Easy Virtue Becomes Tired Story

(In the end, passion is what love is about; not duty in the film Easy Virtue.)

Well I wanted Easy Virtue by Stephen Elliot based on the play by Noel Coward to be a lot more than it was.

Yes there were the wonderful settings (who doesn't like those huge English country homes with their hundreds of rooms and roaming countryside), costumes and stilted drama, but it all seemed so yesterday. Not biting, not crisp, just the dreamy English dream of yesteryear.

We all know that the English used to keep a stiff upper lip, look down on Americans, and believe that keeping up appearances is the point, but to what end in the 21st century? Prior to World War II I am sure this play was rather fun; the impetuous American beauty Larita played by Jessica Biel doing her best to win over her disapproving mother-in-law Mrs. Whittaker played by Kristin Scott Thomas would have seemed relishing and brave.

The most unfortunate part of the film though had to be the dialog that was often lost in the music and the various conversations said in almost whispered tones. But there were some good lines too; my favorite being, "You're English dear, fake it!"

Even in a Recession, America is the Best

(For one of today's pool parties, I made red (cherry), white (sour cream) and blue (blueberry) individual cheesecakes.)

This has been a difficult year for many. Even we aren't as optimistic as we once were, but never-the-less even with all the awful economic news, job losses and difficulties people are facing across California and the United States, we still are able to enjoy our freedoms.

You see the demonstrations in Iran and Honduras, the crackdowns in North Korea and Afghanistan, and the craziness of legislators unable to compromise across our country, yet, individually most of us still can say and do pretty much what we want.

Yup we still lucky to live here at this time and place. Today we celebrated by deciding when and if we would go to pool parties. Not one person told us we couldn't. Not one person said we had to. It was our choice, our decision. So we went to some and then came home to watch the fireworks from our patio even though we know others are not so lucky or fortunate.

Happy Birthday America!

Best of the ShortFest

(Although the film, Jonathan's Home, about an au pair charged with his care, was the Panavision Grand Jury Award Winner at this year's Palm Springs International ShortFest, it wasn't one of my favorites.)

Winners of the 2009 Palm Springs International ShortFest were announced last night and so today I went to two segments of winners: Audience & Jury Favorites for Documentaries and the Jury Award Winners.

In the documentary category I saw Irene (Scotland, Lindsay Goodall, 10 min.) Jury Award for Best Documentary Short; Pickin' and Trimmin' (USA, Matt Morris, 12 min.) Audience Favorite; Jonathan's Home (Japan, Nathanael Cartan, 5 min.) Panavision Grand Jury Award; Waiting for Women (United Kingdom, Estephan Wagner, 35 min.) Best Student Documentary Award, and for the second time, Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial (USA, Jonathan Joiner & Robert H. Marti, 29 min.) Audience Favorite Documentary Short Award.

Since I previously reviewed Claiming the Title (Friday's Picks), and I enjoyed it almost as much the second time around, I won't review it again. However my other favorites in this group were Irene and Pickin' and Trimmin'.

Irene is an engaging, humorous, touching film about the filmmaker's 92 year old grandmother and the daughter who cares for her. Suffering from Alzheimer's and decreasing physical ability, Irene's feisty personality still shines through, even if for only a few minutes. Anyone dealing with an older relative can see the heartache, conflictedness and humanity in this poignant tribute to both those suffering from the disease, as well as their caregivers.

As someone not too familiar with rural life in the south, I wouldn't imagine the vitality and music that could originate in the back room of a small barbershop in North Carolina. Cutting hair together for more than 40 years, the two barbers in Pickin' and Trimmin' not only have relationships with just about every man and boy in town, but they've encouraged a musical tradition and camaraderie that is almost extraordinary in its country music authenticity.

