Movies Dearz

Have a happy and safe Halloween!
-- from Movie Dearest

When it came to Halloween costume ideas, MD Poll takers opted for the simple this year. After all, to "dress up" like Ryan Gosling a la Crazy, Stupid, Love, all one has to do is wrap a towel around their neck, put on a womanizing smirk and show off their little gosling.

Other top vote-getters were a little more innocent, such as a Harry Potter Hogwarts grad (second place) and a Glee Dalton Academy Warbler (tied for third with a Black Swan ballerina). For the complete results, see the comments section below.

Trick or treat!

Talk about a streak of fame! Robert Opel made Academy Award history when he famously ran naked past presenter David Niven at the 1974 Oscars, which led Niven to quip, “Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" To show how far we haven’t come, this streaking stunt was decades before Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “Nipplegate,” which seems almost quaint in comparison, yet Jackson’s areola ignited much more rabid Right Wing mouth-foaming than Opel’s penis. Opel even got invited to The Mike Douglas Show where the host serenaded him alongside Bea Arthur.

Uncle Bob (available on DVDthis week), as you might guess from the title, is a tribute to the man who gained national fame in an instant, made by his namesake and nephew Robert Oppel. The film is a fascinating look at a man who was a pioneer in gay rights political action, as well as an erotic photographer who created images as controversial as Robert Mapplethorpe’s. Sadly, Uncle Bob was murdered in 1979 in his San Francisco gallery called the Fey-Way Studios by thugs demanding drugs and money. The younger Oppel spends the film trying to make sense of how and why his uncle was gunned down in front of witnesses.


Oppel mixes archival footage with recreations of events where he plays his uncle, including his murder, and the effect is sometimes effective and sometimes too over-the-top and badly acted. Opel’s death occurred shortly after he staged an “execution” of Harvey Milk’s Twinkie-loving killer Dan White while dressed as “Gay Justice.” Director Oppel (seen, like his namesake in archival photos, frequently full frontal during the course of Uncle Bob) uses a heavy hand to explore the possibility that this act of performance art enraged the San Francisco Police Department, and that they somehow orchestrated his uncle’s murder.

This tangent, with scenes of cops yelling “Kill! Kill!” into the killer’s ear in a jail cell, isn’t necessary, though, because Uncle Bob was a fascinating man who interviewed and worked with the likes of Divine and the infamous Cockettes. The interviews with those close to Opel provide an engrossing look at life in the 1970’s Castro District of San Francisco, and more specifically a moving portrait of a man who led a radical and trail blazing life who was cut down in his prime.

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

Gay Hollywood and its supporters were out in force the night of October 20th at the Director's Guild of America. With free cocktails provided by Absolut (who also generously donated $30,000 to the night's beneficiary, the Outfest Legacy Project), director-choreographer Adam Shankman (Hairspray, the upcoming Rock of Ages) and cable TV network Lifetime being honored, and such celebs as Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) and full-throated diva/hostess Jenifer Lewis in the house, there was no way not to have a good time.

In accepting his award and reflecting on his successful career, Shankman proudly declared that he was able to coax Tom Cruise into wearing both butt-revealing chaps and a codpiece for his role as a "hair metal" rocker in next summer's Rock of Ages. The openly gay, Jewish Shankman also brought down the house by sharing a letter he received from Crystal Cathedral pastor Robert Schuller when Shankman's adaptation of the pro-Christian novel A Walk to Remember was released. Schuller commended Shankman as the new leading face of Christianity in the US. Shankman was tempted to invite Schuller to meet him at the West Hollywood club Rage to discuss it... "and on Passover."


The Outfest Legacy Project is dedicated to LGBT film preservation and restoration in partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive. During her presentation, Outfest's Executive Director Kirsten Schaffer revealed three recently-restored films and announced that the project was a third of the way through its most ambitious undertaking to date: restoration of the 1919 German film Different from the Others. Believed to be the first cinematic depiction of a gay man's life, most prints had been destroyed by the Nazis. To make a contribution toward this and the Legacy Project's other worthy efforts, visit their official website.

Outfest is primarily known for premiering more contemporary LGBT movies during its annual summer festival in Los Angeles. Among these has been the ongoing Eating Out film series created by Q. Allan Brocka (who also serves as an Outfest board member). The latest installment, Eating Out: Drama Camp, is being released on DVD today by Ariztical Entertainment. Brocka returns as writer-director after sitting out the last two films, and Drama Camp is all the better as a result.


An enduring, funny-sexy plot involving confused relationships and secret motives among gay and straight people has here been moved to a summer camp for aspiring actors. Additionally, Drama Camp throws the series' first trans character (played by trans actress Harmony Santana, who recently made an impressive film debut in Gun Hill Road) into the mix. Chris Salvatore and Daniel Skelton return as Zack and Casey from the last Eating Out entry, but their relationship has grown stagnant. Once at Dick Dickey's Drama Camp, whose namesake is played by the hilarious Drew Droege of YouTube's Chloe fame, the partners find themselves tempted by several classmates. Unfortunately for them all, Dickey has forbidden sex at his camp under threat of expulsion.

