The Best LGBT Movies of 2015 (part 4) : Lesbian

Last,  but by no means least, in  queerguru's pick of LGBT movies for 2015, here is part four : the very best lesbian films of the year seen through the eyes of a queer man.

1) A Girl At My Door  :   This rather wonderful introspective psychological thriller unfolds at very measured pace with a pitch-perfect nuanced performance as Yeong-nam by Doona Bae (better known to us for 'Cloud Atlas' and 'Sense8').  It is an inspired first feature from Korean writer/director July Jung who is fearless in tackling many social issues that seem even more catastrophic in such a small close knit community like this, but she does so in a restrained and well-thought out manner and is careful not to just let it all simply lapse into melodrama. It's an extremely impressive debut from a country that rarely tackles story lines where the protagonist is LGBT, and deservedly so she picked up three nominations for her efforts when the movie premiered at Cannes Film Festival including one for a coveted Queer Palm Award.

2) Liz In September  : This rather wonderful drama set on a glorious Venezuelan beach has the remarkable advantage of having the beautiful Patricia Velasquez (best known for 'The Mummy' movies and 'The L Word' on TV) as it's rather stunning star.  As Liz the womanizer and good-time girl, she is cool and somewhat serene, and it is immensely rewarding watching her transition to someone who is so surprised and delighted to have fallen in love like this. Her crucial central perfect performance acts as an anchor for this wonderful ensemble of women who fill the screen so delightfully. Even with the inevitably sad ending, the journey to reach that point is such a rich and joyous one.

3). Tig : It's not unusual for comedians to use their stand up routines as a substitute for a session with their therapists as they use their audience to unburden all their woes too. Tig Notaro however went much further than most when she went on stage to do her usual act one night in the Largo Club in L.A. and she simply blurted out to the somewhat startled packed crowd 'I have cancer!' What followed in the next hour was one unprecedented remarkable set where Tig brought everyone up to date with her extraordinary turn of events.  This is heartbreaking documentary of her roller-coaster life in the following year which had to get a great deal worse before it could even start to get better.  But it does and you can eventually put your Kleenexes away.

4) All About E : is an intriguing Australian lesbian movie that ticks a lot of boxes as it is an energetic crime-caper road movie with a beautiful exotic looking heroine with a very romantic streak that has some very sensual girl-on-girl action. This impressive first feature film from writer/director Louise Wadley which packs a lot in, plays really well mainly due to convincing performances of the two female leads Mandahla Rose and Julia Billington who really sizzle together particular in their scenes of intimacy which is a marked highlight of the story.

5) The Summer of Sangaile This second feature from Lithuanian filmmaker Alanté Kavaïté is achingly beautiful with it's lush country landscapes which seems the perfect setting for this gentle coming-of-age story. She captures the sheer innocence of these two young girls who although they come from different sides of the tracks and have opposing personalities, still seem a perfect match. The graphic scenes of intimacy between the two of them have elicited some ill-founded comparisons with the very explicit 'Blue is the Warmest Color'. The Summer of Sangaile is much more innocent on so any levels, and all the better for it too.

6) Portrait of A Serial Monogamist : There is nothing more sadistically funny than watching the opening scenes of a movie witnessing the protagonist dumping her girlfriend of five years. She is just the last new recruit into the ever expanding group of 'exes' that Elsie has managed to accumulate over the years. This rather delightful dramady written and directed by newbie filmmakers Christina Zeidler and John Mitchell has more than its fair share of comedy thanks mainly to a spirited performance by Diane Flacks as the complex and confused Elsie.  She is charming and quick-witted enough to (almost) get away with her rather shabby treatment of other people in her life with her funny barbed comments made straight to camera.

7) Of Girls and Horses : Everyone, including the horses, gets 'found" in this very gentle lyrical coming-of-age tale which is quite a change from German filmmaker Monika Treut who usually opts for much tougher topics for her movies. The pace is slow and unhurried leaving time to soak up the both the rather wonderful countryside, but also the young girl's awakening when they both discover what seems to have been the missing element in both their lives so far.  First class performances from both young leads Ceci Schmitz-Chuh and Alissa Wilms.  The horses were pretty good too.

8) A Gay Girl in Damascus : The Amina Profile : Sandra Bagaria a French Canadian Jewish girl from Montreal went online looking for love.  She thinks she  truck gold when she hooked up with a Syrian/American lesbian called Amina who is currently living in Damascus. What follows in this fascinating documentary is an extraordinary true tale of deception that went way beyond the usual 'enhancing' of one's online profile to snag a partner, into something that had serious and somewhat scary political connotations and so much more.

