by Josef Persson, courtesy Kino Lorber.

Back in the day, straight men had their pin-up girls, and gay men (secretly) had “Tom of Finland.”

Opening today in New York City and in Los Angeles/San Francisco October 20 prior to national release, make sure you see Tom of Finland.

The film, Finland’s official submission for 2018 Academy Awards Foreign Language category, chronicles the journey of gay artist Touko Laaksonen.

A decorated officer in World War II, Laaksonen returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country.

But life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds post-war Helsinki rampant with homophobic persecution, and gay men around him are being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art: homoerotic drawings of hyper-masculine men, free of inhibitions.

But it is only when an American publisher sees Laaksonen’s work and invites him to travel to the West Coast that his life came into focus. Finally living free and proud in Los Angeles, Tuoko dives head first into the sexual revolution, becoming an icon and a rallying point.

His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of the worldwide gay revolution.

Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski brings to screen the life and work of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth-century LGBTQ culture.

When I first heard of a film called Tom of Finland, I actually expected something of a different nature. Something a bit more “Tom of Finland.” Considering the subject matter I was surprised that the creators were a bit shy about nudity in the film.

But that’s not to say this film doesn’t deliver.

Pekka Strang gives a thoughtful and sensitive performance as Laaksonen. And Karukoski makes creative use of Laaksonen’s muse “Kake,” who appears when the artist finds himself in turmoil.

While the first half of the film lays the foundation for pensive story-telling, I think audiences will find the second half, as Laaksonen evolves as a mature gay man and artist, more compelling.

Seeing Strang take in the impact of Laaksonen’s drawings on the gay community in Los Angeles during the sexual revolution of the 70s is potent stuff.

Kudos to cinematographer Lasse Frank Johannessen’s eye for shadow and light, especially during dramatically taut late-night park scenes as men search for physical connections.

The score by Lasse Enersen and Hildur Guðnadóttir offers emotional support and nuance.

While homosexual persecution in Finland sounds a century away, it’s all too relevant with gay men in Chechnya being hunted down, tortured and killed today. The realities Laaksonen faced are not behind us.

The film has been extremely well received at film festivals all over the world (official selection at Tribeca International Film Festival and Outfest 2017) and is Finland’s official submission for 2018 Academy Awards.

Watch the trailer below. And head over to the film’s website for release dates in your city.