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Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself
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Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations
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Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them
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E X C L U S I V E
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I T ' S A M A N ' S W O R L D A N D Y O U M E N C A N H A V E I T
Many thanks to Sitron Studios for these exclusive shots of the sizzling hot Curtis Carter, who graces the cover of the forthcoming KAOS THEORY #231.
BFI Flare 2016: I Promise You Anarchy
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"Miguel and Johnny live in Mexico City. Committed skateboarders and occasional lovers, they dabble in the illegal blood trade as a means of making extra money. Faced with an opportunity to up their cash flow by making a risky deal with a gang of black market drug traffickers, the boys hesitantly agree. But when the job goes sour they quickly find themselves drawn into a dangerous underworld." BFI FlareThere's a lot of skateboarding in Julio Hernández Cordón's Te prometo anarquía (English: I Promise You Anarchy). I'm no fan of skateboards. I mean, I love Back To The Future, which also contains lots of skateboard action, but crucially, it has a lot of other things going on, too. Y'know, like plot, character, energy... I Promise You Anarchy has none of these things.
Inert and vague, it frequently feels like nothing is happening, even when something is happening. Various issues are touched upon, but ultimately left unexplored: class, crime, sexual fluidity, immigration; we're always left guessing. The actors, non-professionals, do a good job, seemingly with nothing to work with.A horrific mass murder (which occurs offscreen) plays out like a storm in a teacup. No one onscreen really appears to care very much, and nor do we. This isn't anarchy, it's apathy.
BFI Flare 2016: Tangerine + Departure
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Tangerine"The tale of two transgender working girls on Santa Monica Boulevard set over the course of one Christmas Eve. Just returned from a brief stint in jail, Sin-Dee Rella meets her best friend Alexandra and discovers that Chester, her beau, has been cheating on her with a ‘white fish’ (a Caucasian cisgender woman). Determined to teach her a lesson, Sin-Dee goes on a hunt for Chester’s new girl." BFI Flare
One of my favourite movies of all time is the underappreciated Hangin' With The Homeboys (1991), which follows four friends (and frenemies) over the course of a night, as they battle from the Bronx to Manhattan on an ill-fated boys' night out.
Like Homeboys, the bittersweet Tangerine also follows friends/frenemies, the marginal on the margins of a great city - in this case Los Angeles - over the course of a single day (and night). Fast, fascinating and unrelenting, it's a tragicomic laugh riot.
Our two heroines, Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee Rella (Kiki Kitana Rodriguez), are mesmerising to watch, even when they seemingly aren't doing anything. Both Taylor and Rodriguez exude a heartbreaking vulnerability, that all the smart mouthing and shade in the world can't hide. No less watchable are cabbie Razmik (Karren Karagulian) and "white fish" Mickey O'Hagan.Like Beautiful Something, Tangerine - heartfelt, big-hearted, and beautiful - is a film I could easily see over again. Right now. Without a doubt, the highlight of this year's BFI Flare.
Departure"This drama focuses on Elliot, a sensitive adolescent, as he and his mother return to their holiday home in rural southern France for one final time. When he meets Clément, a handsome and friendly local boy, Elliot sees the potential for love. But his mother, who is attempting to come to terms with the break-up of her marriage, appears to resent her son’s newfound friend." BFI Flare
No one could accuse Departure of being big-hearted. Director Andrew Steggall bounded onstage to introduce the film, like, say, an Afghan Hound on Primrose Hill. When he spoke, something like Hugh Grant's voice emerged, and I knew we were in Brideshead Revisited territory. I hoped his film would be at least as entertaining as that.
Departure is a dispiriting, leaden film with a truly horrible lead: Alex Lawther (Elliot) is precocious and entitled, a deeply unpleasant brat carved out of something hard and nasty. The problem is we're expected to see him in a sympathetic light. His mother (Juliet Stevenson) is a brittle nightmare, the kind of woman you might see in Waitrose destroying a worker with passive aggression because there's no grissini. By the time Elliot's equally awful (do you see the pattern here?) father has turned up, I was hoping for some sort of familial murder-suicide, but alas, everyone is too well bred for that.
More disturbing is the depiction of Clément (Phénix Brossard), the French eye candy. There's a bitter taste of Empire in his depiction, of the ruling British class preying on the primitive, yet physically desirable, natives.Regardless of its inherent unpleasantness, Departure looks good. It's all very tasteful, very John Lewis. Steggall's peers will approve, which is what really matters, isn't it?
Depressingly, Departure was funded by the BFI: a rich kid's vanity project, filmed at a chum's luxury French chateau, boosted by establishment chums at the BFI, and now regurgitated by more well-to-do chums at Peccadillo. It pays to know the right people: Steggall will go far.
