Reverend's Reviews: Feeling Idiotic

The punk band Green Day's 2004, Grammy Award-winning album American Idiot provided something of a narrative in its critique of the Bush-era, post-9/11 USA. The CD's credits even refer to bisexual front man/lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong as "starring" in the piece, so it wasn't much of a surprise when plans were announced to adapt it as a Broadway musical. Billed as Green Day's American Idiot, the theatrical result -- which is just now making it's Los Angeles debut at the Ahmanson Theatre through April 22nd -- is pretty stunning.

Co-adapted (with Armstrong) and directed by Michael Mayer (who has become the premiere stage chronicler of this generation's angst between this and his Tony Award-winning work on Spring Awakening), the musical spins an abstract, largely sung-through tale of three brash young American friends who end up taking different paths to maturity. Johnny, played by the occasionally over-the-top but generally riveting Van Hughes, falls into drug abuse faster than you can say/sing the score's potent "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Then there's sweet-voiced Jake Epstein as Will, who discovers on the eve of his move with Johnny and fellow best friend Tunny to the big city that he's gotten his girlfriend pregnant. Tunny (the Channing Tatum-esque Scott J. Campbell) is subsequently co-opted into the "War on Terror" and joins the military, where he receives his own rude induction into adulthood.

The trio encounter such album-inspired characters as "St. Jimmy," a devilish drug dealer, and love interest "Whatsername" along their various journeys, and they do so accompanied by chart-topping hits "Wake Me Up When September Ends," "Are We the Waiting" and the title track. As compelling as these lead performers and songs are, American Idiot on stage would not succeed as well as it does if it weren't for its multi-talented supporting cast members, Darrel Maloney's riveting video/production design, and the choreography of Great Britain's Steven Hoggett.

While Hoggett's stage-pounding dance moves are occasionally predictable and repetitive, they certainly express the show's rebellious, down right confrontational spirit. Hoggett also creates a spectacular, drug-induced airborne duet between Campbell's Tunny and "Extraordinary Girl" Nicci Claspell. I was initially concerned that the handful of female performers/characters in the show were objectified, but there are enough men in boxer briefs on display to balance things out.

It was interesting to watch the reaction of the opening night crowd (which included Oscar nominee Tom Hulce (who also co-produced), Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, and gay blogger extraordinaire Perez Hilton along with various blue-hairs) to American Idiot in LA. Essentially the first decade of the 21st century's answer to such prior revolutionary musicals as Hair or Rent (and, in my opinion, more effective than Spring Awakening), Armstrong & Mayer's opus may not have cross-generational appeal. American Idiot, however, does offer energy to spare as well as a critical yet balanced take on enduring geo-political concerns. You'd be an idiot to miss it.

Reverend's Rating: B+

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

Reverend's Reviews: You've Got to Have Friends

As often as naive high school seniors pledge to "stay friends forever" and tell their besties "don't ever change" in their yearbooks, the harsh reality is that friendships do change over time. This is especially true once spouses/partners and children enter the picture.

Writer-director Jennifer Westfeldt captures the evolution of longtime friendships well in her new dramedy, Friends with Kids, which opens tomorrow. Westfeldt is best known in LGBT circles as the star of 2002's lesbian romance Kissing Jessica Stein. She also stars in her current film as Julie, a successful, single Manhattanite happy with her intimate but non-sexual relationship with similarly successful, single best friend, Jason (Adam Scott of TV's Parks and Recreation). Horrified as they are by the deteriorating marriages of their longtime friends Ben and Missy (Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig) and Alex and Leslie (Chris O'Dowd and Maya Rudolph) following the births of their respective children, Julie and Jason decide to have a child together the natural way without making an exclusive commitment to each other.

Though their friends are publicly supportive but privately offended initially by Julie and Jason's decision, they are impressed and eventually jealous of the non-traditional family once Jason and Julie's baby is born. The new parents' bliss proves short lived, however, once Jason falls for a hot Broadway dancer (the ever-hot Megan Fox) and Julie is drawn to a recently divorced man played by a surprisingly hunky Edward Burns, director-star of such popular indies as The Brothers McMullen and She's the One.

Friends with Kids is honest and frequently very funny even if the humor sometimes feels forced. Unspooling like a younger, raunchier Woody Allen film, especially in light of its lovingly-shot NYC setting, it is also representative of the growing genre of crude big-screen comedies like last year's hit Bridesmaids that focus on women. Speaking of Bridesmaids, Friends with Kids serves as a mini-reunion of its cast, notably Wiig, Rudolph, Hamm (who is also Westfeldt's real-life, longtime partner) and O'Dowd, who winningly played Bridesmaids' bewildered Irish cop. Their latest effort is better, smarter and less gross-out (despite a scene involving Jason and his infant's explosive diarrhea) than the somewhat overrated Bridesmaids.

"We don't know those people," Jason confesses to Julie at one point after witnessing their friends' at their worst. We can all be tempted at times to say the same of our longtime friends as all our lives lengthen and develop. Challenging and touching in equal measure, perhaps most especially during its potentially polarizing final scene, Friends with Kids makes for worthwhile adult viewing... especially for those with children.

Reverend's Rating: B

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

Reverend's Reviews: Two Men and a Camera

Award-winning cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond spent most of their adult lives joined at the hip. From their native, war-torn Hungary to Hollywood during its renaissance period in the 1960's and 70's, the men "left one revolution behind only to create another." Kovacs lensed the radical Easy Rider, Targets and Five Easy Pieces, while Zsigmond brought a stunning naturalism to such blockbusters as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, The Deer Hunter and Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well as the underrated box-office bomb Heaven's Gate.

An Emmy Award-nominated documentary about the pair, No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos, has just been made available on DVDand Digital Download by Cinema Libre Studio. James Chressanthis' excellent expose features a diverse assortment of commentators who have worked with one or both of the men, including Sandra Bullock, Sharon Stone, the late Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Karen Black, directors Peter Bogdanovich and Bob Rafelson, composer John Williams and critics Leonard Maltin and Todd McCarthy.

