Meryl Streep Sings Very Badly for maybe another Oscar

We hope that for her performance in  the title role of her latest movie Florence Foster Jenkins that Meryl Streep will for once sing really badly.

Directed by Stephen Frears ('The Queen') from a script by Nicholas Martin ('Big Bad World') its the very true story of a tone deaf opera diva who was probably the worst singer in the world. At the beginning of the last century wealthy socialite Jenkins was known for having legions of fans despite the fact that she was unable to hit a high note and it always remained unclear whether opera-goers showed up for her performances out of adoration for the singer or a strong desire to get a good laugh.

Evidently the voice that Jenkins heard in her head was beautiful and her partner and aristocratic manager St Clair Bayfield (played by Hugh Grant) was determined to protect Florence from the truth. Tony winner Nina Arianda, Simon Helberg, and Rebecca Ferguson also star.

Pathe have just released this first trailer of the movie that should be released in theaters in the summer.

Ab Fab The Movie .....coming soon Sweetie darling

The first teaser trailer for one of  the most highly anticipated movies of the year  ..... and certainly the campest  ...Absolutely Fabulous :  The Movie is finally here.  Edina promises that the movie itself is .....'coming soon, Sweetie darling.'   We cannot wait.

The Odd Queer Couple

The overly sensitive politically-correct knives in Hollywood have been sharpened yet once again with the announcement of a new movie to be made about a bickering married gay couple who  are to be played .....surprise surprise .... by two white straight actors.  The dramady 'An Ideal Home' is to be written and directed by Brit filmmaker Andrew Fleming ('Threesome') and will star Steve Coogan (who made 'Hamlet 2' with Fleming)  and Paul Rudd.

Coogan is to play a very outgoing celebrity whilst his husband, played by Rudd, prefers a nice quiet home life.  However their life together is suddenly thrown in to disarray when a previously unknown grandson of Coogan's character turns up on their doorstep out of the blue, and after the couple take him in, nothing is ever quite the same.

Coogan has played 'gay' on the big screen before in Don Roos' 'Happy Endings' and Rudd of course played Jennifer Aniston's gay best friend in the cult classic 'The Object Of My Affection'.

Elvis & Nixon

On December 21st 1970 Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n Roll, turned up at The White House in Washington uninvited and asked to meet President Nixon.  Elvis's luck was in that day as one of the Presidents Aides was a huge fan of the singer and told his boss that such a meeting may help his ever flagging popularity, so Nixon agreed.

What Elvis had come to do was volunteer to be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs as long as he could have an Official Badge.   We're not sure if he got one but before her left that day he gave the President a Colt 45 pistol and some photos of himself.

As looney as this all seems, it is in fact a true story and the iconic photograph taken at the time has subsequently  become the most requested item in history from the Smithsonian National Archives. Now it has become the basis of one of the most highly anticipated new movies of 2016 starring Michael Shannon as Elvis and Kevin Spacey as Richard Nixon.  They do after all have a great deal of leeway with the script as history has seen proved that these iconic figures where not only two of the 20th Century's most important Americans, but they were also both also 'away with the fairies' some of the time too

Here is the first trailer of the movie that will be released in April 2016

From South Of The Border to the Emerald Isle

The LGBT community goes globe trotting more than ever these days with often some very surprising results.  Last week 27 year old Emmie Reek a Brazilian drag performer caused quite a sensation when she performed her version of Adele's One and Only on RTE's The Voice of Ireland TV Show in Dublin earlier this week. Emmie (aka student Emery Modesta) should have been preparing to go back home to marry his Polish fiance but when he got the call from the Producers he delayed the wedding in the hope of becoming Ireland’s next singing sensation.   We think he has a good chance of making it judging by this performance.

Recently two Irish filmmakers made a movie set in Havana, Cuba about a young gay man who really only discovered his purpose in life when he donned a dress to become a rather sensational drag performer.  This rather exhilarating movie called "Viva" was filmed completely in Spanish even though director Paddy Breathnach barely spoke a word of it, and was chosen as Ireland's Official Submission for Best Foreign Film Oscar. Viva  is due to be released in the US in April 2016.

