Movies Dearz

Coppola couldn’t do it. Lucas couldn’t do it … twice. Peter Jackson did it, but he had a little help from Tolkien. Now, Pixar has done it, “it” being creating a film trilogy that is completely satisfying from beginning to end.

Coming eleven years after its immediate successor, expectations for Toy Story 3 couldn’t have been higher. Impressively, the Pixar team avoids the dreaded “threequel” curse, giving us a film that is rich with humor, excitement and emotion. Building off of and expanding upon the Toy Story universe, director Lee Unkrich and his crew bring the story to a bittersweet end, earning each and every laugh and tear along the way.


Following a gleeful wild west prologue in the tradition of Toy Story 2’s “Adventures of Buzz Lightyear” opening, we learn that a now-17 year old Andy (voiced, as with all three movies, by John Morris) is on his way to college. This particular right of passage strikes fear in the plastic hearts of Andy’s remaining toys, their fates unknown. Woody (Tom Hanks) tries to reassure Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack) and the others that they will stay together, even if it is as just the proverbial toys in the attic. But when an unexpected chain of events finds them all dumped off at the local daycare center, their futures look bleak.

Or are they? At first glance, it looks like Sunnyside Daycare is a great place for a toy, with a never-ending stream of kids to play with, all under the seemingly benevolent leadership of a strawberry-scented stuffed animal named Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty). But all is not as it seems, and Andy’s toys must make a great escape to get back to the home they belong in, even if that may end up being someplace entirely new ...

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Toy Story 3 on LaughingPlace.com.

UPDATE: Toy Story 3 is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

It's been nearly 41 years since a gallant band of lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender individuals, and drag queens famously fought back against the New York City police department during one of the PD's frequent raids on the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall was a Mafia-owned but very popular watering hole in Greenwich Village (it is still in existence today, sans Mafia). No one could have guessed that the event begun on June 28, 1969 would launch the modern fight for GLBT equality.

Stonewall Uprising (from First Run Features) is an excellent and insightful documentary opening today at the Landmark NuArt Theatre in LA. It is the first movie to draw extensively from vintage film footage and photographs in recounting this historic event. While a fictionalized drama, Stonewall (1995), and the acclaimed doc Before Stonewall (just reissued on DVD) have previously told some of the story, viewers now have a unique opportunity to see and hear from those who were actually there.


While the unexpected death of entertainer Judy Garland a week before and her subsequent funeral in NYC have often been cited as emotional sparks that lit the figurative fire under what would become the Stonewall explosion, there is no mention in Stonewall Uprising of Dorothy as a catalyst. Instead, the 1960's race riots, Vietnam protests, class differences and increased police raids of gay bars during an election campaign are cited as the primary provocations. As one legal commentator in the film reports: "At its peak, 500 people per year were arrested for 'the crime against nature' and 3,000-5,000 people were arrested each year for solicitation and loitering crimes in New York City." Most were gay men or lesbians.

Former police chief and eventual mayor of New York, Ed Koch, confesses to frequent police entrapment of homosexuals during the 1960's. The doc also features a segment in which Detective John Sorenson, then of the Dade County, Florida sheriff's department, lectures an assembly of wide-eyed high school students about the "danger" of "turning queer." As he bluntly informs them, "The rest of your life will be a living hell."


Based on a book about those fateful nights in June 1969 by David Carter and produced by award-winning documentarians Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (Scopes: The Battle Over America's Soul), Stonewall Uprising is an inspiring chronicle of the birth of "gay power." As one participant reflects, "We became a people — brothers and sisters — that night." Other commentators and participants featured in the film are Village Voice reporter Howard Smith, activist John O'Brien and, via excerpts from his reviled CBS report on homosexuality, Mike Wallace.

Perhaps most telling of the progress that's been made since 1969, though, is among the NYC police. A now long-retired officer who barricaded himself in the Stonewall when it became clear the police were outnumbered declares, "It was terrifying; everybody knew (the riots) weren't normal stuff." Today, however, members of the NYPD — GLBT and straight — traditionally march together each June in New York's GLBT Pride parade.