As Stone says of Vilmos and Laszlo (the former shot her 1993 thriller Sliver): "They learned how to light in a war zone." The men fled Budapest while film students when the Russian army suppressed an uprising against Hungary's Communist regime. Along their way to the Austrian border, they shot dramatic first-hand footage of the brutal crackdown against their fellow citizens so the rest of the world would be able to see what was going on. The eventual master cinematographers succeeded so well because they came, according to Stone, "from the training of life and truth."


First, though, Zsigmond and Kovacs had to work their way up the film industry ladder over a ten-year period following their arrival in California. They started out shooting baby pictures, then porn and cheap horror films, including 1964's notoriously bad The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. Fearful that they wouldn't be hired because their names sounded too European, the men billed themselves as "William Zsigmond" and "Leslie Kovacs" on their early US films.

It was Kovacs' acclaimed, breakthrough work on Easy Rider that catapulted both him and Zsigmond into the big time. When the newly in-demand Kovacs was unable to take on Peter Fonda's follow-up, The Hired Hand, he recommended his best friend to Fonda as well as to director Robert Altman. Soon after, Zsigmond found himself in demand as well.

No Subtitles Necessary boasts generous helpings of personal anecdotes and clips from the men's films. Kovacs passed away in 2007 (he is seen on oxygen during an interview shot toward the end of his life), but his wife and daughters are on hand to provide more intimate insights. What ultimately, touchingly emerges in the documentary is the mutual admiration and affection Kovacs and Zsigmond held for each other. Director Mark Rydell states, "Like brothers... they matter to one another" and Kovacs' widow, Audrey, shares "They were as close as two men could ever be."

The documentary is itself well-shot by Anka Malatynska and edited to a brisk pace by Elisa Bonora. A fascinating tribute to two courageous visionaries, No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos also serves as a great companion piece to the wide variety of American movie classics for which they were largely responsible.

Reverend's Review: A

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

Reverend's Reviews: Virgin Herring

The artistocratic, purity-loving Lady Billows in LA Opera's new production of Albert Herring hasn't got anything on arch-conservative presidential candidate Rick Santorum. One of the few comedic works by gay composer Benjamin Britten, the 1947 opera humorously skewers the politics and social mores of a small town in the British countryside. The Los Angeles revival, which runs through March 17th and is the company's first performance of the piece in 20 years, couldn't be better timed in light of our current US political debates.

As the month of May approaches each year, the pious Lady Billows (amusingly played and impressively sung in the opening night performance by corrals her town's leadership into naming a virtuous local girl as "the May Queen." The questionably-lucky young lady selected is traditionally feted for a day and will for the first time, as an enticement to other girls to protect their maidenhood, receive a generous cash gift. But when a worthy virgin can't be found, Lady Billows and her cronies decide to instead honor a "May King," and their choice is the opera's title character. Albert (a fine, nuanced turn by fast-rising young tenor Alek Shrader) is the hapless, insecure son of the local grocer, who keeps her son virtually locked up in her store. Albert's only friend is his co-worker Sid, played here by handsome baritone Liam Bonner. Sid is bound and determined to help Albert come out, so to speak, and Sid seizes on Albert's May Day coronation as the perfect opportunity to do so with the assistance of his girlfriend Nancy (the lovely Daniela Mack) and a flask of rum.

Britten's score for Albert Herring is fairly subdued, and some occasional low-volume levels opening night on the part of the James Conlon-conducted orchestra as well as a couple of singers made it sound even more so. It features a number of excellent quartets and quintets that were performed with gusto, however. Act 3 goes on a bit long with its intentionally-excessive lamentations over Albert's disappearance and presumed death, but it is largely redeemed by the triumphal finale in which Albert's new, decidedly less-virtuous lease on life is revealed.

Britten based Albert Herring on Le Rosier de Madame Husson, a short story by French satirist Guy de Maupassant (with the text translated by Eric Crozier). The resultant opera illustrates well how easily the self-serving intentions of the sanctimonious can backfire on them, a lesson those presently vying for the Republican presidential nomination could stand to learn. While watching and listening to Albert's plight as the untarnished, unwilling puppet of socially-conservative forces, I couldn't help but think of how Santorum, Gingrich and Romney is each striving to position himself as the "perfect" candidate by denouncing ad nauseam what they consider immoral. Naturally, homosexuality is one of their frequent targets. There are, appropriately, some subtle nods to gay viewers/listeners in Albert Herring; it is a Britten work, after all. These are evident in the concern Sid has for Albert and a bit of a love triangle that develops between Albert, Nancy and Sid by the end.

LA Opera's production is well-directed by Scotsman Paul Curran (who was wearing a flattering kilt opening night) and entertainingly designed by Kevin Knight. Between the infrequency with which Albert Herring is mounted and the helpful commentary I believe it provides on our nation's current political spectacle, it shouldn't be missed.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please LA Opera's website.

Reverend's Rating: B+

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

Men on Film: If We Picked the Oscars 2011

Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days, Movie Dearest's very own Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions, but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy. This year, we're also chiming in with our picks for the "egregiously overlooked" non-nominees.

So without further ado, the envelope please...

The nominees for Best Picture are: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Tree of Life has garnered a love it or hate it reaction but I agree with Roger Ebert, who wrote that its millennia-spanning scale and often nebulous meaning(s) ranks it right up there with the now-classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Terrence Malick's film is a spiritual, moral and family odyssey, beautifully shot and acted, that I hope will gain greater appreciation from future generations.
NC: It is so rare for a film to surprise and amaze jaded critics, but the sheer exuberance and love of cinema of the French import The Artist threatened to make silent movies cool again.
KH: As a silent film enthusiast, I easily succumbed to the whimsical charms and pitch-perfect style of The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Crazy, Stupid, Love, Drive, Take Shelter, Warrior, Win Win.

