Monthly Wallpaper - April 2009: Funny Guys

This month's Movie Dearest calendar wallpaper is all about the April fool's, otherwise known as Funny Guys.

From international men of mystery to 40-year-old virgins, these city slickers and jerks will do anything for a laugh, whether it's donning old lady drag or a nutty fat suit or getting up close and personal with an aluminum foil-wrapped cucumber. As a certain cultural emissary from Kazakhstan would say, "Very nice!"

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.

The Latest on TV: Pedro

Pedro, the feature film biopic of the late Real World cast member and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, will be broadcast on MTV and several of its affiliates tomorrow night. Click here for Chris' full review of Pedro, which features a script by Milk Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black.

Andy Hallett: 1975-2009

Andy Hallett, best known for his portrayal of the green-skinned, karaoke-singing demon Lorne (a.k.a. "the Host") on Angel, has died. The 33-year-old actor/singer passed away Sunday night after a five year battle with heart disease.

Cinematic Crush: Dmitry Chaplin

This is the fourth in an eight-part look at the Hunks of Reality TV:

Crush object: Dmitry Chaplin, dancer/choreographer.

- This rising star of dance hails from Russia.

- He came to fame as a top ten finalist during the second season of So You Think You Can Dance, where he became known for his masculine style, often performing shirtless.

- Currently one of the new professional dancers on Dancing with the Stars, he was originally partnered with singer Jewel this season. However, following a pre-season injury, she had to leave the show and was replaced by Girls Next Door star Holly Madison.

- In addition to SYTYCD and DWTS, he has performed on the American Idol special "Idol Gives Back".

- Off-screen, he has placed in several International Latin dance competitions.

Maurice Jarre: 1924-2009

Maurice Jarre, the Academy Award-winning composer of such iconic film scores as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, passed away yesterday at the age of 84.

Jarre won three Oscars for his collaborations with director David Lean (Lawrence, Zhivago and A Passage to India), and was nominated another six times. He also won four Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards and a Grammy during his illustrious career, which included scores for over 150 films.

Jarre's other notable scores include the films The Longest Day, Sundays and Cybele, Grand Prix, Topaz, Ryan's Daughter, The Man Who Would Be King, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Fatal Attraction, Gorillas in the Mist, Dead Poets Society and Ghost, and the television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth and Shogun.

UPDATE: Here's a video montage of Jarre's most memorable scores.

Awards Watch: GLAAD Media Awards New York

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation handed out their first batch of GLAAD Media Awards last night in New York. Among the winners were the films A Jihad for Love for Outstanding Documentary and Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom and Shelter, which tied for Outstanding Film – Limited Release. Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out! and Joey Arias and Basil Twist's Arias with a Twist won in the New York theater categories.

Other winners included TV hosts Tyra Banks, Phil Donahue and Suze Orman, journalist Keith Olbermann and singer k.d. lang, as well as the soap opera As the World Turns, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book and the special radio broadcast The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later - The Lasting Legacy of Matthew Shepard.

Additional awards will be presented in Los Angeles on April 18 and in San Francisco on May 9.

Reel Thoughts: Fore!

Who knew Charlie David had it in him? The gorgeous star of Dante’s Cove and A Four Letter Word has written Mulligans (coming to DVDApril 21), a sweet and poignant film about a summer that changes a family’s life forever.

"Mulligans" are second chances in golf, and when handsome Chase (David) accompanies his studly jock roommate Tyler (Derek Baynham) home during school break, he has no way of knowing that he’ll be the catalyst for Tyler’s father Nathan (the gorgeous Dan Payne) to take his second chance at life. Nathan and Stacey (Thea Gill, also of Dante's Cove as well as Queer as Folk fame) seem to have a perfect marriage, but Nathan has buried his true sexuality so deeply, it’s never surfaced before.


The golf references come from the fact that Tyler and Chase go to work at the golf course where Nathan spends a lot of his time, perhaps escaping the nagging feeling that something’s not right in his life. Of course, when you put handsome studs like David and Payne together in a movie like this and add liquor, you have the makings of a hot, only-in-gay-films hook-up that puts a damper on the family’s vacation, to say the least.

First-time feature screenwriter David (along with first-time director Chip Hale) should be commended for leaving the aftermath messy but truer to life, even if you’re not sure what you should be feeling about what happens to the characters. For a first film, Mulligans isn’t quite a hole-in-one, but it’s definitely a birdie.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Out in Film: Sarah Paulson

Idol worship: Sarah Paulson, actress.

- Her first notable role was in the cult TV series American Gothic, followed by such other short-lived programs as Jack & Jill, Leap of Faith and The D.A.

- In addition to memorable guest performances on Deadwood and Nip/Tuck, she is best known for her Golden Globe nominated role as Harriet Hayes on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

- On film, she has appeared in such movies as The Other Sister, What Women Want, Down with Love, Serenity and The Notorious Bettie Page.

- She played Laura Wingfield in an acclaimed Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Other stage roles include Killer Joe, Talking Pictures and Colder Than Here.

- Most recently, she was seen on the big screen in The Spirit (coming to DVDApril 14) and will star opposite Bobby Cannavale in the revised romantic comedy Cupid, premiering this Tuesday on ABC.

Reverend’s Reviews: Sex Without Borders

There’s no film subject more controversial than sex (well, ok, maybe violence). Two films opening this Friday in NYC and expanding to LA and other cities in April — Shall We Kiss? and American Swing — revel in discussions and depictions of sex. Although most of the sex shown is of the heterosexual variety, LGBT viewers can certainly glean wisdom from the lessons learned by these films’ protagonists.

Shall We Kiss?, from France, is the least potentially-offensive as well as the less successful of the two. Written and directed by Emmanuel Mouret (Change of Address), it starts out as a one-joke comedy that is indulged for far too long and, in the end, becomes a pat morality tale.

When Gabriel (the dreamy Michaël Cohen, no relation to Movie Dearest’s beloved Neil) meets the transportation-deprived Émilie (the beautiful Julie Gayet, who LGBT viewers might recognize from the 1999 film Confusion of Genders), he offers her a ride but not without ulterior motives. Gabriel hopes to gain a sexual tryst out of his generosity but will settle for a single kiss.


This provides Émilie the opportunity to enlighten Gabriel with a fact-based story detailing the destructive repercussions of even a relatively chaste and non-committal act as a kiss. She recounts the saga of Nicolas (played by Mouret) and Judith (acclaimed actress Virginie Ledoyen, largely wasted here), best friends who begin to have sex despite their involvement with other partners and eventually fall in love themselves.

Shall We Kiss? is too talky by far, and is directed and photographed (by Laurent Desmet) with no particular style. Mouret also utilizes canned classical music selections to repetitive, irritating effect. Despite an effective twist at the end between Émilie and Gabriel, the film is often a slog to get through.


American Swing, on the other hand, is a far more interesting and concise documentary about the positive and destructive effects of casual sex. It unveils the players behind the legendary NYC swingers’ club, Plato’s Retreat.

Established in 1977 by the sexually-insatiable (from all reports) Larry Levenson, the nightclub — originally a gay bathhouse, the Ansonia, where Bette Midler and Barry Manilow got their starts — was nationally renowned until the double-whammy of AIDS and tax evasion on Levenson’s part forced its closure in 1985. (As the film notes, the venue was the first non-gay sex club closed during the initial years of the AIDS crisis.)


Utilizing vintage home movie footage and contemporary interviews with such Plato’s Retreat regulars as feminist Helen Gurley Brown, comedian Buck Henry, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles and porn actor Ron Jeremy, co-producers/directors Mathew Kaufman and Jon Hart reveal the good (previously-repressed women, especially, and men discovering their sexual selves), the bad (self-indulgence run amok and a frightful lack of social responsibility) and the ugly (drug abuse and STD’s of all genuses) of the sexual-liberation movement.

While the sexual freedom graphically shown in American Swing continues to have its appeal, Kaufman and Hart refuse — to their credit — to sugarcoat it. I encourage LGBT moviegoers to see the film and post your own reactions to it.

UPDATE: American Swingis now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts Interview: Keach/Nixon

To borrow from my favorite VH1 show, Richard Nixon is having the best year ever! Not only is he alive and well and enjoying his fifth term in the film Watchmen, but no less than two fine actors have brought him to life on stage and screen. First, Frank Langella brought his immensely engrossing portrayal of Nixon from Broadway to Ron Howard’s film adaptation of Frost/Nixon, earning an Oscar nomination in the process. Now, Stacy Keach, an esteemed actor that even other actors revere, has stepped into the role and made it his own in the current touring production of Frost/Nixon.

Keach is well known for playing Mike Hammer on television, but he has a long and distinguished theater career, as well as his film work (The Long Riders, American History X). I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Keach, who I had just been admiring for his performance in Oliver Stone’s W., and I found him extremely gracious and friendly.


