Movies Dearz

During his first year studying theatre at USC, Texas-born Matthew Montgomery was nicknamed “The Wonder Freshman” for his acting talent and ability to snag major roles in virtually every production. Today, a little more than ten years later, Montgomery is one of a handful of openly gay, consistently working film and theatre actors along with the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Nathan Lane and Neil Patrick Harris.

Montgomery has caught many a queer eye via leading roles in such popular gay-themed vehicles as Gone But Not Forgotten, Long-Term Relationship, Back Soon, Socket and last year’s bittersweet romance Redwoods (all are available on DVD). He is currently starring in Pornography: A Thriller, a creepy murder-mystery that debuted at last year’s Outfest and will be released on DVD in July.

I recently enjoyed a leisurely, wide-ranging chat with the 32-year old Montgomery over coffee in West Hollywood. The actor, who often appears nude in his films, is even better looking in person … despite keeping his clothes on! He laughed and quickly turned red when I reminded him of his “Wonder Freshman” moniker.


“The funny thing,” Montgomery told me, “is that I’m back at USC now, finishing my Bachelor’s degree in theatre.” He dropped out of college after two years, and eight years later decided to return and complete his studies even though he is a successful, working actor.

One wonders what Montgomery’s professors would think of Pornography: A Thriller. The actor states: “It’s kind of a mind f**k of a movie, which is what I said to myself when I read the script and what really attracted me to the movie.”

Montgomery plays Michael Castigan, one-half of a contemporary gay couple that gets caught up in the mysterious, decade-old disappearance of a legendary gay porn star. The film is disturbing for its suggestions of sexual violence, and is potentially confusing to viewers who don’t pay close attention. It is similar in tone and style to such David Lynch productions as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive.


“There aren’t a lot of films out there like (Pornography) — particularly in the gay genre — that push the boundaries and try to think outside of the box,” Montgomery explained. “I was really attracted to the challenge of telling a story in a non-linear way, both from an acting standpoint and from a visual and cinematic standpoint.”

Pornography marks the debut of writer-director David Kittredge, for whom Montgomery has nothing but praise. “For David’s first feature film, he could have easily gone the romantic-comedy direction or tried to tell any kind of easier story, but he chose to take a chance on something that could potentially be polarizing for an audience. I really appreciated that.”

While I believe Pornography: A Thriller can be interpreted as a negative critique of the gay porn industry, Montgomery disagreed. “Some of the criticism that we’ve received is from people who said it’s very admonishing of the porn industry or of people who watch porn in general. Actually, I think the industry of pornography is just the backdrop of the film, and it’s really about how the lines can easily get blurred between fantasy and reality. I think the porn industry here serves as a very universal metaphor.”


I inquired as to Montgomery’s thoughts on another of his movies, Socket, in which he plays a gay man who becomes sexually aroused by electricity. He replied: “The thing that I really loved about Socket is that it was such a blatant metaphor for drug addiction in our community, and I felt that (director) Sean Abley really did such a great job of transcending that into a sci-fi metaphor, something which hadn’t been done before.”

Montgomery gives his two best performances to date, in my opinion, in the soulful romances Back Soon and Redwoods. In the former, he plays a man who becomes an unwitting host for the spirit of a dead woman reaching out to her bereaved husband. As the men grapple to understand their metaphysical situation, they become involved with each other sexually.

“It’s a really bizarre premise,” Montgomery reflected. “That was the second film I did (after Long-Term Relationship) with director Rob Williams. He came to me with the script and I read it and said ‘What is this?’ It was really kind of the opposite of our prior film together, which was a very light, funny, romantic comedy that didn’t take itself too seriously. Back Soon was very much on the opposite end of things, more supernatural and much more serious.”


Montgomery has become involved as a producer of several of Williams’ movies, including Back Soon, 3-Day Weekend and last year’s hit Make the Yuletide Gay. Largely in response to popular demand, they are now in development on Make the Yuletide Gay 2, which will reunite many of the original cast members.

