Reverend's Interview: We Love You, Mommie Dearest

Where were you when you first watched Mommie Dearest? Acclaimed and reviled in equal measure upon its release, the movie has been a camp phenomenon in some segments of our LGBTQ+ community for over four decades now. Watching it has become a rite of passage for many.

My late, beloved grandmother Phyllis was a fan of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, and I fondly remember attending an opening weekend screening of the movie with her in September, 1981 (I was a mere 14 years old at the time). I recall we both thought it was well-done, even if a few over-the-top scenes strained credibility. But I also recall seeing a report on TV’s long-running Entertainment Tonight just a week or so later about how the movie was becoming a cult experience, with some male viewers dressing in drag as Joan and wielding wire coat hangers. If you’ve seen the film (and if you haven’t, you must watch it ASAP) you know what that’s all about.

Mommie Dearest was adapted from an infamous autobiography of the same title published in 1978 by Joan’s adopted daughter, Christina Crawford. Her mother had died a year earlier at the age of approximately 73 (Joan was notoriously cagey about how old she was) and had left Christina and her adopted brother, Christopher, out of her will. Christina subsequently felt compelled to write about her physically and emotionally abusive relationship with her late, Academy Award-winning mother.

A. Ashley Hoff

Her book became a bestseller but also tarnished Joan’s image, justifiably so. Now, a new book exploring this history is being published on May 7th. With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic, by A. Ashley Hoff, details the writing and selling of Christina's book and the aftermath of its publication as well as the filming of the motion picture, whose backstage drama almost surpassed what was viewed onscreen.

Hoff is also the author of Match Game 101: A Backstage History of Match Game and My Huckleberry Friend: Holly Golightly and the Untold History of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He previously worked for talent agencies in Chicago and Los Angeles, and has written articles on Hollywood for The Advocate and Films in Review. Hoff has also been interviewed about numerous pop culture subjects on various talk shows and podcasts.

During a recent phone conversation with Hoff, this writer asked him when and where he first saw Mommie Dearest.

“I had known of its reputation, but the first time I saw it I was in high school and it was on cable TV,” the author replied. “It was really cut up with some scenes missing, including the bathroom scene. I took it seriously, as a horror movie and not as camp.”

IRL: Christina and her "mommie dearest" Joan Crawford

He continued: “The first time I saw it on the big screen was at the Music Box Theater in Chicago in 1997 or ’98. They had a ‘Mother’s Day with Christina Crawford’ event. She was there, and it was kind of creepy watching this movie about her abuse knowing Christina was in the lobby. So, I went out and talked to her. We had a nice conversation.” Hoff subsequently kept in touch with Christina and excerpts from a 2021 interview he conducted with her are in his book.

Indeed, With Love, Mommie Dearest contains many interviews and anecdotes from people involved in the movie’s production. Readers will learn that, shortly after her book was published, Christina was approached by producer Frank Yablans for the movie rights. In addition to buying the rights, Yablans agreed to pay her to write a first draft of the screenplay. She did so but he did not use it.

“The sad part about Mommie Dearest was that I really wanted to make a film about child abuse and the manner in which child abuse can occur,” Yablans wrote in his later, unpublished memoir cited by Hoff. “Child abuse can also happen in extremely wealthy homes with extremely powerful people… That was what compelled me to make the movie, and it was well ahead of its time because today child abuse is a much bigger issue than it was in 1981.”

When the movie was released in US theaters on September 18th of that year, Christina Crawford was unable to enjoy its initially successful reception at the box office. She had suffered a massive stroke one month earlier and was given a one percent chance of survival. Thankfully, she recovered within a couple of months following risky surgery. Once again, Christina proved herself a survivor.

Faye Dunaway as Joan in Mommie Dearest

Both directors and lead actresses came and went during the film’s pre-production process. Ultimately, Academy Award-winner Faye Dunaway was cast as Joan. It is her performance that largely drives the movie’s reputation as a camp classic, and it negatively affected her career.

I asked Hoff more about this. “Does she give an over-the-top performance? Absolutely,” he replied. “Does she chew scenery? Absolutely. But she gives a truly operatic performance, which is what the director (Frank Perry) wanted. To be fair, she gives a phenomenal performance!”

Some agreed with this at the time: Dunaway placed second as Best Actress of 1981 with both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. But she also “won” the Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie, as Worst Actress of the Year for Mommie Dearest (to be fair, Dunaway actually tied with Bo Derek’s non-performance as Jane in Tarzan, the Ape Man.) Even today, some reputable critics including Leonard Maltin and yours truly admire the film for its groundbreaking depiction of child abuse.

“I recently showed the film to two friends of mine who had not seen it before and they were riveted by it as a serious depiction of abuse,” Hoff told me. “Their response was not what I expected. They did not see it as camp. And then I know some people who have watched the film hundreds of times and will always enjoy it as camp.”

Diana Scarwid as Christina in Mommie Dearest

So what makes Mommie Dearest so campy to some people, especially gay men? Well, the exaggerated moments in Dunaway’s performance are definitely one factor, and none more so than when she angrily crosses her eyes while her face is smothered kabuki-like in white cold cream. The screenplay also features some enjoyably harsh dialogue spoken by both mother and daughter Crawford that is undeniably fun to shout out with them.

In his book, Hoff quotes critic and Palm Springs resident Marc Huestis regarding the film’s popularity in the gay community to this day. “Gay guys have a thing for their mothers, let’s face it,” Huestis said. “I had a relationship with my mom, who was in show business as well, that was very much physically abusive like the one in Mommie Dearest; my mother actually did hit me with wire hangers… So just seeing that scene, the laughter was a release from the ghost of not only Joan Crawford but my own mother.”

Whether we love it, hate it and/or laugh at it, Mommie Dearest continues to stand the test of time for various reasons. I highly recommend reading A. Ashley Hoff’s new book for his detailed, insightful exploration of these… but not before you’ve trimmed your rose bushes in the middle of the night and/or bought stock in Pepsi Cola!

Author photo credit Atila Sikora.

Reviews by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: Guillermo Diaz is Here to Stay

Out actor Guillermo Diaz will be commanding movie screens this month as the star of You Can’t Stay Here. Directed by longtime, underground filmmaker Todd Verow (Frisk, Tumbledown, Goodbye Seventies), it will opens this week at theaters in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

The plot of You Can’t Stay Here was inspired by real events in early 1990’s New York City. The AIDS crisis hangs in the air and cops are targeting gay men in well-known cruising spots. This doesn’t stop aspiring art photographer Rick (Diaz) as he spends his days and nights cruising in Central Park. After he witnesses the murder of a gay man, though, Rick is drawn into a dangerous and sexy game of cat and mouse with the magnetic killer that leads him to question his own sanity.

Diaz is great in one of his few leading man roles to date, and it’s always good to see Verow back in action. The movie was actually shot in Central Park with the city’s permission. Verow wrote about the origins of his latest production for the film’s press notes.

“During the COVID pandemic, I heard that the Ramble (the notorious cruising area in New York’s Central Park that featured prominently in William Friedkin’s film Cruising) was jumping,” Verow recalls. “I went there to investigate and indeed it was full of queer people engaging in all sorts of intimate activity, not all of it sexual. Most of the cruisers were wearing masks, which only intensified the eye contact and intimacy.”

