RES55's Reviews

Dune: Part Two (2024)

1/10

19 April 2024

It's remarkable how much praise this film has received. The novels are complex, political, emotional, and captivating. The first Villaneuve film of 2021 was very slow and sullen but had a certain elegance at times, if one could sit through it (I had to pause every fifteen minutes). In Part Two, however, the plot has been altered in unnecessary and absurd ways, and drama, complexity, and interest have been drained, sacrificed to three hours of CGI and cardboard acting. The good cast sound like they're sight-reading their lines. Villaneuve has been quoted as saying that he doesn't like rehearsing actors. But if one expects a thematically driven story like this to emerge, I'm afraid it's the people, not the effects, that are critical. Timothee' Chalamet's monotone, rhythm-free delivery--his only style, is no help.

It's extremely ironic that David Lynch's 1984 Dune was so roundly panned (and to be fair, it is not good) while this chaotic, gray, interminable yawn-fest has received almost universal accolades; at least the Lynch film had quirkiness and character. Frank Herbert, author of the Dune novels, is reported to have liked the Lynch film. I hardly think he would have approved of this sluggish travesty.

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Mariposas Verdes (2017)

9/10

Well-made but depressing

16 April 2024

Made in 2017, the closing explains that "In 2015, the Colombian government ordered a revision of school charter rules to include respect for sexual orientation and gender identity". The film's action predates 2015 and explains why this humane ruling was needed. "Mariposas Verdes" is important and unflinching in demonstrating what always happens when homophobic bullies and cruel, bigoted, corrupt authorities and authority figures are allowed to victimize the innocent, especially young people who happen to be different and women, both within institutions and families. In addition to horrendous acts of domestic spousal and child abuse, we see high school kids forced to endure brutal discrimination, rape, and ultimately, suicides--one at both ends of the film! A very moving, well-made, but relentlessly disturbing film, and one that should be seen, especially in the US, where bully-rule has become the norm since the 2016 election, now with a Supreme Court backing the bullies against human rights and personal freedoms. That Colombia should now be ahead of the US in this regard is disgraceful.

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Child Eater (2016)

3/10

Unnecessary expansion of 2012 short

4 April 2024

'Child Eater' started as a mildly diverting, if unoriginal, 15-minute short in 2012. It told everything that needed to be told about the local legend of a child-eye-eating ghoul. In 2016, it was expanded into this cumbersome 82-minute feature by the same director with lots of extraneous padding. Some of the visuals are interesting, but the script is unoriginal and tiresome. The same actress plays the lead in the short and feature and does a reasonable job. No one else does. Find the short if the subject matter interests you; probably free online somewhere. This expansion is redundant and unnecessary.

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Dread (2009)

1/10

Dreadful

3 March 2024

I am amazed by the number of reviewers here who haven't bothered to read Clive Barker's original story. In 45 pages, Barker encapsulates a terrifying scenario, but one that is exquisitely written, logical, and has a satisfying conclusion. If commentators had read the story, they would have had a real basis for evaluation. The film is nothing less than torture porn. The film is littered with extra characters to be mutilated in ways deeply repulsive to watch. It is a traumatizing experience, neither engaging nor fun even for the most hardened thrill-seekers out there. In 2008-9, with the production assistance of Barker himself, a number of embellished film versions of Barker's stories from his 1980s "Books of Blood" appeared. The under-seen 'Midnight Meat Train,' while heavily filled out, was rather good--the acting, writing, brilliant visuals, and a clear feeling for the original. 'The Book of Blood', rather unloved in many quarters, and indeed a bit long, stays remarkably close to Barker (combining the opening and closing stories in his six volumes), while delving into real character development. The film under discussion is relocated to the US from the UK, already compromising it; oddly, though, it was shot in Britain. It is a nasty exercise in unrelenting cruelty. Avoid it like the plague. Barker disowned the added, appalling ending. I am shocked that he would even lend his name to this repugnant distortion of an already intense story bearing the title.

