Movie Dearest

Reel Thoughts Interview: The Marshall Plan

2009-11-21T06:00:00.001-06:00

Arizona’s Joe Marshall is taking New York by snowstorm this Christmas. Marshall was a fixture on Valley stages, but now he’s finding success Off Broadway after moving to New York City earlier this year. In June, he staged his play Dirty Secrets, and now, he is opening his newest show, The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever! It’s a title Kathy Griffin loves, and recently, Margaret Cho stopped by to show her support.

The show concerns a strapped West Hollywood gay theater that is thrown into a tizzy when their eccentric playwright storms off before their big holiday show. Can the group of drama queens don their gay apparel fast enough to open on time? Does Liza wear false lashes?

A Tucson native, Marshall founded the Alternative Theatre Company in 1991 in Phoenix to fill the void for LGBT theater after the closing of the landmark Janus Theatre. He focused on producing modern gay plays by John Glines, such as Chicken Delight and Men of Manhattan, and later, Marshall’s own gay-themed plays. Dirty Secrets, about a twisted trio of gay men, and the gay Neil Simon-esque antics of A Night in Vegas were hits about a decade ago.

For a few seasons, the Alternative Theatre Company had a home in the gayest strip mall in Phoenix near the queer boutique Unique on Central, and Marshall grew a loyal fan base that he treasured. But disputes with the landlord shuttered the theater and the company went into hibernation. Marshall moved to Tucson in 2006.

NC: What has been happening since you left Arizona?
JM: Ohmigod! I left Arizona? Oh wait, it’s becoming clear to me now. I did leave Arizona. Well, needless to say, I moved to New York. Shortly after arriving, I approached Lawrence Page, the new owner of The Actors Playhouse, about producing my play The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever! We work shopped it last December in Tucson, resulting in a rewritten/reworked production. After holding a staged reading, with 37 actors, and a big enthusiastic audience, we got the green light to move forward.

The Actors Playhouse, steeped in gay history, was always secretly my first choice. Productions at the venue have included Howard Crabtree's Whoop-Dee-Doo, Harvey Fierstein’s Safe Sex and Torch Song Trilogy, Ten Percent Revue, An Evening with Quentin Crisp, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, Boy Meets Boy, Fortune and Men's Eyes, among many others.

The theater is located in New York's Greenwich Village. The typical 'black box' decor is no longer. The walls were stripped down to its original brick and imported tri-colored slate stone. New flooring was installed, the stage was reinforced and mahogany wood trimming was installed with a new landmark-approved marquee. Needless to say, this is the perfect location for a gay Christmas play, conveniently located right near Christopher Street and the original Stonewall Inn.

Similar to Phoenix, the talent pool here is amazing, but a thousand times larger. I no longer have to ask strangers walking down the street "Hey, want to be in a play?" We just listed our auditions and received over 300 submissions within a couple of days.

NC: I hear that Dirty Secrets had a well-received production Off Broadway. Tell me all about it?
JM: Yeah! Can you believe it? It was the first of my works to open Off Broadway. I remember opening in Phoenix to scathing reviews. At last I’m feeling justified. Dirty Secrets is always fun to revisit – hard to believe I wrote it over 10 years ago. Some rewrites, but all in all, the play is pretty solid. However, the ending changed again, and two weeks prior to opening, the actor playing Tom had to drop out due to family issues in LA. The producer told me I would have to step into the role. This time around, I found it emotionally draining to perform five times a week.

NC: Do you miss Arizona?
JM: In many ways, yes. I miss the guerrilla theater process we had in Phoenix, throwing a full-scale production up with little or no financial support. The loyal audiences who respectfully attended many of my productions, good, bad or indifferent. Friendships I’ve held for over 20 years. Phoenix will always be the city that allowed me to achieve many of my goals, something I’ll never forget.

NC: What kind of star encounters have you had since hitting the Big Apple?
JM: Good Lord, unlimited encounters; unlike California, actors actually use mass transit here. I’ve seen many a celebrity on the subway, walking down a busy street, eating in crowded restaurants. And the strange thing is, for the most part, they’re left alone.

I have to say the most impressive encounter was John Glines, who attended a performance of Dirty Secrets and after the performance sharing dinner with my partner, his partner and our director. Shortly after the show, my partner Adrian Maynard, and I were invited for cocktails at John’s home where he shared many stories about famous people he either worked with or had the opportunity to meet.

John Glines has always been a mentor for me. The Alternative Theatre was founded by actually producing a season of John’s plays. One claim to fame of his was winning a Tony for producing Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway. And you can’t overlook his groundbreaking acceptance speech, where he was the first person to ever thank their same-sex partner on national TV. I got to actually hold his Tony Award at the end of the evening. Of course, it took six cocktails for me to actually get the nerve to ask. “Hey, John, can I hold your Tony?”

NC: Other than your play and celebrities, any amazing things happen to you in New York?
JM: I live in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn with Adrian. Every Thursday we take a 20-minute subway to Coney Island for the free summer concert series. We’ve seen Frankie Valli, Connie Francis, Hall and Oates, Blondie, Pat Benatar and Donna Summer. Talk about amazing. Each week the crowd gets more and more gay. We’re expecting next week to just be a big gay disco party with 25,000 of our closest friends.

The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever! is now playing in previews and officially opens November 29 at The Actors’ Playhouse in New York. Performances continue through January 3. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit their official website.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Men Behaving Badly

2009-11-20T12:00:00.006-06:00

I love every film by director Werner Herzog I've seen, starting with 1982's Fitzcarraldo and culminating most recently in his wonderful if sad Grizzly Man. I like Nicolas Cage a lot, especially when the actor is at his most histrionic in such offbeat movies as Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona and Face/Off.

I do not like the new Herzog-Cage collaboration, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (which is actually titled THE Bad Lieutenant ... on screen). While it shares some of its moniker and basic plot elements with Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992), the remake/sequel/reboot opening today lacks most of what made its NYC-set forebear a very effective morality tale.

Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a New Orleans police officer suffering from debilitating back pain related to an injury he sustained while saving a man's life in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When McDonagh's prescription medication becomes ineffective, he turns to illegal — and illegally-gained — drugs, sex with a beautiful prostitute (Eva Mendes, in an underwritten, thankless role), gambling and setting up criminals without authorization in a misguided effort to soothe his pain and find the culprits behind the massacre of an immigrant family.

Whereas Ferrara's film was an intelligent if graphic exploration of a wounded man's quest for redemption, BL: Port of Call New Orleans has a hard time settling on such simple things as characters' motivations, needs and accents (Cage's changes inexplicably midway through). Ferrara's version was steeped in Catholic imagery and symbolism. Here, the only sign of religion is a kinky excess of saintly statuary in sexy fellow cop Fairuza Balk's bedroom.

I lay most of the blame for this misfire at the feet of first-time screenwriter William Finkelstein and longtime producer Edward Pressman (who also produced the original), but Herzog can't be let completely off the hook. The director desperately tries to indulge his favorite theme — man vs. nature — here, but the most he can incorporate aside from the devastated post-Katrina environment are occasional shots of displaced alligators and drug-induced iguana hallucinations.

Some fine actors including Val Kilmer, Shawn Hatosy and GLBT fave Jennifer Coolidge are mostly wasted in supporting roles. However, the long-MIA Brad Dourif makes a great impression as McDonagh's impatient bookie.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is being touted as Oscar bait and is being warmly received by some critics. Don't believe the hype. Instead, go and see That Evening Sun, which is already playing in New York and opens today in LA. It is a far better exploration of the lengths to which some men will go to right perceived wrongs.

Winner of the Audience Choice award for best feature film and a Special Jury Award for best ensemble cast at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, That Evening Sun stars old pro Hal Holbrook as Abner Meecham. A Tennessee farmer consigned by his son (Walton Goggins, who played the sexy gay drifter in Red Dirt a few years back) to a nursing home, Meecham makes a break from the facility one day and returns to the home he shared with his late wife (who is glimpsed in flashbacks and is played by Dixie Carter, Holbrook's real-life wife).

Meecham is startled to find a new family renting his property and living in his former home. The new head of the household is Lonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon, who also produced), an alcoholic prone to abusive rages. His wife (Movie Dearest fave Carrie Preston) and teenage daughter are the usual recipients of the unemployed Choat's anger, but Meecham becomes his new target when the elder man decides to take up residence in an adjoining cabin.

Hostilities mount between Choat and Meecham and culminate in mutual acts of destruction. Holbrook is great as usual, and could rack up some nominations and/or awards for his soulful performance. While grim at times, That Evening Sun (well-adapted from a William Gay short story by writer-director Scott Teems) ends on a hopeful note once Meecham and Choat have learned the hard way that violence is never a successful route to conflict resolution.

