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Reverend's Interview: Keeping It Real in Pariah

One of the most acclaimed films from this year's Sundance Film Festival, Pariah, will finally be making it to theaters this month. The semi-autobiographical drama about the coming of age of a lesbian teenager is scheduled to open in Los Angeles and New York on December 28th and will open nationwide in January.

I first heard of Pariah two years ago. It was initially a well-received short film, and producer Nekisa Cooper was then working hard to raise the funds necessary to expand it into a feature. Cooper and writer-director Dee Rees had an impressive endorsement letter from no less than Spike Lee, for whom Rees had worked on When the Levees Broke and Inside Man. Lee serves as one of the feature's executive producers.

Their hard work has paid off. The finished film is an authentic and moving exploration of a young woman trying to integrate her identity. Confident that "God doesn't make mistakes," 17-year old Alike (pronounced "Ah-lee-kay" and sometimes referred to as "Lee" for short) has to contend with her conservative-Christian mother as well as with other teens not yet as comfortable in their own shoes as Alike. Adepero Oduye gives a breakthrough performance in the lead role, and Kim Wayans (perhaps best remembered as Benita Butrell and other wacky characters from the 1990's TV sketch series In Living Color) is a revelation as Alike's conflicted mother.

Rees recently spoke with me from New York. "It's been a labor of love," Rees said of her six-year odyssey to make Pariah, first as a short and then as a feature. "Our audience reactions have been overwhelmingly positive; (the film) has universal appeal and has been shown not only at LGBT film festivals but at mainstream festivals." LGBT-friendly Focus Features, which has also released such popular movies as Brokeback Mountain and Milk, quickly snapped up the rights to Pariah following its Sundance screening. "It's every filmmaker's dream to have their film released by a major company," according to Rees. "Focus has been incredibly supportive."

Spirituality plays a major role in Alike's journey. Both Rees and Cooper were raised in devout Christian families, and Cooper's father serves as a Catholic deacon. "If anything, it's my spirituality that got me through the past six years," Rees reflects. "My spirituality and spiritual practice have actually gotten stronger than they were before going through this." While their parents will be invited to the official premiere of Pariah, Rees isn't sure how they will respond. "Hopefully," Rees said, "they will respond well so they can witness to other parents" of LGBT children.

With her profile on the rise in the industry, Rees just finished writing a new script for a thriller and is working with HBO on developing a TV series. She speaks appreciatively of all the support she has received, especially from two-time Oscar nominee Spike Lee. Rees calls Lee her mentor and states "He's been a great guiding hand."

"I'm not running, I'm choosing," Alike says in Pariah of a life-changing, climactic decision she makes. It's a statement Rees wholeheartedly agrees with. "I think questioning and affirming your identity is a universal theme, and I definitely want gay teens to connect with the film and see that it's ok to be them."

She concluded, "If you strip away race and sexuality, we are all searching for the same things when it comes to identity. That's what this film is about."

Reverend's Rating: A-

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Reverend's Reviews: Close Call

Actress Glenn Close has been nominated for the Academy Award five times for her memorable turns in such films as Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Attraction and The World According to Garp but she has yet to bring home the gold. That could soon change, given her current performance as a woman passing herself off as a man in Albert Nobbs. It is scheduled to open in theaters everywhere on January 27th.

Based on a short story that Close adapted into a play nearly 20 years ago, the movie's title character is the head servant in an upper-class, Irish guest house during the 19th century. Nobbs is respected by the headmistress (played by Brenda Fricker) and admired by the hotel's clientele, but Nobbs has a secret: he is really a she. Having begun cross-dressing as a young woman in the wake of a brutal attack, Nobbs has effectively led a male life for 30 years and dreams of one day opening "his" own tobacco shop.

Things begin to unravel, however, once Nobbs crosses paths with a hired handyman who also turns out to be a woman (Janet McTeer, giving a great, Oscar-worthy performance of her own). As Nobbs gets to know her and increasingly admires her marriage to another woman, Nobbs feels inspired to make romantic overtures to another servant in his household, the lovely young Helen (Mia Wasikowska). Alas, Helen only has eyes for attractive, impetuous Joe (Aaron Johnson), who soon gets her pregnant. Trouble for Nobbs and all concerned follows.

Close is startlingly convincing in terms of her physical appearance, voice and mannerisms. Though Nobbs is considered less than masculine by many of his co-workers, no one questions his/her gender. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) also appears as a closeted gay man who frequents the hotel. As good as the performances are, I found the screenplay and Rodrigo Garcia's direction tonally inconsistent. The unusual premise seems to be played at some moments for laughs and at other times with heavy-handed solemnity. This kept me from admiring Albert Nobbs completely.

