Panel discussions:
@ DePaul's Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N Kenmore, 312/362-5862 - "Reel Black Images" w/George Alexander, Donald Bogle and Kimberly Moffitt Oct. 12
Limited runs:
@ Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 312/742-8497: "International Dinner & A Movie" - The Vanishing ( Dutch cuisine served ) Oct. 15; Amarcord ( Italian cuisine served ) Nov. 12; Rashomon ( Japanese cuisine served ) Dec. 10
@ Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W Fullerton, 773/281-4114: The Piano Teacher Oct. 12, 13, 19 & 20; Dog Run Oct. 27
@ Gene Siskel Film Center ( 312/846-2800 ) - Nightclubbing: Live From CBGB's Oct. 10; Film and Video by Elisabeth Subrin Oct. 10; Nightclubbing: Modern Music Oct. 11, 17; Careful Oct. 17; Happy Together Oct. 18, 23, 24; Pandora's Box Oct. 18, 22.
Chicago International Film Festival:
Auto Focus ( Sony Pictures Classics ) --Paul ( American Gigolo ) Schrader directed this uneven bio-pic which is based on Robert Graysmith's book The Murder of Bob Crane. Crane ( played by Greg Kinnear ) is almost as equally well-known for his hit 1960s TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes as he is for the mystery surrounding his brutal murder in 1978. The movie begins in 1964 when Crane, a radio DJ, aspiring drummer and struggling actor, is given a script by his agent Lenny ( Ron Leibman ) for the TV series that would make him a household name. Meanwhile, the teetotaling Crane is battling the inner sexually compulsive demons that threaten to break up his marriage to Anne ( Rita Wilson ) , the mother of his children. The demons eventually take a human form in John Carpenter ( an especially slimy Willem Dafoe ) , an electronics expert employed by Sony. Carpenter, a lady killer with a bisexual streak, opens a door into the sexual underground and the world of video sex for Crane, while plying him with liquor and drugs. Crane's downfall is gradual and ugly and includes two divorces, alienation from his children, embarrassing public scenes, tabloid headlines, and his ultimate inability to find work in his field. Rating: 6.5/10 ( Oct. 12 @ Landmark Century Centre, Oct. 13 @ Music Box )
Bloody Sunday ( Paramount Classics ) --Gritty and realistically filmed in a pseudo-documentary style, Bloody Sunday is a dramatization of the hours leading up to the now famous 1972 peace march by the Derry Civil Rights Association that turned into a bloodbath, resulting in the deaths of 13 defenseless marchers. This stirring and disturbing depiction of events is a cinematic portrait of the unfortunate misuse of military power. James Nesbitt plays Ivan Cooper, an Irish member of Parliament whose dream of having a peaceful march for civil rights deteriorates before his eyes. The British soldiers, who have the responsibility of maintaining order, while also attempting to separate the "hardcore element of hooligans" from the peaceful participants, were totally unprepared for the turn of events that would eventually occur. Writer/director Paul Greengrass attempts to represent both sides of the story, but in all fairness, the bias is towards the Irish. Nevertheless, Bloody Sunday shares the intensity of a film such as Black Hawk Down, but on a much smaller and more intimate scale. Rating: 6.5/10 ( Oct. 9 @ Landmark Century Centre )
The Dancer Upstairs ( Fox Searchlight ) --Versatile actor John Malkovich makes his impressive debut as a movie director with The Dancer Upstairs. Set in a Latin American capitol city, the movie tells the story of police inspector Rejas ( Javier Bardem, who played gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls ) , who is taken off of his assignment doing "diplomatic roadwork" and put on the trail of an "entity called Ezequiel." Ezequiel ( Abel Folk ) is a revolutionary involved in a series of "macabre spectacles" which range from hanging dead dogs from lamp posts strung with signs bearing political messages to a series of bombings and political assassinations. At the same time that Rejas's assignment intensifies, he finds himself losing interest in his wife and marriage and becoming attracted to Yolanda ( Laura Morante ) , his daughter's ballet teacher. Despite a few slow moments, The Dancer Upstairs has nearly as many twists and turns as a modern dance production and reaches a heart-pounding conclusion before the curtain comes down. Rating: 7.5/10 ( Oct. 14 @ Landmark Century Centre )
