Movies Dearz

I feel way too old to have spent six hours in the past year or so viewing The Twilight Saga. While it is easy to understand the super-successful supernatural book and movie series' appeal for romance-hungry teenage girls, their shared plot is pretty insipid stuff for anyone over the age of 17.

Obviously, I'm no "Twi-hard." However, my allegiance in the heated teenybopper debate between "Team Edward" (those devoted to the sullen vampire played by Robert Pattinson) and "Team Jacob" (fans of hunky, frequently shirtless werewolf Taylor Lautner) is to the latter. Lautner has charisma that Pattinson sorely lacks, although The Twilight Saga: Eclipse gives Pattinson the opportunity to play a wider range of emotions than in the first two movies. He even gets to smile and laugh! I hope he charged the producers extra.


Kristen Stewart continues to be hamstrung in the central role of Bella. Her expression is most often one of eyes-downcast blankness, but when she becomes concerned or afraid she appears constipated. I'm also increasingly frustrated by Bella's powerlessness at doing anything to help her situation. This isn't Stewart's fault, of course. The character is written as a pawn in the jealous-romantic (and sort of homoerotic, especially during a scene set in a frigid camping tent) rivalry between Edward and Jacob and, by extension, vampires and werewolves.

Edward and Bella get engaged by the end of Eclipse, but not much else happens in the movie. There's a lot of talk about how "a war is coming" to the characters' town of Forks, Oregon thanks to a bloodthirsty band of powerful "newborn" vampires created by Edward's arch nemesis, Victoria (a good but too-brief turn by Bryce Dallas Howard). Every time the film develops momentum toward this showdown, though, it is interrupted by a father-daughter chat, a marriage proposal, or one of Jacob's temper tantrums. And when Victoria's "army" finally arrives, it's maybe a dozen-strong and hardly an imposing force. The "war" is over in five minutes. With all the money the Twilight movies are raking in, couldn't they have afforded to hire some more actors or at least add a hundred or so vampires digitally?


Eclipse isn't awful but, like its two predecessors, it is a largely listless, apathetic affair. The last film, New Moon, perked up in its final half hour thanks to the intervention of some accomplished actors — notably Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning — as evil but humorous members of the vampire ruling class, the Volturi. Fanning reappears in Eclipse but all too sparingly.

There is reason to hope, though, that the upcoming adaptation of the series' final book, Breaking Dawn, will be an improvement over what has come before. Oscar-winning gay screenwriter-director Bill Condon (Gods & Monsters, Chicago, Dreamgirls) has been hired to helm the two-part finale. Maybe he'll give Bella a song or two and finally allow Jacob and Edward to acknowledge their latent attraction to each other!


I'm also happy to announce that another film adaptation from what is currently a truly literate literary phenomenon (no, not Harry Potter) is now hitting movie screens. The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second work — following The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — in the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy. The film version is opening next Friday, July 9, in a number of US cities.

It depicts the continuing adventures of crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (once again played by the very good Michael Nykvist) and the brilliant, abused and vengeful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (the still-excellent Noomi Rapace). Separated for two years, they set out together via cyberspace to take down a ruthless sex trafficker and his cronies. Salander remains fiercely bisexual, and the new film features a steamy tryst between her and her best friend, Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi).


Director Daniel Alfredson took the reins from Dragon Tattoo's Niels Arden Oplev for the sequel. Oplev had a better handle on the technological dimensions of the story and making them exciting for viewers. The first film also had a slightly more engrossing plot, with a decades-old unsolved mystery as its driving force. The Girl Who Played With Fire is essentially two hours of waiting for a "will they or won't they" physical reunion between Salander and Blomkvist. The movie ends in something of a cliffhanger that will presumably be resolved in the third and final film, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which is scheduled for US release this October.

Still, The Girl Who Played With Fire is an effective cinematic take on a book series that has challenging things to say about women and men, sexuality, abuse and power. The Twilight Saga, which purports to cover some of the same territory, are simplistic children's storybooks in comparison.

Reverend's Ratings:
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: C
The Girl Who Played With Fire: B

UPDATE: The Girl Who Played With Fire is now available on DVD and Blu-ray and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse 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.

Get out your tap shoes and leg warmers! This month's Movie Dearest Calendar Wallpaper is all about the dance ... in film, that is.

Join Billy Elliot, Tony Manero, Ren McCormack, Peggy Sawyer and a host of timeless terpsichorean talent for a high-kickin', jazz-handin' July.  Now That's Dancing!

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

After a rocky opening night, during which jubilant post-screening lesbians and rioting Lakers fans threatened to collide on the downtown streets, the 2010 edition of the Los Angeles Film Festival rebounded (no basketball pun intended) and made ten days in a controversial new location an exciting celebration of independent movies.

