Florida Agenda

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – The Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) will present an encore showing of the film Bullied on Monday, Jan. 30, starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Coral Springs Center for the Performing Arts, with a catered cocktail reception before the film, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Among those attending will be Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti, who will discuss his office’s Anti-Bullying initiative. Also expected to attend are Captain Rick Wierzbicki of the Sheriff’s Office Hate Crimes and Anti Bias Task Force; Robert Tanen, the Associate Florida Regional Director of the Anti Defamation League, and Lily Medina, the Anti-Defamation League’s education director.

Bullied chronicles the story of Jamie Nabozny, a gay Wisconsin teen who fought his tormentors in the federal courts and won. The suit led to a landmark decision that holds school officials accountable when anti-gay bullying persists.

Wierzbicki, a former chief of police of Wilton Manors, says, “the message of the film, which was really Jamie Nabozny’s message to the bullies who made his life hell, is that all children and teens are entitled to attend school in a safe environment that’s free from harassment and abuse.”

In spite of the decision in Nabozny’s case, bullying against LGBT students remains a severe problem. Today, more than 80 percent of LGBT youtth report being harassed at school. In spite of this, many schools across the country remain unwilling or afraid to openly address anti-gay bullying.

BSO, in conjunction with the Southern Poverty Law Center, premiered Bullied to South Florida audiences last September at Fort Lauderdale’s Cinema Paradiso. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Shelly Solomon Heller at 954-557-7760, or via email at shelly@shellylifecoach.com. More information about BSO’s anti-bullying initiative can be found online at www.sheriff.org/antibullying.

 

 

By Warren Day

In “Weekend,” we finally have a well-received 2011 movie where the love story at the center is between two people of the same sex. Not where it’s a sidebar, as  it was with the excellent “Beginners” that opened in July. And this British independent film is receiving even better reviews, particularly from straight critics. Now why would straight reviewers react more positive to it than gay ones? And why should that bother me or you?

What is undisputed is that Great Britain has given us some of the best gay-themed movies ever made – “Maurice,” “My Beautiful Launderette,” “Prick Up Your Ears,” “Wilde,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “The Crying Game,” “Beautiful Thing,” “Another Country,” “Velvet Goldmine,” and many others. Also fifty years ago it was a British film, “Victim,” with Dirk Bogarde, that was the first major release to ever say the word “homosexual” and to deal with homosexual persecution. So “Weekend” is a part of a distinguished lineage, even if its working-class British accents can be a little hard to understand.

It tells the contemporary story of Russell, a lifeguard for a community pool in Nottingham, England, a place most Americans probably haven’t heard mentioned since a certain sheriff was chasing a certain guy in green tights through Sherwood Forest. One Friday night, he attends a potluck dinner thrown by some straight friends whose happy relationships and contented lives make him even more aware of the loneliness in his own.

Somewhat in desperation, he stops off in a non-descript gay bar on the way

home and is ignored by Chris, the one guy who seems to interest him, but then when Chris can’t score with the guy he wants, he decides he’ll settle for Russell and a one-night stand. Since this isn’t an opportune beginning and since there’s no expectations beyond a fleeting hook-up, they’re less on-guard with each other, less concerned with projecting a calculated image. Over the first 24 hours, they become more honest and open than usual – the result of which is they catch themselves developing some mutual feelings, feelings that are intensified when it’s discovered, for a reason I won’t reveal here, that the relationship cannot continue beyond the weekend. Is a 48-hour weekend time enough to know someone well enough that you’re willing to walk away from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the hope you’ve found your once-in-a-lifetime love?

This film has been rightly praised for the naturalistic way in which their small disclosures and small discoveries about each other leads to something that seems both real and rare, and how the movie’s ending seems genuinely unforced and realistic. To critics who’ve long ago OD’d on the cutesy and predictable formulas of Hollywood romantic comedies (think Jennifer Aniston), this naturalism in both story and acting can be very enticing.

So while this difference from usual rom-com movies may give an understandable cause for straight critics to praise “Weekend,” the fact that it deals with a situation many gays have known either personally or from the experiences of their friends, may give it a tired and ever-so-familiar ring. While on the other hand, seeing two gay men in this situation may provide a fresh spin to straights that it won’t have for us, because you can hear this story being told almost any night in almost any gay bar.