Then later this afternoon in the Jury Award category I saw Cages (Mexico, Juan José Medina, 10 min.) 1st Place Best Annimated Short; Gloria & Eric (USA, Nicolas Calzada, 17 min.) 2nd Place Best Student Live Action Short Over 15 Minutes; Love Hate (United Kingdom, Dylan Ritson & Blake Ritson, 20 min.) 2nd Place Best Live Action Short Over 15 Minutes; My Four Inch Precious (USA, Sou Yun Sim, 10 min.) 2nd Place Best Student Live Action Short Under 15 Minutes and 2nd Place Kodak Award for Best Student Cinematography; Rare Fish (Indonesia, Basil Mironer, 11 min.) Kodak Award for Best Student Cinematography to Alexa Caravia; and The Taxidermist (United Kingdom, Bert & Bertie, 22 min.) 1st Place Best Live Action Short Over 15 minutes.

(In My Four Inch Precious, garbage collector and gardener Sam, played by Owen Provencher, is surprised when the plant he nurtures back to life reveals a miniature nude woman.)

This was a tough group to review. First of all the jurors (Kim Adelman, author and IndieWire contributor; Nigel Daly, Vice President Screen International; and Henry Sheehan from KPCC-FM's "Film Week") must have very different tastes than me. Many of these films were dark, fantasy, black comedy or downright spooky. That being said, the following films, My Four Inch Precious, Love Hate, and The Taxidermist were excellently directed and shot, as well as entertaining.

As a student project, it is no wonder that My Four Inch Precious won two awards. The story line was developed (it had a beginning and an end), the comedic relief fun, and the photography amazing. Precious, the main character Sam's Chihuahua, gets mighty jealous when a new "precious" emerges from a dead flower and becomes his best friend until she finds another love in a magazine. Of course we know this can't last and in the end the Chihuahua gets her revenge.

In Love Hate starring Ben Whishaw as Tom who cannot collect signatures on his company's petitions becomes angry. This emotion becomes real and is hard to shake. And without realizing it, his Hate becomes disguised as a sexy Hate, played by Hayley Atwell, in a sort of twist on the devil made me do it. Cute, clever, but a bit melodramatic, the film has its laughs.

But my favorite dark comedy of the day had to be The Taxidermist, even if there were a couple of times when I closed my eyes. (I don't like to see knives cutting things!) The sets were just unbelievable. Great detail in both the pet shop, where the vet has worked with his daughter to concoct a magic potion that keeps the pets alive seemingly forever, and the taxidermist shop next door where the owner is loosing business. (No one hunts any more.) It was hard to decide who was the most evil, the vet, the greedy landlord who owns both shops, or the taxidermist who prefers things dead. All the while, a secret romance is developing between the vet's daughter and the taxidermist as she spies on him from her potion-making chamber through a hole in the wall. A definite winner in live action. Maybe they'll make it into a full-length feature. But a warning to the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) folks is already included. "No animals were harmed in the making of this move. They were already dead."

Somewhere "Out There"

(John Keitel filming Save the Boom Treasurer Shane Miller in downtown Laguna Beach, California, for the film Saving the Boom.)

The grouping of short movies that we saw this afternoon were entitled, "Out There," and once again several were good, but then a few were just "out there".

The grouping included Homecoming (Singapore, Junfeng Boo, 16 min.); Love and Other Red Spots (Australia, Lauren Anderson, 6 min.); Saving the Boom (USA, John Keitel, 35 min.); Shattercane (USA, Michael Tringe, 21 min.), and You've Got Male (USA, Christopher Dinh & Ryan Kim, 5 min.). Out of this group, my favorites are Saving the Boom and Shattercane.

For more than 60 years in Laguna Beach, California, there was a local gay hangout, even before people even identified themselves as such. Known by various names throughout the years, it was a bar and restaurant that eventually became known as the Boom Boom Room. But like many things during the real estate boom, the old hotel that it had been located in was purchased by a developer who planned to close it down and build luxury condominiums on the ocean hugging site. This documentary, Saving the Boom, highlights the efforts of local activists to try and save what they perceived to not only be a historic piece of Laguna Beach, but also a historic gay landmark. The documentary follows their heroic efforts with compassion, fervor, historic footage, interviews and follow-up, in the telling of another story of gay history. Poignant, passionate, and upbeat, even in the face of eventual defeat, the characters in this film will not be stopped.

