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YEAR IN REVIEW: Memorable movie moments

Several big stars played gay this year in ‘Kids,’ ‘Man,’ ‘Morris’ and more

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The Kids Are All Right,' a family dramedy with Annette Bening (left) and Julianne Moore playing lesbian parents, is up for three Golden Globe awards and was one of the high points in this year's LGBT-themed films. (Still courtesy of Mandalay Vision)

Films with LGBT themes or those with likely interest to gays came out this year in a flood tide.

This profusion came on the heels of a banner year in 2009, led by such A-list hits as “A Single Man,” gay first-time director Tom Ford’s stunning adaptation of the slender novel by gay author Christopher Isherwood.

But since “A Single Man” went into wide release only in 2010 (it came out last December simply to qualify for Oscar noms), it really qualifies as a film to be mentioned here. It stars Colin Firth — now also lionized for a likely Oscar win for 2010 as Best Actor for his role as King George VI in what may in fact be this year’s best film, “The King’s Speech.” But this earlier film traces one day in the life of a middle-aged suicidal man George Falconer, despondent over the death of his long-time lover Jim in an auto accident eight months earlier.

Fashion designer Tom Ford himself financed his first film as a director, on a modest $7 million budget, but he has produced a work that is luminous to see, of heart-breaking beauty on the screen, and with an ending both unexpected and perfect. It won the award for outstanding film in wide release at the GLAAD Media Awards this January. This is a must-see film, now available on DVD.

Julianne Moore, who co-starred in “A Single Man,” also co-stars in “The Kids Are All Right,” a hit comedy-drama, helmed by out lesbian director Lisa Cholodenko who together with Stuart Blumberg wrote the screenplay. All three are nominated for Golden Globes this year, with the winners to be announced on Jan. 16: Moore for Best Actress, as is the film itself for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

One of the Sundance 2010 breakout hits, it won a large audience in general release this summer with a story featuring Moore as Jules, the housewifey-half of a long-time lesbian couple with Annette Bening as the doctor-breadwinner Nic. Though it’s never made clear if they are actually married, Jules refers to herself as “married.” And they each have given birth to a child — now teenagers — using the same anonymous sperm donor. The kids call him their “donor dad” and when they track him down, he turns up in the not-so-happy home of Nic and Jules in the person of bohemian motorcyclist Paul, played wonderfully well by Mark Ruffalo, also rightly nominated for a Golden Globe, as Best Supporting Actor.

The film has already won a raft of New York Film Critics awards and looks like a strong Oscar contender. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray last month.

After years of distribution obstacles, “I Love You, Phillip Morris” finally hit screens. Deemed “too gay” by some potential backers, it finds big-name actors Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor locking lips and much more in this over-the-top but real-life story of true love launched inside a prison cell.

Carrey with rubber-faced and hyper-drive glee plays Steven Jay Russell,Ā a seemingly happily married Christian-right cop who switched sides to become a self-described “gay, gay, gay” con artist, who meets sweetly dim, self-described “blond, blue-eyed and queer” Phillip Morris (McGregor) in the Big House, and after a brief prison courtship Phillip tells him, “enough romance, let’s fuck.” And they do. And then Steven escapes from prison four times and runs through multiple impersonations and grand cons to be reunited with Phillip.

Also launched at Sundance but then delayed for release due to various legal battles as well as uncertainty over how to market such a candid depiction of same-sex sex, this was finally released earlier this month, but although not yet in wide distribution, to the surprise of many it has actually been posting sizable grosses. Though not without its flaws, it should be seen for sure, especially for the knock-it-out-of-the-park performance of Carrey and the more-subdued-yet-equally effective screen presence of McGregor.

The ubiquitous actor James Franco — already nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actor nod this year for “127 Hours” and an almost certain Oscar nominee for that role — plays gay one more time in “Howl.” After playing the slain San Francisco politician’s lover in “Milk,” this time Franco stars as gay poet Allen Ginsberg in an “indie” biopic by gay writer-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman about the author of the Beat anthem “Howl” and the 1957 trial to contest its publication as obscene.

With a Golden Globe nom as Best Musical, the uber-garish “Burlesque” stars ultra-diva Cher and budding-diva Christina Aguilera and was written and directed by openly gay Steve Antin, once David Geffen’s boyfriend. So of course it’s gay catnip on celluloid. Aguilera plays Ali, small-town girl with big voice, who comes to an L.A. strip club, has a G-rated romance with a “metrosexual” club bartender hottie played by real-life but straight hottie Cam Gigandet.