The Eating Out series isn't known for comedic or sexual subtlety, but what Drama Camp lacks in restraint it makes up for with good humor and hot guys. Brocka gets game performances from his cast, which also includes Mink Stole as Casey's liberated Aunt Helen (who at one point says -- hilariously -- to her much younger lover, "You make me feel like Demi Moore!") and a cameo by fan fave Rebekah Kochan. Brocka also fills the screenplay with witty jabs at pop culture behemoths including Facebook, Betty White, Glee, Neil Patrick Harris, Black Swan and, of course, Lindsay Lohan.

It likely won't be of such lasting, historical value that the Legacy Project will feel compelled to preserve it, but gay viewers today can do a lot worse than Eating Out.

Reverend's Rating:
Eating Out: Drama Camp: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Sesame Street, which debuted on PBS in 1969, has introduced many memorable Muppets to pop culture: Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, and my personal favorite, the Count. However, the little red monster Elmo has made a bigger impact over the last 15 years or so than any of the others. With his high-pitched voice and unconditionally loving attitude, Elmo became a media sensation, sparked a "Tickle Me" toy craze and, most importantly, continues to touch the lives of children around the world.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, which opens this weekend in New York and November 4 in Los Angeles before expanding nationally, is a totally enjoyable documentary as sweet-natured as Elmo himself. It primarily explores the life of Elmo's operator and spokesman, Kevin Clash, but also features the Muppets' late creator Jim Henson as well as commentators Frank Oz and Rosie O'Donnell, plus Whoopi Goldberg as narrator.

Inspired by Henson, Clash began making his own puppets while still a boy growing up in Baltimore. He was teased by his siblings and schoolmates for his eccentric hobby, but Clash had the last laugh when he was hired right out of high school to perform on a local TV series. This led to gigs on Captain Kangaroo and The Great Space Coaster. Clash worked with Muppets designer Kermit Love on Coaster, and Love eventually introduced Clash to Henson.


Clash recounts how thrilled he was when Henson subsequently offered him a job on his and Oz's revolutionary big-screen epic The Dark Crystal, as well as how conflicted he felt when Clash couldn't take the cut in pay he would have if he left his two popular TV shows to work on the film. By 1985, though, Clash's series had both been cancelled and he was all too happy to accept Henson's invitation to work on Labyrinth.

Destiny united Clash with Elmo once another Muppet performer, Richard L. Hunt, couldn't figure out what to do with their workshop's latest creation. Following Oz's advice to "find one special hook" for each character, Clash decided Elmo should personify love. Elmo's voice and propensity to hug and kiss whomever he meets quickly emerged. The rest is history.

Clash and Being Elmo are absolutely inspiring. The film becomes unexpectedly moving when Clash fulfills a terminally-ill child's wish to meet Elmo, and also when Clash speaks about his struggle to be a good father to his daughter given the demands of Elmo's success. Previously unseen footage included from Jim Henson's private memorial service likewise doesn't fail to touch viewers.


I was riveted by Chris Paine's expose Who Killed the Electric Car? while watching it at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Using a murder-investigation approach, Paine revealed that the nearly 5,000 initial models of an environmentally-safe, exceptionally fuel-efficient electric car were recalled by their manufacturers. Most of them were destroyed, while others were left to rust in a remote area outside a Phoenix suburb. A perceived loss of profits, not safety concerns, was the motivation behind the publicly well received cars' demise.

Five years later, sales of more recent models of electric cars are surging and Paine is back with a new documentary: Revenge of the Electric Car, opening today in LA and NYC. Though not as engrossing as the first film, Revenge pulls back the cover on the major car manufacturers' more recent efforts to create and sell electric cars without hurting their financial bottom line. These include Tesla Motors, Nissan and GM, and their CEOs (Elon Musk, Carlos Ghosn and Bob Lutz, respectively) are observed and interviewed in depth about both their past missteps and current strategies.

As Paine states in his latest film's press notes, "Sometimes change, like a train in the old West, gets stopped dead in its tracks... so it's a rare privilege to be able to tell the story of how sometimes change has too much momentum to be stopped." His documentaries have certainly made me a believer in the electric car. Now if they'll just get a little more affordable for us middle-class folks, that will be real progress.

Reverend's Ratings:
Being Elmo: B+
Revenge of the Electric Car: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

While it is being advertised as a real-life version of The Kids Are All Right, last year's Oscar-nominated movie about a lesbian couple raising two teenagers conceived with the help of an initially anonymous sperm donor, it may disappoint some prospective viewers to learn that Donor Unknown only briefly acknowledges the two pairs of same-sex parents included. The documentary will premiere tonight on the PBS series Independent Lens (check local listings for time and channel).

Rather, the focus is on young JoEllen Marsh and her search for the man she knows only as "Donor 150" via the California Cryobank. Once she learns his true identity is Jeffrey Harrison (a former Playgirl model and dancer in a male revue who now lives in an RV with his dogs and a pet pigeon), his biography and JoEllen's effort to meet him fuel the film's narrative drive. Along the way, JoEllen and viewers meet 14 known people fathered by Harrison, who made contributions to the Cryobank as many as four times a week during the 1980's. Theoretically, thousands of young people living today may owe their conception to Harrison and he may still be fathering children through the donations he made 30 years ago. (An amusing mention is made that the California Cryobank is today the 6th largest user of Fed Ex in the Golden State.)