BFI Flare 2016: Beautiful Something
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"Four men’s lives intersect over the course of one long night in Philadelphia. Brian is an undisciplined poet who takes refuge from writer’s block and money troubles in sex and alcohol. Drew, an established sculptor, is frustrated by his younger boyfriend Jim’s yearning to escape. Jim, meanwhile, dreams of being an actor, so when he meets Bob, a rich businessman claiming to be an agent, opportunity seems to knock for both." BFI FlareSo far, Flare 2016 hasn't let me down. Despite some reservations over programmer Michael Blyth's all-white shorts' selections, and the fairly interminable Theo and Hugo, there hasn't been a lot to complain about. Surely we're due a bum note?
Not yet, not tonight. Writer and director Joseph Graham's Beautiful Something lives up to its name. It is gorgeous. Dreamy, hypnotic, haunting, it is without doubt a future classic. It's one of those rare pictures I immediately want to go back and watch all over again.
A film like this stands or falls on the performance of its ensemble cast (everyone is outstanding) and the likeability of its characters. And I don't mean "are they nice guys?" I mean, do we "get" them. Even though they might sometimes behave like assholes, do we still get them. In the case of Beautiful Something, the answer is yes. And like fellow festival flicks From Afar and Akron, it succeeds in rendering its location - Philadelphia - as a character.It doesn't hurt that the cast is also seriously sexy, particularly the penetrating Colman Domingo (Selma) and porcelain doll Zack Ryan.
This is one night you won't want to end.
BFI Flare 2016: Glitter Slush Neon Cake
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Remember when the festival started (that hotel room in Romania seems so long ago now...) I was lamenting the lack of diversity in the shorts programme? Recap: Sex, Love and Others Stories managed to string together a whole series of shorts about white gay men. And although I didn't manage to catch Deeper Understanding, another strand of shorts, that also appeared to be devoted entirely to white gay men. Both programmes of shorts seem to have been selected by the festival's Michael Blyth. |
| The Ballad of Ella Plummhoff |
Fortunately, Blyth isn't responsible for every shorts programme, and so Glitter Slush Neon Cake - three films selected by Jay Bernard - isn't all about white gay men.
First up is Die ballad von Ella Plummhoff (English: The Ballad of Ella Plummhoff), a lesbian coming of age story: "Ella has done badly at school so must spend the rest of the summer having remedial classes with a tiny, smart-ass lesbian several years her junior and who dresses like a Victorian maid. Yay!" Director Barbara Kronenberg's film is hilarious, touching, and an absolute joy. This little gem is one I'd welcome revisiting.
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| Floozy Suzy |
Hilarious also applies to Otavio Chamorro's Vagabunda de meia tigela (English: Floozy Suzy), a completely loca Brazilian short that shouldn't work, but so does. Flamboyant fag Jonas John has his sights set on the resident jock, but he must do battle (literally) with the most popular girl in high school. The answer? A love potion from the school's legendary and long lost book of magic. Loud, proud and laugh out loud funny, Floozy Suzy doesn't let up for a minute.
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| Lucid Noon, Sunset Blush |
Alli Logout's Lucid Noon, Sunset Blush sounds good on paper: "17-year-old Micha has just moved into The Palace – a basement full of queer femme sex workers, lovers and misfits. They are beautiful, carefree and as young as the night." F**king awesome, right? Well, sort of. Logout's cast enthusiastically talk over one another throughout the film, leaving us wishing for a little more focus, a bit more direction. Ten minutes in, and there was a palpable sense of frustration in the theatre. But I loved these people, I loved following them through the streets of LA and back home to The Palace. And what you're left with afterwards is a strong sense of having been there, of having being amongst these most fringe of misfits. That's a privilege.
BFI Flare 2016: From Afar + Theo and Hugo
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From AfarArmando [is] an upper middle class 50-year-old living in a poor neighbourhood in Caracas. A professional denture maker, Armando spends his free time cruising the city streets for young men, whom he invites back to his place with the promise of financial reward. One of these young men is Elder, a cocky 17-year-old who assaults Armando during their first encounter. However, Armando continues to find himself drawn to his latest object of desire, developing a curious fascination with him that is soon reciprocated. BFI Flare
Writing about writer and director Lorenzo Vigas' impressive debut isn't going to be easy. I'm still in shock. In fact, the twist in the final act was such a jolt I almost couldn't move from my seat afterwards. Even now, going over those final moments, I'm still thinking, "Wait a minute, he did what?"