Cher co-stars (her first screen role since appearing as herself in 2003’s so-so “Stuck on You”) as former club dancer Tess, now struggling to keep the place open. Stanley Tucci plays the nightclub’s manager and Tess’s gay best friend, reprising his similar role with Meryl Streep from “The Devil Wears Prada.” Released during Thanksgiving week, it has earned mixed reviews but respectable crowds.

There are gay films galore released during 2010 but not marketed for mainstream audiences like fetish-themed gay romantic comedy “Bear City,” which was screened briefly in Washington earlier this year and is already out on DVD.

Young twink Tyler (a very attractive Joe Conti) finds other twinks to be turn-offs, and just as opposites are said to attract, he pines only for the hirsute and hefty. The beardless chub and fur-chaser soon discovers New York’s “bear scene” and is literally sucked in. Make no mistake, the film features hot daddies and is ripe with raunch with full-frontal sex scenes. It is also funny and reminds us that bodies comes in all shapes and sizes and so does desire.

A similar theme comes in a documentary “The Adonis Factor,” a film by Christopher Hines that focuses on the body-conscious world of gay men, where “lookism” is so often decisive and face-lifts and pec-implants become serious options to stay in the game. It comes with a price tag of course, and not merely financial, to pay for the dermatologists, plastic surgeons and bodybuilding steroids. The film is now available on DVD and follows up Hines’ 2009 feature “The Butch Factor” on what it means to be gay and a man today.

Finally, several other gay-indies also deserve attention. “Strapped” blends influences from David Lynch and gay director Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” as it follows a young hustler played by Ben Bonenfant through his successive one-night-stands into a dark night of the soul. It’s a puzzle piece as he becomes caught in a nightmare-labyrinth and it will keep you tense until the end when we begin to see through his many masks, only one of which is as “deep-throat Eddie.” See this one when it is released on DVD next month.

Also worth seeing on DVD is “All Boys,” — a Finnish documentary about the ugly underbelly of the Czech gay-porn industry by writer-director Markku Heikkinen, a gripping reality-film showing the highs and lows behind the sex-lives of the gay-for-pay pretty boys of Eastern Europe. One sad story is what happens to Ruda who becomes porn star Aaron Hawke and for three years also the personal property of porn producer Dan Komar but who ends up alcoholic and homeless. Seduced by their brief encounter with fame and possible fortune and fueled by Viagra, these youths soon discover how fleeting such porno-fame is when they end up spat out after aging out of their brief shelf life.

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A lesbian thriller, ā€˜Scream’ returns, and more film, TV options for spring

A host of queer programming on tap for upcoming season

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Rachel Weisz in ā€˜Dead Ringers.’ (Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios)

Spring is always an exciting time for queer fans of film and TV, as the entertainment industry shifts its eye to the future and begins to roll out the eagerly awaited movies and shows it has in store for us in the upcoming year. This year is no exception – but while there are several exciting titles announced for 2023’s cinematic lineup (like the Anne Hathaway-starring lesbian thriller ā€œEileenā€ and Dan Levy’s directorial film debut ā€œGood Griefā€), many of their release dates are slated for later in the year or still to be determined. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few good options for queer movie buffs looking for some ā€œspring freshā€ cinema, and the Blade has compiled a few suggestions.

MOVIES

The First Fallen (Digital/DVD, available now)

A Brazilian release from 2021 making its debut on US screens, this 1983-set historical drama from writer/director Rodrigo de Oliveira follows a group of small-town LGBTQ men and women as they face the first wave of the AIDS epidemic. We haven’t seen it ourselves yet, but it comes with a five-star Rotten Tomatoes rating and the subject matter strikes a deep communal chord. Johnny Massaro, Renata Carvalho, and Victor Camilio lead the cast.

Lonesome (Digital/DVD, available now)

Another import making its way to U.S. screens, this Australian Outback-meets-big-city romance from director Craig Boreham explores ā€œsexuality, loneliness and isolation in a world that has never been more connectedā€ through the story of a country boy (Josh Lavery) who, fleeing from small-town scandal, arrives in Sydney and meets a city lad (Daniel Gabery) with secrets and struggles of his own. In their new acquaintance, the two young men ā€œfind something they have been missing, but neither of them knows quite how to negotiate it.ā€ We don’t want to spoil anything, but since this festival-circuit favorite was praised by reviewers for its masterful use of erotic storytelling, it’s safe to assume they figure it out.

