I checked out the one-man show 'First Day Back' written and performed by Toronto-based actor Rob Salerno on the weekend at Toronto's Storefront Theatre and wasn't disappointed.
Mostly inspired by the tragic 2011 suicide of Ottawa's Jamie Hubley, Salerno has crafted a complex, moving, and beautiful tribute to the young queers we've lost due to high school bullying and other youth left behind forced to struggle with their losses.
This police abuse of power is horrifying, made worse that it reinforced fears of police discrimination as the bulk of those targeted were generally non-white. It created a sense that those targeted were somehow second class citizens. As a white man, I've never felt targeted by Toronto Police, let alone singled out by them to obtain personal information about me.
The practice was put on hold earlier this year. Now Tory wants "carding" permanently ended. Tory will put forth a motion at a future Toronto Police Services Board meeting to do so. I hope the efforts succeed.
Tory's previous position favouring reforming the practice didn't win much public favour. I'm glad that Tory has the leadership skills to listen and amend his position in order to (eventually) do the right thing. I was getting a bit worried.
The 25th annual Toronto Inside Out LGBT Film Festival has just wrapped up for another year. Dozens of films were consumed by audiences, many enjoyed, others hated.
My favourite: an astonishing short film called 'Hole,' (pictured above) by director Martin Edralin, filmed in Toronto, about an older disabled man yearning for intimacy in a world that would rather ignore him. Lead actor Ken Harrower, who's greatly disabled himself, does mesmerizing work portraying his character's quiet dignity and agony, as well as frustrated lust for his home care male nurse. I won't soon forget this amazing film, which won Best Canadian Short at the festival.
Other short films I loved included director Mark Pariselli's dark comedy 'Monster Mash', directors Sonya Reynolds and Lauren Hortie's animated short documentary 'Midnight at the Continental', and director Jason Karman's 'I Really Like You.'
Lily Tomlin with co-star Julia Garner in 'Grandma'.
Among the feature films I saw, I liked Lily Tomlin's new film 'Grandma,' which opened the festival. Tomlin sufficiently chewed up the scenery with her cranky, grieving, penniless matriarch trying to help her granddaughter find money for a quick abortion. It was very enjoyable, not too melodramatic, showcasing Tomlin's talents as well as the rest of the cast.
But many male-centred films I saw this year explored stories about sexually ambiguous men, or presumably heterosexual men who face few if any agonies over their sexual identities, but end up flirting with their gay sides in less-than-cut-and-dry romances or bromances. Some might refer to these identities as "post-gay," or label-free sexualities that don't fit neatly into identities like "gay" and "straight."
One such film I loved was the Brazilian flick by directors Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon called 'Seashore' (pictured below.) Two cute boys on the edge of adulthood, Martin (seemingly very heterosexual) and friend Tomaz (who we at first suspect is gay and later he confirms it to his old friend,) begin a journey to a seaside community to do Martin's absent father a mysterious favour. We later find out Martin's father is too much of a coward to do the task himself - which is to obtain a property document to evict some estranged family from their longtime home.
Actors Mateus Almada and Mauricio Barcellos in 'Seashore'
The story unfolds in casual and oft confusing fashion, with few of these facts explained clearly until the audience puts all the clues together along with the protagonists. At the end, unhappy with his father's behaviour and looking for some youthful rebellion, young Martin decides to engage in some experimental (and fairly steamy) sex with Tomaz.
I'll cautiously recommend the film, but will warn that its slow pace and minimal characterization might drive some viewers crazy. Several audience members walked out of my screening. Here's the trailer: 'Seashore' wasn't the only film that focussed on "post-gay" males.
Nils Bokamp's slight 'You & I' (pictured below) was entertaining, thanks to the immense good looks and frequent nudity of its three male leads. Old friends Jonas (supposedly straight) and Philip (openly gay) embark on an excursion through the German countryside to take photographs, skinny dip, and have some fun.
SPOILER ALERT: Along the way, they pick up Polish cutie Boris, who makes the moves on Philip, causing unexpected jealousy in Jonas and some sexual tension. In the end, jealousy seems to spur Jonas to admit his own sexual affection for his longtime friend Philip.
