OPEN ROADS 2017 -- Part II: Here come Amelio, Aronadio, Vicari, Daneli and more

As TrustMovies viewed the remainder of this year's Opens Roads series 

of new Italian cinema, via The Film Society of Lincoln Center 

and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, he has posted each here.
 He was able to catch 13 of the 14 films, all but
a couple of which are very worth seeing.
Enjoy!

TrustMovies can verify how difficult it is to grow up in a family that is enmeshed in a lunatic religion. Most religions are exactly that (ultimate faith is, after all, a crazy deal-breaker for a rational person), but some religions are more loony than others. While mine was that of Christian Science (as practiced by my particular family, it was neither very "Christian" nor at all "scientific"), the religion in one of this year's Opens Roads series' better films is that of Jehovah's Witnesses.

As directed and co-written by Marco Danieli, it seems to me that the movie plays scrupulously fair with this religion, showing it -- crazy is it is -- to be peopled by folk who want and hope to do the right thing. Yet what this does to the children brainwashed by the religion via their parents and their church elders (shown above), however, proves very difficult. And so it is for the two sisters -- one nearly of age (Giulia), the other much younger -- whom we meet in THE WORLDLY GIRL (La ragazza del mondo). The younger is probably lost for good, having spent her entire life in this religion. The older one, though -- excelling in school and hoping to go to University (a no-no for the Witnesses) and still possessing a mind and spirit of her own -- is having quite the struggle.

Via an extraordinary young actress, Sara Serraiocco (shown above), this struggle is brought to pulsating life and truth to produce a memorable movie. So grounded is the film in the reality of the religion and of the outside world pushing in on it, as well as both the inner and exterior life of its heroine, that there is not a scene here that rings false. (How our girl slowly handles the desire for and then experience of sex is particularly well done.)

In the role of the young and very problemed fellow Giulia falls in love with is that fine actor, often seen at Open Roads, Michele Riondino (shown above), and he, too, is thoroughly genuine and believable in this catalyst role. The plot take numerous twists and turns, but given the character and background of its two protagonists, what happens, right up to and including the finale, makes perfect, if sad but salutary, sense. This character study -- of a religion and its participants -- is a must-see. The Worldy Girl screens only once: Saturday, June 3, at 4 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

One of the more bizarre entries in this year's Open Roads is THE WAR OF THE YOKELS (La guerra dei cafoni), an oddball combo of Romeo & Juliet/War of the Buttons with a heavy overlay of class consciousness and idiot humanity, Italian-style. The first hour (and more) of this 98-minute non-romp is pretty heavy going: obvious, tiresome and snail-paced. Then, during the last half-hour, things pick up considerably, and the movie almost redeems itself. But if you imagine that it is going for the expected happy ending, think again.

The movie has all the makings of something legendary -- except for ingredients good enough to make that something into a legend. As directed and co-written by Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte, the film is so full of arbitrary changes in tone and one-dimensional characters that it mostly elicits a very large shrug. Yes, the rich and the poor have long fought each other. What else is new? Not exactly "new" but at least typical and expected is the love story that develops between the leader of the wealthy class and the pretty young girl from the downtrodden bunch (newcomers Pasquale Patruno and Letizia Pia Cartolaro, shown respectively, right and left, above).

A dog goes missing, due to a smack from the oar of the would-be hero -- a particularly nasty and stupid young man -- and this hangs over the movie nearly start to finish. But, as I mentioned, things turn stranger and less expected in the final section, and this may be enough for you to take a chance on the film. Shot in some splendid and highly photogenic locations in, I am guessing, Italy, maybe Sicily, The War of the Yokels screens on Sunday, June 4, at 1:30 pm and Tuesday, June 6, at 4:30 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

Can the workplace kill you? Yes, indeed, and if that doesn't finally get you, toss in your own family responsibilities and you'll have even a less good chance of survival. This thesis is given a good run for its money in Daniele Vicari's latest film, SUN, HEART, LOVE (Sole, Curore, Amore) is which noted Italian actress Isabella Ragonese (shown below) gives a wonderful performance as the put-upon worker/mom. 

