Holiday Heart (2000)

Holiday Heart (Ving Rhames) is gay drag queen who performs at a night club. He is talented, tough, compassionate, and a Christian. After his boyfriend dies he befriends down on her luck, drug addicted Wanda (Alfre Woodard) and her young daughter Niki (Jessika Reynolds). Heart offers them a stable home and becomes a much needed father figure for Niki. However, Wanda becomes addicted to drugs again and after a series of bad relationships, begins one with successful drug dealer Silas (Mykelti Williamson), who is homophobic and chauvinistic. Silas gives Heart money and insists that he stay out of their life. Heart agrees and prepares to visit Paris, France.

Both Silas and Wanda leave Niki alone. Silas has to go away on a "business" trip, while Wanda becomes a prostitute to feed her drug addiction. Heart takes care of Niki and raises her as his own daughter. Under Heart's guidance, Niki is baptized at the local Church and graduates from elementary school with honors. Soon after, Silas reenters their lives, and is thankful for what Heart has done. He has been getting a house in Florida ready for Wanda and Niki, but is still earning a living by selling drugs. Heart and Silas become a sort of "odd couple" as Niki begins junior high school, with Silas more willing to respect and tolerate Heart.

After bringing Niki along on one of his illicit sales, she runs away and bumps into her mother, who tries to prostitute her in order to get more drugs. As a result of the incident, Silas leaves Niki in the care of Heart. Niki begins to rebel as an angry teenager, but Heart lays down the law with some tough love. Just before Christmas, Wanda appears at the gay nightclub where Heart works and wants his help in getting clean and sober. The two walk to Heart's car, with a bike for Niki, only to be attacked by some of Wanda's former drug associates. As a former boxer, Heart manages to beat them up, but not before one of them runs over Wanda with their car. A few months later, Niki is home from Spring Break and visiting her mother's grave with Heart. Silas has returned and informs Niki and Heart that when they get back from a trip to Paris, he has a surprise waiting for them.

This made-for-TV film is a deeply moving and compelling story involving an unusual cast of characters. The film's desire not to sugarcoat things makes for some tough scenes and a less-than-happy ending. It features very good acting by Ving Rhames, Alfre Woodard, and Mykelti Williamson, and has uniformly favorable comments from viewers. Cheryl L. West wrote the teleplay adapted from her own stage play. Stephen James Taylor composed the music, and Robert Townsend directed.

Deadfall (1968)

Henry Clarke (Michael Caine) is a jewel thief and a recovering alcoholic hiding out in a sanitarium, trying to get close to his next mark, the wealthy Salinas (David Buck). One day he's visited by Fe Moreau (Giovanna Ralli), who entices him with an offer to work with her and her husband on their next heist to pull off a diamond robbery in the home of a rich aristocrat. After meeting Richard Moreau (Eric Portman), Clarke decides to work with them, partly because he's attracted to Richard. Then it's revealed that Richard is attracted to Clarke. He begins an affair with Fe when he realizes that Richard is an out and proud homosexual with Spanish lover Antonio (Carlos Pierre). What follows is a perverse game of sexuality and thievery, culminating in a startling revelation that rocks this romantic triangle, and which disastrously affects the climactic heist.

We have to figure out what the relationships are between Clarke and Salinas, as well as with Fe and Richard. There is a revelation that Richard is Fe's real father, and that they had a sexual relationship in the past. The film makes much of the perverse nature of their relationship, and something is so obviously wrong with it that the audience can only reach the most salacious conclusions concerning the couple. "Deadfall" refuses to clear up the central mystery of Richard's past Nazi activities, and much agonizing is made of it by Clarke and Fe. They even introduce the character Fillmore (Leonard Rossiter) who starts to clue us in on Richard, but then the filmmakers just drop the whole idea--and Fillmore. Maybe he was the victim, along with other major plot points, of severe post-production editing. And we're never given a clear understanding of why Richard takes his own daughter for a lover, as well as his wife.

In this Hitchockian suspense film everyone's motives are hidden, and by the time they're revealed, we have ceased to care about them. The film is 120 minutes long and could have benefited from some editing. There are too many scenes of characters looking mysteriously at each other, while we try to guess their feelings and what they're thinking. Basically, "Deadfall" is pretentious psychiatric nonsense wrapped around a heist movie. Caine's acting is not his best, but Portman shines here. Despite the pretentious dialogue he's given, he steals every scene he's in. John Barry composed the original music, somewhat derivative of his later 007 music--particularly "You Only Live Twice". Bryan Forbes wrote the screenplay derived from Desmond Cory's novel. Bryan Forbes also directed.