Focussing on similar themes, Santiago Giralt's feature 'Jess & James' from Argentina was feeble by comparison, boring and unaccomplished, with weaker storytelling and acting.
Marçal Forés' very ironically titled 'Everlasting Love,' was a subversive take on the old storyline trope of older man/much younger lover. Not much sexual ambiguity here, but much darker and surprising stuff instead including some cannibalism. After its final credits started to roll, I whispered to myself, 'That's fucked up.' I'll say no more. Many in the crowd seemed to hate it, but I found it darkly hilarious.
Inside Out also screened a new director's cut of '54', the 1998 bomb starring a gorgeously young Ryan Phillippe. Miramax butchered director Mark Christopher's original cut, taking out all the queer content and turning a mediocre examination of the late 1970s New York city club into a boring, sanitized mess.
Scene from '54'
The director's cut was mildly more enjoyable than the original, with at least the queer content and sexual ambiguity restored. The infamous kiss between Phillippe and co-star Breckin Meyer, cut from the original film, is back, but it's still not all that great a shot (as the camera focuses on the back of Meyer's head instead of their locked lips.) After its finale, I walked out of the packed screening feeling a bit dirty and unsatisfied. But clearly the lurid subject matter might make this re-cut a bit of a gay cult classic.
So all in all, a decent Inside Out experience again this year. Gone are the oft-told, perhaps old-fashioned stories of closeted queer boys struggling to come out. In their place, we are seeing a different approach to sexual identities, with men who might legitimately identify as "straight," find themselves open to a little queer action. The boys are finally catching up to the girls, who've been enjoying sexual fluidity on the screen for years. It's a nice change and very welcome.
What a great result! A great day for equality and inclusion in this world! Those who despair at the hatred and lack of understanding in the world can look to this result and take comfort, I say.
For more news on this, check out the BBC website story above or the CBC's coverage.
The Irish are voting in a historic referendum today on marriage equality. I'm mostly Irish by blood, although not by citizenship. And, as you can guess, I'm hoping that it turns out well for those who favour equality.
Still, one has to worry what the formerly staunch conservative voters of Ireland will do today. The country only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993. The country seems to have become more liberal since. Polls showed the pro-equality side far ahead right up until today.
In the U.S., where similar referenda have taken place in the last 15 to 20 years, the experience was mostly negative until 2012, when voters started approving equality and shutting down attempts to ban gay marriage. The tide has turned in that country.
In Canada, the pro-equal marriage side won out 10 years ago, with courts and legislatures voting in favour. Polls now show 65% of Canadians support equal marriage.
Voting in Ireland continues today until 10 pm Irish time, or 5 pm Toronto time. (Although results won't be fully counted until Saturday, apparently.) So hopefully we'll get good news to celebrate tomorrow.
In the mean time, glad to share this Canadian video supporting the equal marriage cause:
Most celebratory of all is how his sexual orientation seemed to be a non-issue in the race. How far we have come, indeed!
MacLauchlan's Liberals won 18 seats out of 27 in the province. The PCs took 8 seats, but their leader Rob Lantz narrowly failed to win his own Charlottetown seat.
Of note, the provincial NDP and the Greens won big gains in the popular vote, with the Green Party leader, Peter Bevan-Baker, handily winning his party's first seat in the island legislature. (Unfortunately for the NDP, their increase in the vote was less concentrated and failed to elect anyone under Canada's first-past-the-post voting system. But with tomorrow's election in Alberta, the NDP may soon be smiling.)
Thousands of Muslims circling the Kaaba in Mecca,
as seen in 'A Sinner in Mecca'
I attended the world premiere last night of director Parvez Sharma's controversial new documentary 'A Sinner in Mecca.' It played at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival.
Sharma is an openly gay Muslim filmmaker who previously directed 'A Jihad for Love.' His new film chronicles his own personal and spiritual journey to visit Mecca, a journey all Muslims are supposed to make at least once during their lifetimes.
