A Year Without Love (Un año sin amor), directed by Anahí Berneri, is a based on an autobiographical novel by Argentinian Pablo Pérez (played by Juan Minujín), a thirty-year-old gay writer who has recently returned home to Buenos Aires from Paris with AIDS after his partner dies of the disease. The film begins in April 1996, […]

Three Days of Rain, based on characters in six short stories by Anton Chekhov, takes place in Cleveland during a three-day rainstorm. Directed by Michael Meredith, filmviewers must keep track of several independent plots, which are separated through the method of short cuts. A common theme is how the down-and-out survive and often but not

The Singing Revolution, directed by James and Maureen Tusty, is a documentary tracing the history of the Estonian people that culminates in the independence of Estonia during 1991. After noting the way in which a small country has been conquered by larger powers, most recently Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the focus is on

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

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

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,