Inside Out Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival Toronto

The Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival hits the 15th year landmark this year with 270 works in 85 different programs.  For 11 days starting May the 19th, the hottest line-up in town includes the best in Canadian and international queer film and video. 

The list of films is impressive.  The focus this year is on queer German cinema.  COMING OUT from East Germany was screened during the first Inside Out and will make a re-appearance.  This film has its roots in Berlin, where it premiered the night the wall was brought down.  The opening night gala is the humorous THE MOSTLY UNFABULOUS LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN, based on the underground comic strip seen in Toronto’s local Xtra magazine.  A film to watch is Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel’s new COTE D’AZUR, the closing night gala film.  Inside Out has been consistent in showcasing all their three films in Toronto.  COTE D’AZUR has a commercial opening in a few weeks.
Judging from the sold-out opening night gala on the 19th, everyone in the auditorium seems out for a fine good rollicking time.  There might be no 5 start masterpieces screened during the Inside Out festival, but judging from the laughter at the opening gala comedy and the list of films programmed, the gay people will be guaranteed a gay old time.

For the complete program, tickets, listings and show times, check the INSIDE OUT website.

BEAR CUB (Cachorro)
(Spain 2004) ***
Directed by Luis Miguel Albaladejo
Pedro (portrayed by straight actor José Luis García-Pérez), is a sexually active gay dentist forced to re-evaluate his lifestyle when coerced into looking after his 9-year old nephew Bernardo (David Castillo) for 2 weeks.  Things take a turn when the hippie mother Violeta (Elvira Lindo) is imprisoned long term in India and Bernardo’s paternal grandmother, Dona Teresa (Empar Ferrer) opts for custody.  Why?  Because Pedro has now grown to love his nephew!  But BEAR CUB is an extremely hilarious comedy, thanks to director Miguel Albaladejo sense of humour and his injection of the nuances of the ‘bear’ scene.  Albaladejo is brave enough to include graphic sex scenes that take place in the saunas and back rooms in and around Madrid.  With lines like: (Pedro telling Bernardo): “one of us is always crying, this can’t go on”, or “you have to be nicer to your grandmother even if we want to kill her,” there is a certain charm that permeates the movie throughout.  But Albaladejo’s film becomes over sentimental towards the end when Pedro’s medical history (he is HIV positive) comes into the picture.  Credit at least goes to the script for treating it as a slight handicap rather than a disease.  BEAR CUB is that rare film that takes a seemingly controversial lifestyle and makes it totally charming, delightful and acceptable.  Bears are humans too!

BEAUTIFUL BOXER
(Thailand 2004) ***
He fights like a man, so he can become a woman.  The title BEAUTIFUL BOXER is derived from the fact that this talented and fierce Thai boxer is firstly a beautiful transvestite but he needs the money to undergo the sex-change operation.  BEAUTIFUL BOXER is the straight forward but rather bland rags to riches story of one filial son who, against all odds, rises to be a popular and fierce kick boxer.  A bit of sentiment, comedy and romance but nothing really dramatic here.  An educational travelogue is provided for the viewer as well, as the champion travels the length of the country for his bouts.  With the matches excitingly executed, BEAUTIFUL BOXER passes as light entertainment, nicely told.  The film is based on a true story - Troon, the boxer of the title is currently working as a model in Thailand.

CALLAS FOREVER
(France/UK/Italy 2002) **
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli, who has directed many operas on film himself (LA TRAVIATA, LA BOHEME, VERDI), directs CALLAS FORVER, a film that traces gay manager/promoter Larry Kelly’s (Jeremy Irons) quest for filming a new version of CARMEN with aging opera star Maria Callas (Fanny Ardant).  Trouble is that she needs this break, but would not admit it and so Kelly enlists the help of her journalist friend, Sarah (Joan Plowright).  But things take a turn for the worse (or better) once Callas starts work.  For someone who knows the scene so well, Zeffirelli directs sans passion.  Scenes with the diva crouched down in tears or looking amiss do not constitute drama.  If one would think that watching Irons in a gay role or the formidable Ardant as Callas be worth the price of the ticket, he or she would be surely disappointed.  Though aging is the theme running through the story, the script bounces from one protagonist to the other (Kelly and Callas) with disastrous results.  This is drama turned into boring melodramatic karaoke.

