Tag: LGBTQ+

EMILIA PEREZ – Review

All through cinema’s history we’ve seen countless stories of characters who want to “start over” and “reinvent themselves”. Often they’re wanting to atone for past behaviors (as in the recent GOODRICH or WILD HEART), while others make a radical change in appearance (way back to NOW VOYAGER). This weekend’s “buzzy” new Netflix release encompasses both in an unorthodox way, since it’s a “full out” musical, and proves to be quite a showcase for the superb talents involved. It’s also a “message” movie, a domestic drama, and a nail-biting crime thriller. The latter is the starting point as this tune-filled fable focuses on a ruthless drug kingpin (accent on the king) who yearns to become the “queen” named EMILIA PEREZ.


But first we encounter another woman. Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana) is a frustrated lawyer in Mexico City where the bigoted hierarchy of her firm have put her “on the bench”, writing speeches to the jury delivered by an ill-prepared, male co-worker trying to get acquittals for guilty lowlife clients. Then things radically change when she gets a phone call from someone powerful who wishes to pay her very well for her services. A clandestine “meet on the street” takes a scary turn when somebody covers her head with a hood and pushes her into a dark SVU. She meets her employer, the notorious head of the big national drug cartel, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, who doesn’t want Rita’s legal skills, but rather needs her to do the “legwork’ to find the best doctors (not in Mexico or the US) that can transition him into a woman. After the search concludes (and secret overseas accounts for Rita are in place). Castro joins the Del Monte clan for a secret “farewell party”. There she meets Mrs. Del Monte, Jessi (Selena Gomez), who doesn’t know of her husband’s wishes. Rather, Rita tells her that she and her two young sons must relocate to Switzerland as Manitas stays behind to broker a deadly cartel war. While the family and Rita head to the Alps, the surgeries begin in Israel for Manitas. Several years pass, and Rita is now living and working in London. A statuesque Spanish-speaking woman approaches her at a dinner party. She introduces herself as Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), then whispers to Rita that she has a new job for her. It is the former Manitas. She wants Rita to bring Jessi and her sons back from Europe to live in her Mexico City mansion where Emilia will pose as the aunt of Manitas. The “reunion” happens, and all seems to go well as Jessi buys into the “family connection” (including the faked demise of Manitas). But then she reaches out to a former flame, the dangerous Gustavo (Edgar Ramirez), while Emilia starts a charity which leads to a romance with an abused widow named Epifania (Adriana Paz). Can Emilia maintain her new life and leave her old brutal criminal past behind her? And can Rita avoid being caught up in the impending “clash”?

Although she’s not in the title role, Ms. Saldana absolutely steals the film as the “by the book” lawyer who is swayed (by loads a’ cash) into the underworld. She expertly conveys the full range of Rita’s emotions, whether ethically conflicted, frustrated (as a cloddish male co-worker mangles her words), or terrified . I’m referring to her first “meeting” of Emilia as she believes that she’s a “loose end” to be severed. Ah, but we get the full range of her talents as Saldana displays a rubbery, fierce grace in the musical numbers, especially with one set at a charity ball, using the rich patrons as props. Truly an performance worthy of many awards. I was not aware of the career of Ms. Gascon, so I was delightfully surprised at her work, starting as the sinister Manitas growling threats while pleading for help, but then showing a tender side with his two sons. Much of that quality is there as the maternal Perez, who wants to heal her homeland while exploring a new type of romance with the sympathetic Paz as Epifania. More recently honing her comedic chops as part of the trio in “Only Murders in the Building”, Gomez returns to her musical roots and delves into some heavy dramatics as the often bewildered Jessi. She gets a couple of engaging dance numbers, but she’s at her best as she rebels against the smothering Perez to pursue a steamy romance with Ramirez as the macho manipulative Gustavo.

This unique cinema experience comes from veteran director Jacques Audiard whose screenplay adapts his opera libretto, which sprung from the novel Ecoute by Boris Razon. Audiard works in a dark gritty color palette, particularly on the mean dangerous streets of Mexico City (Rita is engulfed by the darkness). There’s a lighter look in the blissful confines of the Perez home, which switches with the desert hellscape of the missing murdered. The background dissolves away for the musical numbers, though these aren’t glossy MGM-inspired Technicolor fantasies. Especially powerful is a haunting ballad about the “lost souls” sung by floating heads of the families and friends against a dismal black limbo. But he does indulge in a bit of movie “camp” as Rita gets a tour of a sparkling “surgery spa” in Thailand. Big kudos to the musical talents of songwriter Camile, the score of Clement Ducol, and the choreography by Damien Jalet. This word be a compelling story if it just focused on the gender “transition”, but the powerful look at the real-life kidnapping epidemic, and the parental conflicts make this an outstanding and important artistic statement. There are lots of secrets and compassion in the the life and legend of EMILIA PEREZ.