The filmmaker continued: “We had been locked down, curfew-ed, and burned out on Zoom sex and the harsh coldness of Grindr, Scruff and other hookup apps. We needed physical contact... or at least proximity... with other human beings. This got me thinking about cruising and cruising places around the world. These are sacred spaces and, no matter how the police or governments try to beat them back, they will always be cruising areas.”

During this time, Guillermo Diaz was in New York City working on a TV series. He contacted Verow saying he was a fan of his work and wanted to make a film with him. Verow was also a fan of Diaz’s work, especially his portrayal of La Miranda in the 1995 film Stonewall, and messaged him back immediately. They got together for lunch and Verow told Diaz about his recent experiences in the Ramble and how he wanted to make a film about cruising there. Diaz liked the idea.

The screenplay for You Can’t Stay Here was written by Verow and his writing partner, James Derek Dwyer. “I wanted the film to take place in the early 90’s, before social media and smart phones and during the height of the HIV/ AIDS crisis, when homophobia, both external and internalized, ran rampant,” Verow shared. “The script is loosely inspired by real events during that time but also on the timelessness of cruising and the otherworldliness of the Ramble itself. Real life cruisers rarely, if ever, speak. Everything is conveyed through their eyes. Guillermo’s eyes convey so much; I could photograph them all day.”

In addition to his early, star-making turn in Stonewall, many viewers know Diaz as Huck from his many seasons on the ABC hit series Scandal. He is also recognizable from such movies as Bros, Half Baked, Party Girl, High School High and Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal. In addition to his feature film credits, he is well-known from Showtime’s award-winning series Weeds (where he played the role of Guillermo, coincidentally/appropriately enough) and NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime. He can also be seen with Britney Spears in her video "I Wanna Go" and in Beyonce and Jay Z's video "Run" alongside Sean Penn and Jake Gyllenhaal. Diaz made his directorial debut with the documentary short film Valley of the Undocumented, which was produced by Russell Simmons and Mark Zuckerberg for Immigrant Heritage Month. Born and raised in NYC’s Washington Heights, he currently resides in Los Angeles.

Diaz recently sat down to speak with me about You Can’t Stay Here and other aspects of his impressive, 30-year career. (Note: This interview has been edited for length and/or clarity.)

CC: Congrats on the movie! It’s good to see you front and center in the whole movie.
GD: Thanks. Yeah, it was nice.

CC: You really got this project rolling. What led you to seek out and work with Todd Verow when you did?
GD: I had booked a recurring role on a show so that brought me to New York for a year, year and a half. Because it was recurring I would work two days a week, sometimes one day a week, and I was like “Oh my god, I’m going crazy.” It was a procedural show and it wasn’t very challenging creatively, and so I started to think “Who do I want to work with? Who’s out there, like an indie director that excites me and I would want to collaborate with?” And I thought of Todd. I followed him on Instagram so I thought “I’m just going to message him. Why not? It’s 2023, right?” (laugh) So I sent him a DM and told him that I was a fan of his work and I would love to work with him. I’m also a huge horror film fan so I told him I would love to do something in the horror-thriller genre and would he be into it? He was, so we met up and the ball started rolling from there.

CC: That’s great. Are you happy with the finished film?
GD: I am, I am. It’s a classic Todd Verow-style movie. I knew he was a guerilla filmmaker. The way he works is very guerilla style with very few takes, and so when I saw it I was like “Ok, this is a true Verow film.” It was kind of exciting because I believe it was the first time that Todd worked with SAG actors and dealt with the union, if I’m not mistaken, so I was able to bring in actors that I love and wanted to work with. It was really exciting and collaborative, which I loved.

CC: How have audiences been responding to the film?
GD: It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s OK. You want everybody to love your movie, but everybody walks away from it wanting to have a conversation and having questions, wanting to understand certain things. That’s good, people always wanting to talk about it. That’s definitely a plus.

CC: In what ways are you like your character, Rick? And in what ways are you different?
GD: I’m like him in so many ways. I grew up in New York City, I’m Latino. I was in my 20’s in the 90’s and I experienced meeting guys through cruising on the street or in a park or what have you. It’s not like now. I think this generation and the previous generation don’t really know what that’s like, so in that sense I’m a lot like (Rick). I lived that experience, not to the extent that Rick in the movie does. I was very much in the closet as well so that was a similarity. Some of the stuff that happens to my character in the film were experiences that either I had or Todd had. The ways that I’m not like him? I feel like I would have not gotten caught by the character people are now calling “The Vampire.” I feel like savvy Guillermo in the 90’s would have been like “What if I punched him in the face and ran?” (laugh) In the film, Rick gets sort of infatuated by him. He’s frightened by him but at the same time infatuated by him. I feel like I wouldn’t have been that way if I was in that situation, but who knows?

CC: You came out publicly in 2011, according to Wikipedia, which was still pretty rare for a well-known actor at the time. What was the reaction like?
GD: I’m so bad with years but I think it was before 2011. I came out in a magazine called Genre in like the late 90’s. It was when I did Stonewall. My management team told me “You’re going to be asked non-stop if you’re gay once you start doing press, so you’ve gotta figure out if you’re gonna be honest or if you’re gonna be in the closet and say you’re not.” But I was like, “Nope, I’m not lying.” I was 27 when I officially came out to my parents, which was the hardest to do. I had already been out to my friends and I had a boyfriend at the time.

CC: Are there any challenges or obstacles today for out, gay or LGBTQ actors, in your experience?
GD: Honestly, I can only speak for myself and from my experience but if there have been obstacles I haven’t been privy to them. I move forward and do my work and audition for a ton of stuff. Some I get, some I don’t. I honestly try not to think about that. I’m sure there have been some projects that have come up that possibly the producer or director or someone finds out I’m gay and they’re like “Nah, we’re not gonna work with him.” But again, I’m not privy to that so it’s not my problem, it’s their problem. I’ve experienced no problems, no push-back really. I’ve been super fortunate. I think what’s been good for me is that I haven’t kept (being gay) a mystery. I’ve been able to say “This is me, take it or leave it.”

CC: Good for you. What’s your advice for any young LGBTQ actors who want to make it in the industry?
GD: Quit acting right now and go do something else! (laugh) It is such a hard, difficult business to be in. If your heart isn’t in it 150,000% you should stop doing it and think about something else. Truly, like seriously, I’m only in this business and became an actor because I knew in my heart and my soul that I was gonna make it no matter what, and I never had any doubt. Regardless of all the rejection from auditions, which is a normal thing. But it’s difficult and again my advice is if you don’t want this a million thousand percent then go figure out something else, because that’s what it takes. And sleep with as many producers as you can. (laugh) I’m joking!

