Queer-liberal: 2022

Friday, December 30, 2022

UPDATED: My Favourite Films of 2022

'Everything Everywhere All At Once'

I’m a huge film fan, as many will know. I didn’t have time nor money to see any Toronto International Film Festival movies during the festival. So I’ve been playing catch up since.

I’m happy to share my top favourites of the year below. As I see more, I reserve the right to add them to my favourites list.

UPDATED March 31, 2022:

MY FAVOURITE MOVIES FROM 2022:

1: Everything Everywhere All At Once - So much fun to watch again and again, original, zeitgeisty, hilarious, with a heart of gold at the centre of its bagel, this feels like this year’s Parasite (meaning, the small awesome indie that wins hearts and takes the top prize at the Oscars over other more conventional, respectable but less loved flicks.)

2: Riceboy Sleeps - The struggles of the immigrant experience in Canada are laid bare in this quiet, touching, beautiful story about a Korean single mother raising her son in suburban Vancouver in the 1990s. Its quiet authenticity including both comedic and tragic story lines deeply moved me. When news of an illness convinces the mother, played beautifully by Choi Seung-yoon, to take her now teenage son to South Korea to finally meet his family, the cinematic journey moves into unforgettable territory.

3: She Said - This compelling, riveting thriller / tribute to investigative journalism follows two New York Times journalists taking on the sexual monster Harvey Weinstein and inspiring the beginnings of the #MeToo movement.

4: Nope - Truly creepy, slow burn horror flick by Jordan Peele. Not as good as Get Out nor Us, but still quite something to behold. Remembering some scenes still makes me shudder, which means it got under my skin. And that’s always a great thing in a movie.

5: Top Gun: Maverick - I was late to the party watching this only last month on the big screen (where it should be seen). It’s totally entertaining and hits all the right notes, or all the right moves. Good job, Tom Cruise!

6: The Fabelmans - Touching and very personal memory play by the esteemed Steven Spielberg, beautifully crafted and acted.

7: Aftersun - Small, subtle indie about a lonely, troubled single father played by the gorgeous Paul Mescal trying to connect with his teenage daughter on a trip abroad.

8: The Batman - Finally caught this artful, very dark, brooding, slightly twisted take on the franchise starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz. The art direction and various other technical effects, plus the acting were superb, although Pattinson is no Christian Bale. Not sure his take brought much new to the role. I enjoyed it though as I do dig super hero movies like this but this won’t be for everyone. Plus like many movies this year, they could’ve easily cut 30-45 minutes from the long running time.

9. The Whale: Brendan Fraser deserves the acclaim he's been receiving for his deeply effecting embodiment of a grotesquely obese, gay man near the end of his life. There wasn't an inauthentic moment from him, so much emotion and love shines through the incredible make-up. I cried a few times.

10. Triangle of Sadness: Fascinating, provocative satire exploring class and the excesses of clueless wealth amid characters on a doomed private cruise. And lots of yummy Harris Dickinson throughout. Magnificently acted and crafted, I'm giggling about parts of it now a couple hours after watching it.

11: Women Talking - Beautifully written and acted and very timely. It often felt like a play rather than a movie. But clearly this hits so many important notes about the power of collective action to overcome systemic oppression and abuse.

12: The Banshees of Inisherin - I first found this a tad boring and confusing (why is he cutting off his fingers?!!) but later I came to appreciate it as a big metaphor for the uselessness of civil war (the Irish civil war to be specific.)

13: Good Luck To You, Leo Grande - Wonderful, sex positive story about an older woman learning to get comfortable and embrace her sexuality with the help of a gorgeous male escort.

14: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Entertaining but not as good as the first one. But beautiful and superbly acted.

And the rest of my favourites in order:

Elvis

Armageddon Time

The Woman King

Tár

All Quiet On The Western Front

Bros

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Turning Red

Glass Onion: Knives Out

The Wonder

Golden Delicious

The Swimmers

Thor: Love and Thunder

White Noise

The Menu

Doctor Strange 2: The Multiverse of Madness

My Policeman

Uncharted

The Edge of War

The Good Nurse

I want to see as soon as possible, in order:

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Argentina, 1985

Till

Babylon

Empire of Light

Decision To Leave

RRR

Crimes of the Future

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Living

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris

Emancipation

Devotion

I have no plans to see Avatar’s sequel as the first one didn’t do much for me.