Woman Pretends To Be Man to Have Sex With a Woman

We never thought when we started queerguru that the infamous UK newspaper 'The Sun' would be a source for a story we would want to cover BUT this tale is so bizarre that it's the stuff that this tabloid paper covers in more depth than other media sources, so here goes.  

Two days ago Gayle Newland a 25 year old girl was in Court in Liverpool charged with five accounts of sexual assault.  Nothing too extraordinary in that alone but Newland had managed to persuade her female partner with whom she penetrative sexual intercourse that she was actually a man.  The two had originally connected online via Facebook where Caucasian Newland was posing as a Asian man named 'Kye Fortune.'

Initially 'Kye' refused to meet up in person but when 'he' did so he insisted that the girl wore a blindfold mask so that she wouldn't see the scars left by car accident. When they had sex Newland used bandages to disguise her female body telling the girl (also 25 years old) not to touch her body and insisting that cancer treatment had left her with muscle wastage, and she simply strapped on a sex toy as a 'male organ'.   'The Sun' also went on to add that Newland also wore a swimming costume and a woolly hat to complete her disguise but didn't actually add how that helped.

The woman happily went along with all of Newland's rules which included 'that she didn’t touch his penis.' but finally dumped Newland after ripping off her blindfold one day and spotting the dildo.'   After the unmasking Newland attempted suicide but still later told the police 'I just felt grateful that I’d finally got a proper relationship.'

Searching for the Last Lesbian Bars in America

BroadlyVice.com host JD Samson travels across the US searching for the last lesbian bars in this fascinating and insightful investigation to try to discover why almost all of them are shutting up shop.  Her journey starts in the queer mega-capital San Francisco where The Lexington the last of the eight women's bars that the city once had, has finally closed.  In Washington the nations capital, Phase 1 a lesbian bar is still open which is good going in year that saw eight gay bars close down in their city alone. The story is no better elsewhere in the other cities that she visits.

Besides the economic factors like crippling rent hikes and the gentrification of inner cities, Samson also discovers that the inevitable changes that are happening owe a lot to the fact that now that the LGBT community is much more accepted and integrated into society as a whole,  the need for our own safe 'spaces' has rapidly diminished.  Danielle Moodie-Mills a Pop Culture Sociologist compares the situation to that of segregation as she points out that had been bad for black people but good for black business, and the moment it was done away with, the situation immediately reversed. 

She discusses other issues like  the stereotype of lesbians moving in after the first date, the rise of the trans rights movement, and the seemingly unstoppable growth of Internet dating.  Samson concludes that change is exciting but leaves question marks over what exactly that may entail for the future.

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/

What's Underneath Daddy Dyke Lea DeLaria?

As part of StyleLikeU's 'What's Underneath Project' actor/comedian/singer Lea Delaria literally reveals all when she talks about being a butch dyke. Never ever having been in the closet, she spills the beans that being 'out' and upfront about her sexuality has not always been easy and she was once hospitalized for three days after being gay bashed in San Francisco in the 1980's.

DeLaria, always something of a pioneer and rebel went from appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show as the first openly gay comedian on national TV to eventually becoming the star of the Award winning 'Orange Is The New Black' (with a stint starring on Broadway in between). Still fiercely funny and outspoken this self-proclaimed 'bad-ass daddy dyke' is never one to mince words in her approach to gay activism or her act which often turn out to be the same thing.

In the video she is asked 'Why is in your body a good place to be?, to which she replies 'What's not to love?' We couldn't agree more even though she jokingly tore me to shreds very hilariously when I was once one of the few men in her audience one night in P.Town. We salute this self-described 'proud fat girl,' and long may she inspire us, and have us in stitches at the same time.

More information @ http://stylelikeu.com

TOP 6 FAVORITE BRAZILIAN GAY MOVIES

Brazilian LGBT movies rank amongst the very best of the genre, winning international Awards and finding enthusiastic audiences all over the world.  Here then are our TOP 6 FAVORITE BRAZILIAN GAY MOVIES.

1) Tied in first place is Daniel Ribiero's debut feature film 'THE WAY HE LOOKS' : a heart-warming coming-of-age tale about Leo a blind teenager who is shocked to discover that his new classmate has eyes for him and not Giovanna his best friend. There is nothing at all extraordinary in the plot-lines of this wee movie, but somehow it has the most endearing quality that makes it so immensely enjoyable time and time again.

