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

@ Facets Multi-Media, 1517 W Fullerton, (800) 532-2387: Facets Film School winter courses on the films of Pedro Almodovar (Nov. 19 – Dec. 17) and Marlene Dietrich (Nov. 19 – Dec. 18)

@ Gerber/Hart Library, 1127 W. Granville, (773) 381-8030: The Times of Harvey Milk – Nov. 23; Queersploitation - monthly film series viewing and examining the treatment of homosexuality in some exploitation films of the 70's and 80's. Score – Dec. 11; Vampyr Lesbos – Jan. 8; Thundercrack – Feb. 12.

@ Navy Pier IMAX Theatre, (312) 595-5MAX (5629): Santa vs. the Snowman 3D – Nov. 19 – Jan. 4

In theaters:

Girls Will Be Girls (IFC/SRO) – Girls will be girls, but sadly, drag queens won't. Gay Hollywood continues its fascination with washed-up starlets (see Die, Mommie, Die!) in writer/director Richard Day's parody homage Girls Will Be Girls, which attempts to skewer almost everything from All About Eve to Joey Heatherton. The ironically named has-been Evie (Jack Plotnick) and indentured housemate Coco (Clinton Leupp) are preparing for the arrival of new roomie, the unspoiled (or is she?) Varla (Jeffery Roberson). Also tangled in Evie's sloppy, gin-soaked web is her gorgeous but diminutively hung son Stevie (Ron Mathews), the director of her speci-mercial comeback vehicle (Dennis Hensley), and Varla's late mother Marla (also played by Roberson). Day hauls out tasteless rape and abortion jokes, a festival of flatulence (it's good to know the fart is no longer the sole domain of the straight male), and more pratfalls than the average Sandra Bullock comedy, as if he didn't have enough confidence in his writing and directing skills. Plotnick, Leupp and Roberson inhabit their human cartoon characters as best they can, and look as though they are relieved to have the drag to hide behind.

Elephant (HBO Films) – Working with a cast of mostly unknown teenage actors, out gay director Gus Van Sant has created a fictionalized re-telling of the Columbine High School massacre with skill, subtlety, grace and, a bit of distance. Blonde-haired, good-natured John (John McFarland) is being driven to school by his father (Timothy Bottoms) who is drunk. John convinces his father to let him get behind the wheel so that they will arrive safely. Once at school, John leaves his father sitting in the car and goes to a payphone to arrange to have someone pick him up, making him late for class. After that introduction to John, we meet friendly Elias (Elias McConnell), with his camera around his neck, who is taking pictures of fellow students for a class project. And so it goes, as Van Sant takes viewers on a tour of the high school, without ever being obtrusive, introducing us to various members of the student body. There is gorgeous jock Nathan (Nathan Tyson) and his beautiful, but jealous girlfriend Carrie (Carrie Finklea); Acadia (Alicia Miles), who is off to a Gay Straight Alliance meeting; class nerd Michelle (Kristen Hicks), who refuses to wear shorts to gym class and works in the school library; trio of friends Brittany (Brittany Mountain), Jordan (Jordan Taylor) and Nicole (Nicole George), gossiping about boys and shopping; Alex (Alex Frost), an object of bullies' ridicule; and Alex's best friend Eric (Eric Deulen). What looks like an ordinary day at school suddenly takes a horrifyingly violent turn for the worst when Eric and Alex, dressed in black and camouflage, arrive on campus, with weapons they ordered over the Internet, and systematically begin killing classmates. With the objective being, 'most importantly, have fun, man,' the pair, who shared a kiss while showering together at Alex's house, pick off people as if they were playing a video game. Van Sant's dramatization of these events, which are presented without comment or judgment, are heightened by the way that things can turn on a dime, since we never know how close we are to the precipice. Like his intimate 2002 film Gerry, Elephant's deliberate pacing and ultimately violent ending, allows viewers to experience a variety of emotions, but it also would have been nice to know what Van Sant (who also wrote the screenplay to Elephant) was feeling. (B+)

The Matrix Revolutions (Warner Brothers) – Everything that has a beginning has an end and, thankfully, so does this bloated Wachowski Brothers franchise. As with The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions might be better enjoyed by turning off the sound. From the swarms of vicious sentinels sent by the machines to do the dirty against the human, to the multiple Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving) sent to make the world saving work of Neo (Keanu Reeves) an impossibility, The Matrix Revolutions looks like a science fiction spectacular. But, then the characters open their mouths, and whether it's the 'whoa dude' philosophizing of Reeves's Neo or the mumbo-jumbo of The Oracle (Mary Alice) or the gung-ho machinations of the top human warriors (pick one or pick them all), it's hard to buy what they say, even in a fantastic setting. (D+)

On TV:

here! Pay-Per-View (now available): Sordid Lives; Food Of Love; Circuit; When Boys Fly; The Business of Fancy Dancing; American Waitress, new mexico - 'upbeat documentary' which 'offers a compelling window onto contemporary American life as it examines the iconic profession of waitressing.' - Nov. 23, 27; Last Dance – Documentary about 'the stormy collaboration between legendary author-illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) and the iconoclastic modern dance troupe Pilobolus.' – Nov. 19, 22, 25