Scream VI (In theaters March 10)

The rebooted horror franchise – originally created by queer screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who in an interview around 2021’s ā€œScream Vā€ said the movies were ā€œcoded in gay survivalā€ – picks up where it left off, as the four survivors the latest Ghostface killings leave Woodsboro behind to start a fresh chapter. Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere, and Courteney Cox return to their roles, joined by Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving.

Another chapter in the ā€˜Scream’ saga is coming this spring. (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

The Tutor (In theaters, March 24)

Recently out ā€œStranger Thingsā€ star Noah Schnapp hits the big screen in this eerie thriller from writer Ryan King and director Jordan Ross, in which an in-demand tutor (Garrett Hedlund) accepts a lucrative offer to take on the son of a wealthy elite family (Schnapp) as his pupil and finds himself becoming the object of an unsettling obsession – a situation that quickly escalates toward the sinister as his creepy new student threatens to tear apart the life he is building with his newly pregnant wife (Victoria Justice) before it even begins. Ekaterina Baker, Jonny Weston, Michael Aaron Milligan, Exie Booker, and Ashritha Kancharla also star.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (In theaters March 31)

Yes, the venerable RPG (that’s ā€œrole-playing game,ā€ for the uninitiated) played on the tabletops of countless Gen X nerds is coming to the screen once again, this time as a big-budget sword-and-sorcery adventure starring Chris Pine, ā€œBridgertonā€ hunk RegĆ©-Jean Page, bi ā€œFast & Furiousā€ star Michelle Rodriguez, queer actor Justice Smith, and Hugh Grant. Planned as the ambitious launch point for a ā€œmulti-prongedā€ franchise that includes a graphic novel tie-in, an upcoming television spin-off, and a slate of future installments across these and other forms of media, it’s an eagerly awaited roll of the 12-sided dice in an unpredictable market already saturated with tent-pole style entertainment options. After years in development and multiple COVID-related delays, moviegoers – doubtless including millions of queer fantasy fans – will finally get to decide whether or not it was worth the gamble.

Renfield (In theaters April 14)

The renaissance of Nicolas Cage continues with another franchise-ish new action-fantasy, this one more in the in the horror vein – a vein injected with a healthy dose of humor by director Chris McKay (ā€œThe Lego Movieā€) and screenwriter Ryan Ridley. Nicholas Hoult (ā€œA Single Man,ā€ ā€œThe Greatā€) stars as the title character, the long-suffering lackey of Count Dracula (Cage, in a role it was inevitable he would eventually play), who discovers an unexpected new outlook on life when he falls in love with a traffic cop (Awkwafina) in modern-day New Orleans. Ben Schwartz and Adrian Martinez round out the cast of what looks to be a highly entertaining tall-tale blend of gothic vampire camp and quirky comedic reinvention. As for the LGBTQ connection, well, ā€œDraculaā€ author Bram Stoker was reputedly queer, and that’s a good enough excuse to give this promising romp a chance.

Little Richard: I Am Everything (In theaters and VOD April 21)

A must-see for fans of both documentaries and classic rock ’n roll, not to mention anyone interested in the story of a unique individual charting his own course of self-expression in a world that wasn’t ready for what he wanted to be, this richly illuminated film profile from director Lisa CortĆ©s was the opening night documentary selection at this year’s Sundance Festival. Framed as a story of ā€œthe Black queer origins of rock ’n roll,ā€ it aims to dismantle ā€œthe whitewashed canon of American pop musicā€ by positioning its titular subject – whose ā€œrealā€ name was Richard Penniman – as an innovator who forever shaped the genre with his irresistibly flamboyant style and persona. Offering a wealth of archive and performance footage alongside interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film brings us into an icon’s complicated inner world, ā€œunspoolingā€ his life story with a comprehensive sense of scope and a keen eye for important detail.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (In theaters April 28)

Fifty-three years after its publication, Judy Blume’s iconic piece of YA fiction comes to the screen for the first time in this adaptation from writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig starring Rachel McAdams and featuring Abby Ryder Fortson as the title character – a sixth-grader who moves to a New Jersey suburb from New York City with her mixed-faith parents (one Christian, one Jewish), prompting her to go on a coming-of-age quest for her religious identity. A touchstone for generations of young readers, the original novel has been a perennial source of controversy – not only does it depict a child allowed the freedom to choose their own religious beliefs, it contains frank discussions of ā€œtabooā€ issues relatable to young teen girls, like menstruation, bras, and boys. Naturally, that means it has been included, along with other classic titles from among Blume’s work, on countless lists of ā€œbanned booksā€ across the five decades since it first saw print. That is more than enough reason to go out and support this female-led screen adaptation with your box office dollars, as far as we’re concerned.