This is one of the darkest films in a very dark Open Roads 2017, which is all the more surprising because the movie is so full of energy and near-improvisational humor and charm. 

But what begins on a difficult-but-relatively-light note slowly turns heavier -- without losing a bit of its credibility -- as the life of our heroine (one of them, at least) begins spiraling out of her control. Signore Vicari doesn't point fingers too heavily at anyone here. The boss begins as a pretty decent guy, who eventually has concerns of his own that take precedence over those of his employees. 

Our gal's out-of-work husband appears to do as well as one might expect from the typical Italian male. One might question why this pair decided to have four -- count 'em -- children, rather than maybe one or two that they could more easily afford. But this is Italy, a very Catholic country, and so we must let that idea pass unquestioned. Her friends rally 'round to help as best they can, as well. One of these is the film's secondary heroine -- a woman (Eva Grieco, above, right) -- who has given up the career that her mother preferred she choose to become an "artist," and she is also, it would seem, a lesbian who is having some trouble embracing this idea. We see a lot of her dance work (which is often quite striking), especially toward the finale, which contrasts dance and death. Sun, Heart, Love is a film for today's hugely difficult environment, and it is also one of the stand-outs in this year's Italian series. The movie screens Saturday, June 3, at 6:30 pm and Wed., June 7, at 2 pm at FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

Gianni Amelio has long been one of my favorite Italian writer/directors, and his latest film -- TENDERNESS (La tenerezza) only burnishes even brighter my love of this filmmaker's work. Adapted by Amelio, Alberto Taraglio and Chiara Valerio from a novel by Lorenzo Marone, The Temptation to Be Happy (a title of which turns out to be an explanation of the film itself), the movie also makes a fine follow-up to Amelio's little-seen but enormously affecting earlier film, L'Intrepido, in both spirit and poetic beauty. The less you know about plot here the better, for the movie unfolds with grace and some shock. Yet what happens is indivisible from both the film's and the novel's titular theme. A dark but honest look at the Italian family under extreme stress, the film slowly unveils its characters, with believability and surprise going hand in hand.

An old man, a recently retired lawyer, played in award-winning style by Renato Carpentieri, appears to be completely on the outs with his own family, even as he adopts a new family who has just moved to Naples and is housed in the apartment adjoining his. The husband and wife are played by two of Italy's finest actors -- Elio Germano (above, right, and an Open Roads regular) and Micaela Ramazzotti (above left, and recently seen in Like Crazy), while the lawyer's actual daughter is played by the beautiful Giovanna Mezzagiorno, here looking as plain as I have ever seen her. Who these people are and how things slowly change are played out with such intelligence, beauty and finesse that my hat is again off to Signore Amelio. Our understanding of what we, as individuals, have control over, and what we don't, makes such a difference. And Amelio forces us to think and feel and grow like few other filmmakers can. Tenderness screens Friday June 2, at 6:30 pm and Monday, June 5, at 4:30 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reader Theater.

Another excellent, if bizarre, comedy to screen this year is the new one from Alessandro Aronadio, who, at an earlier Opens Roads, gave us the surprising and remarkable One Life, Maybe Two. With EARS (Orecchie) Aronadio is in full comedic mode, and the result is extremely funny -- and original, too. His star is a delightfully hang-dog actor named Daniele Parisi (below, left), who plays a substitute teacher of (among other things) philosophy and is quite down on the world, in particular, of course, the state of Italy and its populace. I suspect it will be rather easy for audiences to identify with this character, given that Italy voted into office again and again a certain Silvio Berlusconi, just as we here in the USA have given over our Presidency to a fool and a fraud named Donald Trump.

We follow our hero from his awakening in the morning to discover a note from his girlfriend informing him that a friend of his has died and that she has taken the car. He can't remember just who this friend actually is, and he is also suffering from a ringing and a pain in his ears, and so he sets out to discover who the late friend might be and to assuage that ear pain. What happens is hilarious, bizarre and just crazy enough to be more than a little bizarrely credible.