But let's rewind a minute. At the core of From Afar are two incredible performances. Alfredo Castro is terrifying as the morose, ponderous Armando, conveying a life of disappointment and failure with posture, a look, and silence. Luis Silva, on the other hand, is positively feral, giving a mesmerising performance that veers from animalistic to crushingly vulnerable. There's another major character here, too: the city of Caracas, a simmering melting pot of humanity spilling across its dirty streets; you feel like you're actually there.From Afar isn't a romance, or arthouse indulgence. It's a simmering thriller, every minute that ticks away sees the tension ratcheting up. The payoff doesn't disappoint.
Theo and HugoI attend a dozen or so screenings at BFI Flare every year, and there comes a point when festival fatigue sets in. However much you love arthouse and indie, after cramming in two or three a day, over several days, you start to go a little nuts. Your patience starts to fray. You might wish for that two hour picture to be half an hour shorter. You see, that old saying "too much of a good thing" is true.
And so we come to Theo and Hugo, which is only ninety minutes long, but feels much, much longer. It opens with a lengthy orgy scene in "the legendary Parisian naked sex club L’Impacte", including real sex acts between our leads (yes, that is one of our leads erect penis. Yes, that is the other lead sucking it.) It's hard to know what the purpose of this is. Anyone, gay or straight, can easily view sex orgies with fantasy porn stars, or even with "real" guys and their flawed physiques. So this scene doesn't present any shock value, even when viewed in the National Film Theatre with hundreds of strangers. Nor is it very sexy. What it is, however, is interminably boring.
What follows - a wander through the streets of nocturnal Paris - isn't much better. Unlike the Caracas portrayed in From Afar, this city is empty, soulless. There's a lot of repetition, contrived false starts, forced angst. It's frustrating, an inversion of the will they, won't they narrative that traditionally builds up to an explosive sex scene. Here, we get the sex scene at the top of the page, and then a whole bunch of faffing around to fill out the rest of the time. Someone goes, then comes back, then goes off. He comes back, and the other one goes. And comes back.
Surprisingly, Theo and Hugo comes from Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, who directed The Adventures of Felix, one of the KAOS Top 30 Gay Films of All Time. But, overwrought and overlong, Theo and Hugo ain't no Felix.
Surprisingly, Theo and Hugo comes from Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, who directed The Adventures of Felix, one of the KAOS Top 30 Gay Films of All Time. But, overwrought and overlong, Theo and Hugo ain't no Felix.
Perhaps it was festival fatigue on my part, perhaps I might have enjoyed this film on its own - a rainy Monday night, a box of wine... Yeah, that might work. But this time around, Theo and Hugo just weren't a lot of fun to hang out with. And the orgy? Leave it to professional pornographers.
BFI Flare 2016: Akron + Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
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AkronBenny and Christopher are first year students at their local university in Akron, Ohio. When they meet on the sports field they discover a shared passion – for each other. The thrill of a blossoming romance soon develops into a steady relationship. Christopher’s parents are supportive and everything is going well, until a spring break trip to Miami to see Benny’s mother uncovers a tragedy that involved their two families almost a generation earlier. The shock of the revelation drives the boys apart, as each retreats to the comfort of their own family. Can this unfortunate shared history really destroy their burgeoning love?
This is a gay love story with a difference, in which the boys meet, date, fall in love, meet each others families... All the things straight couples get to do in romantic movies. Akron, it seems, is a place where homophobia doesn't exist. Some of us might find that a fanciful notion. Others might be glad of a change to the playlist.
Writer and director Brian O'Donnell debut feature is both flawless and accomplished. Akron, apparently, is a low budget feature, but you wouldn't know from looking at it. The film looks gorgeous. Veteran Flare programmer Brian Robinson asked O'Donnell at the Q&A where does Akron fit into Akron. The answer is there on screen, with every beautiful shot a love letter to the place.
Equally beautiful are the two boys (Matthew Frias as Benny, and Edmund Donovan as Christopher) who turn in delightfully naturalistic and understated performances. It feels, at times, like we're spying on something very private. That's a hard trick to pull off.Everyone involved should be very proud of this future classic.
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
Gay porn and gay history; what a heady mix. Writer and director Michael Stabile's film sheds light on the fascinating story of Chuck Holmes, the founder of the legendary Falcon Studios, who became obsessed with the notion of his legacy.
There is plenty of footage of older Falcon productions here, stretching back to the '70s, ensuring belly laughs at that much loved art form "porn acting" (being naturalistic is harder than it looks). But as fun as these clips are, they're less interesting than the story of the sex biz, politics, and hypocrisy that swirled around Holmes. And as a story of gay men in the '70s, '80s and '90s, AIDS inevitably rears its ugly head. All those clips of beautiful young men we all laughed at earlier in the film are followed by a sobering roll call of their death notices many of these print articles can be viewed at the film's official Facebook page). As always, we're left with less of a sense of shock at the losses, but with a feeling of astonishment that anyone survived the era.Seed Money also touches on Holmes' dubious attitude to race in porn, bigotry that continues to persist in the industry to this day. Although the documentary doesn't dwell on the issue, it's appropriate that it's addressed. Falcon continued after Holmes' demise, and we can only imagine what Holmes would have made of the fragmented and decimated industry that exists today.