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Saltburn (2023)

9/10

Not oriiginal plot but amazing executiion

31 December 2023

For the plot, read the IMDb summary. It's just a start, however. This is 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' for the 21st century. Actually, I would call it 'The Talented Mr Ripley' meets 'Brideshead Revisited' meets 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' but as dark as pitch, the darkest British humor gets. And super-sexy. Performances and direction are pitch-perfect. The film is visually luscious, filmed on location at great English country estates. If the above description applies to the type of film that appeals to your aesthetic, you must see 'Saltburn'. Oh, note that the director opted for the old, squarer 1.33:1 aspect ratio. I'm sure there's an explanation somewhere.

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Maestro (2023)

2/10

Unintelligible and insulting

23 December 2023

Leonard Bernstein was one of the great musicians of the 20th century. That he was gay at a time when being so ruined one's life caused him to take part in a typical 'cover marriage', both parties understanding what that meant. The film is a nasty recounting of the cover wife's problems, knowing what she was getting into, and the friction it caused in that marriage of inconvenience. Even if some of it is accurate, this is not why Bernstein is remembered. 'Maestro' is an artsy tabloid piece unworthy of its subject, not a film about the great artist. Bernstein's important and brilliant career is scarcely mentioned, and, as usual when films about musicians are made by non-musicians, correct data is scarce, and important, huge chunks are omitted.

It also fails to mention Bernstein's political leanings which were progressive at a difficult time in the 1960s. The film makes him apolitical; nothing could be farther from the truth. As pointed out by a Black colleague of note, "His collaboration with Aaron Copland, Barber, and Menotti to create the first integrated orchestra in NYC, the Symphony of the New World, was an important part of his legacy in the 60s." No one bothers with this or other important details.

Bradley Cooper is a caricature of Bernstein for those of us who experienced him first-hand. Of course, he will be nominated for an award because the film is bland, sterile and lacking in punch, truth, or viewpoint, just what awarding organizations like to see. It is the exact antithesis of a great bio-film like 'Rustin', also made this year, which does its great subject the justice he finally deserves. Rent 'Maestro' if you must, for 129 minutes of disinformation, homophobia, boredom, and nonsense. I see no point in this pretentious, ugly film.

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The Family Stone (2005)

5/10

Great actors, nonsensical plot

21 December 2023

It's a little late in the game to be writing about this film from 2005. But, having just seen it, I felt the need to comment, especially because the writer-director is Thomas Bezucha, someone I really respect for his tender, beautiful, gay-themed fantasy 'Big Eden' (2000). Here, however, we have a stellar cast brilliantly portraying some of the nastiest characters with whom it has been my displeasure to spend 103 minutes. It's also preposterous: a laid-back, 'accepting' but smug upper-class family gangs up on the fiancee' of one of their sons at Christmas, never having met her before, having heard a report from one sibling that she's not one of them. Their persecution of the insecure and admittedly bigoted Sarah Jessica Harper character is terrible, and one loses sympathy with them. Then, owing to a bunch of equally ridiculous circumstances, everybody ends up happily. This is a film that should be seen once, as it is hard to imagine. And then never seen again.

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Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)

5/10

Sweet but more straights playing gay

10 September 2023

Pleasant, funny, and sometimes touching queer rom-com; it plays better if you don't know non-binary author Casey McQuiston's best-selling complex novel. The film is heavily simplified, removing important characters and replacing the central devious (Republican) political plot with a trite jealousy trope. The romance is sweet, even if the lovers are played by not entirely convincing straight actors. What about hiring LGBTQ actors with real-life experience, as has been much discussed and appeals to the natural audience for a film like this? It is easy to see why something like 'Heartstopper' rings so much truer.

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Winning Dad (2015)

10/10

Deserves much wider exposure

13 June 2023

This is a film that hasn't gotten the exposure it deserves beyond award-winning presence at a number of festivals. It's touching, funny, intense, well-acted, visually gorgeous, close to perfect. There have now been a very large number of excellent gay-themed films, made for varying budgets. 'Winning Dad', made on a tiny budget, ranks among the best in the genre; one would never suspect that it was made so inexpensively. It's a genuinely beautiful film in every respect. That writer-director-actor Arthur Allen seems not to have made any further films is a great shame. The film can be streamed/downloaded on vimeo, and it is recommended to everyone, especially those interested in gay-themed films of high caliber..