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

Toon Talk: No Country for Old Men … or Monsters

2009-11-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

Up and Monsters, Inc., the two Pixar favorites that made their Disney Blu-ray debutslast week, share more than just a production company and a director (Peter Docter). Taking a look at their main characters, one can see several similarities:

The Unlikely Hero: Is there anything more unlikely for a film’s protagonist than a big blue monster by the name of Sulley who jumps out of closets to scare children for a living? Well, Up one-ups Monsters with its geriatric leading man, Carl Fredricksen, who through the course of his adventures becomes an octogenarian action hero to rival John McClane.

The Precocious Child: Both Boo (the little moppet who “invades” Monstropolis) and Russell (the chirpy Wilderness Explorer who stows away on Carl’s floating house) prove to be more than just obstacles in the main character’s lives … they help them discover new ones.

The Scene-Stealing Sidekick: What could be funnier than a walking eyeball? How about a talking dog? “Squirrel!”

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of the new Up and Monsters, Inc. Blu-rays at LaughingPlace.com.

Reverend’s Reviews: The Grinch vs. Mary Poppins in LA

2009-11-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

In one corner, at the Pantages Theatre, is a nasty-wasty, green-furred creature intent on stealing holiday joy. In the other corner, better known as the Ahmanson Theatre, is a practically perfect if wind-dependent British nanny with magical powers. Their battle for theatre-goers’ dollars erupted this past weekend as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Musical and Mary Poppins opened, both making their Los Angeles debuts.

Saturday’s premiere of The Grinch was a suitably festive affair, the Pantages’ exterior beautifully festooned with Christmas trees and white lights. The show, originally conceived and directed by Broadway’s Jack O’Brien for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, is an utter delight. Its briskly-paced, intermission-less 90 minutes are a perfect start to any family’s holiday season.

John Larroquette kicks the musical off as Old Max, the senior version of the Grinch’s put-upon pet. While Larroquette — saddled with a bulky dog costume and Seussian rhyming exposition — didn’t always seem to have his heart in the role, he displayed good humor and a fine singing voice. Fortunately, James Royce Edwards balanced Larroquette nicely as Max’s rowdy younger incarnation. The entire supporting cast, consisting of both stage veterans and a gaggle of locally recruited kids as the various citizens of Whoville, was great.

Of course, the star of the show is the Grinch. Christopher Lloyd was initially cast but, rumor has it, wasn’t up to the part’s vocal demands, so in rode Stefan Karl to the rescue! Karl is a younger, attractive man but you wouldn’t know it, swaddled head to toe as he is in green hair and make-up. While his interpretation of the character owes more than a bit to Jim Carrey’s over-the-top performance as the Grinch in the garish 2000 movie adaptation, Karl succeeds by the final curtain in making the role hilariously and touchingly his own. His solo number “One of a Kind,” performed in front of a shimmering green curtain, is a showstopper in the best sense.

The score, by Timothy Mason and Mel Marvin, is entirely serviceable if not particularly memorable apart from the two songs — “Welcome, Christmas” and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” — carried over from the original TV telling of Seuss’ story. John Lee Beatty’s snow-covered but colorful scenic design is excellent, and some wonderful special effects are utilized that make it appear Max and the Grinch’s sleigh are really flying. One would have to be a Grinch him- or herself to not enjoy How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It runs at the Pantages through January 3 and shouldn’t be missed.

When it comes to flying, though, Disney’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins (playing at the Ahmanson through February 7) actually goes Grinch one better. Faithful in this regard to author P.L. Travers’ source material as well as to Julie Andrews’ immortal, Oscar-winning portrayal in the 1964 film, Mary flies. She flies across the stage not once but twice during the course of the stage version. However, the best effect is saved for last, as Mary flies not only across the stage but out from the proscenium and over the audience up to the balcony! I gasped. My partner gasped. Dick Van Dyke, who was sitting three rows ahead of us, gasped. And then the audience burst, appropriately, into raucous applause.

The show’s special effects are consistently dazzling and, combined with the marvelous Tony Award-winning sets by Bob Crowley and Howard Harrison’s lighting, create an aura of true and sustained magic. Ashley Brown’s lovely, funny performance as Mary, which she re-creates from the original New York cast, is also a vital contribution in this regard.

But the stage version isn’t as easy to love as the movie for several reasons. First, in re-structuring the script from the well-known film and adding new songs (by the Honk! team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe) to the now-classics composed by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, Mary Poppins has become a more meandering, overly long (at nearly three hours) production. I left the opening night performance more appreciative than ever of the Sherman brothers’ simple lyrics and wordplay. None of the new songs are as instantly memorable or hummable as “A Spoonful of Sugar” or “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” although “Anything Can Happen” comes closest and Mary’s self-intro, “Practically Perfect,” is nice and enjoyably staged.

Second, Matthew Bourne’s choreography is often overly frenetic. I love Bourne’s adult-oriented dance pieces that include his all-male Swan Lake, the homoerotic The Car Man, and Edward Scissorhands. When Bourne stages isolated dances rather than dance-through pieces, as in Mary Poppins, his high-energy moves can seem odd and disjointed. This is especially evident in his letter-by-letter take on “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Obviously demanding on the cast, it is impressive the first time around but becomes excessive by the second, curtain-call reprise. Bourne’s choreography for “Step in Time” is, to the contrary, masterful.

Finally, this Mary Poppins is a darker work than the Disney film and some scenes (notably those involving Mary’s brimstone and treacle-bearing “holy terror” replacement) may be too intense for children ages 7 and under. The potential unemployment of George Banks (a well-modulated turn by Karl Kenzler) and subsequent pending homelessness of his family is a lengthier threat on the stage than it is in the movie as well.

It takes more than spectacle and impressive special effects to make a modern musical work. Still, I recommend Mary Poppins despite its artistic shortcomings for the one thing it has in spades: magic.

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

Reel Thoughts: The Incredibly Not True Adventure of Two Straight Guys in Bed

2009-11-16T12:00:00.001-06:00

If Old Joy mated with I Love You, Man, the spawn would be Humpday, the Sundance Festival Special Jury prize-winning film written and directed by Lynn Shelton making its debut on DVDtomorrow. The salacious, but slightly misleading, set-up is that two straight male friends decide to make an amateur porno film featuring themselves as stars. Will they or won’t they? And what effect will it have on the men if they go through with it?

Shelton stages the film in an almost documentary-style intimacy, and she gives one of the best performances in the film. Does Humpday live up to the hype? Maybe not, but it is an intriguing character piece that delves into the straight male psyche in a way few films do.

Ben (Mark Duplass) and his wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) are a happily married Seattle couple ready to have a baby, when Ben’s old pal Andrew (The Blair Witch Project’s Joshua Leonard) shows up on their doorstep after wandering the globe. He wants to reconnect with his old friend, but the next night he hooks up with the free-spirited (and bisexual) Monica (Shelton), and he invites Ben over to her artist’s commune. The uptight Ben is at first taken aback by all the overt sexuality, but soon he and Andrew are drunk and high and discussing the Seattle Film contest called Humpfest (a real festival started by Dan Savage where people submit their amateur porn films).

Almost as a dare, the two guys decide that the ultimate taboo would be to have two straight men have sex together, and each man wants to see it through to prove that they are not as inhibited as they fear they are. As filming night approaches, Ben neglects to tell Anna his plan and Andrew can’t quite handle a sexual encounter with Monica and her lover Lily.

Shelton captures the dynamic between friends who are subconsciously envious of each other and the utter terror straight men feel when out of their sexual comfort zone. Duplass’ Ben is let off the hook too easily in his scenes with Anna, but Leonard manages to embody the kind of aimless guy who passes off lack of direction as “Kerouac” coolness. Duplass also has a nice moment when he describes an encounter he had with a video store clerk. The ending isn’t satisfying, but Shelton nails her Seattle milieu perfectly.

More an anatomy of a bromance than a sexual adventure, Humpday is still worth a tumble.

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

Reel Thoughts: My Precious

2009-11-15T18:00:00.001-06:00

Forget the hyped-up artificiality of the Saw films. The real horror show is the home life endured by the title character in Lee Daniels’ bleak but ultimately hopeful drama Precious, based on Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push.

Clareece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe, in a true breakout performance) is an illiterate and obese teenager in 1987 Harlem. Pregnant with her second child and hated by her vicious mother (Mo’Nique, who should receive an Oscar nomination), Precious is given one last chance to make her vivid dreams come true when she is sent to an alternative school housed in an old hotel.