3.5 Out of 4

EMILIA PEREZ is now playing in select theatres

LOVE LIES BLEEDING – Review

Ready for a cinematic “walk on the wild side”? Perhaps something in the film noir category, but not similar to something you’d run across on one of those nostalgia streaming channels. Maybe something set just before the turn of the century rather than the decade post-WWII. Sure, this new flick is a crime thriller involving multiple murders, but that’s just one aspect. Let’s see, there’s a big (truly huge) daughter/father conflict so it’s a family drama. And it’s certainly a romance ala’ girl meets girl. Oh, and one of them is seeking fame in the competitive world of female bodybuilding events. Now, that’s really different and certainly unique. Mix all those genres and subplots together and you get an insight into the provocative title, LOVE LIES BLEEDING.


Oh, the backdrop year is in the 20th century, way back in 1989. We first meet lonely Lou (Kristen Stewart) who runs a gym catering to weightlifters in a dusty New Mexico border town. After a night of unclogging toilets and dealing with a spacey clingy ex-girlfriend named Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), she heads back to the dingy apartment she shares with her cat Happy Meal. Meanwhile, across the tracks, JJ (Dave Franco) is “hiring” a new waitress for the tavern at the gun range business he manages…in the back of his car. He tells the muscular statuesque brunette, Jackie (Katy O’Brian) that she can start tomorrow. She leaves the parking lot to sleep under the highway overpass. The next morning JJ introduces her to the gun range owner, his father-in-law, the surly Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). Eventually, Jackie heads over to Crater Gym where she encounters Lou. The two immediately form a connection and spend the night (at Lou’s pad, natch’). Jackie insists that she’ll soon be moving on to a big body-building event in Vegas as soon as she makes enough cash for the trip. A few nights later Lou and Jackie have a most awkward dinner date with Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone) and her abusive spouse, JJ! Lou is furious that he’s smacking around her sister. But he doesn’t stop and Beth ends up in a coma at the local hospital. After an uncomfortable reunion with Lou Sr. (they are estranged, to say the least) something…happens. And soon the lovers are nearly in panic mode. Can Lou stay ahead of the FBI agents who are pressuring her for info on her papa’s shady operations? And what about those “off-brand” muscle “enhancers” that Lou gave Jackie? Things are about to get much hotter in that sleepy desert burg…

Add another interesting character performance to the already impressive resume of Ms. Stewart. In the opening act, Lou is a take-no-crap (unless she’s clearing the commode) tough gal whose tough exterior masks her lonely solitary life and very dark past. That all changes when she spots Jackie her “warrior angel’ across the gym floor. Stewart shows us that a spark has been ignited in those “half-mast” eyes. Later on, she’s almost a whirling dervish as she scrambles to “clean and dispose’ all the while Stewart lets us see that Lou’s brain has shifted into “high gear”. The real breakout role may belong to her “ideal” Jackie played with great energy and flair by relative screen newcomer O’Brian, who was one of the few highlights of the last ANT-MAN epic. Jackie is “laser-focused on her sports goal, though she’s elated by the prospect of real love with Lou. But that is somewhat short-circuited by the “boosters’ that spiral her into a scary “roid’ rage’ while dropping her into a nightmare-like netherworld. And even as she’s posing in front of a mirror, there’s still a child-like vulnerability. The “third wheel” of this love “triangle is the manic white-hot mess that is Daisy who Baryshnikov plays as a distracted child who demands attention while engaging in passive-aggressive manipulation. She’s trouble, but is merely an annoying “jack-in-the-box’ compared to the sadistic cruelty of the two dudes hovering over them. Franco is a sniveling mullet-sporting bully as the weasily JJ, who needs the protection of the king of the “wolf pack”, Lou Sr, given a constant sneer by the bombastic Harris who resembles a heavy metal Satan with long curtains of hair framing his scowling pate. They’re “bad dude” and super-bad dude”.


The director and co-writer, with Weronika Tofilska, Rose Glass has crafted a low-rent, hard-scrabble fable that incorporates lust, love, longing, and brutal revenge while taking many unexpected and often “out there” twists and turns. She makes great use of a vibrant color scheme, switching from a warm “lit by headlights” glow in the wee hours to the shimmering, blazing crimson of a blood-soaked hellscape. It’s all punctuated with a grim “gallows humor” echoing the criminal eccentrics of Tarantino and the Coens mixed with more than a dash of the heroines of BOUND. The big “dividing point” for many viewers will be the sharp detour into “fantasy-land” in the big finale showdown, but after the lean, taut storytelling most will probably embrace and may even be thrilled by the audacity of it. Somehow Glass gets all the diverse elements to jell while making us truly invested in these two unlikely lovers, again played superbly by Stewart and O’Brian. The desert locales project a sense of sun-baked decay while the period is well represented (no cell phones, but lots of answering machines). More adventurous filmgoers will enjoy the “totally-jacked” trip taken when LOVE LIES BLEEDING.

