Reverend’s Reviews: Skinny, Wise & Out

This time of year is generally regarded as the doldrums at local movie theaters, Oscar contenders aside.  Fortunately, there are several new DVD releases of interest to gay viewers, if of mixed quality:

The Skinny
From Breaking Glass Pictures/QC Cinema
Reverend’s Rating: B-
The latest from Noah’s Arc creator Patrik-Ian Polk is a dramedy centered on five college friends (four gay men and a lesbian) who reunite in NYC over Pride weekend.  Their host, Magnus (former child star Jussie Smollett from The Mighty Ducks, all grown up and cuter than ever), uncovers secrets about his boyfriend’s behavior while Sebastian (Blake Young-Fountain) plots to lose his virginity to the promiscuous Kyle (Anthony Burrell) before their time together is over.  The film is more explicit than previous Polk productions but also more heavy-handed than usual, especially when it comes to talk about STDs and bottom-training/-cleansing.  Welcome cameo appearances are made by Noah’s Arc alumni Darryl Stephens and Wilson Cruz.

The Wise Kids
From Wolfe Video
Reverend’s Rating: B+
This thoughtful coming-of-age drama with a religious bent racked up numerous awards on the LGBT film festival circuit over the last two years.  A trio of high school seniors, including gay Tim (the talented Tyler Ross, who has more recently starred in the indie hit Nate & Margaret), experience tensions and revelations while working on their Southern Baptist church’s Christmas program.  Refreshingly humane and non-hysterical, the movie was written and directed by Stephen Cone (In Memoriam), who also plays the students’ closeted pastor.

Luna Park
From Ariztical Entertainment
Reverend’s Rating: C
An unusual plot entailing a successful, female producer of erotica, her many secrets, and the stable of hot gay porn actors in her employ.  Although Alexia (Laura Reilly) and her company are based in New York, her younger brother Christi (who is gay, mute and played by Taylor Caldwell) has essentially been banished to the title apartment community in Fullerton, California.  When Christi gets into trouble with some other tenants, Alexia dispatches her trusted assistant Maxwell (former Calvin Klein model Michael Brent) to keep an eye on him.  It isn’t long before a decidedly non-professional relationship develops between Maxwell and Christi.  Writer-director Steven Vasquez employs considerable full-frontal nudity as well as some stylish touches that are all the more impressive given the film’s obviously low budget.  On the negative side, the acting quality is inconsistent, there are some continuity gaffes regarding clothing/costumes, and a distasteful incest subplot eventually figures in.  Still, a unique film all in all.

Out in the Open
From Breaking Glass Pictures/QC Cinema
Reverend’s Rating: D
A disappointingly dated and tedious documentary about the coming out process of various gay celebs, despite the promising participation of Carson Kressley, Greg Louganis, Eric Roberts and his wife (who aren’t gay but apparently have a briefly-mentioned lesbian daughter), and American Idol/Tarzan on Broadway star Josh Strickland.  They reveal little that we didn’t already know, and the movie is hampered by a faux 1950’s framing device about “the horrors of the homosexual lifestyle.”  Director Matthew Smith, who doubles as one of the film’s subjects, may have broken ground with this approach 10-15 years ago but now it just seems embarrassingly retro. To top it all off, the film’s music score is repetitive and irritating.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest, Rage Monthly Magazine and Echo Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Silence is Golden

Homosexuality remains a largely taboo topic in mainland China, but that hasn’t stopped filmmaker Simon Chung from setting another gay-themed movie there.  Speechless,now available on DVDfrom Breaking Glass Pictures, follows Innocent and End of Love as the writer-director’s latest, most provocative look yet at Asian men who love other men.

The film opens with the discovery of a naked man from the West (French actor Matthieu Vital) along the banks of a Chinese river.  Taken into custody by the local police, the stranger seems either unwilling or unable to speak.  He is transferred to a hospital, where a cute, kindly orderly, Jiang (Gao Qilon), takes an interest in him.  When Jiang learns the new patient is to be committed to a psychiatric asylum, he decides to spirit him away to his uncle’s remote home in the country.

Although the stranger remains speechless (hence the film’s title), the two men bond further and even sleep together in a non-sexual way.  Jiang gradually begins to discover clues to his new friend’s past.  This leads to the recounting of a secondary love story between Luke -- which is eventually revealed to be the patient’s name -- and a fellow university student named Han (the very attractive Jiang Jian).  Unfortunately, Han has a girlfriend, Ning (Yu Yung Yung), who proves to be dangerously jealous.

