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CategoryFilm Reviews

Posted Female Filmmakers

Ekaj

“I don’t know how to love… If I could start all over, would I do the same thing?”

Ekaj (Jake Mestre) arrives in New York City after fleeing his emotionally abusive father. He’s a young beautiful gay teen looking for his place in the world. Unfortunately the cycle of abuse continues. He gravitates towards men who take advantage of his vulnerable state including his new boyfriend Johnny (Scooter LaForge), a narcissistic painter who exploits Ekaj for his own twisted pleasure. One day in the park, Ekaj meets Mecca (Badd Idea), a fellow hustler. In Mecca Ekaj finds a kindred spirit and the two quickly bond. Their friendship is the only truly good situation in their lives. Mecca suffers from AIDS and drug addiction. Ekaj escorts to make money which has the unfortunate affect of exposing him to more physical abuse. Can Ekaj find some semblance of stability and contentment?

“Men are very insecure. I hate men. I even hate myself.”

Ekaj is a modern day Midnight Cowboy. It’s raw, gritty, sensitive, organic and real. The camera gets right up into the faces of its subjects and we can’t help but be emotionally invested in Ekaj. The film was written, directed and produced by Cati Gonzalez and features an all-male cast. This makes for an interesting gender dynamic having a female POV on the lives of men. The two leads are of Puerto Rican descent and I love that this is an indie film by a female filmmaker with queer Latino characters. The scenes between Jake Mestre and Badd Idea are really the heart of the film. Their tender friendship is beautiful to see even in the midst of their harrowing struggles. Ekaj serves a window into the world of a marginalized community and encourages the viewer to find some empathy within themselves.

https://vimeo.com/42660732

Ekaj is available on streaming from Amazon Prime (worldwide) and Tubi (US).

Posted Film Reviews

Summer Night

Joseph Cross’ directorial debut Summer Night offers us a glimpse of young adults as they navigate life, love and friendships. All of the characters are at a crossroads in their lives and their situations vary by degree. News of a surprise pregnancy, a mugging, a first date, a love triangle, a break-up and other events lead up to the big music show where all the characters convene. They’re all connected to each other in some way. The film offers a slice of life view into their world and while there are multiple characters, each with their own distinct story line, the viewer won’t feel overwhelmed. We don’t need to get to know them any better than we do nor does the story pretend to offer more than it does. This is just one night filled with booze, pot, music and plenty of romance.

Summer Night offers a lighthearted drama with comedic moments and is a great vehicle for its up-and-coming young talent. The most notable of the bunch is singer/actress Victoria Justice who plays Harmony, a punk beauty who goes on a date with Jameson (Ellar Coltrane) only to find out he still harbors feelings for Corin (Elena Kampouris). She’s not in the film all too much but her scenes are a high point. I always was impressed with Ella Hunt and Callan McAuliffe who play Dana and Taylor respectively. These two have a sweet and tender romance that is really the heart of the film.

This is a personal pet peeve of mine but I hate that the women are all dressed up and presentable and the guys look like they’re overdue for a shower and in desperate need of some clean clothes. A partricularly egregious example of this is the character Jameson. He has greasy, unkempt hair and dresses in the shabbiest of outfits to go on a first date. How is that supposed to make a good impression? I didn’t see why Harmony and Corin were even remotely attracted to him. This just perpetuates the stereotype that it’s okay for guys to look however they want but women have to always look their best.

Summer Night is directed by Joseph Cross and written by Jordan Jolliff. It’s distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and is available to watch on VOD.

Posted Documentaries

Queering the Script

Queering the Script is a new documentary written and directed by Gabrielle Zilkha that explores the effect television has on queer women and vice versa. This is a community that has long been craving representation on screen. From the early days of the internet, queer women have been flocking to message boards to discuss subtext. Online they shared ideas and stories and imagined their favorite TV characters in romantic relationships that otherwise wouldn’t have happened on screen. As the internet evolved and queer female characters became more prevalent on TV, the community got bigger, stronger and more outspoken. The fandom became a force to be reckoned with. This community channeled their energy into all sorts of creative outlets including cosplay, fan art, fan fiction, etc. They traveled to festivals and conventions where they were able to meet their favorite celebrities and bond (and fall in love!) with other queer women. This gave birth to Clexacon, the largest fandom event for LGBTQ+ women and allies.

One of the biggest takeaways from Queering the Script is how queer women have been a driving force in entertainment. They have been outspoken about visibility and representation and this has had a direct effect on storylines and relationships between characters. This has lead to more queer characters on screen. However, there has been an adverse affect of the increase in queer female characters in television. Between 2015 and 2017, over 60 of these characters were killed off. Queer characters are not often the lead protagonists thus easier to kill off and this trend, referred to by the community as Bury Your Gays, had a devastating effect.

Various experts, mostly queer female journalists from a variety of outlets but also fans and TV writers, are interviewed in the documentary. Shows discussed include:

  • The 100
  • Black Lightning
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Carmilla
  • Ellen
  • Glee
  • Jane the Virgin
  • The L Word
  • One Day at a Time
  • Orange is the New Black
  • Orphan Black
  • Person of Interest
  • Riverdale
  • Supergirl
  • Wynonna Earp
  • Xena: Warrior Princess

Queering the Script is an enlightening documentary that shines a much needed spotlight on queer representation. It tackles all sorts of subjects and doesn’t shy away from dealing with hot button issues like body image and racial diversity.