NC: How did you approach playing such a famous and much-parodied person after playing a fictionalized version of George Bush’s spiritual advisor?
SK: Well the first thing I did after accepting the role was to go back and revisit the actual interviews between David Frost and Nixon. I remember when they actually happened and I was struck when I read Peter Morgan’s play ... I loved the way he, well, he took poetic license with the interviews. And he did some transpositions, and even though he’s faithful to the original interviews, he puts his own spin on it. And in doing so, he makes it very dramatic and very accessible to a modern audience. A lot of people, we’re discovering (especially young people), don’t really know what Watergate was all about. In some respects, because the movie is out now, it’s very good for people coming to see the play, the (film) ads act as an advertisement for the play Frost/Nixon.

I wanted to go back and say something about W. The wonderful thing about playing the character — I had the luxury of playing a non-historical role in W. He was an amalgamation, a compilation of various evangelical figures (James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham). He was a combination of people, Earle Hudd was, he wasn’t a real person. But when I went down to Shreveport, Louisiana, to film W., Oliver Stone had arranged for me to meet with a couple of evangelical ministers, one of whom was this very aggressive, fire and brimstone sort of guy. And then I had another meeting with a very mild, very meek, very quiet, soft-spoken, professorial academic intellectual type of minister, and he had a sweetness about him. What I did was combine those two guys, and that was Earle Hudd.


When it comes to playing a historical role, all the obligations change because you are obligated to reflect the nature of the character in some fashion. Nixon, as written by Peter Morgan and as played by yours truly, is not an impersonation of an impression, and yet I have to talk a certain way that is Nixonian in order to convey the character. But the measure of success is not how well you emulate Nixon so much as how well you reveal what’s going on in his soul.

NC: Does the stage production resemble the film of Frost/Nixon?
SK: The stage production was the seed for the film. It was originally produced at the Donmar Warehouse in London in front of 250 people, and it was so successful, it moved to the West End, where it was also very successful. Then, it moved to Broadway, where Frank (Langella) won a Tony for it. Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay, so it is very faithful in terms of the dialogue. What the movie cannot do that the play does is give you the live image and the televised image simultaneously. So it’s like being at a sporting event or a rock concert.

NC: Having lived through Nixon, did you have any preconceptions about him?
SK: That’s a very good question. Having lived, as you say, through that whole era, Nixon was Mr. Bad Guy — he was satanic — he was destroying our nation. Watergate was probably the beginning of reality television. We were glued to our sets during these hearings. We got to know members of government. It was the first time something of that nature had really happened. Yes, the Kennedy assassinations were covered, but cable didn’t exist. You only had three networks. CNN wasn’t around.

Television is a very dominant theme in Frost/Nixon, the use of television, the use of image, how to project image on television. Those are the tactics and strategies that are discussed in the play. How best for David Frost, for example, to approach Nixon’s long-winded diatribes, because he goes on and on, in an effort to rehabilitate himself, which he never did.

Whereas David Frost did (get what he wanted from the interviews). David Frost got to throw off the shackles of being considered a talk show host/entertainer and became a serious journalist. It raised his stock considerably. He made the cover of Time and Newsweek, he’s written many books. He’s still around and he loves the fact that this play is out there. It keeps him alive.

NC: Who is your David Frost?
SK: Alan Cox. He’s wonderful, he’s just great. I’ve known Alan since he was born. His father, Brian Cox (L.I.E., X2: X-Men United), and I went to drama school together. We went to the London Academy of Dramatic Art together long before you were born (laughing). I was shooting a picture in London in 1971 and Brian and I were talking and he said (in a perfect Brian Cox voice), “I’ve just had a son! I’m going to call him Alan.” And now I’m working with him. I worked with him six years ago. We did a BBC Radio Broadcast of Booth Tarkington’s play The Plutocrat with Leslie Caron. Talk about esoteric! He’s great. I love playing together. We enjoy working together. It’s very important when you have a long tour that the two main guys not only like each other, but that they love working together.

NC: It would be very difficult if you didn’t!
SK: Oh, very, very. I would not want to be Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn doing Beckett years ago on the road! (laughing).


NC: Where does your heart lie, as far as performing? I know that you started out in theater (before doing films and television like Mike Hammer, Private Eye).
SK: I’ve said it before, it feels like millions of times, if you put a gun to my head and I could only choose one, it would be the theater.

Keach went on to explain that with rapidly changing technology, actors are having to adapt to new types of entertainment and how to get compensated for it, which is why there’s a threat of a Screen Actors Guild strike.

“That’s another reason why theater is a very good thing!” he said, laughing.

Editor's note: Since this interview was conducted, Stacy Keach suffered a mild stroke, but will return to the stage in Frost/Nixon this week. We here at Movie Dearest wish him the speediest of recoveries.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Ab Fab + ABBA

French & Saunders & Lumley take on Walters & Streep & Baranski in Mamma Mia! (part one, part two).

Women We Love: Rue McClanahan

This is the third in a four-part Women We Love salute to The Golden Girls, now airing daily on the Hallmark Channel:

Object of our affection: Rue McClanahan, actress.

- Glamorous star of stage and screen, she made her Broadway debut in the musical Jimmy Shine opposite Dustin Hoffman. Since, she has performed in such productions as California Suite, Nunsense, The Women and Wicked.

- Her breakout role was as the killer nanny Caroline Johnson on Another World, known for kidnapping her charges and poisoning her mistress. She would go on to star in another daytime soap, Where the Heart Is.

- On film, she has appeared in Walk the Angry Beach, They Might Be Giants, Starship Troopers, The Fighting Temptations and as bitter "fag hag" Lita Joyce in the infamous Some of My Best Friends Are ...

- But she is best known for her Emmy Award-winning performance as the man crazy Southern belle Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, a role she reprised in the series' spin-off The Golden Palace. Prior to Girls, she co-starred with Beatrice Arthur in Maude and Betty White in Mama's Family.

- In addition to various guest spots and made for TV movies, she can currently be seen co-starring as Peggy Ingram on Sordid Lives: The Series.

Reel Thoughts: Not So Super

The drama of getting Watchmen into theaters is more compelling than the convoluted film director Zack Snyder (300) created. Based on Allan Moore’s much-loved graphic novel from the mid-’80s, Watchmen is at first gripping in the same menacing way The Dark Knight was. But then, it disintegrates into an ending that leaves you depressed at the wasted potential. I was also disturbed by elements in the film that I found unfortunate at best and homophobic at worst.

Watchmen tells the story of a group of crime-fighters who are anything but role models. In the film’s alternate reality, it is 1985 and President Nixon is enjoying his fifth term (having abolished term limits), but the country is virtually rotting away with corruption and crime. Superheroes, who live alongside regular people, have been outlawed as vigilantes, except for a glowing blue atomic creature named Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, channeling his MasterCard ad voice to great effect) who is Nixon’s secret weapon against Russia. The Watchmen, who evolved from a group of crime-fighters in the ’40s called the Minutemen, have mostly gone into hiding or gone to seed.


When a particularly poorly-named “superhero,” The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is brutally murdered, his paranoid fellow crime-fighter Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in a brilliant performance) tries to regroup the Watchmen to solve the killing. Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), a.k.a. Niteowl II, is a schlubby nebbish with an arsenal of amazing weapons and gizmos. Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman) a.k.a. Laurie Jupiter, the daughter of the original superhero (a boozy Carla Gugino, who plays her role like Lea Thompson in Back to the Future Part II), is a knockout who hates her neglectful mom. Ozymandias, a.k.a. Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), is the world’s smartest man, and he has used his powers to become incredibly rich and successful. Dr. Manhattan is a God-like do-gooder who is gradually losing touch with his humanity, despite his love for Laurie.

The world is pitted in the kind of nuclear arms race that seems ready to explode, and even having Dr. Manhattan on our side doesn’t seem to be scaring the Russians. In this pre-apocalyptic chaos, Rorschach finds that the killer of his ill-tempered friend may be someone closer than he suspects. At this point, all of the great performances so far can no longer save the admittedly great-looking film. The climax can’t work in a post-Cold War time, not that it would have been very logical or believable in 1987 either.


The opening credits, played as a set of living tableaus that detail the rise and fall of the Minutemen and the Watchmen to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “The Times, They Are A-Changin’”, are riveting and dazzlingly presented. It’s too bad that the rest of the film can’t match its virtuosity. Snyder fills the film with scenes of misogynistic violence and elements that, because they go unchallenged, are likely to inspire anti-gay reactions in less-intelligent audiences.

For instance, Silhouette (Apollonia Vanova) is a strong and sexy crime-fighter who is revealed as a lesbian with a girlfriend she meets at Times Square on V-E Day. Before the credits are over, they’ve both been murdered in an apparent hate crime. When Rorschach refers to her, he equates her with another Minuteman who has gone insane and is institutionalized, and as much as says she was asking for her fate because of her alternative lifestyle. It can also be argued that the killer who is unmasked is also the stereotypical gay villain.


Given the almost fetishistic attention given to the always-naked and well-endowed Dr. Manhattan, and the homoerotic exaggeration of the men’s bodies when in costume, I don’t know that the homophobia was intentional. Still, it’s totally unnecessary, as is the level of brutality shown in the violent confrontations.