Exxxorcismos--A sexually graphic gay ghost story, Exxxorcismos was shot on digital film by Mexico-based filmmaker Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, who wrote and directed the feature. Marco Antonio ( Alberto Estrella ) takes a job as a night watchman in a haunted shopping mall so that he can confront the ghost of Pedro ( Jose Juan Meraz ) , his boyhood lover who killed himself there 20 years earlier. In a stagey fashion, Marco Antonio and Pedro each have a chance to tell their star-crossed teen-lovers story, speaking less to each other than to the audience on the other side of the fourth wall. The actors bring a tele-novela quality to characters, their emotions shifting suddenly, and the drama of the failed suicide pact is more schlock than Shakespeare. However, there are erotic elements that tease and titillate, and the spookiness of the haunted mall feels write, so close to Halloween. Rating: 5/10
The Lawless Heart--The Lawless Heart is a Rashomon-meets-Go-style British film that was co-written and co-directed by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger. This touching and powerful motion picture tells the story, from different perspectives, of what happens to Nick ( Tom Hollander, who previously played gay in Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways ) , the surviving male life-partner of Stuart ( David Coffey ) , after Stuart's death by drowning. The story begins, in each telling, with Stuart's funeral. As the sad story unfolds, we learn that Stuart didn't leave a will, and while his sister Judy ( Ellie Haddington ) believes that Nick is the rightful heir, her husband Dan ( Bill Nighy ) , doesn't share her feelings. The remaining residents of the seaside town, including the flaky Charlie ( Sukie Smith ) , Dan's friend Tim ( Douglas Henshall ) , and the philosophical florist Corinne ( Clementine Celarie ) , all cross paths and intermingle their lives, further complicating matters. Under Hunter and Hunsinger's careful direction, the cast brings the pair's genuinely heartfelt words and characters to life, getting to the heart of the matter at its own sweet pace. Rating: 8/10 ( Oct. 14 & 15 @ Landmark Century Centre )
Nights of Constantinople--Directed by Orlando Rojas, this fluffy, but flawed Almodovar-esque farce is set in Villa Florida, a decaying, mansion filled with valuable art, in modern-day Havana. The grandson of a repressive and conservative Cuban matriarch, who is considered to be the "writer in the family," struggles to write an ode for his grandmother's impending birthday after he learns that his novel, Nights of Constantinople, has won a prize for erotic literature. The assortment of characters, including the writer's nymphomaniac sister, the sleepwalking aunt, the ne'er-do-well great-uncle, the zany housekeeper, her gay, cross-dressing choreographer son ( who is also the illegitimate son of the matriarch's ne'er-do-well brother ) , the choreographer's friends, and others, make for comic action. The movie reaches its comedic peak when the desperate characters to try retrieve the paintings that were sold off while the matriarch was comatose, and return them to their proper places on the walls before she comes out of her resting state. ( Oct. 9 & 13 @ Landmark Century Centre )
One Day In August--Written and directed by openly gay filmmaker Constantine Giannaris, One Day In August begins in Athens, Greece, in mid-August. Three families living in the same apartment building leave the big city during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, which is the last holiday of the summer. Michalis, a coke-head, and his girlfriend Sandra, a dressmaker who is having an affair with Michalis's best friend, head for the beach. Costas, an architect, and his wife Katia, a gynecologist/sexologist, are a childless couple, on their way to Katia's late mother's house. Fanis and his wife are taking their children Antonis and Vanessa on a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary, in hopes that they will find a cure for the blood disease that has stricken Vanessa. While they are away, Giannis, a thief, breaks in to each of their apartments. In Michalis and Sandra's apartment, Giannis tries on and falls asleep wearing a wedding gown that Sandra is making for a client. When the police arrive, the wedding-gown-wearing thief flees. Meanwhile, each of the couples must face their own demons. Michalis and Sandra reconsider their futures together, Costas and Katia discuss the possibility of starting a family, while Fanis and his wife come to terms with the possibility of losing their daughter. If you saw Giannaris's previous film, From The Edge Of The City, you will probably remember actor Stathis Papadopoulos, who played male hustler Sasha, and spent a lot time wearing next to nothing. In One Day In August, he plays a hitchhiker picked up by Costas and Katia, and, gratefully, spends most of his on-screen time in a state of undress.