Filmed in Mandarin with English subtitles, Speechless provides an intriguing exploration of modern Chinese culture’s acceptance (or lack thereof) of homosexuality and of East-West relations in general.  While there is a minimal amount of sex in the film, what is depicted is about as graphic as a Chinese filmmaker dare show lest they risk the censors’ wrath.  And whereas the romance between Han and the then-still speaking Luke is engrossing, it is the more subtle growth in love and understanding between silent Luke and Jiang that has stayed with me.  Chung also gets strong yet sensitive performances from his young cast members.  See Speechless, and join me in continuing to keep an eye on its bold, talented director.

Of course, more than a few religious institutions remain intolerant of homosexuality too, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may well be the most repressive.  The LDS’ (or Mormons’) mistreatment of gay members has been explored previously in the 2003 movie Latter Days as well as the powerful play Facing East, (which is currently raising funds toward a film adaptation via Kickstarterthrough December 14th; please consider contributing).

Jon Garcia’s directorial debut The Falls, available on DVDtoday, is the latest entry in this growing gay-Mormon subgenre.  Relative newcomers Nick Ferrucci and Benjamin Farmer are impressive as, respectively, Elder Smith and Elder Merrill, 20-year old Mormon missionaries assigned as “companions” in Oregon (the film was shot in Portland over two weeks for only $7,000).

Even though Elder Smith has a girlfriend whom he is planning to marry and Elder Merrill is son to one of the church’s highest-ranking leaders, they soon find themselves attracted to each other.  The pair has to keep their relationship secret, however, lest they be publicly exposed and excommunicated.  As Elder Smith hopefully observes while discussing their perilous position with his new BF, “We’re both on the brink of something new.”

The first half of The Falls is noteworthy for its casual, authentic glimpse into the faith and daily lives of LDS missionaries.  It loses its footing somewhat once the new lovers, having tasted forbidden fruit and liked it, also try smoking marijuana and drinking with a military vet they are ostensibly trying to convert.  As the Southern-bred neophyte drawlingly states upon noticing his instructors’ heightened closeness, “You two seem to be in a slightly different disposition.”  Not unpredictably, the men’s affair is discovered and Elder Smith, at least, has to face his local church council.  Ferrucci gives an excellent, heartfelt reading of a particularly well-written monologue during this climactic scene.

The Falls covers much of the same ground as Latter Days when it comes to the struggle between devotion to one’s faith and one’s sexual longings but The Falls is, thankfully, less sensationalistic.  Neither Elder Smith nor Elder Merrill has to endure shock treatments or ice baths here, even if those have been the regrettable, worst-case experiences of some GLBT Mormons.  Here’s hoping and praying that GLBT people of all faiths find acceptance from their communities sooner, not later.

Reverend’s Ratings:

Speechless: B

The Falls: C+

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Dinosaurs Rule

Even though they’ve been extinct for 65 million years, dinosaurs still hold a fascination for us like few other creatures past or present.  Our only real reference points for them, however, are skeletal remains in museums and movies such as the Jurassic Parkseries (a fourth chapter of which is reportedly coming soon).  There have also been a handful of animated dinosaur-themed films, including The Land Before Time and Disney’s Dinosaur, that feature cuddly, talking depictions of the beasts.

Enter Dinotasia,now available on Blu-ray and DVDcourtesy of Flatiron Film Company.  Its multiple animated vignettes that span nearly 200 million years provide a more naturalistic, often visually-stunning view of how Earth’s reptilian ancestors may truly have lived.  In the process, co-directors Erik Nelson and David Krentz (Krentz served as lead character designer of the prior Disney-made feature) and narrator Werner Herzog (yes, the auteur responsible for Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man and last year’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, among many other acclaimed films) make the creatures’ varied plights unexpectedly amusing and disarmingly moving.

