Fundamentalist Christianity takes a good kickin' and lickin' in Karen Maine's comedy, YES, GOD, YES

The fundamental hypocrisy embedded in fundamentalist Christianity (yes, in all fundamentalist sects) has been on full display for... what? The past few centuries maybe? So the absolute and often appallingly stupid examples delivered up in the new sex-and-religion comedy YES, GOD, YES ought not come as a surprise to any but the youngest and/or most naive viewers.

This does not mean, however, that these examples do not remain amusing and fun -- even for some of us more aged/jaded audience members.

As written and directed by Karen Maine (shown at left), whose first full-length feature this is, the movie manages to entertain a lot, while provoking just a bit, thanks to the casting of actress Natalia Dyer (shown above and below) in the lead role of a very naive teen named Alice who, thanks to an earlier iteration of the internet (the film takes place maybe 15-20 years ago), is suddenly awakened to sex and its accompanying pleasures -- particularly that of masturbation.

As James Rado informed theater- and movie-goers a few decades back, via his lyrics for the musical Hair, "masturbation can be fun." So can so much else to do with sex (all of which can be problematic, too), yet the restrictive rules placed upon humanity by religion preclude our growth, enjoyment, autonomy and much else where sex is concerned.

Ms Maine and her movie mean to combat this, and they do via a situation which may by now be a bit tired but still engages, and by means of a well-chosen cast which, in addition to the charming, sweet and ill-used character played by Ms Dyer, includes the likes of Donna Lynne Champlin (above, right, of Crazy Ex Girlfriend), Wolfgang Novogratz (below, of The Half of It), and

Timothy Simons (Jonah on Veep), shown at far right below. Though mostly used in one-note fashion, these actors still deliver the necessary goods and keep the ball rolling along in pleasant if standard fashion. The film's best scene, because it veers just a bit from the expected, takes place toward the finale in a local lesbian bar during which our heroine finally gets some advice from an adult that she can actually use and run with.

One might also wish for less obvious coincidence: Would a priest in charge of a school really watch pornography on his office computer with his door wide open for anyone to see? Would the supposedly goody-goody girl go down on her boyfriend on school grounds where they can easily be caught? (TrustMovies could handle only one out of two; you might manage both.)

Still, the sweet, dorky and always believable Ms Dyer quickly becomes the centerpiece that holds it all together, demonstrating once again how, when fundamentalism comes up against inquiring minds and raging hormones, the battle is likely to be funny, silly and a little sad.

From Vertical Entertainment and running just 78 minutes, Yes, God, Yes opens July 24 at Virtual Cinemas and Drive-ins then hits Digital and VOD on Tuesday, July 28.

Blu-ray debut for another under-rated Philip Ridley film, THE PASSION OF DARKLY NOON

Only eight months ago, we were treated to the Blu-ray debut of Philip Ridley's first full-length film, The Reflecting Skin, and now we're graced with the same for his second feature, THE PASSION OF DARKLY NOON.

Released theatrically back in 1995, the film not only holds up far better than it did (for most critics) at the time of its release, it actually seems a much stronger film today, what with its major theme of how religious fundamentalism destroys lives being ever more timely and important.

Though Mr. Ridley, pictured at left, has only three full-length films (a sort of trilogy, the filmmaker has suggested) to his credit (his last was the dark, marvelous and best-of-the-lot Heartless from 2010), the man -- as we learn from the superb 20-minute appreciation by James Flower that is part of the disc's Bonus Features -- is a polymath: a fine artist, writer, playwright and filmmaker. He can probably cook, too.

As much as I love Ridley's work, and even after viewing and listening to Mr. Flower's fine appreciation, TrustMovies feels that each of the filmmaker's movies has been better than its predecessor. On second viewing, The Reflecting Skin -- a kind of indictment of America and its supposed values -- simply bites off more than it can properly chew, interesting as it is to contemplate, as well as gorgeous to view.

The Passion of Darkly Noon, on  the other hand, for all the drama and melodrama on hand, tells its urgent story extremely well, with literally every scene and theme necessary and contributing by the finale to a quite satisfying whole. The title role -- an unusual one for the actor Brendan Fraser (above) -- is played very well indeed, as are all in the quintet of supporting roles.