Sharing the Number One spot is 'FUTURO BEACH' a mesmerizing melancholic drama from Karim Aïnouz that starts with a drama in the wind-swept beach in Northern Brazil with its unforgiving and untamed ocean which spins into a tale of three man coming to terms with how that day will shape their future.  It ends almost like it begins many years later with the three of them racing down fog-drenched Autobahn Berlin to a stark desolate beach. It's the 'journey' in between when all three realise that life never turns out quite as the predicted. It is unquestionably a real visual treat but more that Aïnouz has a way of imbuing such sensuality into his movies that make them so compelling viewing.

3) In this, his first directing role, writer Hilton Lacerda's wildly exotic tale TATTOO aka Tatuagem is based on a real famous Theater Troupe in the 1970's, and was shot on location in his hometown of Recife. Despite all the bizarre and bawdy scenes of the totally uninhibited performers giving (and showing) their all, this is essentially a rather wonderful and very tender love story.

4) William Hurt created a great deal of controversy for his camp mincing performance as gay window-dresser Luis Molina jailed for having under-age sex in 'THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN'.  He also picked up a Best Actor Academy Award too. Molina is paid by the Brazilian Military Authorities to obtain information from Valentin Arregui a political prisoner who he is sharing his cell with. He treats his cellmate (played by a very young Raúl Juliá) to his dramatic re-enactments of his favorite movies, before he eventually falls in love with him.  This classic melodrama from 1985 has since been described as 'the gay Casablanca'.

5).  Karim Aïnouz gets another spot in our list with Madame Satã his first feature made in 2002. It's a dramatized portrait of João Francisco dos Santos, an outrageous drag queen who was known as Madame Satã and who was a sometime chef, transvestite, lover, father, hero and convict from Rio de Janeiro. A fiery character from a very poor background, Santos didn't grovel for the respect that he saw as his birthright, he demanded it, and he fought for it loudly and violently. It is an totally electrifying performance from Lazaro Ramos that will remain with you for a long time afterwards.

6) Last, but by no means least, we have REACHING FOR THE MOON based on the real life story of the celebrated American novelist Elizabeth Bishop and her affair with her very fiery lover Lota de Macedo Soares a highly successful and wealthy  architect in Rio de Janiero. This highly unusual but very passionate relationship involving two iconic artists makes for very compelling viewing with stunning performances from Brazilian award-winning Soap Opera star Gloria Pires as Lota and Australian actress Miranda Otto as Elizabeth.

WILL THERE BE A LUCKY LESBIAN AT THE OSCARS THIS YEAR?

This Fall sees not one, but three new major independent movies with Lesbian plots being released, and social media is all abuzz that an actress may finally get an illusive ‘Best Actress Oscar’ for going gay. Two of the  movies star two actresses who have already collected their gold Statutes for playing straight, and another two actresses who have already been nominated too, so we are talking Hollywood ‘A’ List, which should guarantee some excellent qualifying performances.

Lionsgate Films caused quite a stir this week when they released the first trailer for ‘FREEHELD’. It is based on the true story of a lesbian couple, Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree who fought for domestic partner rights for same-sex couples a decade ago, helping to pave the way today. After Hester, a police officer in Ocean County New Jersey, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2005, she repeatedly appealed to the County Board to ensure her pension benefits could be passed on to Andree.  

The movie stars last year's Oscar Winner Julianne Moore who has previous played part of a lesbian couple with Annette Benning in 'The Kids Are Alright.’ Benning was nominated for an Oscar and also for a Golden Globe along with Moore, whom she pipped at the post to win. 

In ‘Freeheld’, Moore’s co-star is Oscar Nominated (and out proud lesbian) Ellen Page.  The movie, adapted from Cynthia Wade's 2007 Oscar Winning Short Documentary, is being directed by Peter Sollett from a script written by Roy Nyswaner (Oscar nominated writer for ’Philadelphia’). 

In May the talk at the Cannes Film Festival was all about Todd Haynes’s wonderful new movie ‘CAROL’ starring two-time Oscar Winner Cate Blanchett and Oscar Nominee Rooney Mara as a 1950’s controversial lesbian couple. In a story based on Patricia Highsmith’s ahead-of-its-time novel ‘The Price of Salt’, the women defy all of society’s conventions in this very deep and profound love story. Its premiere was met with a great deal of excitement and rave reviews with both actresses tipped to win the Cannes Best Actress Award, with Rooney finally snatching the trophy in the end. In Press interviews to promote the movie, Blanchett admitted that she had affairs with both women and men in the past which added a whole new frisson to our expectations.