The first story, which opens with a tired mother irritated by a noisy ostrich-like contemporary and culminates with one of her injured offspring seeking payback for the damage done to it, gives an indication of the film’s unusual tone.  The primeval segment of Fantasia or your standard Animal Planet documentary, Dinotasia is not.  These dinos don’t have to speak dialogue or be drawn with human-like features to strike viewers as eerily like us.  Other segments adapt time-honored scenarios like a mother bird teaching its young ones how to fly, parents trying to protect their children from predators, and the results of unintentionally ingesting hallucinogenic substances to the dinosaur era in novel ways.  The best is “Herd,” in which an orphaned triceratops finds temporary refuge with an elder who is on a significant journey.  If the ending doesn’t bring a tear to your eyes, you’d better check to make sure you aren’t cold-blooded.

Herzog’s introductions to each story are at once welcome and unnecessary.  Also, the CGI quality runs hot and cold and generally isn’t as convincing during daytime scenes as it is in darker, nighttime settings.  Still, Dinotasiais gripping, droll and poignant in equal measure, and will give one a new appreciation of the scaled and feathered giants that once roamed our world.

Many people also think of silent movies as being extinct, but last year’s Oscar-winning hit The Artist was dialogue-free until its very end.  Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard, just released on Blu-rayin a beautifully restored edition, tells the twisted tale of a faded silent-film star who is desperate for “a return” (not a comeback) and the down-on-his-luck screenwriter who falls into her trap.

Gloria Swanson, who plays Sunset Boulevard’s psychotic yet tragic Norma Desmond to unforgettable perfection, was herself a largely forgotten veteran of the silent era by the time Wilder cast her.  William Holden co-stars as the hapless object of her self-obsessed affection.  Both actors were nominated for the Academy Award for their performances here.  The film itself was nominated as Best Picture but lost to the belovedly catty backstage drama, All About Eve.  Sunset Boulevard, though, has proven to be the better-regarded movie, currently ranking #16 (twelve steps above All About Eve) on the American Film Institute’s 2007 revised list of the greatest American films.

Alternately classified as an industry-insider drama, film noir, horror film and even as a comedy — all of these accurate — Sunset Boulevard is awash in an embarrassment of riches.  Most notable are the razor-sharp dialogue contained in the knowing, Oscar-winning screenplay by Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman, Jr.; Swanson’s fellow silent-film vets Buster Keaton, H.B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson as Norma’s wordless “waxworks” friends; an appearance by Hollywood gossip maven Hedda Hopper as herself; and the film’s exquisite art direction.  Best of all perhaps are the acting turns by director greats Cecil B. DeMille and Erich von Stroheim.  Both directed Swanson in some of her early films, and this professional as well as more personal, intimate history between them makes their scenes together all the more believable.

Holden’s voiceover strikes me as particularly dated by today’s standards, but it is probably Sunset Boulevard’s only weakness.  It is truly iconic and a film for the ages.  Recommended extras on the Blu-ray are a deleted scene with a very funny song entitled “The Paramount-Don’t-Want-Me Blues,” numerous documentary shorts about the film’s production and cultural impact, biographies of Swanson and Holden, and an insightful look at the work of celebrated costume designer Edith Head while she was under contract at Paramount.

Reverend’s Ratings:

Dinotasia: B+

Sunset Boulevard: A-

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Reviews: Dark, Blond & Red

Another Halloween may have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the holiday’s scary and comedic aspects have to end. I’m a year-round follower of Ghost Hunters as well as other paranormal-themed reality series and the spate of “found footage” horror movies. They are genres ripe for satire and one actor-turned-director, Derek Lee Nixon, has taken advantage of that. His Supernatural Activity will be available on DVDand digital download from Well Go USA Entertainment beginning November 6th.

In the spoof, hot-and-he-knows-it Damon Dealer (the funny and, yes, hot Andrew Pozza, obviously channeling hunky but obnoxious host Zak Bagans of TV’s Ghost Adventures) headlines a myth-debunking reality show. At his girlfriend’s insistence, Dealer leads his crew to a remote Texas town to investigate reported sightings of the Samsquatch, a smaller-than-usual variety of Bigfoot. They soon encounter odd characters and phenomena as Nixon satirizes such movies as The Blair Witch Project, The Last Exorcism, Cloverfield and, of course, the ongoing Paranormal Activity series.

Not unlike many of the shows and films it is sending up, Supernatural Activity is crudely-made and goes on for too long. A number of unintentional misspellings in title cards used throughout the movie also irritated me greatly. However, there are quite a few funny to very funny visual and character gags to be enjoyed. Nixon as well as Pozza and most of the cast possess talent and an obvious affection for their source material that overcomes the film’s low budget and lack of subtlety. Most viewers familiar with the found footage genre will get a kick out of it.

