AU PAIR, KANSAS
[ City Paper Grade: D+ ]
J.T. O’Neal’s uninspired comedy follows Oddmund (Håvard Lilleheie), a soccer-playing Norwegian nanny who travels to Kansas to help Helen (Traci Lords), a widow with two sons. The film fails to transcend its predictable sense of humor — a lot of culture-clash jokes like poking fun at the way the foreigner pronounces “penis” or the familiar “He’s not gay, he’s European” shtick. It instead opts to preach cheesy, motivational-poster life lessons about following dreams and loving “the one.” The queer content includes a closeted character and one too many forced attempts at placing Oddmund in compromising positions with Helen’s teenage son, Atticus (Spencer Daniels), but Au Pair, Kansas can’t be bothered with sexual shenanigans. It really just wants all the local oddballs to embrace their inner differences and play soccer. —Gary M. Kramer (RE, Fri., July 20, 7:30 p.m. and Sat., July 21, 9:30 p.m.)
FACING MIRRORS
[ City Paper Grade: B+ ]
With the rigidity of gender divisions in Iran’s Islamicized society, it’s no surprise pre-op trans man Adineh, or Eddie (Shayesteh Irani), is eager to flee the country for female-to-male sexual-reassignment surgery before being married off as a (very wealthy) woman. The would-be exile grabs a ride from Rana (Ghazal Shakeri), a conservative housewife whose husband’s imprisonment has forced her to drive a taxi to make ends meet. Eddie’s erratic behavior makes Rana suspicious, and the straitlaced chauffeur freaks when she finds out her passenger is transgendered. That cultural clash is explored in the rest of this character-driven road movie. The action is ostensibly about Eddie’s effort to reclaim his identity, but Rana’s move from tolerance to acceptance is what makes the story resonate. The Tehran setting intensifies both characters’ struggles, but the movie transcends national specificity and offers a far more universal take on sexuality and independence. —Michael Gold (RB, Sat., July 21, 5 p.m. and Sun., July 22, 2:30 p.m.)
JOSHUA TREE, 1951: A PORTRAIT OF JAMES DEAN
[ City Paper Grade: D ]
Director Matthew Mishory takes us back to a time when the entertainment industry teemed with young gay actors sleeping their way up a ladder of powerful sugar daddies to achieve closeted stardom. No, not yesterday, Mary — it’s 1951, when a young James Dean (played by former model James Preston) is still bounding around the L.A. gay scene before heading off to New York, fame and an early death. Via an intense performance by Preston, the film questions whether Dean’s supposed sexual encounters with men were merely to gain parts or whether they’re glimmers of his true sexuality. Like Dean’s method acting, the film is painstakingly deliberate. But there’s no great payoff: It begins and ends at the same point on the character’s arc with an intervening plotline as barren as a California desert. —Tim Appignani (RE, Fri., July 13, 5 p.m. and Mon., July 16, 7:15 p.m.)
KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
[ City Paper Grade: B+ ]
An engaging portrait of a long-term relationship in constant flux, Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On takes its life from Thure Lindhardt’s splendidly shambling performance as a documentary filmmaker in love with Zachary Booth’s closeted, crack-using lawyer. Spanning more than a decade, the story moves in surprising leaps and starts, from spontaneous sex to lukewarm cohabitation, from on-again to off-again. A certain drifting shapelessness is part of its design; it’s as moody and mercurial as the characters themselves. Its languorous melancholy coalesces into moments of sharp pain, then gives way to episodes of acute bliss, the unpredictability being what keeps the two men interested in, as well as exasperated with, each other. It’s easy to wish for more clarity, but the care with which Sachs sketches the couple’s every development proves more gripping than a simple resolution could be. —Sam Adams (RE, Sat., July 21, 7 p.m.)
LOVE FREE OR DIE
[ City Paper Grade: B- ]
Openly gay Christians often find themselves doubly ostracized, rejected by their church and alienated from peers who see homosexuality and organized religion as fundamentally adversarial. Neither Gene Robinson nor his New Hampshire parishioners see the contradiction, but when he was elected the state’s bishop, both the Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican Communion balked, setting off a debate over the church’s future. Filmmaker Macky Alston, himself a gay seminary graduate, ably balances the larger issues of faith and society with complicated, sometimes arcane matters of church politics. Robinson’s ordination threatens to cause an international schism in the church, with rapidly growing African congregations (as well as conservative domestic ones) threatening to leave if he is not removed, but he stands fast, trying to expand the church by explicitly ministering to LGBTQ believers. Robinson remains something of a two-dimensional figure, inspirational but apparently untroubled, and that goes for Alston’s film as well, which limns controversy but avoids raising any. —SA (RB, Sun., July 15, 7 p.m. and Sun., July 22, 5 p.m.)
NAKED AS WE CAME
[ City Paper Grade: C- ]
Turbulent families make good fodder for melodrama, as director Richard LeMay’s third feature unfortunately proves. From the minute Laura (Karmine Alers) and Elliot (Ryan Vigilant) arrive at their terminally ill mother’s country home, their repressed anger seems all too familiar. Also well-worn are the attempts of said mother (Lué McWilliams) to pass on dying-breath wisdom to her offspring before it’s too late. The three harbor enough resentment for two or three features, and were more time devoted to their broken ties, this flick would have been more heartfelt. Instead, LeMay adds a complication in the form of mysterious grounds worker Ted (Benjamin Weaver), a handsome stranger whose presence is fairly bewildering. Aside from an all-too-obvious bedroom romp with Elliot, Ted’s role is to provide an irritating distraction from this family’s broken relationships. So the film is left to scratch the surface of its characters’ baggage, never attaining the rawness its title suggests. —MG (RE, Fri., July 13, 7 p.m. and Sat., July 14, 5 p.m.)