TELEVISION

When it comes to the small screen, spring 2023 brings not as many new shows of queer interest as it does the return of queer favorites we’re already hooked on, like the second seasons of both Showtime’s grim-but-gripping girl scout survival series Yellowjackets (March 24) and HBO’s sweet-and-gentle Somebody Somewhere (April 23). As with the movies, there are numerous upcoming titles that pique our interest, but many of them have yet to announce a premiere date. We’ll include the most enticing of those in our list of new TV series below, so you’ll know to watch for them, but keep in mind some or all of them may not come until later in the year.

Daisy Jones & the Six (Prime Video, now streaming)

Prime Video just dropped is this 10-episode limited series adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel about the rise and fall of a fictional rock group in the Los Angeles music scene of the 1970s, which frames its profile of the Fleetwood Mac-inspired titular band in a pseudo-documentary style and tracks the reasons behind their break-up at the height of their worldwide fame. Offering an attractive cast led by Riley Keogh, Sam Clafln, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse, and Timothy Olyphant, and an iconic period setting and subject matter guaranteed to inspire some fabulous costumes, if nothing else, this one has sufficient queer appeal to make our list.

Swarm (Prime Video, March 17)

Speaking of fictional re-imaginings of real-life music icons, multi-hyphenate ā€œAtlantaā€ creator Donald Glover and playwright/screenwriter Janine Nabers offer up this darkly satirical horror series about fan obsession, centered on a young woman named Dre (Dominique Fishback) who goes to deadly extremes in her ā€œstan-domā€ of a certain pop star. No, the star in question isn’t BeyoncĆ©, but her fanbase calls itself ā€œthe Swarm,ā€ so you can draw your own conclusions from that. It’s a provocative premise that’s bound to ruffle some feathers, but that’s precisely what gives co-creator Glover his well-deserved reputation for delivering edgy, genre-defying content. All we can say is that if it’s half as unnervingly delightful as the first two seasons of ā€œAtlanta,ā€ we’re on board. Chloe Bailey, Damson Idris, Rickey Thompson, Paris Jackson, Rory Culkin, Kiersey Clemons, and Byron Bowers also star.

Marriage of Inconvenience (Dekkoo, April 6)

Subscribers to gay male-targeted streaming service Dekkoo can look forward to a romantic comedy described as ā€œa 21st century gay version of ā€˜The Odd Coupleā€™ā€ centered on two mismatched strangers who enter a witness protection program and must pretend to be happily married to each other to keep their identities hidden from the people who want them dead. Series writer/creator Jason T. Gaffney stars as a messy, street-smart dropout with anger issues opposite David Allen Singletary as an even-tempered English professor conditioned to living an orderly, carefully structured life. They have nothing in common and they can’t stand each other, but at least they’re both gay – which, as we all know, is still no guarantee they’ll be able to find common ground. With a clearly campy premise like this, it should still be fun to watch them try.

Dead Ringers (Prime Video, April 21)

Rachel Weisz does double duty in this reimagined expansion of director David Cronenberg’s classic 1988 thriller about identical twin gynecologists who dupe unsuspecting patients into participating in their perverse sexual fantasies. The twist? While Cronenberg’s film featured a pair of male siblings, this one flips the gender of its creepy twins – and in so doing, opens up a whole plethora of queer possibilities to be explored. As anyone familiar with the original already knows, it’s a story full of twisted psychology and grotesque body horror, not for the faint of heart. We can’t wait.

Love & Death (HBO Max, April 27)

Queer fan favorite Elizabeth Olsen (ā€œWandaVisionā€) stars in this true crime miniseries about real-life ā€œgood Christianā€ Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who claimed self-defense at her murder trial after taking an axe to the wife of a man with whom she was having an extramarital affair. The lurid story has already been told (in last year’s ā€œCandy,ā€ with Jessica Biel as Montgomery), but with writer/producer David E. Kelley – whose back catalogue includes a host of successful shows from ā€œDoogie Howser, MDā€ to ā€œBig Little Liesā€ – behind it, we can be sure that this version will have a unique quality of its own. Jesse Plemons (ā€œBreaking Bad,ā€ ā€œThe Power of the Dogā€) co-stars as the other half of Candy’s illicit and ill-fated romance, with Lily Rabe as his unfortunate wife; Parick Fugit, Elizabeth Marvel, Tom Pelphrey, Krysten Ritter, and Beth Broderick also star. In this case, perhaps, the queer appeal comes from the irony of watching supposed ā€œgood Christianā€ types engage in the kind of depraved and detrimental behavior they regularly condemn everyone else for – and that’s good enough for us.