3.5 Out of 4

LOVE LIES BLEEDING is now playing in select theatres

ALL OF US STRANGERS – Review

Though January is notorious as a movie “dumping ground” with several forgettable big studio releases (often a mediocre horror flick), it’s also when many of the “indie” studios give a wide release to some of their “award hopefuls”, after getting a quickie end-of-the-year Oscar-qualifying “run’ on both of the coasts. And that’s surely the case with this thought-provoking and conversation-starting motion picture. ALL OF US STRANGERS (the title is appropriately vague) takes us into a dreamy “netherworld’ for 105 minutes, before sending us back into the jolting harsh reality. The focus of the film is an aspiring writer named Adam (Andrew Scott) who is nearly numb from the routine of “cocooning” in his comfy condo (or it may be an apartment) in a brand-new high-rise on the outskirts of London. Ah, but he’s been noticed by a neighbor, a friendly fellow named Harry (Paul Mescal) who knocks on Adam’s door, wondering if he’d like to share a cocktail. Adam realizes that Harry wants more than just a “drinking buddy” and rebuffs him. The next day Adam boards a train and his gaze zeros in on a rugged man with a mustache around his age. The men hop off the train, and Adam follows him to a familiar house. “Mr. ‘Stashe” invites him inside and then we learn that the place belongs to Adam’s Dad (Jamie Bell) and Mum (Claire Foy). Again, they’re all the same age. We learn later, when Adam finally gets together with Harry, that his folks were killed in a car crash over thirty years ago. Soon Adams makes a near-daily pilgrimage to visit the “ghosts”. Just how will this affect the budding intimacy between him and the charismatic Harry? Perhaps he can rescue Adam from the comfortable though unhealthy fantasy. Or will he join in?

After several high-profile supporting film roles (“C” in SPECTRE) and acclaimed TV work in “Fleabag” and “Sherlock”, Scott is given the chance to command the screen as the troubled Adam. The lonely (probably “self-imposed”) screenwriter has a real dual persona in the first act of the story. In meeting Harry, he is reticent, shy, and a bit aloof as it becomes clear that the tipsy guy at the door is trying to “chat him up”. And then there’s the inner child inside Adam when we realize that he’s been given a “second chance” with his “folks”. Scott shows us that conflict in his pleading eyes and hesitant delivery, barely able to contain his joy at this “reunion” while his intellect tells him that this isn’t right, that he may be drifting and perhaps drowning in “wish fulfillment”. Somehow this unlocks his inhibitions and leaves him open for a new relationship. As the man trying to get into Adam’s home and heart, Mescal adds another solid characterization to his growing recent resume. Sure, he’s fronting a hunky, smoldering bravado, but that evolves into a deep concern for his budding romantic partner, with Mescal trying to be Scott’s steady “tether” to reality. Bell is quite commanding as Adam’s gruff, but surprisingly understanding father, proud but not unyielding, and even regretting that he didn’t stand up for his boy when the bullies pounced on him. The true “scene-stealer” might be Foy as the loving, nurturing matriarch whose endearing ignorance of her son’s life is tempered by her deep devotion to him, with Foy perfectly capturing the confusion of this still-learning woman of the 1990s.

This modern-day mix of love and regret is deftly spun by director Andrew Haigh, who also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s novel “Strangers”. Even before Adam returns to his childhood home, Haigh puts us into a kind of “dreamscape” with his images of the desolate tower (almost a fairy tale castle) where Adam lives above the teaming urban populace. Is it an afterlife, or a “waiting room” limbo, since the building seems nearly vacant? But then Adam ventures outside to drop into a “time vortex” by crossing the doorway of his old shuttered house, with his folks alive and still exiting in that era, down to the hairstyles, fashions, and furniture (a nifty record player). Later in the film, we see them attending to their holiday rituals (like the Dickens yuletime tale, the ghosts aid the living), which sends Adam to his last day with them. But then Haigh propels us back to the present with Adam and Harry “letting loose” in a club full of flashing lights, throbbing beats, and ample flesh. It all culminates with Adam being pushed by the past parents and new love to forge ahead instead of being sucked into the pit of “what ifs”. By the final moments, we are left to ponder what is real and what is coming out of Adam’s bruised battered psyche. But what is certain is the excellent performances led by Scott and the superb storytelling that Haigh displays in the wistful and passionate fable, ALL OF US STRANGERS.