LE CLAN (THREE DANCING SLAVES)
(France 2004) ***
Directed by Gael Morel
LE CLAN is a tale of three volatile brothers, Marc (Nicholas Cazale), Christophe, (Stephane Rideau) and Olivier (Thomas Dumerchez) living a troubled life in French small town, France.  Mother has passed away, father (Bruno Lochet) does not care, and there is neither anything to do nor is there a decent job.  So, the louts turn to fighting in local gangs, drugs and sex.  Director Gael Morel’s (star of Andre Techine’s gay film LES ROSEAUX SUAVAGES) film is told in three chapters, each with the title of the brothers’ names.  Morel’s film is beautiful to look at – scenery-wise (with lots of mountains and lakes) and male body wise.  All three actors are incredibly good-looking.  There is also cameo from hunk Vincent Perez as a fellow worker known as the butcher.  That aside, Gael’s film becomes more engaging as it moves along.  Though the brothers have not solved all their troubles by the end of the last reel, they have made good progress.  Olivier, the youngest has a gay affair with a young Arab, Hachim (Salim Kechiouche) who teaches him the slave dance called Capoeira of the English title.  These boys would maybe stay out of trouble if they found a girlfriend each.

CLARA’S SUMMER”
(France 2001) **
Directed by Patrick Grandperret
A coming-out-story set during the lazy days of a summer camp.  Parents of the teens send them there to learn sports like windsurfing and sailing but the kids are more interested in smoking dope, drinking beer and having sex.  The film centres on Zoe and Clara who make a pack at losing their virginity.  But this is no straight story and Clara discovers her true sexual orientation.  Nothing much happens in this film and nobody would really care what happens to whoever.  Odd thing about this film is that this coming-out lesbian flick is directed by a guy and that the guys are just as good-looking as the girls.  There are better things to do than watching this one…. Like smoking dope, drinking beer and……

DORIAN BLUES
(USA 2004) ****
Directed by Tennyson Bardwell
The coming-out theme is a tiresome one done countless times from the era of the first gay films till the present.  But as every gay person knows, coming-out is a traumatic experience that everyone out of the closet has to go through.  So director Bardwell puts together a series of hilarious set-pieces – the stern family dinner table discussion; the down-to-earth talk with his STEPFORD WIFE-like mother; the counseling with the social worker; the therapy sessions et al; - that make up his protagonist, Dorian’s (Michael McMillian) experiences.  But what makes DORIAN BLUES tick is that Bardwell understands and plays all the stereotypes and clichés to the utmost, milking all the laughs that they can get.  The only really serious moments (a necessity to put the film into perspective) are the funeral and the father/son coming-out confrontation scenes.  If you can forgive the script’s minor flaws (such as how Dorian makes it on his own in NYC after kicked out of the house penniless), DORIAN BLUES is all laughs and the perfect film to see in a cinema filled with an audience who themselves have all come out.  Bardwell proves that charm and originality can still be found in any old worn genre.

EVERYONE
(Canada 2004) **
Directed by Bill Marchant
EVERYONE refers to the attendees of gay couple Grant (Mark Hildreth) and Ryan’s (Matt Fentiman) ceremony for their pledge of commitment (i.e. their gay wedding).  The friends, relatives and even caterer (a total of 5 other couples) arrive bringing along more emotional baggage than the couple or the audience can handle.  Dead babies, strained relationships and hidden demons are some of the problems conjured up by Vancouver writer/director Bill Marchant.  Marchant has a role himself as a guilt-ridden surgeon.  If EVERYONE is supposed to be a dark comedy, it turns out more to be too smart for its own good.  All the lines sound contrived as if spoken deliberately for an audience to hear.  The film is less about gay marriage, human issues but more a showcase of bogus yuppie intellectuality.  Gay actors masquerading as straights (their mannerisms are a dead give away) and staginess are a few of the flaws.  The film did win the prize for Best Canadian Feature at the Montreal World Film Festival.  The director will be in attendance at Inside Out.

GARCON STUPIDE
(Switzerland 2005) **
Directed by Lionel Baier
The Stupid Boy (Garcon Stupide) of the film title is 20-year old Loic, a gay teen, who works at a chocolate factory in small Swiss town Bulle.  He spends his weekends at nearby Lausanne, where he often has sex with anonymous men.  His only friend happens to be Marie, where he crashes at in Lausanne.  Things take a turn when he meets Lionel (face not seen but voiced by director Baier), a man interested in Loic for what he is, and not sex.  Loic gets extremely upset when Marie finds a boyfriend as well.  At this point, Loic can only improve himself or let his life spiral downhill.  Baier’s film has an authentic look, given the film’s grainy documentary feel and the hand held camera movements.  One problem with this film is Loic’s improbable character.  Why would Marie or Lionel have any interest in him in the first place?  His looks perhaps?  The audience can only echo the same feelings about Loic and about this film.