Flirt (1995)

"Flirt" takes place in New York, Berlin and Tokyo, with each segment using the same dialogue. The three-part film is about desire and commitment: a lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a permanent relationship.

Part 1 is set in New York in 1993. Bill (William Sage) is a handsome ladies' man whose girlfriend Emily (Parker Posey) is about to leave for a vacation in Paris. Once there, she warns, she might hook up with an old lover unless Bill commits to her within the next 90 minutes. Standing in a phone booth, he listens to Emily try to talk him into making a marriage proposal. After they hang up, Bill is on the line with Margaret (Hannah Sullivan), making the same sort of demands Emily had made to him. Reality and fantasy start to merge as three homeless men begin advising Bill in a restroom about his love life. Bill loves Emily and also Margaret, the wife of his close friend Walter (Martin Donovan). Running into him in a bar, Bill finds Walter carrying a gun and threatening suicide. His wife has left him and he accuses Bill of having designs on her. During a struggle for the gun, the weapon goes off, grazing Bill's face. As he is painfully stitched up in a hospital emergency room, he is encouraged to think of something pleasant and murmurs his sexual fantasies to the attendant nurses, who are clearly aroused. Then he dashes off for the airport.

Part 2 is set in Berlin in 1944, where the preceding story is recycled among a group of homosexual characters. The main character is Dwight (Dwight Ewell), who has a similar experience with his lover. Dwight is a saucy young black American who swivels around in black leather pants and a gold shirt while weighing his relationship with Johann (Dominik Bender), an older German art dealer. Dwight's latest crush is Werner (Jacob Klaffke), a middle-aged German painter who has just left his wife Greta (Geno Lechner) in a state of suicidal depression.

Finally, the trilogy ends in 1995 Tokyo, where we watch a mime troupe distill Hartley's narrative to its dramatic essence. The final flirt is Miho (Miho Nikaidoh), a Japanese dance student whose boyfriend, an American film maker, is about to go to Los Angeles. When rumors of Miho's flirtation with her dance teacher, Mr. Ozu (Toshizo Fujiwara), drive Ozu's wife (Chikako Hara) to threaten to shoot herself, Mr. Ozu asks Miho to dispose of his wife's gun, and Miho finds herself pursued by the police and arrested for possession of a deadly weapon.

The emergency room sequences are completely different from one another. Where Bill is fawned over with discreet lust, Dwight is treated with calm detachment, and Miho with frantic desperation. Although the sexual fantasies that the characters use to distract themselves from the pain of Novocaine injections are very different, they share the image of "spooning," which they explain is lying curled up side by side with their lovers

This is a very personal film that has something universal to say. It is stylistically bold without being gaudy, excessive, and makes the same plot interesting three times. The cute gimmick of repeating the same situations in three different locations with three different casts makes the film a three ring circus: NY, Berlin, and Tokyo. The setting may change, but the questions are the same. Acting performances are not the best, with the exception of Dwight Ewell, who plays Dwight in the Berlin portion of the film. There is some light comic realism and absurdity. In the funniest recurring set piece, each flirt impulsively blurts out his romantic confusion to a bunch of strangers and is given advice that is amusing and contradictory. Hal Hartley and Jeffrey Taylor composed the original music, and Hal Hartley wrote the script and directed. In English, German, and Japanese with English subtitles.

The Delta (1996)

Lincoln Bloom (Shayne Gray), an upper middle-class Jewish kid almost 18 years old, leads a straight life most of the time in Memphis, TN. He has a girl friend Monica (Rachel Zan Huss), goes to dances, and jokes with the guys. But he also has a secret life, in which he's drawn to dark places where he has sex with men he doesn't know. One night, while visiting a gay video arcade, he connects with Ming Nguyen (Thang Chan), aka John, a Vietnamese-born gay man, in his 20s probably, whose father was an African-American US soldier. John invites Lincoln to spend some carefree time with him, and Lincoln takes him to his father's boat. Along the way, John shares his life story and sense of frustration at not belonging in either his homeland or America.

John then convinces Lincoln to take the boat into the Mississippi delta, where setting off some fireworks out of season precipitates betrayal and revenge. After an entire day of hanging out together at various port towns along the river, the pair get in trouble with the police, resulting in a violent falling out. Lincoln returns to Memphis in his boat, looks up Monica, and faces his father's wrath. Meanwhile, John makes his way home as best he can, settles back into his routine as a layabout, and finally seeks out another sexual encounter, with an unexpected conclusion--a murder. We are left with his act of murder without ever understanding what drove him to it, or what really makes him tick. After 95 minutes the film simply ends without a proper resolution.

