GAYLETTER

Ira Sachs is one of our favorite directors. Last year we had the chance to chat with him about his last film Keep the Lights On, and it was an enlightened conversation. So needless to say I was super excited to finally get a look at the trailer for his new film Love is Strange. Mossy saw the film at the Tribeca Film Festival and had good things to say.

It stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as Ben and George, a couple who get married after 39 years together. Shortly after the wedding George is fired from his teaching post at a Catholic school “forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing — a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.”

The film will be out in theaters on August 22nd, but it is already received plenty of praise from those who saw it on the film festival circuit (it first premiered at Sundance.) Indiewire called it “a sophisticated take on contemporary urbanity infused with romantic ideals and the tragedy of their dissolution.” 

I’m a sucker for stories about old gay men (random I know). Mike Mills‘ Beginners, a semi-autobiographical film about his father’s coming out in his late 80’s, is still one of my favorite films…of all time. I’m hoping I can add Love is Strange to that list!

Watch the trailer below.

So adorbs!

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You know what movie I loved as a kid…Mrs Doubtfire. For those who haven’t seen it (seriously?) it stars Robin Williams as a divorced man who dresses up as a fat old nanny so he can spend more time with his kids. It’s so silly and funny and was probably my first exposure to drag. I got thinking about that film when I heard that the winner of the last season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Bianca Del Rio, had started a crowd funding page to raise money for a new film, Hurricane Bianca. It’s a comedy about “a New York teacher who moves to small town Texas, is fired for being gay, and returns disguised as a mean lady to get revenge on the nasty town.”

I was sold from that quote alone. The movie was conceived by Matt Kugelman who is also its writer and director. So far they have raised around $60,000, but they have some way to go to raise their intended goal of $175,000. If you’d like to contribute, then now is the time. There’s all sorts of brilliant prizes like personalized voicemail messages and even the chance to be personally insulted by Bianca on her web series. 

 
Below is a short video they created for the campaign.

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Although you may not recognize the name yet, Xavier Dolan at only 25 is poised to become a household name as a filmmaker producing movies in the grandest tradition of the silver screen. The Canadian born actor, writer, and director’s fourth feature, ‘Tom at the Farm,’ which was recently showcased at MOMA’s Carte Blanche film series honoring Miram Karmitz’s independent film company MK2, keeps this promise.

If you’re not familiar with Dolan’s work, much of his films read like extended music videos, with lush slow-motion sequences put to Salvatore Bono songs; but uniquely, here the videos enhance the music (see Dolan’s earlier films ‘I Killed My Mother‘ and ‘Heartbeats‘). There is also ‘Laurence Anyways,’ worth mentioning not least of all as a transgender narrative — although foremost a love story — told with the tenderness such deeply human stories deserve but are often deprived, and with a magic that makes the movie-going experience spellbinding when it’s good (and here it’s really good). The irresistible Melvil Poupaud, who stars as Laurence, makes for another strong reason to watch.

Representing a bit of a departure from these earlier projects, ‘Tom at the Farm’ opens on vistas of Canadian countryside as Tom, bereft of Guillaume, who has suddenly died by some accident that remains a mystery for the film’s entirety, travels to his late lover’s hometown, or farmtown as it were, to pay his respects. But upon his arrival, no one seems to have expected him or to have known of his existence prior. …

I have a bona fide surf fetish. I absolutely dig ALL things surf related-ocean bleach blonde hair and goody trails,shimmering wet suit bulges, waking and baking, Maui sunsets, shooting the tube, the sweet smell of Coppertone and of course the bodies! So, needless to say when I came across this documentary ‘Out In The Line-Up‘ about gay surfers I nearly spilled my load. Since I’m two bloody marys and a bit of waking and baking into my Saturday morning I thought I’d share a succinct two sentence synopsis provided by the filmmakers, “Two gay surfers embark on a global journey to uncover the taboo of homosexuality in surfing. They become part of an emerging community prepared to step out of the shadows of secrecy and create a more open accepting surf culture.” I mean, how cool is that?

Basically there was one guy, David a former state champion (coming to terms with being gay) on one side of the world who hooked up with Thomas living on the other side who was starting to set up the world’s first online community of gay surfers. The two packed their bags and surfed all over the world together making this film in the hope that they change the surf culture and ultimately bring it back to the original principles that I love: freedom of spirit, open mindedness  and a love of the ocean. I only wish their were more duos like Dave and Thomas in other sports arenas (like tennis-hello gays!) …

When the Portuguese filmmaker Antonio Da Silva first downloaded Grindr to his phone in 2010, he saw a puzzle waiting to be put together. The patchwork of faceless body parts serves for a striking image when taken out of context, as London-based Da Silva instantly recognized. “It was funny to see that sometimes the head of a profile pic would sync with the torso of the profile right below,” the director says of the app’s home page. “I was amazed by the puzzle the pictures created on the screen.” The influence that that Grindr puzzle had on Da Silva can be easily charted through the erotic short films he’s made in the four years since his first encounter with the app: there’s the dizzying hardcore depiction of online hook-ups in ‘Mates’; the anonymous sex culture in a London public bathroom in ‘Bankers’; a glimpse into the adoration and sometimes ageist fetishism of older men in ‘Daddies’.

There’s no question that each of Da Silva’s films tap into the erotic potential of male bodies on film with aplomb, but what makes them surpass their mainstream counterparts in gay pornography is the willingness to explore themes in contemporary gay male culture at large, particularly those focused on the way sex has evolved in conversation with the rapid development of technology.

It’s fitting, then, that Da Silva’s latest film ventures back into the kaleidoscopic imagery of phone apps like Grindr. …

I’ve noticed of late that you’re either a huge Gore Vidal fan or you’re not. His politics, biting social commentary endless books and film criticism seems to excite and invigorate or leave one cold. Either way this new documentary ‘Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia‘ by director Nicholas Wrathall that encompasses Vidal’s professional life of more than 50 years is intoxicating no matter what your politics/beliefs.

The film features one-on-one interviews with Gore himself as well as Christopher Hitchens, Tim Robbins, Mikhail Gorbachev, Sting, David Mamet and Norman Mailer, just to name a few. As the press notes so succinctly state “No twentieth century figure has had a more profound effect on the worlds of literature, film, politics, historical debate and the culture wars than Gore Vidal…the last lion of the age of American liberalism.” AND if you didn’t already know he was gay! Enough said, go see this film and and get schooled on all things Vidal, in the very best of ways.

Multiples times at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.  …