UPDATE: Stonewall Uprising is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

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

The Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights is making its Southern California premiere this summer, running June 22-July 25 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood before moving to the Orange County Performing Arts Center August 3-15.

In the Heights is a celebration of life in a multi-ethnic neighborhood, Washington Heights, in New York City. According to the show’s press notes, “It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.” The original Broadway production won four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Score and Choreography. In addition, its original cast recording won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. In the Heights will soon be a movie musical directed by High School Musical mastermind Kenny Ortega.

The musical’s creator/composer and Broadway star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is set to headline the LA production (but not the OC run). Sharing the stage with him will be 29 of the most talented actors, singers and dancers in musical theatre today. Among them is Wilkie Ferguson, an openly gay, African-American resident of Southern California. Ferguson recently called shortly before a Friday night performance of In the Heights in Denver, Colorado to talk.


“I really love tour life,” Ferguson told me. “I think if someone is going to pay you to travel the country, you should take advantage of every opportunity.”

Prior to In the Heights, Ferguson was a member of the ensembles of such popular musicals as Hairspray, Sister Act, Stormy Weather (starring Leslie Uggams as the late Lena Horne) and Ray Charles Live! He also served as assistant director/piano accompanist for the acclaimed Boys’ Choir of Harlem.

“I grew up as a pianist, but got bitten by the theatre bug in high school,” Ferguson explained. “I got tired of sitting behind the piano unseen!” As one of 11 ensemble members of In the Heights, the actor is “pretty much in everything, since we play members of the Washington Heights community.”


The very handsome Ferguson grew demur when I asked him about his age. “You know actors can’t reveal our true age; Just say I’m of voting age,” he replied, slyly. He has been with the In the Heights tour since its launch last December in Miami, Florida, which happens to be the city of Ferguson’s birth.

“The tour has been fantastically well-received,” Ferguson said, “but a little better received in cities with a large Hispanic population” such as Miami. It has gradually been making its way west to California.

I asked Ferguson whether there is any GLBT content or message in the show. “Absolutely,” he replied. “The main storyline is a universal message about family and finding where you belong. There is a subplot involving an African-American man in love with a Hispanic woman and the challenges they encounter that GLBT people can definitely identify with.”


In addition to talking about In the Heights, Ferguson spoke fondly of his time touring in Hairspray — saying “That was fantastic!” — as well as being a part of the Pasadena Playhouse’s world premiere of Sister Act. He described the latter, adapted from the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie, as “Amazing, and a different experience since I was in on the development of the show. But it was tiring, since there were 15 different shows (between changes and additions to it) during the course of development.” The Sister Act musical has since become a huge success in London, and may eventually play on Broadway.

Ferguson confessed that it can be challenging to maintain a relationship while on the road, especially when his significant other is a fellow actor. “We’ve been happily together for about four years now,” he shared. “It was difficult at first (to be apart because of the In the Heights tour) but we’ve adjusted well. Our rule is we don’t go more than three weeks without seeing each other, so we’re racking up the frequent flyer miles!”

Not so long ago, to be black and openly gay in the performing arts was often seen as a double liability, not a benefit. Fortunately, things have changed, enabling Wilkie Ferguson and other talented black GLBT artists to excel. Don’t miss out on the chance to see some of them in action this summer while In the Heights is in your vicinity. For additional information or to purchase tickets, the official In the Heights website.

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

It's hard to believe that it has been two years since the first legal same-sex marriages took place in the state of California. Sadly, euphoria turned to disappointment a mere five months later, when voters approved the insidious Proposition 8 by a narrow margin and took away the right of GLBT couples to marry.

The new documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition is being released this Friday to commemorate the anniversary of California's short-lived time of marriage equality. The film will debut in 13 major US cities and will be available that same date for On Demand purchase via cable and satellite providers as well as digital download channels.  Also, the DVD is already scheduled for release on July 13.

It is no secret that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (whose members are often referred to as LDS or Mormons, for short) was a major supporter of Proposition 8, both financially and in terms of its leaders encouraging members to vote for the legislation. 8: The Mormon Proposition reveals that Mormon donations accounted for 71% of campaign contributions toward the success of Proposition 8, even though Mormons make up less than 2% of California's population.