Tilda Swinton gets awfully jealous

Tilda Swinton has reunited with Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino with whom she made the sensational "I Am Love" in 2009 for one the of the most anticipated new 'hot as hell' movies that hit our screens early this summer. Swinton stars as a rock star who is recuperating on an island after throat surgery, Matthias Schoenaerts plays her younger boyfriend, Ralph Fiennes plays one of Swinton’s exes, and Dakota Johnson plays Fiennes’ daughter. Everybody seems to be either sleeping with one of the others or thinking about sleeping with one of the others. Judging by this trailer that has just been released, there is a lot of heavy drama in store for us with this one.

Dane DeHaan as the next James Dean

When we reviewed the star studded 'Kill Your Darlings' movie about the Beats Generation two years ago we wrote 'young Dane DeHaan playing the extrovert Carr with a  career defining performance, stole every scene he was in.'  Since then DeHaan has been in great demand from 'The Devils Knot' to 'The Amazing Spiderman' etc., and he actually has five movies scheduled to be released next year alone.

This December however sees his possibly best performance to date with the opening of 'Life' the story of the relationship between the photographer Dennis Stock and the man whose photos he shot for a front cover story of Life Magazine who was none other than movie star heartthrob James Dean. Directed by Anton Corbijn ('Control', 'A Most Wanted Man') with Robert Pattinson playing Stock, the movie stars Dehaan as Dean.  

When the movie premiered at the Berlin Film Festival it received rave reviews especially for Dehaan. 'Variety Magazine' wrote 'Makeup and mimicry can only take an actor so far when tasked with playing one of the most enduring stars in the cinematic firmament: More crucial is that he have a certain intangible star quality of his own. Such is the success of Dane DeHaan’s magnetic take on James Dean.'

Scheduled to be released in US movie theaters December 5th : we cannot wait.

Chemsex

Chemsex is the name given to the rising phenomenon which refers to the use of drugs in a sexual context. Often referring to group sex that can last for days, the allure of chemsex has lead to many young men being trapped in a vicious circle of sex, addiction and dependence.

Now there is a powerful and potent new film that tells the stories of gay men whose lives have been affected by the crisis; from self-confessed ‘slammers’ to sexual health workers, from those who deny there’s a problem to those who ‘got out alive’. Offering unprecedented access, Chemsex is a brave and unflinching journey into the dark underworld of modern, urban gay life.

Directed by William Fairman of VICE UK and Max Gogarty, the movie is being released by Peccadillo in UK & Irish Cinemas on 4th December 2015, and hopefully globally very soon after that. Watch this space.

The Danish Girl Shines

Whilst the movie The Danish Girl is wowing crowds as it currently plays prestigious Film Festivals around the world and is getting nothing less than rave reviews for its star Eddie Redmayne, there are still mumblings about it's lack of political correctness having a cisgender man playing a transgender women. 'Time Out' even goes so far as to pronounce the movie is 'too conservative' in its approach to this hot button topic.

Now Focus Features have released a second trailer of the movie, and frankly we are even more convinced that Redmayne was THE perfect actor for the role, and are still placing our bet that he will end up being nominated for a possible second Best Actor Academy Award come December. 

Chevalier : May The Best Man Win

An intriguing new Greek comedy pulled of an unexpected coup at the London Film Festival last week beating out a whole host of prestigious new movies to pick up the Best Picture Award.   Directed and co-written by Athina Rachel Tsangari, it is the tale of six male acquaintances who take to the high seas on a private yacht and embark on a rigorous series of personal and physical challenges to see who is the best and worthy of the title 'Chevalier'.

The individual challenges which these man take very seriously range from the farcically mundane, like assembling an IKEA piece of furniture,  to the more highly personal such as when the men verbally arouse each other to compare erection sizes.  It all boils down to simply who is the most macho, something that so many men can and will relate too, although in this instance, the results are highly amusing and positively surprising.

No date has been set yet for the movie's general release : watch this space.

Liz in September : Women's Week Film Pick

For the first ever Venezulean lesbian movie writer/director Fina Torres has made a really wonderful love story, and although it has more than its fair share of tragedy, it is an exceptional heartwarming film.  Starring the beautiful ex-supermodel Patricia Velasquez (from 'The L Word') and an incredible ensemble cast of women, it is a wee gem.