My take on the film: it is a stunning journey documented with meticulous detail by Sharma that I won't forget. As a non-Muslim Westerner (and non-religious person) who will never be able to journey to these locations, it was incredibly illuminating.
Sharma's voice over accompanying his visuals make clear the immense physical challenges he and others endure to make this trip, including the pushing through mass crowds circling the Kaaba (pictured above) as most try to touch it. The circling goes on 24/7. "There is nothing kind" about this, remarks Sharma. Instead of being a moment of solemn prayer and reflection, it's an exhausting shoving match not for the faint of heart, it seems. Near this holiest of Muslim sites, Saudi royalty has seen fit to allow a Starbucks franchise and various other commercial outlets to be opened. The clash between solemn religion and modern capitalist hypocrisy couldn't be more stunning.
Sharma even sacrifices a goat to fulfil his journey, the final step in his religious purification, he says. The bloody scene is awful to watch. In the end, Sharma says he feels empty, but relieved he made the journey. He also states the experience bolsters his desire to see a "reformation" in Islam.
Non-Muslims will see things in this film they will never otherwise see. I'd say the same goes for Muslims as well. As a gay man who has also struggled to find a place within organized religion, I found Sharma's journey and film to be fascinating. I highly recommend it.
I recently watched the chilling, superb documentary Citizenfour by director Laura Poitras. The film, which won the Best Documentary Feature award at this year's Academy Awards, chronicles in detail the 2013 interviews by Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill with Edward Snowden, the infamous whistle blower. It also outlines how the National Security Agency (NSA) in the U.S., in cahoots with other world governments and agencies, have expanded their spying to include virtually all human digital communications, not just on those suspected of terrorism.
The film is must-see for everyone. I have to admit I didn't fully understand the full extent of Snowden's revelations when they first came to light in June 2013. I recall the revelations getting a bit blurred in the coverage of the attacks on Snowden's character by the intelligence establishment and his fleeing from authorities to Russia.
But the film returns the focus back to the secret documents that Snowden revealed which proved the full extent of the NSA's surveillance program, which has grown to intercept virtually all digital communications of Americans and citizens of other countries without any safeguards for privacy rights. Data of every email, every Google search, every Facebook post, every phone call, every online purchase of virtually every human being they can monitor is being captured
using NSA technologies and partnerships with other government's agencies
including the Canadian government and is being stored for future reference. Should governments decide to target anyone, they
are able to utilize their vast surveillance archive to retroactively
investigate them.
No doubt, the full implications of these disclosures are still permeating through the public consciousness two years later. Many people still barely know what Snowden revealed, let alone understand it. Thus, the vital importance of the film and why it continues to be important to hear from Snowden, as we thankfully continue to do.
Citizenfour's interviews of Snowden flesh out a man of principle who went to incredible lengths and personal sacrifice to reveal the despicable overreach of his bosses into the lives of all of us.
Justin Trudeau's decision to vote for Bill C-51, despite concerns over the bill's lack of enhanced oversight provisions, puts the Liberal Party too far on the side of the security establishment which clearly has grown too big. Sure, the Liberals' decision to vote for it is pure politics, in response to the Conservatives' exaggeration of the terrorist threat. In truth, there's little real difference between the Liberal position and the NDP position on C-51, except for the symbolic votes either for or against the legislation. Both opposition parties are promising to similarly tinker with the law should either of them form a government. The Conservatives' majority ensures they can control passage of whatever bill they wish this year.
But we need more than tinkering. We need more than just a new parliamentary committee to keep an eye on CSIS and other government agencies after the fact (although that would be an improvement). We need a full-scale, public investigation into this new status quo revealed in Citizenfour and how to roll it back to return some degree of privacy to our lives. We can't trust Stephen Harper to do that as he probably approves of the NSA's abilities to spy on every Canadian.
The issues raised in Citizenfour and by C-51 are not entirely the same, but clearly they are linked. They both deal with growing government power snuffing out individual freedoms. We need to pull back the powers we have handed over to these forces to ensure better balance so we don't continue down this scary road. If we continue, years from now, we'll all be horrified to see our society transformed into a police state, where lack of privacy and freedom is the norm, not the rare exception.
