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

The Motel, directed and written by Michael Kang, is reminiscent of such films as Carwash (1976), where a parade of humanity’s oddballs contradict the fantasy that everyone is normal and proper. The plot, based on the novel Waylaid (2002) by Ed Lin, revolves around a dysfunctional Chinese family, consisting of a senile grandfather, Gung Gung (played by Stephen Chen),

Titles at the beginning of The Night Listener, directed by Patrick Stettner, not only acknowledge that the film is based on a novel by Armistead Maupin but also note that the story is based on actual events. When the movie begins, New York City radio announcer Gabriel Noone (played by Robin Williams) is taping a late-night

Manderlay, directed by Lars von Trier, is a weird sequel to his also weird Dogville (2003). After leaving Dogville in 1933, Mulligan (played by Willem Dafoe) drives his daughter Grace (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) to the Deep South. When they stop briefly, Grace is outraged by what she sees inside a gated plantation–muscular Timothy (played

Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, is a biopic of the queen of France at the time of the French Revolution. The film begins in Austria, when thirteen-year-old Marie (played by Kirsten Dunst) has a servant pampering her feet while she is surrounded by rich Viennese chocolates. Soon, she is informed that she has been

Writer-director Eli Roth figured out how to fly under the radar of the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system so that Hostel does not have a X rating despite pushing the envelope so far beyond 8MM (1999) that spoilers are warranted. Now we know something about MPAA that questions the bureaucracy there: They want Hollywood to profit from

In 2005, three films with gay themes were for the first time in contention for major film awards. Brokeback Mountain nearly swept the Academy Awards. Actress Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award for the starring role in Transamerica. Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his portrayal of the title role in the

The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner, is based on a London stage play by Alan Bennett and features the starting cast. The plot revolves around eight bright middle class prep school male students in Sheffield, Yorkshire, who seek admission to Cambridge and Oxford universities during the 1980s. After passing preliminary exams, the rest of