Her teacher, Ms. Rain (the gorgeous and elegant Paula Patton), works hard to break through Precious’ defenses and inadvertently teaches her a lesson in gay tolerance when Precious realizes that her mentor is a lesbian. The other person reaching out to Precious is her social worker Mrs. Weiss (well played by an unrecognizable Mariah Carey), who goads her into revealing the father of her two children.

The grittiness that out director Daniels evokes is hard to watch at times, especially Mo’Nique’s explosive abuse, but it’s necessary to allow us the happiness of seeing Precious become her own person. Sidibe is an utterly natural talent, hard to warm up to at first until she reveals the life that’s inside her imposing frame.

Mo’Nique plumbs depths of rage and violence few name actresses would ever reveal. Patton, who looks like a young Debbie Allen and possesses the same kind authority, is utterly lovely as the idealistic teacher. Carey, Lenny Kravitz (as Nurse John) and Sherri Shepherd (as school secretary Cornrows) are all great and let go of any vanity in favor of total commitment to their roles.

If you can stand the heat in Precious’ pressure-cooker kitchen, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best cinematic experiences of the year with Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.

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

Reverend's Interview: Poppins Fresh Men

2009-11-14T06:00:00.003-06:00

Walt Disney’s cinematic masterpiece Mary Poppins has enthralled viewers since its original release in 1964. Based on a series of books by P.L. Travers about a “practically perfect” nanny with seemingly supernatural powers, the movie was a box-office hit and won a number of Oscars, including Best Actress for its first-time film star, Julie Andrews.

45 years later, Mary Poppins has become a smash on stage, thanks to wunderkind theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh (Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera). The current national tour makes its eagerly awaited southern California premiere November 15 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

Movie Dearest was able to speak recently with not one but two gay, out cast members of the Mary Poppins ensemble. Troy Edward Bowles (who goes by “Eddy”) and Tom Souhrada were eager to discuss their backgrounds from the tour’s stop in Dallas following a six-month run in Chicago.

“This is the perfect show for me,” said the 34-year old Bowles. He joined the touring company after roles in the Broadway productions Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Pirate Queen, as well as the national tour of the Billy Joel-Twyla Tharp mash-up Movin’ Out.

“I grew up on a dairy farm in Idaho and just danced around all the time,” Bowles recounted. “It seemed inevitable that I would one day dance professionally. There weren’t many outlets for dance, though, so I got into gymnastics, which had a little dance.”

Bowles, who is, by his own admission, an “out and proud” gay man performing in traditionally family-friendly Disney fare, went to New York City following his high-school graduation. However, the former farm boy found Manhattan “overwhelming.” After a few weeks there, “I ended up going to the University of Utah, which was closest to my parents’ home,” Bowles said.

Mary Poppins is, according to the former gymnast turned dancer, “a highly choreographed show, and there’s so much character to the choreography.” The dances were staged by the acclaimed Matthew Bourne (best known for his all-male Swan Lake and the ballet version of Edward Scissorhands) with an assist from co-choreographer Stephen Mear.

Bowles, who also serves as the tour’s dance captain, singled out two numbers in the show as being particularly challenging. During the famous song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, the ensemble “spells out all the letters!” Also, “Step in Time”, Bowles says, “is a huge tap number and exhausting.”

This holiday season promises to be a high-profile one for Bowles. In addition to the LA engagement of Mary Poppins, he can be seen on the big screen — sort of — in Disney’s new, motion-capture digital version of A Christmas Carol. “I’m one of 14 dancers who play 100 characters in the big dance scene,” Bowles reports. “I was also Bob Hoskins’ (who plays Fezziwig) dance and stunt double.” All in all, the dancer reports, “It was an incredible experience.”

Bowles’ fellow ensemble member, Tom Souhrada, fell in love with the Mary Poppins movie at an early age. “It was such a big part of my youth,” Souhrada recalled. “It was actually the first movie I ever saw.”

Souhrada, who grew up in south Florida and is in his early 40’s, went on to say, “My sisters and I used to do little shows in our backyard, and Mary Poppins was one of them. When I heard they were doing a stage production, I got very excited.”

However, Souhrada’s eventual casting in the show proved unexpected. “Last fall, I did a show with an actress who had been cast in the Mary Poppins tour,” he said. “She called me one day to let me know the actor playing the Park Keeper had pulled out and told me to call my agent. I did, got an audition and got cast!”

Souhrada, who is single and lives in New York City, shared another special connection he has with Mary Poppins. Earlier in his career, he starred in a production of the 1920’s-set musical spoof The Boy Friend directed by its original star … Julie Andrews!

“After the show’s initial read-through, I was walking down the hall when I heard a proper, British, female voice behind me calling my name,” Souhrada said excitedly. “I turned around and all I could think was ‘Julie Andrews knows my name!’ Then it was ‘Julie Andrews is talking to me!’ She gave me a hug and all I could think was ‘Julie Andrews is touching me!’ She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I thought ‘Julie Andrews is kissing me’!”

About the current tour of Mary Poppins, Souhrada revealed, “It’s been an amazing experience, phenomenal. The creative staff has been amazing.” Regarding his fellow ensemble members, he said, “Most of the dancers are half my age, so I’m just trying to keep up!”

Both Souhrada and Bowles are excited about their show’s impending LA run. Bowles said, “I loved Mary Poppins on Broadway; I cried.” He continued, “There’s something about the tour that is more intimate; the set has been re-imagined for the tour, since it was so huge on Broadway.”

Mary Poppins is currently scheduled to play LA through February 7. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the official website of the Center Theatre Group.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Holy Hunter

2009-11-13T18:00:00.002-06:00

Director-producer-writer Peter Rodger took an admirably ambitious project on when he decided to make Oh My God, a documentary opening today in Los Angeles and New York. Starting out in his native Australia, Rodger traversed 23 different countries and asked various people he encountered "What is God?" Rodger, disheartened by historic and current conflicts at least partly motivated by religious intolerance, was hoping to discover there is more that unites religious believers than divides.

The filmmaker interviews Roman Catholic priests, Hindu children, African bush people, Jewish rabbis, Buddhist monks, Muslim teachers, and even a Druid or two. Rodger also poses his question, somewhat inexplicably but magnanimously, to entertainers and fellow countrymen Hugh Jackman, Baz Luhrmann and Jack Thompson as well as to musicians Ringo Starr and Bob Geldof.

While a few of the interviewees in Oh My God have unique and illuminating things to say, many of the responses are simplistic and some are downright embarrassing. One reaches the conclusion fairly early in Rodger's gorgeously photographed but obnoxiously quick-cut-edited film that the question "What is God?" has no satisfactory nor universally agreeable answers, even among those who claim the same religion.

This is most apparent, disturbingly so, when Rodger speaks with a Muslim imam who states "To kill homosexuals is a good thing in the sight of God" according to the Koran, as well as with the leader of an Islamic institute in southern California who cites the same scripture in repudiating the imam's claim. Christians don't come off as any more unified, with various clergy and lay people giving divergent interpretations of the New Testament. A fundamentalist Christian woman in Texas who owns a gun shop implies that Christians have the responsibility to kill non-Christians should their presence and/or beliefs encroach too closely.

I came away from Oh My God not having learned much I didn't already know and disappointed by Rodger's shallow approach to trying to spark meaningful inter-religious dialogue. Still, the movie will likely be helpful to novices just starting out on the path of religious understanding. It may prove to be a valuable resource in that regard or for high school and college students. God knows Rodger's well-intentioned question remains an important one to ask, even if it is ultimately unanswerable.

Click here to watch the trailer for Oh My God.

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

MD News Desk: Now Tweeting

2009-11-12T18:00:00.000-06:00

For the past few months, the MD News Desk has been bringing you all the latest scoop on what's happening in the entertainment world a couple times of week. Well, in order to bring you the news as soon as it happens (or at least as soon as we hear about it), as of today the News Desk is moving ... to the Official Movie Dearest Twitter page!

There you'll find all the same stories and links as the MD News Desk usually provides (conveniently organized by MD department, from Cinematic Crushes to Women We Love, Out in Film to Videodrone), but in a more timely and efficient manner.

There are several ways to keep up-to-date on all of our informative "tweets". If you have your own account on Twitter, all you have to do is follow us, or you can also receive updates automatically by friending us on the Official Movie Dearest MySpace page. Or you can simply refer to the MD News Desk on Twitter widget located in the upper left hand sidebar of each page right here on Movie Dearest.

Reverend's Reviews: Barren Lake

2009-11-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Mexican writer-director Fernando Eimbcke's 2004 feature film debut, Duck Season, won numerous film festival awards and made an impression on me personally. Eimbcke takes an unfortunate if not unusual route other filmmakers have traveled following a successful debut and gets self-indulgent with his follow-up, Lake Tahoe. It was just released this week on DVDby Film Movement.