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

5/10

Too long

12 March 2023

Did this sci-fi-comedy/family-drama (there's a new category, huh?) have an editor? Two hours and nineteen minutes of exhausting images relentless thrown at the viewer is way too much. There is no repose. I found that it has to be taken in 20-minute chunks. This could have been a reasonable 90-minute film. It could even be a very good 30-minute short. At 139 minutes, it's excruciating. And it's nominated for a bunch of Oscars? The premise is simple and accurate: 1. Whatever life you're stuck with is better with an unconditionally loving, kind partner and 2. If you have a LGBTQ kid, be supportive or you'll mess them up.

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The Last of Us: Long, Long Time (2023)

Season 1, Episode 3

10/10

Brilliant, beautiful, moving

7 February 2023

In a series based on a video game that blends zombie films and Stephen King's "The Stand," this episode stands out as a stunning breath of fresh air: a touching love story between two guys who find each other by chance in the midst of a dystopian post-apocalyptic hell, and give each other meaning. It makes the rest of the season, however well-executed, seem like a collection of depressing, violent tropes from many other sources. Aside from its genuine beauty, nuance, and humanity, 'Long, Long Time' is, importantly, the only episode that provides a reason why anyone would even want to survive in such a terrible reality. The writers are to be commended for their inventiveness and heart. The episode and its two principal players deserve Emmys. This episode deserves more than the maximum "10" allowed here: it is one of the best things ever to appear on US television. And to those haters: remember that the writers also created the video game--where the principals also have a story, just not as beautiful as this superior revision; so save your ugly vitriol for them if you dare.

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The Power of the Dog (2021)

5/10

Five stars only for the visuals and acting...

27 December 2022

A year after release, 'The Power of the Dog' is in the Criterion Collection. That was sure fast. And it's just not that good, despite foaming-at-the-mouth critical acclaim and awards. It's actually a nasty story about an effeminate-but-not-queer college-age kid who uses his new medical knowledge and guile to exact revenge on a screwed-up, unpleasant, tormented, misogynistic, closeted man (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) in 1925 Montana. The narrative is revealed in the very first voice-over. Moreover, it's a chronological catastrophe. Set ostensibly in 1925, we see the eventual killer-kid playing with a hoola hoop, which wasn't invented until the late 1950s. 21st-century expressions abound like "I'm good", which sounds like a wrong note. The list of anachronisms goes on. One of the funniest is the Benedict Cumberbatch character's answer in the vernacular affirmative: "Bloody tootin'!", blending period British and US slang. Did no one notice? Also, despite all the research about the settlement of the west--and 1925 is at least 30 years too late for this, no one seems to have read that same-sex relationships and romance were not seen as shameful or even unusual. Director Jane Campion gets genuflecting praise because... she's Jane Campion. While she makes New Zealand-as-Montana look breath-taking, and the acting is fine, this 2+-hour film, despite a few captivating moments when it's not ponderous or embarrassing, is a mess.

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A Christmas to Treasure (2022 TV Movie)

4/10

Many better LGBTQ Christmas movies out there

18 December 2022

Over the last few years, it has been very cheering to see LGBTQ people represented in Christmas movies on TV and elsewhere. While one can cynically say that producers are now seeing another 10% of the market to whom they can advertise, it signals a general acceptance in loving, familial circumstances (well, if you're Christian). The number of these films is getting pretty substantial, and originality is not an expected commodity; some are good, some less so. This one is on the lower end of that scale. While not as saccharine or cloying as it could be, the plot is very contrived and artificial. The gay romance is sweet but the situation that surrounds it is hardly believable and a bit silly. That the lovers are actually a married couple in life certainly adds to the chemistry between them, but the rest of the plot is forgettable.

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David's Birthday (2009)

1/10

Are you kidding me with this???!