Today’s tonic: “(Dis)Ordered Liberty” by Erin O’Toole

Today’s tonic: “(Dis)Ordered Liberty” by Erin O’Toole. Refreshing and I wish we had heard more of this tone from him when he was in charge of the CPC

https://erinotoole.substack.com/p/disordered-liberty

#cdnpoli

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Today's tonic: "Putting Christ back into Christian"

Today's tonic: "Putting Christ back into Christian" by Michael Coren

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/12/24/putting-christ-back-into-christian.html

#MerryChristmas, everyone!

Monday, December 19, 2022

Exclusionary, cisgendered male only, elitist functions are so hypocritical and need to go away from our community.

Last night, I had the misfortune of attending the latest Gentlemen's Club event at the Carlu in downtown Toronto. It will be the last one I ever attend.

Post-pandemic, I wanted to push myself to go to more social events to try to break free of my pandemic malaise, the state of mind that's taken hold in me and so many others when it comes to social occasions. I've been rusty as hell in some of my efforts to get back to pre-pandemic outings.

Sadly, last night was a setback for me and a reconfirmation why I stopped going to Gentlemen's Club events years before the pandemic even struck.

The event is generally held once every year, usually a Sunday night in mid December (because better nights are for heterosexual events, I guess) and dubbed "Gentlemen's Night." Many of the gay men who flock to these events tend to treat it as an excuse to put on their pretentious fashion best and strut around feeling self-important, like they've made it at the centre of elite gay Toronto. For others present, they may be quite decent human beings who simply like to dabble in a bit of fun like this, probably well aware of the exclusionary nature of the event, but trying to enjoy it nonetheless.

The crowd isn't representative of queer Toronto because this crowd is 100% cisgendered and as white-centric as you can imagine. Sure there was some racial diversity, but true inclusion isn't on the menu at this place as men of colour tend to fade into the background a bit. And women are completely absent.

I was reminded why I stopped going to these men-only events the moment I looked around the place last night. Pretentiousness, hypocrisy and classism are hard to stomach.

I was probably not dressed well enough either. You know the drill, a 50-year-old man no longer as cute as he used to be. To fit in, he's got to really level up his fashion to compensate for the aging body. But I'm not a fashionista. I'm sure I didn't measure up to the high-powered suits on display last night and I bet at least one pretentious fag probably whispered when looking at me, "How tragic!" Or at least, that's how it felt as my social anxiety really kicked in.

The whole thing epitomized everything I dislike about Toronto's gay male community. The whole thing reminded me why these exclusionary, male only, elitist functions are so hypocritical and need to go away from our community.

We don't allow straight-male-only clubs that exclude women anymore. Why do we allow gay men to get away with the same damned thing?

I was only there an hour before I decided I had had enough and left immediately. My apologies to my friends I ghosted. I just couldn't stay another minute longer due to the panic attack.

Going forward, big gross gay male-only pointless fashion parades for the self-appointed gay male elite will be events I avoid.

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Today’s tonic: “From Musk to Truss, 2022 was the year reckless populists came crashing down to Earth”

Let’s not forget idiots Trump and Bolsonaro too. Although we’ll have to wait in Canada until next year to let Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith know what we think of him!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/16/musk-truss-2022-year-populists-crashed-to-earth

#Politics

Saturday, December 3, 2022

Tonight’s tonic: “Danielle Smith’s sovereignty act eats at our trust in democracy. Why aren’t Conservatives calling her out?”

http://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2022/12/03/danielle-smiths-sovereignty-act-eats-at-our-trust-in-democracy-why-arent-conservatives-calling-her-out.html

#cdnpoli #abpoli #democracy

My 2016 comedy short film "Tri-Curious" is back on YouTube!