The nominees for Best Actor are: Demián Bichir in A Better Life, George Clooney in The Descendants, Jean Dujardin in The Artist, Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Brad Pitt for Moneyball.
And our winners would be:
CC: This is an unusually strong group of performances, and perhaps through a miracle of the Oscar fairy all five nominees will win in a tie! My own vote would go to Clooney. While I haven't admired all of his past performances (even those that have won awards), I was touched by his emotional authenticity as a hurting husband and father in The Descendants.
NC: While Clooney’s pained and almost schlubby performance in The Descendents was his best yet, DuJardin, as The Artist, overcame audiences’ resistance to an old-fashioned silent movie by being as dashing and romantic as Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn combined.
KH: I'm torn between the two above choices of my fellow critics, but in the end my vote would go to Clooney, who shed his dashing movie star image and transformed himself in to regular guy in an impossible situation.
Egregiously Overlooked: Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar, Ryan Gosling in Drive, Michael Shannon in Take Shelter.

The nominees for Best Actress are: Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis in The Help, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn.
And our winners would be:
CC: Davis, despite my near-equal admiration for La Streep's ah-mah-zing turn as Maggie Thatcher.
NC: The hardest category by far, every woman gave an exemplary performance. But by sheer force of  Streep’s heartbreaking performance, The Iron Lady became watchable. It is time for the Academy to recognize her again.
KH: Davis grounded The Help with her innate grace, dignity and breathtaking talent.
Egregiously Overlooked: Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground, Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn, Jonah Hill in Moneyball, Nick Nolte in Warrior, Christopher Plummer in Beginners and Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
And our winners would be:
CC: I was very impressed by both Hill and Nolte in their respective films but Plummer (who has never won and has only been nominated twice in his long career despite many fine performances) gets my vote for his delicate, inspiring work as a gay man and father coming out late in life.
NC: This is the easiest category, since Plummer’s performance in Beginners overshadowed all of the others for many reasons: it’s “his year”, everyone in the Academy loves him and, most of all, Plummer perfectly captured the wonderment of his late-in-life coming out.
KH: It's a sign of a great performance in a (in my opinion) mediocre movie that when the character is absent from the screen, you yearn for his return. Such was the case for me with Plummer in Beginners.
Egregiously Overlooked: Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey in Margin Call, Ben Kingsley in Hugo, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Corey Stoll in Midnight in Paris.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Bérénice Bejo in The Artist, Jessica Chastain in The Help, Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs and Octavia Spencer in The Help.
And our winners would be:
CC: Spencer, who so masterfully balanced fear and humor, dignity and remorse in The Help.
NC: Spencer gave an amazing performance, as did her Help co-star Chastain. McCarthy was delightfully vulgar in Bridesmaids and Bejo was the lovely heart of The Artist, but hands-down, my favorite supporting performance of the year was McTeer’s amazing cross-dressing role in Albert Nobbs.
KH: At first, I didn't even recognize McTeer, let alone catch the "twist" about her character until the "big reveal". Next to The Artist's Uggie, she was the biggest scene-stealer of the year.
Egregiously Overlooked: Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Emma Stone and Cicely Tyson in The Help, Shailene Woodley in The Descendants.

The nominees for Best Director are: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo.
And our winners would be:
CC: In an auteur showdown between Malick and Scorsese, at least in my mind, I would vote for the never-won Malick.
NC: The most unexpected pleasure of the year was seeing how Hazanavicius created a brand new silent movie with The Artist and made you actually feel real emotions. This year, he deserves the award for his efforts.
KH: And once again, it's a newcomer -- Hazanavicius -- who takes the prize over the star directors.
Egregiously Overlooked: David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin, Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Tate Taylor for The Help.

The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are: The Descendants, Hugo, The Ides of March, Moneyball and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
And our winners would be:
CC, KH: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's lovely, sensitive adaptation of The Descendants.
NC: I'll go Hugo by John Logan.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, The Help, Jane Eyre, We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are: The Artist, Bridesmaids, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris and A Separation.
And our winners would be:
CC: I wasn't blown away by either The Artist, Bridesmaids or Midnight in Paris, and I haven't yet seen A Separation, so my vote would go to the incisive financial thriller Margin Call by newcomer J.C. Chandor.
NC: The absolute smartest script of the year was Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.
KH: Silence is golden, but dialogue alone doesn't make a script, as Michel Hazanavicius so deftly proved with The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Crazy, Stupid, Love, Take Shelter, Weekend, Win Win.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are: The Artist, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Tree of Life, hands down.
NC: Hugo, with its magical 3D and amazing visuals, trumps all the others.
KH: A tough category, and while The Tree of Life felt at times like a string of jaw dropping images for jaw dropping sake, I'd give it to Emmanual Lubezki for his impressive body of work alone.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, J. Edgar, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The nominees for Best Art Direction are: The Artist, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Midnight in Paris and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: A train station with its giant clock tower, the snowy streets of Paris and Georges Melies' dream factory: it's hard to ignore the gorgeous Hugo.
Egregiously Overlooked: Anonymous, J. Edgar, The Tree of Life, Water for Elephants.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are: Anonymous, The Artist, Hugo, Jane Eyre and W.E..
And our winners would be:
CC: Jane Eyre is the standout for me here.
NC, KH: The Artist had sartorial style and elegance to spare... and in black and white!
Egregiously Overlooked: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Potiche.

The nominees for Best Original Score are: The Adventures of Tintin, The Artist, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: As predictable and mushy as some of John Williams' themes for War Horse are, they also perfectly suited Spielberg's overlong but still-affecting tale of a boy and his steed.
NC: With no words, The Artist relied heavily on its music.
KH: The moody, jazzy score of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Tree of Life.

The nominees for Best Original Song are: "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets and "Real in Rio" from Rio.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: No contest: "Man or Muppet".
Egregiously Overlooked: Where to begin? "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets, "The Living Proof" from The Help, "Star-Spangled Man" from Captain America: The First Avenger...

The nominees for Best Film Editing are: The Artist, The Descendants, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo and Moneyball.
And our winners would be:
CC: Here's the one category I'll go with The Artist.
NC: While I'll go with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
KH: And one more for The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Warrior.

The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We would all be monkey's uncles if we didn't vote for the incredible, primate-friendly CGI in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Egregiously Overlooked: Captain America: The First Avenger, Take Shelter, The Tree of Life.

The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Moneyball, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: This isn't my area of expertise, but War Horse sure sounded great (at least when the people weren't speaking its leaden dialogue).
NC: Again, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
KH: Hugo, ironically considering it too celebrates the silent era.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, Source Code, Super 8.

