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GAY FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM



The What, Where, & When of Gay Buffalo
Serving Western New York
Home To My Reviews
Since 1998
Publisher: Tim Moran



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In Memory
Of

Mike Maffei
3/20/53 - 12/28/06

Mike was a beloved figure
in Buffalo's local folk music/coffeehouse scene. Mike lived for almost 17 years with AIDS. His activism was widely admired and to know Mike was to feel inspired.

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Abrupt Decision, written and directed by Paul Bright, is the timely story of a 40-something gay man who suddenly finds himself out of a job. Denis, played by Steve Callahan (role/play) learns that he is "old" and that most employers are looking for younger hires. There has been tension between Denis and his longtime partner for some time and the change in his employment status isn't helping matters. This is a mid-life crisis that none of us are ready for and, needless to say, he doesn't deal with this very well.

Grady Wilson is a failed actor who runs a lodge in the middle of nowhere in Flight Of The Cardinal, a rather nifty thriller written and directed by Robert Gaston. A group of friends, in for the weekend, are stuck at the lodge with him because of an impending storm. They find themselves at the mercy of a charismatic sociopath who plays them against each other while he secretly plans to take over the proprietor's identity.

There are three things that I can always expect when watching a new film from  indie writer/director Todd Verow (Frisk). The budget will be low, the acting will be mixed, and the sex will be explicit. The press for Leave Blank, his latest, calls it "a follow-up (not quite sequel)" to his earlier Anonymous. The story is simple. Todd has hired a hustler, whom he met over the internet, for the weekend. He wants to do everything over the course of the weekend. He wants to experience, for the first time, drugs, anonymous sex with multiple partners, and un-safe sex.
undertow box
Brokeback Mountain is the Citizen Kane of queer cinema. Some films make an impact on their first release only to be forgotten later. This one has lost none of its raw power. Brokeback Mountain was the breakthrough film that we awaited for decades. It was an exquisitely crafted movie, a critical and commercial success, and a surprise crossover hit. Conservative pundits and the family councils all went into apoplexy, jokes were made by comedians, and the mythology of the American cowboy underwent a major revision. But, above all, Brokeback Mountain was a love story that resonated with audiences both gay and straight.

According to popular legend, playwright Tennessee Williams underwent psychoanalysis in 1957 to "cure" his homosexuality and the play Suddenly Last Summer was the result. This is inaccurate; the truth is much more complicated than that. Many view Suddenly Last Summer, especially the film version, as being one of the ultimate artistic expressions of a self loathing queer. The inclusion of a negatively portrayed homosexual is hardly proof of this; Williams' fiction is populated with far more grotesque examples of heterosexuals.

Edwardian England was not a good time to be gay. The climate was so bad that noted novelist E.M. Forster began writing a book with a homosexual hero in 1913 that he never published in his lifetime. That book, of course, is Maurice and, in 1987, Merchant Ivory Productions adapted the book to the screen. The film features superb performances and a meticulous attention to period detail. It is a rich filmgoing experience and one of the most beautiful films in all of queer cinema.

CLICK HERE TO READ MICHAEL D. KLEMM'S 1998 INTERVIEW WITH EMANUEL FRIED