26 October 2022

If this were merely the soap opera which its form indicates, it would be overly extended and boring at 104 minutes. The fact that its principal point is making a tragedy of someone coming to terms with his sexuality, a first same-sex love scene causing a death, is unforgivably homophobic. This plays like a 1940s warning about the dangers of same-sex attraction, not a 2009 film. Tthe 'Liebestod' (Love Death) from Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde's begins, permeates,and ends this repugnant film. Could it be any less subtle? You'd think that at least, they'd have chosen an Italian opera in an Italian film! It makes 'Death in Venice' look lighthearted, and that's a period piece. This is not. Massimo Poggio turns in a nice performance, as someone else observed, but that's it. That 'Il compleanno' earned an award in Venice is shocking, as it is mawkish and unoriginal as well as offensive. No wonder it was never reissued on Blu Ray. I am very sorry to have seen it.

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Bros (I) (2022)

9/10

Well-executed, touching

22 October 2022

"Bros" received a lot of hype as the first "honest" Hollywood rom-com about gay men. It includes aspects of our history (from excellent LGBTQ historian Eric Cervini and filmmaker/historian Jennifer Olson), dialog about issues in the LGBTQ community, and current personal issues with which gay men are dealing. It may take on too much, with perhaps insufficient time to provide context about ongoing--and currently, ramped-up--oppression and our responses to it. Or perhaps the filmmakers are trying to keep things from being too depressing.

"Bros" has far more emotional complexity and seriousness than most rom-coms, the principal characters' development often quite moving. It burlesques gay male stereotypes: appearance-obsessed, steroid-using gym bunnies who separate their emotional and sex lives. But these tropes are countered immediately with men moving on with their lives, happily in love, thrilled to become parents, and living a deeper existence. The stereotypes are shown for what they are as the film progresses. In fact, the main character, played by Billy Eichner, yearns for a caring relationship, at first stating disingenuously that he is content with his split reality: friends he loves and strangers for sex. Co-writer Eichner names his character "Bobby Leiber," a conscious (if unsubtle) effort to reveal who he truly is: "leiber" means "dear" and the first syllable, pronounced throughout as "lieb," is German/Yiddish for "love." Bobby's veneer of wordy cynicism is soon removed. Wishful thinking about straight people is shown hilariously when they are more comfortable around gay men and discussions of gay sex than one ever encounters in life. The characters continue to deepen, most apparently during a three-minute monologue at about 61 minutes, as Bobby describes his life struggles in a way that any gay man would recognize.

The film has genuine humor, real sweetness, lovely acting (Luke MacFarlane's varied, affecting performance stands out), and deals with real issues, however caricatured (it is a comedy, after all). Love happily does win out, the ending scenes perhaps a bit cliche but quite touching nonetheless. Remember that we seldom see this sort of happy ending for gay male characters; indeed, at one point, after watching a gay-themed film, Bobby says "straight people just like to see us miserable."

People complain about Billy Eichner's abrasive screen presence, but he uses it only as a starting point to show the development of his character. Critics applauded the film but it was not a box-office success. One hopes it has found a lasting life on disc because it bears repeated viewings. Much of it is genuine and very moving. And where else will one find a film where everyone is played by out LGBTQ actors, even the straight characters?

Hundreds of gay-themed films may be more nuanced and varied in portraying LGBTQ lives. But "Bros," made on a big budget, is a rom-com in a class of its own. It is savvy, well-written, well-informed, touching, and includes cameos by important figures like Harvey Fierstein as well as Everett Quinton, co-founder of the late great Charles Ludlam's brilliant Ridiculous Theatrical Company. It is clearly a labor of love.

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New Nightmare (1994)

7/10

Craven's response

20 October 2022

Wes Craven's 'New Nightmare' fascinates as an auteur's response to the history of his own creation, a tenth-year anniversary homage to his own work. Craven said himself that all the sequels were rubbish; this film is the only true sequel. For Craven the Elm Street franchise thus really only contained two films. Interestingly, 'New Nightmare' incorporates elements of Craven's rejected draft for the third Elm Street film 'Dream Warriors', after which he withdrew entirely. It is true that while that third film is admired by many, in its final non-Craven form, it is the first step away from the original's complexity and seriousness, its villain now a murderous comedian. The juxtaposition of the ever-more-inventive, nasty killings and Krueger's ever-more-jarring, tasteless humor causded the series' erosion beginning with the third film. 'New Nightmare' returns it to Craven's initial dark and earnest tone: gruesome murders and cruelty are not intended as light entertainment.