The nominees for Best Sound Editing are: Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: War Horse, same as above.
NC, KH: The should-have-been nominated more Drive.
Egregiously Overlooked: Rango, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor.

The nominees for Best Makeup are: Albert Nobbs, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Iron Lady.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: The Iron Lady, in which Streep was aged more convincingly than Close was made to look like a man in Albert Nobbs.
Egregiously Overlooked: The Artist, Hugo, Green Lantern.

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.
And our winners would be:
CC: I enjoyed both Puss in Boots and Rango, but I love the steamy Cuban musical-romance Chico & Rita.
NC, KH: We dug the weird and wonderful Rango.
Egregiously Overlooked: Cars 2, Winnie the Pooh.

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are: Bullhead from Belgium, Footnote from Israel, In Darkness from Poland, Monsieur Lazhar from Canada and A Separation from Iran.
And our winners would be:
NC goes with A Separation, while CC and KH abstain.
Egregiously Overlooked: Potiche, The Skin I Live In, Tomboy.

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Pina and Undefeated.
And our winners would be:
CC: Pina is spectacular but If a Tree Falls has a potent, timely message and thereby gets my vote.
NC: Me too with If a Tree Falls.
KH: I'll pass on this one as I was wholly unimpressed with the three I've see so far (Hell and Back, If a Tree Falls and Undefeated, a.k.a. Hoop Dreams Meets The Blind Side).
Egregiously Overlooked: Page One: Inside the New York Times, Project Nim, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, We Were Here.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short are: The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, God is the Bigger Elvis, Incident in New Baghdad, Saving Face and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We were all moved by the devastating and poetic The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.

The nominees for Best Animated Short are: Dimanche (Sunday), The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, La Luna, A Morning Stroll and Wild Life.
And our winners would be:
CC: Out of all of them, I most enjoyed the century-long, chicken-zombie mash-up A Morning Stroll.
NC, KH: A heartwarming valentine to the timeless joys of the written word, we found The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore absolutely enchanting.

The nominees for Best Live Action Short are: Pentecost, Raju, The Shore, Time Freak and Tuba Atlantic.
And our winners would be:
CC, KH: Raju, dramatic and heartbreaking, featuring powerful performances and a timely story.

And now for our own special category of dishonorable mention, the Worst Nomination of the Year:
CC: This is a rare year in which I don't have a strong objection to a particular nominee, but I am highly critical of the Academy's Music Branch for somehow only finding two tunes worthy of inclusion in the Best Original Song category. If they continue to exclude so many contenders, they ought to scrap the category altogether. Loosen up, members! (Hopefully, things will change by next year.)
NC: No other film managed to be as both cloying and insulting to the memory of 9/11victims and survivors as the atrociously Best Picture nominee Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Talented though he may be, I wanted to slap young Thomas Horn many times during the film. And unlike my esteemed colleagues, count me as one of the haters of another Best Picture finalist, The Tree of Life, which I found ponderous and pretentious.
KH: I'm still flabbergasted by the acclaim and now Oscar nomination of Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, a crass caricature of a performance of a tired and slightly homophobic stereotype (the butch gal who, surprise!, isn't a lesbian). That other actresses (see above) weren't recognized instead of McCarthy is a travesty.

And finally, see the comments section below for how we would rank the nine Best Picture nominees, just like how Academy members are required to do when they vote.

Illustrations by Eda Akaltun for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Reverend's Reviews: Down (and Out) in New Orleans

One of last year's most acclaimed documentaries is now available on DVDfrom First Run Features. In the GALECA Dorian Award nominee The Sons of Tennessee Williams, director Tim Wolff uncovers the vibrant history of gay life in New Orleans via the famous "krewes" that participate in each year's Mardi Gras festivities. As a 1950's newsreel report declares at the film's start, "Gay celebrations usher in Lent!" Needless to say, "gay" meant something else to most folks back then.

One participant who has been involved all along states, "You didn't put your lifestyle on the street the way they do today." Indeed, doing so would almost immediately get one arrested. Since Mardi Gras (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday each year) was the only day men could legally cross-dress in New Orleans, it became the city's de facto gay pride celebration at an early point in its history. Many decades later, in the wake of such devastating adversities as AIDS and Hurricane Katrina, the annual balls thrown by long-lived gay groups such as the Krewe of KY(!) and the Krewe of Armeinius are not only hot tickets but have won the respect of the local Black and White, moneyed, straight communities.

Amazing, elaborate costumes are in abundance throughout The Sons of Tennessee Williams but the film's finale -- shot during the Krewe of Armeinius's 40th anniversary ball, at which the theme was "desserts" -- is spectacular. Decoupage patterned on gingerbread, petit fours and New York cheesecake will not only make viewers hungry but are guaranteed to take one's breath away.

Reverend's Rating: B

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

Reverend's Reviews: Mary in Black

The penitential season of Lent begins this week, and Scott Grenke has a lot for which to atone. Grenke is the director, writer, producer and editor of Sister Mary, now available on DVDfrom Ariztical Entertainment. A twisted tale of murder, sexual confusion and religion, the movie isn't so much anti-Catholic as it is criminally unfunny. This is especially unfortunate since Grenke's cast includes comedy heavyweights ANT, Judy Tenuta and Bruce Vilanch.

When a killer wearing a nun's habit begins offing members of the Ex-Choir Boys -- an unapologetically gay Chicago-based music group -- and their "admirers," the city's soap opera-obsessed police chief inexplicably partners flamingly gay Detective Chris Riant (Shaun Quinlan) with the straight, homophobic Detective Mark Rima (James Vallo) and assigns them to the case. The two soon find themselves in over their heads, so FBI Special Agent Peccant (ANT) arrives on the scene to try and set things "straight." They have to contend with Rima's troubling memories of an uber-strict Catholic nun, porn star Brent Corrigan in a confessional booth (and a "Get Some Everyday" t-shirt), and the seediest group of priests seen in a motion picture since 1986's The Name of the Rose.