For many of us who have spent our lives on the coasts of this country, Nebraska can seem as foreign a land as any. It is a land that is flat, where roads go straight ahead through miles of farmland, and where corn is king. Shattercane is the story of a young man who is very familiar with this world view. A place where family, church, and small-town values are highly prized.

Director Michael Tringle in this film shows us how a young man faces his own personal dilemma of living in a place with such wide open spaces that can also feel like a prison to one's self at the same time. Although romanticized farm life is hard, demanding and limiting to one's own freedoms, especially in a small town where everyone knows you. Do you stay and squelch your true feelings or dreams or do you leave to find a new life beyond your family ties? Beautifully photographed, poignantly told and grippingly rendered, this is a movie that will pull at your heartstrings all the while telling a story of what farmers often give up to continue on.

Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

(Tongzhi in Love was slow and a good documentary of gay life in China, but not very emotional or moving.)

The thing about film festivals is that you often go to see lots of movies that you normally wouldn't go to see. And, with shorts, that gets magnified several fold. Today's features that we chose, Stepping Out, were on the whole rather dark. And, for a Saturday afternoon, early evening not exactly the kind of mood one wants on the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall.

Among those in our set today were: The Casuarina Cove (Singapore, Junfeng Boo, 19 min.); Diana (United Kingdom, Aleem Khan, 11 min.); Dish (USA, Brian Harris Krinsky, 16 min.), Feedback (USA, Michael Lucid, 9 min.) and Tongzhi in Love (China, Ruby Yang, 30 min.).

That being said, the only movie I can recommend of the five we saw was Dish, and even that was not high on my list. Not that the movie itself was bad, it just wasn't really my demographic and so its music, style and relevance, although important, was just not my cup of tea.

There was one thing I did learn about culture from the movie, and that was the term "Emo" kids. (According to Wikipedia Emo kids are a whole subculture of music, fashion and style that I had no idea existed.) Emo kids Israel and Louie walk around their east Los Angeles neighborhood dishing and “sexting” about their high school classmates. After listening to Louie boast about his sexual escapades, Israel decides he has some catching up to do.

After seeing the movie I don't think I like these kids any more than I did before. But at least I understand more about how their sexual identities, social lives and fashion sense is all about. Damn do I feel old.

Friday's Picks

(Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial is another chapter in the struggle for gay rights in America)

Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial (USA, Jonathan Joiner & Robert H. Martin, 29 min.), Wig (USA, Todd Holland, 21 min.), and Boy Meets Boy (South Korea, Kim-Jho Gwang-Soo, 14 min.) are my picks for today at the Palm Springs International ShortFest.

Gay history is something that often very fleeting. Only over the last couple of decades has this become a genre that has begun to come into its own. The documentary, Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial, was certainly a topic I was somewhat familiar with, but didn't know much about its details or historical context. Directors Jonathan Joiner and Robert Martin told us after the screening during the Q&A that this was just part of a larger project to do a documentary on all of the gay rights cases that have been decided by the Supreme Court. Like many things in life, the outcome of the case was not what the litigants had wanted, but it showed how some of the justices had changed and how every case brings further awareness and enlightenment. Highly worth viewing and I look forward to the full-documentary. I know I'll learn something.

Wig directed by Todd Holland is really a lot more than it seems on the surface. After being together for more than 10 years, Jax, played by Scott Ellis Loring, and Kent, played by Tim Bagley, think they know each other, but when Jax's mother dies, his reactions trouble Kent and everyone around him. Loss, identity, relationships and how we all react to them are treated in this light-hearted and also intensely dramatic film. Being crazy isn't the end of the world and sometimes we just need to let those around us express themselves. We might just learn something.