Harvey Fierstein, who wrote and starred in both the play and movie-version of “Torch Song Trilogy,” said that when straights told him they felt his story wasn’t really a gay story, but a universal one, he would protest, saying he’d spent decades transferring heterosexual romances into terms he could understand, and he wasn’t willing to have his gay story homogenized into something generic. There are too few gay stories, Fierstein said, to have them tailored into one-size-fits-all. And as he further stated, he’d be offended if someone claimed that “Schindler’s List” could just as well be about some WASPs in Grover Corners, New Hampshire.

Good stories do have some universal truths, but not at the expense of its particular characters and their often unique struggles.

What I’d like to do is what critics should do more often and say you should probably ignore any reservations I’ve expressed here; chances are you’ll be glad you saw “Weekend,” and will find it to be that rare movie that expresses gay life in a non-exaggerated and non-cartoonish way. The fact that this film may remind you of similar incidents in your own life will make it personal and that will make it powerful.

“The Ides of March” – “Moneyball” – “50/50”

By WARREN DAY

Photo: Brad P itt

and Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”

Three of the best films of 2011 are in theaters right now, three films that deserved to be seen by the widest audience possible, and yet they stand in danger of being sidelined by one off-putting word that might keep you and others from seeing them.

For “The Ides of March,” it’s the word “politics;” for “Moneyball,” it’s “baseball;” and for “50/50,” it’s the scariest word of them all, “cancer.” To say these three excellent movies are about those three words is like saying the movie “Titantic” is about drowning.  They may have as their backgrounds those three things, but what they are actually about is something far different and of a much bigger interest to the average moviegoer.

“The Ides of March” is a psychological thriller about the high-stakes games people play when they want power and when they feel threatened in their efforts to obtain it. It takes place during a highly-contested presidential primary, but it could take place in Wall Street, a network news division, the company where you work, or any place where the selection of one person could make or break other careers. It stars Ryan Gosling as someone who’s torn between his conscience and his ambitions (most of us have been in that situation to some degree). Along with “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “Drive,” and now this movie, Gosling is having one sterling showcase of a year.  George Clooney also stars as the flawed Democratic candidate, and he also directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay. He does all of those things admirably. My qualm is that this movie feeds too easily into our cynicism that all politicians (and their staff) are shady  characters – but in the present national mood, many Republicans, Democrats, and even those who are apolitical, would say “Amen” to that.

“Moneyball” is from the bestselling, non-fiction book by the same author who wrote “The Blind Side.” It’s also an inspirational story about someone who decides that the way a certain business has been run, a major league baseball team in this case, is wrong and sets about breaking all the cherished rules. Brad Pitt as the real-life Billy Beane is mesmerizing, and Jonah Hill almost steals the movie in his first  dramatic part. The always good Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the beleagued team manager (he’s also in “Ides of March”). You don’t have to know baseball (any more than you have to like politics with “Ides of March”) to really enjoy watching an underdog go up against an entrenched establishment. It’s the kind of David and Goliath story that we never get tired of, particularly when it’s as well done as this one.

No other movie of this or any recent year walks so many tightropes as successfully as does “50/50.” Like “Moneyball,” it is based on a true story, and it contains laughs and insights that could only come from a writer who’s lived it. “50/50” is one of the funniest films of the year, and yes it is about a 27-year-old (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has cancer. The laughs (and the tears) come from how he, his best friend (Seth Rogen in his finest role), his girlfriend, his therapist, and his mother (Anjelica Houston in a comeback role) react to that situation. It’s as emotionally moving as it is funny and one of the movies where you leave the theater feeling that sometimes the good guy does indeed finish first.

One thing all three of these films have in common is that they contain some of the best acting to be seen on the screen this year. Brad Pitt and Joseph Gordon-Levitt deserve nominations for Best Actor, and George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill and Anjelina Huston warrant strong consideration in the Best Supporting category.

And these films remind us to be cautious whenever someone tries to sum up any movie, person, or idea in a single word, because we all know how wrong that can be when one word has been applied to ourselves–whether that word is gay or straight, young or old, white or black.

If you want to see a really depressing movie, then see the ridiculously bad “Abduction” with Taylor Lautner, but if you want an exciting and fulfilling evening at the movies, make your way now to “The Ides of March,” “Moneyball,” and “50/50.”  Your mind, your soul, and your funny-bone will be glad you did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And Now the Good (and GLBT) Movies Will Come Out to Play

Photo: Rooney Mara in “The Girl with  the Dragon Tattoo”

By Warren Day

For at least a couple of decades, the movie year has divided itself into three basic seasons.

