Photo by KuttnerPix

In fact, it would not be wrong to describe “Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia” as a comedy. Although Gore Vidal is one of the most respected and prolific American writers, it is his ability to get to the truth of any subject or person with a one-liner that hits its target like an arrow at high velocity. In a way, it unfortunate that Vidal will not be remembered as much for his tremendous work interpreting American history, in tremendous novels such as Burr and Lincoln. It will not be as much for his ground breaking works on homosexuality and alternative lifestyles, such as “The City and the Pillar” and “Myra Breckinridge” (made into an intentionally campy, but unintentionally hilarious movie starring Raquel Welch). For all this, he would have deserved a Nobel Prize. Like Oscar Wilde, Gore Vidal will instead be remembered for his caustic wit, often directed at rivals such as William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer.

Unlike Wilde, Vidal leaves behind a trail of film clips that will outlive him and outlive his more important work. It is this source of recorded hilarious sarcasm and biting remarks that Mr. Wrathall’s film taps into and uses to keep the story flowing and entertaining, to our delight. Surprisingly, the film is visually stunning. From sepia toned photographs of Vidal’s early life and tragic first love, to magnificent views of his Italian villa on the Amalfi Coast, there are enviable and breathtaking shots.

Oddly missing from this film is any of the juicy gossip about his relationship with Jacqueline Bouvier, who was his step sister by marriage. Vidal’s friendship and opinion of JFK is touched on, but the film does not go into the family relationship, other than to mention his and Jackie’s mutual stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. Nor is it mentioned that Vidal was once physically thrown out of the White House. But all of those are minor details. The essence of Gore Vidal has been captured, thanks to the ubiquitous camera and numerous appearances on talk shows like Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.

The title of the documentary comes from Gore Vidal’s assertion that, in our political judgments, Americans tend to be very forgetful. I’m afraid the word “amnesia” may also apply to his more serious and profound work. However, there are certain Vidal truthful statements that have been recorded and will live on forever. And we are grateful for that.

No matter how you may feel about Gore Vidal’s politics or philosophy, you cannot help but wish you had known him. If you shared his philosophy, it is a life you wish you had lived.

While “G.B.F.” is essentially the lovechild of “Juno,” “Saved,” and “Mean Girls,” it exceeded my expectations in a big way. I knew going into the theatre that “G.B.F.” is a comedy designed for teens. Now, that’s not to say that the jokes won’t fly with an older crowd, but the overwhelming usage of “totes” and “amazeballs” may be particularly grating if you’re over the age of 20. However, keep in mind that it’s intentional. The entire film is comedy gold, mixing tongue-in-cheek humor with outlandish one-liners in an interesting and refreshing storyline. After being accidentally outed, lead male Tanner is chased by every popular girl in high school to secure the ultimate “accessory” – a G.B.F., or gay best friend.

The key here is that Tanner is not the sidekick, or the best friend: he is the central character. We see him go from being a nerdy comic book geek to a full-fledged popular boy, or a “plastic” for all you “Mean Girls” fans out there. Is the story similar to “Mean Girls?” Absolutely. But what makes the film stand out, is Tanner himself. Tanner experiences the discomfort of being outed as well as the process of self-discovery in a world where everyone is suddenly watching him. To a certain extent, many people within the LGBT community can relate, so about ten minutes in, the age barrier is shattered.

There is some sexual tension between Tanner and his closeted best friend Brent, and a good portion of the film centers on their relationship, trying to find the balance between friendship and romance. The chemistry between the two is hilarious, awkward and satisfying all at once. Brent’s mother, played by Megan Mullaly, had major comedic relief duty, but luckily, it didn’t feel forced. She wants Brent to come out to her so badly that she can’t help but make inappropriate, awkward sex jokes to get a reaction out of him. “Who’s got the poppers?” she asks in one scene.

The film, while juvenile and silly, was surprisingly quirky and funny, ala Diablo Cody’s screenplay for Juno. It features a great cast, with hilarious performances by Natasha Lyonne, Rebecca Gayheart, Evanna Lynch (best known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films), and even a small role from singer JoJo.