Sister Mary had great potential but, sadly, Grenke is neither experienced enough nor funded enough to pull it off. The performances in the film are dreadful beyond the name cast members with the exception of Quinlan, who delivers his lines with great comic timing and has great chemistry with ANT. Poor, wasted Tenuta doesn't even get to try to be funny. With only a few, fleeting moments of amusement, sitting through Sister Mary is penance indeed.

Meanwhile, the DVD anthologyBlack Briefs (out this week courtesy of Guest House Films) offers six mostly-worthwhile short films that traffic in darker gay themes. Several of the shorts included made the film festival rounds last year and two of them are award winners.

Remission won the prize for Best Horror Film at the Rhode Island International Film Fest, and it is creepy indeed. Director Greg Ivan Smith orchestrates with aplomb this increasingly frightening ordeal of a cancer-stricken gay man who is separated from his lover at an isolated cabin. As the man and the audience begin to suspect he isn't alone, both are disarmed by his heightened vulnerability. Be warned: The film's finale is plenty disturbing.

QBliss Outstanding Short Film award-winner Communication is adapted from a play about an Orthodox Jew who unexpectedly finds himself the benefactor of his beloved college professor's estate, much to the chagrin of the late academic's longtime lover. Sensitive and moving if perhaps a bit too vague, it alone is well worth the price of the DVD. I also liked Hong Khaou's Spring, which captures an S&M-tinged encounter between a young gay novice and an experienced master. It served as an Official Selection at Outfest, Frameline and NewFest.

The remaining three shorts included in Black Briefs are a mixed bag. Winner Takes All is only fitfully entertaining despite the presence of Alec Mapa and a hunky Latino guy forced to fight another man for the affections of the vain, wealthy hottie they've both been dating. The controversial but potent Promise features a gay couple forced to confront their insecurities and baser instincts the night before their wedding. And Video Night, which co-stars and is co-directed by out actor Jack Plotnick (Down with Love, Straight-Jacket), is a strictly routine captured-on-video thriller a la Paranormal Activity.

Of note, Guest House Films is currently accepting submissions of gay-themed short films, documentaries and feature films for distribution consideration. Queries or links to view submissions online may be sent to briefs@guesthousefilms.com. Black Briefs may be the company's first such compilation but it obviously won't be the last: Blue Briefs, which will spotlight films dealing with the pain that often comes with love, is already slated for release later this year.

Reverend's Ratings:
Sister Mary: C-
Black Briefs: B

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

Reverend's Reviews: Going Crazy

Tourists and locals alike adorent Paris's famed Crazy Horse cabaret. Ranked alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre as a must-see when visiting the City of Lights, the club's burlesque-style celebration of the nude female form has been running strong since its founding in 1951.

Frederick Wiseman's new documentary Crazy Horse, now playing the US art house circuit, gives viewers an unparalleled backstage look at the production. Not unlike a Gallic version of the new TV series Smash, the film intersperses extended discussions amongst the show's directors, producers and designers with brilliantly-conceived musical numbers. The best dance showcased here is set in a whirling, airborne hoop illuminated by a stained-glass lighting effect. Other elegantly erotic -- and frequently sapphic -- pieces are featured (the more shadowy interludes often reminded me of Maurice Binder's classic James Bond title sequences), as well as some numbers devoted to pure kitsch/camp.

The central conflict explored by Wiseman is between Crazy Horse's director-choreographer Philippe Decoufle and the production's financiers. After decades of little change, Decoufle wants to shut the club down for an extended period of re-design and renovation. The producers are understandably hesitant, tending toward the old "Why fix something that isn't broken?" argument, but eventually give in. Wiseman uses this showdown to compose a modern chapter in the classic, never-ending saga of art vs. commerce.

Wiseman is a celebrated, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker responsible for 37 documentaries, including the highly-acclaimed Titicut Follies, Public Housing and La Danse-Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris. He tends to let the camera run with an apparent minimum of cuts and filmmaker interference, preferring to use the editing room to focus and finesse his findings. Wiseman's efforts in his latest work to show both the passion and the exacting process behind Crazy Horse gets tedious at times (the film runs well over two hours). Still, Wiseman provides a more thorough, less sensationalistic show business expose than most documentarians before him. Crazy Horse should be required viewing for adult students of direction and choreography for both theatre and film thanks to it's excellent treatment of the critical subject of artistic choices.

I was amused by insiders' frequent references in the film to Crazy Horse as "The Crazy," as well as when they identify talent who seem to have a particular understanding or appreciation of the club's aesthetic as simply "Crazy." Prudes and some gay men may object to the display of women's breasts and genitalia in Crazy Horse (there is a pair of male performers involved in the production but they are clothed). Call me crazy, but those who take issue ought to instead recognize the artistry and appreciate this troupe's dedication to achieving it over 60-plus years.

Reverend's Rating: B+

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

Reverend's Reviews: 2012 Oscar Shorts Round-Up

Flying books, last year's devastating Japanese tsunami, and an actress who famously kissed Elvis only to soon after become a nun figure into the unusual mix of subjects that constitute this year's Oscar-nominated short films. Thanks to Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International, moviegoers in Los Angeles, Orange County and New York at least have the opportunity starting today to view them prior to the Academy Awards ceremony on February 26th. Some are also available online.

Whereas each year's Live Action Short and Animated Short nominees have been released theatrically for several years now, this is only the second year that the candidates for Best Documentary Short have been made available. Alas, two of the latter -- God is the Bigger Elvis and Saving Face -- weren't available online beforehand for review. I am most interested in God is the Bigger Elvis, which recounts the vocational journey of Dolores Hart. Hart co-starred with Elvis Presley in 1957's Loving You and the following year's King Creole, and she made several other movies with such leading men as Montgomery Clift, Robert Wagner and George Hamilton. She left Hollywood, however, in 1963 in order to become a Roman Catholic nun. Today, Hart is better known as Reverend Mother and Prioress of her abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Interestingly, she remains a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is therefore the only nun who gets to vote for each year's Oscar winners.

The standout for me among the 2012 nominees for Best Documentary Short and, I believe, the likely Oscar winner is The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Directed by Lucy Walker, it opens with devastating, first-hand video footage of the tidal disaster that swept coastal Japan on March 11, 2011 and killed an estimated 23,000 people. As one family took refuge on a nearby hillside, they recorded houses, school buses and neighbors being washed away. Subsequent accounts by survivors and rescue workers reveal their still-fresh grief, less than a year later. As one man tearfully states, "I lost everything that I lived for," including the best friend he watched die.