CC: Well, on that note: What are you working on now? What do we have to look forward to?
GD: (Laugh) I just directed — oh my god, it’s already been about two years — but I directed my first feature film, so now I’m in the post-production process. It’s a movie called Dear Luke, Love Me that a friend of mine, Mallie McCown, wrote. It’s sort of a dysfunctional relationship drama. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We raised all the money ourselves through a Kickstarter campaign, shot the movie for like a month, and then we did the editing and now we’re in the post-production process. We’re starting to submit it to festivals and stuff so hopefully I’m going to be doing the festival thing for a little while, fingers crossed. And then Todd and I are talking about doing another movie together which, knowing how Todd works, that’s probably going to be the first movie that comes out. He works so fast. You’ll be interviewing us for that movie like in a month. (laugh)

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interviews: Strangers No More

Suppose you suddenly feel inspired to visit your childhood home, as we sometimes do as adults. Once there, you greet your loving parents and hang out with them a while. There’s just one thing amiss: your parents have been dead for the last 30 years.

Such is the unusual scenario in which central character Adam finds himself in the new, gay-interest drama All of Us Strangers. The film is scheduled for theatrical release beginning December 22nd by Searchlight Pictures. Loosely based on Taichi Yamada’s horror-leaning 1987 novel Strangers, it was written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Haigh.

As adapted by Haigh, All of Us Strangers is set in contemporary London. Adam (played by out actor Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter one night with a mysterious neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal, an Oscar nominee earlier this year for Aftersun). This punctures the rhythm of the reclusive Adam’s everyday life. As a romantic relationship develops between him and Harry, Adam becomes preoccupied with memories of the past. He eventually finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up and the childhood home where, to his surprise, his parents are still living. Mum and Dad also happen to look just as they did on the Christmas Eve they both died three decades earlier. Adam and his parents (super)naturally begin to catch up on their lost time.

Out filmmaker Andrew Haigh previously wrote and directed three award-winning feature films: Lean on Pete (2017), 45 Years (2015) and the explicitly gay Weekend (2011). He was also executive producer and lead writer-director on the popular HBO series Looking (2014-2016).

Recalls Haigh, “What I loved about the novel (Strangers) was its central conceit: What if you met your parents again long after they were gone, only now they’re the same age as you? It seemed such an emotional way to explore the nature of family. That became my starting point.” But he placed the story in a world more recognizable to his/our own. “Adapting the book was a long and sometimes painful process,” Haigh admits. “I wanted to pick away at my own past as Adam does in the film. I was interested in exploring the complexities of both familial and romantic love, but also the distinct experience of a specific generation of gay people growing up in the 1980s. I wanted to move away from the traditional ghost story of the novel and find something more psychological, almost metaphysical.”

Author Yamada and his family were respectful of Haigh’s vision, which changed the central character of the story to a gay man, and gave their blessing to make the film. The project then attracted the extraordinary acting quartet that is Andrew Scott (perhaps best known in the US as “Sexy Priest” from the Amazon series Fleabag), Paul Mescal (also acclaimed — and frequently naked — in the Hulu series Normal People), the ever-adorable Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool) and the lovely Claire Foy (Women Talking, The Crown).

After watching All of Us Strangers, I was struck by not only how moving the story is but how delicate it is in terms of cinematic structure. I’ve rarely if ever used the word delicate to describe a movie, but it certainly fits here. This became a topic of conversation when I was privileged last month to interview several of the artists involved in making the film: director of photography Jamie D. Ramsay, SASC; editor Jonathan Alberts, ACE; and composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch. The following are excerpts from my Zoom conversations with these amazing technicians.

Ramsay is a South African/British Director of photography. He is known for his cinematography on the breakthrough, gay-themed South African film Moffie. He next helmed the period drama Mothering Sunday and then re-connected with Moffie director Oliver Hermanus to make the Academy Award- nominated Living.

CC: It’s nice to meet you! I want to say congratulations to you for your excellent work on this film but also Moffie and Living. They’re all great films and well-shot. What drew you to this particular project or this story?
JDR: You know, when you look at a project that you’re going to be spending your life force on and your time that you’ll never get back, this beautiful life we live, you need to pick it correctly. You look at the filmmakers involved and you look at the script itself and the project as a whole in regards to cast and everything that’s involved, and within that you develop your idea of the film. I think with this movie first and foremost was to work with Andrew Haigh, something I’ve always wanted to do, and then the blessing of such an incredible script that I couldn’t put down when I started reading it. It resonated with me on such a deep emotional level.

CC: Comparing this and Moffie, another gay-themed story, would you say your approach differed or varied between the two stories in any way?
JDR: The big difference for me between this film and Moffie is that Moffie is a story about unrequited love because of how homosexuality was deemed as a sin in the 80’s in South Africa. This movie that we’ve made, All of Us Strangers, is not that. It’s a love story. It’s not a gay movie, it’s a love story. It transcends being a gay film beautifully. You don’t watch the love scenes and think “it’s a gay love scene.” You watch a love scene, and this is a love story about forgiveness: about self-forgiveness, about the cathartic process of letting go of trauma, and for me that’s the big difference.

CC: Great, thanks for clarifying that. When it comes to your photography and filming All of Us Strangers, what were some of the factors or conditions that guided your choices?
JDR: First and foremost, Andrew and I wanted to make a movie that represented the concept of nostalgia, that represented the concept of being locked in a place in your life where your best memories were 15 or 20 years before. For us to embody visually this idea of memory and nostalgia was very important to us. It was very important to create a very subjective journey, a subjective experience of loneliness from the inside out. The camera always needs to feel as if it was the unseen friend in the room rather than an objective camera telling the story. All of our conversations were really about feeling, about the metamorphosis of the journey and what feeling we wanted to embody as filmmakers, and how best to do that very subtly from a visual perspective.

CC: I spoke with Emilie the composer and the editor, Jonathan, earlier and that word subtle came up with both of them. And also I described the film as being very delicate, a very delicate story and a very delicate film. It seems as if one factor — if the photography had been too dark or too bright, or if the music had been too loud or too frantic — the whole thing could have fallen apart. It’s just a perfect balance that you all found in that delicacy. Do you have any thoughts about that?
JDR: Thank you. Yeah, you know while you were saying that I was just thinking about how delicate our existence on this planet is. We have this human experience on this world but we ultimately are made from stardust; we are carbon atoms that have this soul within us. The fact that we breathe and we think and we love and we hate is just such a delicate holding together of things, and can be unseated so quickly by an accident or by a sickness or by this or that. But in (life’s) delicateness there’s a robustness as well that drives us and a tenacity that drives us, and ultimately it’s the pursuit of love. Love is the thing that generates us forward and that’s the glue, isn’t it? This movie, for me, is really about finding that love and finding it for yourself. And that’s what I’ve got to say about that. (laughs)

Jonathan Alberts, the movie’s editor, is an alum of McGill University and the American Film Institute. His previous films include Wristcutters: A Love Story and Like Crazy, Andrew Haigh’s previous films 45 Years and Lean on Pete, and Alan Ball’s Uncle Frank.

CC: Congratulations on not just this film but all your work that you’ve done with Andrew. It’s really significant and impactful, and you obviously work well together. Maybe first and foremost, some of my readers might not know exactly what an editor does, so can you say maybe just generally what the role of the editor is or what is your approach to editing a film?
JA: Sure. You know, I think a lot of people think that editing is about continuity, it’s about making things match, and there is an aspect of that but truth is I don’t think editing is anything about that. Editing is about how to tell the best story. The first thing that you put together is not what you end up with. As an editor, you’re thinking about “how do we tell this in the best way possible” using all the variables that you have with filmmaking, which is cinematography, performance, sound design, music. Those variables provide endless permutations, so as an editor I’m taking all those things together and I’m trying to understand how best to tell that story.