The fest began on June 17 (which was also the night the LA Lakers won their second straight championship at the neighboring Staples Center) with the Los Angeles premiere of Lisa Cholodenko's lesbian dramedy The Kids Are All Right. Stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo attended, as well as Jane Lynch (Glee) and other celebs. Conspicuously absent was co-star Annette Bening, who also cancelled a press conference I was scheduled to attend the following day without explanation. Several online sources reported on June 18 that Bening's and Warren Beatty's oldest daughter had announced she was planning to have gender reassignment surgery, and that Bening and Beatty were "devastated." May they get over it soon.


Apart from The Kids Are All Right, only a few movies screened during the fest were specified as being of GLBT interest: Eyes Wide Open, the extraordinary Israeli story of two orthodox Jewish men who fall in love with each other (previously reviewed here); Dog Sweat, an illegally-shot Iranian film detailing the romantic/sexual travails of six young people, including a gay man; and Family Tree, which explores a dysfunctional French clan gathered at a sprawling country estate for a funeral.

However, other GLBT-friendly screenings included the LA premiere of All About Evil, a campy horror spoof starring Joshua Grannell (a.k.a. drag diva Peaches Christ), Mink Stole and Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, and Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens, presenting a 25th anniversary edition of his now-classic Pee-Wee's Big Adventure as well as a film he defined as most inspirational to him, 1938's You Can't Take It With You.


The standout film of the festival for me, though, was the eye-opening, heart-wrenching documentary, Lost Angels. Director Thomas Napper follows a number of inhabitants of downtown LA's Skid Row, composed of approximately fifty city blocks (ironically, the festival took place just a stone's throw away). As narrator Catherine Keener informs viewers, "About 11,000 people live on Skid Row, and two-thirds of them have mental illness." Another speaker pointedly states, "We don't institutionalize the mentally ill (in the United States); we criminalize them." Late ex-President Ronald Reagan receives special condemnation for cutting funding to hospitals and other mental illness treatment facilities.

One of the subjects of Lost Angels is Albert "Bam Bam" Olson, an honest and outspoken inhabitant of Skid Row who also happens to be transgender, bipolar and living with HIV. Bam Bam was in attendance at the film's June 25 world premiere (as was Keener, who is gracious and lovely in person) and told the sold-out crowd, "Making the movie gave me a purpose." Napper treats all those he caught on film with respect and dignity, and the result is most affecting.


As I'm a sucker for movies about animals, I also found the festival doc One Lucky Elephant fascinating. Ten years in the making, it recounts the saga of circus producer and ringmaster David Balding to find a suitable home for his aging pachyderm star, Flora. Balding adopted the orphaned baby elephant and cared for her for 16 years. But as she matured, Flora lost interest in performing and Balding was compelled to search for a place where she could live more freely with other elephants.

This proved to be no easy task. After numerous safari programs and zoos fell through, Balding found what seemed to be the perfect sanctuary for Flora in Tennessee. No sooner did Balding leave Flora then she became increasingly anti-social and violent. A self-professed elephant psychologist declared Flora suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder related to the violent separation from her mother and her subsequent circus training. The baffled Balding was barred from ever visiting Flora again, and the film raises interesting questions and concerns not only about the ethical treatment of animals but of the people who devote themselves to their care.


Another standout movie about animals at the fest was Cane Toads: The Conquest. Presented in 3-D, no less, it is director-producer Mark Lewis' follow up to his acclaimed 1988 short film about Australia's non-native amphibians. Introduced from South America in the 1930's in an effort to control sugar cane-destroying beetles, the poisonous toads have multiplied from an initial 100 to nearly 2 billion today. They continue to march their way west across Australia, and no attempt to halt their progress has been successful.

The film takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to what is apparently a serious problem, and one can't help but fall in love with the doggedly persistent creatures of the title. The 3-D effects are unnecessary but fun. Lewis proudly announced during the Q & A after the screening that his film had been dubbed "Avatoad" after its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.


One other movie at this year's LA Film Fest made a significant impression on me: Hello Lonesome. A semi-autobiographical story by writer-director Adam Reid, it conveys six unique individuals' struggles to make a connection with someone else. The relationships forged are surprising, amusing and ultimately moving. One of the characters is based on Reid's sister, who died of breast cancer in 2003.

The cast of Hello Lonesome (which includes James Urbaniak, who voices Dr. Venture on the campy cartoon The Venture Brothers) is excellent, and they were deservedly honored with the festival's Jury Award for Best Ensemble Performance. Other award-winning films were Denmark's A Family (Best Narrative Film), Make Believe (Best Documentary) and Wonder Hospital (Best Animated Short).