The first four months of the year – January, February, March, April – is the Dump Season. The major and critically-acclaimed films having been packed in toward the close of the previous year (to qualify for awards), now give way to the also rans. The new films that are left are largely the ones in which the studios have little faith, so they dump them into these winter months when theater attendance is at its lowest ebb.

Next we have the Blockbuster Season – May, June, July, August. This is when the studios pile on the heroic, comic-book, pre-sold sequels and R-rated comedies to ensure they will keep the theater seats and their coffers full. In this third of the year, studios will earn over 55% of their annual boxoffice. For counter-programming, there are usually one or two adult films released in August. This year, it was the wildly-successful, “The Help.” That film cost only $30 million (compared to other summer films with budgets around $175 million), yet “The Help” is likely to earn $150 million—domestically alone.

Finally, we have the Award Season, which stretches over the last four months of the year, from September through December. It kicks off with three, very high-profile film festivals where the studios test the critical and award-worthy waters, namely the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival.

All three of these have just finished, and among the hundreds of movies on display were most of the key ones expected to pull in the honors from the critics and award groups (of which the Holy Grail is the Oscar® Awards). Only three films released in the first eight months are expected to have a chance to be nominated in the major Oscar categories: “The Tree of Life,” “Midnight in Paris” and “The Help.”

 

Already among the critics, industry-insiders, and would-be opinion makers, there’s a growing consensus on what films stand a chance for the top ten lists, and who will be making acceptance speeches at the Kodak Theater in February.

Of those ten, four have GLBT-related content, so this is truly the season when the movies come out.

First up, October 7, is “The Ides of March” with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. Here, I’m making the assumption that the studio wouldn’t be courting the gay press so much if there wasn’t a gay connection. The plot does revolve around a scandal that threatens an attractive presidential candidate (Clooney) and how an idealistic staffer (Gosling) struggles with the moral and political implications.

It was seen at all three film festivals I mentioned and received kudos for being a taut thriller that could easily take place in other areas of American life.

Then on November 9, we have “J. Edgar,” Clint Eastwood’s film about J. Edgar Hoover who headed the F.B.I or its predecessor for 48 years, welding great power over the secrets of this country, but in his lifetime squelched any rumors he was gay (and maybe a cross-dresser). Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hoover, and Armie Hammer, who played the Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network,” plays Clyde Tolson, his deputy and supposed lover. Eastwood has said this is “not a film about two gay guys,” but the original script was written by openly-gay Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for writing “Milk.”

On December 9, we have the movie theater version of John Le Carré’s great novel, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” starring some of the best actors working today: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Among these male spies, there are two who’ve had a fervent affair that greatly affects the outcome of the story. Previously dramatized in 1979 as one of the most highly-acclaimed TV mini-series (with Alec Guinness), the filmmakers have seemingly been successful in making a 127-minute version of this complicated story. Premiering in early September at the Venice Film Festival and already showing in England, the reviews have been through the roof and the movie is being heralded as a sure thing for several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

Finally on December 21, the English language version of Stieg Larsson’s worldwide best seller, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” reaches theaters. Directed by David Fincher, one of the best directors working today, the advanced word is this may be even better than the well-liked Swedish film version. Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, the investigative reporter, and Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a bisexual who is also a brilliant computer hacker, and one of the most fascinating fictional characters to emerge in many a year. It may be the first mainstream film to feature a bisexual as its protagonist.

The other movies being touted for best of the year include: “The Descendants” with George Clooney (some are already predicting this will win Best Picture), “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s version of the book and play, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Clear,” with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, and “The Artist,” a silent film (with music and sound effects) that has charmed critics and already won some awards.

So far this hasn’t been a sterling year for movies (“Green Lantern” anyone?), but as usual the best have been saved for the Awards Season, and from the advanced reviews and buzz, we have some excellent ones coming in the final three months.

And it appears, at least as of now, that 40% of the best films of the year will have some GLBT content, a fact that will further convince the right-wing fundies that Hollywood is a liberal bastion of iniquity. To which I say, thank God it is!

Send comments and questions to AgendaReviews@aol.com.

 

 

By Warren Day

Contagion” may be the scariest movie you’ll ever see. Not in a vampire or werewolf kind of way, because deep down you know you’re never going to meet one of those in real life (especially one that looks like Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner).