After its successful screening this past weekend at the 7th Annual Fort Lauderdale MiFo Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, it's now heading north to Provincetown where it is part of 31st Womensweek Celebrations. We have chosen it as the 'pick of the week' and here is the queerguru review for Provincetown Community Television (which can also be viewed on our TV channel and Facebook page too)

http://womensweekprovincetown.com/

http://www.provincetowntv.org/

George Clooney gets all dragged up in Hail Caesar

The Triple Oscar Winning Coen Brothers have just released the first trailer of their latest film which sees George Clooney dragging up to play a big 1950's Hollywood movie star in 'Hail Ceaser'.  If that alone is not enough to get you worked up, then we should tell you that it also stars Tilda Swinton as a hard-bitten journalist, Scarlett Johansson in a mermaid costume and Channing Tatum tap dancing on a table

Clooney plays Baird Whitlock, one of the studio's biggest stars, who is kidnapped while shooting a big swords-and-sandals epic also called 'Hail, Caesar'.  In addition to the four names already mentioned, it also features Josh Brolin, Frances McDormand, (aka Mrs Joel Coen), Jonah Hill and hot up-and-comer Alden Ehrenreich.   If you love Coen Brothers when they play funny like in 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Burn After Reading' we think you will love this one too.

Expect to see the movie in theaters in February 2016.

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Gay Cult Classic BIG EDEN is re-released

When the movie Big Eden was released 15 years it instantly became a gay cult classic.  Thomas Bezucha's debut feature film is an decidedly heart-warming old fashioned romance and real feel-good crowd pleaser which picked up nine awards from leading Film Festivals around the country.   The San Francisco Chronicle explained its appeal so succinctly 'Seeing middle-aged, regular fellas get so worked up over each other is a treat'.

Bezuka's story is about Henry a highly successful artist in New York who suddenly has to up and return to his small hometown nestled in the mountains of Montana to look after his sick grandfather who had brought him up.  Back in his roots he starts to re-evaluate his life and although he still has issues with his sexuality (he has still yet to tell his Grandfather) the whole neighborhood have no hesitation in not only accepting him for who he is, but they go out of their way to encourage Henry's potential romance with the hunk native Indian who is silently wooing him.

With such a delightful script in his hand Bezucha managed to cast a bevy of really talented actors starting with Oscar Winner Louise Fletcher, Arye Gross (Adam Green in 'Ellen'), Eric Schweig ('The Last Of The Mohican'), Tim DeKay ('Party of Five'), George Coe ('Kramer vs Kramer') and Nan Martin (Mrs Louder in The Drew Carey Show) which was no mean achievement for a newbie director.  It paid off dividends and made it one of the most successful LGBT movies released that year.

It certainly is one that sits in everyone's memories so the people at Wolfe Video had this bright of bringing out a special 15th Anniversary Edition, complete with a lot of DVD extras.  It will be available October 15th, but meanwhile take a sneak preview of what got us all hot under the collar all those years ago.

We thought this re-release would be the perfect time to catch up and talk to Thomas Bezucha for Provincetown TV to ask him how he came to dream up this fairy tale, or see if in fact he had been Henry himself in real life.

http://www.provincetowntv.org/

https://www.wolfevideo.com/

Lily-Rose the next star in the Depp Family

                                             Lily-Rose Depp for Chanel

It has just been announced that Lily-Rose Melody Depp, the 16 year old daughter of actress Vanessa Paradis and a certain actor whose name she carries, is about to break into movies herself. After stunning the Fashion World with her modeling debut at the Chanel Runway Show this summer, and surprising the LGBTQ community with her statement in regards to her sexuality or gender identity, stating she falls 'somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum', it's obvious we are going to hear a lot more about this stunningly beautiful young woman.

She has just landed herself a part in Stéphanie Di Giusto's upcoming film 'The Dancer' which chronicles the life of American performer Loie Fuller, played by French singer Soko. Lily-Rose will play Isadora Duncan, the 19th century American who revolutionised modern dance but is equally known for her tragic death aged 50 when she got caught up in one of her voluminous chiffon scarves when motoring in the South of France.

Stonewall : a queerguru pick

Out gay director Roland Emmerich was on the receiving end of some very nasty vitriolic abuse by people condemning his new movie outright purely on the first sight of a trailer.  A petition was even drawn up urging people to boycott the movie even though no-one had still actually seen it yet to judge it fairly.  The complaint levied against Emmerich was that he was attempting to re-write a crucial watershed in gay history when the birth of the gay liberation movement was really born.   The trouble with the argument is that actual detail of those nights 46 years ago when the Stonewall riots took place are very spotty to say the least  given that most of the participants were unknown, and a good number died in the ‘80s during the AIDS crisis, but still so many people are claiming that their take on events is the only correct one.  Yet for example, according to historian David Carter in his book 'Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution', Emmerich got the mix of the crowd spot on.

queerguru has seen the movie already and our sister site queertiques carries our full review.  We know that we are one of a handful of critics who actually liked the movie as although Emmerich's fictional narrative is by no means a documentary on the events leading up to that fateful night in 1969 it is a strongly political based drama that will resonate with younger audiences in particular as it gives a real sense of what went down and help paved the way towards social acceptance and equality.