In the film's opening, we see Darkly running and running through a forest until he collapses and is later found by a local (the uber-charming Loren Dean, above), who transports him to the nearest house, inhabited by Callie (Ashley Judd, below, who has never looked hotter nor more gorgeous)

and Clay (Viggo Mortensen, below, who always looks hot and gorgeous). Initially, it's only Darkly and Callie in this large house (he has a room atop the barn), and romance soon blossoms -- at least for one of these two. "We want you to be part of our family," Callie tells Darkly. "Don't ruin it."

The characterizations, via the excellent actors as well as from the screenwriting (also by Ridley), is strong and true. Even though the characters here tend to be either kindly or crazy -- one of these, the local undertaker, delightfully played by the late Lou Myers, is both -- the characterizations are nuanced enough to seem real and easily engage us.

The final member of the supporting quintet -- played with her usual truthfulness and ferocity by Grace Zabriskie, above -- is the craziest, for good reason. Together, these folk dance around and with our troubled Darkly. Add the boy's dead but still crazy parents to the mix, and you have an excellent recipe for disaster.

Ridley's penchant for fascinating byways -- into caves, hot springs (above), fantasy and really oddball visuals (the giant floating shoe is my favorite) -- is on full display.

Yet even the most unusual of these gets its own delightful, out-of-the-blue, well, of course! moment at the finale, making The Passion of Darkly Noon a very special kind of entertainment indeed.

The Blu-ray transfer is a very good one, and don't let the above photos fool you; they were all I could find, and they do not reflect the quality of that transfer.

From Arrow Video (distributed in the USA via MVD Entertainment Group/MVD Visual) and running a just-right 101 minutes, the movie arrives on disc -- with beaucoup Bonus Features -- this coming Tuesday, March 24, for purchase (and I hope somewhere, for rental, too). The shot of the barbed-wire bloody Fraser, two photos above, may give certain viewers an idea from where Paul Schrader got his inspiration -- other than from the Crucifixion itself -- for the finale of First Reformed.

HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY: Religion and sexuality clash in Stephen Cone's new film

HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY begins with some mutual masturbation by two friends, as one of them talks about the girl he wants to fuck. And the other boy? Well... he doesn't seem so interested in that girl. Turns out that both these adolescents, having a sleep-over, are quite religious (Christian fundamentalist variety), and tomorrow is the birthday of one of them: our hero, Henry Gamble.

The writer/director, Stephen Cone, shown at right, is especially adept at exploring the subtlety of relationships and how these are expressed -- those of the boys to each other and to their friends, particularly the one black kid in the midst of all these whites. (He is played with a nice mixture of inquisitiveness and care by Daniel Kyri, shown at center, below.)

Mr. Cone's dialog is smart and real, with all the exposition nicely buried within the off-hand speech and behavior, as well as in the situations that arise, most of them fraught yet somewhat hidden. Soon enough we see the hypocrisy of fundamentalist Christianity bubbling to the surface of things, as friends and neighbors congregate for the party of this very well-liked young man who is struggling with his own sexuality and how to express it.

The film is blessed with a cast of young and middle-aged actors who form such a fine ensemble that you feel they've known each other over a lifetime. So, for at least the first half of this 87-minute movie, incident barrels along and character grows.

In the leading role, Cole Doman (above and below) makes an auspicious debut, and the rest of the well-chosen cast is not far behind him.

But then Mr. Cone begins adding too much individual crises to the mix so that, very soon, melodrama sets in. This is not deadly -- the movie's still amusing and fun -- but it does take what initially seemed like a smart and realistic look at religion, family and sexuality and then turn it into something approaching soap opera, as too many heavy-duty changes occur too fast.

This is too bad because the first two-thirds of the film are quite fine (the ending, in fact, is lovely!). But the filmmaker can't quite negotiate the narrow strait he has created -- that birthday party -- because of all the sudden trauma on view. So intent is Cone on demonstrating how even a very religious family needs to find a way to encompass love, growth and open sexuality that he takes things just a little too far.

Henry Gamble's Birthday Party -- from Sunroom Pictures, in association with Chicago Media Project -- will open in New York at the IFP's Made in NY Media Center on January 8th, before expanding to additional markets and VOD platforms. (That's Elizabeth Laidlaw, above, who does a fine job playing Henry's gracious and caring mother.)

Ray Comfort's AUDACITY: Can fundamentalist Christians handle homosexuality? Guess not.