CC: In terms of this particular film or this story, did you do anything different in terms of approach? Did it challenge you or call you to do something different or reflect on the approach differently than other films?
JA: I think in some ways. So, every film presents a different set of problems. With (All of Us Strangers), it’s not just a straightforward drama. It has a supernatural element, it has this fantastic fantasy side, and I think we had to really think about the tone in terms of “how was this tone going to work.” It could have gone horribly wrong in a lot of different ways. We spent about a year editing the film and it was a long time of really experimenting, of really trying to understand what the film was. I mean, you know by the script what the story is about but all of the variables that I was talking about before change. It’s a different kind of alchemy that comes to the actor’s performances and the dialogue, so as an editor you’re often thinking about that.

CC: This is a very delicate film, and that’s not a word that I’ve typically used to describe a movie, but I think it’s very true. And I think the same is true of the editing. I really think there is a delicate quality to your work that really makes the story come alive. Do you have any thoughts about that?
JA: It’s interesting because as an editor, you know, before the music composer is on board you’re building a whole temporary soundtrack for the film, so I would talk to the director about what we want it to sound like. He would send me a playlist and I would take that playlist and start building another playlist and send it to him, and it was an interesting kind of thing. You spend a lot of time as an editor thinking and feeling “let’s try this piece,” and there was a crazy number of soundtracks I’m pulling from thinking “maybe this will work.” And then the composer comes on board and starts listening to this music you’ve put on it and they end up taking all of that off. (laughs) For this film, it was delicate. It’s such an intimate film and the music was a really hard thing to nail. I think Emilie did a great job, and we had many many conversations. She was so open and so inviting about trying different things. She had all these different ideas and she was so patient about finding the sound, but she found it and I think the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and perfect for the film.

Speaking of, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch is an award-winning composer and artist living in London. She scored last year’s Oscar-nominated Living, starring Bill Nighy. Her previous credits include The Forgotten Battle and The Strays, both for Netflix, and MGM’s Censor.

CC: Hi Emilie! Thanks for your time and thanks for your score on this film. It’s a lovely, delicate film. What drew you to this project or story in the first place?
EL: I saw an edit of the film before coming on board and I think I had a reaction that’s pretty similar to everybody. It kind of hit me like a ton of bricks and made me cry. I was also very impressed by how you can create a story that’s so specific but also touches on themes that are so fundamental to every human being’s experience. I just thought that was so impressive, and done in a way that was so subtle and with humor at times and yet so bold. As you say, it’s colliding so many different little elements and yet it works as a whole. But mainly it made me cry and I wanted to be part of it.

CC: I know you’re relatively new to composing for film but you have some impressive credits under your belt. How did you approach composing for this film and how was it different from or similar to other projects?
EL: An approach I have to a lot of the films I work on is, generally, I have to become emotionally really close to one of the characters. I really try to understand them because all of my music comes from a place of emotional truth, so I need to be able to feel what the character is feeling. And then I know that the music I am going to write from that place is going to be truthful for the character and truthful to the story. In All of Us Strangers, it was just really connecting with Adam, which was not hard for me because I love Andrew Scott’s performance. It’s just so subtle and all in the details. And then the next step is thinking more intellectually about what are we trying to do with the score, how the score should work. There was conversation with the director and editor about warmth, there was conversation about the nature of memory, and a more technical aspect was how are we going to use the score in order to gel a complex timeline and various genres into something that feels like a whole.

CC: Wow, that’s a fascinating process. Did I detect a love theme for Adam and Harry? I kind of heard bits and pieces but I wasn’t absolutely positive.
EL: That’s well spotted! Because of this idea of fragments that we had, because of the nature of memory and things like that, it was quite important to keep it really short. We have a few fragments; three different, very short melodies. The love one is at the very start of the film, when (Adam and Harry) are in bed having that long conversation, and at the very end of the film is the main moment when it comes back. They are very, very subtle and hard to grasp. It felt like if we had melodies that were very romantic and very hummable it would not be right for the film.

All of Us Strangers will have a limited release starting this Friday, December 22nd.

Reviews by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend’s Interview: Now Saving the Universe: Captain Faggotron!

The world is one big hot mess right now. Wars, pandemics, government dysfunction, natural disasters and increased animosity toward the LGBTQ+ community are taking a toll. We could use a hero, but Superman, Flash Gordon and Wonder Woman are apparently otherwise occupied. Who can we turn to in our time of need???

Enter the fantastic Captain Faggotron! The brainchild of filmmaker Harvey Rabbit, this new superhero for our community will be making his home video debut on November 21st courtesy of TLA Releasing. A low-budget but big-hearted and very creative movie, it wowed audiences earlier this year at numerous LGBTQ+ film festivals worldwide.

Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe is a campy comedy-fantasy about internalized homophobia, the tyranny of the closet, and fear of a gay planet. It was conceived by Rabbit as a direct (though admittedly absurd) response to multiple situations: the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the persecution of homosexuality in Chechnya, Russia; the election of President Donald Trump in the USA; and the violence that unfortunately follows gay and queer people of all genders throughout our lives.

When Father Gaylord, a closeted Catholic priest living in Germany, loses his precious ring, he is forced to turn to Captain Faggotron for help. It turns out that the missing ring is no ordinary piece of jewelry. It is the mystical Ring of Oberon, which has the power to turn the entire population of Earth gay. Whereas Fr. Gaylord is horrified at this prospect, his nemesis/sometimes lover Queen Bitch excitedly declares “Soon, the world will be flooded with homosexuals!” Cue the maniacal laughter.

This movie truly has something for everyone: religion, furries, men used as footrests, sex demons, animated sequences, MAGA hats, full-frontal nudity, a song about Grindr and — naturally, in light of its German setting — sausages. The title character even gets his own theme song and a dance number! As Queen Bitch queries Fr. Gaylord at one point, “Why be normal when you can be extraordinarily fabulous?”

According to the film’s website: “Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe follows a tradition deeply rooted in gay/queer history and our ability to survive. Confronting ‘straight’ and heteronormative structures, camp exposes absurdities of the mainstream in a way that allows us to laugh. Humor is a weapon, and camp is a tool of joyful resistance.”

Harvey Rabbit, the film’s writer-director, is a transgender artist living in Berlin, Germany. He has a Master’s degree in dramaturgy and a Master of Fine Arts in Experimental Theater, both from New College of California. A campaigner for LGBTQIA* and sex worker rights, his activism dates back to the mid-1990’s. Using spoken word as his medium, Rabbit stormed the stages of Northern California, speaking about feminism, queerness and empowerment.

From 2013 to 2015, he produced, curated and hosted Varieté Ridiculous, a political cabaret in Berlin focusing on sex worker rights. Rabbit’s first short film, Slowdance, premiered at the 2016 Berlin Porn Film Festival and has been shown in queer film festivals in many parts of Europe, South and Central America, and the USA. In 2017, he produced We are the Fucking World, a short film for Erika Lust. Rabbit’s most recent work, The Chemo Darkroom (2018), was selected for the shorts competition in the
Berlin Porn Film Festival, Berlin Feminist Film Week, IKFF Hamburg, and the 2019 Hacker Porn Film Festival in Rome. Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe is his first feature film.

