Directed by Darko Štante in a stunning debut, Consequences joins the recent list of celebrated indie films with a focus on closeted queer young men.
Premiering at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie explores the chaotic, destructive and complex nature of closeted youth.
From the official synopsis:
Centered on a powerhouse performance from charismatic newcomer Matej Zemljic, the film takes an unflinching look at the raw impulses of adolescence and the insecurity that lies beneath.
Sentenced, with the approval of his exasperated parents, to attend a youth detention centre, a handsome and muscular teen is thrown into the correctional facility’s intimidating and testosterone-fueled hierarchy.
Standing strong against its violent initiations, Andrej finds his anchor of approval and companionship in Željko, the aggressive leader of the center’s gang, which he soon joins in a carefree spiral of sex, drugs, and violence. Yet Andrej’s tough posturing belies an intimate fragility. Revealing this would unravel everything around him.
Director Štante has said in interviews he based much of the film on his own experiences working in a correctional facility.
Consequences is set for a limited theatrical release on August 2nd. Check out the official trailer below.
(from the award-winning short film 'First They Came')
Check out this moving short film that interweaves images of mass shootings with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and the Martin Niemöller poem, “First They Came.”
The competition asks student filmmakers in schools and colleges to create and share digital stories about significant LGBTQ+ people, places and events that have shaped our world and are impacting the future.
Goldberg was inspired by Niemöller’s poem which addresses complicity and passivity during the Holocaust. It reads:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Goldberg’s film updated the text to meditate on the victims of deadly mass shootings in recent U.S. history, including the massacre at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 dead and 50+ wounded.
“The film illustrates how passivity in the face of injustice is complicity during World War II, but instead reframes and rewrites the 1946 poem to focus on the prolific, devastating shootings in schools and public institutions,” said Odessa, a Tamalpais High School student in Mill Valley, California.
“One of the horrific shootings commemorated is the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016 targeting the LGBTQ+ community," added the young filmmaker. "The final call to action of the video reminds the viewer to take action against gun violence by voting.”
All of these films stand on the shoulders of other LGBT films that have come before. Our list of the 200 Best LGBT Movies of All Time – expanded from our original list of 150 movies, released last year – stretches back almost 90 years to the pioneering German film, Mädchen in Uniform, which was subsequently banned by the Nazis, and crosses multiple continents, cultures, and genres.
There are broad American comedies (The Birdcage), artful Korean crime dramas (The Handmaiden), groundbreaking indies (Tangerine), and landmark documentaries (Paris Is Burning). In this thorough update and expansion of the list, we added films from the last year in cinema that qualified (from 2018’s We the Animals and The Miseducation of Cameron Post to this year’s The Heiresses and Giant Little Ones and more) and worked to include more stories from outside of the U.S.
To be considered for the list, a movie had to prominently feature gay, lesbian, trans, or queer characters; concern itself centrally with LGBT themes; present its LGBT characters in a fair and realistic light; and/or be seen as a touchpoint in the evolution of queer cinema.
And it had to be Fresh. The final list was culled from a longlist of hundreds, after which the films were ranked according to the Adjusted Tomatometer, which acts as a kind of inflation adjustment, taking into consideration the Tomatometer score, as well as the number of reviews a film received relative to the average number of reviews for films released that same year.
It's a pretty comprehensive list to be sure. Some folks are surprised at the ranking of certain films versus others, but I think it's a great list.
Just a few of my favorites here are (in no particular order): Torch Song Trilogy, The Sum of Us, Cabaret, Trick, The Birdcage, Philadelphia, The Hours, The Color Purple, Beach Rats, Boy Erased, The Way He Looks, Rocketman, Longtime Companion, Brokeback Mountain, Victor Victoria, The Kids Are Alright, God's Country, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight and Love, Simon.
Matt Bomer stars in the upcoming buddy comedy, Papi Chulo.