Due to its dated premise, overindulgent running time, and unrelenting ugliness, Watchmen is a visually breathtaking waste of time.

UPDATE: Watchmen is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Poster Post: Walk on the Wild Side

The classic children's story Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak comes to life on the big screen (courtesy of director Spike Jonze) this fall ... and it will apparently star Sweetums.

Reel Thoughts: Spring Cleaning

The same thought kept going through my head while I watched Sunshine Cleaning: “This film is so Sundance!” I wasn’t surprised then to learn that it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at that very film festival (though not this year's, but 2008's). What makes it an almost stereotypical indie film is its earthy, realistic setting, its quirky characters and its small-scale human drama. None of that’s a bad thing, unless you’re looking for the next Little Miss Sunshine.

Filmed in a very realistically portrayed Albuquerque, Sunshine Cleaning tells the story of Rose and Norah Lorkowski, two sisters on opposite ends of the spectrum. Rose (the always-radiant Amy Adams) was the head cheerleader in high school, who is now a single mother working for a mobile maid service. She’s having an affair with her high school sweetheart (Steve Zahn) who married someone else. Through it all, however, she’s determined to do something big with her life. Norah (the always razor-sharp Emily Blunt), on the other hand, is a slacker waitress who lives with their dad (the always wonderful Alan Arkin) and was just fired from her job.


Desperate to send her son to a good school, Rose decides to team up with Norah in a cleaning business devoted to crime scenes and other post-death biohazards. It’s a lucrative but disgusting line of work, yet Rose finds a deeper satisfaction in it. She is happy to be going into such desperate situations and making things better for the bereaved survivors. Meanwhile, Norah is reluctantly happy to be succeeding for once. Both women were scarred as girls when they found their mother after she had committed suicide, but it takes Sunshine Cleaning to help them face the trauma. Rose finds strength in Winston (Clifton Collins Jr. from Capote), who runs the janitorial supply store where they shop.

The film is a nice character study filled with wonderful actors. Director Christine Jeffs errs in making the baby shower where Rose reaches an epiphany too much of a cartoon, but other scenes like the one where Rose consoles an elderly woman while Norah begins to clean up her husband’s suicide scene are utterly moving. The current economy paired with the arid and life-draining Albuquerque setting make the film a little depressing to watch, but its well-earned hopeful ending makes up for it. Sunshine Cleaning may not be a movie you seek out, but afterward you’ll be glad for the experience, even if its generic Sundance feel makes it vanish from your memory like a well-cleaned murder scene.

UPDATE: Sunshine Cleaning is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Cinematic Crush: Colby Donaldson

This is the third in an eight-part look at the Hunks of Reality TV:

Crush object: Colby Donaldson, reality TV personality/ actor.

- One of the first "breakout stars" of Survivor, the handsome and rugged Texan was the runner-up in the series second season, set in the Australian Outback. His memorable moments include dodging the affections of Jerri, winning nine immunity and reward challenges (a Survivor record), infamously taking coral from the Great Barrier Reef, and picking Tina over Keith to face off in the final Tribal Council.

- He went on to appear on the All-Stars edition of the popular reality show, and was named the sexiest male castaway of the first eight seasons during the reunion special.

- His Survivor days behind him, he has turned to acting, making guest appearances on such television favorites as Reba, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Joey and Bones.

- On the big screen, he had a small role in the Wes Craven thriller Red Eye, and he was also the spokesman for Schick razors in several commercials.

- Currently, he can be seen as one of "Rachael's buddies" on The Rachael Ray Show.

Happy Birthday, Joan!

Today is a very special one, as it marks the 104th anniversary of the birth of our namesake, the late great, one and only Joan Crawford — happy birthday, mommie dearest!

Reel Thoughts: Three Cheers for Ready? OK!

The poignant coming-of-age and acceptance comedy Ready, OK! is a cinematic cousin to the French film, Ma Vie En Rose, and a counterpoint to Charles Busch’s touching film A Very Serious Person. In all three, young boys who are attracted to dresses, dolls, show tunes or cheerleading are forced to grow up and give up the things they love to please a parent or other adult.

In Ready, OK!, all young Josh (newcomer Lurie Poston) wants is to be on the cheer squad. His loving single mother, Andrea (the sublime Carrie Preston), has so much on her plate, working for a demanding diva of a boss and having to support her unemployed brother who comes and goes out of her life, that she doesn’t have time to give Josh the understanding of which she’s capable. It falls to her gay neighbor, Charlie, who is played by Preston’s husband Michael Emerson, to encourage Josh to be who he is and not to let the bullies at school change him. It is quite a departure for Emerson, who is infamously evil as Ben Linus on Lost. He imbues Charlie with a sweetness and integrity that makes it impossible for Andrea to contradict.


Writer/director James Vasquez (29th and Gay) has crafted a warm and appealing picture that proves that disapproving and seemingly judgmental parents aren’t always bad people or religious nuts. Andrea is a good person, but is so pressured by outside influences she can’t accept and embrace her son until shown the dangers of her attitude.

It’s interesting to compare the film with Busch’s drama, because in that film, it is a gay person himself who tries to change the boy. As Josh, Poston is a self-assured young actor — he’d have to be to pull off that Maria Von Trapp dress he wears to school — but he doesn’t bring a lot of charisma or personality to his role. Still, I think most gay people can definitely identify with being an outsider as a child, and that one terrible moment when you first become aware that you’re different. That’s where Ready, OK! succeeds best, and you might find yourself cheering at the end.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

MD Poll: Ladies in Waiting

Last month, we were all excited to see Kate Winslet finally win an Academy Award after five previous losses. But that got us to thinking about all the other talented women in film out there who have yet to take home a little gold man of their own. Which leads us to the latest MD Poll question: "Now that Kate has her Oscar, who is the next actress most deserving of an overdue Academy Award?"

To narrow the field down, we limited the names to only those actresses who have been nominated at least three times previously, and then to only those who have received at least one of those nominations in the past twenty years. Thus, the finalists are Glenn Close (5 previous nominations), Julianne Moore (4 previous nominations), Joan Allen, Annette Bening, Diane Ladd, Laura Linney, Michelle Pfieffer, Sigourney Weaver and Debra Winger (all with 3 previous nominations each). (Ironic, isn't it, that none of these women have Oscars and Hilary Swank has two.)

Obviously, there are some actresses who have either never been nominated before or, if they have, don't fall into the criteria listed above, so there's a wild card slot as well; just list your "write-in vote" in the comments section below. The poll is now available for your votes in the right hand sidebar, and will run for four weeks.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

MD Poll: Wild About Harry

In our most recent MD Poll, Movie Dearest readers chose Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as their "must-see" movie of 2009. The results are not too surprising, as we were supposed to get it last fall (in fact, it came in second to The Dark Knight in last year's polling).

Following Watchmen, another film delayed from 2008, Star Trek, came in third place, a huge leap from its ninth place finish last year. As usual, you can see the complete stats for this poll in the comments section below.

Reverend’s Reviews: Out of the Past

By the time I graduated from high school in 1985, “safe sex” was all the rage among sexually active men and women, homosexual and heterosexual alike, as the primary form of protection against HIV/AIDS. I was too young and uninformed then to know that it had taken the controversial efforts of several people to bring safe sex to the forefront of my and others’ consciousness.

An enlightening new documentary, Sex Positive, is coming to theaters this June from Regent Releasing. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Outfest, it uncovers the little-known story and real-life figures behind the philosophical development and subsequent practice of safe sex.


Richard Berkowitz was a young, newly-out gay man involved in the underground S&M scene when the mysterious, deadly epidemic that would become known as AIDS hit New York City hard in the early 1980’s. After watching dozens of friends die in a matter of months, Berkowitz became hell-bent on discovering how to protect himself as well as others.

Berkowitz’s initial attempts at self-defense while remaining sexually active came too late to prevent him from becoming infected. However, his research and growing activism led him to virologist Dr. Joseph Sonnabend and popular musician-activist Michael Callen. The three would become an outspoken team in mid-80’s gay circles, inspiring equal parts appreciation and condemnation.


Sonnabend discovered that gay men with AIDS had sexual histories overwhelmingly characterized by multiple partners and prior diagnoses with other sexually transmitted diseases. Initially, Sonnabend thought his subjects’ promiscuity directly weakened their immune systems to the point that AIDS was the natural result. Berkowitz and Callen became convinced by the doctor’s arguments and began to speak out at gay pride events and in the media against promiscuous sexual activity. They also co-published a 1983 booklet, How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, that is regarded as the first safe-sex treatise.

As Sex Positive reveals, both through vintage news footage and new interviews, the virologist and his two disciples (the Jewish Berkowitz even refers to Sonnabend on-camera as “my personal Moses”) were quickly labeled “the Jerry Falwells of the gay community” for challenging their contemporaries on their risky sexual behavior. The trio’s speaking out against homosexual promiscuity and advocating the use of condoms was regarded by many gay leaders as a betrayal of much of what the community had fought for up to that point. Gay activist-playwright Larry Kramer became one of their most vociferous opponents.