In this dreamy gay-themed quasi-documentary, the dialogue seems largely improvised, lending the story a certain authenticity. But the movie is muddled and doesn't know what to do with the central relationship, wasting too much time on other subjects. It should have made the storyline with the couple a lot more intense and interesting. When the story lurches into violent melodrama, the sudden change feels like an attempt to yank together its dramatic strands to make a coherent statement. But the change is too abrupt. The end result is a film that's intriguing but frustrating, and leaves too many loose ends dangling. It's a piece of entertainment, which show gays as purely dysfunctional human beings. Directed by Memphis native Ira Sachs, who cast the semi-autobiographical "The Delta" with non-actors after searching the pool halls and watering holes of his hometown for several months. Sachs wrote the screenplay, and Michael Rohatyn composed the music.

Only When I Laugh (1981)

Georgia (Marsha Mason) is a successful Broadway actress who is alcoholic and has bad relationships with men. The film opens with her successful 90 day rehabilitation at an expensive Long Island rehab clinic and her return to Manhattan and to her two best friends. They are Jimmy (James Coco), a gay actor who drowns his sorrows in food, and Toby Landau (Joan Hackett), a beautiful bitter socialite whose main achievements are the rich men who have fallen in love with her. When we first meet Georgia, she is a voice in the dark behind the opening credits talking to her psychiatrist. ''The funny thing,'' Georgia says, ''is that I don't particularly like drinking, but I like bars. I like the people you meet in bars. I don't like the taste of liquor, but when I drink I'm very funny. At least, that's what people tell me later.''

A number of crises are waiting for Georgia when she leaves the clinic. Her teenage daughter Polly (Kristy McNichol), whom she neglected as a child, wants to move back in, though they still have to repair their relationship. Polly has the kind of wisdom given to teenagers in farces. Former boyfriend David (David Dukes), a writer and heel, has just penned a new drama that he wants her to star in--a fictionalized version of their often-combative relationship. Off-screen there is also Georgia's ex-husband, who has remarried. Basically, the story is about a vain alcoholic Broadway actress who tries to stay sober while dealing with the problems of her teenage daughter and her friends, and a gay actor relegated to small roles in third-rate shows.

This drama by Neil Simon is not one of his typical comedies, though there are moments of humor in this moving and uplifting film. Using 15 lines from ''The Gingerbread Lady,'' his 1970 Broadway failure, Simon has written an upbeat, often funny and occasionally harrowing story about an alcoholic. It's one of his best, and it's been treated with care by Glenn Jordan, a television director whose first theatrical film this is. All the main actors are outstanding and earned many award nominations. Marsha Mason is excellent, and the film is impressive and unforgettable. David Shire composed the original music.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a young man struggling to make a living in NYC in the 1950s. While working at a party playing the piano, he is approached by wealthy Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn), who believes him to be a school friend of his son, Dickie. Greenleaf asks Ripley to travel to Italy to persuade Dickie to return to the US. Ripley agrees, even though he did not go to Princeton and has never met Dickie. He is offered $1,000 to carry out this job. In Italy Ripley meets Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), and quickly ingratiates himself into their lives. Over time Dickie begins to resent Ripley's presence and growing dependence, especially after he learns that Ripley has been lying about their days together at Princeton. Ripley's feelings are complicated by his desire to maintain the wealthy lifestyle Greenleaf has afforded him, and by his growing sexual obsession with his new friend.

As a gesture to Ripley, Greenleaf agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to Sanremo. The two hire a small boat and go sailing. They begin arguing while on board, with Dickie rejecting and mocking Ripley. Enraged, Ripley attacks Dickie, smashing him with an oar that kills him. Ripley then sinks the boat with Dickie's body on board to conceal his crime. When the hotel concierge mistakes Ripley for Greenleaf, Ripley realizes he can assume Greenleaf's identity. He takes on Dickie's signature and passport, and begins living off his allowance, while at the same time carefully providing communications to Marge to make her believe that Dickie has deserted her. "I feel like I've been handed a new life," he says. Greenleaf's old friend Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman) visits Ripley at what he supposes to be Greenleaf's apartment in Rome. He is immediately suspicious of Ripley. When Miles discovers Ripley's scam, Ripley murders him and dumps the body.

