Inside Out 2010 - Film Reviews

This 20th year Festival will be a blockbuster year, with more premieres and guests than ever before.  Toronto-based and internationally known Inside Out will have a World Premiere to offer up with La Dany by Toronto brother and sister directors Jim and Julie Giles.

Two International Premieres, Prima Donna: The Story of Rufus Wainwright’s Debut Opera, directed by George Scott, screening Friday May 28 at the Isabel Bader Theatre ,and the other is The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, directed by James Kent, which closes the festival out at the Bloor Cinema on May 30 at 7:30pm. 

Inside Out will have a total of three North American Premieres. Going South directed by acclaimed French director Sébastien Lifshitz screening May 29 at the Bader; The Parents, directed by Christophe Hermans, screens May 22 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Sea Purple directed by Donatella Maiorca makes its NA debut at ROM May 24 at 9:30pm.

And with a record 22 Canadian Premieres these are just some of the Inside Out titles seen for the very first time in this country: Toronto director Malcolm Ingram’s Bear Nation; Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar brought to us by James Rasin; Children of God from Bahamas’Kareem Mortimer; Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement by directing duo Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir -part of the Women’s Spotlight screening at the Bader, May 28 at 7:45pm; Little Joe directed by Nicole Haeusser, about Joe Dallesandro who rose to fame in the mythic world of Andy Warhol’s Factory; the powerful feature based on a true story, Mississippi Damned by director Tina Mabry screens at ROM, May 23 at 5pm, and the Festival’s Centrepiece Gala, the multiple award-winning Undertow from Peru directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon screening at the Bader May 25, 9:30pm. These are just a few of the Canadian Premieres. 

In celebration of Inside Out’s 20th anniversary, the Legacy Video Project is a special multi-generational edition of the Queer Youth Digital Video Project. Consisting of three seniors and four young artists, this year’s participants are passionate new artists with a vision. Over the past five months, they have journeyed together uncovering the skills, joys and trials of video and filmmaking to create short videos that both challenge and touch us. This program, now in its 12th year and proudly co-presented by Inside Out and Charles Street Video, is the heart of the queer Canadian film and video community.

For complete details of program, showtimes, ticket pricing and venue check the webstire at:
http://www.insideout.ca

Capsule reviews for Selected films:

FUNNY FELIX (DROLE DE FELIX) (France 1999)
Directed by Martineau and Ducastel

Some films grow on you. When I first saw “Drole de Felix” at the Inside Out Film Festival years back in 2000, I dismissed it as a slightly above average gay road movie. Previewing it a second time however, I was surprised to discover many little pleasures I had missed the first time round.  Felix loses his job with a ferry company in Normandy. Coming across old letters his father wrote to his mother, Felix decides to travel to Marseilles to meet his father for the first time. He says good bye to his lover, Daniel and heads south. Being gay, Felix has to do things differently. Armed with a rainbow-coloured kite, he decides to walk it. Along the way, he encounters a kid (who could be his ‘petit frere’, an elderly lady (sa grand-mere’, a lover (son cousin), a woman with three kids from different fathers (sa souer) and finally an older gentleman (son pere) with lots of advice. You see, the filmmakers attempt to establish an immediate family for Felix during his journey. And what a journey it is! Martineau and Ducastel link the separate stories together with an isolated incident of a murder that Felix witnesses. The beauty of the north and south are beautifully photographed. There is Felix in a field of blossoms or Felix riding in a car travelling along a highway shaded by tall sycamore trees. The difference between the south and north are gently made fun of as well. In one scene, Isabelle tells Felix after he head-butted, “Now you know how to deal with the people of the south.” Each family member Felix meets is a gem in his or her own way. Each has a story to tell and a lesson to be learnt. Felix charms them as well. And the audience at the same time! In the beginning of the film, there is a faint hint of Arabic tunes in the soundtrack. By the end of the film, the lively Arabic song played will bowl you over. There are many priceless scenes. The beauty of it is that most are these are derived of simple situations. The characters are down-to-earth. Felix watches soap and drinks bottled water all the time. Kids naturally make noise and argue in the car. Gangsters are mean and do cause harm to innocent bystanders. Road accidents do occur. The directors make use of daily events to fascinate, entertain and teach.  The film tackles other issues besides being aids and homosexuality. Writer Ducastel has also woven in racism, guilt, parenthood, camaraderie and romance.

IS IT JUST ME? (USA 2010) **
Directed by J.C. Calciano

Sweet romantic comedy concerning shy, gay columnist Blaine (Nicholas Downs) looking for the perfect guy.  Appears that he finally finds one in the form of Xander (David Loren) online in a chat room but Xander mistakenly thinks Blaine’s hunky roommate, Cameron (Adam Huss) is him.  So, begins a Cyrano de Begerec type story where Blaine has to prove that he can beat Cameron’s brawn.  The problem with this film is the character of Blaine.  Blaine is so wishy-washy with no backbone.  He goes for a coffee while the two first meet while never having the guts to do anything.  The audience eventually gets annoyed with what is happening and in the long run, no one really cares whether Blaine gets his guy.  The humour is slight at most.  The introduction of the elderly Ernie (Bruce Gray) as Xander’s roommate is questionable as it generates no laughs or insight to the situation.  Is it just me or did this film totally miss its mark?