The actor-producer is also prepping three other upcoming films, Role/Play, Finding Mr. Wright and Sticke Figures, the latter of which Montgomery has also written. In Role/Play, Montgomery and his real-life partner, Steve Callahan (who also appears in Pornography: A Thriller), will star as an out gay activist going through one of California's first gay divorces, and a closeted soap-opera star recently outed, respectively. Hiding out from negative media coverage, the two men meet at a secluded Palm Springs resort, where they soon find common ground as they explore the fickle nature of fame in the gay community and the issues facing gay celebrities in the media.

Montgomery and Callahan have also been acting together on the stage in recent months as part of the international tour of Terrence McNally’s controversial play, Corpus Christi. Callahan plays Judas to a gay Jesus, and Montgomery is the apostle Bartholomew. Tour information, including upcoming performance cities and dates, may be found at the official website of 108 Productions.


“It’s a really incredible play,” Montgomery says, perhaps primarily to those who haven’t seen it. “They are also filming a documentary on it.” He is particularly excited that Corpus Christi will be making its West End premiere in London in July, featuring this cast. Montgomery and I joked about whether his West End debut would qualify him to finally complete his college studies. “Can I get some school credit?” Montgomery laughed. “How about a degree? Doesn’t that get me a degree?”

With or without his Bachelor’s, Matthew Montgomery’s star is clearly on the rise in the GLBT independent film industry, the theatre world, and beyond.

For more information about Matthew Montgomery, visit his official website.

UPDATE: Pornography: A Thriller is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Joining the growing canon of movies that challenge traditional Judeo-Christian attitudes toward homosexuality (For the Bible Tells Me So, Call Me Troy, the upcoming Faith of the Abomination) is Ky Dickens' Fish Out of Water, out today on DVD from First Run Features.

Dickens kicks things off by relating her story of coming out as a lesbian while attending Vanderbilt University, a Christian college smack in the Bible belt state of Tennessee. While her conservative sorority sisters first reacted with horror and rejection, the experience led some of them as well as Dickens to explore their long-held but rarely questioned beliefs about GLBT people.


In her effort to get to the root of what the Old and New Testaments really say about homosexuality, Dickens consults various scholars and ministers. Representing the anti-GLBT side is, among others, the increasingly sanity-deficient Fred Phelps. Fortunately, GLBT champions including retired but revered Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong and the fabulous Rev. Amy-Jill Levine more than balance him out.

The film primarily utilizes tongue-in-cheek animation to illuminate the whopping seven passages in the entire Bible that ostensibly address sexual relations between members of the same gender. The acclaimed For the Bible Tells Me So also does so, but Fish Out of Water does it more concisely (the film runs a lean, mean 60 minutes) and, if with perhaps less emotional impact, more entertainingly.


Religion and lesbians also play key roles in Searching 4 Sandeep, one of the movies being shown during the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) that opens tonight. Between IFFLA — which will showcase Bollywood and independent films from Mahatma Gandhi's homeland — and the TCM Classic Film Fest opening Thursday, this is a very busy week for serious Hollywood moviegoers!

Engagingly directed, written and shot by Poppy Stockell, Searching 4 Sandeep recounts the early stages of the filmmaker's relationship with Sandeep Virdi, an Indian woman residing in Great Britain. The two meet through an Internet dating site and quickly forge an intense, long-distance attraction to each other.

The women seem like polar opposites. Poppy is a gregarious, out, Australian recovering from a nasty break-up. Sandeep is closeted, still in college and living with her conservative Sikh parents. Most significantly, Sandeep has yet to have sex or a relationship with another woman.


After an initial, successful face-to-face rendezvous in Bangkok, Poppy flies to England to visit Poppy and meet her family. Things don't quite go according to plan, as ingrained cultural expectations and family values threaten Sandeep and Poppy's delicate situation.