Queering the Script is currently part of Outfest 2019. 

Posted 3 Comments on Greta DVD Netflix

Greta

This post is sponsored by DVD Netflix.

It all started with a green handbag left behind in a subway car. Innocent enough. Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) spots the abandoned bag and looks through its contents finding the ID for one Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert) of Brooklyn. The Boston native has just moved to New York City after the devastating loss of her mother. Taking pity on the bag’s owner, she finds Greta, a lonely French widower and piano teacher who is very grateful to be reunited with her bag. The two become fast friends. Frances finds a mother figure in Greta and Greta dotes on Frances like she would her daughter who is away in Paris. Frances’ roommate Erica (Maika Monroe) thinks this is all a little suspicious but Frances shrugs it off as another of her roommate’s quirks. That is until one evening when Frances visits Greta, she discovers a cupboard full of green handbags, each with the name and phone number of other women. The realization of what she’s gotten into washes over Frances but it’s far too late. Greta begins to stalk Frances and the cat and mouse chase that ensues only intensifies the more Frances tries to escape Greta’s snare. 

“The crazier they are the harder they cling.”

Greta is a psychological thriller that taps into the innate fear of intimacy gone wrong. The vulnerability of letting someone into your private world already exposes us to potential hurt. Frances is already in a weakened emotional state after the loss of her mother and her move to a new city. Her friend, the worldly Erica tries to be her support system but Frances has serious mommy issues that Erica can’t help her with. Relationships between women, whether romantic, familial or platonic, are a different beast and this film explores that on a surface level but could have gone much deeper into the psychology of those bonds. The relationship between Frances and Erica borders on the romantic and I wish it had explored that potential not necessarily for curiosity’s sake but as a potential threat to both Frances’ emotional wellbeing and fuel for Greta’s psychosis. Erica was only slightly at risk and even though she’s not our main focus, having her be in significant danger would have turned up the tension several notches.

With that said, the film is incredibly tense and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I was emotionally invested in Frances and what became of her and Moritz and Huppert play off each other beautifully. Huppert as Greta is absolutely terrifying. Greta is a great villain but we don’t know much about her. We get little hints about her background but the audience doesn’t get much insight into her game and her other victims. While Greta was written by two men and directed by a man, Neil Jordan, it didn’t fall into the usual trappings of a male POV and I was grateful that it wasn’t a man who comes to a woman’s rescue. In fact the men in the film are fairly useless (for example, Stephen Rea plays an investigator who is no match for Greta) and the woman have to support themselves and each other. The film had potential. By not taking a deep dive into the psychology of the characters it just remains in the shallow end leaving viewers wanting more.

As a DVD Nation Director, I earn rewards from DVD Netflix. You can rent Greta on DVD.com

Posted Film Reviews

Rojo

“For a cop things are black or white. In the middle there’s nothing.”

The year is 1975. In a small province of Argentina, a group of people are quietly emptying a house of its most valuable possessions. It’s rumored that the family who lived there were the targets of a government raid and have since fled the country. This introduction tells us what we need to know about mid-1970s Argentina and the government corruption that endangers its own people.

Claudio (Dario Grandinetti) is a town counselor and lawyer. A tense confrontation with a stranger, later known as El Hippie (Diego Cremonesi), at a restaurant escalates and ends in tragedy. Claudio leaves this unfortunate event behind him and transitions back to his normal life with his wife Susana (Andrea Frigerio) and teenage daughter Paula (Laura Grandinetti). Corruption lurks around every corner as friends go missing. After arranging an underhanded deal with his friend Vivas (Claudio Martinez Bel) to buy the aforementioned house, Claudio discovers the true identity of El Hippie and that Vivas has hired former cop turned celebrity detective Sinclair (Alfredo Castro) to investigate. It’s only a matter of time for things to unravel for Claudio as Sinclair zeroes in on what really happened.

Written and directed by Benjamin Naishtat, Rojo is a moody and atmospheric drama that explores how government corruption enables the worst in human behavior. I found this film deeply unsettling. Right from the very beginning I got a sense of dread. As though danger were lurking at every corner. Why is the camera so still? Why is it looking at this house for so long? Is the house going to explode? It didn’t but that was the palpable tension that made me so engrossed in the film. 

Rojo means red in Spanish and the film utilizes the color in many ways. The most interesting use of the color comes from the scene when a solar eclipse casts a red glow. This is a pivotal point in the film as detective Sinclair has just entered Claudio’s life, stirring the pot and making Claudio very uncomfortable. Claudio and his wife escape to the beach where they witness the eclipse and this moment the beginning of an end of sorts.

Naishtat was inspired to make Rojo from his fascination with the 1970s and “the symbolic burden” the political persecution and exile of the Argentine people had on future generations. The overall theme of a greater evil threatening the personal freedoms of citizens is compelling and universal but really gives the viewers a sense of one of the darkest times in Argentina’s history.

Rojo opens in New York City at Quad Cinema and the Film at Lincoln Center on Friday and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal on July 19th.

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