LEO’S ROOM (EL CUARTO De LEO) (Uruguay/Argentina 2009) **
Directed by Enrique Buchichio

This is the story of Leo, a handsome University student (Martin Rodriguez) who is discovering his homosexuality.  After being dumped by his girl for not being able to perform, he sees a psychologist, Juan (Arturo Goetz).  He cruises the internet, meeting gorgeous Seba (Gerardo Begerez) while befriending his old crush from Primary School, Caro (Cecilia Cosero).  Leo’s discomfort with his sexuality causes friction with his relationship with Seba.  Director Buchichio’s film is as trying as dealing with Leo’s indecision.  Nothing is really resolved in this film though Buchichio’s intention is probably not to have issues resolved anyway.  Rodriguez does a good job as the confused Leo.  But the audience is just as confused with where all this leading to.  Don’t expect any graphic sex scenes though the kiss between Juan and Leo is pretty hot.

THE MAN WHO LOVED YNGVE (Norway 2008) ***
Directed by Stian Kristiansen

Based on the novel and written by Tore Renberg, this coming-of-age, coming out gay love story is odd in that the declaration of love only comes at the end of the film while lasting only a few seconds.  A lot of build-up, but the film works from director Kristainsen’s decision to let the atmosphere and mood of the times affect the story.  Set in a small town in Norway when the Berlin Wall came down in Germany, the restlessness of the times is reflected by the leads insistence of performing in a punk band while singing songs with lyrics of rebellion.  Jarle (Rolf Kristian Larsen) plays in a band with pal Helge (Arthur Berning) but soon falls for newcome Yngve (Ole Christoffer Ertvag).  Don’t expect any sex scenes (though they are heterosexual ones) but the teen angst is effectively captivated.

OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!! (USA 2009) ***
Directed by Evgeny Afineevsky

The well-intentioned clean family gay comedy OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!! relates a series of incidents that occur from, the time a Jewish son comes out to his parents after pressured by his partner.  In reality, the film is nothing more a series of skits held together with the common theme of the parents coming to terms with a gay son.  The film would be more appropriately be entitled OUR SON IS GAY, but one can understand the choice of the chosen title as the main character of the film is the mother, a loud-mouthed typical Jewish mother, played marvelously by Lainie Kazan.  The father is played by Saul Rubinek, who recently also played a Jewish father in THE TROTSKY.  Though the theme might seem dated today compared to say the early 80’s, Afineesvsky succeeds in getting quite the few laugh-out loud laughs in situations that include the coming out scene during a wedding ceremony, the parents meeting parents dinner when each father is blaming the other for the son being gay, the mother and father argument on whose fault it is, the adoption protests.  Don’t expect any gay sex scenes, but there is a hilarious hetero sexual sex scene between father and mother when the father has to prove his ‘male heterosexuality’ by doing her right on the table… much to her delight!  OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!! is very funny with a good message thrown in for good measure.

LE ROI D’EVASION (THE KING OF ESCAPE) (France 2009) ***
Directed by Alain Guiraudie

THE KING OF ESCAPE will arguable be the most surreal film of Inside Out this season. Though the film has the feel of authenticity throughout with human characters facing real problems, the situations writer/director Guiraudie puts them in are out of the ordinary.  For one, the hero is a practicing homosexual, a tractor salesman in provincial France by the name of Armand Lacourtade (Ludovic Berthillot) who falls for a teen girl (yes, girl) (Hafsia Herzi) after he saves her from a gang rape.  They two engage in sexual acts frequently in the film, despite the fact she is only 16.  For gay audiences, this is nothing to feast their eyes upon, not only because the sex is heterosexual but also for the fact that the lead actor is fat and an eye-sore.  The scene with his masturbation in the country is unpleasant, but hits the point home.  Guiraudie’s film is intriguing in the respect, but one wonders what the point is, of the whole exercise.

To Faro (Germany 2008) ***
Directed by Nana Neul

TO FARO is a sweet and rather fresh story of first love of a different kind.  22-year old Melanie (Anjorka Strechel), leading a boring life in a small German town is heads over heals in love with Jenny (Lucie Hollman).  Trouble is that Jenny thinks Melanie is a boy.  So Mel poses as a Portuguese boy, Miguel while pretending at home to have a boyfriend.  Mel has not come out to anyone but her first love forces her to come to terms with the truthe and her sexuality.  Though the them is not new, Neul’s film is captivating primarily because of the earnest performance of Strechel.  The rough boys that beat her up is reminiscent of BOYS DON”T CRY but Neul’s aim is to show the triumph of the individual will over adversity.  TO FARO is a sweet tale of youth and their troubles, one form or another!