Ripley's life becomes a cat and mouse game with the Italian police and Greenleaf's friends. He must alternate between Dickie Greenleaf and Tom Ripley. His predicament is complicated by Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett), a wealthy heiress he met while traveling to Italy, who believes Ripley to be Dickie. Ripley eventually resumes his own identity, forges a suicide note in Greenleaf's name, and moves to Venice. Soon Marge, Herbert Greenleaf, and private detective Alvin MacCarron (Philip Baker Hall) confront Ripley. Marge suspects Ripley of involvement in Dickie's death, and Ripley plans to murder her. He is interrupted when Marge's friend, Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport), enters the apartment.

Near the end of the film, private detective MacCarron reveals that Mr. Greenleaf has decided to give Ripley a portion of Dickie's income with the understanding that certain details about his son's past not be revealed to the Italian police. Ripley goes on a cruise with Smith-Kingsley, his new gay lover, only to discover that Meredith Logue is also on board. Logue knows Ripley only as Dickie Greenleaf, and Ripley realizes it will be impossible to keep Smith-Kingsley from discovering that he has been passing himself off as Greenleaf, since Peter and Meredith know each other. He cannot solve this dilemma by murdering Logue, because she is traveling with a large family who will notice her disappearance. The movie concludes with a sobbing Ripley killing Smith-Kingsley to protect his secret, and returning to his cabin alone.

This psychological thriller features outstanding acting by the entire cast. It was filmed mainly in Italy with famous landmarks in the cities of Rome and Venice being used as a backdrop for the narrative. The musical score by Gabriel Yared is evocative and moving. Anthony Minghella wrote the screenplay, adapted from the acclaimed 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith. Anthony Minghella directed.

The Dresser (1983)

Set in 1940 England during the blitz, Sir (Albert Finney) is the aging star and manager of a Shakespearean stage company, leading his troupe of women and men too old or damaged to fight. All the young actors are in uniform, hospital, or dead. Sir gets by with the help of his dresser Norman (Tom Courtenay) a fussy, loyal, very English "nancy-boy" man behind the man, maintaining a desperate hold on his good humour even as his life is coming apart in shreds as Sir disintegrates. Norman deals with the egomaniacal old ham in the early stages of senility. The show must go on, despite bombing raids, Sir's collapse, and other difficulties. Sir and Norman act like an old married couple. While Norman is evidently gay, he is not the only one. The often talked about but never seen Mr. Davenport-Scott is the other, and the reason for his disappearance seems to be he was detained by the police for homosexual activity, a criminal offense in England at the time.

The film details a close and touching relationship as the dresser remains in the background while enabling the once great actor to continue his work. Mainly this is the story of two men, one an artist who is used to taking what he needs from those around him, and the other who gives his life over to that man. Though we see other people, the film is really a duet between Sir and Norman, his personal assistant, who gets him into costume and into shape to go onstage each night. Sir is on his last legs and Norman is his cheerleader, his parent, and whipping boy. Finney captures the proud insecurity of this aging ham, whose career has never quite matched his expectations but who convinces himself each night that a performance in the provinces is as important as playing London's West End. As far as the complaints that Finney chews the scenery a bit, just remember that he's playing an aging, egotistical scene-chewing actor. It's not a happy film, but it is a great backstage tale.

This film is an adaptation of the West End London and Broadway hit by Ronald Harwood. He based the play on his experiences as dresser to distinguished English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, who is the "Sir" in the play. "The Dresser" was first presented on March 6, 1980, at The Royal Exchange Theatre. The movie features well-timed direction, a sturdy plot, and very good acting. James Horner composed the original music, Ronald Harwood wrote the screenplay, and Peter Yates directed.

Alive & Kicking (1997)

Tonio (Jason Flemyng) is an arrogant narcissistic dancer with an artistic temperament who has lost his mentor, best friend, and lover to AIDS. He is a shameless flirt who stalks about like the young Rudolf Nureyev. Tonio has AIDS, but refuses to take drugs to fight the disease lest they interfere with his dancing. The story is set in 1995 London, so makes no mention of the new protease inhibitors that have rendered thousands of AIDS patients asymptomatic. A fatalist, Tonio has decided to keep on dancing for as long as he can, too proud to let his HIV-positive status interfere with either his career or his love life. Tonio is an obnoxious queen at times. But most of the time he is a man who lives by dancing. Although he denies it, he escapes through dance.