The next step in this fight is to create a critical mass of awareness. Once more and more of the public realizes that their privacy no longer exists, we will hopefully stop giving deference and support to the Harperites of the world and demand our governments roll back surveillance of our lives. On this issue, I have to admit the NDP has its priorities right. I can only hope that politicians like Trudeau soon catch up.
On this Good Friday, when all North Americans (and many others in the West) get a statutory day off - a privilege not extended to any other faiths, yet some Christians still say they feel like victims of unfair treatment - I'm reflective upon the role of religion and faith in our society.
Canada is a country of great moderation, secularism and pluralism I am proud to call home. I'm glad to say the vast majority of Canadians decades ago threw off the shackles of social conservatism. Debates about women's rights, abortion, same sex marriage, equality and many others seem to be completely settled here. Attempts to revisit those questions invariably go nowhere, even though an unhappy few still unsuccessfully try to champion those old causes. More often than not, they do their own causes more harm, like when anti-abortion activists circulated postcards recently to try to hurt Justin Trudeau.
Most Ontarians recently responded with shrugs and "It's about time!" to the long overdue school curriculum revamp, despite cries of opposition from religious fanatics, who mostly misrepresented the changes to try to attack them. Some social conservatives continue to make noise against it with the help of some misguided Conservative leadership candidates, but it seems Ontario's tenacious premier Kathleen Wynne will be more than happy to face them down. These days, siding with secularism and pluralism in Ontario is a political winner.
Am I complacent now in Ontario? It's hard not to feel a little secure when we re-elected our openly lesbian premier last year. There has been much progress. But of course, instances of homophobic violence and discrimination do still occur. But it does seem that homophobia in the culture continues to decline. The culture shift seems to be permanent.
That's why when I look at other countries like the U.S. or Brazil which still debate these questions, I am confident that eventually they too will achieve the kind of peace that we have mostly won here in Canada.
Why has Canada progressed this far, while pockets in America and other countries still resist full equality?
The answer is simple: Religion. Fundamentalist or conservative religion to be precise.
To me, religion is like a drug. And not all drugs are bad. Caffeine is a drug. Sugar is a drug. Red wine is a drug. Money is a drug. Marijuana is a drug. Heroin is a drug.
Of that list, I'd only advise against trying heroin. Why? Because it seems heroin can't be enjoyed in moderation. It's an "all-in" experience, and one that easily becomes addictive.
To me, fundamentalist religion is like heroin. It's "all-in". Followers of fundamentalist religion - be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or whatever - are so desperate for some kind of perceived salvation that they cling to sets of beliefs that "guarantee" it. Of course, those sets of beliefs often compel them to do strange things, wear certain clothes in public, and also impose their values on others, like recently in Indiana and other U.S. states. Sometimes, those beliefs are so extreme that they turn believers into murderers, like we saw this week in Kenya.
What is the cure for these fundamentalists? I'd say moderation and skepticism.
I grew up in a Roman Catholic family. My parents were so-called "smorgasbord Catholics." Sure they believed in the basic concepts of the Catholic faith involving Christ being the Son of God, who came to Earth to show humanity how to live and how to face death, with a glimpse of eternal life, etc., etc. But their faith was fluid. It allowed for skepticism. It evolved when my parents learned new things or read new ideas, like 'The Pagan Christ.'
Such an open-minded approach to religion is just fine, in my books. Sure, you can attend mass every week if it gives you a sense of community and ritual. I can appreciate such needs. If you also refuse to impose your religion on others, then I think that's wonderful. These are people who are using the drug of religion in moderation. They are healthy. And there is much good that religious people can do in this world, including helping their fellow human beings.
I am not a religious person. I am agnostic. I decided long ago that all organized religions were inherently corrupt and fallible. Adherence to any one religion is misguided, in my estimation. I simply cannot tolerate the injustices still rampant in most of them (including the discrimination of the Catholic Church.) I don't judge those who still need a religious outlet in their lives, but only if they oppose discrimination and embrace real equality for all human beings.