But the film also shows the re-growth that has already begun even as bodies are still being recovered. Intriguingly, the local cherry trees (many of them well over 100 years old) weren't destroyed and bloomed as usual soon after the tsunami. The trees and their beautiful blossoms, gorgeously photographed here by Aaron Phillips, serve as a potent metaphor for the impacted communities' recovery. Also featuring a Phillip Glass-ish score by alt rocker Moby, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom is undeniably moving and impossible to forget.

Among the nominees for Best Live Action Short is Pentecost. I couldn't avoid checking it out, drawn as I was by both its religious-themed title and plot. It is a very funny tale from Ireland of potential redemption from a Catholic perspective, as a young boy wrestles with his love of soccer and his responsibilities as an altar server. When the local archbishop comes to town for the titular holy day, preparations for Mass are likened to an athletic competition. Catholic liturgists will especially enjoy this one.

Due to a sometimes-weak Internet connection, I was unfortunately unable to watch the remainder of the Live Action Short contenders by deadline. On the plus side, though, I did view all five of this year's nominees in the Best Animated Short category. Disney/Pixar scored their now-seemingly obligatory nomination for the charming La Luna, although the studios' 2011 feature Cars 2 was notably excluded as a Best Animated Feature candidate. La Luna (which will screen with this summer's Pixar release Brave) spins a dialogue-free fantasy in which a boy's father and grandfather teach him the tricks of their unusual trade. As usual with Disney/Pixar, it is beautifully animated.

A Morning Stroll is an enjoyable, stylized romp that spans 100 years and involves zombies (both a phone app version and the real deal) as well as a wily chicken. In the process, the film transitions from black & white to color as well as from hand-drawn to CG. Canada's Dimanche (Sunday), meanwhile, is hand-drawn in a fairly simple style as it follows a child's weekend drive with his parents to church and then to his grandparents' house. Before returning home, he receives an unexpected lesson in the value of life.

This year's Oscar winner will most likely be either Wild Life (also from Canada) or The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (which, the filmmakers proudly proclaim, was made entirely in the great state of Louisiana). The former, subtitled "A Western," follows an Englishman with dreams of becoming a rancher to Alberta, 1909. This bittersweet saga by the talented Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby features lovely watercolor work in addition to frequent usage of Gilbert & Sullivan's classic tune, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General."

The CG exercise in surrealism that is The Fantastic Flying Books... plays like something Salvador Dali and Ray Bradbury might have dreamed up. A withdrawn young man finds himself whisked away in a storm to a magical land populated by, yes, airborne works of literature. There, he finds himself tutored in the ways of life and love by Humpty Dumpty (who, curiously, also has a major role in the Best Animated Feature nominee, Puss in Boots). Touching and nicely scored by John Hunter, the short might just fly away with an Academy Award before all is said and done.

Reverend's Rating: A-

Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation and Live Action at Landmark’s The Nuart Theatre, West LA and Regency Theatres’ South Coast Plaza, Santa Ana.

Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012 Documentary Shorts at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3.

New York Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation, Live Action and Documentary.

Note: Separate admission required for each program.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Boyfriends, Beats and a Beautiful Darling

Tales of romance fittingly dominate this month's new releases on home video, but a documentary about a transgender member of Andy Warhol's "Factory" and a Bollywood-inspired comedy are also worth noting.

Now available on DVDand Video On Demand from TLA is the sexy Finding Me: Truth. A sequel to 2009's Finding Me, it continues to chronicle the romantic successes and failures of a tight-knit group of African-American men and women in New York. The players include Faybien (Raymartell Moore), a young gay man pining for his ex-boyfriend, Lonnie (Derrick L. Briggs); the bisexual Greg, who is carrying on simultaneous relationships with a man and Tammy, the cousin of bf Amera. Attention-hogging Amera, meanwhile, suspects her boyfriend Gabe of cheating on her. And then there is Jay (the late Maurice Murrell, to whom the film is dedicated), Greg's effeminate but buff roommate who is romantically involved with a drug-dealing, bisexual gangbanger.

Filmmaker Roger S. Omeus's technique (he wrote, directed and edited both Finding Me films) has definitely improved, but with such a tight focus on a relatively small cast of characters the drama remains insular and fairly predictable. Still, the characters are likable and well-played, and the cast members attractive. Reverend's Rating : B

What Happens Next, being released on DVDFebruary 7th by Wolfe Video, is a romantic-comedy that explores the budding relationship between two very different men who meet on a park bench. Paul (played by Jon Lindstrom of the long-running soap opera As the World Turns) is a wealthy man in his mid-50's who has just sold his business and retired. Believing himself to be straight but never married, Paul is surprised to find himself attracted to the openly gay and much younger Andy (cute newcomer Chris Murrah). They gradually fall in love, much to the chagrin of Paul's overbearing sister, Elise. Elise is played by the always enjoyable Wendie Malick from TV's Hot in Cleveland and Just Shoot Me.

While the script of What Happens Next -- written and directed by Jay Arnold -- has a pleasing retro sensibility, it is often hard to swallow Paul's plight from today's gay perspective. He is so unaware of his homosexuality initially that Andy seems to be wasting his and the audience's time for the first half of the movie. The performances are good but Paul's too-cute puppy steals the show whenever she appears.  Reverend's Rating: B-

Candy Darling, a popular devotee of artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol during his late-1960's heyday, was born James L. Slattery and was known as "Jimmy" to his family and childhood friends. It wasn't long after Slattery became an adult that he underwent hormone therapy and emerged as the first trans superstar. She inspired Lou Reed's popular songs "(Take a) Walk on the Wild Side" and "Candy Says," and gay great Tennessee Williams created a leading role for her in one of his final plays, Small Craft Warnings.

James Rasin's new documentary Beautiful Darling, out this week from Corinth Films, is an eye-opening account of Darling's unique life and career. It incorporates considerable archival footage of Darling and Warhol as well as Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Kim Novak, plus modern-day interviews with such offbeat luminaries as John Waters, Julie Newmar, Holly Woodlawn and Fran Lebowitz. Actress Chloe Sevigny is also on hand to read excerpts from Darling's diary and other writings.