As for the shows with launch dates still TBD, the standouts include:

The Idol (HBO) – a buzzy series starring Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring pop star and Abel ā€œthe Weekndā€ Tesfaye as the self-help guru with whom she becomes involved. Supporting players include Dan Levy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Hank Azaria, and musicians Troye Sivan and Moses Sumney.

Ripley (Showtime) – a limited series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic 1955 novel ā€œThe Talented Mr. Ripley,ā€ with out Irish actor Andrew Scott as its charming-but-sociopathic anti-hero; likely to bring the original story’s gay subtext to the screen much more directly than the 1999 film adaptation starring Matt Damon, it also stars Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning.

Fellow Travelers (Showtime) – Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey star in this adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s book about two men who begin a volatile clandestine romance while working for the government during the 1950s McCarthy era. Allison Williams also stars.

Glamorous (Netflix) – Created by Jordon Nardino (ā€œStar Trek: Discoveryā€) and Damon Wayans Jr., this Brooklyn-set drama centers on a gender-non-conforming youth (Miss Benny) who falls under the wing of a high-fashion makeup mogul (Kim Cattrall), and features guest stars like Matt Rogers, Joel Kim Booster, and MonĆ©t X Change.Ā  Sounds fabulous.

Happy viewing!

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ā€˜Everything’ lands queer endorsement as movie of the year

Dorian Awards add to momentum for breakout film as Oscars near

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Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh in ā€˜Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ (Photo courtesy of A24)

For Oscar handicappers – or anyone else who loves movies and enjoys playing the yearly game of picking favorites and predicting winners during Hollywood’s glitzy awards season – last weekend’s presentation of the Screen Actors Guild Awards was a crucial event.

As the last ā€œbigā€ awards ceremony before Academy Award night (which takes place this year on March 12), the SAG Awards’ film category winners are often seen as a clear indicator of which films and performers have the momentum to win there, too. It’s not surprising they should be seen as significant, but this year, thanks to some history-making wins (including firsts for Asian-American talent and a single movie’s sweep of all but two of the film categories), there was even more reason to pay attention.

SAG was not the only organization to bestow its film awards last week, however. Though they received less fanfare, the 14th Annual Dorian Awards – announced on Feb. 23 by GALECA, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics – offered a slate of winners that reflected a queer eye on the films of 2022; and while they might not be as much a barometer for the tastes and attitudes of the industry insiders who vote for the big film awards, it should be noted that its choices align surprisingly often with those of SAG and the rest of mainstream Hollywood.

That’s partly because, although they do include a handful of LGBTQ-specific categories, the Dorians don’t just honor queer films. GALECA’s voters – a group of more than 400 professional queer entertainment critics, journalists, and media icons – look at the same movies as their straight colleagues; they present the Dorians (named as a nod to iconic queer writer Oscar Wilde and his most famous literary creation) as a way ā€œto remind bigots, bullies and our own communities that the world often looks to the Q+ eye for unique and powerful entertainment,ā€ and to ensure that a queer perspective is represented amid Hollywood’s yearly bestowal of honors. While there have been notable divergences, such as the occasional queer title like ā€œCarolā€ or ā€œCall Me By Your Nameā€ supplanting their more hetero-friendly competitors for Film of the Year, recent Dorian honors have tended more to mirror the mainstream consensus than defy it.

This year is no exception. ā€œEverything Everywhere All at Once,ā€ the genre-splicing serio-comic sci-fi sleeper whose jaw-dropping sweep at the SAG show has made a similar triumph at the Oscars feel all but inevitable, also scored a lion’s share of honors from the Dorians, winning in seven of its nine nominated categories – even achieving the triple feat of being chosen as Best Film, Best LGBTQ Film and Most Visually Striking Film. For Lead Film Performance – all nominees, regardless of gender, vie for a single award in the each of the two acting categories – Yeoh, long embraced by queer fans, edged out not only Blanchett but favored male competitors like SAG winner Brendan Fraser and Golden Globe winners Colin Farrell and Austin Butler, while co-star Ke Huy Quan continued his inspiring victory lap by being chosen for Supporting Film Performance. Rounding out their movie’s tally, filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won in both the Director and Screenplay categories. As a bonus, while technically awarded for ā€œEEAAO,ā€ Yeoh was also the winner of the Wilde Artist Award, a special Dorian given yearly ā€œto a truly groundbreaking force in film, theater and/or television,ā€ and fellow cast member Stephanie Hsu was named as Rising Star of the Year – honors almost certainly fueled by their work in ā€œEEAAO.ā€

In other categories:

The UK import ā€œAftersun,ā€ Charlotte Wells’ thoughtful father-daughter tearjerker starring Paul Mescal, which also is also nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor Oscars, was awarded the Dorian for Best ā€œUnsungā€ Film.