AUDACITY is audacious, all right. But not, I'm afraid, in any smart way. TrustMovies was contacted by the PR arm of the film's distributor, explaining that the GLBT community was rising up against this new movie without even having seen it (they seem to be doing the same thing regarding the new GLBT-themed Stonewall, too). "It's not anti-gay at all," I was assured by the film's spokesperson. Unfair! thought I, and immediately resolved to view the movie and decide for myself. Having now done so, I'm not at all sure I would recommend this same course of action to my readers because, sure enough, Audacity is yet another ridiculous Fundamentalist Christian broadside against homosexuality in both its gay and lesbian incarnations.

And simply because the film appears to be "being nice" to the LGBT community via a lamebrained interviewer who keeps noting how he does not want to offend anyone -- while offending the audience something fierce by doing little more than quoting scripture that damns homos to hell. (Yep, The Bible is the only thing that counts in this movie's universe.) Worse, almost all of the people this guy interviews sit there like bumps on a log, simply agreeing with him and politely waiting for the next insult to smack them in the kisser. Gays and lesbians this passive and sweet must have been lobotomized some time back. Bullshit, say I, while advising the filmmaker to grow up, try thinking for himself for once, and opening up his mind to science or something, anything, other than blind faith.

That filmmaker would be one, Ray Comfort, shown two photos above, who seems perhaps a better preacher than filmmaker. What he has produced here, in any case, is more sermon than movie. It is not even full-length or very professional, running under an hour (including a section at the finale during which we viewers are urged to get out there and proselytize for Jesus). What story there is includes a cobbled-together hash of so-so stand-up comedy (consisting of mostly impersonations), highly coincidental plotting, and seemingly endless proselytizing -- for Christianity and against gays. The plot doesn't even appear to coincide with what the press information says about the film -- to the point that I began to wonder if I had been sent some kind of alternate or shortened version.

On the plus side, the acting is at least competent, and some of the dialog is believable, even if the plot's several incidents provide enough overwrought melodrama to choke the proverbial horse.  But the film's insistence on comparing homosexuals to adulterers, blasphemers, thieves, and other wrong-doers (at least they leave out bestiality!) is as good an indication as any that all these poor dumb folk can manage is to cherry-pick the scriptures so that they're able to finger-point once again.

Audacity is yet another commercial for Christianity foisted upon the public as a legitimate motion picture. Enough already. From Living Waters and running 55 minutes, the film is available now on DVD. 
Click here for more info.

God's back -- and Pure Flix has got him! Gabriel Sabloff's film, REVELATION ROAD: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, hits DVD

TrustMovies watching a Christian movie? Yes, indeed. He tries to do this at least once yearly, just to note what those proselytizing folk of a certain faith are up to, film-wise. Whether it's something like Alleged (which attempts, poorly, to counter Darwinism) or What If... (which tells, and pretty well, a Christian-themed fairy-tale/fantasy), it is interesting, if generally depressing, to watch faith trump reality time and again with nary a nod to actual history, science (which, unlike "faith" and those "scriptures," grows and changes over time), psychology or for that matter poor, tired humanity itself.

This year's watch is a little movie with a very long title -- REVELATION ROAD: THE BEGINNING OF THE END -- far too lengthy to fit most movie marquees, so I am guessing that it must be god's will that it's going straight to DVD (and Blu-ray soon after). Note to film buffs: Do not mix this one up with either Reservation Road or Revolutionary Road, or you'll be in for a big surprise.

Directed, co-written and edited by Gabriel Sabloff, shown above, and starring David A.R. White (below, who is evidently Christian film's current go-to guy for leading roles) and Brian Bosworth, the former football player and short-time movie action star, who now seems to have graduated into villain roles (which, if this film is any indication, prove a better fit than did his attempts at playing hero during the 1990s).

Mr. Sabloff brings a professional eye to the visuals and gets decent performances from his actors. He hasn't staged the film's biggest action/gunfight scene very well, however, so that we don't at all believe that the threesome of two good guys and a gal could possibly survive the onslaught from a biker gang headed by Bosworth (shown sneering below).

This scene, which takes place at a roadside gas station/
convenience store, introduces us to the "family" that takes in the character Mr. White portrays, a man who clearly has been some kind of assassin or government operative and is now trying to live down his past. In these movies, the best way to do that, of course, is to become a Christian, so the store owner, played by the always capable Ray Wise (below, who often wipes the floor with the actors who surround him) goes into "conversion" mode.

By this point you will have noticed that rather a lot of bizarre storm and lightning effects have dotted the screen periodically, indicating, perhaps, god's wrath. (Or perhaps his goodness: He's so damned inscrutable, that god. Sometimes I think he must be, well, Asian!). All this leads to -- that's right -- The Rapture, a staple of these Christian films. As shown here, though it doesn't hold a candle to the version in the movie of that same name by Michael Tolkin, it still has its charms.