I laughed harder and more often during this film than I have at any Hollywood comedy in some time, and by the finale, I was also caught up short in discovering how very much like that of our hero my own attitude toward the world is. The film ends with a thoughtful and moving speech over a plastic-wrapped casket. To say that Ears is an original is surely understating the case. And the terrific black-and-white cinematography (by Francesco Di Giacomo) is another reason not to miss it. The movie screens Friday, June 2, at 3:45 pm and Monday, June 5, at 9 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

One more to come: As I view each
I will add my notes on the remaining films
at the top of this link. Stay tuned....

View the entire schedule of the

OPEN ROADS series by clicking here.

Italian film lovers, prepare -- FSLC/Istituto Luce Cinecittà's OPEN ROADS series arrives!

That annual slice of heaven for fans of Italian film is nearly upon us. OPEN ROADS, the yearly collection of new Italian cinema from The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà will begin this coming Thursday, June 1, and play for one full week through Wednesday afternoon, June 7. TrustMovies has at this point viewed only eight of the fourteen films to be shown but he must say that this year's roster is shaping up to be one of the darkest so far. And why not -- considering that Italy, along with the rest of the world, is slipping deeper into everything from debt (personal and national) and that ever-widening gap between the uber-rich and the rest of the population to the increasing effects of climate change and the crumbling of those "rocks" of Italian society: the family and, oh, yes, religion?

Speaking of family and religion, Open Roads' opening night movie decimates these to the point of no return. INDIVISIBLE (Indivisibili) tracks the tale of a pair of Siamese twins named Daisy and Violet (is this a nod to that great Broadway musical Side Show or maybe just to the actual twins themselves?) whose talent at singing and visual beauty have kept their parents, along with the Church, in the money for some time. When the twins discover that an operation could free them at last, all bets are off, and the movie lights out on a very bizarre road-and-sea trip as it explores everything from family and identity to our deepest desires/needs.

As directed and co-written by Edoardo De Angelis, and starring a pair of beautiful and unsettling actresses, Angela Fontana (who also stars in another series film, Due Soldati, see below) and Marianna Fontana, assisted by a crack supporting cast, the film is finally as unsettling as its two leading actresses: raw, alternately ugly and lovely, with the kind of gaze at religion and family that will make you question all the great Italian film about those two icons that have gone before. The movie also shows, as do so many others in this year's series, the Italian citizenry as doltish imbeciles with little more on their mind than following a fake religion and consuming the latest in... whatever. Whew, is this one dark experience! Indivisible screens Thursday, June 1, only -- at both 1:45 pm and 6:30 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

Three years ago Roberto Andò gave us that great actor Toni Servillo as identical twins in the charming and pointed political/social comedy Viva la libertà. Andò and Servillo are back again with THE CONFESSIONS (Le Confessioni), a darker (yes, of course) look at the world today, even if the representative of The Church is this time, and for a change these days, the good guy. The movie gives us a very interesting theory of the ideas and actions that lie behind, say, the IMF/World Bank policy of "austerity" for countries that are in deep financial trouble. While the result for those countries may be horrible indeed, the resulting movie is as elegant, funny, somber and fascinating as you could want, boasting a superb international cast (many of whom are shown in the photo, top), led by Servillo in his usual fine form.

That cast includes a particularly well-used Daniel Auteuil, plus Connie Nielsen, Pierfranceco Favino, Moritz Bleibtreu, Lambert Wilson and Marie-Josée Croze, among others. The movie is a mystery -- of what, why and how -- and if by the finale, some questions remain unanswered, I suspect you'll have gotten so much out of this unusual film already that you won't much mind. The Confessions screens Thursday, June 1 only, at both 4 pm and 9 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

The students who actually complete their "training" at the prep school shown us in CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (I figli della notte) could easily, I think, grow up into that set of "world-class" economists observed in Le Confessioni. You will have to view both films to get the connection, but that's OK, since each is well worth seeing. Initially, the young men we meet at this school would seem to be "problem" children. But as the movie unfurls, we slowly become aware they may be a good deal more. Or less. The movie, directed and co-written by Andrea De Sica, concentrates on two of these boys and the girl that one of them meets at the local (and rather bizarre) brothel.

