Reverend's Reviews: New International Films of GLBT Interest

Summer is traditionally a time for travel, both domestic and international. If you aren't able to get away this year, a number of new GLBT theatrical and DVD releases from different countries may yet provide a perfect, armchair travel escape.

Men for Sale is an eye-opening, hard-hitting documentary set for DVD release on August 31 by Breaking Glass Pictures. Respected filmmaker Rodrigue Jean spent a year following 11 male sex workers in Montreal, Canada. Through candid interviews with his subjects, Jean exposes a uniform, vicious cycle of childhood neglect or abuse, drug addiction and prostitution. Some of the men started having sex for money when they were as young as 12, usually after they started abusing drugs.

The revelations in Men for Sale become repetitious within a lengthy 145-minute running time, but this serves to underscore the tragic trap in which these men are caught. Although most are in their 20's and identify as heterosexual, one is a 40-something gay man who starred in several porn films starting when he was 16. The majority of self-professed straight subjects bolster their masculinity on-camera by saying they refuse to engage in anal intercourse. However, one of them tells Jean bluntly that this simply isn't true. The film makes clear that when the need for a drug high to ease the pain of a sad childhood is desperate enough, moral and/or physical taboos are easily shed.

Also of note is one sex worker's observation of his numerous political clients. "The guys who pass laws against us (re: prostitution/solicitation and homosexuality)," he says, "are the ones who come looking for us at night." Even in more liberal Canada, sexual hypocrisy is alive and well.

If you're looking for something more upbeat on your cinematic world tour, Spinnin', now available on DVD, is a thoroughly enjoyable dramedy from Spain. The film won the award for Best Feature Film at the Barcelona Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival. It opens with the love-at-first-sight meeting of two men, Garate and Omar (played, respectively, by the very attractive Alejandro Tous and Olav Fernandez), and recounts their subsequent efforts to find a surrogate mother so they can father a child.

The process doesn't go as easily as the couple had hoped, but they gain important insights and new friends in the process. While stylized and erratically edited, Spinnin' is a rainbow-hued movie that also takes on such wide-ranging subjects as Star Wars, soccer, HIV/AIDS and God's homosexuality (!). It is very well-directed and -written by the obviously talented Eusebio Pastrana, who has been described as a "rising auteur." I also found inspiring the numerous moments of physical (not necessarily sexual, although it has that too) and emotional intimacy in the film between even those characters who don't know each other well.

Finally, I would feel remiss if I didn't mention Brazil's From Beginning to End (Do Comeco ao Fim), even though it isn't yet scheduled for release in the US due to its controversial plot. Shown during the just-completed Outfest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Los Angeles, it is the romantic, sexy, crowd-pleasing, heart-warming love story of two brothers in love ... with each other!

Ok, the film's protagonists, Francisco and Thomas, are technically half-brothers but they share the same mother and were raised together. Their unusual closeness is noticed by their mother and Francisco's father while the boys are still young, but the parents assume it is a natural phase they will grow out of in time.

Following their beloved mother's death, however, the grown (and gorgeous) Thomas and Francisco feel "liberated" and their formerly chaste, brotherly love becomes sexual. Over time, they even exchange wedding rings! As one of them declares, "To understand our love they'd have to turn the world upside down."

Their relationship is tested, though, when Thomas is accepted as a member of Brazil's Olympics swim team, requiring him to go to Russia for three years' worth of training. Left behind and lonely, Francisco gets close to a woman. Will the brothers decide to live more "normal" lives? I'm not going to give things away. Suffice to say that the movie's writer-director, Aluizio Abranches, isn't afraid to go where few have ventured outside of exploitive porn/fetish films.

Most viewers will find the moral implications of the brothers' romance challenging, but it is hard to criticize their sincere love for one another or the desire to express it physically. Moving and thought-provoking, keep your eyes open for From Beginning to End when planning your next international movie experience.

UPDATE: From Beginning to End is 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.

Patrik's Day

The acclaimed Swedish gay family comedy Patrik Age 1.5 opens this Friday for an exclusive one-week engagement at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles.

Sven (Torkel Petersson) and Goran (Gustaf Skarsgård) are a legally married gay couple who relocate to a suburban village to fulfill their dream of adopting a child. In the face of disapproval from their neighbors, the happy couple forges ahead through a rigorous and daunting approval process. Just when all hopes seem dashed, news comes of an available child: Patrik, Age 1.5. The couple prepare excitedly for the arrival of their one-and-a-half-year-old baby boy, unaware that a decimal mistake was made on the paperwork. When Patrik (Thomas Ljungman) shows up, he is in fact fifteen, criminally delinquent ... and homophobic. Instead of the happy family they had envisioned, the couple must find a way to navigate through the challenges of housing a troubled and troubling youth.

From Regency Releasing, this hilarious and heartfelt comedy-drama was directed and written by Ella Lemhagen and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and later was Centerpiece Film at Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, where it won the Best Feature Film Audience Award.

Reverend's Reviews: For the Bis

With the Outfest Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival just concluding one of its best events in recent years, it was nonetheless clear yet again that the "B" in GLBT too often gets short shrift. This isn't festival programmers' faults since few bisexual-themed films are currently being made, according to a panelist who spoke after the North American premiere of Bisexual Revolution at Outfest on July 10.

The French-made documentary (which is subtitled, in English, Bisexuality: Is It An Art?) is the best cinematic exploration of the subject to date, which isn't hard to conclude when last year's woeful Bi the Way is seemingly the genre's high point. Filmmakers Eric Wastiaux and Laure Michel interviewed bisexual men and women around the world and compiled the insights gained for Bisexual Revolution. The result was shown last year on French television and reportedly ignited overnight a national discussion and a resultant, increased acceptance of bisexuality there.

Wastiaux and Michel, who also participated in the post-screening discussion, confessed to being dubious of bisexuality prior to filming. Both came away believers, and Wastiaux even engaged in his first same-sex experience. The doc takes a broad approach to understanding bisexuality, with Dr. Alfred Kinsey's famed scale of sexuality a particularly helpful resource. Kinsey's research in the 1950's revealed that the vast majority of human beings are neither 100% heterosexual nor 100% homosexual. Rather, we fall along various points of sexual orientation depending on our life experiences, attractions and values. The concept and practice of human sexuality emerged as much more fluid than conservative politicians and religious leaders would have us believe.

Bisexual Revolution makes this 50-year old finding abundantly clear. People of various genders, nationalities, ethnicities and ages discuss their bisexuality on camera with wisdom and honesty. Among the interviewees are American filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell (of Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame), French pop star Yelle, and numerous prominent writers, artists and educators.

At a concise 61 minutes, the film provides a great overview while hardly presuming to be the last word on the topic. Indeed, it serves as a great conversation-starter as evidenced by the French broadcast's aftermath and the post-screening discussion at Outfest. Audience members didn't shy from revealing their own, less-than-100%-gay-or-lesbian experiences. One transgender viewer commented about how even more complex sexuality is from her perspective!

It is unfortunate that bisexuality remains an often confounding and even taboo subject in straight, gay and lesbian circles alike. Bisexual Revolution can only help to de-stigmatize it, thanks to the film's declaration of the great truth that human beings and sexuality are too intricate to be categorized or labeled.

Watch the trailer for Bisexual Revolution here.

Reverend's Rating: B+

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

Monthly Wallpaper - August 2010: 80's Hunks

It's hot outside, so this month's Movie Dearest Calendar Wallpaper has gone back in time to a certain totally awesome decade to bring you a sizzling collection of cinematic 80's Hunks!

From dirty dancers to bulging barbarians, American gigolos to international adventurers, these are the men of August.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.