Bomer plays "Sean," a gay weatherman who hits a rough patch of depression following a major breakup.
Written and directed by gay Irish filmmaker John Butler (Handsome Devil), Papi Chulo made its world premiere last fall at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
The official synopsis reads:
“After a newly-single TV weatherman is put on leave following an on-air meltdown, he directs his energy into home improvement and hires a middle-aged Latino day laborer named Ernesto (Alejandro Patiño) to help. Despite a language barrier and having nothing in common, the two men develop an unexpected but profound friendship in this darkly comedic reflection on class, ethnicity, and companionship in contemporary Los Angeles.”
“My ex has been gone for six months now and I have to admit I’m not good at being alone," Sean tells Ernesto in the trailer. "I never have been.”
The film also features Elena Campbell-Martinez (The Big Bang Theory), Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs, Bridesmaids), and D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place).
Matt Bomer and Alejandro Patiño (Blue Fox Ent.)
Variety’s Joe Laydon praised the film in his review, describing Bomer’s Sean as “played with admirable fearlessness,” and the film as a whole as a “scrupulously low-key and unassumingly ingratiating dramedy.”
“A warm-hearted tale of emotional healing through an unlikely friendship.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“The film captures something universal and profound: the fleeting human connections that can change a life forever.” - Screen Daily
Bomer earned an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe Award for his performance in HBO’s The Normal Heart, and recently appeared on Will & Grace as news anchor McCoy Whitman, Will’s love interest.
The 41-year-old made his Broadway debut last year in the acclaimed revival of the groundbreaking gay drama, The Boys in the Band. Producer Ryan Murphy has announced he will produce a screen version of the production for Netflix.
The Magic Mike actor is currently starring in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol.
Ryan O’Connell’s unconventional comedy series is based on his own experiences as a gay man with cerebral palsy navigating sex and a career in TV. He not only stars in the series, but also serves as writer and executive producer.
Critics are loving the depiction of a physically challenged gay man through O'Connell's lens. In one episode, he is convinced by a friend to hire a sex worker in order to lose his virginity. Instead of being 'tragic,' the sequence moves from awkward, to touching and eventually to a sweet, sexy resolution.
O'Connell recent told NBC News he's still in "shock" the series happened.
“It feels very surreal, because I didn't think that any of this could be possible,” he said. “I’ve been working in Hollywood for six years now, and I know that even the best ideas, even the best shows, with the best talent attached, the odds of one actually getting shot and made and released is very medium rare."
Now available on Netflix.
Sauvage / Wild
Leo is 22 and sells his body on the street for a bit of cash. The men come and go, and he stays right here — longing for love. He doesn’t know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding.
Felix Maritaud plays Leo, a French hustler who's a beguiling homo-goulash of low self-esteem and empathy, who falls in love with gay-for-pay Ahd (Eric Bernard), who doles out tenderness, disgust, and violence in equal doses.
“A powerful portrait of a gay male prostitute in free fall” – Guy Lodge, Variety
Official synopsis: “On the 10th anniversary of his dad’s death, Joris still tries to come to terms with his father s absence when he meets the free-spirited Yad, who returns back home to his family after living on his own. Although very different, there is an instant spark between the two and they want to be more than just friends , but both have issues with their mothers that threaten to jeopardize their relationship.”
Cindy Lou Peeples at Frameline wrote, "Refreshingly, the family conflict in this romantic comedy is not that Joris and Yad are gay, but that they are defying family expectations in other ways and must make a new set of choices about how to be themselves."
One of the top movie and television review sites, Rotten Tomotoes, has compiled lists of the ten best reviewed LGBTQ films and television shows since 2010 (so no Brokeback Mountain).
The list crosses genres from Academy Award and Emmy Award-winners to foreign language projects.
I’m going to preface the list by saying I can think of some excellent films that didn’t make the Top 10 list, but this is based on Rotten Tomatoes reviews, not mine.
Here are the lists – how many of these have you seen?