More of a tone poem than a fully fleshed-out screenplay, Lake Tahoe follows a teenager, Juan (Diego Catano, who played one of the boys at the center of Duck Season), in the wake of his father's death. He runs his car into a phone pole outside a small, rural town and meets an assortment of odd locals in his pursuit of a part necessary to fix the car. In the process, he begins to deal with the grief that he, his younger brother and their mother are sharing.

That's about it. Apart from Juan's brother and a martial arts-loving townie, David (a fun performance by Juan Carlos Lara), most of the characters are ciphers we barely get to know. Similar to the dynamic between the boys in Duck Season, there is some potentially homosexual interest on the part of David toward Juan but it is only hinted at.

Plain irritating is the directorial and editorial style Eimbcke employs in Lake Tahoe. Thirty minutes of story is expanded to eighty minutes of film through long, lingering and generally pointless camera shots and lengthy black-screen interludes between shots. Eimbcke explains in the film's press notes his intention of making Juan appear small within his environs and illustrating our fleeting ability to comprehend current situations in the midst of loss via these techniques, but I don't think they work cinematically.

On the plus side, Eimbcke continues to develop his storytelling ability as well as a gift for working with young actors. I will look forward to his future efforts, which can only improve on this.

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

MD News Desk: Cover Stories

2009-11-11T06:00:00.001-06:00

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Out in Film:
- Ellen DeGeneres does O, the Oprah Magazine and Tom Ford does The Advocate.
- Candis Cayne chats about Nip/Tuck and her upcoming reality show.
- Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick to turn the hilarious Twitter sensation "Shit My Dad Says" into a sitcom.
- Lily Tomlin on turning 70.
- The Advocate's "People of the Year" include Alan Ball, Chaz Bono, Larry Kramer, Annie Leibovitz and Ryan Murphy (part two here).

Cinematic Crushes:
- Luc-ky us: Gilles Marini hanging around Brothers & Sisters a little longer than expected.
- Jake Gyllenhaal to star in sci-fi thriller Source Code.
- Video Preview: James Franco is the mysterious stranger with a "Mad World" crush on Steve Burton's Jason on General Hospital.
- Alexander Skarsgård chats about his role in the upcoming Straw Dogs remake.

From Screen to Stage:
- If you're in LA this weekend, be sure to catch the camp-tastic Whatever Happened to Busty Jane?, a new play written by and starring Jackie Beat.
- "Welcome Christmas": Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical now playing in Hollywood.
- Dame Edna Everage's It's All About Me lands on Broadway next spring.
- The Weisslers finally reach the bottom of the barrel: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz to play Roxie Hart in Chicago.
- Will The 39 Steps follow Avenue Q from Broadway to Off-Broadway?
- Silence! The Musical, the Silence of the Lambs parody, will premiere in London.
- Off-Broadway's Toxic Avenger to close in January.
- Listen to Glee's Chris Colfer and Lea Michele's solo versions of Wicked power ballad "Defying Gravity".

Videodrone:
- First Trailer: the new Clash of the Titans starring Sam Worthington.
- Legends of the Fail: Me Tarzan.
- Drunk Ewoks take over The Today Show.
- Saturday Night Live spoofs Twilight.

Coming to DVD:
- The Brüno DVD and Blu-ray(available next Tuesday) will include deleted scenes featuring La Toya Jackson and Pete Rose.

Women We Love:
- Cher set to return to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in 2010.
- Pam Grier will play the hard-ass Amanda Waller on Smallville.
- Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking gets two extra weeks on Broadway.
- The Kathy Griffin hosted Let's Dance — in which celebs recreate classic movie dance sequences — bumped to next year.
- Christine Baranski will return to The Big Bang Theory in her Emmy nominated role as Leonard's mom.

The Latest on TV:
- Cheyenne Jackson makes his first appearance on 30 Rock this Thursday.
- ABC has canceled Eastwick, which is good news for Ugly Betty.

Hands Off the Merchandise:
- Dr. Horrible gets a comic book.
- CBS turning The Amazing Race, Ghost Whisperer, Hollywood Squares and more of their shows into video games.
- New Moon band-aids are not the most ridiculous Twilight merchandise after all: Robert Pattinson panties.

GLBT Entertainment:
- Looks like the Weinsteins are working overtime to "de-gay" the marketing of A Single Man.
- One of the real-life inspirations for Heavenly Creatures gets the documentary spotlight with Anne Perry — Interiors.
- Interviews: Kevin Rankin on his gay EMT on Trauma and Paula Patton on her lesbian teacher in Precious.
- Winona Ryder to join Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in Darren Aronofsky’s lusty ballerina thriller Black Swan.

Awards Watch:
- Star Trek, True Blood and Twilight are among the big nominees in this year's People's Choice Awards ... and you too can vote for the winners!

Reverend’s Reviews: Stuff Your Stocking with Gay DVDs

2009-11-10T06:00:00.001-06:00

Each holiday season brings a host of theatrical and DVD releases intended to contribute to movie fans’ yuletide cheer and/or inspire gift giving. Few of them, however, include GLBT characters or speak directly to GLBT viewers.

There are exceptions though, chief among them The Family Stone,which focuses on a Christmas gathering that includes an openly gay son, his loving and accepting parents, and the son’s partner. The 2005 film was written and directed by out filmmaker Thomas Bezucha and was a hit at the box office. Bezucha’s earlier gay-themed movie Big Edenalso makes a great holiday gift.

This year, several new DVDs by gay filmmakers are vying for space beneath our trees and menorahs or in our well-hung stockings. The specifically Christmas-themed Make the Yuletide Gay(TLA Releasing) was released today on DVD after playing to sold-out audiences on the film festival circuit. It is a sometimes strained but thoroughly enjoyable comedy by Rob Williams, director of gay faves Back Soon and 3-Day Weekend.

In it, the fetching Keith Jordan plays Olaf “Gunn” Gunnunderson, who is out and proud while at college but crawls back into the closet as he returns to his parents’ Wisconsin home for the holidays. Gunn is therefore more than surprised when his boyfriend, Nathan (the cute Adamo Ruggiero), shows up unannounced at their doorstep intending to spend Christmas with his sweetie.

Make the Yuletide Gay has fun overturning some coming-out story conventions and benefits from hilarious performances by Kelly Keaton as Mama Gunnunderson, Alison Arngrim (wicked Nellie Olson from Little House on the Prairie) and Hallee Hirsh as Gunn’s wannabe girlfriend turned fag hag.

Another big hit at this year’s GLBT film fests making its DVD debut December 8 is Hollywood, je T’aime(Wolfe Video). The movie follows the misadventures of Jerome (played by the very attractive and frequently naked Eric Debets), a gay man from Paris who on a whim visits Hollywood over his Christmas vacation.

Jerome falls in with a variety of colorful characters, including a drag queen, a transsexual who develops a crush on him, and an HIV+ pot dealer played by out actor Chad Allen. Complications arise as he realizes he’s still in love with his ex back in France. The film, written and directed by Jason Bushman, alternates nicely between whimsy and hard-hitting reality.

Also being released on DVD December 8 is Redwoods,from TLA Releasing. Sexy and touching, it stars popular gay actor Matthew Montgomery and gorgeous up-and-comer Brendan Bradley as two men who meet unexpectedly in a small northern California town and quickly fall in love. The scenario may sound great, but the younger character played by Bradley is already in a partnership — albeit a troubled one — and even has a child.

Writer-director David Lewis, who made a fine film called Rock Haven a couple years back, seems to excel at stories about gay men overcoming what initially seems to be an insurmountable obstacle. Borrowing a bit from the classic An Affair to Remember, Redwoods becomes predictable and a little trite at the end but its climax is undeniably moving.

It is a Christmas tradition for naughty children to receive not goodies but coal in their stockings. To that end, the new DVD Shank(also from TLA) will be more than appropriate. I don’t recommend this London-set tale of teenage sexually conflicted sociopaths primarily due to its inclusion of more than one graphic gay bashing, drug use and sometimes violent sex, both heterosexual and homosexual. Same-sex rape doesn’t quite say “Happy Holidays” to me.

Shank follows the exploits of Cal, played by the attractive Wayne Virgo, an 18-year old gang member wrestling with his attraction to men. The initial, unrequited object of Cal’s desire is his hunky fellow gang member, Jonno (the physically stunning Tom Bott, who gives a great performance in his film debut). Cal soon falls for one of the gang’s gay-bash victims, to the fierce disapproval of his mates. That’s when things really start to get nasty for all concerned.