Alas, there are no pleasures to be found in the new DVDrelease Becoming Blond (from Ariztical Entertainment). This simply awful wannabe comedy by writer-director Kevin Duffy involves dead romance languages, nudist octogenarians, scheming gangsters, pampered poodles and sexual confusion. These coalesce about as effectively as oil and water. Casting John Waters favorite Mink Stole would, one could reasonably assume, guarantee some degree of camp credibility but no such luck. Every element of Becoming Blond — the direction, the acting, the photography, editing and sound mix — is just plain bad. Perhaps Duffy inhaled too much hair coloring dye during production? I hate to rail against a movie so thoroughly, but I would feel guilty to learn someone bought or rented this one based on any perceived recommendation from me. Avoid it at all costs.

I can much more enthusiastically recommend a new DVD box setof uncut comedy specials by that flame-haired vixen of stand up, Kathy Griffin. Available now from Shout! Factory, The Kathy Griffin Collection: Red, White & Raw boasts seven of her no-holds-barred shows, with five of them on DVD for the first time. Riffing on everything from reality shows to politics and everyone from Tiger Woods to Sarah Palin, Barbara Walters, Bruce Jenner, Nancy Grace and so many more, the set is a must-have for K Grif fans whether you have previously seen them all individually or not.

While it isn’t a comedy, I would be remiss before concluding my latest review column if I didn’t mention the above-average gay romance, Morgan. Now on DVDfrom Water Bearer Films, not only is Morgan assured, moving and sexy, but it is important for its focus on a seldom-seen population within our community: paraplegic gay men. Leo Minaya gives an excellent performance in the title role, a former athlete confined to a wheelchair in the wake of a tragic accident. He is angry, sexless and hopeless until the day he meets handsome, well-meaning Dean (Jack Kesy). Morgan is scared by his renewed feelings of attraction and love, so the relationship that develops between him and Dean is frustratingly but realistically halting. Director Michael Akers (Gone, But Not Forgotten) deserves kudos for his sensitive handling of their story. Well worth seeing.

Reverend’s Ratings:
Supernatural Activity: C+
Becoming Blond: F
The Kathy Griffin Collection: Red, White & Raw: A-
Morgan: B+

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Hitting the Slopes

The Swiss Alps have served as a backdrop for adventure and romance in such classic movies as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Sound of Music.  In Ursula Meier’s Sister (opening today in Los Angeles), which is Switzerland’s official entry in this year’s Academy Awards, the famous mountain range is the setting for a darker, more personal story.

12-year old Simon (an excellent performance by Kacey Mottet Klein) is in many ways your average, precocious pre-pubescent.  He spends his days hanging out with friends at the tourist-oriented ski resorts nestled high above their middle-to-lower-class homes in the valley.  Simon has hit upon a novel way to support himself and his older, unemployed sister: he steals high-end skis from tourists and resells them at a considerable profit.  Though it is a risky enterprise, the boy finds eager buyers in the seasonal adult workers shopping for low-cost Christmas gifts for their own kids.

Desperate for his neglectful sister’s attention, Simon gives her money and lavishes her with high-end clothing.  She continues, however, to spend days at a time away with strange men.  The more mature Simon strikes up friendships with a handsome cook at one of the resorts as well as with a British woman (played by Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame) on vacation with her two young sons.  But once the season ends and Simon again finds himself alone, he begins to realize he has to start making some choices for his own happiness.

Sister, which also won the Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, posits the virgin-white snow and frolicsome attitudes of the resort guests in stark contrast to the somewhat incestuous, psychologically-complex relationship between Simon and his sibling (Lea Seydoux, who appeared last year in the US films Midnight in Paris and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol).  Their relationship is revealed to be even more tangled, heartbreakingly so, than it initially appears.  Agnes Godard’s cinematography and John Parish’s spare, acoustic music score provide strong technical support.  You may be shocked, you may be moved, but you won’t easily forget Sister.