LIKE A BROTHER
(France 2005) ***
Directed by Bernard Alapetite and Cyril Legann
This 50-minute video traces the rites-of-passage experiences of 18-year-old good-looking Sebastien as he settles in Paris to sort out his life.  He cruises one guy after another but reminisces over both his best friend, Roman (like his brother, of the title) and the town he had left.  Alapetite and Legann’s film capture the nuances of teen angst and the restlessness of youth.  The film also contains the hottest sex scenes of all the film I have previewed for Inside Out.  Screened together with ONE FINE DAY, A HAIRDRESSER, also in French and with NEXT TIME in Swiss German.  A nicely-packaged three-pack!

THE MOSTLY UNFABULOUS SOCIAL LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN
(USA 2005) ***
Directed by George Bamber
The Inside Out programmers are brave enough to showcase a video as the opening gala night movie.  The Hat Sisters (Ethan’s drag gay aunts), the obnoxious gay republican that sings (flat), the worst real estate lesbian agent in the world, the chunky young teen who thinks he is the hottest thing on the planet, the mother who lives with her son’s ex… these are some of the over-the-top supporting players in this spoof on the institute of gay commitment.  The story centers on 26-year old Ethan (Daniel Leterle) who moves from one lover to another, unable to commit or settle.  One problem is that the main plot is clichéd – nothing that the viewer has not seen or heard before.  What works though, is the humor that is fast and funny with a laugh-out loud moment every minute or so.  You know what they say – a good joke can cover a dozen mistakes.  Based on the underground comic strip by Eric Orner (who also did the animated work for the film), the film has plenty of material to draw from.

MY SUMMER OF LOVE
(UK 2004) ****
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
The sound of the film’s title suggests an idyllic summer of teenage joy and first love.  On the contrary, Pawel Pawlikowski’s film about two teen lesbians from different social classes reveals quite the opposite.  Love makes people do ditzy things.  Working class Mona (Natalie Press) falls for upper-class Tamslin (Emily Blunt) with disastrous results.  For one Mona’s brother (the always excellent Paddy Considine from IN AMERICA), has been recently converted into a born again Christian and has his views on living and loving.  So, the two new lovers rebel against their known worlds, their love tested in the process.  Pawlikowski’s film is not easy to take – but neither is life’s burden of love.  Press and Blunt deliver exceptional performances reflecting the frustration of living in whatever rut one is found to be stuck in.  Teenage angst is here displayed in a different light.  Pawlikowski offers no solutions here just keen observations and bang-on dialogue.

STRAIGHT JACKET
(USA 2004) **
Directed by Richard Day
1950 Hollywood heartthrob Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) has not just landed the coveted part of BEN-HUR – but also in hot soup after being photographed coming out of a gay bar.  So, he is convinced by his agent (Veronica Cartwright) to marry the studio chief’s ditzy blond, Sally (Carrie Preston) to keep up appearances.  Based on the director Richard Day’s play of the same title, STRAIGHT JACKET is nothing nouveau.  Characters like Guy Stone have been dealt with (more effectively and wittingly) in films like the mockumentary MAN OF THE YEAR (Playgirl’s man of the year is gay) and hiding ones sexual orientation is so commonplace among gays (before they come out) that the topic for comedy would hardly interest both gays and straights.  The twist of Stone really falling in love with a leftist writer (Adam Greer) does not help inject any interest or comedy either.  Sets, lighting, wardrobe are passable but the problem is that the film is just not funny.  Even Stone’s butler’s one-liners do not bat an eyelid.  Guy Stone’s main line in the film is: “What’s the point of being famous if you can’t use it to get laid?” Then why put everyone through the torture of seeing this through?

SHORTS

CAIRO CALLING
(Canada 2005) ***
Directed by Xiaodan He
Ahmed is living in bliss with his Canadian boyfriend.  His world is turned topsy-turvy when mother visits from Cairo with an open ticket back and pics of a prospective bride.  There is nothing really in this short that has not been done before in previous films (hiding sexual orientation from mother - TOUCH OF PINK or WEDDING BANQUET), but what is fascinating is that the entire story is told humorously in less than 9 minutes.

HOI MAYA
(Switzerland 2004) ***
Directed by Claudia Lorenz
This is a charming tale of rekindled love of an elderly female couple that takes place in a beauty salon.  In Swiss German and a worthy opening night short.

ODD SOCK
(Ireland 2000) ***
Directed by Colette Cullen
A nice take on the coming-out scene!  Mother decides but does not have the balls to tell her son about her sexual orientation.  What works in this short is the pleasantness of all the proceedings that include a grand surprise at the end.  (No, the son is not gay!)