As does this entire, silly little film -- which will "convert-some-more" the already converted and leave the rest of us to chuckle and/or snicker, depending on our tolerance for fantasy passing itself off as religion. Or is it the reverse? In any case, those who enjoy this sort of thing will have more in store, as the finale leaves the door wide open for a sequel (or three) -- in which Logan White (pictured below), the lady who plays Bosworth's naughty-but-nice daughter, is sure to have more to do.

Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End, from Pure Flix, hits the street on DVD this Tuesday, March 12, with a Blu-ray version expected the month following on April 16.

Matthew Chapman's THE LEDGE explores our faith -- and where we elect to place it; a Q&A with the talented writer/director

An intelligent, anti-religion tract brought to thrilling, pulsating life, THE LEDGE may not be a great film but it is a very, very good one -- cleverly imagined, sharply written and beautifully acted by all concerned. Written and directed by Matthew Chapman (who is, not coincidentally, the great, great grandson of Charles Darwin), the movie's plot pits the mind and spirit of a Christian fundamen-talist against those of an atheist. At stake, is, well, everything. Is this movie provocative? Yes indeed.

That the Christian is acting against every tenant known to have come from Christ Jesus' teachings only makes the movie more realistic and believable so far as what has happened (and continues to happen) in these United States over the past decade or so. Those beautiful Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount -- landmarks of ethical behavior -- have long been left behind by the most zealous, proselytizing Christians in their hypocritical search to deprive homosexuals of their rights, find and kill doctors who practice abortion, and see that women return to their role as "helpmeet" to their man. Our Christian here is played by Patrick Wilson, above, in yet another performance so much better than it needs to be that perhaps they should create an award just for this particular skill. Mr. Wilson has moments of such specificity and honesty that, as dreadful as is the character he plays, the actor never loses us by descending to cliché.

The role of the atheist is essayed by Charlie Hunnam, above, and this is certainly the best job I have seen this young actor deliver so far. He brings a fine intelligence and quick, easy wit to the role, as well as an underlying seriousness and gravity that allow the film to take the course it eventually does.

Beginning with a scene that must be every father's quiet nightmare, in which Terence Howard (above) delivers yet another fine performance as a police inspector who suddenly discovers some unsettling news, the movie opens up into the workplace -- a rather standard, mid-level hotel, where Hunnam's character manages the chambermaid staff -- and the home, an apartment building in which both pro- and antagonist reside, the latter of which has a wife (Liv Tyler, below) who proves the catalyst for all that happens.

Ms Tyler is also giving a performance that as good as anything she's done so far. Playing a woman with a past who is stalled between gratitude and genuine love, she brings not only a tender neediness but surprising seriousness and heft to this role, and she is finally instrumental in allowing us to believe how very far these men would go to possess her.

There's a minimal subplot about Hunnam's gay roommate, which might seem unduly schematic were it not for the very charming, easy performance by Christopher Gorham (above). Homosexuality is the but first of the "sins" our good Christian hopes to eradicate in his neighbors. If only he had stopped there.

The Ledge -- from IFC Films, opens this Friday in theaters (in New York City at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Sunset 5), and is concurrently available via VOD -- incorporates several genres, but mostly stays in the will-he-or-won't-he (and why?) thriller mode. Chapman handles the flashbacks (necessary, when the tale begins on that ledge) with ease and smarts so that we know what we need to, when we need to, and learn the rest as we move along.  If you've seen as many man-on-a ledge films as have I over the past 70 years, you'll appreciate one as different and pungent as this. It proves its point efficiently and effectively, while entertaining us and making us think. Can you ask much more from a movie?

***************

TrustMovies couldn't, but he could and did ask the filmmaker a few questions -- via phone, but we spent about an hour just gabbing. Matthew Chapman (shown below) and I share a belief in atheism, if that is not a contradiction in terms, and he is such an interesting, open and enthusiastic verbal presence that conversation was easy and plentiful. Unfortunately, the fellow was so much fun, and so interesting at times that TM simply stopped typing and just kept talking and listening. Consequently, he failed to transcribe everything and then had to try to reconstruct it. Below are the highlights, with TM in boldface and Mr. Chapman in standard type.

Boy – how wonderful it is to see a movie about faith – but faith placed in something besides god. Your movie gives us faith in love, in another person, in a kind of “social contract,” in doing the right thing, in, well, anything but religion and that "un-provable" deity!