SASSY PANTS
[ City Paper Grade: B- ]
Home-schooled by her fundamentalist mom (Anna Gunn), teenage Bethany (Ashley Rickards) is pushing for freedom. After her one-woman graduation ceremony, she moves in with dad Diedrich Bader and his young lover, played by a hyperkinetically chirpy Haley Joel Osment. Writer-director Coley Sohn aims low, pairing the fashion-obsessed Bethany with a back-stabbing blond manager at mall fashion store Jail Bait, but she mostly hits her targets, creating an amiable if dull-edged portrait of misfit life. —SA (RE, Fri., July 20, 9:30 p.m. and Sun., July 22, 5 p.m.)
SPEECHLESS
[ City Paper Grade: C+ ]
At the start of Speechless, Luke (Pierre-Mathieu Vital), a handsome Frenchman in China, is discovered naked and presumed mute. The lad is taken to a local hospital where he recuperates and strikes up a bond with young nurse Jiang (Gao Qilun). While most romantic dramas prolong the sexual tension, forcing viewers to wait for the characters to shut up and fuck, Speechless never reaches such a climax. Instead, we’re dragged through the former’s dramatic backstory, which involves a love triangle and a laughable, albeit inventive, “murder.” Blue Balls wold have been a more apt title. —GMK (RE, Mon., July 16, 9:15 p.m. and Thu., July 19, 5 p.m.)
TURTLE HILL, BROOKLYN
[ City Paper Grade: B+ ]
Turtle Hill, Brooklyn is an intimate and affecting chamber drama about the fragility of relationships between family, friends and lovers. Set and shot entirely in the residence of partners Will and Mateo (Brian W. Seibert and Ricardo Valdez, who co-wrote and co-produced), the film takes place during Will’s 30th birthday party. While an unexpected family twist cause things to start out tense, this mostly plotless film settles into a relaxed, comfortable groove. The close-knit friends talk and talk. They also eat, drink, smoke pot and bash a piñata (and in some cases each other). Some drama emerges when Mauricio (Josh Marcantel), a hunky trainer, arrives and certain revelations prompt Will and Mateo to reflect more honestly on their own lives, desires and secrets. Seibert and Valdez give natural, engaging performances. And even though director Ryan Gielen tends to move his camera too much, this enjoyable little soiree is well worth attending. —GMK (RB, Sat., July 14, 12:15 p.m. and RE, Wed., July 18, 9:15 p.m.)
UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT-UP
[ City Paper Grade: B ]
For many first-world millennials, AIDS has become as invisible as the activist groups who’ve fought the epidemic. United in Anger: A History of ACT-UP travels back 25 years to a time when AIDS was a “gay epidemic,” treatment was nonexistent and those most affected were fed up with the apathy of politicians. The film chronicles the glory days of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, but stumbles over details of the movement’s founding and collapse. Though the primary aim of the documentary is to reignite awareness of the fight against the disease, the most effective moments lay not in yakking heads, but archival footage. Extensive coverage provided by affinity groups captures everything from devastated lovers to the anger that led to smashing into the FDA. ACT-UP may have receded from headlines, but the film succeeds in highlighting its victories. Unfortunately, valuable lessons are missed in the failure to portray the group’s dissolution. —Andrew Wimer (RB, Mon., July 16, 6 p.m.)
VITO
[ City Paper Grade: B+ ]
As “gay” slowly sneaks into the mainstream and Pride parades become corporate spectacle, the likes of Vito Russo and other activists have fallen by the wayside. The titular subject of Vito is documented from his New Jersey upbringing to his prolonged death from AIDS, his life itself a history of the gay-rights movement. While friends and family paint an endearing portrait, the greatest advantage of the film is Vito’s connection to all aspects of the movement, from Stonewall to ACT-UP. Cinephiles will not be disappointed by the time spent on Vito’s The Celluloid Closet and his obsessive research into the history of homosexuality in the cinema. However, the documentary reaches its emotional height when Vito and his lover face the onset of AIDS after deriding gays for voting for Reagan. Vito may do little to revolutionize, but it reminds us of the man’s forgotten struggles for gay acceptance and grimly warns against contemporary gay apathy. —AW (RE, Sun., July 15, 9:15 p.m. and Tue., July 17, 7:15 p.m.)
ZENNE DANCER
[ City Paper Grade: B- ]
Based on the true story of a father performing an “honor killing” of his gay son, Zenne Dancer is a damning take on the situation homosexuals in Turkey face. A gay man named Ahmet (Erkan Avci) is expected to take over his father’s struggling business but he is instead more excited by the lives of male belly dancer Can (Kerem Can) and a German photographer. The men struggle to find their places in a country intolerant of their sexuality, but the plot becomes muddled as character threads are messily woven together. The various ways homosexuals are mistreated come through when Ahmet’s religious family rejects him and military recruiters require photographic proof of sex acts in order to opt out. Though the belly dancer’s tolerant family is a counterpoint to Ahmet’s, his story line feels extraneous, especially in his flashy dance visions. Such scatterbrained sequencing reduces the impact of Ahmet’s fate, leaving the film at once original yet disappointing. —AW (RE, Wed., July 18, 9:30 p.m. and Fri., July 20, 5:15 p.m.)
The 18th Annual Philadelphia QFest runs July 12-23. Single tickets to regular screenings are $10; for info call 267-765-9800 or visit qfest.com. All films are being screened at Ritz East (RE), 125 S. Second St. or Ritz at the Bourse (RB), 400 Ranstead St.