Newly out on DVDand VOD and airing tonight on the PBS series Voces is the eye-opening documentary, Lemon.  It recounts the rags-to-riches-to-rags saga of poet and playwright Lemon Andersen. Born in Brooklyn to a Puerto Rican mother and Norwegian-American father (both of whom later died from AIDS), Lemon began to “take my lemons and make the best goddamn lemonade” via poetry at the age of 20 after serving time on Riker’s Island.  He was discovered by producer Russell Simmons at an open mic event and was chosen to star in Simmons’ Broadway production, Def Poetry Jam, which won a 2003 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.  Lemon received his own award as one of the cast members.

Lemon became briefly popular before the show’s closure and demons from his past intervened to derail his success.  As his money ran out, Lemon found himself back in the projects.  In time, though, he picked up his pen and began writing anew, hoping to stage a comeback.  He has since appeared in the feature films Inside Man and The Soloist.

There aren’t many Tony Award winners who are also three-time felons, but the documentary allows Lemon’s talent and ambition to shine through.  I wish co-directors Laura Brownson and Beth Levison had gone into more detail regarding his parents’ fascinating though ultimately tragic lives and the circumstances their subject was born into.  Still, this Lemon-ade is worth sampling as is.

Reverend’s Ratings:

Sister: B+

Lemon: B

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Restoration Station

“Restored” and “extended” directors’ cuts of movies are all the rage today, largely due to demand from home video cinephiles. A film doesn’t have to be a bonafide classic to warrant such treatment; sometimes the director him- or herself revisits even a recent work in an effort to improve it. See Oliver Stone’s 2004 Alexander as one example, which underwent two revisions prior to the “final director’s cut” available on Blu-ray that still has critics and viewers divided.

Increasingly, though, a long-lost film is found, restored to its original glory as much as possible, and presented anew to modern audiences. Such was the case at Los Angeles’ historic Orpheum Theatre on October 13th, when Germany’s 1919, pro-LGBT Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern) made its US premiere nearly 100 years after it was made. The screening was the most spectacular of several highlights at this year’s Outfest Legacy Awards gala.

The annual Legacy Awards presentation has become my favorite of all the great events and festivals Outfest sponsors annually. Funds from ticket sales, auction items and donations solicited during the evening go to the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation. Administered in partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Legacy Preservation Project has grown to more than 20,000 elements in only seven years. It is the largest collection of LGBT images in the world. Feature films and documentaries previously restored through the project include Mona’s Candle Light Footage (1950), Queens at Heart (1965) and Bill Sherwood’s beloved Parting Glances (1986).

Different from the Others saw all of its intact prints, along with virtually all gay media in Germany, destroyed once the Nazis rose to power. Conrad Veidt, of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fame, stars as a gay violinist who falls for one of his young male pupils (the doe-eyed Fritz Schulz, who struck me as a precursor to Sal Mineo’s closeted teen in Rebel Without a Cause). Soon after, Veidt’s character finds himself being blackmailed by a homophobic predator who discovers the men’s relationship. The film is a startlingly frank and compassionate work, even by today’s slightly more enlightened standards, co-written by then-renowned sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld as a protest against Germany’s anti-gay Paragraph 175.

Approximately 40 minutes of film fragments were discovered in Russia a few years ago. Purchased by the UCLA Archive and lovingly restored by the Legacy Project (with descriptive title cards filling in for the missing footage), it made its debut at the Orpheum with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment before 1,000 enraptured attendees who couldn’t stop talking about the film’s impact at the lively after party. The current version is naturally somewhat stilted, as it is missing large chunks of exposition, but its historical and cultural relevance can’t be denied. With any luck, the missing footage will yet be found; after all, the silent sci-fi epic Metropolis was believed to be as complete as it would ever be in a truncated 90-minute version until its missing hour was discovered four years ago in South America. Outfest and UCLA will soon be re-introducing Different from the Others to the world via theatrical exhibitions and student screenings.


The annual Legacy Awards event also recognizes one or more contemporary filmmakers whose work has advanced positive portrayals of the LGBT community and its members. This year’s Visionary Award honorees were film, television and Broadway producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Their achievements include the Oscar-winning movie version of Chicago as well as the 2007 stage-to-screen transfer Hairspray, both film versions of Footloose, yhe made-for-TV movies Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story and Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, the current NBC series Smash, and the recent Broadway revivals of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Promises, Promises.