Unfortunately, the film includes a little too much of Darling's friend and confidante, Jeremiah Newton, who also served as one of the doc's producers. While undeniably caring toward Darling and her legacy, the movie threatens to become more about him than its main subject whenever he appears. Despite this flaw, Beautiful Darling is well worth watching.  Reverend's Rating: B+

I love the genre of fun and funky Indian musicals dubbed "Bollywood." Bollywood Beats, available on DVDthis week, is an enjoyable homage courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures. It is written, directed and partly choreographed by out filmmaker Mehul Shah, who also plays a gay teenager in the movie.

While primarily the story of Raj (dreamy Sachin Bhatt), an aspiring professional dancer, Bollywood Beats features a supporting team of housewives, science geeks and retired women whom Raj helps to discover their own dance abilities. Raj also takes Vincent (Shah) under his wings when the young gay man is kicked out of his home by his homophobic father. This ragtag bunch starts performing at weddings and community events, and soon find themselves contestants in a major dance competition.

The highly enjoyable movie features some great dance numbers, especially its climactic, stylistically impressive "Bollywood through the Ages" sequence. Shah is still developing as a filmmaker and it shows in the film's rough edges but he is definitely a talent to watch, gay or otherwise.  Reverend's Rating: B

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

Reverend's Report: The Year in GLBT Film Begins

Each January, the eyes of everyone in Hollywood turn toward remote Park City, Utah. While skiing may be on the agenda for some, most film industry insiders are curious about the offerings at this year's Sundance and Slamdance film festivals. The concurrent events ending this weekend provide a sneak preview of independent movies that GLBT audiences can look forward to later in 2012. After all, such popular queer-interest films as Pariah, Circumstance, Contracorriente (Undertow) and Quinceniera all debuted at Sundance in the past.

Some of this year's most intriguing GLBT indies that just had their world or US premieres in Park City include:

Unconditional: From British director Bryn Higgins comes this dark, psycho-sexual tale about bored teenage twins, Kristen and Owen, who meet an older man promising them endless love and good times... if Owen becomes his sister.

Love Free or Die: The bluntly-titled biography of openly gay Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson, this documentary provides considerable insight into the many obstacles he has endured as he has tried to serve God's people (including death threats) as well as into his longtime relationship with his devoted partner.

Heavy Girls: A poignant German comedy, in which an overweight "mama's boy" teams with his elderly mother's male caregiver to find her when she goes missing. The two men soon discover an unexpected affection for each other. Heavy Girls won two special awards at Slamdance: a Special Jury Award for Bold Originality and the Spirit of Slamdance "Sparky" Award.

The Invisible War: Not specifically GLBT but nonetheless of interest is the latest eye-opening documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist of Faith, This Film Is Not Yet Rated). He details how an estimated 30% of women and at least 1% of men serving in the US military have been sexually assaulted by their trusted comrades.

Kelly: A young transgender prostitute searches for love and acceptance in a landscape of broken Hollywood dreams in this powerful documentary.

Keep the Lights On: Documentarian Ira Sachs helmed this fictionalized but no less personal account of a gay relationship fueled as much by addiction as attraction. This film was among the finalists in the Sundance Film Festival's US Dramatic Competition.

How to Survive a Plague: A bracing expose of mostly HIV-positive young men and women who took on the medical establishment during the AIDS epidemic's early years. Not unlike last year's We Were Here, this is a revealing and inspiring documentary.

In addition to features, both Slamdance and Sundance showcased a number of GLBT-interest short films. Notable among these were 33 Teeth, about a hormonal boy who becomes fixated on the comb of his hunky neighbor; The Devotion Project: More Than Ever, the moving true story of two men who forged a 54-year romance against tremendous odds; Park, in which a teenage girl living in a trailer park begins a relationship with an older woman; The Thing, by trans filmmaker Rhys Ernst, finds a trans man, his girlfriend and their pee-shy cat on a road trip to see the title oddity; and Andrew Ahn's intuitive, telling Dol, which focuses on a gay Korean-American man's coming of age through the occasion of his nephew's first birthday.

I can't conclude without mentioning the Slamdance Audience Award winner for Best Feature Narrative, Bindlestiffs. It is directed by Andrew Edison, who has the distinction not only of being the youngest filmmaker at this year's fests but of being the grand-nephew of cinema pioneer Thomas Edison (curiously, both Edisons are deaf in their right ears). Tom Cruise's Joel in 1983's Risky Business didn't have anything on the three degenerate youths (one of them played by the director) desperate to lose their virginity in Bindlestiffs. It is crude, gay-ish, bound to offend some and absolutely hilarious. Watch for it and all the great features and shorts showcased in the Mormon capitol this year.

UPDATE: Congratulations to the makers of Love Free or Die and The Invisible War, who are among the award winners of this year's Sundance Film Festival.

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

Reverend's Reaction: 2011 Oscar Nominations

Nostalgia will reign supreme at this year's Academy Awards, judging by the number of backwards-glancing movies announced Tuesday as nominees. The World War I boy-and-his-steed epic War Horse, the valentines to cinema's early years Hugo and The Artist, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (itself a tribute to/critique of nostalgia), and historical dramas The Help, My Week With Marilyn, Albert Nobbs and The Iron Lady fairly predictably dominated the nominations.

I was disappointed that Tilda Swinton's powerful turn in We Need to Talk About Kevin wasn't recognized, as well as by the Academy's neglect of Leonardo DiCaprio's closet-case incarnation of J. Edgar, which was shut out completely. I'm delighted that Terrence Malick trumped both Steven Spielberg and Stephen Daldry among Best Director finalists for his masterful The Tree of Life. Other pleasant surprises for me included the multiple nods for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Best Actor, Screenplay and Score), the phenomenal Jessica Chastain's nomination for The Help, Nick Nolte's inclusion in the Supporting Actor category for the criminally under-seen Warrior, the recognition of J.C. Chandor's smart Margin Call screenplay, and the wonderful Animated Feature nominee Chico & Rita.