The film’s director, Daryl Wein, has spoken of what motivated him to make Sex Positive. “Both in government and the gay population, the widespread silence during the early years of the AIDS crisis is absolutely shocking,” Wein said. “People my age were not born of the era in which the crisis of AIDS forced behavioral change … I feel it is my duty to challenge the complacency of my generation by instilling the values of those forgotten heroes.”

The “behavioral change” of safe sex remains controversial in some LGBT circles today. The more recent proliferation of adult videos depicting unprotected, “bareback” sex can be regarded as a direct repudiation of safe-sex practices. As a result, we shouldn’t be surprised that HIV-infection rates among gay teens and young adults in the US nearly doubled between 2001 and 2006. Yet many sexually active adults remain committed to safe sex 25 years after the term was coined.


As the movie goes on, it focuses primarily on Berkowitz, who, along with Sonnabend, is still living (Callen died of AIDS-related complications in 1993). Berkowitz is a compelling, well-spoken subject, but Sex Positive grows increasingly one-sided in allowing him and his reflections to take center stage. I would have liked to hear and see more of Sonnabend and more about Callen. Perhaps because he isn’t around to assert himself, Callen and his significant contributions — educational, political and musical — end up being pushed to the side.

But Sex Positive is definitely worth seeing, if for no other reason than the filmmakers’ willingness to shine a spotlight on the unsung yet enduring achievement of Berkowitz, Callen and Sonnabend. After all, a lot of us literally owe our lives to them.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Out in Film: Arthur Laurents

Idol worship: Arthur Laurents, writer/director.

- His early days were spent writing for radio, but he found his calling in the theater. However, it wasn't until his third play — The Time of the Cuckoo — that he had a hit.

- Following that success, he penned the books for two legendary musical classics, West Side Story and Gypsy. He would go on to direct the latter twice on Broadway (in 1975 and 2008), receiving Tony Award nominations both times.

- He has won the Tony twice, for writing Hallelujah, Baby! and directing La Cage aux Folles. His other stage credits include I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Anyone Can Whistle, Nick & Nora and Do I Hear a Waltz?, the musical version of his Time of the Cuckoo.

- For the silver screen, he wrote the scripts for The Snake Pit (for which he was infamously denied screen credit by the Writers Guild of America), Rope (starring his then-lover Farley Granger), Anastasia, Bonjour Tristesse, The Way We Were and The Turning Point. For the latter, he was nominated for two Academy Awards, as both writer and co-producer.

- His work can currently be seen on Broadway with the much-anticipated bilingual revival of West Side Story, which officially opened last night. Of the new production, he has said, "This show will be radically different from any other production of West Side Story ever done."

Reverend’s Reviews: Finding Plenty in The New Twenty

Chris Mason Johnson’s feature debut The New Twenty made an impression last year on the LGBT film festival circuit. Happily, it is receiving a springtime theatrical release starting this Friday in NYC (the film is scheduled for a May 15 opening in LA). While it’s not a perfect movie, I am nonetheless always happy to see quality films receive wider distribution.

Playing not unlike an updated John Hughes movie from the mid-1980’s, The New Twenty largely fulfills co-writer (with Ishmael Chawla) and director Johnson’s stated intent to “depict gay/straight friendships that are free of the usual homosexual panic jokes and unrequited love conflicts that usually dominate the screen.” It focuses on a group of Manhattan-based friends reflecting on their lives’ accomplishments and failures as they near the age of 30, “the new 20” of the film’s title.


Two members of the group are gay men still searching for their ever-elusive Mr. Right. One of them, Ben (played by the endearing Colin Fickes), wears his heart on his sleeve and is prone to honesty even in Internet chat rooms. When a potential hook-up asks what he looks like, Ben accurately but hopefully replies, “Like Sam from Lord of the Rings.” Sadly, it doesn’t get him a positive reaction.

The other out member, Tony (Andrew Wei Lin), surprises even himself when he finds himself attracted to an older, HIV+ college professor (well-played by Bill Sage, who some will recognize from Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin). More accustomed to steam-room quickies, Tony starts to undergo a personal transformation that threatens to take him far from his longtime circle of friends.


While the film’s entire cast is good, Nicole Bilderback gives a breakout performance as Julie, Tony’s sister and fiancée to the aggressively upwardly-mobile Andrew (Ryan Locke). Bilderback won the Best Actress award at last summer’s Outfest in LA for The New Twenty. A veteran of such films as Clueless and Bring It On (in which she played the bitchy Whitney), Bilderback deserves a lead in a major studio film, and soon!

The most familiar and, subsequently, weakest character in The New Twenty is Felix, played by Thomas Sadoski. Felix is a heroin addict who brings to mind Robert Downey Jr.’s tragic junkie in the 1987 film Less Than Zero. It’s no fault of Sadoski’s that Felix is underdeveloped and comes across as hardly deserving of sympathy. Rather, we should blame either the screenplay or editors Todd Holmes and Adam Raponi.

This criticism aside, The New Twenty is the rare LGBT-themed film with truly universal appeal, especially among those who have reached or are about to reach the not-insignificant age of 30. I loved my 30’s, and I hope they do too!

UPDATE: The New Twenty is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Toon Talk: The Other Side of the Witch Mountain

As Disney remakes go, Race to Witch Mountain is no Flubber. What it is is aptly titled, as the action rarely stops in this fast-paced junior sci-fi romp. From its old school opening credits to its “let’s set up a sequel” conclusion, director Andy Fickman (The Game Plan) keeps the momentum going, lest you have a chance to scrutinize the plot too closely. The result is a whiz-bang throwback to the gee-whiz science fiction flicks of the pre-Star Wars 70’s, a perfectly timed spring break distraction for the PG-crowd too young to get in to Watchmen.

With a script by Matt Lopez and Mark Bomback (based, as was the original Escape to Witch Mountain, on the novel by Alexander Key), Race to Witch Mountain updates the familiar story to the present day and, cleverly, sets it in Las Vegas, where such set pieces as a UFO convention and the Area 51-ish title structure are naturally close at hand. Dwayne Johnson (the artist formerly known as “The Rock” and most recently known as “The Rock Obama”) plays Jack Bruno, a burly ex-con-turned-Sin City cab driver whose latest fare — a pair of tow-headed teens named Seth and Sara (The Seeker: The Dark is Rising’s Alexander Ludwig and Bridge to Terabithia’s AnnaSophia Robb) — drag him into the adventure of his life.


Following in the monotone footsteps of the original’s Tony and Tia, Seth and Sara are unlike any kids on Earth … fittingly, as they are actually from outer space. Empowered with X-Men-ish abilities like phasing, telekinesis and telepathy, the extra-terrestrial siblings have been sent to our planet by their unseen parents to retrieve crucial data that will save their world, as well as prevent ours from being destroyed by a nasty alien threat.

Seth and Sara’s mission is jeopardized on two fronts this go round; not only must they contend with a Terminator-like predator (or is that Predator-like terminator?) sent by their own planet’s corrupt military to stop them at whatever cost, they also must retrieve their crash-landed spaceship from the so-called Witch Mountain. Depicted as a craggy monolith in the Nevada desert, the titular peak hides a secret US government base where a squadron of Men in Black types have taken the psi-kids’ downed flying saucer. Needless to say, they are eager to get their hands (and scientific research equipment) on the ship’s crew as well ...

UPDATE: Race to Witch Mountain is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Race to Witch Mountain at LaughingPlace.com.

Natasha Richardson: 1963-2009

Tragic news to report: Natasha Richardson passed away today following injuries she received in a skiing accident this past Monday in Canada. She was 45 years old, and is survived by her husband Liam Neeson and their two sons, mother Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson, aunt Lynn Redgrave and uncle Corin Redgrave.

Richardson made her film debut at age four in The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father Tony Richardson. Her breakthrough roles were as Frankenstein author Mary Shelley in Gothic and as the notorious Patty Hearst, and her other notable screen performances include the films The Handmaid's Tale, The Comfort of Strangers, Nell (co-starring Neeson), The Parent Trap, Maid in Manhattan, The White Countess and Evening (co-starring her mother).

However, Richardson's greatest acclaim came from her work on the stage, including a Tony Award for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the acclaimed 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret; she had previously been nominated for her Anna Christie, and also received raves as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Following her father's death from AIDS complications in 1991, Richardson helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against the disease through the charity amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

Women We Love: Betty White

This is the second in a four-part Women We Love salute to The Golden Girls, now airing daily on the Hallmark Channel:

Object of our affection: Betty White, actress.

- Originally a model, she received her first Emmy nomination for her first sitcom, Life with Elizabeth. Also early in her career, she had her own talk show and co-starred as a US Senator in the film Advise & Consent.

- Known as the "First Lady of Game Shows", she has made many appearances on such popular puzzle programs as Password (hosted by her husband Allen Ludden), To Tell the Truth and Match Game. She was also the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award for hosting a game show with Just Men!