While I've embraced the secularism of our society, there's no doubt that my religious upbringing formed a foundation for my beliefs. I'm not some boat flailing in stormy waters without a sail. I do think there is much good in the story of Jesus Christ as a role model. But I consider the story to be fiction. Like all religious stories about saviours.
My firmest spiritual belief: human beings can never know the absolute truth of the universe.
Religions try to offer that absolute truth to their followers, but the dogma they provide is mostly false.
Sure, it's healthy to learn about various religions and ideas. Perhaps even follow one or two from time to time. But it's best to allow your beliefs to continue to evolve with new experiences and information. And not tie yourself to one religion for life.
In the mean time, I find it best to borrow from the Christian tenet: love your fellow human beings as yourself. That's an idea I and all of us can most definitely live with.
Director Michele Josue, father Dennis Shepard and mother Judy Shepard
address crowd at gala event in Toronto last night.
I attended the gala screening last night of the documentary feature
'Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine' by director Michelle Josue at Toronto's Carlton Cinemas, and later the Q&A session at the Marquis of Granby pub where the filmmaker as well as Shepard's heroic parents, Judy and Dennis, answered audience questions.
Judy Shepard is a force of nature, working tirelessly since her son's tragic death in 1998 to promote tolerance and better understanding through the Matthew Shepard Foundation. That spirit was on full display last night as she took most of the audience questions.
The film is a loving and tender portrait of the young man whose life was tragically cut short in 1998 by two gay bashers in Wyoming. The emotional doc offers greater details about Shepard's life, fleshing him out as a human being. We learn that Matt was passionate and political and suffered from personal demons. Still searching for himself but perhaps finding some peace in school in Laramie, it's clear he hoped he'd make a difference in the world. One can't help but think about how great a person he could've become had he lived. It's been almost 17 years since this tragedy and the film acts as a great reminder of Shepard's legacy as well as how far we've come since then.
To me, this was just Crystal expressing probably what a lot of heterosexual men of his generation feel about the gays: you can exist, I just don't want to see too much of you. Or something to that effect.
Now to celebrate how far American TV has truly come, I give you one of the hot gay sex scenes featured this past fall on ABC's 'How To Get Away With Murder." Enjoy!
I have been busy lately catching some 2014 films I missed last year.
Scene from 'Selma'
The most recent viewing was director Ava DuVernay's superb 'Selma,' (pictured on the right) which chronicles the efforts of many led by the late Martin Luther King Jr. to achieve full voting rights for African-Americans in Alabama and across the
racist southern states in the 1960s, specifically the Selma marches in 1965.
The direction of this film by Ava
DuVernay is artful but also completely accessible. The acting is exceptional, including the lead performance by David Oyelowo as King, who really captures the passion, determination, intelligence and grace of the man. As a work of art and entertainment, the film works on all levels and is most deserving of the praise it's receiving, including a Best Picture (Drama) nomination in tonight's Golden Globe Awards.
After watching the film and doing my own research, I'd have to agree that the portraits painted in the film 'Selma,' are pretty much accurate. Grassroots organizers including King found Selma as a primary example that could be used to justify the crucial importance of voting rights reform. They did the heavy lifting. There's no indication in the film that LBJ used the FBI to disparage King. But the film does post verbatim transcripts of FBI logs that clearly show that King was being monitored throughout the entire period.
It's probably true that LBJ first wanted political conditions to be in place before pushing for voting rights reforms over other priorities. And the Selma experience ultimately created those conditions. The film portrays King as being fully aware of that political reality and organizing to make it happen. Without a doubt, King and his supporters and other activists were the primary players in those marches including their conception, plus obviously the execution: they walked those miles, they put their lives at risk. The televising to millions of Americans and others across the world of the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge which ended with unarmed and peaceful protesters being brutally attacked by police under orders from the Alabama governor marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. And the events gave Washington the impetus to push the reforms.
All in all, 'Selma' is a great example of civil rights history that deserves to be viewed and studied.
Another film nominated for the Globes tonight, 'Pride,' (pictured on the right) also depicts historical efforts against injustice and discrimination, albeit with a lighter, more humorous tone than 'Selma.'