3 Out of 4

ALL OF US STRANGERS is now playing in select theatres

BROS – Review

So what if Valentine’s Day is nearly five months away, any time of the year can work for the right romantic comedy (or “rom-com’, its modern genre term). Actually many moviegoers would enjoy seeing an engaging couple meet cute as they try to keep warm on a blustery Fall afternoon. And that’s just what happens with this weekend’s big film release. Oh, things are a bit, no a lot, different this time. It’s not “boy meets girl”, but rather boy, no “man meets man”. Yup, it’s a gay rom-com, though they’ve been supporting players in past flicks, often the next-door neighbor (nuzzling a kitty) or the co-worker who’s cheering on the leading lady (“You go, girl!!”). Not this time. and as one of the film’s co-stars (and co-writers) has been telling talk show hosts and showbiz reporters, there’s a lot riding on this. The major studios are curious to see how the audience will react to a funny love story centered on two very mismatched BROS.

The first part of the duo we meet is the story’s narrator, a pessimistic outspoken podcaster (he’s the host of “The 11th Brick”, a reference to Stonewall), Bobby Lieber (Billy Eichner). He’s got many friends, but aside from late-night phone app “hook-ups”, he’s not found that special “one” (though he denies that he’s looking). And then he saw Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane) dancing shirtless at a club, looking as though he just arrived from Mt. Olympus. Their first encounter is a bit awkward, But Bobby detects a “spark”, though Aaron seems to vanish like Claude Rains (look him up, kids). Eventually they exchange digits and begin a long series of texts to “feel each other out” while acting casual and indifferent. They both continue on with their lives as Bobby is one of the planners and organizers of a soon-to-open LGBTQ+ museum if the board of directors will agree on anything. And if they can score some big cash donations. Meanwhile, Aaron suits up for his 9 to 5 job as an estate planner. Eventually, the two spend the day together as Aaron enjoys Bobby’s snarky wit, while Bobby is dazzled by Aaron’s cocky confidence and that “eight pack”. Their relationship soars during a trip to Provincetown, then almost crashes when Aaron’s school days crush “comes out”. But can the couple survive the biggest “test”, the dreaded Christmas visit with Aaron’s somewhat stuffy parents?

In his feature lead acting debut, Eichner shows that there’s much more to his considerable talents than verbally “ambushing” unsuspecting New Yorkers (though that does take a lot of talent and chutzpah). Sure we’re expecting him to bring the laughs, which he does by the truckload, with scathing asides and gattling-gun barrages of “burns”. But his Bobby’s not merely a joke dispensing machine, he’s a man looking for love, and more importantly perhaps, respect. Eichner delivers a heart-wrenching monologue, offset by a lovely beach, all about growing up with folks who wanted him to “tone it down” and conform to the “norm” leading him to frustration as those with fewer gifts got much farther. There’s the professional longing offset with the personal ones, as he hesitantly decides to offer his heart to Aaron, played by Macfarlane, who also proves that he’s more than a handsome face atop an “etched in granite” body. This guy must project an aura of aloof “coolness”, but he too wants more than the “pleasures of the flesh” to just “hang” with someone interesting. But Macfarlane shows us that the “perfect ten” has his own inner battles, too. Aaron thinks he can’t keep up with Bobby intellectually, plus he has to deal with a touch of “self-loathing’ as he suppresses his true “career calling’ for fear it would re-enforce gender stereotypes. Happily, the duo is surrounded by a wonderful group of great comic actors. Bobby must deal with a terrific but bickering ensemble that makes up the museum’s board, with Oscar-winning screenwriter Jim Rash grabbing lots of chuckles as Robert, who thinks that bisexuals are short-changed (“Not enough ‘B’ in the LGBTQ!”). Then there’s the scene-stealing SNL star Bowen Yang as a petulant, flighty filthy-rich TV producer. Oh, and we’re treated to several stars playing themselves and having a great time skewering their public personas (I won’t spoil the surprise delights).

Oh, did I forget to mention that Eichner co-wrote the screenplay with director Nicholas Stoller (the NEIGHBORS flicks)? Well, consider that slight undone. Stoller keeps the energy flowing smoothly, avoiding the deadly mid-section “lull” of so many comedies. And he confidently hits the comedic “beats”, knowing when to cut in for a superb reaction glare from Bobby, and when to cut in with a quick satiric aside (Bobby’s disastrous audition to be part of a beloved TV quintet). But somehow the comedy doesn’t drown out the tenderness of the romance, perhaps due to that clever screenplay that teases but really embraces all the “romcom” standards: the swooning “meet”, the trepidation, the “city stroll”, the near “bust-up”, and the “declaration”. The terrific jabs at basic cable TV romcom were made better when I learned that Macfarlane had roles in so many of them. Some moviegoers may be more than a tad skittish with this new “twist” on the beloved genre, but considering the tepid recent entries, this new spin is just the thing to recharge the staple. Those who take a chance will be richly rewarded with the engaging and really funny love story all about these BROS.

3.5 Out of 4

BROS is now playing in theatres everywhere