film: Lost Everything

director:  Kim St. Leon

staring:  Henry Dittman, Karin Slater, Kyle Lupo, Mark Whittington, Avery Sommers, Anna Lopez…

Hmmm….   This was a complicated story with lots of players and some shining gem moments.  While the acting varied from great to poor the plot was interesting and both comic and tragic by turns.  The characters were all quite fascinating for different reasons.  A dramatic and positive ending that you don’t see coming.  I’d recommend it.

3.5 /5

PS:  I need to say that the sound was awful.  I don’t know if this was the film or the cinema’s fault but it varied between shockingly loud  and then too quiet to hear talking.  That aside…

MQFF reviews – a change of tack

As mentioned in my first post I’d decided to write reviews of the films of the MQFF.  There’s just one problem with this:-

I can’t keep up!  I don’t have the time during the day to write and at night I’m busy seeing films

So I’ve decided I’m wasting a lot of time telling the story.  You can get the story elsewhere in a dozen places.  Instead I’m going to simplify it and just say what I thought of the film

So much easier…

Hope you find it better.

film: The Art of Being Straight

director: Jesse Rosen

staring: Jesse Rosen, Rachel Castillo

Aspiring photographer John (Rosen) moves from New York to LA to live with a college friend after splitting up with his girlfriend.  He gets a basic office job with an advertising agency and when his gay boss shows interest in his photography, and in getting into his pants, John is flattered, but confused.  After sleeping with him, John tries to reassure himself that he’s not gay by sleeping with a woman soon after.  His confusion and denial is compounded by spending time with his very straight party-boy friends who consider him some kind of expert chick-puller and congratulate him on being able to get any girl’s number.  Regardless, John goes back for more and tries to come to term with his desires.

As a second interwoven story line, John’s friend Maddy (Castillo) is having her own sexual identity crisis as she takes a break from her lesbian relationship and develops a crush on her “hippy” guy neighbour.

The acting is believable and honest and the story interesting enough in the beginning, but it felt incomplete as the credits rolled.

3 /5

film: Mulligans

director: Chip Hale

staring:  Charlie David, Dan Payne, Thea Gill, Derek Baynham

A nice and different coming-out story, Mulligans is simple but full of complex emotions.

Closeted gay college student Chase (David, also the writer) goes to spend the summer with his straight best friend Tyler (Baynham) and his Stepford-esque “perfect” family.  When Chase eventually comes out to Tyler there’s the inevitable tension, but Tyler seems to handle it pretty well.  Pretty soon the whole family are aware and do their best to be understanding, however Chase’s outing sparks buried feelings in Tyler’s father, Nathan (played by the hunky and gorgeous Dan Payne), who himself has been closeted his entire life.  Nathan and Chase get it on, but are inevitably caught out resulting in an interesting mixed bag of emotions.

The performances were good and the cinematography quite beautiful, but it was a bit predictable and I kinda felt like I’d seen it all before, you know?  Almost like a Desperate Housewives episode.

3 /5

PS:  Dan Payne has had a very interesting career (to me anyway) playing such creatures as all the Kull Warriors on SG1, various big Wraiths on SG: Atlantis, and Vampires in Sanctuary.  And now Dollar Bill in the new Watchmen film.  Check him out here

film: Were The World Mine

director:  Tom Gustafon

starring:  Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy Mclane, Nathaniel David Becker

For the opening of the 19th Melbourne Queer Film Festival this film was a great choice, as was the location in the lovely Astor Theatre which, along with the wait staff, was decorated in keeping with the film’s theme

High School Musical meets Dead Poet’s Society?

Timothy (Cohen) is gay and out.  At school he’s bullied and at home his single mother scorns his homosexuality.   When he takes the role of Puck in the school play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the lines between reality and the play setting become blurred.  The text of the play seems to contain the recipe for a love potion and Timothy whips it up to use on the hot jock he’s fallen for, complete with delivery via squirting flower.  Things go a little awry as Timothy starts to use the love-juice on the entire town causing some amusing perspective changes.  The film ends happily and you’re left wondering at the role of the eccentric and mysterious English/Drama teacher

Although a little cheesy and slow in parts, Were The World Mine had some great moments.  I laughed a lot and may have even shed a tear or two.  The singing was simply beautiful with great original songs and the rest of the soundtrack well chosen.  The lead actors all gave great performances and I could really connect with them.  I left the cinema with a huge grin.

3.5 /5

I hope you’re happy…

This is the first iScooty blog post.  I’m creating this blog as a semi-anonymous repository for my thoughts and reviews.

Last year I forked out the cash for a gold pass to the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.  A gold pass, as you’d expect, gives you unlimited access to as many films and events in the festival as you can squeeze in.  I ended up seeing 58 films, including short films in the space of about 12 days.  I enjoyed it so much that this year I’m attempting to beat that number.

The problem of course is that seeing so many films in such a short period of time leaves you a little blurred around the edges and you can’t really remember what you saw as they all become one.  In this case, one very queer mish-mash.

So this year I’ve decided to review each film as I go.

I’d planned to begin a new blog anyway and this seems as good a time as any.

So here goes…