Directed by Britain's Matthew Warchus, 'Pride' is a lovely film with great heart about gay activists in
1980s Britain raising money to help support striking miners in Wales and
across the U.K. Beautifully acted by a huge U.K. cast including Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy, Dominic West and a bevy of cute young men including Ben Schnetzer, the movie
succeeds because it shows the great benefits of forming alliances
between the downtrodden or attacked groups that otherwise might never
interact. Through those unlikely alliances, greater communication, understanding and personal growth result, sometimes in small intimate ways, and also in larger ways: because of the efforts of those few gay activists, huge swaths of Britain's labour movement became more supportive of queer rights.
Some might take issue with the alliance between coal miners and gay activists if they value equality but not industries that clearly had grown inefficient. In fact, the burning of coal is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases and continues to fall out of fashion. Ontario has shut down all of its coal-burning energy facilities, as we know. The film barely mentions the word, "coal," and instead focuses on the relationships between the characters. The workers under threat in the film are fighting for basic survival and a way of life, not simply for coal. They had followed paths laid out for them by their communities (most of which were single industry towns), only to see their livelihoods threatened in the name of an uncaring ideological government only concerned with the bottom line.
Had I been among the gay activists in the U.K. in the 1980s, I would've joined this movement for certain. The film succeeds in depicting that era in the gay rights movement extremely well. They were different times, indeed, and it's great to have this gem of a film to depict them.
While 'Selma' succeeds in showing both black and white activists coming together to fight injustice, the activists in 'Pride' are all lily-white. No doubt, London's gay scene in the 1980s wasn't too racially diverse, nor were the mining towns of Wales. But the themes of different groups coming together to fight for their rights resonate in both films.
I urge you to check out both of these films as soon as you can.
Actor Ellar Coltrane as seen in "Boyhood" from age 6 to 18
My Top 14 Films of 2014:
1) Boyhood (One of my favourite directors, Richard Linklater, finally looks poised to win big at the Oscars with this gem of a film, shot with the same actors over 12 years, showing the evolution of a family through the eyes of a boy who literally grows up before our eyes within 165 onscreen minutes. Intimate, quiet, heart-breaking, highly-relatable, these characters remind us of ourselves, warts and all. It's so nice to see what could've been a filmmaking disaster instead turn into such a masterpiece.)
2) Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson's finest film was a delight from start to finish, hilarious, colourful, charming, with great performances from what seemed like half of Hollywood appearing at least once. I truly hope Ralph Fiennes gets a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars for this.)
3) Pride (I just got a chance to watch this lovely film about gay activists in 1980s Britain raising money to help support striking miners in Wales and across the U.K. And I can say it's jumped into my Top 11 list. Told with great heart and humour, beautifully acted and directed, the movie succeeds because it shows the great benefits of forming alliances between the downtrodden or attacked groups that otherwise might never interact. A very lovely experience watching this. I'm going to blog about it very soon with its own post above.)
4) Selma (I also just got a chance recently to see this great history film, which depicts the efforts by Martin Luther King Jr. and many others to achieve full voting rights for Blacks in Alabama and across the racist southern states in the 1960s. The direction of this film by Ava DuVernay is artful but also completely accessible, detailing the campaign to raise awareness and pressure the political powers-that-be to dismantle racist barriers to voting for African-Americans. I'll blog too about this film separately soon. It's sickening that many right-wing Republicans still try to limit voting rights today with rules designed to disenfranchise the vulnerable, and many of the issues raised here are still absolutely relevant today.)
5) Whiplash (Wow...just wow. I finally checked out this little masterpiece and it's jumped into my ever-expanding favourite list as high as number five. This film is better and more entertaining than 'The Imitation Game' or 'The Theory of Everything.' Miles Teller is perfect as the ambitious drummer hoping to impress an abusive genius of a music teacher played by J.K. Simmons, who very much deserves all the accolades he's receiving for this. Mesmerizing, brutal, this portrait of unlimited ambition will be remembered years to come.)