- Prior to that, she won two Primetime Emmys for her memorable performance of the man-chasing Sue Ann Nivens (a.k.a. The Happy Homemaker) on the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show. Following the end of MTM, she had her own self-titled sitcom and also co-starred on Mama's Family.

- However, her most famous role is as the ditzy but lovable St. Olaf native Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, which won her another Emmy out of a total of seven nominations (the only lead Girl to be so recognized every year the series was aired). She won yet another Emmy for guest starring on The John Larroquette Show, as well as similar nominations for Suddenly Susan, Yes, Dear and The Practice.

- She reprised her role of Rose in the short-lived spin-off The Golden Palace, and has since had regular or recurring roles on such series as That 70's Show, The Bold and the Beautiful and Boston Legal, as well as memorable guest spots on Ugly Betty and other shows. Her film appearances have also included Lake Placid, The Story of Us, Bringing Down the House and the upcoming The Proposal.

Reverend’s Reviews: Tokyo a-Go-Go

A family with a talented, potentially gay son is the focus of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata (now playing in NYC and opening March 27 in LA). Not to be confused with the current Tokyo!, this is the winner of the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is a drama with quirky comedic touches set in Japan’s largest city.

The film stars Teruyuki Kagawa (who is also in Tokyo!) as the suddenly unemployed head of the increasingly fragmented, contemporary Sasaki family. Unable to admit the loss of his job to his wife and two sons, he goes through the motions of dressing for work each day, only to spend his time at a local park populated by homeless people and other professionally-attired but jobless men.


The Sasakis’ youngest son, Kenji (Kai Inowaki), is a musical prodigy whose father refuses to let him take piano lessons. Kenji secretly begins doing so anyway, paying for them with his school lunch money. In his rebelliousness and refusal to let his father or anyone else limit his potential, Kenji may strike LGBT viewers as a gay youth on the verge of coming out. He is also excessively protective of his male best friend, further piquing my suspicions.

Extremely well-directed by Kurosawa — who is perhaps best known in the US for his odd but haunting 2002 film, Bright Future — Tokyo Sonata is well worth seeing and, at its musical climax, hearing.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Cinematic Crush: Maksim Chmerkovskiy

This is the second in an eight-part look at the Hunks of Reality TV:

Crush object: Maksim Chmerkovskiy, dancer/ choreographer.

- The "bad boy of the ballroom" originally hails from the Ukraine, where he began dancing at the age of four.

- A Latin Ballroom champion, he has choreographed performances all over the world, including the Le Reve water show at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

- But he is best known for his outspoken appearances on the American version of Dancing with the Stars, joining the hit show in its second season. His celebrity partners have included actress Tia Carrere, singer Willa Ford, boxer Laila Ali, Spice Girl Mel B and Olympian Misty May-Treanor.

- He can currently be seen dancing with actress Denise Richards on the current round of DWTS, where he is competing against his fiancée, fellow dance champ Karina Smirnoff.

- In addition to his high profile gig on DWTS, he owns three dance studios in the New York City area and is one of the creators and directors of Dance Team USA, a non-profit educational and charitable organization dedicated to recruiting and training future dancers.

Ron Silver: 1946-2009

Ron Silver, Tony Award-winning actor and outspoken political activist, died yesterday at the age of 65.

Silver, who won the Tony for playing a Hollywood producer in the original Broadway production of David Mamet's Speed the Plow, served as president of the Actors' Equity Association from 1991 to 2000. He also starred on the big screen in such films as Semi-Tough, Silkwood, Garbo Talks, Blue Steel, Enemies: A Love Story, Reversal of Fortune, Mr. Saturday Night, Timecop and Ali.

He received two Emmy nominations for his performances in The West Wing and the TV movie Billionaire Boys Club. His television work also included roles on the series Rhoda, Wiseguy, Chicago Hope and Veronica's Closet.

Out in Film: Divine

Idol worship: Divine, actor/singer.

- Born Harris Glenn Milstead, the man best known as Divine would become a legendary icon for all things camp, queer and outrageous through his starring roles in the films of his lifelong friend John Waters.

- As part of Waters' regular troupe of actors known as Dreamlanders, he appeared in the short films Roman Candles, The Diane Linkletter Story and Eat Your Makeup (as Jacqueline Kennedy no less) and was Waters' muse for such early features as Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs.

- The Dreamlanders found lasting cult status and made midnight movie history with Pink Flamingos (the trash classic that notoriously ended on an unedited shot of Divine's Babs Johnson snacking on some fresh doggie doo). Divine's other classic Waters characters include Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble, Francine Fishpaw in Polyester and Edna Turnblad in the original Hairspray.

- Outside of Dreamland, Divine starred in another camp classic, Lust in the Dust, as well as the Off-Broadway hit Women Behind Bars. He also had a successful recording career, which included such club dance classics as "You Think You're A Man", "I'm So Beautiful" and "Walk Like a Man".

- Following the mainstream success of Hairspray, Divine was to play Al Bundy's infamous mother-in-law on the sitcom Married ... with Children, but sadly passed away before filming began. However, the legacy of Divine has lived on in such documentaries as Divine Trash and The Cockettes, and even in such unlikely places as Disney's The Little Mermaid. Another documentary, I Am Divine, is currently in production.

From Screen to Stage: Priscilla, Mary, Toxie and More

Lots of news on the theater front this week, including the announcements of no less than six new projects making their way From Screen to Stage:

- That half dozen includes musical versions of Ghost (with music by Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, and Bruce Joel Rubin adapting his own Oscar winning screenplay), Heathers (from the creators of the mucalized Reefer Madness and Legally Blonde), My Man Godfrey (by Urinetown Tony winner Mark Hollmann), Sleepless in Seattle (with tunes by Academy Award-winner Leslie Bricusse) and The Thomas Crown Affair (courtesy of Michael Feinstein), as well as a non-musical stage adaptation of The Kite Runner.

- The absolutely fabulous Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical trekked all the way from Down Under to make its London debut this week prior to an official opening on March 24.

- The Catch Me If You Can musical (with a book by Terrence McNally and songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) is shaping up for its world premiere in Seattle this summer. The cast will include Norbert Leo Butz, Aaron Tveit, Tom Wopat and Kerry Butler in the roles created onscreen by (respectively) Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken and Amy Adams.

- Movie Dearest fave Cheyenne Jackson took to the cabaret stage at Feinstein's recently for two sold out shows. Broadway.com has an exclusive video of the event, and you can also catch Cheyenne's recent guest appearances on Life on Mars and Ugly Betty at ABC.com.


- The North American national tour of Disney's Mary Poppins, starring Broadway originals Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee as Mary and Bert, took its first flight in Chicago yesterday.

- The Toxic Avenger will invade Off-Broadway starting March 18. The cast recently took to the recording study for the upcoming cast album,which will include such toxic tunes as "It's a Brand New Day in New Jersey", "Kick Your Ass" and "Bitch Slut Liar Whore".

- Who knew Dr. Bailey could sing? Grey's Anatomy's MVP Chandra Wilson will trade in her scrubs for the glitz and glamour of Broadway's Chicago as Matron "Mama" Morton starting June 8.

- Hollywood's favorite musical go-to-gal will get her own biopic titled Uncredited — The Marni Nixon Story.


- The hit West End production of La Cage aux Folles (recently headlined by Graham Norton) won Olivier Awards for Best Musical Revival and Best Actor in a Musical for its original Zaza, Douglas Hodge.

- After running a contest to find a replacement lyric for their "For Now" finale, Avenue Q is sticking with "George Bush" after all. An alternative, "Prop 8", will be heard when the Tony Award-winning show tours (naturally) California.

- Xanadu heads for Asia, while Cubby Bernstein heads to DVD.

- And finally: Among the film projects now rumored for freshly Oscar'ed Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is the planned remake of My Fair Lady.

Reverend's Reviews: Extra Milk

Gus Van Sant's acclaimed, Oscar-winning Milk is now available on standard DVD and Blu-Rayfrom Universal Studios Home Entertainment. While the film's strengths shine through in Hi-Def, so do the film's scant — but not non-existent — weaknesses.

Chief among the deficits that become even more glaring in one's living room is the portrayal of Harvey Milk's high-strung lover, Jack Lira. While Diego Luna gives an at-times charming performance, the way Lira is presented ventures perilously close to caricature.

Among three deleted scenes included as a bonus on the Milk DVD is one (wisely cut) that shows Jack flying into yet another jealous rage. It shouldn't have been included in the bonuses either, as it reveals nothing aside from Luna's bare legs (which, it should be noted, are not unattractive).

The two other deleted scenes are more welcome. One that shouldn't have been cut from the final film is a late-night conversation between Harvey (the incomparable Sean Penn) and his lover, Scott Smith (a nice turn by James Franco). In it, Harvey reveals a recurring dream he's had wherein he is stalked by an unknown threat. He tells Scott, "I'm not going to make it to 50." This dialogue is referenced later in the film, but only now do viewers grasp the full significance of it.