One night at a disco, Tonio meets Jack (Antony Sher), a stocky, balding older psychotherapist with a large AIDS clientele. These two opposite personalities begin a wary courtship that eventually lands them in bed. In the stormy love affair that develops, Jack, who is HIV-negative, proves as needy and vulnerable as Tonio. A heavy drinker who has absorbed too much of his dying patients' rage, he is prone to throwing nasty drunken tantrums, angry over the deaths of so many of his patients. The heart of the movie is an exploration of the relationship between these two volatile, complicated, self-absorbed individuals. Their love story is set against the identity crisis of Tonio's mostly gay dance company, whose cranky founder, Luna (Dorothy Tutin), seems to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. A running subplot that follows Tonio's friendship with a lesbian dancer named Millie (Diane Parish) feels tacked on, and a scene where they try sex is quite silly. You don't believe for a second that people as aware as these two would fool themselves into attempting such a childish experiment.

"Alive & Kicking" is the first screenplay by noted playwright Martin Sherman ("Bent") and the second feature to be directed by Nancy Meckler, whose debut film "Sister My Sister" won critical acclaim around the world. It has its weak and even embarrassing moments, but the performances of Jason Flemyng and Anthony Sher are excellent, and the entire cast is great. Peter Salem composed the original music.

If You Only Knew (1999)

Gen-X loser Parker Concorde (Jonathan Schaech) is a shy, aspiring writer who works as a telephone psychic by day and lives a lonely existence by night. When his apartment burns down he must find a new one. At first he stays at the home of his womanizing buddy Jack (James LeGros), who lives by the credo that "New York is a dessert tray of beautiful women." Then Parker meets beautiful Samantha, (Alison Eastwood), who is looking for a roommate for her fabulous loft in the Village. Samantha is a painter who dreams of studying in Paris and has a habit of getting involved with the wrong men. When they bump into each other in a Manhattan flower shop, it's love at first sight for Parker. Samantha has an affordable room available, and she likes having male roommates--but only if they're gay. Desperate, Parker decides to take the plunge, and passes himself off as a gay friend of a friend. An inevitable comedy of errors ensues, as Parker desperately tries to keep Samantha from learning his two secrets: he's not gay, and he's in love with her. But his romantic plans are frustrated when she keeps setting him up with her other gay friends.

This sweet romantic comedy features appealing and compelling characters. It's cute, lighthearted, entertaining, clean, and funny, with heart and a good story. Viewers comments are uniformly very good. One example: "This happens to be one of my favorite movies! I've seen it many times, and every time I love it even more. For the most part I think that this has happened to all of us. You try to be someone you're not to get something that you could have easily had if you were yourself. But each person has their own opinions and I love this movie, and recommend everyone to watch it." Bill Meyers composed the original music, Gary Goldstein wrote the screenplay, and David Snedeker directed.

Oi! Warning (1999)

Janosch (Sascha Backhaus) has problems at school and despises the lifestyle of his bourgeois mother. He runs away from home to his friend Koma (Simon Goerts), whom he had met at a holiday camp. Koma is an Oi! skinhead (punk-skinhead) who has little political motivations, preferring a lifestyle of partying and binge drinking, and enjoys skinhead and punk rock music. Janosch is struggling with his sexual identity, attracted to Koma, who doesn't seem to notice. Koma and his girlfriend Sandra (Sandra Borgmann) are expecting twins soon, but Koma invites Janosch to stay in their nursery for the time being. Before long, Janosch has cut off his hair and immersed himself in skinhead culture, but he finds little outlet for his homoerotic desires. Sandra wants Koma to change his ways. She blows up his secret hideaway with dynamite, but this only angers Koma, who blames this on the punks he had a fight with previously.

Sandra decides to find Janosch a girlfriend, specifically Blanca (Britta Dirks). However, while she takes a strong liking to him, he is not attracted to her. Janosch becomes aware of a group of self-styled "modern primitives" who modify their bodies with tattoos and piercings and encourage free sexual expression. He gets to know a few of them and becomes physically involved with Zottel (Jens Veith), a punk who earns a living with small circus acts at wealthy people's parties. The two fall in love. However, the skins regard the primitives as their enemies, and Koma is not at all happy with Janosch's new friends or the open acknowledgement of his homosexuality. Janosch's happiness ends when Koma attacks Zottel and kills him. In a fit of fury, Janosch grabs a brick and slays Koma.

This movie is the directorial debut of the Reding twin brothers and took about five years to film, mostly due to financial constraints. It is shot in black and white, underscoring the film's gritty feel. The film won the German Camera Award and an emerging talent award at the L.A. Outfest. Tom Ammermann composed the original music, and Ben Reding and Dominic Reding wrote the screenplay. In German with English subtitles.