You got it. And I am so glad.

Yes, and I think most other critics and audiences are going to understand this -- and how important it is -- too.

Let’s hope.

What? You think that some -- even many -- critics will let their own need for religion stand in the way of their appreciation?

I would not be surprised.

I hope not. I read in our press material that you are the great, great grandson of Charles Darwin, so of course we would expect you to have some interest in challenging the fundamentalist religious viewpoint. But how did you get involved in making a movie about this?

I had already written two books about this sort of thing. As a young man, I wasn’t really interested in Darwin because, in Europe, there is simply nothing controversial about him or about evolution. I thought that maybe the sort of odd and quirky piece of luck of being a descendent of this man might provide me with some interesting battles to fight and places to go.

So I wrote the book Trials of the Monkey: An Accidental Memoir about the Scopes Trial, and I took a road trip down to Dayton, Tennessee, to see the town where the original trial took place and to learn if it had evolved since 1925.

Had it?

It certainly had not. It seemed pretty much the same, maybe even a little less tolerant. I did meet some great people down there, however. I met a lot of people who were fundamentalists, and some of them were really terrific in certain ways.

Then I wrote a second book called 40 Days and 40 Nights, about a contemporary evolution-versus-creationism trial in Harrisburg, PA: Kitzmiller v. Dover Schooboard. There, fundamentalist parents had gotten control of the school board and instituted the teaching of creationism/intelligent design, as well as evolution. It got very ugly, and eleven parents sued to have the intelligent design taken out of the curriculum.

What confuses me – and I come from a very religious background as a (now-lapsed) Christian Scientist – is how welcoming and kind Christ Jesus was in literally everything he said and did (except maybe whipping the money-lenders out of the temple, which is something we could use a lot more of just now). And yet the Christian fundamentalists, in their hatred and anger, seem completely unaware that they are going directly against Jesus’ wishes and directions.

I believe these people wear a Jesus costume -- but inside they are Moses.

Oh, boy -- that was well said. Is that original?!

Yes, and it just came to me now, talking to you

Did you cast the movie yourself? Fine choices! Charlie Hunnam was particularly good: he -- and you and your writing -- really capture the mind and heart of an intelligent atheist.

Yes, and you know, we only had a single day to rehearse.

One day? Boy, in legitimate theater you’d have a lot more than that!

I’m sure. I was indeed involved in the casting, and this was exactly the cast I wanted, and I think all of the actors are so good, so exceptional. I think that Liv Tyler and Charlie Hunnam are as good as they have ever been, and of course, Patrick Wilson and Terence Howard are always so good.

Wilson is so effortlessly good at being cold, and yet in other roles – like the current Insidious – he’s full of innate charm. Tyler, under-used and often given a bad rap, really proves herself here. And Hunnam is just about perfect as a non-believer who’s whip-smart and won’t put up with any bullshit. And it is his character most of all that nails your thesis, I think. The fact that genuine faith need not be at the service of god or religion.

You know, I went to show this film at a meeting of more than 1,000 atheists in Des Moines, Iowa, and around 120 of them were either military or ex-military. I met many of them, talked and hung out with them, even got drunk with them. Clearly, these were people who would have sacrificed their lives for their comrades in war. So it’s clear that people do sacrifice their lives out of and for simple human decency, without any promise of an afterlife.

You may not know the answer to this, but do you think that your actors’ interest in this film came somewhat because of its (and maybe their own) take on religion and fundamentalism?

 
I didn’t probe into that question with them, except a bit with Charlie, because of the particular role he had. There are parts of actors that which you honor better, if you let them keep a few things to themselves. You get more out of them that way.

That’s true, I think. I used to act. Way back.

Really?

Yeah, but I couldn’t mange it for long. It’s such a difficult struggle. You have to be so strong to take that near-constant rejection.

My daughter now wants to be an actress. And I worry about this.

I think if parents -- and I suspect you have already done this -- provide their kids with the tools to form their own good self-image while growing up, then whatever career the kids decide to tackle, they’ll have a better chance of success.

Well, one thing I did tell my daughter is, Just keep your sense of humor. That is so important. Really, that’s probably why England survived the Blitz and WWII. Hitler had no sense of humor, but Churchill certainly did. If you have as sense of humor, this can really help take the pressure off.

Can we talk about Heart of Midnight?

