Spring Snow (Haru no yuki), directed by Isao Yukisada, is a Japanese film set in 1912. The focus is on romantic love between two members of the nobility, Kiyoaki Matsugae (played by Satoshi Tsumabuki) and Satoko Ayakura (played by Yuko Takeuchi). As small children, they have a special friendship and promise to meet together if […]
Shock to the System, directed by Ron Oliver, is a tale about a gay detective, Donald Strachey (played by Chad Allen), that is filmed in a retro style in the tradition of Sam Spade, though based on a novel by Richard Stevenson. When the film begins, Paul Hale (played by Jared Keeso) meets Strachey in an
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In 1983, headlines from Manhattan Beach, California, about the alleged sexual abuse of young children by employees at a preschool, provoked such hysteria that accusations were hurled at preschools around the country by frightened parents. Say Uncle, directed by Peter Paige, is about a similar though fictional crusade launched by a concerned parent, Maggie Butler (played
Shadowboxer, directed by Lee Daniels, is yet another American film that glorifies gangsters. The film begins by identifying a close relationship between two hired assassins, Rose (played by Helen Mirren) and a much younger Mikey (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.). Later, filmviewers learn that Mikey’s father was an assassin who formed a partnership with Rose.
A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater, is an animated film based on a 1977 novel by Philip K. Dick. The animation, evidently based on a performance on a soundstage, appears to be necessary because several characters are disguised in “scramble suits” with different appearances, changing for example from men into women within seconds. The
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Qian li zou dan qi), directed by Zhan Yimou, is a Chinese film about an elderly Japanese man who wants to do something to show his love for his son, who has terminal liver cancer. The stonefaced father, Goichi Takata (played by Ken Takakura) has been estranged from his
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A fairy tale and the Spanish Revolution are intertwined in the Spanish language film Pan’s Labyrinth (El Labarinto del fauna), directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The fairy tale involves Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), who in 1944 accompanies her pregnant mother, Carmen Vidal (played by Ariadna Gil), to a Spanish military outpost in the Spanish highlands,
Quinceañera, directed and written by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, is one of the best films ever about the clash of cultures in contemporary Los Angeles, though ostensibly the movie is a coming-of-age melodrama. Gary (played by David W. Ross) and James (played by Jason L. Wood), two thirtysomething gay men, have recently acquired an
The climax of the Spanish film Queens (Las reinas) consists of the first multiple televised wedding ceremony of gays and lesbians in Spain, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2003. However, gays are secondary characters in the film, and lesbians are accorded only a fleeting role as extras. Instead, the film focuses on the gays’ heterosexual parents, who
Only Human (Seres queridos), directed by Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri, is a Spanish film that is a combination of the serious Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967) with the comedic Meet the Parents (2000), though more in the latter genre. Leni Dali (played by Mirián Aguilera) is a Jewish resident of Madrid who brings her fiancé, Rafi (played