Venus Boyz--Written and directed by Gabriel Baur, Venus Boys is a documentary about drag king culture in New York, which is portrayed as a "journey in search of women who live in between for a night or for a lifetime." Tracing the rise of the drag king scene beginning in 1996 when the young king movement was getting on its feet through the Club Casanova night started by Mo B. Dick ( a.k.a. Mo Fischer ) as well as the significant contributions of Diane Torr and her drag king workshops through present-day issues of transgender identity. Via revealing and emotional interviews, the documentary gives the viewer a first-hand look at the friendships and bonds that develop across drag communities. I also got the impression that Baur would like Venus Boyz to be the Paris Is Burning of its time. As one drag king "televangelist" declared, "Drag kingdom come, thy will be done." Rating: 5.5 ( Oct. 12-14 @ Landmark Century Centre )
In theaters:
Red Dragon ( Universal ) --Directed by Brett ( Rush Hour ) Ratner ( if that doesn't send up a warning flag, I don't know what else possibly could ) , Red Dragon is insulting on so many levels, including the damage done to The Silence Of The Lambs franchise. If the totally unnecessary Hannibal was the Police Academy 2 of the Hannibal Lecter series, then the equally misguided Red Dragon is the Police Academy prequel. Red Dragon leaves several bodies in its wake, literally and figuratively, with Anthony Hopkins's indestructible Lecter as the only survivor. Lecter's psychotic genius character survives because it provides a needed sense of humor to this otherwise ridiculous remake of Michael Mann's far superior Manhunter that takes itself much too seriously. With a mouthful of artificial teeth and too much tattoo ink on his torso, Ralph Fiennes's portrayal of psycho-killer and Lecter lover Francis Dolarhyde is like a cartoonist's rendition of Norman Bates. Emily Watson's blind Reba comes close to matching Joan Allen's original portrayal of the character, but comes up short. Finally, Edward Norton's Will Graham simply isn't convincing. Rating: 4/10
The Rules of Attraction--As sloppy and rancid as your average gorgeous college student after a weekend of drunken and drugged debauchery, Roger Avary's film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's second novel falls somewhere between the stylized, but dated, antics of Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Gertz in Less Than Zero and the slice-and-dice disaster of American Psycho. Punctuated by a series of themed parties ( End of The World, Edge Of The World, and so on ) , a trio of college students--sort-of straight stud Sean ( James Van Der Beek ) , virginal Lauren ( Shannyn Sossamon ) and gorgeous gay geek Paul ( Ian Somerhalder ) --get their real education outside of the classroom, at parties, in dorms, the offices of professors, hotel rooms and the homes of drug dealers. Paul's fantasy stoned seduction of Sean is almost worth the price of admission and it was fun to see Fred Savage wasted, literally, as crack-head Marc, and Faye Dunaway slur her words as Paul's proud, but potted mom. Some camera tricks, including an interesting new use of split screen and backwards motion, also make the movie somewhat attractive. Rating: 6.5/10
White Oleander--The Oscar-caliber performances by the strong actresses in the lead and supporting roles in White Oleander are better than Peter Kosminsky's movie adaptation of Janet Finch's Oprah Book Club selection novel itself. Teenage Astrid's ( Alison Lohman ) life is torn apart when her free-spirited visual artist single mom Ingrid ( Michelle Pfeiffer ) murders her lover Barry ( Billy Connolly ) in a jealous rage. Throughout the course of the story, we follow Astrid as she is shuffled from foster homes to group homes, all the while maintaining a relationship with her complicated mother during her imprisonment. Her brief first stop is in the home of Starr ( Robin Wright Penn ) , a reformed ( read: born again ) stripper and substance abuser who quickly becomes jealous of the attention her live-in boyfriend