Between Stockell's confessional video style and sometimes-raw emotions on the part of all concerned laid bare, Searching 4 Sandeep is an in-your-face expose of the challenges that arise when differing worldviews collide. It is well worth seeing by GLBT viewers, as are many of the films that will screen during IFFLA's six nights. For more information, visit the festival's official website.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Several of the best-regarded movies, filmmakers and stars of all time will be reunited during the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival. It will run April 22-25 at historic venues throughout Hollywood, including Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is best known as a cable channel showcasing both prominent and more obscure achievements from the film industry’s earlier decades. Mogul Ted Turner launched the network in 1994, and it has grown incredibly popular among both cinephiles and casual viewers alike.


There will be plenty of films and events of GLBT-interest during the festival’s four days. In fact, the TCM Fest will kick off with one of the greatest gay icons of them all: Judy Garland. A newly restored version of the 1954 musical version of A Star is Born, starring Garland and James Mason and directed by the gay-but-closeted George Cukor, will have its world premiere the night of April 22 at the Chinese Theatre. This marks the first major restoration of the film since 1983, and it will feature better picture quality and richer color than ever before.

Two other significant, restored movies that will be included in the festival are Jean-Luc Godard’s sexy, French-New Wave classic Breathless (1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo (who is scheduled to appear) and Jean Seberg, and Fritz Lang's German sci-fi epic Metropolis (1927). The latter will include 30 minutes of recently discovered footage that hasn’t been seen since the film’s 1927 premiere. This North American premiere of the nearly complete Metropolis will be accompanied by a live musical ensemble performing the original score.


Prior to 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, perhaps the grittiest, best-regarded cinematic saga of two men in a mutually caring, tragically doomed relationship was Midnight Cowboy (1969). The first X-rated film to be nominated for, yet alone win, the Academy Award for Best Picture, it stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight as two hustlers in New York City who dream of a better life…together. Gay director John Schlesinger — who won an Oscar for his fine work here — later helmed such GLBT-themed productions as Sunday, Bloody Sunday and The Next Best Thing. Voight will be on hand to discuss the TCM Festival’s screening of Midnight Cowboy.

The excellent 1937 film The Good Earth will receive a rare big-screen presentation during the fest. Star Luise Rainer, who plays a Chinese woman struggling to preserve her home despite numerous obstacles, won the second of two consecutive Best Actress Academy Awards for her memorable work here. Rainer recently turned 100 years old, and she is scheduled to appear in conjunction with the screening.


Director Douglas Sirk — whose lush, melodramatic style was imitated to perfection by gay filmmaker Todd Haynes in 2002’s Far from Heaven — will be represented at the TCM Fest by his classic, racially charged Imitation of Life (1959). The late Lana Turner headlines the movie, but her Oscar-nominated co-stars Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner will be in attendance.

No classic film festival (or gay-themed film festival, for that matter) would be complete without an appearance by “Mommie Dearest” herself, Joan Crawford. The actress’s rarely screened 1941 film A Woman’s Face, directed by the previously mentioned George Cukor, will be shown and will be introduced by Casey LaLonde, Crawford’s grandson.


And, of course, a Hollywood-based celebration of unforgettable movies couldn’t neglect Sunset Boulevard (1950), Billy Wilder’s dark comedy that introduced the world to faded, questionably-sane silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). William Holden co-stars as her assistant/boy toy, and the movie was later musicalized by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’ll be very surprised if the screening audience is able to suppress the inclination to recite Desmond’s final, classic line: “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!”

Funny man Mel Brooks will also be honored during the TCM Festival. He will screen his hilarious 1968 Oscar-winner The Producers (which was itself adapted into a successful stage musical), as well as receive a long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. No word yet on whether The Producers’ over-the-top gay duo, Roger DeBris and Carmen Ghia, will be present as well.