But the biggest surprise out of this year's nominations for pretty much everyone is the incredibly weak Original Song category, which consists of a whopping two contenders. For the past six years, best song submissions have to score above a certain percentage as rated by the music branch's members in order to be nominated. Out of more than 80 songs from 2011 releases considered, only "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets and a song from the animated Rio passed muster. What about the delightful, instantly memorable "Life's a Happy Song" from the Muppets' big-screen revival, or the Glenn Close-penned lullaby "Lay Your Head Down" from the genderbending Nobbs, or -- perhaps the most egregious omission -- "The Living Proof" from The Help. With apparently so few qualifying songs in recent years, I believe the time has come for this Academy branch to either relax its criteria somewhat or (gasp) do away with the category altogether.

If the Academy is truly about quality and justice, The Tree of Life, Moneyball or The Descendants will win the Oscar for Best Picture over enjoyable but overrated front runner, The Artist. Well, maybe they'll get it right when next year's 85th annual Academy Awards roll around.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be held and televised on Sunday, February 26th.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Boys and Balls

Most gay men I know tend to avoid sports-themed movies like… well, like sports themselves. We may all be for athletes in their prime but athletics hold appeal for relatively few of us. That being said, Kickoff is a must-see. It is now available on DVDand digital download from Wolfe Video.

This comedy-drama is written and directed by out British filmmaker Rikki Beadle-Blair, who previously helmed such acclaimed GLBT-themed productions as Stonewall, Metrosexuality and Fit. Kickoff takes place entirely on a football (or soccer, to us Yanks) field. It is there that the all-gay Platoon meets an all-straight rival team, the Reapers, for a Sunday competition.

Things quickly devolve into, as one character states, “total non-stop drama-rama.” The issue of gay vs. straight soon becomes secondary, however, to conflicts amongst each team’s members. Among other things, Platoon team captain Archie (the yummy Ian Sharp) freaks out over the fuchsia shorts selected by his partner for the players to wear, and a black male couple discovers they’ve both been having sex on the down low with the same... woman. Meanwhile, the Reapers have to contend with two sparring brothers, one of them a drug addict, and an overly aggressive player who is hooked on steroids.

Very little football is actually played before Kickoff’s finale but that doesn’t stop most of the in-shape, multi-ethnic cast from spending much of the movie shirtless. The script is chock full of Beadle-Blair’s trademark great, snarky dialogue that plays on clichés and stereotypes. While it doesn’t overcome them all, Kickoff could still help advance dialogue between sports-playing members of the gay and straight communities. Sports has probably made stranger bedfellows in the past.

Reverend's Rating: B

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

Reverend's Reviews: Bala to Ballet

Drug trafficking is estimated to be a $40 billion a year industry in Mexico, where most people live on the equivalent of only $2 in US currency per day. No one is immune -- not even children -- from being victimized by the country's pervasive and violent drug cartels, which have seemingly infiltrated the Mexican government itself.

Gerardo Naranjo's hard-hitting Miss Bala, now playing in Los Angeles and New York, provides a discomfortingly intimate glimpse into the complexities of the Mexico-US drug trade. Inspired by a true story, the film focuses on the unfortunate Laura (Stephanie Sigman), a young woman who yearns for beauty pageant victory but becomes the unwitting pawn of a vicious drug lord, Lino (the very impressive Noe Hernandez, previously seen in Sin Nombre and the Mexican HBO series Capadocia).

The scary yet protective Lino initially spares Laura's life during a dance club massacre. Laura feels compelled, however, to find out what happened to her best friend, who was at the disco but is missing post-attack. This brings Laura back into Lino's path. He exacts increasingly dangerous, degrading demands from her even as he works to help Laura achieve her dream of being crowned Miss Bala during a nationally-televised broadcast.

Laura serves as the naive lens through which viewers get an inside look into a dark, all too realistic world. As a character, I found Laura's cluelessness frustrating at times but Sigman's performance can't be faulted. Also worth noting in a brief role is James Russo, memorable as Axel Foley's loving but doomed best friend in 1984's Beverly Hills Cop. Naranjo stages the initial dance club attack, as well as a showdown between police and Lino's cartel in a freeway underpass and the assassination of a federal agent, with effective intensity.

Miss Bala was produced by Y Tu Mama Tambien acting duo Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. It is Mexico's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film in this year's Academy Awards but was excluded from the list of finalists in the category announced last week. Although I can't say I'm surprised by its absence, Miss Bala shouldn't be written off by adventurous moviegoers. It gives new meaning to the term "fashion victim."

From Bala to ballet, Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance is a revealing documentary about the groundbreaking dance troupe. It is having its sold-out world premiere this Friday, January 27th, as the opening night selection of NYC's Dance on Camera film festival and will make its West Coast debut on February 1st at LA's Colburn School. Whether one is a dance fan or not, gay or straight, it shouldn't be missed.

Narrated by Mandy Patinkin and produced, intriguingly, by Harold Ramis of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day fame, the doc relates the biographies of dancer-choreographer Robert Joffrey and his longtime partner, Gerald Arpino, as well as the history of the company they founded. Though their romantic relationship had ended by the time of Joffrey's death from AIDS-related complications in 1987, the two men continued living together and remained virtually inseparable. The film incorporates considerable vintage footage of Joffrey at work in addition to interviews with former members of the company who trained under him. As one of them says of the closeted early years of Joffrey's and Arpino's love affair, "Everyone knew they weren't cousins."

And then there are the fantastic dance segments, past and present, through which the evolution of the Joffrey Ballet's unique mix of classical and modern dance styles are chronicled. They include "The Green Table," an anti-war composition that cemented Joffrey's reputation for daring excellence in the 1960's, and several scenes from the blockbuster, Prince-inspired "Billboards."

The company went through an inevitable period of decline in the wake of Joffrey's death and with the rise of modern masters Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp, but it has more recently rebounded following a move from New York to Chicago and under new leadership. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance serves as a fitting if arguably too brief testament to an art form and its founders.

For more information about these and future US screenings of Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, visit the film's official website.

Reverend's Ratings:
Miss Bala: B-
Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance: A-

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