The disc also features three documentaries, one about Harvey's life and impact and two about the making of the film and its re-creation of historical events and figures. These are all worth seeing and heighten one's appreciation of the filmmakers' efforts all the more.

Should you buy Milk on DVD or Blu-Ray? Absolutely! While this earnest docudrama hasn't had quite the cultural impact of, say, Brokeback Mountain, it is still an LGBT classic-in-the-making.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts: Wedding Belles

What’s worse than being outed in a public place? For Alex (Andrea Marcellus), the answer would be “telling her Southern family she’s dating an African-American Jew.” That’s the set-up for Out at the Wedding, director Lee Friedlander’s charming reverse take on The Wedding Banquet.

Alex has always been overshadowed by her obnoxious younger sister (Desi Lydic), and is so embarrassed of her family, she’s told her fiancé Dana (Mystro Clark) that her family is all dead. Of course, she still has to attend family get-togethers, but uses her gay best friend Jonathan (Charlie Schlatter) as a cover. While attending her sister Jeannie’s wedding, however, a misunderstanding leads to everyone thinking Alex is a lesbian.


When her family is shockingly supportive, Alex doesn’t correct them, leading to all sorts of craziness when Jeannie insists on coming to New York to visit. Alex hires sexy Risa (Cathy DeBuono) to play her lesbian lover “Dana,” but then Jeannie and Risa start getting very friendly. Throw in Dana’s parents, played to befuddled perfection by Reginald VelJohnson and the sublime Mink Stole, who Alex is desperate to keep from finding out she’s “gay,” and you have the makings of a funny and entertaining romp.

Schlatter, best remembered from Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke, seems to be channeling Paul Lynde, and his subplot about trying to trick his boyfriend into losing weight is suitably funny and ironic. Out at the Wedding is out on DVDafter a Valentine’s showing on Logo, and I think it makes a fun date film for everyone.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Women We Love: Beatrice Arthur

This is the first in a four-part Women We Love salute to The Golden Girls, now airing daily on the Hallmark Channel:

Object of our affection: Beatrice Arthur, actress.

- She began her illustrious career on the stage, originating the roles of Yente the Matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof and Vera Charles in Mame. She won a Tony Award for the latter and reprised her performance for the film version. More recently, she headlined her own one-woman, Tony Award nominated Broadway show, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends.

- Her other film appearances include Lovers and Other Strangers, History of the World: Part 1 and For Better or Worse.

- But she is best known for her work on television, starting with her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of the outspoken Maude Findlay on Maude, a spin-off of All in the Family. Her liberal feminist, known for her catch phrase "God will get you for that, Walter", was the first major primetime network TV character to have an abortion.

- In the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, she played the owner of the cantina and danced with Greedo. Following Maude's cancellation, she starred in the short-lived sitcom Amanda's, an Americanized version of England's Fawlty Towers.

- It was her next project that immortalized her even more in pop culture, as Dorothy Zbornak in the classic comedy The Golden Girls. Her trademark dry wit and slow burns earned her another Emmy, as well as several Golden Globe nominations. Dorothy also appeared in the Girls spin-offs Empty Nest and The Golden Palace.

Awards Watch: Saturn Nominations

As could be expected from a group called The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, The Dark Knight dominated their recently announced Saturn Award nominations, leading the pack with 11 nominations. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Iron Man also finished strongly, with 9 and 8 film nominations (respectively), while Lost dominated the television categories, also with 11 nominations.

What is not as expected is the ASFFHF's broad definition of genres; according to them, Clint Eastwood's Changeling and Gran Torino are thrillers and Slumdog Millionaire is a fantasy (as if that movie needs any more awards any way), among other head-scratchers. And while most would agree that The Happening is a horror film, even more would say it was just plain horrible; and yet, there it is, nominated for Best Horror Film.

The 35th Annual Saturn Awards will be presented June 25. For a quick look at all the film nominees, see the comments section below.

Toon Talk: When You Wish

Fresh off the overwhelming success of their first full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney and his staff of animators, writers, artists and composers set out to top themselves with their second film, Pinocchio. And they sure did, as the timeless tale of a little wooden puppet who yearns to be a real boy is generally regarded today as a masterpiece of the medium, one of (if not the) greatest achievements in animation ever put on film.

However, despite the stunningly detailed craftsmanship put into the alarmingly fast (just two years!) making of the picture (not to mention all the Dopey dough put to good use to finance the extravagant production), Pinocchio initially failed at the box office. The blame for this is usually placed on the decrease in foreign revenue due to the encroaching world war, but perhaps the film was ahead of its time, what with its decidedly dark tone and often-nightmarish imagery.


Nevertheless, through several theatrical re-releases and various home video incarnations, Pinocchio has not only become the hit it deserves to be, it has also been unanimously recognized as a cinematic classic. As recent as last year, it was named the second best animated film of all time by the American Film Institute (its immediate predecessor, Snow White, came in first place), in addition to similar honors from other film groups and publications over the years.

With its 70th birthday on the horizon (next year to be exact), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is celebrating with a 2-disc Platinum anniversary editionof Pinocchio, available today in both standard Disney DVD and high definition Disney Blu-ray versions. Richly appointed with all the state of the art bells and whistles the formats provide, these new releases offer a whole new reason to revisit the daring adventures of little woodenhead and company, especially the Blu-ray edition, with all the eye-popping clarity and crisp aural enhancements that high def provides. As Jiminy Cricket himself would say, “What they can’t do these days!”

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Pinocchio at LaughingPlace.com.

Reverend's Reviews: I Like Watching the Watchmen

Although I've had it on my shelf for several years, I only recently read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' acclaimed graphic novel, Watchmen, primarily in anticipation of the beleaguered production that just opened in movie theaters. Set in an alternate 1985 United States — a nation on the brink of nuclear war with the USSR, and with Richard Nixon enjoying his fifth term as president — Watchmen on the page and, now, on film serves as a fascinating deconstruction of the superhero literary genre.

I wasn't as familiar with or as enamored by the source material as some prior to the movie's premiere. Nevertheless, I saw the film's potential for disappointing Watchmen's "fanboys." If the movie eliminated or departed from too much of the graphic novel's storyline or treated it with more of a camp mentality, I figured all hell would break loose. Unlike some of those fanboys and fellow critics, I was very pleased by the film adaptation. While it traffics in some of the same philosophical and moral themes as last year's über-smash The Dark Knight, I believe Watchmen does so more successfully and with a much more interesting visual style.


Director Zack Snyder (300) was a wise choice to helm this expensive movie. He respects the graphic novel's core plot and characters while only making a few departures that improve the story. One example: the movie's ending, which is the most dramatic departure from the book. The script, by David Hayter and Alex Tse, utilizes the same basic scenario — millions of people are killed rather than billions would be in a nuclear holocaust. But the means is quite different in the graphic novel: the villain creates a giant squid with psychic abilities that kills everyone in NYC. To those unfamiliar with Watchmen, I assure you I'm not kidding! Needless to say, I prefer the movie version, which takes advantage of one of the heroes not unlike Batman in The Dark Knight.

Snyder has also cast the film exceptionally well. While Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) is a standout as the tortured vigilante Rorschach, Patrick Wilson (also of Little Children, as well as Angels in America) makes a strong impression as Dan Dreiberg, a.k.a. Nite Owl. Usually cast for his good looks but emotional blandness, Wilson has put on weight, glasses and a zest for the super- heroic life here that expands his image. He and Malin Akerman (as Silk Spectre) play the two Watchmen who most enjoy being superheroes, and they run with it.


The Comedian, whose murder the Watchmen plot pivots on, isn't as well developed on film as he was on the page, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan gives the character the requisite questionable morality. Matthew Goode (Match Point), as the ambitious Ozymandias, and a primarily-digitized Billy Crudup as the otherworldly Dr. Manhattan round out the cast well.

Between 300 and Watchmen, Snyder continues to reveal an unrivaled cinematic appreciation for the male form. Whether it be the loincloth-clad Spartans in his previous blockbuster or, here, the frequent but matter-of-fact nudity displayed by Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl, Snyder clearly isn't afraid to show men for all they are physically as a means of revealing their overall strength. This has led some to question Snyder's sexuality (he is reportedly a heterosexual, married father of six children), or to accuse him of baiting gay viewers with homoerotic imagery while seemingly condemning homosexual tendencies or behavior in other scenes of both 300 and Watchmen. I don't share their concerns.


Similarly, my fellow Movie Dearest Man on Film, Neil Cohen, and I have been debating all weekend whether Ozymandias is supposed to be gay. Despite Ozy's presence at a Studio 54 celebration and his occasionally mincing mannerisms, I didn't find much evidence of homosexuality, unless being brilliant and cultured equals gay. (On second thought ...)

Watchmen is long at nearly three hours and it brings the book's graphic violence to vivid life on screen. Thoughtful viewers, however, ought to find the movie intelligent, engrossing and often exciting entertainment, whether one is familiar with the source material or not.

UPDATE: Watchmen is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Cinematic Crush: Jesse James

This is the first in an eight-part look at the Hunks of Reality TV:

Crush object: Jesse James, television host.

