By Gary M. Kramer–
The Mill Valley Film Festival, October 5–16, features several high profile queer films (not available for preview) including Nyad starring Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, a lesbian who at age 60, swam from Cuba to Florida; out gay director Todd Haynes’ new film, May December,about an actress (Natalie Portman) researching a role based on a teacher (Julianne Moore) who had an affair with her student (Charles Melton); and Maestro directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as gay conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Here is a rundown of a handful of several films by, for, or about LGBT folks to catch at this year’s fest.
Set in the 1930s, the stylish comedy-mystery The Crime is Mine, by out gay filmmaker François Ozon, has Madeleine Verdier (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a young actress, confessing to a crime she didn’t commit. Her roommate Pauline (Rebecca Marder), a newly minted lawyer, gets her acquitted, striking a blow for feminism by claiming Madeleine acted in self-defense. Then another actress, Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert), turns up admitting she is the criminal. A series of schemes are hatched to ensure love, money, and reputations are secure. Ozon’s talky film—adapted from a play—features fabulous costumes and art deco sets. The performances are mostly broad, with the amusing Huppert camping it up, but Marder serves up some serious lesbian vibes as Pauline. If the film is a piffle, it still makes some valid points about women’s roles and society that are no less apt today.
Musica!, by out gay Bay Area filmmaker Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, is a joyous documentary that showcases four student musicians at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana. Kevin (trumpet), Rodrigo (piano), and Lil and Dariana (bass) all love their instruments, and their skills can be life changing. These (and other students at the conservatory) are also the beneficiaries of the Horns from Havana program, which donates instruments and supplies as Cuba cannot provide for these students. While each subject is interviewed, much of Musica! features the students performing, and the music is fantastic. It is gratifying to see them practicing, jamming, and even playing a concert during a trip to New Orleans, where the students are taught music they don’t know, and Lili learns the “slap” technique for her bass. Watching the development of these young musicians is inspiring, and it is hard not to share their joy as they perform, captured by the filmmakers in an observational style in this relaxed, feel-good documentary.
Fancy Dance, by director/cowriter Erica Tremblay, has Jax (Lily Gladstone) a lesbian on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation, caring for her teenage niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson). Roki’s mother has been missing for a few weeks, and Jax has taken the search into her own hands given the FBI’s unhurried investigation. However, Child Protective Services have come to take Roki away. As Jax searches for her mother, Roki is determined to attend a powwow. Fancy Dance can be didactic at times with characters overexplaining things, and the plotting is frequently contrived—Roki effortlessly steals what she needs, and an identity check by an officer fails to build the suspense it should—but Gladstone is marvelous and flinty, and the film ends on a truly graceful note.
Frybread Face and Me is a slight but involving drama, by out gay writer/director Billy Luther. Benny (Keir Tallman, charming) is an 11-year-old who “sticks out” in San Diego in 1990. (He listens to Fleetwood Mac and reenacts soap operas with his action figures.) When his parents send him to Arizona to go live with his maternal grandmother (Sarah H. Natani) on the Rez, Benny feels they are ruining his life. Once there, however, he meets his aunt Lucy (Karhara Hodges) who may be a lesbian; his uncle Marvin (Martin Sensmeier), a rodeo rider; and his cousin, Fry (Charley Hogan), who becomes his best friend. Fry teaches Benny to find strength in his culture, as well as how to drive. He also gains wisdom from his grandmother, who does not speak English. A gentle, poignantly narrated queer coming-of-age drama, Frybread Face and Me provides nice insights by creating meaning with symbols, such as a Navajo rug that express life’s possibilities.
Monster buries its queer content until its third (and strongest) act, because director Kore-eda Hirokazu, working from Sakamoto Yuji’s screenplay, tells this story of Minato (Kurokawa Soya) a pre-teen, from three different perspectives. The first chapter has Minato’s mother Saori (Ando Sakura) concerned that her son is being abused in school by his teacher, Mr. Hori (Nagayama Eita). Her efforts to get justice from the principal (Tanaka Yuko) are frustrating. The second chapter recounts Mr. Hori’s point of view, and it shows that much of what was said and assumed are not necessarily the whole truth. There is talk that Minato was bullying his classmate, Yuri (Hiiragi Hinata). Monster’s third act reveals the secret friendship between the two young boys, who are processing their feelings for each other. As the film’s secrets and lies are revealed, the sensitively made Monster stirs emotions. So too does the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s lovely final score.
The fest also offers a sneak preview of The Persian Version, which opens October 27 in the Bay Area.Written and directed by bisexual filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz, this vibrant comedy-drama has Leila (Layla Mohammadi) recounting her life through voiceover, flashbacks, and direct address. She focuses mainly on her complicated relationship with her mother, Shirin (Niousha Noor), who demands much from her only daughter. (Leila has 8 brothers.) Shirin also has trouble accepting Leila is gay. As The Persian Version unfolds, viewers come to understand both Shirin—who faced difficulties in Iran and America—and Leila, who unexpectedly finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with Maximilian Balthazar (Tom Byrne). The story has a few too many subplots and digressions, but Keshavarz’s high-energy style makes all the drama about identity and belonging, while feeling displaced between two cultures, go down smoothly.
Buoyed by an outstanding performance by out gay actor Coleman Domingo in the title role, Rustin illustrates the force of nature that was out gay activist Bayard Rustin. This emotional biopic focuses mainly on Rustin’s efforts to organize the largest peaceful protest of the 1963 March on Washington and his fraught interactions with Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock) and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., (Jeffrey Wright), as well as his friendship with Martin Luther King (Aml Ameen). His personal life is addressed in his relationship with both Tom (Gus Halper), a young white man, and Elias Taylor (Johnny Ramey), a married closeted man. This galvanizing film shows the value of owning your power.
Saltburn is director Emerald Fennell’s nifty and nasty film about Oliver Quick (Barry Keogan) who befriends the dreamy Felix (Jacob Elordi) at Oxford. When Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s estate, Saltburn, for the summer, Felix’s gay cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) thinks Oliver has something either sexual or sinister—possibly both—in mind. To say more would spoil the film’s pleasures, but this film is for anyone who wants to drink Elordi’s dirty bathwater.
Summer Solstice is a thin but ultimately satisfying tale about NYC-based trans actor Leo (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), who joins Eleanor (Marianne Rendón), her best friend from college, on a weekend escape upstate. There is an initial awkwardness at first as Eleanor is restless, and Leo is shy, but things get more fraught as Eleanor is needy, drunk, and insensitive to Leo’s transness. When they meet Oliver (Mila Myles), another trans actor from Leo’s acting class, and the bisexual Joe (Yaron Lotan), Leo starts to feel more comfortable, but Eleanor acts out making things more uncomfortable. A chat between Leo and Oliver is romantically promising, but Summer Solstice focuses on Eleanor and Leo’s relationship, which comes to a head during a hike, where Eleanor expresses some thoughts and feelings that may change their relationship forever. Summer Solstice is squarely on Leo’s side and Menuez’s low-key performance is engaging as Leo comes into his own. Rendón is pitch-perfect in her role as Leo’s messy best friend and scenes of them running lines really capture the dynamic of their friendship, and demonstrate why this film delivers.
© 2023 Gary M. Kramer
Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” He teaches Short Attention Span Cinema at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and is the moderator for Cinema Salon, a weekly film discussion group. Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer
Film
Published on October 5, 2023
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