OUTFEST CONCLUDES: Reports from the final weekend

Outfest 2010 is now history. The 28^th annual gay Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival completed its 10 day run, leaving moviegoers delighted and exhausted.

As always, by the final weekend, Outfest begins to feel like an endurance test. So many movies still to be seen, but fatigue catches up with you too. Still I saw some great films, caught up with friends I only seem to run into at Outfest and had some incredible conversations.

This year’s Outfest seemed to run more smoothly than ever. Oh, it’s always been a well-oiled machine, at for as long as I’ve been attending. But this year everything seemed to go better than ever. The volunteer staff is to be commended on the superb job they did.

Now we can all get some sleep and start anticipating next year!

Here’s a run down of the movies I saw during the final weekend.

Role/Play

Kind of a gay version of My Dinner with Andre, this is a talky movie that raises lot of provocative points. But also manages to throw in some hot sex scenes too.

Closeted soap opera actor, Graham Windsor gets outed and retreats to Palm Springs to let the scandal die down. There he encounters Trey Reed, a pro-gay marriage advocate who’s in hiding because his husband left him for another man. These
two start fighting about all range of gay political issues until anger leads to passion. But along the way, they nicely represent various points of view within the gay community – being closeted, gay marriage, celebrities coming out, the state of the gay press and even the younger generation’s lack of knowledge about gay history/culture.

Real life couple Steve Callahan and Matthew Montgomery play the warring Graham and Trey. They’ve got great chemistry and handle incredible amounts of dialogue seemingly effortlessly. Callahan is especially good at playing the inner turmoil of his character while remaining cool as a cucumber
on the outside. Montgomery is saddled with most of the preachy dialogue, managing to effectively deliver the official gay party line while letting the doubts he’s experiencing come through too.

Shot on a shoestring budget in 8 days, the film looks fantastic. And an original score by Jake Monaco adds to the lushness of the film. Writer/director Rob Williams (who did last year’s very fun Make the Yuletide Gay) is known for his speedy film shoots, but this film doesn’t look or feel as rushed as his earlier work. Williams clearly put extra time in developing the script and assuring that multiple political points of view were represented.

The film’s biggest problem is that it is too preachy. There’s lots of talk and no action on screen. Major discussions happen while the two are merely sitting on the sofa rather than doing something while they talk. Their conversations are interesting but just beg for them to happen like they would in real life – while other things are going on. Surely they could have had some of these discussion while fixing breakfast or frolicking in the pool.

Shot entirely at a gay resort in Palm Springs, the film feels claustrophobic – it never goes outside the walls of the resort. That move was likely done to save in filming costs. But it also effectively creates a sense of the walls which these characters have built around themselves.

Grown Up Movie Star

To think I woke up from a nap to rush to the theater for this film that put me to sleep.

Filled with unlikable people who do nothing to make themselves endearing to the audience, this film is bleak and depressing. But it’s portraying a depressing situation. A teenage girl feels trapped in her life on Newfoundland. A distant father, an annoying sister and a sexually interested older man for a next-door neighbor just add to her misery. And since she’s miserable, she makes it her mission to make everyone else miserable to. When she discovers her dad
having sex with another man, she uses this to her full advantage.

Shot in the middle of winter, the bare trees and snow covered streets aren’t picturesque the way most movies set in winter are. Instead, the frozen, cloud covered countryside where nary a ray of sunshine is seen, add to the feelings of isolation and depression.

The performances are excellent. Titiana Maslany, plays the teenage Ruby with so much angst, it’s amazing she survived the film shoot. She got much deserved kudos at Cannes and no doubt has a lush acting career ahead of her. Shawn Doyle plays her father, a former hockey star still trying to keep his homosexuality a secret in his tiny hometown, with the right amount of frustration and anger. Other performances are equally strong.

But the actors forgot to give the audience something to like in their characters. That’s probably a weakness of the script, but the end result is these aren’t characters you want to spend any time with.

Florent, Queen of the Meat Market

For 23 years, the hippest place to be in lower Manhattan was Florent, a diner with a bistro quality menu. Located in the heart of the meat packing district, this restaurant was responsible for revitalizing the area, making it
into a trendy area. Open 24 hours a day, Florent brought in hipsters and stars, gays and straights, locals and tourists. It was the place to be, right up until the end when it was forced to close after the building’s owner raised the rent too high.

This documentary chronicles everything that was great about Florent. The hip clientele. The wait staff that not only served the dinners but also performed in the tiny space. The ultra-imaginative advertisements. The
tote board announcing owner Florent Morellet’s ever-changing t-cell count.

At the Outfest screening, transplanted New Yorkers showed up to pay homage to the great restaurant and its amazing owner. Interestingly, Florent (pictured right) told crowds that he hates restaurants, that he considered himself merely cooking for friends. “The health of my customers was my first concern,” Florent said. “Entertaining and having a good time were more important to me.”

For those who frequented Florent, this film was a fitting way to say goodbye. For those who had never been, it let them know about a party they should have been a part of. I certainly wish I had been.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

One of the biggest entertainment draws in New Zealand is a country music/comedy act made up of lesbian twin sisters. Hard to imagine something like that in the United States, but in New Zealand, they’re viewed almost as a national treasure.

And they’ve been out and proud their entire career. They never fail to talk about gay rights or discuss their own lives in their performances. In fact, The Topp Twins are credited with helping to normalize homosexuality in the minds of the kiwis. Their star status is credited with helping the New Zealand parliament readily pass gay rights legislation.

This film celebrates all that is great about the Topp Twins – Jools and Linda Topp. Reminiscent of the Smoothers Brothers in their subversive but oh so entertaining stabs at social convention and hegemony,
these two have lots to says and lots of great ways for delivering their messages.

They sing country-folk songs on stage. But they also have an arsenal of great comedic characters they perform as too. There’s Camp Leader and Camp Mother, garden club patrons Mavis and Luna and yodeling pig farmers Hertie and Gertie. They even have Ken and Ken, a pair of male characters who some fans follow so fanatically, they believe they’re real men.

This film is joyous and whimsical. And most importantly, it leaves you wanting more. You want to see more of their characters and hear more of their songs. It makes you wish the Topps would storm America.