This was the first year that the LA Film Festival was moved from its traditional, trendy Westwood location to the new LA Live complex downtown. Despite a few logistical bumps and a bit of initial culture shock (especially for opening night attendees), I thought the new venue worked very well. Also, the film selection, largely overseen by former Newsweek film critic David Ansen, was diverse and of almost-uniformly high quality. I'm already looking forward to what next year will bring!

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

Movie Dearest is launching our very first contest today! Thanks to the generosity of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, one of our lucky readers will receive a free DVD of Tom Ford's critically acclaimed, award-winning A Single Man starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

To enter, all you have to do is send an email with the subject line "I Want A Single Man" to the email address below. Please include the address you want the DVD shipped to along with your full name.


All information received will be kept confidential.  Contest restricted to US residents only please.  The winner will be chosen randomly on Tuesday July 6, the day A Single Man is released on DVD and Blu-ray.

That's next week, so enter now, and good luck!

UPDATE: This contest is now closed; click here for the results.

With the phenomenal success of Toy Story 3, it's very clear that everyone loves Woody, Buzz and the gang. But which of Andy's toys is your favorite?

Make your choice and place your vote in the MD Poll located in the right hand sidebar. Results will be revealed on July 24.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

The classic gay musical La Cage aux Folles recently made history by becoming the first show to win Tony Awards for every single one of its Broadway productions. And now, it has been named your favorite From Screen to Stage show of the 2009-2010 season!

See the comments section below for the complete results.

The Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights (which is making its California debut this week at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles) provides such a genial, romanticized picture of inner-city life in a Manhattan barrio that it makes grittier NYC-based shows like West Side Story and Rent look like the gloomy Long Day's Journey Into Night by comparison.

I actually spent a long weekend a decade ago in the Washington Heights neighborhood celebrated here. While the atmosphere and people were pleasant enough, it was hardly the effervescent, drug- and violence-free setting In the Heights would have viewers believe. I also encountered a number of gay and lesbian Latino residents who, somewhat curiously, aren't represented among the musical's characters.

The most authentic aspect of the production is Anna Louizos' set design. From the moment I entered the Pantages and saw the storefronts and towering apartments above them (which aren't obscured before the show by the curtain), I felt like I was in New York City. Louizos is one of the best designers in theatre today; she also did the impressive sets for Curtains, Avenue Q and Minsky's.

In the Heights has numerous other things to recommend it. The characters are vivid, the songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda (who is recreating his original Broadway performance for the LA production as well as the upcoming movie version) are excellent, and Andy Blankenbuehler's energetic, hip hop-derived choreographic style works much better here than in the recent 9 to 5. Howell Binkley's lighting design also deserves special mention, especially for its impressive evocation of a fireworks display at the end of Act I.

The touring production's cast is attractive as well as talented. In addition to Miranda's engaging presence as rapping convenience store owner Usnavi, standouts include Sabrina Sloan as the object of his affections, Vanessa (Lexi Lawson will play Vanessa starting July 6), Shaun Taylor-Corbett as Sonny, Usnavi's cocky cousin, and Elise Santora as the loving Abuela (Aunt) Claudia. Fine support is given by Jose-Luis Lopez as the neighborhood tagger, David Baida as a seller of frozen confections, and the entire ensemble.

Unfortunately, complex conflicts are largely absent from Quiara Alegria Hudes' book. The most significant are between Nina (played by Arielle Jacobs), who returns home to the barrio after secretly dropping out of Stanford University, and her parents, Kevin and Camila (Danny Bolero and Natalie Toro). To further exacerbate things, Nina falls in love with Benny, an African-American employee of her newly-prejudiced father (a fine turn by Rogelio Douglas, Jr., who was recently seen on Broadway as a flamboyant Sebastian the Crab in The Little Mermaid).


The racial issue, however, is dealt with briefly and is fairly easily overcome, and a winning lottery ticket provides a too-convenient solution to Nina's tuition woes. Otherwise, barrio life is hunky-dory in In the Heights. Sure, everyone needs more money but that's true in every neighborhood nowadays. Usnavi's store window gets broken during a blackout but little of value is stolen.

A more telling indicator of the musical's sunny avoidance of darker, audience-challenging characters and situations may be reflected in the popularity of its LA opening. The virtually full house on preview night consisted mostly of white, affluent theatergoers over the age of 60. There were few young adults and, surprisingly, even fewer Latino/Hispanic people. I suspect In the Heights is too glossy and unrealistic — not to mention unaffordable — for the majority of those it claims to represent.

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