Ray ( Cole Hauser ) is paying to Astrid and shoots Astrid in the shoulder. Rescued from that scene, Astrid is sent to a group home where she meets Paul ( Patrick Fugit ) , a fellow artist, who, like her mother, will remain the one constant in her life. Astrid is then sent to live with Claire ( Renée Zellweger ) an insecure actress whose marriage to filmmaker Mark ( Noah Wylie ) is on the rocks. It is with Claire that Astrid forms the strongest bond, and it is Claire's death that has the greatest impact on her. After a brief return to the group home, Astrid goes to live with Russian immigrant Rena ( Svetlana Efremova ) , before finally coming to terms with Ingrid and striking out on her own. The movie hints at some of the same-sex activity occurring behind bars during some of the prison scenes and Astrid herself deals with the question of her own sexuality in a surprisingly mature manner. Rating: 7/10
On TV:
In The Life--Hosted by designer John Barlett "America's award-winning, gay and lesbian television newsmagazine series presents a one-hour program consisting of feature stories on: the dog-mauling death of Diane Whipple and the "wrongful death lawsuit and its affect on California law regarding gay and lesbian couples"; an interview with Family Fundamentals documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong; queer house of worship; the hit Broadway musical Hairspray; and Harvey Fierstein's "Out Takes" commentary segment, among other topics. ( Oct. 27 WTTW PBS )
Sundance Channel--
Aimee & Jaguar ( Oct. 12, 18, 31 )
Better Than Chocolate ( Oct. 17, 22, 26 )
Companions: Tales From The Closet ( Oct. 11 )
The Crying Game ( Oct. 16, 21, 24 )
Different For Girls ( Oct. 13, 18, 21, 30 )
The Doom Generation ( Oct. 14, 25, 31 )
Kiss Me Guido ( Oct. 10, 14, 22, 27 )
L.I.E. ( Oct. 18, 23 )
Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 ( Oct. 10, 13, 18, 23 )
Maurice ( Oct. 10, 16, 21, 26 )
The Monkey's Mask ( Oct. 20, 25 )
The Blank Generation--Amos Poe and Ivan Kral's documentary is "as raw and exciting as the music itself, this 1976 documentary captures the heady early days of New York's punk/New Wave scene at its epicenter, CBGB's. Many of the film's performers would go on to achieve legendary status, but here they're just punks: The Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Johnny Thunders, and more." ( Oct. 11 @ 8 p.m. )
Won't Anybody Listen ( Seventh Art ) --More than 10 years ago bisexual singer/songwriter Frank Rogala and his brother Vince left their native Michigan to seek fame and fortune in an L.A.-based rock band called NC-17. If you haven't heard of them, it's because the myth-laden music industry is a treacherous business and documentary director Dov Kelemer attempts to expose the underbelly of the business with this overly long film about dashed hopes and persistence. Through interviews with rock critics, entertainment managers, A&R people from various record companies, rock journalists, entertainment attorneys, and the Rogala brothers' significant others, we are given a warts and all view of near misses and painful sacrifices. Also showing, Wave Twisters. ( Oct. 25 @ 8PM )
National Coming Out Day--"Sundance Channel's celebration of National Coming Out Day brings two Out Loud films that offer uplifting, engaging looks at gay and lesbian life. Nina Bergstrom and Cecilia Neant-Falk's documentary Companions: Tales from the Closet. Companions: Tales from the Closet introduces five lesbians, aged 65-70 who look back on their lives in their native Sweden. With great clarity and humor, these admirable women discuss their experiences from the 1930s to the present day. Writer/ director/actor Jason Gould's bubbly autobiographical short Inside Out in which Gould, the son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould, stars as Aaron, a young man who has to deal not only with being a child of celebrity parents, but a gay child of celebrity parents. Elliot Gould and Christina Crawford offer hilarious support." Companions: Tales from the Closet ( Oct. 11 @ 5 p.m. ) and Inside Out ( Oct. 11 6 p.m. )