The South Korean film, Boy Meets Boy directed by Gwang-soo Kim-Jho, had all of the cultural elements of Korea that I found interesting. (I taught English there in the early 1970s.) The shyness, the quick glimpses, the embarrassment and the fantasy aspects of the two boys interactions that happened so innocently by dropping a roll of film. I also loved the "angelic" fairy godmother character who appears and sings with the Korean characters on the screen that are so reminiscent of the highly popular Karaoke. Cute, innocent, and a culturally wonderful look into gay life elsewhere.

The PSIFF ShortFest Is On Again

(The Palm Springs International ShortFest, America's biggest & best festival of short films, opened on Tuesday, June 23rd and runs through Monday, June 29th.)

For the past few years the Palm Springs International ShortFest has usually been held in August. However this year, as a way to build more time between it and the Feature Festival in January, as well as to experience cooler temperatures, the festival was moved to June. And, like years past, Steve & I are doing some volunteering, but not as much as last year.

Last year I also tried to review every single short film that I saw. This included more than 30 films and so I thought this year that I would only talk about the ones that I liked and would recommend you try to see should they come to a theater near you.

Due to other commitments, we didn't get to the festival until this evening to attend the annual Gay!La program that included seven films: Boycrazy (USA, John Sobrack 25 min.); The Counterpart (Hungary, Netherlands, Laszlo Nemes, 14 min.); Decoding Alan Turing (United Kingdom, Christopher Racster, 17 min.); My New Toy (Australia, Anton Beebe, 4 min.); Protect Me From What I Want (United Kingdom, Dominic Leclerc, 14 min.); The Queen (USA, Christina Choe, 8 min.), and Stop Requested (France, Thomas Perrier, 11 min.).

Among these, my favorites were Boycrazy, The Counterpart and Protect Me From What I Want.

A mini-musical, Boycrazy was so well done not only with the acting, music and dancing, where the director, John Sobrack, not only directed the film, but also wrote the lyrics to the many great songs. Like all musicals when characters break out into song, it doesn't always feel natural, but this short film with its plot of a boy meeting a boy, not being ready for that boy, then coming back for the boy, all the while moving through their daily lives and friends was funny, upbeat, charming, hilarious and just spot on for its quality and casting. And, when I asked Sobrack during the Q & A that often follow these films, "How much did it cost and how long did it take to shoot this film?", and he answered, "$21,000 and six days;" I was even more impressed.

Starting out in a darkly lit room with two nude male characters, The Counterpart, directed by Laszlo Nemes, is a darker film that may find American audiences wondering what is happening due to their relative lack of knowledge of the 19th and early 20th century European history. Without a lot of dialog, it is apparent that a sexual encounter has taken place and only upon seeing the different uniforms do we begin to understand the consequences. But are they switching uniforms to save one? Who are they? And when the officers appear outside they fall back into their roles. Unexpected armies appear, war goes on, while one has flashbacks to his childhood. Only until the very end is the true story revealed. Dark, haunting and arresting, The Counterpart is a wonderful tale on how love can become revealed, if only fleetingly, during the worst of times.

Protect Me From What I Want directed by Dominic Leclerc had so many twists and turns that it kept me on my seat. Set in a working class neighborhood where Elliot Tittzenor who plays Daz goes cruising for sex in a rather seedy part of town and comes upon 19-year old Saleem, played by Naveed Choudhry. Contrary to his strict Muslim upbringing, Saleem follows Daz to his working class apartment building. All the while there is the tension of the neighborhood thugs, the hesitancy and shyness of Saleem, and the sweetness of Daz, as he tries to reassure, entice and seduce Saleem. Racial, cultural and sexual tension all come into play, but in the end Saleem's smile reassures us that all will be okay.