BFI Flare 2016: Sex, Love and Others Stories
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Shorts programmes are always a gamble, and almost always disappointingly white. The world - as that wonderful SBS promo declared back in the '90s - is an amazing place. But gay cinema is still overwhelming about the stories of white gay men - and boys - in America, the UK and Australia. Why can't we have more stories from (particularly) Africa, the Caribbean, Asia? Are these stories just not being told? I find that hard to believe. The problem, I suspect, lies more with programmers, and their Caucasian bias.(BFI Flare's opening gala this year was The Pass, a film starring Russell Tovey and Arinze Kene. Except you wouldn't know that from the poster, which features both actors, but only features Tovey's name. The black guy, it seems, is merely a prop. And that's not a criticism of Tovey, who in my book can do no wrong, but of whoever designed that poster.)
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| The Love Archive |
The programme opened with Archion Ha'ahava (English: The Love Archive). Director Ofir Feldman's film - preceded by what felt like a dozen or so logos and idents from contributing sponsors (seriously, they went on forever) - was an interesting idea. Hands up who has a folder of pictures of their exs on their computer? It's an idea that was explored in a recent episode of Girls, in which Hannah discovers her boyfriend has photos of his exs on his phone, for masturbatory purposes. But we don't know Ofir, so it's difficult to care much about his love archive.
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| Dinner With Jeffrey |
Discretion (director: Tommy Garcia) is an odd one. I couldn't tell if it was an indictment of heteronormativity, or a vindication of it. At thirty-five minutes it shades into full length feature territory, and feels like the first act of Jennifer Lopez's The Boy Next Door. The boy in Discretion is Zach Gillette, the kind of all-American cornfed jock Falcon Studios said you should be dreaming about.
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| Discretion |
Sex, Love and Other Stories is two solid American pictures, bookended by two average foreign films. I was left wanting more.
BFI Flare 2016: The Pass
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"Ben A Williams’ feature debut is a brilliantly executed adaptation of John Donnelly’s acclaimed Royal Court production, detailing the journey of two young footballers over the course of a decade. The film opens with them holed up in a hotel room in Bulgaria the night before a big match and there’s tension in the air. These highly-trained, physical young men are best mates and rivals, playing out their insecurities through savagely hilarious verbal exchanges and sexually-charged hi-jinks. Money, sex and winning a place on the squad are their obsessions, but the laddish rhythms of their quick fire dialogue are interrupted by an unexpectedly intimate moment. The ‘pass’ of the title refers both to the games played on the pitch and off, the repercussions of which drive the film’s riveting narrative..." BFI Flare
Tonight's screening of director Ben A Williams' The Pass was also the world premiere, and leading men Russell Tovey and Arinze Kene were both out on the red carpet at Leicester Square's Odeon, looking as gorgeous in the flesh as they do on screen. Sadly, they were also fully clothed. Let's get this out of the way: Arinze Kene has a spectacular physique, with probably the most impressive chest this side of Atlanta. Nevertheless, Kene's attractions won't be enough to entice some black gay viewers, who will swerve the movie, perceiving it to be an interracial romance. That's a shame - and their loss - because The Pass is an intense, claustrophobic picture, with a rewarding payoff.
Adapted from the stage play of the same name, the film adheres closely to a three act structure; essentially it's a two-hander between Kene and Tovey, confined to three different hotel rooms. There's no stadia, no locker rooms. That's a good thing because Kene and Tovey's knockout performances deserve maximum screen time.Both actors are inspirational: Tovey - whose background is working class Essex - is a welcome contrast to the entitled Eton toffs who have largely taken over the UK arts scene - the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston. Kene, an accomplished playwright whose work focuses on creating new narratives for black people, is inspired by the writing of Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes!
But back to The Pass. It just doesn't put a foot wrong, and ends on a poignant masterstroke that left me trying to compose myself before the lights came up. It's agony, but beautiful agony.
To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged
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When love flies it is remembered not as love but as something else
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One of these things is not like the others
T H R O U G H T H E
L O O K I N G G L A S S
ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS
His wings were failing, but he refused to fall without a struggle
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People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness
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Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed
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Outside the arch, always there seemed another arch. And beyond the remotest echo, a silence
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