GLBT and other protesters stormed the church's Los Angeles temple immediately following the proposition's passage and continued to do so for several weeks. This and allegations against the LDS of overstepping Church-State bounds are revisited in the film. Veteran political consultant Ron Karger appears and terms the overall effort to see Proposition 8 succeed "dirty politics."

What I found new and interesting in the documentary is an unveiling of a Mormon "conspiracy" against same-sex marriage that predates Proposition 8 by over ten years. In 1996, LDS leaders became concerned about efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Hawaii. They secretly began laying the foundation then for a well-organized opposition from the church that would culminate in California in 2008.

8: The Mormon Proposition — which is narrated by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk, Dustin Lance Black, who was raised LDS — is similarly interesting and helpful when it explains the Mormon theology of marriage and the afterlife, which are intimately related. As Black bluntly states, "Gays interrupt the Mormon plan for Heaven," thereby posing a somewhat understandable threat to LDS families hoping for the ultimate, celestial reunion of their members.


As the movie unspools, however, the filmmakers' biases become more evident, to its detriment. According to the film's press notes, director Reed Cowan and many of those behind the camera grew up gay in the Mormon faith. They often experienced bigotry and a lack of acceptance from their own family members, which has resulted in a number of suicides among young, gay LDS men. A couple of these cases of suicide are detailed in the film, along with torturous psychological techniques some Mormons have been subjected to in an attempt to "cure" them of their homosexuality.

While GLBT viewers will naturally be sympathetic to the filmmakers and these sad experiences, the detailed recounting of them distracts from the film's main subject. What's more, the unrelenting attack on the LDS church in 8: The Mormon Proposition lets other churches and religious groups that were also heavily involved in promoting and passing Proposition 8 off the hook. There is only one fleeting mention of the Roman Catholic Church's historic partnering with the LDS in opposition to same-sex marriage, and no mention of the various fundamentalist congregations in California that also helped Proposition 8 to succeed. The Mormons did not and could not secure its passage all by themselves, but the film sure makes it look like they did.

8: The Mormon Proposition resurrects a painful period in California's GLBT history. While it is always important to remember the past in our effort to not repeat its disappointments, it is also time to move on and to work together harder than ever for the equal right to marriage in California — and everywhere.

UPDATE: 8: The Mormon Proposition is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

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

Igor Stravinsky's symphony "The Rite of Spring" is best known to moviegoers of my generation as the soundtrack to the dinosaur section of Walt Disney's Fantasia. I was unaware of how groundbreaking the work's premiere staging was in 1913 Paris. At the time, it was dubbed "scandalous" by many who were unprepared for Stravinsky's melding of non-melodic, frequently dissonant orchestrations and pagan-inspired dance rhythms.

The intelligent, sensual new biopic Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (out today from Sony Pictures Classics) opens with a reconstruction of this fabled event, which Coco Chanel attended, and continues to recount the similarly scandalous relationship that developed between the famed fashion designer and the composer. Interestingly but unintentionally, since they were made by different filmmakers, the new movie picks up right where last year's Coco Before Chanel left off.


By 1920, "The Rite of Spring" was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece but Stravinsky was having difficulty writing anything new. He was introduced to the wealthy Chanel at a party and she offered her financial support. Soon, Chanel and the married Stravinsky were engaged in a brief but passionate affair right under the nose of his family in one of Chanel's chateaus.

A bulked-up Mads Mikkelsen (who was the sadistic LeChiffre in the Bond flick Casino Royale) plays Stravinsky, while French actress Anna Mouglalis incarnates Chanel. While the chilly Mouglalis doesn't make as much of an impression as Audrey Tautou did in Coco Before Chanel, Mikkelsen's performance is mesmerizing. His is a largely silent performance, but when he speaks it reveals much about Stravinsky's egocentric struggles with faith ("God tests those He loves the most") and his increasingly superior attitude toward his lover ("You're not an artist, Coco, you're a shopkeeper").