Curiously, 'New Nightmare' shares number of things with the film formerly most reviled in the series, the 1985 'Nightmare 2: Freddy's Revenge.' Initially ridiculed for its unsubtle gay subtext during the ugly homophobic AIDS years of the mid 1980s, it also caused outrage amongst fans because it diverged from the original premise: death in dreams = real death. However, in 'Elm Street 2,' Fred Krueger uses a 'final boy' to come into the real world. In 'New Nightmare', Krueger also uses a very young boy to seek the same thing. Both films abandon the original premise, in effect. So 'Elm Street 2' is closer to mark than the tastelessly jokey sequels Parts 3-6, not to mention the repulsive 'Freddy vs. Jason'. In fact, there are a few lines reused by Craven in 'New nightmare' directly from 'Elm Street 2': at a guest appearance in costume, Robert Englund as Krueger opens his arms and says 'You are all my children.'

The differences between 'Part 2' and 'New Nightmare' are the skill and polish of the execution; in 'Part 2,' Freddy's attempted re-entry into the real world is a bit of a mess and the film really doesn't hang together. It is most notable, in hindsight, as the first gay horror film, however reluctantly its talentless writer tried to deny that fact for years, and ruined the life of its very talented principal, the young Mark Patton. 'New Nightmare' is all skill and polish, yielding tremendous intensity and complexity. Still, because it is so entirely self-referential, there are problems. Like the first film, the ending, after almost two hours, is unsatisfying. Like the first film, death and loss do not affect the survivors as they would in real life; they just move on. Still, 'New Nightmare' is bested only by the 1984 original, noting that 'Part 2, despite chaotic writing and homophobia, remains the only other film, besides the 1984 original, where the killer is not treated as a stand-up comic.

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Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)

3/10

Competent but dull

26 February 2022

In 1972, Dario Argento issued the fascinating giallo "Four Flies on Grey Velvet". The same year saw Lucio Fulci's amazing and message-charged giallo "Don't Torture a Duckling." By comparison, this 1972 Italian giallo, also with a colorful title, is about as inventive as an American TV movie of the same period, a very pedestrian 90 minutes, if competently crafted and more graphic. I suppose Lenzi did better things but, best-known as the director to create the first Italian film foray into cannibalism some years later, I hardly would put him in the same class as Argento and Fulci, not to mention their predecessors Bava, Margheriti, Caiano, Freda, etc. I consider this film to have been a waste of time.

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Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)

7/10

Far better in original Italian

29 January 2022

As every reviewer has already detailed the plot, I will concentrate on an aspect of this film, and indeed, all of the early '60s Italian gothics, that is essential but often overlooked.

I first saw this film via the hideous Alpha DVD and found it impossible to sit through. Then I discovered it on YouTube in its most original edit and in Italian:'Films and Clips'. Note that one version is in the wrong aspect ratio--squeezed, but some programs can adjust that. It's the version with burned-in subtitles. The other, in the correct AR, has no subtitles but they can be found on-line; at YT, this bears a translation of the Italian title: 'Cemetery of the Living Dead'--though the film is entitled '5 Tombe per un Medium' on screen). Every member of the cast speaks Italian on set, and except for Barbara Steele, are Italian actors. Judging by her mouth movements, Steele--who had lived in Italy for five years by that point--was also speaking Italian. This is not a great film by any standard, but in its Italian version, it is at least coherent, adult, decently acted, and intelligible. The English dub is among the worst I have ever heard, with non-actors and horrible dialects ruining otherwise respectable performances. Most of the English dialog is actually changed to accommodate attempts to make the dub more believable when looking at the actors' mouth movements. It turns a modest period horror film into junk. Sadly, a relativelt recent BluRay transfer is also in English--with awful US scene choices. Everything about the English edit is atrocious, from music cues to editorial choices. Find the Italian version.