Both movies are in their way metaphors, with Le Confessioni a metaphor brought to elegant, slowly pulsating life. Figli della notte remains a metaphor because it is almost other-worldy. Yet it is so beautifully, creepily filmed and acted quite well, considering that it is at all times simultaneously real and unreal, that it casts a kind of magical (if ugly, and yes, dark) spell. And the performances of, especially, Ludovico Succio (above, left, of La Sapienza) and Vincenzo Crea (above, right), work wonders in pulling us into this warped world. Children of the Night screens Sunday, June 4, at 4 pm and Wednesday, June 7, at 4:30 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

The one comedy I've seen so far proves surprisingly dark, as well. AT WAR WITH LOVE (In Guerra per amore) begins like some kind of rom-com farce involving everything from World War II and FDR to Mussolini vs the Virgin Mary and the Mafia (Sicilian and American versions).

This sounds like a recipe for something very spoofy and goofy, and indeed the movie is all that, along with a lot else. It darkens as it moves forward, and the tone changes in just the right manner and at just the right speed so that by the finale, we're practically pinned to the floor with our mouths agape, our laughter curdling in our throats.

I was not so impressed with an earlier work (The Mafia Kills Only in Summer) of Pierfrancesco Diliberto (who now suddenly seems to be going by the cutesier/sillier name of Pif) , but I must say that this new film won me over completely. It offers up the collusion of power with money, even -- or especially -- during wartime, while its look at the Mafia on both sides of the Atlantic is nasty and sobering. America, it seems has a lot to answer for concerning the post-WWII proliferation of the Sicilian branch of this worthless, murderous men's club. Signore Diliberto (shown above, right) excels here in the roles of writer, director and leading actor, too. At War With Love, which offers one of the best low-key funny/sad ending moments in movie history, screens Saturday, June 3, at 9:15 pm and Tuesday, June 6, at 2:30 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

A new film from Italian master Marco Bellocchio is always an event, and his latest -- SWEET DREAMS (Fai bei sogni) is no exception. This is one of my favorites of this filmmaker, and, yes, it's a little too long, sometimes seems to ramble, and the first half is better than the second. But when a filmmaker is this good -- concerned with so much of what makes Italian life spin and resonate, and with the talent and skill to bring all this to wonderful life and art -- I'm more than happy to give the man his lead and let him go wherever it takes him. Here it takes him into the life of a fellow (Italian everyman Valerio Mastandrea) who lost his mother at a young age and has never recovered from it. He's successful to a point, but his life is enormously circumscribed due to this death and the manner in which those around him in his childhood -- and even now, in adulthood -- have handled the situation.

Also in the large cast are Bérénice Bejo as the doctor who helps our hero, and Barbara Ronchi, indelible as that mother who has gone missing. The opening scene, featuring mom and son doing the twist, is one memorable keeper, and later in the movie Bellocchio finally allows the son to dance again, and this, too, is both beautiful and wrenching. Mastandrea's performance is, always with this smart and accessible actor, beautifully and believably calibrated. Midway along, we get a splendid scene featuring French actress Emmanuelle Devos (above). The filmmaker, who is approaching eighty years, shows no signs of faltering so far as I can see. Here, as director and co-adapter (of a novel by Massimo Gramellini), he is in full swing. Long may he reign. Sweet Dreams plays Sunday, June 4, at 9 pm and Tuesday, June 6, at 8:45 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

The saddest of all the films I've so far caught has got to be FIORE, directed and co-written by Claudio Giovannesi. It's certainly not the darkest -- there's way too much energy here for that -- but the sadness at the heart of the film arrives because the filmmaker causes us to care so very much about its leading character and then has that character betray herself and her better instincts over and over again. Why? That is the big question the movie asks, and the responsibility falls mostly on the character herself: Daphne (played to the hilt and beyond by Daphne Scoccia), who simply cannot seem to help herself, time after time. Sure, her parenting wasn't so hot (her dad, played by the oft-seen Valerio Mastandrea, is trying harder now), and the state, while not villainous and actually rather caring, is simply unable to reach this young woman.