What makes director Steven Soderbergh’s latest film so frightening is that it deals with something that not only could happen, but also has actually occurred in the past and is widely predicted to happen again – a new virus that is resistant to all treatment, resulting in millions of deaths. You may jump out of your seat at more traditional scary movies, but this one will probably give you more nightmares.

Soderbergh has a talent for gathering a stellar cast, as he did in “Ocean’s 11,” “12” and “13,” and here he does it again. In “Contagion,” the stars include Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Laurence Fishburne. The casting is one of the strengths of the film (no star can play everyman better than Damon, and Fishburne has the gravitas to play the head of a large government agency). Since you have some feelings already for these well-known stars the director doesn’t have to spend much time making you care about what happens to them. But the casting is also one of its weaknesses since he wasn’t able to find A-listers for all the major parts, it can be somewhat jarring going from scenes with Damon and Paltrow to a couple of unrecognizable actors with equally sized parts.

From the beginning, Soderbergh gives the movie a documentary feel that makes the events seem quite feasible, and since this virus is airborne and highly contagious, he instills a sense of doom in ordinary occurrences – someone coughing on a crowded bus, blowing on dice for luck, two hands reaching into the same peanut bowl. After seeing “Contagion,” you may find yourself scared to touch another doorknob.

If you think this film exaggerates what can happen in a pandemic, remember that in 1348, the Black Plague hitchhiked a ride to China with traders (the virus in this film also starts in China), and in just two years 30 to 60% of the population of Europe was wiped out. Less than a hundred years ago, 1918 – 1919, Spanish Flu killed as many as 100 million worldwide, including 675,000 in the USA (my great grandfather was one of those). As this film demonstrates, with people and goods constantly flowing across continents today, what used to take two years to develop can now take place in a single month.

The trouble with this kind of story is where do you go

with it? Besides anxiety, what is the audience suppose to feel or think? We’ve always had sound-thealarm movies, but usually they deal with some peril over which we can, if willing, take steps to reduce the threat – proliferation of nuclear weapons, ruining our environment. What can you do against an unknown virus that could already be entering someone’s blood stream, someone who’s about to catch a plane to an airport near where you live?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send any comments or questions to AgendaReviews@aol.com

A film review by Warren Day

A positive stereotype that both heterosexuals and homosexuals hold about gays is that they’re more creative than most and without them theater would be half what it is.

If that’s true, then why is it so hard to come up with a substantial list of great gay plays – that is, plays of lasting value that focus on the lives of gay men and lesbians? Give it a try and see if you don’t have difficulty in listing five masterpieces, much less ten, and if you remove the ones that deal with AIDS, you might have trouble naming three. Where is our “Death of a Salesman” or “Long Day’s Journey into Night?”

Even the best playwrights who were homosexual (Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Edward Albee) produced no great work dealing openly with gays. In Tennessee Williams’ plays, the gay character is always dead before the curtain goes up  (i.e., Blanche’s husband in “Streetcar,” Brick’s football buddy Skipper in “Cat,” and Sebastian in “Suddenly Last Summer”.)

Some of the best known gay plays, the ones that originally broke the barriers, can seem quite dated today, such as “The Boys in the Band” and “Tea and Sympathy.” The exception to this is possibly “The Children’s Hour.”

And while Terrence McNally (“Love! Valour! Compassion!”) and Paul Rudnick (“Jeffrey”) may have given us some enjoyable and meaningful evenings in the theater, only a few would call their plays timeless classics.

So, almost by default, Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” obtains the distinction (and the burden) of being called “the greatest gay play ever written”.  In dramatizing the moral quandaries of the AIDS crisis in 1985, in both public and private lives, it has umpteen awards to support that claim, winning both the Pulitzer and the Tony and, as a mini-series on HBO, a slew of Emmys and Golden Globes. Harold Bloom, the go-to arbitrator of such questions, put it on his list of the greatest works of literature in the western world.  For now, at least, it’s the “Hamlet” of gay plays.

And the Andrews Living Arts Studio (ADL) in Fort Lauderdale is giving you a rare chance, until September 4, to see this gay masterwork, a play not seen in south Florida for over a decade.

Granted, it’s so highly-acclaimed and that gays hold so prominent a role behind and in front of the curtain in Florida theater, why hasn’t it been staged more often?