For an independent comedy, “G.B.F.” is as good as they come. It leaves viewers with a smile on their face and a completely new vocabulary. What more can you ask for?

After 9/11, if you hadn’t known Mark, you knew of him. He was one of us. Perhaps it’s that vague connection that may have made “The Rugby Player,” Scott Gracheff’s documentary about Mark and his mother, Alice Hoagland, such an emotional film for me.

But then, anything having to do with 9/11 is still emotional for me. After the screening, I told Scott that “The Rugby Player” was the second saddest film I had ever seen, after “Tokyo Story.” Scott said he thought his film was more “uplifting.” It seems a contradiction, but he was right. A documentary about Mark Bingham just has to be uplifting because, by all accounts and in every scene, Mark is a force for everything that is good in life— at all times being positive and determined to be happy.

Mark lived his life with such an appetite, it’s almost as if he knew his time was limited. It surprised no one that Mark would step up to the plate to confront the terrorists who had hijacked his plane on 9/11 and eventually stop the plane from crashing into Washington, DC, their apparent destination.

“The Rugby Player” tells you everything you would want to know about Mark Bingham, and some things you don’t want to know. In the midst of this grand life is Mark’s mother, who is another inspiring story in her own right. In her determination to pursue Mark’s interest in gay rights, she has become the great ally we now know and love.

If there is any criticism of the film, it is that the pace is a bit monotonous. But it is this engrossing aspect that makes the film ultimately so moving. Because, as the story progresses, you begin to realize the enormity of the loss.

This convoluted movie deals with two under-developed Australian boys (Mike and William) who fall in love, come to terms with their sexuality, and then complete an English assignment in which they must make the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet contemporary. Their version of the Shakespearean play revolves around The Wolfman and Frankenstein’s monster falling in love. William (the new student and more introspective boy) says, “Maybe The Wolfman wants to show Frankenstein his change so they can grow closer,”—a line that is by far the only original thing about the movie.

For one, mentioning Romeo and Juliet in a love story is a cliché. That assignment for an English class is also an cliché. As already stated, a coming-out story without any twist comes off clichéd. Seeing these two kiss in a swimming pool and then grow angry with each other rehashes concepts dealt with more profoundly in shows like Ugly Betty or even General Hospital.

To make matters worse, the pacing is stilted. The boys’ love for each other does not grow slowly or quickly but slowly then quickly then slowly then quickly. When William freaks out after the aforementioned swimming pool kiss, it takes him all but thirty minutes to admit he liked it, and then all of a sudden they’re dating. Character motivation and psychological development seem taken from a What Happens to Gay Kids Book for Dummies.

An ending twist involving the destiny of William is the ultimate audience insult. Without any type of strong motivation and at a seemingly peaceful moment in his life, William makes an ill-advised fateful decision meant to elicit tears from the audience (though I didn’t hear a single sniffle). Emotional manipulation and slip-shod plotting destroy an unoriginal film that had no reason being made in the first place.

Arriving just in time for Passover, Ruben can sense the rather large black cloud hovering over everything: his nephew Gabriel, his relentless mother Rachel  (Almodovar regular Carmen Maura), his unfaithful father Nathan (Jean-François  Stévenin), his sister Irene’s (Amira Casar) marriage to gentile Herve (Charlie  Dupont) and even his own difficulty sleeping. Things become even more complicated when elderly, widowed lawyer Goldberg (Jean-Luc Bideau) becomes enamored with Ruben. As Ruben puts it, his life has become “one bad Jewish joke.”

Back in Finland, Teemu learns the truth about the suspicious stash of cash. He hops on a plane to Paris to make amends with Ruben, but unfortunately, he’s about to make an appearance just as everything goes from bad to worse, including the arrest of Ruben, his brother Samuel (Clément Sibony) and Nathan. Lovesick Goldberg doesn’t help matters when he sends Teemu away. However, when Teemu  appears at the door on the night of the Seder, like a blonde Elijah, it’s clear  that Ruben’s days of suffering are over. I spoke with writer/director Mikael  Buch about the film in early 2013. (“Let My People Go!” is screening on Apr. 27 and May 5 as part of  the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Visit mglff.com for more information.)