Donor Unknown offers insight into a fascinating, ongoing saga, even if Harrison strikes one as a less-than-desirable father in many respects. The documentary raises the enduringly pertinent question, "What is the importance/meaning of a father?" As some of JoEllen's half-siblings conclude once they connected with Harrison, he represented "the death of a dream" as a result of both their idealized notions and the sad state of his life.

Harrison, however, doesn't seem to regret his free-spirited past or present. He refers to himself as "a fringe monkey" who, like some wild primates, is alienated from the rest of the tribe but ultimately serves as its protector and warns the others when danger is approaching. While I don't see Harrison fulfilling that responsibility as well as he thinks he does, his analogy nonetheless provides an interesting consideration of the roles outsiders like him play in our society.

Directed with a truly objective eye by Jerry Rothwell, Donor Unknown is a glimpse into another dimension of the ever-evolving institution we call "family."

Reverend's Rating: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

After nine months of coordinating schedules, five hours of coast-to-coast flying time, and several hundred dollars in ticket, hotel and rental car fees, my mother, cousin and I finally found ourselves last week on the steps of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But the year-old attraction inspired by the Harry Potter book and movie series -- built to awe-inspiring scale as part of Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida -- initially disappointed more than it delighted.

Upon our early morning arrival at the park's centerpiece ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, we were informed that it was shut down after having been operating only intermittently the two days prior and might not be functioning at all that day. The best we could do, we were told, was to continue checking back. To be greeted with such news following our lengthy personal journey to get there was discouraging. As a slight consolation, everyone was invited to tour the imposing Hogwarts Castle. The 30-minute walkthrough included glimpses of the edifice's famed living portraits as well as very realistic virtual appearances by headmaster Albus Dumbledore (played as in the more recent films by Michael Gambon) and the movies' starring trifecta of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron). Alas, the tour ended just short of the still-closed Forbidden Journey boarding area.

We entertained ourselves while waiting hopefully for the ride to open by exploring the rest of Hogsmeade, the magical town ordinarily inaccessible to us "Muggles." The entire Wizarding World of Harry Potter (as the attraction is officially called) was meticulously re-created by a team led by the film series' Oscar-winning production designer, Stuart Craig. It is visually amazing, and the various shops and eateries within Hogsmeade contain as many fine details within as they do on the outside. These include audio-animatronic owls in the Owl Post Office, moving shadow figures that play on the tavern's walls, and a disturbingly vocal plant/baby being pulled from its pot.


To slake our thirst in the humid Florida heat, we drank signature drinks Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice. The former tastes like cream soda with a dollop of butterscotch, and is a bit tastier as well as creamier in its frozen incarnation. We also rode the tame, family-friendly roller coaster Flight of the Hippogriff, which features a very cool robotic rendition of the title creature. Every 20-30 minutes, I checked back to see if any progress had been made on reopening the Forbidden Journey ride. By the time I discovered it was indeed running, the line was 75 minutes long. Not to be dissuaded after already having waited approximately two hours, we joined the crowd.

My cousin and I are happy to report that the thrilling adventure was indeed worth the wait. My mother found the ride quite intense, as younger children are also likely to do, and barely opened her eyes once our enchanted bench began to fly. Those who do keep their eyes open will experience a mix of film footage; oversized, actual figures of a fire-breathing dragon, giant spiders and the evil Dementors; and an assortment of other dazzling special effects. The four-seat benches soar, swoop, and threaten at times to turn over backwards (a truly unsettling feeling) in synch with the visuals.

While Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has been acclaimed by many since its debut as the most advanced and thrilling theme park ride in the world, I'm still partial to another pioneering attraction at Universal's Islands of Adventure, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, which features the added benefit of being in 3D. It is absolutely not to be missed when visiting the park and we were able to walk right onto it, which was a massive relief after our morning ordeal in Hogwarts. Three other attractions were either suffering momentary disruptions in their operation (Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges) or were closed for refurbishment (Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat), leading me to question the overall efficiency of Islands of Adventure's tech and maintenance departments. By the end of the day, however, a good time was had by all.


My cousin, visiting Florida for the first time, was anxious to compare Walt Disney World to the more familiar Disneyland, so day two of our trip found us in the Magic Kingdom. It provided us a great opportunity to compare and contrast not only Disney's most famed attractions but the operational differences between the Universal and Disney parks. Unlike Islands of Adventure, no attractions were closed nor seemed to suffer the slightest delay. In addition, the longest line we had to brave for a ride was less than 30 minutes, although Disney's Fastpass system further simplified the wait for a few major attractions.

If in the end the Magic Kingdom proved to be a bit more magical than the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, both parks and their assortment of impressive attractions (even more impressive when they are all working) deserve to be visited often.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.