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A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)

5/10

Trashy fun

22 November 2021

Obviously, calling the town 'Salem's Lot' was merely to draw viewers, as this film has nothing whatever to do with the fine 1979 Warner-produced miniseries based on Stephen King's 1974 novel, nor (heaven knows) the novel itself. King's name shouldn't be referenced in the credits ("based on characters created by..."). It would have been better with a different name because it is silly, garbagey fun.

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The Long Hair of Death (1964)

9/10

Beautiful, intense, operatic

4 February 2021

I avoided this for years, though I adore Barbara Steele, because all I had was a DVD of the awful English-dubbed version. I just watched it in Italian with accurate English subtitles. Everyone is speaking Italian on-set, even though Steele's actual voice is dubbed by--a rather good--Italian actress. The plot is given above, so I won't dwell on it, but it is the most overtly operatic of all Steele's films--with elements of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda, Verdi's Macbeth and Il trovatore (especially). When Steele arrived in Italy, the great Maria Callas had just permanently left the country (where she had been treated appallingly for an artist of her magnitude). Steele on-screen apparently served as an iconic replacement in a different medium after the loss of Callas on the opera stage, with something of a similar look and films nearly all of operatic proportions. This one, directed by Antonio Margheriti ("Castle of Blood/"La danza macabra", 1964) and written by Ernesto Gastaldi ("The Horrible Dr. Hichcock"/"L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock", 1962]) is a tour-de-force in many ways--but only in the Italian version. The English dubbing is so bad that one loses the intensity and drama.

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Everything Is Free (2017)

5/10

Skewed snapshot of gay men

19 November 2020

This is a beautifully shot eyeful with a good score, decent acting, and good production values. It concerns a gay American artist living in Colombia, who has no self-esteem, spending the film chasing after, falling in love with, and being emotionally *and physically* abused by, straight guys. Yes, there are self-loathing, dysfunctional gay men like this, just as there are straight analogues. I don't know whether this is supposed to be humorous (it doesn't seem to be) but given that cinema tends to make audiences read minority characters as archetypes or stereotypes, this is a film straight people shouldn't see, especially those who don't know many real gay men--who are absolutely *not* like this. I was very uncomfortable throughout this film. The complexity of the relationships is also never explained: best friends--one straight, the other other gay, and the straight friend's ostensibly straight brother for whom the gay friend falls in love at his dire peril, causing a whirlwind of havoc, with no background information. The version issued in 2019 and reviewed by everyone here is highly re-edited--for the better, I might add, running 87 minutes. The 92-minute run time listed on IMDb (actually 91 1/2 minutes) refers to the initial 2017 release.

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Love, Victor (2020–2022)

7/10

Okay, but skirts the issue

10 July 2020

Warning: Spoilers

Like its inspiration, 'Love, Simon' (2018), the series 'Love, Victor' (2020) is a well-intentioned effort by supportive straight people making a show about queer lives (though 'Love, Simon' did have an out gay director). Supporters are important and appreciated, but the problem with majorities trying to tell minorities' stories is that they haven't actually lived them, so they can't quite ring true. 'Love, Victor' is made for a straight audience. Watching it as a gay person is a tad awkward. The other thing is that straight filmmakers often try to cram unlikely elements together. For instance, in Episode 8, when Victor travels to New York to visit Simon, he finds that very straight-acting (straight actors) Simon and Bram have unlikely room-mates: a butch lesbian, a queeny young guy and a transgender woman. While it's noble to try to be inclusive and the characters are sweet, putting representatives of the whole LGBTQ spectrum into one apartment is not especially credible. Benji's boyfriend mocks Benji's romantic inclinations, calling them imitations of 'hetero-normative behavior'. Now, come on! I haven't run into someone like that since the '80s and even they weren't as rigid. How could such a mismatched couple possibly stay together for a week, let alone a year? It's not realistic at all.

The series is produced and narrated by Nick Robinson, 'Simon' in the film. The good thing about the series was that, unlike the movie, it doesn't deal exclusively with rich people. Much as I liked 'Love, Simon,' it was difficult to believe that a nice but incredibly comfortable kid with nice and also affluent friends and a very liberal, intellectual, supportive family would have such trouble coming out in a fantasy-Atlanta high school whose overall support taxed one's credulity.