For one reason, it’s a difficult play for a community theater to do because it’s actually two plays running seven hours total (ADL is doing only an abridged version of “Part I: Millennium Approaches”); the script is multi-layered, epic in its themes, and consistently shifts between reality and fantasy. “Angels” requires a level of acting and directing that’s hard for any company to achieve.

ADL deserves big kudos for attempting such a play. However, I cannot review intentions or ambition, only the results, and on that score it’s a very disappointing production. Anyone seeing “Angels” for the first time here would have no idea why it’s considered a great play.

The acting ranges from adequate to embarrassing, with at least three of the actors noticeably older than the characters they’re playing. That last point is not minor, since questions and struggles that occupy people 27 to 32 begin to strain acceptance when played by someone who looks at least ten years older than that.

Part of Kushner’s genius is how he uses mundane language to communicate profound meanings and humor to explore some of life’s darker moments; but in this production, the mundane stifles the profound and much of the poetry and laughter is lost in delivery.
After being assured they would be using the Broadway script, I found at least an hour had been cut, with whole scenes and characters gone, and with them some of the needed coherence and substance. Joe Pitt’s mother is now in only one brief scene, and Ethel Rosenberg is reduced to some spooky music.

The director still has some of the 11 actors play multi-roles, but he changes the careful schematic Kushner intended.  There was a good reason to have the Mormon mother play the male Rabbi, the Angel to play the nurse, and the same actor who plays Lewis’ lover be his trick in the park. That’s all changed in this production, and it’s to the detriment of the evening.

As to the larger question of why there are so few great gay plays, if you keep in mind that dramas focusing openly on gay issues and characters have only happened in the last 43 years of the 2500 year history of theater in the western world, then maybe it’s more understandable that there isn’t yet a longer list of classics.  That same period has also been a lean time in producing masterpieces on the lives of straights (hence all the revivals).

Instead, think about what a future Tennessee Williams or Oscar Wilde might write, or what they and others could’ve written if their times had been different.  If you remember that William Shakespeare wrote his most ardent love poetry to a young man, then just try and imagine the gay play we might have today if he’d been allowed his “Romeo and Romeo.”

As the angel says at the end of “Millennium Approaches,” “…the great work has (just) begun.”

What Are Best Gay Plays?

Remember this isn’t a list of the most enjoyable or personally meaningful, but simply what might be considered the best written of the plays that have their main focus on gay issues or a gay or lesbian character. In alphabetical order, my personal list would include:

• Angels in America by Tony Kushner
• Bent by Martin Sherman
• Boston Marriage by David Mamet
• Breaking the Code (about Alan Turing)
by Hugh Whitemore
• The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
• The Dresser by Ronald Harwood
• Entertaining Mr. Sloane by Joe Orton
• Falsettos by William Finn
• Fifth of July by Langford Wilson
• Gross Indecency by Moises Kaufman
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch by John Cameron
Mitchell and Stephen Trask
• The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard
• The Killing of Sister George by Frank Marcus
• La Cage Aux Folles, the musical by Jerry
Herman and Harvey Fierstein, original play by
Jean Poiret
• The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman
• Loot by Joe Orton
• M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
• The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer
• Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg
• Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein

Let us hear your reactions, opinions  and suggestions by emailing AgendaReviews@aol.com

 

Andrews Living Arts Studio is located at 25 NW 5th Street, Fort Lauderdale 33301. Performances Thurs thru Sun at 7:30 p.m. till Sept. 4. Buy tickets for $24.95 at www.andrewslivingarts.com, or 800-838-3006. At the door, $29.95.

One thing you can look forward to after Gay Pride and Father’s Day is a film that’s an almost perfect entertainment for those two neighboring celebrations. Opening July 1st in Florida, Beginners is a true story that reverses a moment found in countless gay-themed movies.

Rather than the son coming out to his father, it’s the father, Christopher Plummer, who comes out to his straight son, Ewan McGregor. And what follows is not the usual anguish and incrimination, but a touching and revealing account of how self-acceptance is the first step for everyone when it comes to falling in love.

Ewan McGregor plays Oliver, a graphic designer who seems to be going through a mid-life crisis several years before he’s supposed to have one. He’s adrift both personally and professionally when his life is turned topsy-turvy after his mother dies and his father, Hal, announces he’s gay, has always been gay, and is now going to live the rest of his life with a flamboyant enthusiasm. “I don’t want to be theoretically gay,” Hal explains to his startled son.