Gregg Shapiro: You  co-wrote the screenplay for “Let My People Go!” with Christophe Honoré. how did the two of you come to work together on  this project?

Mikael Buch: I met  Christophe when I was at film school. I went to the National Film School in France. When you do your final study project in school you have to choose a kind  of “godfather” tutor. I had just seen “Dans Paris”, one of his films, which I  love very much, so I asked him to be my tutor. We met like that. Since then I’ve  been working with him on some of his films. When the time came to write my film,  it felt natural to work with him because he was the person who knew me the best  and knew the kind of cinema I wanted to do.

GS: How much, if any, of you is in Ruben or Teemu?

MB: [Laughs] I  think I’m more of a Ruben than Teemu, that’s for sure. But I’m not really Ruben either. The identity setting is autobiographical, but the character itself is  imaginary. I think the character has a lot of things of me and a lot of the things of Nicolas Maury, the actor who plays Ruben, and a lot of things that are  just out of my imagination.

GS: I’m glad that  you mentioned Nicolas, because he is a marvelous physical comedian. He has an expressive and elastic face and when one of the characters says Ruben “wiggles like a worm,” he isn’t kidding.

MB: Meeting  Nicolas has been really important for me. I had done two short films with him before “Let My People Go!” He has been  really important, because before I met him I didn’t dare to do comedy. I had  wanted to do comedy for a long time but I had been doing more dramatic films. When I met him he had such a special way of acting, being a comedian. He seemed like a modern Buster Keaton. That was very interesting  and very inspiring to me. I was thinking of him when I wrote the part (of Reuben).

GS: “Let My People Go!” takes a humorous look at various relationships, including  those between gay sons and their mothers and fathers. In one scene, Ruben accuses his mother Rachel of forcing him to relive his coming out, even though she knows he is gay.

MB: The important  thing for us, when we wrote the script, was not doing a coming-out film. It  shouldn’t be a film about coming out, but about a gay character that was  accepted by his family. I want to talk about how family can accept a gay son  because they love him. But there are still some stereotypes and ideas that exist inside the family. I wanted to talk about that, too. For example, how the mother  accepts the fact that he’s gay, but maybe he’ll find a nice woman and he’ll  settle down. The same thing with the father; when the father says you can’t  preach to me because you’re gay, it’s a kind of idea that even if all of the  family is really accepting of him and supportive, they still have stereotypical ideas about what homosexuality is.

GS: Carmen Maura,  who plays Rachel, is perhaps best known for her work with Pedro Almodovar. “Let My People Go!” is reminiscent of Almodovar’s style of comedy. Is he a filmmaker who you consider to be an influence on your work?

MB: Ah, yes, very  much so. I grew up in Spain, spent my whole childhood in Spain, and his films  were important to me. Carmen was really more than an actress, she was an icon of  my teenage years. I was really lucky to have her in the film. Because I had grown up in Spain, when I started the casting I wanted her to have a little bit  of Spain in the film.

GS: “Let My People Go!” also gives us intimate  relationships between older people – Ruben’s father Nathan and his mistress  Francoise, attorney Goldberg and his longtime male companion Schwartz. Why was it important for you to include those kinds of relationships in the  movie?

MB: I think it’s a  film about every kind of love and desire. I was interested to explore that side. What was interesting about the Goldberg character to me was that he has such a joyful and liberated way of expressing himself, doing whatever he wants. I thought it was really funny to confront Ruben, who has a very complicated way of living his desires, with a character like that, who can allow himself to be the president of the Jewish community and at the same time go disco dancing at a gay club. He does whatever he wants [laughs].

GS: “Let My People Go!” employs humor to address the age old subject of Jews and Gentiles. Do you think that it will always be an “us versus them” relationship, or will the Jews and the “goyim” ever find common ground?