'Love, Victor' scored with me because it dealt a bit with class disparity and ethnicity: Victor's family is middle-class and Latinx. Some other characters are also not well-off. But despite differences of class and ethnicity, Simon and Victor both suffer from 'best little boy in the world' syndrome. It's much more extreme in Victor's case; he is viewed as the family's oracle and savior. We never get to see how Victor copes with losing that status: the season ends abruptly with Victor's coming-out to his not-gay-supportive parents. The impact of that, if there is a second season, will already be undercut by the parents' prior announcement that they are going to separate, after an infidelity has destroyed their trust and family functionality.

Throughout the five-hour series, Victor's struggle to come out is a subplot vying for airtime with unoriginal, straight, teenage angst and dysfunctional family situations. Not one character has a normal family--also stretching credibility. The matter of Victor's sexuality is largely eclipsed until a train of events beginning after the series is more than half over. Why would Hulu (originally Disney) diminish the principal premise of the film on which it was modeled? I think that the 2015-17 ABC comedy 'The Real O'Neals' (which, interestingly shared a principal actress, Bebe Wood, and the same director for Episode 8, Todd Holland), was more on point. Still, 'Love, Victor' has sincerity, shows effort, and its characters do grow on you with repeated viewings.

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Something Like Summer (2017)

1/10

Train Wreck

29 March 2020

The twelve "Something Like..." young adult gay romance novels by the talented Jay Bell are sweet, sentimental, and well-written. "Something Like Summer" is the first. One would think that a transfer to the screen would have been uncomplicated and straightforward. Such is not the case. The script is a cringeworthy embarrassment of nonsense with only a passing relationship to the novel delivered in equally embarrassing fashion by most of the actors. Then came a succession of dire production problems. The original director suffered severe health issues and pulled out (though we see him as a walk-on at one point). He was not replaced. Instead, the Director of Photography also directed, with evidently little clue about how to proceed. There is scant evidence of any thought in the chaotic editing, though admittedly, there wasn't really anything to work with.

Then, the original well-chosen principal actor Austin McKenzie (Cleve Jones in the 2017 mini-series "When We Rise") pulled out (though he is seen in PR materials) and was replaced by Grant Davis; he may or may not be okay in other things, but his miscasting here is preposterous, neither looking nor behaving remotely like the novel's 'Ben,' with apparently no directorial guidance. The excellent actor Ben Baur was miscast as 'Jace'; again, while quite fine in other projects, he bears no resemblance in any respect to his counterpart in the novel, and his performance is simply irritating. The only reasonable casting choice was Davi Santos as 'Tim,' who merely highlights how appalling the other choices were. In two hours, the film can't cover at least 35% of the narrative; it is jerky and unintelligible much of the time. I would attribute that partly to the absurd presence of hideous unnecessary musical numbers that occupy much of the running time. The film had a dark cloud over it from the outset and should have been abandoned; but I suspect it would have been difficult to refund Kickstarter contributors' donations. Initially intended for a 2014 release, it was delayed three years, and then had huge difficulties in finding a distributor.

Author Jay Bell, although privately frustrated with the terrible distortion of his work, now mentions the film on social media in an effort to guide people to the novels; at least the film serves some function. I generally liked the work of Blue Seraph filmmakers (e.g., "Judas Kiss," "The Dark Place") but "Something Like Summer," their last production, is a train wreck. The film was somewhat easier to forgive at first, but repeated viewings are hard to get through at all, a collation of maddening and easily remedied idiotic decisions about everything. Avoid the film; read the novels.

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More Scenes from a Gay Marriage (2014)

9/10

More than Meets the Eye

3 August 2019

My first viewing of 'More Scenes...' was enjoyable enough but the film seemed to rely on a retread of its predecessor. In subsequent viewings, however, more and more nuances emerged that establish complexities of plot, theme, character, and filming style. The first film, 'Scenes...', is delightful, tender, and straightforward--something of an homage to Woody Allen's 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' but in a sweet, gay milieu: 'Nashville Infidelity Mystery'. It concluded happily, capped by a romantic screen kiss that rivals any other.