One lump of coal out of a stocking full of gems isn’t bad. Even if these new DVD releases aren’t all worthwhile, it is good to know that we GLBT movie watchers have options once we’ve grown weary of the umpteenth rerun of A Christmas Carol or The Polar Express.

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

Toon Talk: ’Z Wonderful

2009-11-09T18:00:00.001-06:00

Since his creation in 1919 by American pulp fiction author Johnston McCulley, the masked avenger known as Zorro has lived on in everything from comic books to cartoons to video games, even a stage musical. But it is his onscreen persona that has been the most enduring, including multiple feature film incarnations performed over the years by the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Tyrone Power, George Hamilton and Antonio Banderas. However, arguably his most iconic embodiment was Guy Williams’ beloved portrayal on the classic Disney television program Zorro.

Following a Disney Movie Club exclusive set, the 1957-1959 series makes its DVD debutto the general public as complete season sets in this year’s wave of Walt Disney Treasures. Their now familiar tin cases jet-black for the occasion, the two separate, six-disc releases (complete with collectable pins) became available last week.

Filled with daring-do and swashbuckling action, each of the series’ 78 half-hour episodes (ranging from stand-alone stories to multi-parters) are included, as well as the four hour-long adventures (originally intended for the third season of Zorro) presented on Walt Disney Presents. Once again, your host Leonard Maltin is on hand to introduce each Treasures set, as well as offer his specialized commentary — as both fan and Disney historian — in the bonus materials.

Premiering in the fall of 1957, Zorro was Disney’s first foray into serialized television, and what a perfect fit was for the studio. With its own dashing Robin Hood of a hero dedicated to protecting the innocent and upholding justice in the “wild west” of Old California, Zorro was an ideal vehicle to extend the studios’ presence on the then-nascent medium. And, like Davy Crockett before it, it was an instant success, spawning a slew of merchandise and a hit song and making a star out of its leading man, Guy Williams.

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of Zorro at LaughingPlace.com.

Reel Thoughts Interview: Comic Karma Chameleon

2009-11-08T06:00:00.001-06:00

Back in 1984 or so, in the heady days of Phoenix gay hot spot Hotbods, you could count on seeing a young guy decked out like Boy George, with an LP on his head for a hat and plenty of rag-cloth dreadlocks. Everyone called him “Trashdance”, and I don’t think anyone ever knew his real name.

I thought of “Trashdance” when I talked to actor Ben Martin, who plays George in the musical The Wedding Singer. Based on the hit film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, the musical is a loving homage to all things totally awesome and ’80s, including big hair, Bon Jovi, Billy Idol and, of course, Boy George.

Like in the film, aspiring rocker Robbie Hart is the king of the wedding singers until his no-good fiancée dumps him on their wedding day. It takes the love of a good woman and the support of his band to pull him out of his funk.

The current touring production features full sets from the Broadway company, but is produced by the Prather Entertainment Group (owners of the Broadway Palm). Robbie and Julia are played by real-life husband and wife J. Michael Zygo and Jillian Zygo in a show that’s an affectionate look at the era of leg warmers and Miami Vice T-shirts, built around a sweet love story.

Martin plays Robbie’s Boy George impersonator band mate (portrayed in the original film by Alexis Arquette). In his pictures, Martin looks more like Dead or Alive front man Pete Burns, an observation that made him laugh.

Martin was born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and gravitated to the arts at an early age. His love of performing took him to Emerson College in Boston, then to performing professionally. After a stint at the now-closed Northshore Music Theatre, he began work with the Prathers, where he has appeared in Hello, Dolly! and All Shook Up.

“I did have to brush up on my Boy George knowledge,” Martin said. “I was 5 when the ’80s ended, so my scope of music (then) was Sesame Street and Disney movies. I did have to do a bit of research on him. He’s very, very fascinating; quite original, really. Besides watching his music videos and reading up on him, through the magic of YouTube, I was able to watch an interview with him and Barbara Walters from 1985, which is when The Wedding Singer takes place.”

Martin said his character really identifies with Boy George’s individuality and style, and quoted Boy George as saying that “he didn’t want to be part of a world where ‘men drank beer and women laid on their backs.’ He was there to challenge the rules that we have created. He really loved life and loved to have fun, but the messages in his music were really deep. Even though my George is written more as comic relief, he still needs to come from somewhere real.

“I spend a lot of stage time with the grandma (Ellen Karsten), and we get to have a lot of fun and we get to rap together. The cast is really great and it’s a very close-knit group of people.”

The company does a lot of traveling by bus, and Martin said the interior of the bus is laid out for the cast like the city of Manhattan, with downtown types, uptown girls (and guys), et cetera. On the tour's official YouTube channel, you can watch some backstage videos posted by the cast, detailing their life on the road.

For more information on The Wedding Singer tour, including future dates and locations, visit the show's official website.

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

MD News Desk: Kishy Face

2009-11-07T06:00:00.029-06:00

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Kish:
- This week saw the "Big Gay Wedding" storyline come to a head on One Life to Live, culminating in this climactic kiss between Scott Evans' Oliver Fish and Brett Claywell's Kyle Lewis. Watch it all here.
- You can catch up on all the soapy goodness of the complete Kish storyline at the Official Movie Dearest YouTube channel (courtesy of YouTuber final81).

Awards Watch:
- The Big News this week was that Oscar has not one host, but two: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.
- Academy Award nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Natural) to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers.
- Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart is a late-breaking Best Actor contender.
- Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side could be a surprise in the Best Actress race, which is also seeing some last minute entrants.

The Latest on TV:
- Move over, Ellen: The Wanda Sykes Show premieres tonight on Fox. In preparation for her talk show debut, Wanda has been all over the place this past week, including chats with TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly.
- And speaking of Ellen: Miss DeGeneres and her Mrs., Portia de Rossi, will have a sit down with the Big O on Monday's edition of Oprah.

Coming Soon:
- Sex and the City Watch: Stars spotted filming in Morocco.
- More childhood memories to be plundered by Hollywood: feature film adaptations of the Risk board game, the Berenstain Bears books, the Marmaduke comic strip and Yogi Bear are all in the works.
- Is the world ready for Three Men and a Bride?
- Beyond the Apocalypse: Roland Emmerich's 2012 may get a TV spin-off.
- More than 50 years after To Hell and Back, movie star/war hero Audie Murphy to get another biopic.

Cinematic Crushes:
- First Look: James Franco on General Hospital. And after that, he'll head on over to 30 Rock.
- In more Soap Hunk News: Cameron Mathison's Dr. Dan brightens up Brighten Bay.
- Heroes' Adrian Pasdar to fly the coop. And apparently, this is how he found out about it.
- Casting About: Gerard Butler in Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut Coriolanus, George Clooney in Alexander Payne's family dramedy The Descendants, Bradley Cooper in the suspense thriller Dark Fields, Patrick Dempsey in an untitled bank-heist comedy, Johnny Depp joins Angelina Jolie in The Tourist and Dwayne Johnson in the action drama Faster.
- Wouldn't you like to be the cloth on that loin: Into the Wild's Dave Salmoni does Tarzan on Tyra.
- Cover Story: Robert Pattinson does Vanity Fair.

Videodrone:
- Trailer Park: Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Brothers, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes and Bruce LaBruce's L.A. Zombie (NSFW) starring François Sagat.
- A video salute to gay characters in prime time soaps.
- Several Lloyd Doblers take to the streets of NYC to promote the 20th anniversary DVDof Say Anything ...

From Screen to Stage:
- First Look: The Addams Family starring gay faves Nathan Lane (Gomez), Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia), Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester) and Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama).
- Both The Shawkshank Redemption and Prick Up Your Ears to close early in the West End.
- Billy Elliot, Bye Bye Birdie, Hair and Shrek (plus Alan Cumming and Jane Krakowski) to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- Speaking of Billy Elliot: the hit musical gets another award and two new Billys.
- Photo Calls: The new cast of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and The Lion King celebrates 5,000 performances.
- Buffy alum Anthony Head headlines the London revival of Six Degrees of Separation.
- Off the Shelf: Get all the backstage dish on your favorite musical parody revue in Forbidden Broadway: Behind the Mylar Curtain.
- Meet Broadway's Spider-Man.

Movie Music:
- Movie Music Videos: Adam Lambert's "Time for Miracles" from 2012 and Jake Monaco and Jen Hansen's "Gloria" from Make the Yuletide Gay (on DVDthis Tuesday).