Emmerich's movie is essentially a coming-out-story which many of us can so easily relate too, he just happened to use the Stonewall riots as the background, which is something we all need to be reminded about.

http://www.queertiques.com/2015/09/stonewall.html

Jeffrey Schwarz talks Tab Hunter

Amongst Emmy Award winning director Jeffrey Schwarz's prolific output are four excellent documentaries on iconic gay figures : first it was activist & cinephile Vito Russo, then celebrated porn actor Jack Wrangler, followed by the definitive profile on John Water's favorite actress Divine.  I get to talk to him now about his latest movie on the 50's heartthrob movie star Tab Hunter.

I'm Back You Bastards

The Toronto International Film Festival  is richer than ever this year with so many more World Premieres of new movies that are going to feature high on both queerguru's 'must see' list but also in the nominations for Academy Awards.   One such essential piece of potential glorious silliness is Australian filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse's adaption of Rosalie Ham’s  2000 novel 'The Dressmaker'.   Set in the 1950's its the tale of a highly successful couture dressmaker who suddenly comes back from Europe to her remote home in the scruffy Australian outback to deal with demons from her past ..... the title above are the first words that come out of her otherwise elegant mouth. This quirky comedy-thriller-mystery-horror-revenge saga serves as great vehicle for a wonderful Kate Winslet to stun us and the entire local inhabitants .....which include a cross-dressing Police Sergeant .... in this delightful camp tale that we simply cannot wait to see.  She may, or may not, be a murderer as some people suspect, but the clothes she designs, are however to die for.

The movie will be released in US movie theaters later this year.   

Can I Have Your Number?

Here's a first look at another highly anticipated new movie which will have its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. 'Freeheld' is based on a true story about Police Officer Laurel Hester who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and who wants to ensure that her domestic partner Stacie Andree gets her full official pension after she dies.   With the help of her allies, including her longtime colleague detective Dane Wells and activist Steven Goldstein,  Laurel will do anything she can to support her partner and fight for equality. 

This beautiful love story stars Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, along with Michael Shannon and Steve Carrell and is based on the Oscar winning short documentary and adapted by the writer of Philadelphia and will be in US movie theaters in October.

Marsha P. Johnson : the Queen of Queens : in Stonewall

Seemingly every gay activist has been nosily  jumping on the band to condemn the new fictionalised movie 'Stonewall' based on the evidence of one short trailer and a lot of rumors. Well,  not completely everyone, Larry Kramer the veteran activist and distinguished author of 'The Normal Heart' has responded to the controversy over the new movie in a posting on Face Book and advised the out-gay director Roland  Emmerich not to pay attention to “crazies” who are boycotting the film on the grounds that it whitewashes history.

Now Roadside Attractions the movie's distributors have released a second trailer that introduces the charismatic black transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, (Otoja Abit) who is introduced in the clip as “the queen of queens” and “the only drag queen who’s nice” to a group of young misfits including streetwise Ray/Ramona (Jonny Beauchamp) and new kid in town Danny (Jeremy Irvine).  The P, by the way, stands for “Pay it no mind.”

queerguru is with Mr Kramer on this one and we cannot wait to see the movie when it is released in US movie theaters later this month and then we will really feel qualified to post our opinion on the movie.

Oh Carol!

The Weinstein Company have just released another brand new trailer of one of THE most anticipated new movies coming out this fall. 'CAROL'  is directed by Todd Haynes ('Far From Heaven') and is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith ('The Talented Mr Ripley') and starring Cate Blanchett as an older married women who falls for a much younger one played by Rooney Mara. After its rapturous reception at Cannes Film Festival in May where Mara picked up the Best Actress Award, there has been an Oscar buzz for all the main players, including Haynes, and maybe a Best Picture Nomination too.

The movie opens in movie theaters on November 20th  : we cannot wait.