ā€œAll the Beauty and the Bloodshed,ā€ director Laura Poitras’ searing documentary about famed bisexual photographer Nan Goldin and her mission to shame the Sackler Big Pharma dynasty for profiteering on America’s opioid crisis, took both Best Documentary and Best LGBTQ Documentary; it’s also Oscar-nominated as Best Feature Documentary, the only queer-related doc to have made the cut there.

In the Best Animated Film category, the Dorians went against the tide by choosing ā€œMarcel the Shell with Shoes On,ā€ the charming and deceptively absurd stop-motion ā€œmockumentaryā€ adapted from a widely popular series of YouTube shorts, over ā€œGuillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio.ā€ Both films are competing at the Oscars, as well.

For Best Non-English Language Film, the Dorians did what the Oscars cannot by picking ā€œRRRā€ – the epic Telugu-language musical adventure fantasy about two South Indian rebels fighting to push British colonials from their homeland in the 1920s, rendered ineligible for the Academy’s equivalent category by India’s failure to submit it as the country’s official entry for consideration as Best International Feature. The film, a worldwide box office sensation from S.S. Rajamouli (India’s most commercially successful director), did snag an Oscar nomination in the Best Song category for ā€œNaatu Naatu.ā€

Though ā€œTĆ”rā€ – a critically acclaimed but divisive cinematic portrait of a fictional lesbian symphony conductor accused of serial sexual misconduct in the workplace – ended up as an also-ran in most of its nominated categories, it didn’t go away empty-handed; composer Hildur Guưnadóttir, also nominated for her work on ā€œWomen Talking,ā€ took home the award for Best Score. A former Oscar winner (for 2019’s ā€œJokerā€), she failed to earn an Academy nomination this year for either film.

In a category unique to the Dorians, the cheeky horror prequel ā€œPearl,ā€ which starred co-writer Mia Goth as an ax-wielding wannabe in 1918 Texas, took the double-edged honor of Campiest Film of the Year. Other nominees included ā€œGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mysteryā€ and Baz Luhrmann’s ā€œElvis,ā€ as well as the aforementioned ā€œRRR.ā€

Finally, a relatively new special Dorian honor, the GALECA LGBTQIA+ Film Trailblazer Award, went to nonbinary actor-singer Janelle MonĆ”e (also a nominee for Best Supporting Performance for ā€œGlass Onionā€), whose win puts her in the company of groundbreaking LGBTQ directors Isabel Sandoval and Pedro Almodóvar, both former winners, as a queer pioneer in the ever-evolving cinematic medium.

As for how much influence the Dorians might have on Oscar voters, even most of the GALECA membership would likely say ā€œnot much.ā€ That’s not the point, however; indeed, the increasingly frequent parallel between their picks and those of their mainstream compatriots might well be better interpreted as a reminder of the LGBTQ community’s role as ā€œtastemakersā€ for the wider world. We’ve always been there, even when we were kept out of sight, helping to shape the aesthetic that dominates popular culture, and the fact that our tastes – as filtered through the representative cross-section of GALECA’s members, at least – are now so often represented in the content that achieves the industry’s highest honors is cause enough to celebrate.

As GALECA Executive Director John Griffiths puts it, ā€œNo matter what’s going on in the mind of a certain Florida governor and his ilk, the best movies, and TV too, will only continue to reflect what’s going on in the real world—and parallel ones too. Looking at our nominees and winners, you can let out a nice, deep breath.ā€

The complete list of Dorian winners and nominees is below:

Film of the Year
Aftersun (A24)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER
The Fabelmans (Universal)
TƔr (Focus Features)

LGBTQ Film of the Year
Benediction (Roadside Attractions)
Bros (Universal)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER
The Inspection (A24)
TƔr (Focus Features)

Director of the Year
Todd Field, TƔr (Focus Features)
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight)
Sarah Polley, Women Talking (United Artists)
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun (A24)

Screenplay of the Year
Todd Field, TƔr (Focus Features)
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight)
Sarah Polley, Women Talking (United Artists)
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun (A24)

Non-English Language Film of the Year
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix, Amusement Park)
Close (A24)
Decision to Leave (Mubi, CJ Entertainment)
EO (Sideshow, Janus Films)
RRR (DVV Entertainment, Variance Films) – WINNER