Out in Film:
- Pedro Almodóvar and his muse Penélope Cruz on their latest collaboration, Broken Embraces.
- Finian's Rainbow star Terri White's inspiring story, from homelessness to Broadway to marriage.
- Neil Patrick Harris Watch: He'll lend his voice to the CBS Christmas special Yes, Virginia, and will be honored by the Trevor Project.
- Fiona Shaw to reprise her performance of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land in London.
- Logo's Legacy Campaign salutes Mad Men's Bryan Batt.
- Rosie O'Donnell can now add "radio host" to her long résumé with the debut of Rosie Radio on Sirius XM.
- Michael Feinstein to return to Broadway with his new show All About Me next spring.
- Jane Lynch really really wants to sing on Glee.

Women We Love:
- Casting About: Jennifer Beals in the Hallmark Channel's The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, Annette Bening in Andy Garcia's Hemingway & Fuentes, Sally Hawkins in the coming-of-age comedy Dirty Girl, Helen Mirren in the espionage thriller Red, Elizabeth Mitchell in the indie ensemble drama Answers to Nothing, Sigourney Weaver in the comedy Cedar Rapids and Zhang Ziyi in the English-language drama Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
- Jamie-Lynn Sigler dishes on her Ugly Betty stint.
- President Obama has selected the 25 members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Alfre Woodard and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, as well as talent agent Bryan Lourd and playwright George C. Wolfe.

GLBT Entertainment:
- A Single Man gets a poster, but is it "too straight"? Meanwhile, director Tom Ford is ready for his close up.
- The controversial play Jesus, Queen of Heaven — in which Christ is depicted as a transsexual woman — met with protests in Scotland; playwright and star Jo Clifford responds.
- More new queer theater: Made in Heaven (billed as "the best gay/straight Siamese twin comedy of 2009"), Loaded and My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding.
- Natalie Portman talks about her sex scenes with Mila Kunis in Black Swan.
- Author Annie Proulx to donate an early draft of her classic short story Brokeback Mountain to the New York Public Library.
- Foodie Frank Bruni's memoir Born Round heading to television.
- Grey's Anatomy's Jessica Capshaw on the future of Arizona Robbins and her relationship with Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez).
- More lesbian storylines coming to TV on Legend of the Seeker and Law & Order.
- Gwyneth Paltrow joins Nicole Kidman in The Danish Girl, an adaptation of the David Ebershoff novel that tells the story of the first post-operative transsexual.

Potent Quotables:
- "This is the first time I’ve done an interview with an ice pack down my pants." — Invictus star Matt Damon, suffering from a pulled groin muscle while filming the romantic thriller The Adjustment Bureau, to The New York Times.

Reverend's Reviews: For the Love of Kathy

2009-11-05T06:00:00.005-06:00

Comedienne Kathy Griffin has moved from the infamous “D-List” of celebrity culture to at least the “B-List” over the last few years, due in no small part to the rabid devotion of her beloved “gays”. The winner of two Emmy Awards for her Bravo reality series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, she has been omnipresent recently with a new concert special (Kathy Griffin: Balls of Steel), a best-selling autobiography titled Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffinand a new CD. The latter is appropriately titled for this festive time of year Kathy Griffin: Suckin' It For the Holidays!

After watching, reading and/or listening to them all, I think I have a pretty good handle on which hoped-for gifts top Griffin’s wish list this season: bullet-proof Kevlar panties; a box of Franzia and a bottle of Hennessy for her same-sex-marriage-supporting mother, Maggie; a successful marriage with a “normal” guy who doesn’t pillage from her bank account; and a tell-all weekend getaway with either Oprah Winfrey, Whitney Houston or LaToya Jackson.

Griffin recounts in her book how her reality-based “storytelling” approach to stand-up comedy has marked her as an enemy in the minds of cultural royalty Steven Spielberg, Dakota Fanning and Donald Trump. While she has hosted the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and the Bravo A-List Awards presentations, it is unlikely she will ever be asked to preside over the Oscars (as fabulous as that would be). Griffin simply can’t be trusted to stay faithful to prepared, politically correct text in the interest of Hollywood decorum, God bless her.

An entertainer who follows very closely in the footsteps of insult-tossing predecessors Don Rickles, Joan Rivers and Bette Midler (all of whom have appeared on her TV show), Griffin pulls no punches when it comes to pointing out the hypocrisies and unflattering behavior of the rich and famous. Griffin goes so far on Suckin’ It for the Holidays as to commit what many Americans will perceive as heresy: she condemns national poet laureate Maya Angelou as “insufferable” and “awful”. She also takes the family of the late Michael Jackson to task in her latest Bravo special, asking, “Who knew Michael was the normal one?” when compared with the antics of his parents and siblings.

Official Book Club Selection quickly rose to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list following its release in September. It is a revealing, no-nonsense tome consistent with the first-time author’s personality. Even better than the print edition is the 5-disc audio version, which is read by Griffin in her inimitable style. While it takes a few pages for her to get comfortable reading her book aloud, she eventually settles into it to the point that it sounds like her latest stand-up routine.

Griffin dishes on her late father and celebrity (at the age of 89) mother, her sexually abusive older brother and her deceitful ex-husband as well the better known likes of Brooke Shields, Andy Dick, Conan O’Brien, Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld. She opens up about her struggle with weight and body image issues from a young age. In a particularly harrowing passage, Griffin details a botched liposuction procedure a few years back that nearly killed her.

It’s too sad to think about what the world would be like without Kathy Griffin. In addition to her bold approach to comedy, she has emerged as a champion of civil rights for GLBT people. She spoke out last year at anti-Proposition 8 rallies accompanied by her wine-loving mother, who sported a sign that read “Same-sex marriage? I’ll drink to that!”

While Griffin consistently presents herself as a celebrity-abusing opportunist obsessed with the pursuit of her own fame, it is clear after listening to her book on CD and Suckin’ It for the Holidays that there is a taboo-smashing method to her madness. Griffin’s brand of comedy may disturb some and alienate others, but those are most likely people uncomfortable with looking at themselves in the mirror. Even after the twin humiliations of being booed off the stage of New York’s famous Apollo Theater and “being served” by The OC’s Spencer at a Hollywood party, Griffin brushes herself off with ease and maintains her dignity.

Be sure to add her book and/or Suckin’ It for the Holidays to your holiday shopping list for the “Friends of Kathy” in your life. And as Griffin joyfully proclaims on her CD, no doubt from the bottom of her heart: “Happy Kwanzaa, everyone! Let’s make this the best Kwanzaa ever!”

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

Reel Thoughts: Tatou You

2009-11-04T06:00:00.003-06:00

It’s a good thing that Audrey Tatou is so fabulous in Coco Before Chanel. In fact, everything about director Anne Fontaine’s gorgeous biography of famous fashion icon Coco Chanel is wonderful ... except the script, which is kind of a major flaw. If you’re going to build a story around “who someone was before they were the celebrity they became,” you need to find a more compelling, less plodding way than Fontaine does.

Chanel rose from poverty and an upbringing in a Catholic orphanage to become one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century. Her exquisite and sophisticated design ethic buried the excesses of the early 1900's fashions for a simpler, more comfortable silhouette that showcased the beauty of the woman who wore Chanel’s hats and dresses. Her affairs with women were not hidden and scandalized people, yet she lived life on her own terms.

Tatou makes a striking and strong-willed Gabrielle, nicknamed “Coco” after a dog in a song she and her sister regularly performed in a bar. The film leaves out Chanel’s three brothers and another sister, and simplifies her life to the point of dullness. We’re shown that she didn’t like corsets, had two relationships with men, only one of which mattered to her, and that she was given to embellishing on her humble beginnings.

That’s about all there is to the film, although within that dull framework we’re treated to a number of engaging scenes by the top-notch cast (also including Alessandro Nivola and Benoît Poelvoorde). While there is one scene where Coco is asked about her sexual orientation, her reply that “skin is skin” seems more intended to shock the inquisitor than a true admission of bisexuality.

Coco Before Chanel doesn’t reveal anything a cursory look at her Wikipedia entry couldn’t tell you, although even that is infinitely more complex and interesting. Go for Tatou, the fashion and the beautiful period styling and you’re less likely to pooh-pooh Coco.

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

Reverend's Reviews: Pot Shots

2009-11-03T06:00:00.004-06:00

The last piece of candy may be gone, but the Halloween-appropriate Gravestoned (from Painted Pictures) is hoping to cash in on DVDbeginning today.

Shot in and around a real, spooky cemetery in Texas, this independently produced horror-comedy has a little something for everyone: college cheerleaders with exotic-dancer moves and the cute guys who love them (or at least want to do them); a one-armed zombie on the prowl for his missing, rotting appendage; a hit-hungry movie producer and two young "entrepreneurs" hoping to make it in the industry via his latest film; a cute but randy Scottish terrier with a $5 million life insurance policy; and a pair of pot-smoking, perpetually-high gravediggers.