Much of the film takes place in the prison where Daphne resides, and the details here seem quite unlike the what our USA offers prisoners, but they also seem pretty believable. Love, or something like it, arrives in the form of another problemed inmate, Josh, played by Josciua Algeri, a very good young actor who met his own untimely end in an auto accident this very year -- which only adds to the sadness of this film. Giovannesi's style is full of chiaroscuro lighting and close-ups that bring us into great intimacy with the characters. This is his third full-length narrative film, and we shall surely be hearing from him -- and his alluring and talented lead actress (who seems like a cross between Kristen Stewart and Angelina Jolie) -- again soon. Fiore plays Friday, June 2, at 9:00 PM and Monday, June 5, at 6:45 pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

My favorite film in the Open Roads series (so far, at least) would be the new one from Marco Tullio Giordana (shown at right). I am using his photo here because, perhaps, his latest movie is so new that a poster for it does not yet exist. (I could not find one, at least.) Titled TWO SOLDIERS (Due soldati), it is said to be the third in Giordana's trilogy about organized crime that includes the very fine One Hundred Steps (2000) and Lea (2015). This filmmaker also gave us the memorable movie/TV series The Best of Youth. In this new film, the soldiers are in very different wars/organizations. One, played by Dario Rea, below, is fighting in Afghanistan. (Is George W. Bush's Coalition of the Willing still going on?) The other is a low-level-but-on-the-rise member of the local Mafia.

When the Mafia soldier (Daniele Vicorito, below, right) is wounded and must hide and somehow recover, he ends up in the apartment of that soldier and his about-to-be bride (Angela Fontana, from Indivisibili, at left, below).  This may sound highly coincidental on paper but how Giordana films it seems both appropriate and believable. From there, his movie deals in grief and doubt, need and compassion, and even though it includes only these three characters plus family members and friends of both the bride and the Mafia soldier, it manages to encompass much of current Italian society. The picture it paints is anything but pretty. This is another very dark film in terms of the Italian obsession with consumerism. Giordana also indicts war -- in both of the varieties we see here.

This is a movie in which characters actually change -- not much but enough -- as we viewers watch and wonder (in both senses of that word). The filmmaker makes us think, feel and struggle, as our sympathies grow and change. His characters struggle, too, and are all the better for it. Two Soldiers plays Open Roads on Friday, June 2, at 1:30 pm and Tuesday, June 6, at 6:30 pm -- both screenings at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

If there's a lemon in this series, it would have to be the sole documentary in the bunch, DELIVER  US (Liberami), which is all about modern-day exorcism, as practiced in Sicily. Huh? Yeah. As directed by Federica Di Giacomo, this truly bizarre movie will have you convinced that Sicilians must be among the stupidest people on earth. Or maybe simply a people utterly mired in a nonsense religion, so much so that they will blame just about everything and anything on Satan. Or -- if you are easily swayed -- that Sicily must be a hotbed of Satanic activity in which way too much of the population is possessed and are then ministered unto by a priest that does some of his exorcisms via phone. No? Yes!

The filmmaker takes no sides here, nor does she even question anything we see, as she tracks the stories of these "possessed":  among them a teenage girl, a middle-age woman, and a young man with piercings and beaucoup tattoos (above). One priest here appears to be either downright nutty or himself in thrall to something a little "other." One scene in church begins to looks like a Catholic physical therapy session.

Eventually we see a priest who seems to treat all this like the self-induced attention-seeking behavior it probably is, and finally some prescription medicine even enters the picture. Briefly. The movie ends with a convention of exorcism priests in Rome, and then the credits tell us of the huge increase in cases of Satanic possession and how the Church has had to hire extra exorcists. The movie left me thinking that Italy has got to be the single dumbest country in the western world. But then I remembered that we had recently "elected" Donald Trump. Deliver Us screens only once, Sunday, June 4, at 6:30 at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater.

Do check out the entire 

OPEN ROADS series by clicking here.

TrustMovies hopes to be able to view the

other six films in the series over the coming few days. 

If and when he does, he'll post a second entry on this 
Italian collection. Stay tuned.