Oliver has had a series of short and not-so-happy relationships, something he blames on the lifeless marriage of his parents, but then he sees his father at age 75 blossom and fall in love for the first time in his life with a 39 year-old named Andy. And with that positive example before him, Oliver finds himself increasingly involved with a French actress with an equally fickle history. Anna is played by the beautiful Mélanie Laurent, who starred in Inglorious Bastards.

The repressive Oliver often ends up expressing his true feelings to his father’s dog, a Jack Russell terrier, who comments back to the audience in succinct subtitles, thus proving what canine lovers have long suspected – dogs understand the foibles of human beings better than we do ourselves.

The central situation actually happened to the writer-director Mike Mills, and Beginners has the rhythm and resonance of something that’s been lived and not just imagined. And it also has the weakness of many an autobiographical- based movie in that it’s more moving in moments than it is as a whole. Memory is, by its nature, episodic, so the story goes back and forth in time as Oliver works his way toward a new understanding of his father and of himself.

The Vice-Versa Film of 2011

All the performances are masterful, including that Jack Russell, and one can hope that this role might earn Christopher Plummer the Oscar that has eluded him so far.

One critic complained that it wasn’t feasible for a man of 39 to fall in love with a man of 75 years, thus revealing that critic’s narrow views and narrow acquaintances. The verities and varieties of the human heart are far more mysterious and extensive than our puny categories can encompass.

And unlike the usual soap-opera that dominates so many gay-themed stories, Beginners is filled with hilarity and hopefulness as people struggle to find that precarious balance between head and heart.

The simple and sweet message of this delightful film is that when it comes to love and relationships, all of us, regardless of age or orientation, are – and always will be – beginners.

Beginners will be released in theatres nationwide July 1st. Check your local listings for theatres and movie times.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival celebrates Italian culture, cuisine and cinema during their 2nd Annual Italia Festa Thursday, June 2 through Sunday, June 5 at Cinema Paradiso (503 SE 6 Street in downtown Fort Lauderdale).  The four-day event features 12 Italian films including: the awarding-winning war drama – The Man Who Will Come by director Giorgio Diritti, a murder mystery – The Right Distance directed by Carlo Mazzacurati, the surrealistic thriller – My Mother’s Smile directed by Marco Bellachio and starring Sergio Castellitto, the delightful comedy – Happy Family directed by Gabriele Salvatores starring Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Margherita Buy, and a free Saturday morning FAB!

Films For Kids feature about Italy followed by painting and sculpting. For tickets and more information, visit www.FLiFF.com or call (954) 525-FILM

Actor Matthew Ludwinksi Goes Down in LA-LA Land

By TROY MAILLIS

Going Down in LA-LA Land is premiering at this year’s Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival as the coveted final night feature.  Based on the novel penned by Andy Zeffer, this film explores the ups and down, and trials and tribulations of trying to make it in Hollywood. What would you do to survive and achieve your ultimate dream? Directed by Casper Andreas, the film stars Matthew Ludwinski as “Adam,” a Hollywood newbie looking to get his start in the world of lights—camera—action. We recently caught up with Matthew to talk about his starring role, the steamy sex scenes and working with Casper Andreas.

Going Down in LA-LA Land is premiering on the final night of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Will you be in Miami for the opening? How do you feel about the film being the closing night feature?
I won’t be able to make the opening, but all of us involved with the film are excited and honored to be the closing night feature.

What did you do to prepare for your role in Going Down in LA-LA Land? Did you spend any extra time getting in tip top shape?
Of course! I’m a vain actor! Whenever I have an important acting or modeling job I always try to step it up a bit. And Carbs—I didn’t even LOOK at so much as a slice of whole wheat toast, which was difficult because during those long night shoots they sometimes had to bring in a second meal for the cast and crew at 2 a.m. and it was always something delicious and awful like “Jack in the Box” tacos and cheeseburgers. I also gave up alcohol two weeks before, and then the month of the shoot, which is what I’m going to use as my excuse for getting a little *ahem* sloppy at the wrap party.

Did you read the book by Andy Zeffer? If so, what did you think?
I knew that Casper had the rights to the book long before he cast me as the lead, so I bought and read the book before Casper had even finished the script. After reading it, I knew it was the perfect part for me. I was dying to play that role! It’s fun to imagine oneself in various tragic situations, and this particular situation involves a sexy combination of porn, prostitution and Hollywood romance. Getting to play that role let me live in that world for a bit without any of the pesky consequences.