- A former rock star bodyguard, he is the founder and CEO of West Coast Choppers, a Long Beach, California based custom motorcycle shop known for its celebrity clientele.

- Other business ventures of his include the Cisco Burger restaurant, the Chopperdogs fan club, the Jesse's Girl clothing line and Garage magazine.

- However, he is best known for hosting the popular Discovery Channel series Monster Garage, where he and his crew could be seen converting one unlikely vehicle into another (like a limousine into a fire engine or a Volkswagen Beetle into a swamp boat). It was through this show that he met his future wife, actress Sandra Bullock.

- He has also appeared on such other reality-based programs as Motorcycle Mania, History of the Chopper, Iraq Confidential with Jesse James and Green Scream, and is currently competing on the second celebrity edition of The Apprentice.

- And yes, he claims that he really is related to the "other" Jesse James.

First Look: Jake as Prince Dastan

Here's something to make you wake up on a Monday morning: the first official look at Jake Gyllenhaal as the title royal in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

That's the good news; the bad news is it doesn't open until May ... of next year.

Reel Thoughts: Come on Down to West Lahunga, Gonna Have Yourself a Time

Do you ever watch South Park and wish there was a more gay-friendly version? Q. Allan Brocka, the mad genius behind such gay faves as Eating Out and Boy Culture, has come to your rescue! His wildly successful short film Rick and Steve, The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World spawned a hilarious animated series that plays on Logo, the second season of which debuts on DVDthis Tuesday.

Using what look like Lego people (unlike any you’ve ever seen!), Brocka tells the stories of the residents of West Lahunga Beach, including brawny Steve and his brainy boyfriend Rick, their lesbian friends, Dana and Kirsten, their baby Dixie (created by either Rick or Steve’s ‘donation’), 50-year-old Chuck and his kept party-boyfriend Evan, and Condi Ling, West Lahunga’s resident fag hag (or “alternative lifestyle companion,” as she prefers to be called).


West Lahunga Beach is just as messed up and wrong as South Park, but infinitely funnier, because Brocka’s humor is much more intelligent and less scattershot. The way these innocent-looking play-toys tackle issues like gay-on-gay discrimination, family-led sabotage on gay relationships, dealing with a boyfriend’s ex-tricks, HIV issues, ageism and even the dreaded “Lesbian Bed Death” is incredibly smart, witty and wildly offensive.

That’s why great gay favorites like Wilson Cruz, Alan Cumming, Margaret Cho and Peter Paige have signed on to play regular characters, while Lorna Luft, Tori Spelling, Jennifer Coolidge, Alec Mapa, Mark Hamill, George Takei and Robert Gant are just some of the great guest talent.


It’s impossible to name a favorite episode, but when Luft, as Steve’s racist mom dumps her dog’s poop into Rick’s mom’s adobo on the stove, leading to the unbelievable “Mom Fight,” I about needed oxygen to recover. When the gang goes to San Francisco (only to discover that they’re not gay enough), of course Bruce Vilanch had to show up as San Francisco’s oldest living homosexual/decorator (also an outcast for being such a stereotype).

I haven’t been a huge fan of Logo, due to their merciless hacking-up of any movie I try to watch on TV, but Rick and Steve proves that all can be forgiven. I can’t wait to see who actually fathered Dana’s baby, and whether or not the roving gang of cats tries to kidnap the tyke again! Take a trip to West Lahunga Beach and see if you don’t fall in love ... and good luck getting that theme song out of your head!

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Legends of the FAIL, Take 7

I remember this little item ... Christmas 1982, Santa stuffed my stocking with it ...!!!

Reel Thoughts: Push It

I love Dakota Fanning. I love looking at (if not listening to) Chris Evans. I even enjoy films about disaffected young people with weird magical abilities. What I don’t enjoy is loud, violent comic books sprung to life on the screen, which is what Push is. It’s a terrible title for an equally terrible movie, about a telekinetic man and a telepathic girl battling shadowy government agents in the ugliest sections of Hong Kong.

Everyone wants to get their hands on a girl named Kira, played by Camilla Bell, because she is the first of these genetically-altered kids to survive an injection of some weird formula meant to boost their powers (and make them unstoppable human weapons). Bell is as vapid as she was in 10,000 B.C., so it’s hard to tell when she’s been brainwashed. She is a “pusher,” meaning someone who can put their thoughts and ideas into your head, but it’s hard to believe that she has any.


Meanwhile, Fanning wears multi-colored hair and a short skirt and cusses, and as usual, she’s as good as the material allows. Evans makes for a bland action hero, as does Djimon Hounsou as his nemesis.

The X-Men films have mined this material much better, and I found the Hong Kong locales chaotic and dreary. Push has the kind of story that just doesn’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny, since certain characters possess powers that easily could have eliminated the need for most of the conflicts in the film. If Push comes to shove, opt for seeing Fanning’s Coraline instead.

UPDATE: Push is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Out in Film: Leonard Bernstein

Idol worship: Leonard Bernstein, composer/conductor/ musician.

- Known as "one of the most prodigally talented and successful musicians in American history", he was one of the first conductors born and educated in the United States to receive worldwide acclaim.

- His many compositions include three symphonies, two operas, five musicals and numerous other pieces. He is also known for his long conducting relationship with the New York Philharmonic, which included the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series.

- He was the first classical music conductor to make numerous television appearances, putting a face to the art and making it accessible to millions of viewers. For this, he won five Emmy Awards out of 11 nominations. He also won 16 Grammys during his career, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980.

- In addition to the screen adaptations of his stage works, he is best known in the film world for his innovative score to On the Waterfront, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination.

- Today, he is arguably best known for his Tony Award-winning contributions to musical theater, namely such classics as On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide and the masterpiece West Side Story, which returns to Broadway next week in an eagerly awaited revival.

Reverend’s Reviews: A Little Dish from Fusion

Watchmen will be getting some competition this weekend in southern California, as Outfest presents its annual Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival. Now in its sixth year, Fusion claims to be “the only multi-racial, gender-inclusive film festival of its kind.”

While this year’s Fusion will include feature films, notably I Can’t Think Straight and the premiere of Pedro (previously reviewed here), many more short films will be screened. Movie Dearest’s friends at Rousso/Fisher PR were kind enough to send several of them for me to view in advance of the fest.


The best of the bunch is writer-director Brian Harris Krinsky’s Dish. The premise is deceptively simple: two gay teenagers spend their time texting each other about the usual teen pre-occupations: their classmates, self-image concerns, and sex. One of them, Louie (Jeff Martin), is older and sexually experienced while the other, 15-year old Israel (the refreshingly real Matthew Monge), is still a virgin.

Israel has more romantic — and hygienic — standards regarding sex, but temptation rears its head when he gets the opportunity to hang with his longtime-crush Ricky, whose parents are conveniently away from home. I won’t reveal what happens, but suffice to say that Dish packs more sexually-graphic dialogue, coming-of-age drama, wisdom and heart into 15 minutes than most two-hour movies do.

Also worthwhile is the very funny Queerer Than Thou, directed by Ramses Rodstein. A satirical take on gender and queer-identity politics, it’s thoroughly enjoyable despite the acting limitations of its seemingly non-professional cast.


More serious and hard-hitting is the opening night gala short The Young and Evil. Well-directed by Julian Breece, it follows a rebellious young black man, Karel (a brave performance by Vaughn Lowery), who is hell-bent on bottoming for unprotected sex with as many men as possible. At least he’s honest about his desire to become HIV+, since he confesses it to his suitably-shocked STD counselor.

Karel’s (death) wish may come true when he meets local — and infected — AIDS counselor Naaman (Mark Berry). Produced with support from The Brotherhood Crusade of Los Angeles, The Young and Evil will hopefully have the desired effect of curbing HIV infections among those who see it.


Also being shown as part of Fusion’s opening night gala is Dino Dinco’s El Abuelo. It is adapted from a performance piece by Texas-based poet Joe Jimenez, who also stars. A paean to mastering the art of ironing in order to attract the love of another man, Jimenez’s words and “homeboy” appearance certainly do hold one’s attention.

With only a three-minute running time, El Abuelo is arguably too short. But then maybe that’s Dinco’s and his fellow Fusion short-filmmakers’ intent: to leave the audience wanting more.

UPDATE: Dino Dinco discusses the making of El Abuelo in his director's diary.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reel Thoughts: Kudos for Coraline

It’s a good thing that Coraline didn’t come out the same year as WALL-E. Henry Selick’s weird and wonderful 3-D fable is a masterpiece of beauty and creepiness that almost wipes the awful memory of his Monkeybone from my mind.

Dakota Fanning voices the title character, a young girl who moves to a lovely old Victorian boarding house in Ashland, Oregon with her neglectful parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman). Her neighbors are a pair of former vaudeville stars, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink (Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders), and an odd circus acrobat named Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), who trains jumping mice. Coraline discovers a small doorway that leads to an alternate version of her parents who are much nicer to her.