We can see from the trailer that like so much of Haynes's other work (‘Far From Heaven’, Velvet Goldmine’ and the remake of 'Mildred Pierce') that ‘Carol’ is highly visually stunning too, but we will have to wait until this Christmas 2015 to see it for ourselves.  This is however not the first time that openly-gay Haynes has worked with Blanchett, as in his movie on Bob Dylan’s life ‘I’m Not There’ she played a non-specific gender version of the singer, which gained her yet another Oscar Nomination.

In 2007 Blanchett collected her third Oscar nomination for ‘Notes On A Scandal’ in which she played a straight schoolteacher who was being stalked by a closeted lesbian who had designs on her, in another Oscar nominated performance by Judi Dench.  Neither women won.

The final new movie of this trio, and the first one to be released is 'JENNY’S WEDDING', and is by far the weakest.  It stars Golden Globe Nominee Katherine Heigl playing a closeted lesbian who has to come out to her conservative family.  The movie has been playing the Film Festival circuit this summer and has been garnering indifferent reviews for both the movie, and Heigl in particular.  Some even went as far to note that they thought she was playing ‘gay’ to try and revive her flagging career which is in the doldrums since her last few movies have bombed. From all accounts we shouldn’t expect to see her at any Award Ceremonies this year, let alone at the Oscars.

The Academy Awards has a very lame history for honoring both out-gay actors and heterosexual ones who play ‘gay for pay’.  Their record to date can be best described as ‘spotty’, but after some flagrant refusals to give some the Awards that were truly deserved, (think Ian MacKellan in ‘Gods & Monsters’ or Felicity Huffman in ‘Transamerica’ or denying 'Brokeback Mountain' the Best Picture Award, which was so rightly theirs) one has to think it reeks of blatant homophobia.  There are at least a handful of notable exceptions for straight men like Sean Penn for playing Harvey Milk, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Capote, and William Hurt for his role as Luis Molina in 'Kiss Of The Spider Woman', but even so there is no openly gay actor in Oscar’s history who has ever won.  (Technically there is actually now one, as Joel Grey ‘came out’ decades after he had won for 'Cabaret'.)

When it comes to gay women, or those playing gay, then the Academy's score is pathetic.  Right back to 1961 when William Wyler’s classic cult movie version of Lillian Hellman’s play 'THE LITTLE CHILDREN' about two lesbian schoolteachers picked up an unprecedented 5 Oscar Nominations for categories such as Best Costume Design and Best Sound, and even one for young Fay Bainter who played a precious child, but nothing at all for its amazing Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. So far we’ve had Hilary Swank collecting her first Oscar for playing transgendered Brando Teena in 'BOYS DON’T CRY', and Jodie Foster who collected both of her Best Actress Oscars before she came out of the closet.  

We have had more out-lesbians M.C.'ing the Oscars than actually winning Awards and it's way past time that the Academy changed all that.  We will probably still have to wait some time for that to happen, but so far it at least it looks very much like when it comes to playing a lesbian on the silver screen, then this could finally be the lucky year for at least one actress. Maybe even two.

FIRST LOOK AT 'FREEHELD' : ONE OF FALL'S MUST-SEE LGBT MOVIES

Lionsgate Films have just released the first trailer for an exciting new movie scheduled to be released this Fall. 'FREEHELD' is based on the true story of a lesbian couple, Laurel Hester  and Stacie Andree, who fought for domestic partner rights for same-sex couples a decade ago, helping to pave the way to day.

After Laurel Hester, a police officer in Ocean County, New Jersey who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2005, she repeatedly appealed to the County Board   to ensure her pension benefits could be passed on to Stacie.  The movie stars last year's Oscar Winner Julianne Moore and Oscar Nominated (and out proud lesbian) Ellen Page , with Oscar Nominated Steve Carrell playing a LGTB activist to rallies to their cause.

Adapted from Cynthia Wade's 2007 Oscar Winning Short Documentary, the movie is being directed by Peter Sollett ('Raising Victor Vargas' and 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist') from a script written by Roy Nyswaner (Oscar nominated writer for 'Philadelphia' ). The buzz is that this will be one of the best LGBT movies of the year and could see not only Julianne Moore back at the podium at the Academy Awards, but also Ellen Page too.

Click for Trailer (courtesy of Buzzfeed)