Are there any parts of your character you identify with? Most of them. I mean, what actor wouldn’t?

My character is sort of an “everyman” actor type. He’s a young man with big dreams and not a lot of resources. I’ve certainly been there!As an actor, did you experience any similar situations as your character when getting started in the business?
Absolutely. I know what it’s like to feel objectified. I know what it’s like to feel used. I know what it’s like to feel desperate. And every actor has thought at some point about the casting couch, and has had the thought, “I wonder if it is possible to sleep my way to the top?” But really his whole journey from arriving to Hollywood bright and excited to the process of his disillusionment—I’ve experienced all of that. I think most actors have.

You show a lot of skin in the film. Do you get nervous in situations like that

?

Not really. I’m pretty comfortable with my body. In my modeling days I would often be photographed in very little clothing. I was even in “Naked Boys Singing,” so that tells you a little bit about the roles I get cast in.

How intense were the sex scenes? Were you able to let go and have fun?
I had fun in almost every scene, and I wasn’t nervous about the sex scenes. My costars were so great, and everyone was very comfortable and committed. Occasionally I would freak out and worry that my “sock” was slipping off. But it didn’t, so we’re good!  The pool scene was sort of difficult logistically. I was much more nervous about the scene where I had to be drunk and dance around wildly in my underwear. But that ended up being a blast.

The film deals a lot with sex and porn. Do you have a favorite porn star?
Who says I watch porn? I’m an actor on a limited budget and I have to content myself with those free 30-second porn clips on the Internet, and those clips don’t usually credit the performers. Maybe I ought to buy some porn DVDs, you know, just to support the arts more.

What was it like working with director Casper Andreas?
Casper and I were already friendly from working together on his film, “Between Love and Goodbye,” a few years ago. I knew we liked each other and would get along. We became good friends working on this movie. It made coming to work everyday a blast! I also came to ADORE the two other leads, Allison Lane and Michael Medico. Working with people you like is such a joy. I couldn’t wait to start each day.

Do you think roles like this “type cast” you as only being able to play one certain type of character?
I hope not! I certainly don’t mind being cast as the boy-next-door, but of course I want to do other things. In case you didn’t notice, I’m a complex multi-faceted being! My character “Adam” was such a sweet little ingénue though, so I think it’d be fun to play someone really evil and diabolical next time.

What other types of roles are you looking to sink your teeth into?
Well naturally the next step in my career is to play a sexy vampire/werewolf, and then Hamlet. Maybe a sexy vampire/werewolf Hamlet – then I could retire.

Are there any directors or actors out there who you would love to work with above all others?
Jim Carey and Nicole Kidman, because I am a blend of both. So maybe they could play my parents.

What do you want the audience to take away from watching the film or following your character from beginning to end?
That I’m an awesome actor with great hair! Ha! But really I think this movie tells a great story and I just hope people enjoy it.

photo: courtesy, The Film Journal

THAILAND – Although many tourists go to Thailand to see the “Lady Boys,” a film about a transgender father has been rejected for public viewing by the country’s national film board.

The National Film Board said that the movie, “Insects in the Backyard,” cannot be shown because it contains scenes that are immoral and pornographic.

“Insects in the Backyard” is a drama about a transvestite and single father, played by Tanwarin, whose teenage son and daughter are torn by feelings of love and shame and eventually run away from home and turn to the sex trade.

One of the scenes that has come under scrutiny shows an explicit depiction of two men having sex. Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit said the scenes were crucial to the story line and could not be cut. She plans to appeal the ban.

“The problem with my film wasn’t that it was a gay-themed movie, because there are many gay comedies allowed in Thailand,” Tanwarin said. “My movie was banned because it was a serious movie. It showed there can be real problems when society cannot accept sexual differences.”

While the government is very conservative in its Buddhist beliefs, transgendered individuals are allowed to live freer in the country than almost anywhere else in the world. They appear on TV soap operas and can be seen working at department store cosmetics counters, popular restaurants and walking the runways in numerous transgender beauty pageants.

“Our society tries to show it accepts differences, but actually it doesn’t,” Tanwarin said. “Thailand is still a conservative society. This is a case of the government using its power to suppress people with different opinions.”