Out actors Michael Urie (Partners, Ugly Betty) and Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) as well as gay-for-pay Glee star Darren Criss, all veterans of Meron’s and Zadan’s stage productions, were on hand to fete the pair. Urie opened the presentation in hilarious style with his unsolicited audition to be the next Academy Awards host (Zadan and Meron are producing the 2013 show), while Criss performed a rousing, same-sex version of the song “Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm” from How to Succeed. Criss and Hayes both spoke personally, sincerely and gratefully of their relationships with Zadan and Meron. It was definitely a night to be remembered.

Frank Oz’s 1986 movie musical Little Shop of Horrors isn’t as significant a cinematic achievement as Different from the Others, but it is an enjoyable romp featuring a stellar comedy cast that includes Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, Bill Murray and the late John Candy, among others. Adapted from the 1982 off-Broadway stage success written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (who went on to score Disney’s animated modern classics The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin prior to Ashman’s premature death from AIDS) which was itself inspired by Roger Corman’s ultra-low budget 1960 movie, Little Shop of Horrors spins a bizarre tale of Skid Row-set love, sado-masochism and an invasion by alien, man-eating plants.

The stage version has a memorably dark finale that was expanded on by Ashman and Menken and shot by Oz. However, test audiences hated the original ending in which the hero (Moranis) and his girlfriend (the delectable Ellen Greene) are eaten by the vicious “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space,” Audrey II. Oz was forced to shoot a happier ending and the original version was locked away in a Warner Bros. vault save for a brief, black and white DVD release in the 1990’s.

Fans — myself included — who have been clamoring the last 26 years for Oz’s original version don’t have to wait any longer: the restored, full-color director’s cut of Little Shop of Horrors was just released on Blu-raylast week. The extended, 20-minute ending is very different, even from the stage version, but it blends in seamlessly and is well worth seeing and comparing to the earlier incarnations. It actually goes overboard with the elaborate visual effects now depicting an army of giant Audrey II’s destroying various US cities.

Most welcome though are an additional appearance and song by the musical’s African-American “Greek chorus,” who simply disappeared from the final quarter of the 1986 theatrical release until its second-to-last shot; a genuinely moving reprise of the signature song “Somewhere That’s Green,” performed by the aptly-named Greene as she is dying; and a sinister appearance by character actor Paul Dooley, who was cut entirely from the re-shot version and replaced by the decidedly less-sinister Jim Belushi.

The Blu-ray includes a booklet and numerous extras that relate the movie musical’s tortured history. Oz & Co. can now rest, and all but the most die-hard devotees of the 1986 theatrical version (which is also included on the Blu-ray) can rejoice.

Reverend’s Ratings:
Different from the Others: B+
Little Shop of Horrors Director’s Cut: A-

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reel Thoughts Interview: Shores Del-ivers

Saying things other people don’t even want to think much less say, Del Shores is a take-no-prisoners fighter for GLBT equality and the perfect person to take on so-called Christians who use their religion to shame and demonize the GLBT community. Shores, who many people know from his hit Logo series Sordid Lives and the hit film of the same name starring Olivia Newton John and Leslie Jordan, is finishing a tour of his new show Naked. Sordid. Reality., as well as promoting his latest DVD Del Shores: Sordid Confessions.

A follow-up to his hilarious DVDMy Sordid Life, in Sordid Confessions he jumps right in and addresses how his life completely blew up last December when he and his husband Jason Dottley (who played Ty in the Sordid Lives series) divorced. “I’m living a Tammy Wynette song,” he jokes in the show, although he has no regrets about showing his anger toward his ex.

Shores grew up the son of a Southern Baptist minister, and he tried to live life the way the Church dictates, getting married and having two daughters whom he cherishes. After the success of his first play Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will?, Shores went on to write Sordid Lives, which ran forever in Los Angeles, and he got into television writing, first on Ned & Stacey (starring Debra Messing and Thomas Hayden Church), then Will & Grace and Queer as Folk. “I can point to the day that changed my life and it was the day the review (of Daddy’s Dyin’) came out in the LA Times. That show ran for twenty-two months in LA, and it changed my life. I started getting the chance to do television and movies, and to this day, that is still my most-produced play,” Shores explained, as he prepared to do a show in Oklahoma City.

Sordid Confessions is just what the title infers, and Shores does not hold back on his feelings about such “celebrities” as Bristol Palin and former Saturday Night Live has-been Victoria Jackson. The most hilarious part of the show is when Shores, who knows his Scriptures, turns the Good Book back on the bad people who like to wield it like a club. His standard P.S. on responses, which he actually sends to these people, is “P.S.: F*** you!”