This is but a small sampling of the unique delights in store for festival attendees, GLBT and otherwise. For complete information about the TCM Classic Film Festival and to purchase tickets or passes, please visit its official website.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Take one classic Alfred Hitchcock film, four actors and over a hundred and fifty characters and mix in a large dose of Monty Python and you’ll end up with The 39 Steps, the hit Broadway comedy now on tour. Actor Scott Parkinson plays dozens of characters, both male and female, sometimes during the same scene in the fast-paced farce. Parkinson has played characters as different as the Stage Manager in Off-Broadway’s critically acclaimed Our Town and the scene-stealing Zygote, a misshapen comic clone, in Charles Busch’s hit The Third Story. Other GLBT-friendly roles include Prior Walter in Angels in America, Kenneth Tynan in Orson’s Shadow and his award-winning gender-bending performance as Queen Margaret in Rose Rage.

The 39 Steps was one of Hitchcock’s earliest hits, about Richard Hannay, a man who is roused from his apathetic midlife crisis when a beautiful spy literally falls into his arms. Unfortunately, she has a large knife in her back, and gasps an ominous warning about an evil entity known as "the 39 Steps". Hannay goes on the run to clear his name. It’s pre-WW II England, so the threats are very dire. Dire and hilarious, that is, since the actors use the simplest of set pieces, props and hats to recreate the film’s cross-country locales.


“There’s a back story to the show which is that there’s this provincial English theater company in the 30’s that is sort of low on funds and that is trying to resurrect the careers of some of its actors,” Parkinson explained. “So they decide to put on this production of The 39 Steps, but they only have four actors. The leading man plays just one role, and the leading lady plays all the female love interests, and then there are these two Vaudeville clowns who play every other part. I’m the villain, I’m an old lady Scottish innkeeper, and we take on inanimate objects as well. Whatever they need us to be, they throw us a costume and we’re it. We’re changing costumes right onstage in the blink of an eye, and that’s part of the fun of the evening.”

Parkinson enjoys the challenge of mastering The 39 Steps’ precise comedy every night in a run that’s longer than he’s used to. “It helps when the audiences are having a good time, because obviously we feed off of that energy.” He’s looking forward to returning to Tempe, the tour's next stop, after a run of shows in various southern locations, all of which had cold and rainy weather. “I love Arizona. My parents used to live in Mesa, so I’ve been out there a lot.”


He also loved working with Kathleen Turner and Busch in The Third Story. “I don’t get to do brand new plays very often that are world premieres,” he explained. “It was interesting to do something from the ground up and to watch Charles and Carl Andress (the director) really work and shape that script and to see what we learned from the production in La Jolla, the kind of changes that they made prior to doing the show in New York. To have a front row seat was endlessly fascinating to me. It was great to create this character that was just so bizarre,” he added, revealing that he envisioned the character “as sort of the love child of Vincent Price and Truman Capote” which he then layered with Sal Mineo’s vulnerable performance in Rebel Without a Cause. He loved working with Turner, who replaced Mary Beth Piel for the New York run. “She’s such a legend and she was such a trouper for us. She had some problems with her leg and had to miss a couple of performances, but she came right back and really brought a whole new and different energy to piece.”

Parkinson knows that GLBT audiences will love The 39 Steps. “It’s a very smart, a very literate piece ... it’s very humorous. I think the gay audience appreciates shows that are smart and funny and have a certain style to them. It’s a story about a man feeling “on the outside” in many ways and how he comes to a sense of belonging by the end of the play through his experiences. And there are some great dresses in it.”

The 39 Steps will be performed at ASU Gammage from April 20 to 25.  For more information on the tour, including future dates and locations, visit the play's official website.

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Straight-acting, small town electrician "Handsome" Harry Sweeney (played by Jamey Sheridan, who is probably best known for his 1990's TV appearances on such series as Shannon's Deal, Chicago Hope and Stephen King's The Stand) is surprised to receive a call out of the blue one day from his former Navy shipmate, Tom Kelly (Steve Buscemi). After thirty years of non-communication, Kelly is calling Harry from his deathbed. It seems that both men were involved in a violent attack against a fellow sailor during their time together in the military, something that Kelly is afraid he will be condemned to Hell for if amends aren't made.