Unsung Film of the Year (To an exceptional movie worthy of greater attention)
Aftersun (A24) – WINNER
After Yang (A24)
Benediction (Roadside Attractions)
The Eternal Daughter (A24)
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Searchlight)
The Menu (Searchlight)
Emily the Criminal (Vertical/Roadside Attractions)

Film Performance of the Year
Cate Blanchett, TƔr (Focus Features)
Austin Butler, Elvis (Warner Bros.)
Viola Davis, The Woman King (Sony)
Danielle Deadwyler, Till (United Artists)
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight)
Brendan Fraser, The Whale (A24)
Mia Goth, Pearl (A24)
Paul Mescal, Aftersun (A24)
Jeremy Pope, The Inspection (A24)
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER

Supporting Film Performance of the Year
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney, Marvel)
Hong Chau, The Whale (A24)
Jaime Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness (Neon)
Nina Hoss, TƔr (Focus Features)
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight)
Janelle MonƔe, Glass Onion: Knives Out (Netflix)
Keke Palmer, Nope (Universal)
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER

Documentary of the Year
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon) – WINNER
Fire of Love (Neon, National Geographic)
Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Moonage Daydream (Neon)
Navalny (Warner Bros.)

LGBTQ Documentary of the Year
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon) – WINNER
Framing Agnes (Kino Lorber)
Moonage Daydream (Neon)
Nelly & Nadine (Wolfe Releasing)
Sirens (Oscilloscope)

Animated Film of the Year
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (A24) – WINNER
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (DreamWorks, Universal)
Turning Red (Disney, Pixar)
Wendell & Wild (Netflix)

Film Music of the Year
Babylon – score by Justin Hurvitz (Paramount)
Elvis – score and music production by Elliott Wheeler; the music of Elvis Presley; various artists (Warner Bros.)
RRR – score by M.M. Keeravani (DVV Entertainment, Variance Films)
TĆ”r – score and curation by Hildur Guưnadóttir (Focus Features) – WINNER
Women Talking – score by Hildur Guưnadóttir (United Artists)

Visually Striking Film of the Year
Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century)
Babylon (Paramount)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – WINNER
Nope (Universal)
RRR (DVV Entertainment, Variance Films)

Campiest Flick of the Year
Babylon (Paramount)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (A24)
Elvis (Warner Bros.)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
Pearl (A24) – WINNER
RRR (DVV Entertainment, Variance Films)

Rising Star Award
Austin Butler
Frankie Corio
Stephanie Hsu – WINNER
Gabriel LaBelle
Jenna Ortega
Jeremy Pope

Wilde Artist Award
To a truly groundbreaking force in film, theater and/or television
Cate Blanchett
Billy Eichner
Janelle MonƔe
Keke Palmer
Michelle Yeoh – WINNER

GALECA LGBTQIA+ Film Trailblazer Award
Janelle MonƔe

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Movies

Goldin doc captures both ‘Beauty’ and ‘Bloodshed’

Laura Poitras produced and directed Oscar-nominated documentary

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Photographer Nan Goldin takes on Big Pharma in 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.' (Image courtesy of Neon)

As the yearly Hollywood awards cycle heads into its final weeks before culminating with the Oscars on March 12, most of the public attention is — as always — focused on the movies in the so-called ā€œmajorā€ categories, while the ones in the others are, if not completely overlooked, placed lower on the priority list for film fans looking to catch up on all the nominees before the big night.

As the shrewdest fans know, of course, some of the best filmmaking often goes unsung because it happens in the kind of films that win awards in categories deemed irrelevant by most of the people in the mainstream. Unfortunately, that description most frequently seems to apply to documentaries — and this year, a standout among the crop of potential Oscar winners comes from within that eternally underappreciated genre.

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature, producer/director Laura Poitras’ ā€œAll the Beauty and the Bloodshedā€ is a movie that tells two stories. In part, it’s a chronicle of the remarkable personal history of photographer and artist Nan Goldin, who rose to prominence in the ā€œrespectableā€ art world through the images that she took of herself and her friends — often in candidly intimate situations — in the post-Stonewall queer underground of ā€˜70s and ā€˜80s lower Manhattan; told in Goldin’s voice and through her own vast archive of images, it charts her life and career from emotionally traumatic childhood to esteemed artist, while reminding us that she was as much a participant in the heady lifestyle she documented as she was a witness.