The spirited filmmaker recently spoke with me via Zoom from his home in Berlin.

Harvey Rabbit

CC: Hi Harvey! Congratulations on making such a unique, creative film. What has been the response to it so far?
HR: Well, we just won an award! Bishop Black (who plays Queen Bitch) won the Iris Prize in Cardiff, Wales for Best Non-Binary Performance. Mostly, people are loving this film. We’ve played both LGBTQ and international film festivals. Heterosexuals are loving this film and I didn’t make it for them! I’m here to convert people. (laugh) I don’t mince words.

CC: How and when did you first conceive the story?
HR: After the Pulse shooting in 2016 in Orlando, Florida. I went into a state of shock and didn’t want to leave my apartment. Then one day, the first 12 pages of the script just kind of came out of me.

CC: This is your first feature film, correct? What were some of the challenges you faced?
HR: Yes. It’s a 72-minute film and the entirety of our budget was 20,000 Euro (approximately $21,200 US). We also had two COVID lockdowns in Germany that postponed everything. We shot basically every weekend from July through the end of October, 2020.

CC: Wow, it sounds like a true labor of love.
HR: No, it was a labor of compulsion. (laugh) I had to do this movie!

CC: Your movie has a fabulous queer cast! Did you use a formal casting process, or just cast friends or people you knew?
HR: The roles of Captain Faggotron and Queen Bitch were written specifically for the actors, Tchivett and Bishop Black. If they had said no, I couldn’t have done it. I knew Rodrigo Garcia Alves (who plays Fr. Gaylord) from the community and bumped into him on the street one day. He’s from Brazil and I thought, “Hmm, he could play the priest.” (laugh) For other roles we had auditions and readings, and everyone did it for no money. Everyone involved was gay, trans or queer, with the exception of a cis-ish member of the core creative team.

CC: Talk to me about the religious content in the movie. Are you or were you Catholic?
HR: I’m Jewish. This is not my baggage. (laugh) I really don’t know where Fr. Gaylord came from. I knew someone Catholic who thought of becoming a priest but he was really closeted. My best friend as a teenager was Catholic. We were really bad. I would spend Saturday nights at her house and we would sneak out to go party. We would get back early Sunday morning and I would sometimes go to church with her family, like two hours later. I liked the music but was not religious so hated being there. I wish a Catholic priest would come out publicly. “Just come out,” as Harvey Milk said. My movie is a fantasia on religious and gay themes but I would love it if it inspired more openness.

CC: That would be awesome. What’s next for you?
HR: I’m looking for funding to write my new script, Cancer Made Me Trans. It also has comedy and fantasy elements like Captain Faggotron, and I’ll leave it at that.

CC: I can’t wait! Well, I wish you the best and much continued success.
HR: Thank you so much!

For more information about the movie, visit TLA Releasing.

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: San Diego Film Fest Exposes a Hidden Master

October brings not only Fall décor, cooler temperatures, and tricks (ahem) as well as treats to Southern California but also two major Southern California film festivals. Tales representing our international LGBTQ+ community will be spotlighted during both.

The 22nd annual San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) will run from October 18th-22nd. Produced by the San Diego Film Foundation, screenings of more than 100 feature and short films will take place in the Festival Village at AMC UTC 14 at Westfield Plaza. Other events include film panels, VIP lounges, receptions, and impromptu meet ups with filmmakers. Passes and tickets can be purchased at sdfilmfest.com or by calling 619-818-2221.

Among the program’s LGBTQ+ offerings will be the San Diego premiere of Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes on Sunday, October 22nd. Lynes (1907-1955) began his career photographing celebrities, and it's those portraits along with his extravagant fashion work that he's best remembered for today. As this documentary reveals, however, Lynes' heart, passion and greatest talent lay elsewhere: his work with the male nude. This work, sensuous and radically explicit for its time, has only recently begun being fully discovered and appreciated for the revolution that it represents.

Directed by longtime art director turned filmmaker Sam Shahid, Hidden Master features a stunning collection of long-hidden photography from the 1930s-50s. Shahid literally exposes the life of Lynes less- known: his gifted eye for the male form, his long-term friendships with Gertrude Stein and Alfred Kinsey, and his lasting influence as one of the first openly-gay American artists.

According to the director, “George Platt Lynes was an artist endowed with an almost endless well of creative gifts. However, because of the restrictions – social, moral, artistic, legal – imposed upon him by the era in which he lived and created, he was unable to share his true talent with the public and, of equal import, future generations of artists who may have built upon and furthered his contributions to his genre. He was an artist who was never able to share what he considered to be his very best work, and more importantly what he considered his true craft.”

Sam Shahid has been leaving his mark on the world of fashion and advertising for four decades and counting. When he became the creative director for the in-house advertising agency for Calvin Klein in the early 1980s, he helped to turn the brand into the internationally recognized name it remains today with advertising campaigns that are remembered for their clean yet sensational visuals. In the early 1990s he did the same for Banana Republic before opening up his own creative design firm and advertising agency, Shahid & Company, in 1993.

Sam Shahid

In the years since, Shahid has created original and striking campaigns for brands as divergent as Versace, Perry Ellis, Gucci, Valentino, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He was also the Creative Director of Interview magazine, and he’s designed a library’s worth of fine art books for artists and photographers such as Bruce Weber, Kelly Klein, Herb Ritts, Joel Grey and Jessica Lange, amongst others. Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes marks Shahid’s feature directorial debut.

The energetic, affable director recently took time out of his busy schedule to speak with me:

CC: Congratulations on a great documentary and thank you for taking time to speak with me! How and/or when were you first introduced to Lynes’ work?
SS: I’d known his work for a while but I didn’t know about his life. All of us in the fashion world knew of his work, but I was asked to design a book about him in 2010 and thought “You know, there should be a film about this man! The world needs to know about him.”

CC: What made you decide to make him the subject of your first feature film?
SS: He was so brave. But it is so sad that he destroyed so much of his work. When I told people I was making a film about him, they said to me “Well, good luck.” We weren’t sure we would find enough info to make a feature film. He had so much courage to keep those male nudes because it was illegal at the time.

CC: How long did it take to develop or create?
SS: Since 2012. The project became like a client (laughs). It took 10 years to make it, mainly because it took so long to track down people who knew (Lynes) who were still alive. They’re all dead now except Don Bachardy. Then we lost two years due to COVID, of course, but I did read about 300 letters (that Lynes wrote) during that first summer of the shutdown.

CC: Someone in the film refers to Lynes as a “cross-pollinator,” which I like. Would you say this continues today?
SS: Oh yes, definitely. He was at the center of that art circle of the time which has continued to inspire artists. Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts were all influenced by George.

CC: You could say you’ve been pollinated by him yourself.
SS: (Laughs) Yes, you can.

CC: Has Lynes’ work directly inspired your career as an art director at Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch, or as a filmmaker?
SS: No, because I really didn’t know about his work beforehand. He did influence many artists I’ve work with though, including Bruce Weber and Don Bachardy.

