Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Knight at the Movies: Baby, it's cold outside!
by Richard Knight, Jr., for Windy City Times
2015-01-28

This article shared 3716 times since Wed Jan 28, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


When the weather outside is frightful—as it is these short, frosty days—that's the time when a film fan like myself gets out the winter movies. It may seem perverse but, baby, when it's this cold outside I like nothing more than to shovel down to the frosty depths of my admittedly vast movie collection for some frigid weather favorites. Some of these blustery season films will be very familiar while others are more obscure. There's enough of an assortment here to keep you entertained as you hibernate until the icicles thaw ( and in between, recommendations for Valentine's Day and some great selections for Black History Month are coming down the pike ).

A few favorites from my annual Frigid Movie Fest:

For the young and young at heart—Let it go ( one more time! ) with Elsa ( voiced by Idina Menzel ), Anna ( Kristen Bell ) and Kristoff ( voiced by Jonathan Groff ) in Disney's delightful 2013 animated musical and instant classic Frozen, then get your flippers tapping to "Boogie Wonderland" with the dancing penguins in 2006's Happy Feet ( and again in 2011's Happy Feet Two ).

Black comedies—Oh you betcha! Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar as the pregnant police detective in Fargo, the Coen brothers' 1996 Minnesota-set crime thriller. The movie inspired the equally dark ( and equally fun ) 2014 FX series of the same name that is loosely ( and very cleverly ) tied to the film. Ryan Gosling gives his best performance to date in 2010's Lars and the Real Girl, the poignant and endearingly odd story of a lonely man slowly coming back to life after he forms a romantic attachment with a sex doll.

Things that go bump in the snow—What film epicurean doesn't know Stanley Kubrick's 1980 chilly, creepy adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining? Unnerving, rather than scary, driven by Jack Nicholson's tremendous, scenery chewing performance, it's the story of a writer, his wife and their psychic son snowbound in a luxurious but haunted hotel high up in the Rocky Mountains. King returned to the frozen climate in the genuinely creepy miniseries Storm of the Century ( 1999 ), about a malevolent stranger who descends upon the residents of a small island just as the worst blizzard in history is striking. Creepier still is 1981's Ghost Story, John Irvin's lavish adaptation of Peter Straub's horror novel with Alice Krige as an avenging spirit determined to take out the four old men ( Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ) who done her wrong in their wanton youth.

Trapped inside with criminals—It's always worth revisiting Rob Reiner's 1990 Misery with Kathy Bates in her Best Actress Oscar winning role as psychotic Annie Wilkes, "number one fan" of a romance novelist played by James Caan whose obsession goes off the rails. Equally fun are the twists and turns in 1987's Dead of Winter, with Mary Steenburgen as an innocent actress caught in some deadly cat-and-mouse games while being kept a prisoner at a snowbound mansion. Harder to find but just as delightful is Patty Duke as a pregnant woman kept against her will by the woman she thinks is her mother-in-law in 1972's You'll Like My Mother.

More movies to watch when it's 10 below:

Sci-fi adventure: Snowpiercer ( 2014 ), The Day After Tomorrow ( 2004 )

Mysteries: Smilla's Sense of Snow ( 1997 ), Young Sherlock Holmes ( 1985 )

Bloodthirsty vampires: Let the Right One In ( 2008 ) and its U.S. remake, Let Me In ( 2010 ); 30 Days of Night ( 2007 )

Ravenous zombies: Dead Snow ( 2009 )

Killer aliens: The Thing ( 1951, 1982, 2011 ), Dreamcatcher ( 2003 )

Documentaries: March of the Penguins ( 2005 ), Chasing Ice ( 2013 ), Encounters at the End of the World ( 2007 )

Comedies: Groundhog Day ( 1993 ), New In Town ( 2009 )

Romance: Winter's Tale ( 2014 ), Mrs. Soffel ( 1984 )

Dramas: A Simple Plan ( 1998 ), Frozen River ( 2008 ), Winter's Bone ( 2010 )

More Groff stuff

Out actor Jonathan Groff, the multitalented cutie pie who stars in Frozen and HBO's queer-themed Looking ( now back in its second season ), starred as a cynical gay writer working as an apple picker in the offbeat 2013 indie feature C.O.G., the first movie to be adapted from the works of essayist David Sedaris.

Love is a bowtie

Love Is Strange's out writer-director Ira Sachs and the films two stars, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina, have teamed up with Tie the Knot, the seasonal collection of neckwear created by Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and husband Justin Mikita, to promote marriage equality. The $25 brightly colored bow ties designed by Sachs and his actors pay homage to their characters and to the iconic Manhattan West Village gay bar Julius which is prominently featured in the movie. Love Is Strange is now out on Blu-ray and DVD; the ties are available exclusively at www.thetiebar.com/jtf .

Upcoming movie calendar

Highlights from films opening in Chicago, Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 ( or available online or OnDemand )

The Loft ( 1/30 )—Five married men ( including out screenwriter-actor Wentworth Miller, James Marsden and "Modern Family's" Eric Stonestreet ) share the title co-op, where each brings his mistress for afternoon delight—until a murdered woman is found there.

Mommy ( 1/30 )—Out French Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan ( see interview with him in this week's WCT ) returns with a film driven by the performances of Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement. Both actresses were stunning in previous Dolan movies —Dorval in I Killed My Mother as the mother of a difficult gay teen ( played by Dolan ) and Clement in the epic Laurence Anyways as the girlfriend of a man transitioning to female.

Seventh Son ( 2/8 )—After shifting release dates multiple times over the past couple of years, this fantasy adventure a la Game of Thrones is finally arriving in theaters. Ben Barnes ( who played the bisexual, morally decadent Dorian Gray in the British version a few years back ) stars but it's the supporting cast that gives this extra interest: Jeff Bridges as a Jedi-type master and gay audience fave Julianne Moore as a vengeful witch.

Jupiter Ascending ( 2/8 )—Another delayed release, this follow-up to the Wachowski siblings critically acclaimed epic Cloud Atlas is a sci-fi space opera starring Mila Kunis as a lowly janitor whose destiny is to rule Earth alongside alien entities from other worlds. Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne and British heartthrob Douglas Booth co-star.

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge Out of Water ( 2/8 )—The beloved children's character and his pals return to theaters in their second movie outing. Antonio Banderas is featured as Burger-Beard the Pirate in live-action and animated segments.

Interested in reading some of my in-depth reviews? The Best of Knight at the Movies: 2004-2014—a compilation book of my film reviews from a queer perspective for Windy City Times—is available through www.knightatthemovies.com .


This article shared 3716 times since Wed Jan 28, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22
- series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21
- It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21
- Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15
- Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08
- Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01
- Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27
- February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


Gay News

SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25
- Queer entertainers made their mark—although not a major one—at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...


Gay News

WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23
- The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23
- At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16
- In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


Gay News

GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07
--From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ JoJo Siwa, Tom Holland, Bowen Yang, Pet Shop Boys, Mariah Carey 2024-02-02
- In the wake of Nigel Lythgoe exiting So You Think You Can Dance, queer personality JoJo Siwa is returning to the series, per Deadline. Siwa, who was a judge on season 17 of the Fox show, will replace Lythgoe, who left ...


Gay News

Leather Archives & Museum announces 2024 Fetish Film Forum 2024-01-27
--From a press release - CHICAGO, Illinois—After a wildly successful inaugural year, including a 10-film series at the Leather Archives & Museum and a 5-film series at FACETS, the Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to announce the continuation of Fetish ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.