The problem with Gravestoned is that it doesn't feature enough of these various elements, any one of which has comic potential. Whether the result of poor writing, a limited budget or both, first-time director Michael McWillie takes a restrained, scatter-shot approach to what could be funnier in more experienced hands (Kevin Smith would have had a field day directing this). A wannabe mash-up of Up in Smoke and Night of the Living Dead, it doesn't feature enough cannabis or T&A, frankly, to succeed as a sexy satire nor adequate scares and ghoulish violence to please horror fans.

The film's cast, which includes Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood alumna Lar Park Lincoln in a brief turn as a bitchy washed-up movie star, is negligible. Worth noting and watching, however, is cinematographer Alan Lefebvre. His work throughout Gravestoned makes the movie appear to have had a bigger budget than it likely did, and his mist-shrouded night photography in the cemetery is excellent.

Though Gravestoned falls short in the horror and hilarity departments, it isn't awful and wasn't painful to watch, thankfully. It has no shame billing itself "the comedy horror flick for stoners." They are likely to find the movie a lot funnier than I did.

Click here to watch the Gravestoned trailer.

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

Reel Thoughts: Citizen Lame

2009-11-03T06:00:00.003-06:00

When Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx read the script for Law Abiding Citizen, it probably seemed a lot better than it plays on screen. A grieving man (Butler) survives a brutal attack and watches his wife and daughter get butchered, only to watch helplessly as the district attorney (Foxx) lets the real rapist/murderer off with a plea deal. Who wouldn’t go a little Death Wish vigilante crazy?

In F. Gary Gray’s well-made but off-the-charts preposterous thriller, Butler waits 10 years to launch the king of all revenge plots against anyone and everyone remotely connected to his case. Like most “ambitious district attorneys” Foxx gets free reign to be everywhere he shouldn’t be when the cops try to unravel what Butler’s done and where he might strike next. Meanwhile, Butler manages to be everywhere and rigs everything across Philadelphia to “blow up real good.”

The main problem (and there are many to choose from) with Kurt Wimmer’s script is the filmmakers don’t know whether Butler’s whack-job is a justified vigilante or a Hannibal Lecter psychopath. Foxx’s character is equally hard to care about, so who is there left to root for? Suffice it to say that Butler’s Clyde Shelton is not even a poor man’s Dr. Lecter, even after he eviscerates a cellmate with a T-bone. And don’t get me started on the iron-fisted Philadelphia mayor of Doubt's Viola Davis. It’s perhaps the single worst follow-up performance by an Oscar nominee since Halle Berry’s Catwoman.

If you are able to run out to the snack bar before the climax for a quick lobotomy, you may appreciate the big twist ending. Otherwise, you’ll be yelling at the screen for them to just put Clyde in with the regular prison population and put us all out of our misery. Even “that buff guy from 300” wouldn’t last five minutes with those animals. It would sure have been a better ending than the convoluted mess perpetrated by this Law Abiding Citizen.

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

MD News Desk: F is for Furry

2009-11-02T06:00:00.005-06:00

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Cinematic Crushes:
- Fuzzy-wuzzy Jake Gyllenhaal to visit Sesame Street. Other celebs stopping by this season include Christina Applegate, Matthew Fox, Hugh Jackman, Eva Longoria-Parker, Paul Rudd and Jake's sis Maggie.
- If Taylor Lautner won't take off his shirt in future movies, there's another Twilight hunk willing to fill the void: fellow New Moon werewolf Alex Meraz.
- Can James Franco save daytime TV?
- Dancing with the Stars hunk Maksim Chmerkovskiy will re-join Broadway's Burn the Floor along with another DWTS pro, the perky Kym Johnson.
- Matt Damon beefs it up as a South African rugby player in the trailer for Clint Eastwood's Invictus.

The Princess and the Frog:
- While Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen land in Disneyland ...
- Ne-Yo releases his end credit pop ballad from the movie, "Never Knew I Needed".

Awards Watch:
- Hugh Jackman doesn't want to be Oscar host two years in a row, but wouldn't mind being named the first back-to-back "Sexiest Man Alive".
- Three of this year's big Oscar bait movies — A Single Man, Nine and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire — are directed by out gay men — Tom Ford, Rob Marshall and Lee Daniels, respectively.
- GLAAD announces the winners of their first awards for GLBT-inclusive advertising.
- Could Tennessee Williams win his first Academy Award ... 27 years after his death?

Coming Soon:
- First Look: the new A-Team.
- Sequel Watch: Men in Black 3 gets a screenwriter, Charlize Theron joins Mad Max: Fury Road, and Robert Zemeckis has some good news about the long-in-the-works Roger Rabbit follow-up.
- Adam Sandler to play both Jack and Jill.
- Milk It While You Can: Twilight to return to theaters for one day only.
- Anthony Hopkins will be Odin, King of Asgard and daddy to Thor.
- Top Guns: Tony Scott to direct a biopic of Chippendales creator Steve Banerjee.

Tune in to TCM:
- The Oscar winning composer of "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe", "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" is spotlighted in the new documentary Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me, premiering Wednesday.
- Thursday kicks off a month long 80th birthday tribute to screen legend Grace Kelly. Every movie she ever appeared in will be screened throughout November.

From Screen to Stage:
- Cate Blanchett is Blanche DuBois in Kennedy Center's A Streetcar Named Desire.
- Recently filmed with its original cast, Shrek the Musical will be released on DVD.
- A Christmas Story, The Musical! aims for Broadway.
- Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin, will play Helen Keller in the upcoming Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker.
- Xanadu to hit the road in a new US tour.
- The new stage version of Robin and the 7 Hoods will have its world premiere at San Diego's Old Globe next summer.

GLBT Entertainment:
- Funny lady Liz Feldman is developing a female buddy comedy with a lesbian lead for NBC.
- That's Gay: sassy Bryan Safi on the whole "ex-gay" thing.
- Casting Notices: Yes, you too could be one of Bravo's Real Gay Housewives of San Francisco, while MTV's True Life wants you if you're an out athlete.
- 90210 unzips their lesbian storyline.
- The Advocate chats with Christine Woods on the recent coming out of her FlashForward character.

Women We Love:
- Cover Story: Chelsea Handler does Playboy.
- Casting About: Amy Adams in the dramedy Town House, Becki Newton (and her hunky hubby Chris Diamantopoulos) in Encores' Girl Crazy, Kelly Lynch on 90210 and Reese Witherspoon in the drama Rule #1.
- Angela Lansbury to be celebrated by the Drama League.
- Sharon Gless on being a lesbian in Hannah Free.
- Kathy Griffin has Balls of Steel in her new stand-up special, debuting tomorrow night on Bravo.

Glee:
- Album Notes: While the cast will promote Volume 1(out tomorrow) with in-store appearances in NYC and LA, Volume 2gets a release date: December 8. The track list includes such upcoming musical treats as "True Colors", "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" and "Don't Rain on My Parade".
- More Music News: star Matthew Morrison announces a solo disc.
- Glee gets its first award!
- Watch This: The cast, led by Amber Riley (Mercedes), sings the National Anthem at the World Series.

Out in Film:
- Cheyenne Jackson Watch: First look at him in 30 Rock, and he catches up with The Advocate.
- Director Anthony Fabian finds parallels to the gay experience in his new film Skin.
- David Marshall Grant gets a promotion at Brothers & Sisters.
- Watch These: Chaz Bono on Entertainment Tonight; a video preview of Arias With a Twist starring Joey Arias and Basil Twist.
- Housewives honcho Marc Cherry signs a Desperate deal.
- Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Doug Wright to pen a George Gershwin biopic, produced by music man Michael Feinstein.
- AKA director Duncan Roy joins Dr. Drew's Sex Rehab.
- Author Bret Easton Ellis adapts The Follower for HBO.
- Legendary director James Whale to be celebrated at NYC's Film Forum next month.

MD Poll: Party Like It's 1939

2009-11-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

1939 is widely considered "Hollywood's Greatest Year". Therefore, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the classic films from that legendary 12-month period, we are dedicating this month's MD Polls to celebrating them.

However, instead of asking you to simply pick your favorite 1939 movie (let's face it; this is Movie Dearest and we all know what film would win that contest), we will be holding a special dual poll spotlighting the best onscreen performances of that year, with one poll covering the men, the other the women.