CC: What do you hope viewers will take from Hidden Master?
SS: I hope the film will generate enough interest to mount a major exhibition of his work. That’s mentioned in the film by the Kinsey Institute representative as their hope as well. I didn’t want the film to come across as a competition between Robert Mapplethorpe and George Platt Lynes. The biggest surprise in the film is the final footage of George and writer Christopher Isherwood.

You know what’s exciting? The film has been selected to play the Lebanese Independent Film Festival (LIFF) in Beirut. George will soon be known in the Middle East! Isn’t that amazing?

The 24th annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) will be held just prior to SDIFF, from October 12th-19th at various Orange County locations. Tickets are on sale now at NewportBeachFilmFest.com. A number of LGBTQ+ feature films as well as short films will be screened. Among these are:

FEATURE FILMS:

Asog: A tragicomic road film that follows a non-binary Filipino comedian pursuing their dream of becoming a pageant Queen. By day, Rey teaches high school students and by night they perform at bars as a proudly gay comedian named Jaya. En route to a pageant on a neighboring island, Jaya encounters a series of people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 100% of the cast members are Filipinos who survived Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm every recorded at landfall.

 

Egghead & Twinkie: After coming out to her parents, 17-year-old Twinkie takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead. As they make their way across the country, Egghead wrestles with his unrequited feelings for Twinkie, while Twinkie learns to embrace her identity as a gay mixed-Asian woman.

 

 

The Mattachine Family: Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love. But after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family. The movie is co-produced by actor-director Zach Braff.

 

 

 

SHORT FILMS:

• (In)convenience
• Alive & Well
• Blue Square Heart
• Boundaries
• Friends/Aikane
• Get Up the Nerve
• I Thought the Earth Remembered Me
• Lambing
• Mud Queen
• Face to Face/Tête à tête
• The External-Internal Monologue of an Interdependent Insomniac
• West of Frank
• Zenaida

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Preview: FIlmOut San Diego - Glitter and Doom and Big Boys, oh my!

Summer may be winding down but it will hardly mark the end of big LGBTQ events. FilmOut San Diego’s 23rd Annual LGBTQ Film Festival is just around the corner. It will take place from September 7th–10th, 2023, at various locations including the San Diego Natural History Museum (THE NAT) and the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA). Both venues are located in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park.

Award-winning films from the Sundance, SXSW and Berlin Film Festivals along with independent features and a variety of short films, will be featured. FilmOut San Diego “annually affirms the ongoing integrity and boundless imagination of our community and the artists who tell our stories. The Board of Directors believes its work is an integral part of an ongoing effort to build a vibrant, affirming and sustainable LGBTQ community in San Diego County.”

FilmOut SD 2023 will kick off at 7:00 pm on Thursday, September 7th with the gay-themed musical romance Glitter & Doom. It was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Tom Gustafson, who previously helmed fellow musicals Were the World Mine, Hello Again and Mariachi Gringo. His latest is set to songs by the iconic Indigo Girls and follows two guys who fall in love while trying to make it in the music biz. The star-studded supporting cast includes Ming-Na Wen, Missi Pyle, Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Drag Race alum Peppermint, Broadway star Beth Malone, and the Indigo Girls themselves! The Opening Night screening will be followed by a fabulous party at THE NAT.

Other major screenings confirmed for the fest are:

Men’s Centerpiece: Shoulder Dance
Best friends Ira and Roger haven't seen each other in 24 years. When Roger arrives unexpectedly for the weekend, long-suppressed desires dangerously resurface. As the boundaries of friendship, love, and sex collide, the strength of Ira's long-term relationship with Josh is tested as never before. This sexy, provocative film stars TV alums Matt Dallas (Kyle XY) and Rick Cosnett (the conflicted Eddie Thawne on The Flash).

Women’s Centerpiece: Silver Haze
Fifteen years after she got burned when the pub she slept in as a child caught fire, Franky (now 23 and a nurse) seeks revenge because she still hasn't found any answers. Things get more complicated when she falls in love with one of her patients. Of note, Vicky Knight, who plays Franky, is a nurse in real life and this is her second film. The scars on her body are real, the result of a fire in her home when she was 8 years old. A powerful, potent tale by Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak.

Festival Spotlight: The Mattachine Family
A timely and moving film by Andy and Danny Vallentine. Longtime couple Thomas and Oscar are very much in love. However, after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find that they have different ideas about what making a family actually means.

International Spotlight: Three Nights a Week
Baptiste is in a relationship with cisgender female Samia when he first meets Cookie Kunty, a young drag queen from the Parisian scene who immediately mesmerizes him. This French drama is a must-see in light of all the current anti-drag sentiment in our good ol’ US of A.

Closing Night Film: Golden Delicious
When gay, basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, straight-seeming Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention. An enjoyable coming-of-age story for the iPhone/TikTok age by director Jason Karman.

A Closing Night Dessert Reception will be held at MOPA on September 10th from 7:15 pm to 10:30 pm. Throughout the festival, several filmmakers and other talent plan to attend the festival and participate in audience Q&A’s after their respective films’ screenings.

I want to recommend at least two other movies I’ve seen that will be screened during the FilmOut SD weekend. One is the lovely Lie With Me, adapted from the award-winning French novel by Philippe Besson. (Incidentally but interestingly, the English-language version of the book was translated by none other than beloved 1980’s “Brat Pack” actress Molly Ringwald!) Upon agreeing to be the brand ambassador for a famous cognac celebrating their bicentennial, gay novelist Stéphane returns to his hometown for the first time in many years. Once there, he meets young Lucas, who turns out to be his first love's son. Memories come rushing back to Stéphane: irrepressible attraction, bodies becoming one in the heat of desire, a passion that can never be revealed...until now.

Another standout is Big Boys, which relates the story of a precocious, 14-year old aspiring chef named Jamie (a terrific performance by relative newcomer Isaac Krasner). His dream camping trip is ruined before it even begins when he finds out that his beloved cousin Allie is bringing her new boyfriend, Dan. However, Jamie’s initial jealousy of the competent and confident Dan quickly turns into a “bromance” as they bond over cooking, games and both being “big boys.” As the weekend progresses, despite Jamie’s brother’s attempts to set him up with a girl staying at the campsite, all Jamie wants to do is hang out with Dan. As his burgeoning crush gets him into awkward scrapes and arguments, Jamie begins to come to terms with who he is… and who he desires.

Big Boys was written and directed by Corey Sherman, a 29-year old filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He grew up in Riverdale, a neighborhood in the north Bronx, just within New York City limits. Sherman later majored in Film & Television Production at the University of Southern California. He started making comedy short films when he was eight years old, and continues making them to this day. A long-time lover of animation, Sherman branched out from live action in college and created an animated web series titled Billiams, which was well-received online and led to a partnership with Matt Maiellaro, the creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He achieved a life-long dream when he wrote, directed, edited, and voiced a character on several episodes of Maiellaro's animated Adult Swim show, 12 Oz. Mouse. Sherman is also passionate about non-fiction filmmaking and recently edited Lawrence Kasdan’s documentary short, Last Week at Ed’s, which won the Audience Award for Best Marquee Feature at the 2019 Austin Film Festival.