MB: I think that  as long as we have real Jewish mothers [laughs] it will always be an issue. I think that was the whole idea of the (Jewish) spray (utiltized by Rachel). I  think until we find a way to invent that in real life [laughs], I don’t think it  will be resolved.

GS: Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, which you include in the movie, has become a staple of Passover entertainment. What would it mean to you if “Let My People Go!” shared a similar place of honor?

MB: That would be  great. I don’t ask so much [laughs]. Just that people have a good time with the  film. The first image I had when I started writing the script was of Reuben  seeing the image of Charlton Heston in the Cecil B DeMille film. The whole idea  was confront the image of the super Jew, the ideal of the Jewish son. Ruben is  such a clumsy character…

GS: … he’s kind of a nebbish.

MB: [Laughs] Yes, absolutely. The whole comedy idea came from the gap between Charlton Heston and  Ruben.

GS: Mikael, have you begun working on your next film project?

MB: Yes, I’m  currently writing a script. It will be a comedy also. But I’m a little  superstitious when I’m writing, so even my closest friends don’t know what I’m  writing about. My mother keeps trying to call me to find out what I’m writing  about, but she won’t know  [laughs].

Wallflower and high school freshman Charlie (Logan Lerman) is recovering from a difficult spell in the early 1990s. His late Aunt Helen (Melanie Lynskey), with whom he shared a dark and inappropriately intimate secret, haunts him years after her death. There’s also a friend he mentions his who killed himself. But wait, there’s more. Charlie is about to enter the hallowed and hellish halls of a new school.

Preferring to blend into the scenery, Charlie is taken under the wing of English teacher Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), who offers literary guidance. Then, surprising even himself, Charlie makes friends with queer senior Patrick (Miller) and in turn Patrick’s stepsister Sam (Watson). Suddenly, the kid who preferred solitude, reading and writing finds himself in a series of social situations that he never could have predicted.

With increased social acceptance comes great responsibility. Some things he masters, such as keeping secrets (including when he walks in on Patrick kissing one of the stars of the football team). But he struggles with other social graces, such as how to break up with a girl (he has the bad judgment to do it during a game of Truth or Dare). In case you didn’t see it from a mile away, Charlie also falls in love with the lovable Sam. Sam, who’s only interested in older guys, treats Charlie with kid gloves, which only increases his feelings for her.

As Charlie blossoms, his past and the present converge. He finds himself unable to cope. His newfound social status isn’t what he thought it would be and everything, including his friendships, begins to look bleak for him. There are (borderline new age) lessons to be learned about accepting “the love we think we deserve,” however the real lesson has more to do with the power and value of friendships. Not a perfect movie, but one that nevertheless has enough “perks” to make it worthwhile to watch. Blu-ray special features include digital and ultraviolet copies, audio commentary by Chbosky, Miller, Lerman and Watson, deleted scenes and more.

Religion has been making its way into recent indie LGBT films. From dismal disappointments such as Ash Christian’s “Mangus!” to the Shumanski’s “Blackmail Boys,” it’s a topic that isn’t going away, especially in light of the way the community is treated by religious extremists. You can add Stephen Cone’s amazing “The Wise Kids” (Wolfe/Cone Arts) to the list and place it at the top of the list as the best of the current crop.

Set in Charleston, South Carolina, in a community with strong ties to the church, “The Wise Kids” begins in April as music director Austin (Cone) is conducting rehearsals for the Passion play. One look at Austin and your gaydar will go off, in spite of the fact that he’s married to Elizabeth (Sadieh Rifai). It’s also obvious that Austin is in love with Tim (Tyler Ross), a gay high school senior who is heading off to the New School in New York to study film in the fall.

Tim’s best friend Brea (Molly Kunz), the preacher’s daughter, is totally cool about Tim being gay. The same can’t be said for classmate and religious zealot Laura (Allison Torem), who virtually has a nervous breakdown when she finds out Tim is gay and of course vows to pray for him. Brea, who is going through a crisis of faith, becomes closer to Tim (even applying to and getting accepted at NYU), which puts a strain on her friendship with Laura who is, as you might suspect, going to a Christian college.