6) Guardians of the Galaxy (Finally, a superbly crafted and
entertaining "super heroes" movie with flawed, lovable characters we can
relate to. Hollywood will try to imitate this unique success in the
years ahead and may or may not succeed. Looking forward to the
sequels.)
7) Tom at the Farm (I wasn't a Xavier Dolan groupie fan until I saw this stunning suspense thriller and now I have to admit the Canadian wunderkind can do no wrong. This was released in festivals starting in 2013, but I saw it this year at Inside Out in Toronto and it's still making the festival rounds. I can't wait to see Dolan's new film 'Mommy'.)
8) Birdman (Finally checked this out due to all the hype and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised, after disliking most of the director's previous films. The film took a little while for me to get into it, but once I got used to the rhythm including the never-stopping camera, I was hooked. Michael Keaton is superb as the aging and troubled actor who may be hiding either mysterious super powers or slight insanity. I also very much appreciated Edward Norton's sexy performance as an uber-narcissist actor, as well as Emma Stone's great work as Keaton's daughter. The film does soar as high as its hero. Well done!)
9) The Imitation Game (Not perfect, but pretty damn close. The film puts the tragic story of an obscure gay hero named Alan Turing front and centre. Turing literally saved millions of lives and helped to end WWII early thanks to his genius breaking the Enigma Code, only later to be prosecuted as a gay man. In the role, Benedict Cumberbatch is superb.)
10) The Theory of Everything (Thoroughly enjoyed the love story and the great acting. One might've hoped for more physics and explorations of Stephen Hawking's ideas perhaps, but as an adaptation that looks at his life through the eyes of his wife, this was great.)
11) Still Alice (Julianne Moore is simply great in a tough role in a film about a subject most of us don't want to know much about: early onset Alzheimer's. She should hopefully win her first Oscar for this.)
12) Under The Skin (Weird, mesmerizing and unforgettable, one of Scarlett Johansson's great roles this year.)
13) Nightcrawler (Surprisingly strong and disturbing portrait of the media's obsession with violence and the vicious exploitation it creates. Jake Gyllenhaal and everyone else here are amazing.)
14) Praia do Futuro, or Future Beach (Atmospheric, contemplative portrait of a Brazilian gay man struggling with identity, love and family. Loved it from start to finish.)
Totally Awesome, but not quite top 14:
X-Men, Days of Future Past
Elena
The Way He Looks
Foxcatcher
St Vincent
Life Itself
Lucy
Wild
Words and Pictures
Maleficent
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
Land of Storms
Into The Woods
Love in the Time of Civil War
Love Is Strange
Dear White People
Haven't seen these, but they're on my list to watch asap:
Mommy
Snowpiercer
Mr Turner
Ida
Chef
Starred Up
Unbroken
Cake
A Most Violent Year
Quite decent:
Noah
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
American Sniper
Neighbors
The Interview
My Mom Is A Character
Dracula Untold
My Straight Son
The Great Beauty
Interior. Leather Bar.
300 Rise of an Empire
Pasolini
Not good, but noteworthy for prurient reasons:
I Am Happiness On Earth (Mexican director Julián Hernández has made several artsy gay films that feature massive amounts of beautiful male nudity, and he does so again with this film.)
That Awkward Moment (Nothing special, but it contains Zac Efron's first onscreen nude scene, so it deserves some attention.)
Disappointing:
Gone Girl (Sorry, but I hated the characters and didn’t care about what happened to
them. Why didn’t she just kill Ben Affleck and set it up like he
killed himself? And spare us this long, drawn out piece of bullshit masquerading as "intelligent, subversive commentary on modern relationships"?
But at least it was slickly produced.)
Interstellar (Re-thought this from my initial assessment. It was visually stunning at times but also way too drawn out with way too many ideas, most of which weren't really explored in satisfying ways. Perhaps this is Christopher Nolan's weakest film.)
A Most Wanted Man
Test
The Third One (How could a movie about a hot gay threesome be so boring?)
Maze Runner (It should’ve been Lord of the Flies, but instead was full of shit)
Enemy (Misogynist crap. Denis Villeneuve just dropped several points in my estimation.)