I had the opportunity to ask Shores about his life and his decision to go back on the road after his divorce, and he was just as honest as he is in his writing and on stage:

On Sordid Lives:“It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and I’m very grateful for that franchise.”

On Sordid Confessions: “I’m really happy with that. You know, I scheduled a taping of that and then my world was rocked with my husband leaving, and I had to delay it. I was really worried about being funny. I was going. “Can I do this?”, but then I stepped on stage at the Rose Room and I felt like it was one of my best shows in my career. I just loved the audience and they allowed me to go off my roadmap and do some really funny ad-libs that made it onto the DVD. That whole bit about AOL chat rooms and the “9 ½ inches” who show up was completely on the fly.”

On Bristol Palin: The untalented TV personality gets special treatment by Shores when he reads from her book, where she claims that she got blackout drunk from wine coolers and doesn’t remember having sex with Levi Johnston. “I read from that book during my shows, but legally, I couldn’t show that,” Shores explained. “It really is comedy at its very best. The fact that she wrote what she wrote and thinks that that’s okay. It amazes me that she claims she has no memory of her encounter with Levi and had to be told the next day by a friend. I always say, “Where was that friend (who knew she had sex)? I always say that the reason that Bristol Palin was the only contestant to gain weight while on Dancing with the Stars was that the whole staff was gay,” Shores joked, adding that they probably steered her to the craft service tables, pulled her hair back in unflattering buns and put her in a flamenco dress that Shores swears in a copy of his Sordid Lives character Brother Boy’s funeral outfit.

On Sarah Palin claiming that John Kerry “diminished himself” by talking about her: “We all have. We all have diminished ourselves by keeping her relevant, and all the Palins.”

On his sold-out shows: “I think the poster (pictured above) had a lot with it. I say in my show, “I deserved that photo shoot after all the angst I went through with my divorce. I also talk about Leslie Jordan’s reaction, “Oh Del, what were you thinking? That picture! It’s so… airbrushed!” and I said, “Yes it is, Leslie, and you should try it.”

On his divorce: “I don’t hold back. In the new show, I don’t tell all the gory details, but I definitely challenge the philosophy that we have to rush to forgiveness and not be angry. Do we really wish our exes well?” Shores worried about how that would be received at first. “I have had such an outpouring from people who’ve gone through breakups or even other conflicts in their lives where they feel less guilty now for having a human response to something. Quite frankly, using my humor and using my no-censor attitude has been very healing for me. It’s the therapy I needed. And certainly I needed to hear those laughs, I needed to feel the applause. I needed to just marinate in love, if you will. I could have closed down creatively, which I did for a while, or I could have embraced this and done what I do best and tell stories. I strongly believe that tragedy, hurt, pain, anger, is the gasoline that’s needed to ignite your creativity.”

On his new film: Blues for Willadean marks the big screen adaptation of Shore’s serio-comic hit The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, starring the incomparable Beth Grant, one of Shores’ muses, as well as The Help Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer, Dale Dickey from Winter’s Bone, David Steen and Debby Holiday. Shores admits that he resisted changing the title, but that the name now fits the feeling of the piece better, which is a fairly dark story of spousal abuse. The film is now playing in New York and Los Angeles, and will premiere On Demand soon, so everyone can enjoy Grant’s amazing performance.

About those ladies with C.L.A.P.: Sordid Confessions opens with Shores being accosted outside the theater by a number of women protesters calling themselves Christian Ladies Against Pornography, or C.L.A.P.. He and Jordan pitched a mock reality show where Shores and Jordan would play two Christian women who try to stop homosexual depravity wherever they exist, like gay pride parades and festivals. While the show didn’t happen, Shores really wanted to bring C.L.A.P. back in some way.

About Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield: The notorious author of Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill engaged in a nasty correspondence with Shores after Shores challenged the ill-informed legislator to a debate. Campfield, who claims that it is virtually impossible for people to get HIV from straight sex, proved himself to be just as ill-informed about legislative ethics when he demanded $1,000.00 to debate Shores. Word of the demand has prompted the State Attorney General to open an ethics investigation against Campfield.