The sequel begins with scenes from a 'remake' played by different actors (Charlie David and Rett Terrell): the story of 'Scenes...' has indeed become the basis for a film, cribbed from the main character's phone calls to its director, a former flame. In real time, the couple--Darren (director-writer Matt Riddlehoover) and Joe (Jared Allman)--appears and announces to their shocked friends Greg (Cliff Burr) and Luce (the remarkable Thashana McQuiston) that they're splitting up. The remainder of the film deconstructs their reasons for, and misgivings about, that decision, interweaving incrementally expanding memories of the frictions that resulted from the publicly 'remade' version of their romance. 'More Scenes...' has a complex texture and darker tone than its predecessor as it details the relationship from the touching ending of the first film through the action of the second. It has an immediately recognizable authenticity as it depicts the doubts and problems that plague many loving relationships. The final affecting reconciliation is coupled with a bittersweet note of regret and forgiveness that is finally offset by the fleeting comic relief of an off-screen one-line sexy codetta.

After a second viewing, I found the characters' real, human predicament genuinely moving. Riddlehoover's use of subtle and interesting narrative techniques demonstrates a deepening sophistication, making this brief (70-minute) sequel a necessary and emotionally satisfying closure. The opening 'remade' scene is accompanied by an arrangement of Django Reinhardt's 'Clair de Lune' rather than the more appropriate 'Where are you, my love?' that opens the first film, a subtle indication that the tropes added by the main character's 'ex', whether charming or regrettable, are largely inaccurate; but it is these very exaggerations and mistakes that fuel the couple's unhappy separation. The ending is set to the hypnotically intense 'I'll Find You' by Samantha Church, which continues as the credits roll on the left side of the screen while various soundless images from both films, summing up the relationship, appear on the right. 'More Scenes...' is not simply an amorous comedy, but a tight, absorbing piece of film-making which requires several viewings to be fully appreciated. Matt Riddlehoover, as usual, shows himself to be an immeasurable asset to gay film.

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Maria By Callas (2017)

1/10

For post-career Callas devotees only

16 June 2019

Callas was, almost without question, the greatest singing *musician* of the 20th century, not a "singer" or "singing actress" (a term that damns with faint praise), but a transcendent artist. This film doesn't deal with that Callas. It focuses exclusively on the details of personal mismanagement that she would never have wanted aired, being, by nature, a very private person. It includes some new footage, but it's all presented chaotically, mismatching music to visuals, jumping back and forth in time by years; it's exhausting.

Well-known extant concert footage, all from after the zenith of her great career, is colorized needlessly. It is a moving elegy but manipulative of the viewer's emotions; it tugs at our heart strings in a way Callas would have found embarrassing and irritating. In life, Callas was tough--as musicians have to be, and all that interested her were the nuts-and-bolts details of the music itself. In the unmentioned, important Juilliard master classes that she taught in 1971, there is a famous moment that is emblematic of the real Callas: a mezzo-soprano makes a histrionic gesture with her voice in Azucena's Act II aria from Verdi's IL TROVATORE. Callas stops her and asks "What was that?" The student replies "It was a cry of despair." Callas responds "It's not a cry of despair. It's a B-flat."

To the film's credit, there are a few full musical selections (even if colorized jarringly), though it has its share of annoyingly tantalizing snippets. To its detriment, nothing, but nothing, is identified properly and the chronological roller-coaster ride that is 'Maria by Callas' will leave at sea anyone without an encyclopedic knowledge of the woman's unfortunate post-career private life. The director also shows his amazing naivete by using only Callas' version of events; she was quite self-serving and the facts of various matters are often very different from the way she wanted to present them.

Why do film makers only seem to concentrate on Callas "the woman," "the star," "the diva," "the tragic figure," rather than the super-serious, perfectionist artist who set the world of music on fire beginning in 1949 and altered forever the way we listen? It's apparently because they have no idea how to talk about music nor have any interest in what Callas was really about.

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