Corey Sherman

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with the talented young Sherman via Zoom:

CC: Big Boys is such a sensitive, unique coming of age story. What was its genesis?
CS: It was an idea that had been playing around in my head, to center a story on an unrequited crush. Those were really formative for me when I was growing up and coming to terms with my sexuality. There were a lot of guys I liked but none of them were interested in me because they were straight, they were older, they were just inaccessible in some ways. But they still had an impact on me because they taught me about what I liked, and they taught me the courage to be honest about how I was feeling. They were also my first experiences of letting myself get really excited about another guy, and going to that place emotionally — which was a really big step for me, to even allow myself to entertain the idea — so there was all this change happening internally. I wanted to make a movie that centered around that sort of turning point for someone like me.

CC: Wow, that’s really powerful. So what led you to decide on casting a larger-than-usual body type or protagonist?
CS: We were specifically looking for kids of that size because that’s who I was when I was a kid and it’s still who I am now. It’s something that we haven’t seen a lot of in movies before, where a character like that is allowed to take center stage and have a romantic plot. For them to be these three-dimensional characters that aren’t just like the friend or the total butt of a joke, and for the movie to respect their size and also respect that they have a personality that exists totally outside of their size. It was also important for him to be attracted to a bigger guy and not some thinner or more attractive twink, which is often the case in movies.

CC: Isaac Krasner gives a very impressive performance for a teenager! How did you cast him?
CS: Working with a really great casting director, Kristi Lugo. We put out a national casting call and Isaac was the first person we saw. He was remarkable. We wanted to showcase the experience of a chubby teen going through this life-altering experience and allow him to be a fully-developed, nuanced character instead of a stereotype. Isaac totally invested himself in the process and he brought really good ideas and perspective as a 14-year old. Lugo also helped us bring on top talent like Emily Deschanel (who plays Jamie’s mother), in addition to many other incredible actors who gave the performances in the film a lived-in specificity and authenticity.

CC: And how about the casting process for Dan, played by hunky David Johnson III?
CS: That took a lot longer (than casting Jamie/Isaac). Dan was the last role we cast. It took time to find the right combination of warmth and strength, but David really embodied both better than anyone else we saw. Dan is large but confident in his body, and over the course of the film teaches Jamie that there is nothing to be ashamed of about being a big guy. Even though it is often presented as solely a women’s issue, body shaming affects everyone. Young people of all genders are susceptible to body image issues, particularly now when there is an endless well of images to compare ourselves to online. We need more male role models of body positivity like Dan and Jamie to encourage viewers to stop comparing themselves to others and embrace their bodies no matter the size.

CC: What have been some of the responses to your film? Have any of them particularly surprised or moved you?
CS: I’ve been really touched by people, all kinds of people, telling me how personal the movie is to them. It’s clearly gotten an emotional reaction from people and they’re really moved. The story is accessible and universal. We made a film about a young man’s unrequited crush to shed light on this extremely common yet under-examined aspect of queer life. In most romantic stories, the object of the protagonist’s love eventually returns their affection. However, for many queer people like myself, growing up was full of unrequited crushes on straight or closeted peers. Yearning for someone we couldn’t have was frustrating enough, but not seeing any exploration of that experience in the media made it feel like a lonely failure. However, these experiences are extremely common and can be profoundly impactful. We figure out how to make peace with not getting everything we want. We learn to put ourselves out there and be honest even in the face of imminent rejection. Fortunately, these experiences aren’t always complete downers. Like any other love story, they are full of funny, thrilling, and tender moments. We hope that all viewers who can relate but have never seen their story on screen before Big Boys may feel more celebrated and understood.

Sherman will be in attendance at the Big Boys screening. For complete festival ticket info, screening updates, sponsorships and volunteer information, please visit FilmOutSanDiego.com. One can also follow the event on Facebook at FilmOut San Diego or on Instagram/Twitter at @FilmOutSD.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: Altered Perceptions Reveals the Naked Truth

What would you do if you were gay, a global pandemic was raging, and you were freaking out over the future of humanity? Well, you probably don’t have to think too hard since that was our real-life situation just a couple of years ago! Now, we have a movie that reflects the LGBTQ+ community’s lingering concerns.

Altered Perceptions, by veteran indie filmmaker Jorge Ameer (Sabor Tropical, Oasis, The Family Tree), will be having its world premiere at this month’s Cannes Film Festival. It will subsequently screen as the Opening Night event of the Marina del Rey Film Festival on June 8th.

In this contemporary psychological thriller, the United States is on the brink of a potential Civil War. Things further deteriorate when the perceptions of many seemingly normal people begin to change dramatically, causing alterations in reality and behaviors that cannot be explained medically. Suicides, homicides and mass murders begin to increase at an alarming rate. A renowned neurologist and his team begin to unravel what appears to be the root of these behaviors: rapid aging of the brain. It is unclear how it’s being spread.

Oran Stainbrook as Alex in Altered Perceptions

Politicians and others on the conservative fringe begin to falsely claim this disease is affecting only LGBTQ and African-American individuals who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. This misinformation quickly becomes a hot political issue with some calling for these groups of people to be rounded up, quarantined and exterminated. Suddenly, a man who claims to be from the future arrives to convince the neurologist’s gay son, Alex, that his father is key to finding the answer to this plague. But is it too late for this mysterious — and intriguingly unclothed — man to help us save ourselves?

Altered Perceptions turns out to be a timely, sexy, sci-fi mind-bender featuring a strong cast that includes Oscar nominees Eric Roberts and Sally Kirkland. It is director Ameer's most ambitious and provocative film to date. Interestingly, the screenplay was written by an actual clinical neuropsychologist, Wayne Dees.

The movie also stars a talented young actor, Oran Stainbrook, making his feature film debut as Alex. This writer recently interviewed Stainbrook via email. Note: Some of his responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.

CC: You make quite an impression in Altered Perceptions, which I understand is your first feature or starring role. How did you get recruited/cast?
OS: So, I impulsively moved to Los Angeles for the first time in summer of 2021 without any semblance of a plan, a job, or a place to live. I had about $1,000 to my name and lived out of my old, beat-up ‘98 Jeep Cherokee for the first few weeks, until I found a cheap room to rent in a fairly run-down house in a not-so-great neighborhood right next to the freeway in East Hollywood. I didn’t have an agent or any idea of how to get an agent, so I started self-submitting to everything I could find on sites like Actors Access and Casting Networks.

When Jorge Ameer asked to meet in person regarding my self-tape for his film, I assumed it was a routine callback. I arrived to our meeting and it was just the two of us; no waiting room full of guys that looked like me, no casting director or cameras. Jorge simply offered me the role and I thought for sure I was being scammed or pranked. I’d been in town less than six months, it all seemed too good to be true. Now, here we are on the other side of making this film and honestly I’m still pinching myself!