Of course, anyone who’s read Hansel and Gretel knows that this new world can’t be as wonderful as it seems, and it isn’t just because everyone on that side of the doorway has buttons for eyes. With the help of a cool stray cat (Keith David), Coraline fights back against the evil creature in hopes of returning back to her “boring old life.”

The film echoes the Japanese film Spirited Away as well as Pan’s Labyrinth, two other films with similar plots filled with imaginative imagery, but Coraline is unique in the way it uses stop-motion animation to create its amazing visuals.


As much as I enjoyed Coraline, I found the character to be fairly bland and not very interesting, and I also wish that the ending had been more surprising and original. Still, especially in 3-D, Coraline is often breathtaking and far better than most children’s films out there.

Fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas won’t want to miss this latest hit by the same director. Like its predecessor, Coraline may be too intense for younger kids, but adults will definitely fall under its spell.

UPDATE: Coraline is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Horton Foote: 1916-2008

Horton Foote, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, passed away yesterday at the age of 92.

Foote won two Oscars (as well as Writers Guild of America awards) for his screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. He was nominated for a third for The Trip to Bountiful (based on his own play), for which he won the Independent Spirit Award. Foote's Pulitzer was for the drama The Young Man from Atlanta, which also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. He also won an Emmy for the television production Old Man.

Foote adapted his plays 1918, On Valentine's Day, Courtship and The Traveling Lady to the screen, the latter renamed as Baby the Rain Must Fall; he also penned the script for the 1992 version of Of Mice and Men. Foote's other stage productions include The Chase and Dividing the Estate.

Reverend’s Reviews: Turning Japanese

Three acclaimed international directors — Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leos Carax (The Lovers on the Bridge) and Bong Joon-ho (The Host) — have turned their eyes toward Tokyo! The resulting anthology film of that title opens this Friday in NYC, and across the country throughout March and April.

While none of the yarns spun here are overtly LGBT, there is much in these filmmakers’ sensibilities and the visual touches employed to please gay and lesbian as well as mainstream moviegoers. The first story, Gondry’s Interior Design, focuses on a young straight couple who arrive in Tokyo to try and make their fortune. The male, Akira (Ryo Kase), yearns to become a filmmaker and is pedaling his low-budget creation, which eventually debuts in a gay porn theater.


Akira’s girlfriend, Hiroko (a nice performance by Ayako Fujitani), on the other hand has a difficult time finding her purpose in the big city. Just when one begins to think the traditionally offbeat Gondry has fashioned his first exercise in cinematic realism, Hiroko undergoes a unique metamorphoses. Without giving things away, she reaches the point of being able to declare in the film’s climax, “I’ve never in all my life felt so useful.”

Merde, directed by Carax, reveals what happens when Tokyo, used to attacks by the likes of Godzilla and other giant monsters, finds itself under siege by a more unusual creature. The unkempt but human-appearing title character (whose name translates as “Shit” in English) emerges from his home in the sewers and launches a reign of terror that includes cigarette snatching, schoolgirl licking and grenade throwing. The population cowers in fear.


Eventually caught in his subterranean lair, where he prefers to hang out in the nude, Merde (played by Denis Lavant) is subjected to increasingly hysterical public scrutiny and escalating criminal charges. While the slight story goes on a bit too long, Carax’s film ends on a satisfying note.

The final and best film in the trilogy, Shaking Tokyo, is directed by the talented Joon-ho. A quirky romantic featurette, it depicts the plight of a hikikimori (shut-in) who falls in love with the uniquely-tattooed pizza delivery girl who passes out in his doorway during an earthquake.


Veteran Japanese actor Teruyuki Kagawa stars as the love-struck man who has to muster the courage to leave his apartment for the first time in ten years after his beloved unexpectedly stops delivering his daily pizza. Viewers of all stripes can identify with the necessity of overcoming one’s fears in order to be with the object of our desire.

Tokyo! is a unique and enjoyable celebration of modern life, no matter which city life takes place in.

UPDATE: Tokyo! is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Women We Love: Emily Blunt

Object of our affection: Emily Blunt, actress.

- She made her film debut in 2003's Boudica (a.k.a. Warrior Queen) and received raves that same year for her performance as Catherine Howard in the British mini-series Henry VIII.

- Her breakout role was as Tamsin in the lesbian-themed My Summer of Love, which won her and her co-star Nathalie Press a joint Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

- The following year, she won a Golden Globe for her performance in the dramatic TV movie Gideon's Daughter. But it was her scene-stealing role as the materialistic fashionista Emily in The Devil Wears Prada that has brought her the most acclaim to date, including another Globe nomination.

- Since, she has co-starred in The Jane Austen Book Club, Dan in Real Life and Charlie Wilson's War, and joins Amy Adams in the black comedy Sunshine Cleaning, opening next week.

- Her many upcoming films include the historical drama The Young Victoria (as Queen Victoria), the action comedy Wild Target, the horror remake The Wolf Man, an update of Gulliver's Travels, the animated romance Gnomeo and Juliet and possibly Iron Man 2 (as the sultry super spy Black Widow).

Reverend’s Reviews: Viva Pedro

Hot off his 2008 best original screenplay Oscar win for the acclaimed Milk, Dustin Lance Black isn’t letting the (gold) dust settle on his keyboard. A new film he’s written, Pedro, will premiere this week at LA's Outfest Fusion festival. But don’t worry that you’ll have to crash a film festival or drive to West Hollywood to see it: Pedro will be shown April 1 on all MTV television networks.

Black has teamed up with acclaimed out producers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (The Fluffer, Quinceañera) to bring this life story of Pedro Zamora to the screen. Zamora, as you will recall, was the first openly gay and openly HIV-positive cast member on MTV’s The Real World. One of thousands of “boat people” who fled Cuba as a child with half of his family in 1980, Zamora stunned his housemates and MTV viewers — and caught the attention of then-President Clinton and the international community — by speaking out about his condition.


Zamora learned he was HIV+ at the age of 17 and died in 1994 at the age of 22. In a mere five years, he became the face of AIDS to teenagers and young adults throughout the US. His good looks, charm and frankness made an immediate impression, and caused many gay young men (including myself, then in my mid-20’s) to think, “If it could happen to him, it could happen to me.”

Pedro, like Milk, employs a flashback device that starts at the beginning of the end of Zamora’s life. Found unconscious in his hotel room prior to a Real World taping, much of Pedro takes place around his hospital bed and, finally, Pedro’s deathbed in his family’s home. The result of this dramatic approach is that the film has a more disconcerting “waiting for the protagonist to die” feel to it than the more dynamic Milk does.

In between these grim scenes, however, viewers do get glimpses of Zamora (well-played as a teenager and adult by Alex Loynaz) in happier times: his childhood in Cuba and his teen years coming out in Florida; times spent with his loving mother and sister; getting married to his partner, Sean Sasser; and, of course, being cast in The Real World.

Those who watched The Real World at the time will likely recall one of Zamora’s other housemates and homophobic nemesis, Puck (reincarnated here by Matt Barr). Fortunately, Puck is dispatched fairly quickly in Pedro. The filmmakers wisely spend more time focusing on the ever-deepening friendship between Zamora and his straight roommate, Judd Winick (Hale Appleman), who wrote the moving memoir Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learnedfollowing Zamora’s untimely death.


In addition to being Black’s second produced screenplay, Pedro marks the feature debut of director Nick Oceano. Black and Oceano shine a more “warts & all” light on Zamora than Black did with Harvey Milk, which essentially canonized the assassinated San Francisco supervisor. I’m not complaining about that, but Pedro does feel a little more honest.

Despite its terminal-illness trappings, Pedro is well worth seeing. The film resurrects a brief but significant life, and reminds us of a time not too long ago when the risks associated with being openly gay and/or openly HIV+ were greater than they are today. We have Zamora, in part, to thank for the progress that’s been made in this regard.

UPDATE: Pedro is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Poster Post: Punch Hunk

Channing Tatum is set to mess up that beautiful face of his in Fighting, in theaters April 24.

Cinematic Crush: Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Crush object: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, actor.

- He made his screen debut in the feature film Uncaged, but he is best known for his many television appearances, beginning with the short-lived action series The Burning Zone.

- His roles in a trio of hit shows have made him a familiar face to fans: Judah Botwin on Weeds, John Winchester on Supernatural and Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy.

- As the doomed heart transplant patient in the latter, he fell in love with Katherine Heigl's Dr. Izzie Stevens, got a new ticker, died tragically, and then came back from the dead to woo her once more in this season's most controversial plotline.

- Back on the big screen, he has appeared in P.S. I Love You, Kabluey and The Accidental Husband and plays the stogie-chompin' Comedian in this week's Watchmen.

- The busy actor will next star in the mystery All Good Things, go gay in Taking Woodstock and take on the romantic thriller Shanghai.

Film Art: Manhattan Project

Dave Perillo's "retro propaganda style" design for Dr. Manhattan, who will be seen in (all) the blue flesh in this week's highly anticipated new release Watchmen.