This year's Oscar race for Best Actress is shaping up to be a tough one, with Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Viola Davis (The Help) likely among Close's competitors. As Albert Nobbs would probably say, "May the best man (woman) win!"

Reverend's Rating: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Reel Thoughts Interview: Showgirls Gone Wild!

If you want something done right, do it yourself. Just ask Rena Riffel, who co-starred in the priceless 1995 gay favorite Showgirls, as well as Demi Moore’s Striptease and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. In Showgirls, Riffel played Penny, Nomi Malone’s (Elizabeth Berkley) fellow dancer at “The Cheetah who ends up with Nomi’s pseudo-boyfriend James (Glenn Plummer). Riffel says that director Paul Verhoeven mentioned that her character Penny could star in a sequel where she goes to Hollywood, and the thought stayed with Riffel for years.

Seeing how popular Showgirls became after its inauspicious debut, Riffel decided to produce the film, titled Showgirls 2: Penny’s from Heaven, herself. As detailed in Entertainment Weekly, German director Marc Volander attempted to make a competing sequel, called Showgirls: Exposed, that has scored a laughable 1.3 rating on IMDB to date. Unlike Vorlander’s brain-crushing monstrosity, Riffel has written a loving homage/send-up of the original that includes tons of memorable quotes that will tickle Showgirls fans. Riffel also laughs about a drinking game that viewers can play, taking a swig whenever the word “whore” is uttered.

Riffel, who has been self-promoting her film and enjoying the wild responses it is getting, approached Verhoeven with her script, but “he doesn’t like to do sequels or similar films. But he gave me his blessing, so I just kept moving forward with it.”

In Showgirls, Riffel and Gina Gershon are the two actresses who most seemed to “get” the material, so that their humor is all intentional. About the original film’s success, Riffel said, “Part of me thinks it was a happy accident, like a beautiful train wreck that happened, but then another part of me thinks that Paul Verhoeven definitely veered it in a direction to make it more exciting. I think that he got the film he wanted. I don’t think that some of the actors realized that it was going to be a ‘forced motivation’ in certain scenes. That’s what gave it that special magic On Striptease, everyone was playing it for comedy and on Showgirls everyone was playing it thinking that we were making Basic Instinct. At the end of the day, Showgirls turned out to funnier than Striptease.”

Riffel’s work in Mulholland Drive and a pilot called Land’s End with Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) gave her a break from being offered parts with nudity, but she says that if the part demands it, “you have to be a trouper” and go with it. “I don’t think you can be an actress and refuse to do nudity. You have to be uninhibited.”

“I want the audience to be in that (Showgirls) world again,” she said about Showgirls 2.”So I included what I thought were the most loved parts and lines from Showgirls, but we say them in a different way. It speaks in a secret Showgirls language.” She laughed about a scene where the women toast each other with hot dogs in honor of the infamous Spago scene where Nomi and Cristal clink tortilla chips together. “That’s what dancers do, toast each other with food.”

In Penny’s from Heaven, Riffel’s Penny leaves Las Vegas in the hopes of scoring a part on a low budget Hollywood dance program. Along the way, she runs into a crazed Marilyn Monroe impersonator and lands in a gothic love triangle right out of Sunset Boulevard. “Valley of the Dolls was probably my biggest influence. I’ve watched it a million times. I watched a lot of old movies from the 40s and 50s because I wanted it to have that melodramatic feel.”

Showgirls fans will be happy to see Glenn Plummer return as her Alvin Ailey-trained boyfriend, as well as other Showgirls alumni like Greg Travis and Dewey Weber. Ungela Brockman, who played ill-fated dancer Annie, wanted to take part but wasn’t able to. Riffel is hoping to use her in another sequel, which she is now developing pending the success of Showgirls 2.

When the movie Black Swan opened to so much acclaim, Riffel was pleased, since her film already contained a similar ballet-based rivalry between Penny and the aging prima ballerina Katya.

In closing, Riffel stressed how important her causes are to her. "I support GLAAD and the LGBT community and issues. I support the NOH8 campaign. I have lived in West Hollywood for most of my life – twenty years – and am part of the community and encourage donations to Out of the Closet (AHF) which offers the most fabulous "second-hand everything" and also offers free AIDS Testing. Also, I was honored to be a Celebrity Presenter at the We Ho Awards for three years, and look forward to more involvement. I support our US Troops. I am planning to do a USO tour, and would love to bring Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven to our Troops, or do a hand shake tour, or anything I can do to let all our Troops know we appreciate their service. I support the Rescue Animal Corp. Animal Rescue Corps supports the rescue of any animals who are suffering.”

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