Actors Rob Salerno and Trevor Ketcheson

My first short film as a director Tri-Curious is now available for the world to see on YouTube as of December 1, 2022.

The film spent the last 5 years available on Dekkoo, a fine, paid subscription media streaming service focused on gay male content, until last month when the licence they purchased from me expired. (Man, how time flies!) Before Dekkoo, Tri-Curious had racked up 1.5 million hits on YouTube. The video has been private these five years to respect the licensing agreement. But now I think it's time the public be able to watch the film again without a subscription for a while.

Re-watching it, I'm super proud of the moments the filmmaking team captured with sexy actors Trevor Ketcheson, Rob Salerno and Michael Went. For my directing debut, I'm very happy with it. The opening wide shot of Queen Street East in Toronto facing south across a long-gone parking lot is no longer possible as condo construction has blocked the view we captured in late 2015.

A special shout out to the crew who worked hard over two days of shooting in autumn 2015, including cinematographer Nico Stagias, assistant director Allen Braude, associate producers Jefferson Darrell and Tom Yarith Ker, sound guys Randy Resh and Pirhan Dastoor, make-up artist Mishka Prefontaine, and musician extraordinaire Mike Freedman.

The film chronicles the last minute anxiety that threatens to ruin a young couple's first threesome together.

As a young gay male couple gets ready for their first threesome together, one half of the pair gets cold feet and wants to cancel. The trouble is, it’s 20 minutes until their “guest” is set to arrive at their apartment.

The film wasn't autobiographical but did explore some issues around sexuality, monogamy and relationships that continue to intrigue me to this day. I followed up Tri-Curious in 2020 with my next short film The Big Snore, which also did a festival run and got picked up by Dekkoo in 2021 where it will play exclusively until March 2026.

In the mean time, if you haven't seen it yet, please have a look at Tri-Curious. If you have seen it, give it another view. I hope you enjoy it!

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Today’s tonic: “Former Harper adviser denounces @PierrePoilievre drug policy unveiled in video”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-former-harper-adviser-denounces-poilievre-drug-policy-unveiled-in/

#cdnpoli

Friday, November 11, 2022

Tonight's tonic: Tina Kotek becomes the 2nd ever out lesbian elected as a U.S. governor, after Maura Healey won in Massachusetts earlier this week...

Tonight's tonic: @TinaKotek becomes the 2nd ever out lesbian elected as a U.S. governor. The 1st @Maura_Healey was declared the winner in Massachusetts on Tuesday night. Both strong awesome women.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/politics/tina-kotek-christine-drazan-oregon-governor-race-result/index.html

#USPolitics #LGBTQ

The world faces some grave threats today from fascists and fascist wannabes who are constantly attacking democracy and progressive freedom.

On this day of remembrance, I do feel it's important to reflect not only on the battles of the past, but also the battles of the present.

The world faces some grave threats today from fascists and fascist wannabes who are constantly attacking democracy and progressive freedom.

Let us not forget what happens when powerful, misguided conservatives and rich guys get even more power.

They start appointing wackos as their comms directors: With Putin & others attacking democracies and causing economic crises, @PierrePoilievre’s new comms director is worried about imaginary woke globalists she can’t rinse from her head.

pressprogress.ca/new-conservati

#cdnpolitics #wacko

When billionaire scum feel victimized by life, they buy Twitter, fire thousands of employees and allow this evil crap to flow out even more into the worl d:

Report: Tweets with racial slurs soar since Musk takeover.

Today's tonic: I couldn't agree more with John Ibbitson that the U.S. midterms offer a stark warning to Pierre Poilievre:

"If the Grits can make the election about Team Normal versus Team Crazy, voters will choose Team Normal."

Not sure Pierre is mature enough to rein in his darker instincts, forged in the backrooms of the Conservative Youth wing of his party. He's never worked or lived anywhere else except in Parliament after he won a safe Conservative seat at age 24 and now is entitled to a pension all Canadians should envy. And from that pulpit, he lectures the rest of us about how to live.

We'll see how the next few years go in Canada. With the strong showing of Democrats this week against regressive, cultish, lying Republican sycophants, there's reason for optimism.