Handsome Harry — which is being released this Friday in Los Angeles, NYC and a city or two in Florida — is a unique story of love and regret that illuminates the lengths some will go to in order to deny or cover up the sins of their past, especially if those "sins" are of a homosexual nature. You see, the shipmate that Harry, Kelly and several other sailors beat up, David Kagan (Campbell Scott, no stranger to gay roles after Longtime Companion and The Dying Gaul), was gay ... and it turns out that Harry had more than just a passing friendship with him.


The film, directed by Bette Gordon from a sensitive script by Nicholas T. Proferes, is exquisitely acted by an exceptional cast that also includes Aidan Quinn (most recently seen in The Eclipse), John Savage (The Deer Hunter, Hair), Karen Young (who played Laurel in the 1988 film of Torch Song Trilogy) and Mariann Mayberry. Sheridan's performance, though, provides the movie's strongly-beating heart.

Interestingly, it is revealed that Harry had a goal while in the Navy to become a Catholic priest once his tour was ended. This provides the film with another avenue through which to explore regret and denial, and it turns out to be a timely one with everything that's been going on recently in the Roman Catholic Church related to sex and abuse.

As Tom Kelly says to Harry of their past prior to his death, "We became men together." Handsome Harry serves as a pertinent and powerful indictment of machismo, homophobia and repression.


Also opening this Friday in LA and expanding to other major US cities over the next month is the noteworthy documentary Dancing Across Borders, from First Run Features. It follows the decade-long, international journey of dancer Sokvannara (or Sy, pronounced "See", for short) Sar, who is today a member of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.

Sy was discovered in 2000 by an American tourist, Anne Bass, whose film directorial debut this is. Bass noticed Sy, who was then 16-years old, performing traditional Cambodian dances in a temple in his native city of Angkor Wat. After Bass returned to the US, she remained haunted by Sy's apparent talent. A longtime patron of dance, Bass gradually became motivated to contact Sy's parents and offer to bring their son to New York to study ballet. Fortunately, they agreed.

Dancing Across Borders is compiled from Bass's video footage of Sy's lessons, rehearsals and performances between 2000-2009. It's a rare film that gives viewers the opportunity to watch an artist-in-training pretty much from square one, and Dancing Across Borders does just that. It is amazing to watch Sy's development into the acclaimed dancer he is today.


Bass also includes interviews with Sy's parents, teachers and friends in Cambodia, as well as with his American teachers who include the legendary Olga Kostritzky, Peter Boal and Jock Soto (Soto is the openly gay, Native American subject of last year's similarly fine dance documentary, Water Flowing Together). Philip Glass also appears, performing live as Sy dances to one of his compositions. Of Sy's success, his proud mother notes that "It is his destiny."

In Los Angeles, Dancing Across Borders is being shown as part of the Spring build-up to the 9th annual Dance Camera West film festival in June. The fest will feature other GLBT-interest films, including the LA premiere of Dzi Croquettes.


UPDATE: Handsome Harry is now available on DVD from Amazon.com and Dancing Across Borders is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

There will be more characters than usual roaming around the Disneyland Resort area this week, as the Anaheim Convention Center hosts the inaugural Anaheim Comic Con April 16-18. No doubt, a sizable number of GLBT comic book and pop culture fans will be among them.

One might think the massive Comic Con International held each summer in San Diego would have the southern California market cornered when it comes to superheroes, graphic novels, role-playing games and fantasy movies, as well as related toys and other memorabilia. Not so, according to the Anaheim event’s producer, Wizard Entertainment; as publisher of the pop culture magazine Wizard, the company knows well how keen interest is in more Comic Cons both locally and nationally. Wizard Entertainment presents several other such gatherings across the country each year.