While Goldin’s life and career would be more than ample as the singular focus of a documentary, though, Poitras’ movie has an even bigger purpose in mind. In service of that goal, it interweaves its subject’s personal narrative around the saga of P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) — an organization she founded in 2017 after revealing she was in recovery from an addiction to prescribed opioids which almost led to her death from an overdose of fentanyl — and its high-profile protest campaign against the Sackler family, a billionaire pharmaceutical dynasty known internationally for its generous art patronage, who through its company Purdue Pharma were principle architects of America’s staggering opioid crisis. Moving back and forth between these two threads throughout the film, Poitras frames Goldin’s struggle to hold the Sacklers accountable within the context of the formative life experiences that shaped her into an activist, while making sure to give her subject due acknowledgment for the then-shocking celebration of queer life and sexuality in her work at a time when such things were still seen through the cold filter of anthropological distance or simply being denounced outright for violating social taboos.

As to that, many viewers will undoubtedly be drawn to ā€œBloodshedā€ by the prospect of revisiting the fabled era of Goldin’s early heyday through her up-close-and-personal pictures and footage, and they will not be disappointed. The film includes plenty of both, illuminated by the artist as she recounts the memories behind them; it offers poignant glimpses at a few future icons and fallen stars (lost-but-not-forgotten queer icons from her circle, like Cookie Mueller and David Wojnarowicz, are among those lovingly profiled by Goldin as she narrates her reminiscences), gives us an inside look at a seminal time and place in counterculture history, tantalizes us with provocative images of a sexually liberated lifestyle and throws us into the front lines of AIDS activism and the political battle over government funding of the NEA.

For those more interested in direct biography, there is also copious material on Goldin’s personal life. These sequences cover her memories of a dysfunctional childhood growing up with an older sister who would later die by suicide, her delinquent youth in and out of foster homes, her battery at the hands of a jealous lover, the horror of watching her community ravaged by AIDS while the rest of the world stood by and watched, and the crushing devastation of her opioid addiction.

Yet while these various parts of Goldin’s story may carry weight of their own, ā€œBloodshedā€ ultimately transfers it all into its saga about her effort to exact palpable retribution against the Sacklers — something her position as a world-renowned artist made her uniquely situated to do. Following her organization through a series of brilliantly orchestrated actions in which — borrowing a page from ACT UP — they staged dramatic protests at museums who had taken donations from the disgraced philanthropic dynasty, the movie deploys footage from these events to capture the raw sense of danger experienced within them with the kind of thrilling immediacy unachievable through journalistic observation or dramatic recreation. It’s this Robin Hood-esque story of taking back from the rich and amoral that drives Poitras’ movie and gives it an emotional structure, making it more than just another profile of an influential artist.

That doesn’t mean it relegates Goldin’s work as a photographer into the background. On the contrary, the bulk of the imagery we see comes from Goldin herself; even the footage of the protests was shot by P.A.I.N. for documentary purposes before Poitras had even become involved. Still, the filmmaker deserves full credit for assembling these photos and home movies into a finished product, and while it’s clear that ā€œBloodshedā€ is the result of intense collaboration between documentarian and subject, it’s also clear that her understanding of the material and her nuance in presenting it are essential elements in creating the cumulative power— and the surprising sense of urgency — that it delivers.

As for her subject, Goldin’s importance as both an artist and as activist come across plainly, but those were never in doubt. The film’s biggest surprise, perhaps, is the compassion visible at the heart of her activism, manifesting through her desire to use the privilege and influence her art has given her to help balance the scales between the powerful elite and the marginalized masses they exploit — a compassion reflected even in the revelation of her former life as a sex worker, which she discusses publicly for the first time here out of solidarity with other sex workers and to help reduce the stigma around sex work. 

While juggling two separate-but-complementary stories might come at the risk of a disjointed focus, ā€œBloodshed,ā€ thanks to Poitras’ seemingly symbiotic alignment with her subject’s aesthetic and sympathies, manages to weave its dual threads together in a way which not only makes sense, but uses them in concert to convey a fiercely radical worldview — one which resonates deeply in a contemporary social environment not too different from the one in which Goldin and her fellow sexual ā€œoutlawsā€ were flaunting their defiance of repressive, bigoted cultural norms not just in their work but in their everyday lives. Now, as then, a younger generation confronted with unbridled corporate greed and widening economic inequity, not to mention a conservative strategy of reverse cultural engineering through backlash and legislation, has been triggered to reevaluate its priorities. 

It’s not surprising. After all, as Goldin says in the film, ā€œWhen you think of the profit off people’s pain, you can only be furious about it.ā€

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