The enthusiastic sex scenes in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky are some of the more graphic in recent memory. Also featured in the film are the gay dancer-choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky — who staged the initial, controversial performance of "The Rite of Spring" — and his patron/lover, Sergei Diaghilev (an amusing turn by Grigori Manoukov). In one scene, Diaghilev is shown interviewing a potential new male secretary, who is required to be in the nude.

Directed by Jan Kounen from a screenplay by Chris Greenhalgh (who also wrote the source novel), the filmmakers' attention to even the most minute period detail is impressive. From its hallucinogenic opening titles to Chanel's obsessive quest to create the perfect perfume (which would become Chanel No. 5), Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is an engrossing portrait of two gifted but flawed legends in love.

Reverend's Rating: B+

UPDATE: Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky 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.

La Mission bursts with passion on screen and from its filmmakers Peter and Benjamin Bratt, and it’s a terrific portrait of the vibrant, gritty neighborhood in San Francisco. Peter Bratt’s script examines Latino neighborhood pride and the machismo instilled in men that both helps them survive yet hurts their relationships with women, and in this case, a closeted gay son (Tempe native Jeremy Ray Valdez).

Che Rivera, played by Benjamin Bratt in a fierce, take-no-prisoners performance, is a flawed man trying to live a good life with his son, Jes. He’s a recovering alcoholic who was in prison, but in his neighborhood, he’s a strong symbol of honor and compassion. He gets off on the wrong foot with his neighbor Lena (played too cool and stiffly by Erika Alexander) — he thinks she’s another hipster trying to take over the neighborhood and she’s annoyed that he parks his gorgeous vintage low-rider in her way. Their tentative relationship is blown apart when Che discovers that Jes is gay and sleeping with an upper class white boy. Jes is defiant and Che is outraged, his machismo called into question by his son’s “perversion”, and the two have an ugly brawl right out in the street. Che kicks his beloved son out and he goes to live with his uncle. An attempted truce is a disaster, and the scandal puts Jes in the sights of a homophobic schoolmate and wannabe gangster, leading to a terrible hate crime.


La Mission is totally immersive, bringing to life the rich low-rider culture and the harsh realities of living in a world that’s changing faster than people know how to handle. Bratt gives his best performance I’ve ever seen, making Che charismatic, powerful, and warm at times, but dark, conflicted and unmerciful at others. Bratt’s utterly real, drawing from real characters he knew growing up in La Mission. Valdez also fully lives in his role of a proud boy scared of his father but determined to be himself whatever the cost.

Some people have criticized Peter Bratt’s script for lines like “You’re dead to me”, oblivious to the fact that a man like Che would utter such clichés he’s grown up hearing. He isn’t a poet, he’s a bus driver, and Bratt makes you feel every ounce of fury, love, frustration and regret that Che is going through.


La Mission isn’t a perfect film, but it is a perfect character study, and I hope that it opens up dialogues in families where culture, religion and machismo cause GLBT kids to be ostracized. Valdez’s Jes doesn’t say the right things either, baiting his dad instead of asking for his love, and I know that young audiences will see themselves in him.

La Mission couldn’t open in Arizona at a better time. Drunk with the power of their Republican majority and Governorship, the lawmakers have enacted some of the most offensive Anti-Hispanic legislation in memory. Peter and Benjamin Bratt and Jeremy Ray Valdez are in town tonight and tomorrow to support efforts to fix the terrible laws. Their film gives a full-blooded life to a culture that is under attack, while at the same time forcing men in that culture to examine their attitudes and perhaps make much needed changes for the good of their families.

UPDATE: La Mission is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

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

The very first gay-themed film DVD collection from a major studio, the Cinema Pride Collection debuts today, exclusively at Amazon.com. The ten movie set from Twentieth Century Fox and MGM Home Entertainment spans over forty years of the best of GLBT cinema and includes:

• The "celluloid closet" classic The Children’s Hour.
• La Cage aux Folles and its American remake The Birdcage.
• The acclaimed dramas My Beautiful Laundrette and Bent.
• Oscar winners The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Boys Don’t Cry.
• Lesbian favorites Kissing Jessica Stein and Imagine Me & You.
• And gay rom com The Object of My Affection.

The Cinema Pride Collection is a perfect way to jump start your GLBT DVD collection; click here to order from Amazon.com.