The ten contenders in each poll consist of the five Best Actor and the five Best Actress Oscar nominees, plus an additionally five male and female favorites that have stood the test of time. The top twenty contenders are listed in the polls located in the right hand sidebar, and remember to vote in both polls! The winners will be revealed at the end of the month.

The Actor Factor: The Witches Are Out

2009-10-31T12:00:00.001-05:00

Bewitched celebrated its 45th year on television this past September. After its premiere in 1964 it became ABC's biggest comedy hit up to that time, finishing at an impressive number two in the Nielsens that year. It is one of a select few shows that hasn't been off the air since its premiere, and now the entire series is available on DVD.

One of my favorite shows as a kid, I think every child of the seventies has fond memories of staying home sick from school (or just playing hooky) and watching reruns of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. As an adult, though, I discovered the seldom-seen-in-reruns black and white episodes of Bewitched on Nick at Nite, and it has since become one of my favorite shows of all time.

Most people remember Bewitched as a silly supernatural show of the sixties and early seventies, but it is far more than that. It tackled issues of prejudice and intolerance long before it was commonplace or even acceptable on television. I have collected every season on DVD, after arduously saving them to VHS over the years, and after re-watching episodes for the umpteenth time, I have put together a list of the five episodes of Bewitched that every member of the GLBT community MUST see. Yes, I said “MUST” and all in capital letters. The shows are all from the first two seasons, and two of them are, timely enough, Halloween episodes.

“The Witches Are Out” from season one is the first episode where witches are presented as a minority group. They are referred to as such in the episode in which one of Darrin' clients (portrayed by Shelley Berman) wants his Halloween candy represented by a wart-nosed, broom-riding witch. Meanwhile, Samantha and her witch committee are trying to actively combat the negative images associated with witches during Halloween.

When Samantha stumbles upon Darrin's illustrations of a stereotypical witch, she is hurt and incensed. Darrin doesn't quite understand, but immediately supports Samantha, and instead comes up with a campaign portraying a sexy witch. The client shoots down the idea, but he is Dickensian-ally visited in the night by protest-sign-carrying witches who convince him of the error of his ways. This episode also marks the first appearance of Marion Lorne as Aunt Clara.

“A is for Aardvark”, also from the first season, does not have a particularly gay sensibility, but it is arguably the best episode of the entire series and my personal favorite. In it, Darrin sprains his ankle and Samantha, through witchcraft, makes the house obey his every wish. It is Darrin's first real taste of the power at a witch's command, and he quickly falls victim to the overwhelming lure of witchcraft. Through the experience, Darrin and Sam both learn the value of the unconventional love they share. Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York turn in extraordinary performances. Notably, the episode is directed by film star Ida Lupino.

“There's No Witch Like an Old Witch” (again from season one) portrays a depressed and aging Aunt Clara finding value and purpose as a babysitter for mortal children. Although her young charges are delighted with her magical tricks and stories of flying from rooftop to rooftop, some parents are uncomfortable with Aunt Clara's eccentricities.

Aunt Clara ends up before a judge to plead her capability and value as a babysitter. The show tackles ageism and parental fear of that which is different as all the while Clara attempts to pull a rabbit from her pocket book, delightfully bungling the spell each and every time. Lorne would go on to posthumously win an Emmy for her role.

“The Joker is a Card” from season two marks the first appearance of Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur. Need I say more? I don't, but I will. This is possibly the funniest episode of Bewitched ever. Endora's practical-joke-playing younger brother, Arthur, is introduced and delightful havoc ensues. Arthur convinces Darrin he can combat Endora's meddling with magic of his own, complete with duck calls and cowbells. "Yaga-zuzzie, yaga-zuzzie, yaga-zuzzie-zem!"

“Trick or Treat” is the second season's Halloween episode in which Endora wants Samantha to go away with her to the “Sacred Volcano” to escape the disturbing (to witches at least) revelries of Halloween. Darrin refuses, and Endora (in the guise of a gypsy girl portrayed by a very young Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick) turns Darrin into a werewolf. Dick York's transformation is both hysterical and ridiculous, but the resolution, in which Samantha challenges Endora to confront her own prejudices, is some of the most thought-provoking television ever produced. No — really!

The preceding episodes are but a sample of Bewitched's finest, especially from a GLBT perspective. Honorable mentions also go to “Witches and Warlocks Are My Favorite Things,” (season three) in which a coven of witches questions the suitability of Tabitha being raised in a mixed marriage, and “Samantha's Power Failure” (season five) in which the Witches' Council strips Sam, Serena, Uncle Arthur and Tabitha of their powers (this is also a personal favorite of my partner Chris — that reverend who does movie reviews around here). Oh, and “Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster” (season eight) just makes me laugh ridiculously. Serena as a mermaid! Do I need to say more? I could, but I won't.

All eight seasons of Bewitched are now availableon DVD, and there is talk of releasing the entire series in a boxed set. The earlier seasons, especially the first two, are must-sees for classic TV fans and new viewers alike.

The last three seasons with Dick Sargent (a gay icon in his own right) lack the originality of the earlier episodes and draw on many “remade” scripts from the first few seasons, but they remain entertaining and make the perfect viewing option when you are home sick from work ... or when you're just playing hooky.

"Calling Doctor Bombay! Emergency! Come right away!"

The Actor Factor: A View from Both Sides of the Camera is by James Jaeger, Los Angeles based actor and resident television critic of Movie Dearest.

MD Poll: Spiked!

2009-10-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks no doubt in part to his bleached blonde hair, sexy British accent and vampish charms (ouch), Spike has been named the "Ultimate Vamp Champ"!

As played by James Marsters on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, Spike saw plenty of action ... and not just from a certain ex-cheerleader. But nothing compared to his bloodsucking competitors in the latest MD Poll, which he easily vanquished nonetheless with almost a third of the total votes.

Second place saw a tie between the old — Bela Lugosi's Dracula — and the new — Twilight's Robert Pattinson. See the comments section below for the complete results, and check back tomorrow for the newest MD Poll.

MD News Desk: Halloween Edition

2009-10-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today we present a special edition of the MD News Desk, a goody bag filled with various tricks and treats from Movie Dearest:

And the List Goes On:
- This collection of 20 Movie Villain Pumpkin Carvings gets extra cool points for including ... Large Marge!

Women We Love:
- It's Jamie Lee Curtis’ Follicle Funhouse! How many can you name?

On Location:
- O.T.I.S. pays a special visit to the real Elm Street.
- Zombies invade the Monroeville Mall ... again.

Videodrone:
- A retro Halloween treat from Disney. (By the by, note Donald's nephew on the right — in drag as a witch!)
- Anne Ramsey's head explodes while watching The Bad Seed.
- Scream, Brenda Vacarro, scream!
- "Wocka Wocka Wocka": The Bear Wit Project.
- The one, the only: Sorority Girls from Hell!!!
- Forget Paranormal Activity, it's sexy time.
- Hey kids! It's Shaun (the Sheep) of the Dead!
- Trailer Trash: Beware the One-Eyed Monster (NSFW).

Ride the Movies:
- Now playing at Universal Studios Hollywood: Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical! Lots of pics and videos here.

Movie Music:
- Scary bunnies: Watership Down to the tune of "Ave Satani".
- "The Love Theme from The Shining".

Poster Post:
- From the frightfully funny comic geniuses at Kindertrauma: Kramer vs. Krueger, Get Out of Africa and On Crystal Lake.

Out in Film:
- Varla Jean Merman hawks the Occult Snuggie and stars in Shut Up, Sweet Charlotte!
- Alan Ball spills his guts on True Blood's third season.
- The Big Gay Sketch Show's Julie Goldman has a mop problem.
- Really scary: Anne Heche gets work.

Hands Off the Merchandise:
- Blasts from All Hallows' Eves past courtesy of The Haunted Closet.
- "So soft and cuddly": Dark Shadows Horror Heads!

"I Am the Night", oil on canvas by Brandon Bird
Film Art:
- Just what every trick or treater wants: a Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia costume. (Hey, at least it's not a Philip Seymour Hoffman in Happiness costume.)

Tune in to Movie Dearest later today for more Halloween fun, including the results of our "Ultimate Vamp Champ" MD Poll and a very "Bewitching" edition of The Actor Factor!

Monthly Wallpaper - November 2009: 1939 - Hollywood's Greatest Year

2009-10-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

In honor of its 70th anniversary, November's movie calendar wallpaper celebrates 1939 - Hollywood's Greatest Year!

A lot of classics came out during that fateful twelve months seven decades ago, and Movie Dearest has selected a top ten of faves to represent it: Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Gunga Din, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, The Women and Wuthering Heights.

Plus: the festivities will continue this weekend with a special 1939-themed pair of MD Polls!

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.