About the future: Shores is excited to bring his play Southern Baptist Sissies to the big screen by filming it in the style of classic television shows like Playhouse 90. The format will allow him to film economically and use original cast members like Leslie Jordan.

Interview by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend’s Reviews: Odds & Ends

The current, quiet in-between time that bridges the end of summer, with its popcorn movies and overall warm-weather frivolity, and the start of the all too “serious” awards season affords me the opportunity to go through the pile of review-consideration media generously provided by zealous PR folks from coast to coast. Here’s what I’ve watched, listened to and/or read recently among new and upcoming releases…

Desperate Housewives: The Complete Eighth and Final Season (DVDavailable now): While the late series never grabbed me, my hopelessly-devoted partner was thrilled when this five disc farewell set arrived. I do recommend its bonus features, which include a “Finishing the Hat” episode commentary by series creator Marc Cherry (who deserves kudos for naming every episode after a Stephen Sondheim song title or phrase), deleted scenes and bloopers, and “I Guess This is Goodbye,” a series of honest and often moving reflections by various longtime cast members. Farewell, Wisteria Lane, at least until Cherry comes up with a reunion movie.

Del Shores: Sordid Confessions (DVDavailable now): Shores, the Southern-born son of a Baptist preacher, is beloved in the gay community for his play-turned-movie Sordid Lives (which also became a cable series) as well as Southern Baptist Sissies and writing for the American version of Queer as Folk. As a standup comedian, however, he doesn’t exhibit the satiric but good-natured aplomb that usually makes his written work so endearing. In Sordid Confessions, recorded in front of a live Dallas audience, he comes across as a wannabe Kathy Griffin and takes mean-spirited jabs at little people, the homeless, and now-conservative former Saturday Night Live star Victoria Jackson. Skip this and wait for his upcoming movie Blues for Willadean (starring Beth Grant and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer) instead. Or even better, re-watch Sordid Lives.

Twisted Romance (DVDavailable now): Twisted is right. This sexually-charged, Spanish-language potboiler by Jose Celestino Campusano isn’t for everyone, but more adventurous gay viewers will find much to admire. These include its provocative plot about a broodingly attractive (or should that be attractively brooding?) teen who begins a relationship with a middle-aged, sexually abusive man; the brave lead performances of Oscar Genova and Nehuen Zapata; and the film’s gritty yet scenic Argentinian setting.

Virago’s Love Over Fear (CDavailable now). This second studio album by female indie-rock duo Virago (a.k.a. Amy Schindler and Maire Tashjian) alternates in tone between fierce anthems and more reflective songs inspired by Schindler’s fight against breast cancer. The collection is generally inspired and inspiring, especially the soulful “To Be With You” and the rowdy title track. Schindler sounds a bit too Melissa Etheridge-esque at times, but lesbian women and gay men alike are sure to enjoy it.

Zombie Cat (bookavailable October 1st from Skyhorse Publications). Yes, you read the title correctly. Just in time for Halloween comes this whimsically ghoulish, vividly illustrated tale by Isabel Atherton of a sweet housecat, Tiddles, who turns into an undead, flesh-eating beast after being bitten by an infected rodent. If The Walking Dead kept a pet instead of eating it, Tiddles would fit the bill perfectly. In the end, though, the kitty still just wants to be loved by his non-infected human, Jake. Despite occasional scenes of Tiddles chewing on entrails, older kids, teens and my fellow twisted adults will get a big kick out of Zombie Cat.

Barbra Streisand’s Release Me (albumavailable now on vinyl and October 9th on CD). While I haven’t yet finished listening to the advance press download of this 11-track compilation of never-before-released Streisand recordings from 1963 to the present, I’ve heard enough to know it’s a stunning must-have whether you are a Babs-aholic or not. Songs include showtunes "Home" (from The Wiz), "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" (from Finian’s Rainbow) and "Heather on the Hill" (from Brigadoon), as well as songs by Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman and Billie Holiday’s arranger, Ray Ellis.

And while I haven’t yet received it, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival in my mailbox of the world premiere cast recording of Carrie: The Musical. The notorious 1988 Broadway production never got a cast album, but a recordingof the recent off-Broadway revival (starring the fabulous Marin Mazzie as the tortured psychic teenager’s religious-fanatic mother) was just released September 25th through Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records. I’m so excited, I might just have to go put on my prom dress and pour fake pig blood all over myself!

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.