“The Wise Kids” takes us all the way through December, with stops in May and August, as the trio of friends, as well as the members of their respective families, come to terms with the changes rapidly occurring in their lives. The wonder of the film is the way that every relationship rings true. From Tim and his father (and siblings) to Brea and her father to Austin and Elizabeth and even Tim and Austin, there is never a false note. “The Wise Kids” is a brave and, yes, wise achievement. DVD bonus features include a pair of featurettes.

Nobody plays an oddball character as convincingly as Johnny Depp, and it’s a good thing, too, since oddballs comprise most of his roles. Throughout his film career—from such characters as the extremity-challenged Edward Scissorhands, to the worst-movie-director-of-all-time, Ed Wood, as well as a mental hospital patient who thinks he’s Don Juan, the demon barber Sweeny Todd, the ever-so Mad Hatter, and the swishy Capt. Jack Sparrow—Depp has done what many stars only dream of doing – maintaining his status as a leading man while playing the quirky roles normally relegated to character actors.

In his latest walk on the “Wilde” side, “Dark Shadows,” Depp portrays a character as adept at chewing upon necks as he is chewing the scenery, a love-sick, blood-sucking vampire named Barnabas Collins. Once again, this ain’t the boy next door. “Dark Shadows” is Depp’s eighth outing with director Tim Burton. Among their collaborations, this movie feels more like “Sleepy Hollow” than “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” meaning it falls noticeably short of their best work together. As is true with all Tim Burton films, the look of “Dark Shadows” is never less than stunning.

No one uses CGI (computer generated images) better to set a mood, particularly in a gothic tale like this. In every detail, the film is a feast for your eyes. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, “There’s a lot of sizzle, but where’s the steak?” In the end, “Dark Shadows” takes you in all directions without really going anywhere. Burton can sometimes pull off making style look like substance, but not in this case. Here is a P.T. Barnum-inspired, three-ring circus of a vampire story, about as subtle as a World Wresting Entertainment championship bout.

It’s as if Burton was a celebrity chef who went into the kitchen without any clear idea of what he’s cooking, and just starting throwing in every ingredient at hand, so that instead of his usual distinctive style, you end up with mush. With “Dark Shadows,” more money has been thrown into this concoction than originality. As always, Johnny Depp is good, although here he aims for the jocular more than for the jugular. It’s also refreshing to see Michelle Pfeiffer back on the silver screen, even portraying the matriarch of this Addams Family clone.

Unfortunately, Eva Green (“Casino Royale”) seems to have been told by Burton to play Depp’s nemesis like an imitation of Lisa Marie (the director’s former girlfriend) impersonating Vampira. It is a caricature too far. When “Dark Shadows” first appeared as a “daytime drama” on ABC-TV in 1966, it was something of an original, the first gothic-inspired, supernatural soap opera. Since then, vampire stories have become a vein—pun intended—that’s been mined to death.

In films, we currently have the “Twilight Saga” and the “Underworld” series, television viewers can get their blood-drinker fix with “True Blood” and “The Vampire Dairies,” and this summer, a popular novel-turned-blockbuster-movie depicts honest Abe Lincoln as a vampire hunter. Enough already! It’s time for the living dead to become the dead dead—at least for a merciful while. Let them all Rest in Peace.

To paraphrase the Weather Girls’ hit song, “It’s raining Superheroes” at your movie multiplex. Officially known as “Marvel’s The Avengers” (after Marvel Comics, the film’s literary source) has 6.5 superheroes—Ironman, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow (the movie’s only heroine), the Incredible Hulk, Hawkeye the Archer, and an eye-patch wearing guy named Nick Fury as their beleaguered organizer.

There’s a long tradition in Hollywood of taking popular individual characters and putting them together in the same movie. Universal Studios made a fortune doing that with Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein’s monster, but this film may set the record for its sheer number.