Anaheim’s first Comic Con will be smaller than the San Diego event, but I welcome this as someone who has covered Comic Con International for several years now. Limited convention center space, parking and hotel rooms have made San Diego’s con increasingly difficult to attend. A formal proposal has been submitted to move Comic Con International to Anaheim in the future for at least one year, since the Anaheim Convention Center is a larger facility.

At press time, at least 150 celebrities and pop culture icons were confirmed to appear during the Anaheim Comic Con’s three days. They include Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner; Marvel Comics’ superhero creator, Stan Lee; Oscar-nominated actors Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica and Independence Day) and Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight); The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner; and Ilya Salkind, producer of Superman: The Movie and its first two sequels.


Other celebrities of more specifically GLBT appeal set to attend are the fabulous Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether, both of whom played Catwoman on the campy Batman TV series in the 1960’s (the late Eartha Kitt also served as the show’s feline femme fatale); Star Trek actress and GLBT supporter Nichelle Nichols; The Bionic Woman herself, Lindsay Wagner; Kathy Najimy of Sister Act and Hocus Pocus fame; sexy actor Kaj-Erik Eriksen (The 4400); pop music diva Taylor Dayne; and Linda Blair of The Exorcist, Roller Boogie and Chained Heat fame.

More than 400 exhibitor, celebrity and creator booths will be set up, giving attendees ample opportunity to peruse collectibles and pursue autographs. As at Comic Con International and other such conventions, guests are not only allowed but strongly encouraged to dress in costume as their favorite comic book, film, TV, game or other characters. There will be a costume contest on Saturday, April 17. Please note: There will be children present, so costumes must be kept “PG-13” with no nudity or anything too revealing. I anticipate there will be more than a few costumes inspired by Tim Burton’s current box office hit, Alice in Wonderland.


A feature unique to the Anaheim Comic Con will be a Horror Pavilion. Billed as “a celebration of all things gory and grisly,” the pavilion will feature writers, artists, actors and musicians who have contributed to the horror genre in comics, movies and TV. There are plenty of GLBT horror fans who will want to check the Horror Pavilion out … but don’t do so alone!

For complete information about the event and to purchase tickets, visit the official Anaheim Comic Con website.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

A high school reunion in conservative Helena, Montana is the catalyst for huge revelations in Kimberly Reed’s amazing documentary, Prodigal Sons. Reed’s twentieth reunion marks the first time she has returned to her hometown since leaving and undergoing huge life changes. The film charts her journey reconnecting with her mother and two brothers and trying to reconcile with past rivalries and resentments. Reed does an incredible job of exploring her family’s struggles while shedding light on issues of sibling rivalry, nature vs. nurture, buried homophobia, self-acceptance and reinvention.

If someone wrote a story about the events that occur and secrets that are revealed, no one would believe it — it’s just too far-fetched. If you want to be surprised, read no further. Suffice it to say, Reed was a very different person in high school, the class valedictorian and captain of the football team, and her brother Marc resented her for her success. After suffering a severe head injury at 21, Marc has severe and violent mood swings, which adds a layer of danger to the film. On the other hand, Reed is afraid of how her classmates will react to the fact that she is transgender, and has a girlfriend. Their younger brother Todd moved away to San Diego and came out of the closet. Carol, their mother, is resilient and proud of her children, but she is faced with a terrible choice when Marc’s actions threaten the family.

Reed began the film hoping to chronicle her adopted brother Marc’s experience as he learned of his connection to the immortal Orson Welles and the beautiful Rita Hayworth. She never intended to become a focus of the film, but her story was too insistent to be ignored. How a transgender person accepts her past and learns to embrace parts of her life that she never wanted to remember is so powerful, I wish that Reed could have spent even more time on it. Also, Todd’s story is not explored as fully as I would have liked. Still, Prodigal Sons packs more punch, drama and surprising optimism than most indie dramas could attempt, and you’ll never forget meeting Reed and her extraordinary family.

UPDATE: Prodigal Sons is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.