(Chapman laughs) 
{Editor’s note: This was one of Chapman’s earlier films.}

Sure. Actually, that’s why I stopped directing. We had a disagreement on what the movie should be. I wanted it to be an art movie, the producer wanted a horror movie. And so the finished film was constantly fighting against itself. After that, I thought, I don’t want to get rushed into another movie where I don’t care about the ideas or don’t understand them.

It's funny, but I remember thinking, when I saw it when it first came out, that this was a movie that didn't know what it wanted to be.  Then came Consenting Adults…

Another movie with problems.

The Color of Night, which for all its bad press, was still kind of fun in a campy way. And then What’s the Worst that Could Happen? What was that last film like to work on?

That was one of the best scripts I ever wrote. Donald Westlake, from whose novel I adapted the screenplay, wrote me, telling me that this was “the best adaptation of any of book of mine, ever” – which I am really proud of! But you do this work and think you’ve written a good script, and then…. the director comes aboard. So, after about 20 years of people misdirecting your work, you finally think, “Well, I‘d like to mis-direct my own work.”

Runaway Jury, though – now that was another good script --and a good movie!

Yes, but because The Insider has just come out and was about the prosecution of the tobacco industry, the producers wanted me to find another subject in place of tobacco, since they had bought the right to the Grisham book. So I turned the subject to the wrongdoing of a gun manufacturer. I did a lot or research into issue of guns their control and distribution. For instance, when you pull the magazine out of certain guns, often that gun is left with a bullet in its chamber.

What? Really?

Yes. So people pick up the gun and think that because there is no magazine in it, it’s empty. But, still, there’s a bullet in the gun. Gun companies could get around this by doing all kinds of things, but they just don’t bother. And that’s disgusting.

Yep. I’d like to think that Runaway Jury at least got viewers thinking about guns and gun control. Before I forget, are Hussy and Stranger’s Kiss (these are two of Chapman’s earliest films) available on DVD or streaming?

You know, I don’t really know. And also, the things you did way back then are from such a different time that it’s like a different person wrote them.

Yes: I used to write plays, and when I look back at them 30 years later, it’s like they belong to someone else.

While you might change some things and make it better, you can’t really capture the spirit that was you at that time. I would love to write for the theater. The famous theater director Peter Hall has a son Edward Hall, who runs The Hampstead Theater and he wants me to turn The Ledge into a theater piece. Which I hope to do.

I can see that happening fairly easily, for there is already so much good dialog there. If somebody had told me that The Ledge was already based on a play, I’d have said, “Of course.”

Speaking of Darwin, did you see the movie Creation, and what did you think? I thought it could have been better but even so, there were some marvelous things in it.

I was hoping they would ask me to write Creation. But they didn’t. But I thought the movie had some wonderful stuff in it, too. You know, Darwin was such a scientist – and interested in so many different things. He wrote this enormous book about orchids and earthworms; he really had a scientist’s mind.

Were you raised in England?

Yes, in Cambridge.

I notice during the end credits that you dedicated your movie to two names.

Yes -- to two men Dick Chapman (my uncle) and Ben Duncan, who was his partner and is now his husband. They were the first couple to marry in Cambridge, England, and are somewhat, you might say, gay icons. I love them. They were the only functional couple in my entire childhood. I love and revere them because they were such a good example to me. They were also a huge inspiration to the film -- because homophobia is one of the most awful and visible aspects of religion in general and of Christians, Muslims and Jews in particular. But I don’t think I know a single religion that isn’t homophobic. When I was growing up, these two men who lived next door to me. If they had been caught, simply as two practicing homosexuals, they would have faced up to 30 years in prison during the 1950s and 60s – that was the maximum sentence in Britain. From the age of eight or nine, I thought this law was outrageous and very peculiar.

Where does this hatred come from?

One does not have far to look. The Church of England was always very homophobic.

Still is, pretty much.  Now, your movie is opening simultaneously in New York and Los Angeles, right?

Yes, but whether it opens nationwide depends on how it does in the first couple of weeks. So whether it makes it into the smaller town or even mid-size towns in American – which is where it really needs to be seen -- depends on how well it does in those first couple of weeks.

Because it’s from IFC, it’ll still be available via VOD all over the country.

Yes, but to be really empowering and to provoke discussion, it needs to open in a local theater where the local critic will then cover it.

Right – although more and more often now, you see VOD debuts and straight to DVD covered by the media, especially the blogs. 

But we need to get the major critics to do this, too.

Yes -- so we will do what we can.  Thanks so much for your time, Matthew, and I wish you the very best for your really special and provocative film.

Thank you.