The fact that the filmmakers pull it off so well in this quintessential popcorn movie is something of a show-biz miracle, the equivalent of a page-turner in pulp fiction, and culminates in nothing less than nerd Nirvana. For some time now we’ve been teased in the post-credit endings of the various “Ironman,” “Thor,” and “Captain America” movies that a combined movie story was coming. The success of those films, along with the 49 year history of these comic book series, has guaranteed huge worldwide interest.

Right from the starting gate, “The Avengers” was the number one boxoffice hit in every one of the 52 countries where it opened—including the U.S., where it enjoyed the biggest first weekend in history. As of this publication date, the film will rank in the top ten greatest grossing movies of all time. The fact that the movie is also a solid work of entertainment is mainly due to the fanboy’s best friend in Hollywood, Joss Whedon, who directed and wrote the screenplay.

Whedon—who was responsible for the cult-favorite TV series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”—pulls off a juggling act here by giving each of the superheroes some special moments while creating a cohesive teambased film. The story is a kind of sequel to 2011’s “Thor,” with Thor’s evil brother Loki here seeking to conquer the earth. (Don’t all super-villains want to conquer our little blue planet?)

This crisis impels government super-agent Nick Fury to bring together all the superheroes “to fight a foe that no superhero can fight alone,” thus ensuring not only the confrontation with Loki and his army, but also a clash of the super-egos. These may be the good guys, but they aren’t very good at playing with others. As Whedon says, “These people shouldn’t be in the same room, let alone on the same team—and that is the definition of family.”

It’s also a situation that’s ripe for both drama and comedy, and what keeps “The Avengers” such serious fun is that it’s often so seriously funny. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Ironman provides much of the quips and rejoinders. Chris Hemsworth is the divinely handsome Norse god Thor, and Chris Evans is chiseled and idealistic Captain America.

All three played these roles in separate previous movies. Mark Ruffalo becomes the third actor to play Bruce Banner (while the “Hulk” continues to be a CGI visual effect), but this divided hero works better here than he did in the two films devoted totally to him—“Hulk” in 2003, and “The Incredible Hulk in 2008 (maybe less Hulk is better than more). Scarlett Johansson is the dressed-inblack- leathers Black Widow, an idealized version of an adolescent view of the femme fatale.

Jeremy Renner stars as Hawkeye, and Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury. Superhero movies are only as good as their supervillain, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki (the Norse god of chaos) certainly fulfills that hiss-able role. Like every big effects movie that begins production with an opening weekend set firmly in stone, the visual effects here are uneven, with some of the CGI (computer generated images) appearing truly awesome, while others look somewhat rough and incomplete.

In the end the plot seems more an excuse for a $220 million demolition derby than it is epic storytelling, but its saving grace is that it’s able to spoof these larger-than-life heroes without demeaning them. Although providing a much better than average night at the movies, I am concerned that “The Avengers,” and the deluge of other comic book-inspired movies, only serves to deepen the dominating adolescent-mania of American films that’s reflected in so many of today’s comedies and action movies.

So often these days the protagonists are either far more powerful and intelligent—or more juvenile and dumb—than we should expect any grown-up to be. What’s wrong with a more varied movie menu, where the ideas are as big as the explosions, and which includes funny and exciting stories that show that it’s no fantasy what kinds of challenges ordinary folks can overcome? Sometimes you also need an escape to reality.

Even in places that are LGBT friendly, such as South Florida, you wouldn’t get the chance to see many of the gay films if it weren’t for special festivals, such as the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF) running from April 27 through May 6 in South Beach.

From production to distribution, making an independent gay film is still an arduous task, so it’s important the GLBT community support the people who are venturing forth to tell our stories. As the first major gay film festival in the calendar year, MGLFF is a platform for numerous World, North American and East Coast Premiers with over 65 movies from 15 countries. There’s literally something for everyone.