CC: What was the experience of making this unique, intense film like for you?
OS: It was a peak life experience for sure. I couldn’t have imagined a better opportunity; my biggest childhood dream being realized, with such an original script, in such awesome company. I had an absolute blast. I did feel like a bit of an impostor and put a lot of pressure on myself, which led to some anxiety. But Jorge and Dr. Wayne Dees could not have been more supportive and encouraging. Jorge’s excitement about the film and his confidence in me really helped me to chill out, enjoy the experience, and settle into a mental place from which I could give my best performance. Getting to work with so many Hollywood legends and up-and-coming talents was also very educational and inspiring. I absorbed so much just being on set and observing everyone else.

Part of what makes the film so original and interesting is the fact that it’s made by a bunch of outsiders. Wayne is the farthest thing from a Hollywood screenwriter; he’s a neuropsychologist from Texas! He wrote the script from his real life knowledge, based on a lifetime of experience studying the brain and practicing psychology. Then, the film is directed by a self-made filmmaker from Panama! Jorge’s own journey as a filmmaker is really inspiring. He came to Hollywood from Panama with nothing but dreams, grit and determination, and built himself a career over the course of decades without any special favors or connections.

CC: Do I understand correctly that your "day job" in Utah is primarily architecture or real estate? What do you do when you aren't acting?
OS: Yeah, sort of a combination of the two I guess, and at the same time neither? My degree is in architecture but most of my work experience is as a self-employed designer-builder. After finishing school in Portland, Oregon, I cut my teeth in the Bay Area as a freelancer designing and building chicken coops, garden sheds, tiny houses, that sort of thing. I also spent some time working with Habitat for Humanity doing neighborhood revitalization and home repairs.

Oran Stainbrook

Then, in 2018, I realized my other childhood dream and - again, somewhat impulsively - bought a dilapidated old building in a tiny, rural mountain town in the central Utah desert. This 10,000 square-foot, 115 year-old general store building was originally the social and economic center of a now nearly-defunct former coal mining camp. I’ve been renovating this place (with occasional help from my partner, friends, and family) since then with a vision of establishing a creative retreat. I have a variety of spaces here now available for short or long term rent. All are welcome to come spend some time here at “The Store.”

CC: How did your upbringing prepare you, if at all, to help tell an unusual story like Altered Perceptions?
OS: Like most people, I loved playing make-believe when I was a kid. I loved creating and inhabiting my own worlds of fantasy. That spirit of playfulness and freedom of self-expression is something I have protected and nurtured my whole life. It led to me doing a lot of theatre in school, and eventually writing short stories and making short films with friends. I did abandon all that sort of stuff while I was in university, due to the time constraints and financial pressures of working my way through school and all the time I spent exploring other interests: art, architecture and gardening, primarily. In the end, I’m glad I spent a solid 15 years away from acting pursuits because coming back to it in my mid 30’s has been a really joyful process of re-discovery.

I’m grateful for having had a really well-rounded life experience so far. I think great art -- whether comedy, acting, or architecture -- is often informed by a unique combination of life experiences had by the artist. Having a theatre background actually heavily informed my approach to architecture in school. I always thought of buildings and spaces as theatrical experiences. Experiencing architecture makes you both the viewer and the star of the show. Architecture tells you a story, and allows you to inhabit that story in the first person.

CC: You play a gay character, Alex Feretti, and there is plenty of other LGBTQ content in the film. How did your personal sexual orientation or experience inform your performance?
OS: So, I grew up Mormon and was taught from a very young age that homosexuality was wrong, was a sin, and something you would burn in hell for eternity for practicing. Coming to terms with my own complicated sexuality and witnessing some of my friends do the same was one of the biggest weights that “broke my shelf,” as we “ex-mos” like to say. Finding my way out of Mormonism -- a years-long process from about age 15-20 -- was an intellectual journey that just completely shattered my whole model of reality and forced me to build a new one from scratch. It was incredibly disturbing to uncover the truth about the Mormon church’s connection to gay conversion therapy practices, and see first-hand how the religion’s oppressive ideology led to an epidemic of LGBTQ youth being rejected by their families and communities, sometimes being made homeless and/or leading to substance abuse, addiction and suicide.

Needless to say, I feel extremely protective of the LGBTQ community in the face of all this, which made getting into character pretty effortless. Alex is extremely conflicted about working for a politician whose values are not in alignment with his own but does the job believing that, if he can work his way up to a place of influence, he can make positive change within the system. Alex is highly motivated in his mission because his father and step-father are the only family he has. His love for them is what gives him the strength to ultimately do what is necessary in the face of evil.

CC: What was it like working with the very hot and perpetually-naked Joseph DeMatteo (who plays the film’s visitor from the future)?
OS: Joseph is indeed very hot and very naked in the film. You’d be surprised how sweet and endearing the man underneath all that muscle is! I think it’s generally rude to gawk and ogle people’s bodies, so I tried not to stare. But just being in the presence of that man’s physique was, umm… some kind of spiritual awakening? Definitely inspired me to get into the gym myself more. All that sexiness aside, I really like Joseph and enjoyed our time together.

Joseph DeMatteo in Altered Perceptions

CC: Jorge and Wayne tell a very serious story in Altered Perceptions, one which seems to grow more timely every day in the USA. What positive/constructive message(s) or meaning(s) do you hope viewers will take away from the film?
OS: Aside from being entertaining and thought-provoking, this film is very timely considering the stakes of the upcoming US elections and some of the cultural issues being battled over in this country and the world. I think the themes of the film will resonate widely. At first, they might seem like a horrifying what-if scenario but afterwards you get a “oh wait, this is already happening” kind of gut-punch feeling.

I hope viewers walk away from this film feeling more keenly aware of the consequences of what happens when we all lose our minds as a result of giving in to fear. The current paradigm of for-profit media companies and news networks is designed to encourage fear, hate and division. There is a kind of rabid insanity that has taken over both the left and right ends of the political/ideological spectrum, encouraging extremism that shames and shuns dissenters, moderates and free-thinkers into silence and compliance. Psychopaths and bullies on both sides are being allowed to control the narrative and dominate everyone else.

We need a profound shift of perspective and values. I like the phrase “the future is non-binary” because it applies to a number of things. Obviously, gender identity and sexual practice is part of it but so too is political ideology. Look to nature for the design solutions. We should strive for complexity and diversity; real diversity of thought, opinion, and self-expression. I say reject the two party system. Reject division. Reject group-think. Be original. Be a free-thinker. Be a revolutionary. That is what will make humanity as a whole resilient to evil and allow us to thrive going into what could be a truly awesome and beautiful future.

CC: Anything else you would like my readers to know about you and/or the film?
OS: Thank you guys so much for featuring me and the film. It’s quite an honor. I’m proud of my own and everyone else’s work on this film, and stoked to see it go out into the world and take on a life of its own. It is having its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and should have a lengthy festival circuit showing after that. We’re also very honored that it was selected as the Opening Night film of the Marina del Rey Film Festival. So you can catch me and Jorge and much of the other cast and crew there on June 8th at 7:30pm at the Cinemark 18 in the Howard Hughes shopping center.

With the film industry being so saturated with formulaic blockbusters and re-boots, original indie films like this ought to be supported and celebrated! At the end of the day, it’s a work of art and art is meant to make you feel something and get you talking with other people about it. Altered Perceptions is sure to do both of those things.

For more information, visit the official websites for Altered Perceptions and/or the Mariana del Rey Film Festival.

Reviews by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.