Films in this year’s festival continue to be dominated by the trials and tribulations of being gay, but there’s at least one major exception in the exceptional documentary “Out for the Long Run” (see below). It’s an interesting phenomenon that in recent years the better gay films have been documentaries, and that’s certainly bore out with the offerings of this year’s MGLFF.

I was able to see four of the films in advance, and you’ll find an asterisk (*) by their titles.

The opening picture on Friday, April 27, is from New Zealand and is called “Kawa”. It tells the dramatic story of a successful businessman who finds the courage to tell his wife, children, parents and traditional Maori community that he’s gay.

On April 29 is “Seventh- GAY Adventist,” * a remarkable documentary dealing with the conflict that happens, “When your church says the only way you can be true to God is by being false to yourself.”

Seventh-Day Adventists is a very conservative denomination believing in the literal interpretation of the Bible.

It’s more than a religion for it provides a rather encompassing culture for its members to grow up – Sabbath on Saturdays, Friday nights devoted to family, vegetarian in diet, its own scout movement called Pathfinders, a close knit community, and so forth.

The result is that by being openly gay, you risk your relationship with both the church and the culture, as also happens with Orthodox Jews, Mormons, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Southern Baptists and some other religious groups. The film follows three gay couples (two male, one female) as they confront these issues with good character and courage, and find support in surprising places. “Seventh- Gay Adventist” is an inspiring and upbeat film.

That same day finds my favorite film of the festival, “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same,” is both a spoof of sci-fi B movies and straight romantic comedies.

One of the two documentaries set in Florida is shown on April 30.

“Unfit: Ward vs. Ward” tells the true story of how a Pensacola judge ruled that a convicted killer, who didn’t even know which grade his daughter was in, was more fit to raise the child than her lesbian mother.

In the cliché clustered “Naked As We Came”* (May 2), a self-absorbed brother and sister are called to their mother’s rural home due to her failing health and find an attractive young man living with her.

A lot of confusion and some forced resolutions follow with a none-tooconvincing relationship developing between the brother and the young man. This movie is not particularly gay in either sense of that word.

“Taking a Chance on God” (May 3) is also a documentary about the conflict between the church and being honest about who you are, and is the second festival film dealing with a Florida resident. Eighty-five year old John McNeill has often been a voicein- the-wilderness as he confronted the anti-gay doctrines and powers of the Roman Catholic Church. This nonfictional film is a moving testament to McNeill’s influence as a priest, writer, and untiring activist.

“Out for the Long Run”* (May 5) is one of the best gay documentaries ever made and I urge you to see it because it’s that rare stereotypebreaking GLBT film that focuses on the positives rather than the usual angst of being homosexual.

Expertly made, it follows four openly gay young athletes, two of high school age and two in their first years of college.

Like the excellent d o c u m e n t a r y “Bully” (showing in theaters now), the parents are totally supportive and provide a constructive counterpoint to the images often portrayed in films (as do the gay young people themselves). Austin is a high school senior and long-distance runner who, unlike many of his straight friends, has never had a relationship, and then, through Facebook, he meets Taylor in North Carolina, another openly-gay athlete who will also be attending Brown University. The camera is there when they meet for the first time in person and the look on Austin’s face is worth any trouble to see this movie. All four of these young people set a stirring example, not only for their peers, but also for the older generation. This movie will give you hope for the future.

The beautifully photographed and acted “North Sea Texas”* is a Belgium film in Dutch with English subtitles (talk about diversity) and is the closing night event on May 5. Pim is a lonely 14-year-old dreamer, ignored by his crass mother who works in a bar named Texas. It’s a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of his crush on the older boy next door who may or may not return his affection.

Filled with poignant emotions, “North Sea Texas” proves there’s still power in a well-done coming of age drama. Bavo Defume has previously directed only short films with gay themes. In this his first feature-length production, he raises great expectations on what gay films we might expect from him in the future.

These are just eight of the over 65 movies being shown throughout the 14th Annual Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. For a complete list of the movies, showtimes, special events, and venues, go to mglff.com. And then go see some of these films yourself.

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