NewFest (the NY LGBT film fest) tix on sale now; here's the line-up--plus four reviews

NewFest -- yes the film festival that, although devoted to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered themes, is clearly afraid to give itself a name that might somehow/barely/just-a-tad indicate what kind of a movie fest it is -- recently announced its 2013 (also its 25th anniversary) lineup, press previewed four examples of this year's films, and put its tickets on sale to the general public. Now, if they could just do something about that dreadful name, NewFest, which says absolutely nothing and should ensure that whoever came up with this useless moniker gets a five-year crash course in George Orwell's Newspeak.  

The festival, which exists in partnership with Outfest (now there's a name that at least says something: Why didn't they simply call this one Outfest East) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, opens in a little under two weeks, runs from September 6 through September 11, features the works of filmmakers from James Franco (above is a shot from his and Travis Mathews' Interior. Leather Bar. and Malgoska Szumowska (Elles) to Chris Mason Johnson (The New Twenty) and David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) and will screen fifteen narrative features, four documentaries, and thirty-one shorts -- plus some other special events. In addition, this year's fest has found films from the USA, China, Cuba, France, Germany, Israel/Palestine and Poland.

The opening night attraction is Stacie Passon's Concussion (above); closing night's devoted to Mr. Johnson's new film, Test (see review below), while screenings and panels will be taking place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater and at the nearby JCC. You can peruse the entire NewFest schedule -- and order tickets while you're at it -- by clicking here, scrolling down and then clicking on whatever garners your interest. (Other than the official press screenings already caught, I'm going to try my best to see France's gift to the fest, You and the Night (below).

Of the four films screened for the press, three are very worthwhile, though the fourth was so poor on just about every level that it is difficult to believe it would be included in any festival, let alone shown to the press as an example of what NewFest has to offer. Here they are, in alphabetical order -- which also turns out to be their order of preference, so far as I'm concerned....

GEOGRAPHY CLUB 

directed by Gary Entin

screenplay by 

Edmund Entin 

It may take until the close of the film, when the charming end-credits are rolling that you'll realize you've just experienced the coming-of-age of the gay rom-com-melo-dram. Yup. This glossy, smart, sweet little high school movie gets just about everything right and entertains like crazy while doing it. The product of the Entin twins (Gary, who directed) and Edmund, who wrote the screenplay (based on the Brent Hartinger novel), the movie was produced by Michael Huffington (yes!) and Anthony Bretti, and they've stinted on nothing -- from the excellent cast to the cinematography, editing and all else technical. The movie looks like a lovely, glossy Hollywood product that just happens to be GLBT-themed. 

Yes, there's a dose of the After-School Special in all this, but, damn, it's still done well enough to pass muster. The story connects two closeted high-schools boys, one of them an important football player, with a group of kids who've formed a kind of GLBT support group they call the Geography Club. "Nobody'll join, so nobody'll know our secret" is the kind of logic going on here. The Entins get the tone just right: a blend of sweetness and toughness that's reality-based enough to draw us in and hold us through thick and thin. The movie's feel-good but a little sad, too, and thankfully doesn't tie it all up into a neat package. We can't have everything we want, it seems. But we can settle for a better situation. Geography Club is going to make a lot of moviegoers, kids in particular, very happy.

PIT STOP

directed by Yen Tan

written by Tan 

and David Lowery

A gay art film? Yes, indeed -- and a pretty good one, too. The pace is slow, but the feelings, the emotions -- loneliness, need, and fear of connection -- are almost tactile. They will carry you along during this 80-minute depiction of Texan-brand desire amongst gays, straights and maybe bi-sexuals. The sexuality is a little slippery here, more like life and less like movies. Tan's film looks at two men, both tall, rangy and bearded; one pale-skinned, the other somewhat dark. Both have significant others who have not worked out. The lighter man (Bill Heck, below, left) has a ex-wife (current indie queen Amy Seimetz, below, right) and daughter, in both of whose lives he still plays a major part.

The darker man (Marcus DeAnda, below, left) is in the process of breaking up with a younger man and finding it tough. Characters connect, have sex (or don't), talk, wonder, think and stare out into the distance. Yet the dialog, when we get it, is solid and thoughtful, and the performances are very real. 

The loneliness of life in these parts, for these people, comes across as strongly as does their desire, and the film's finale is rich with feeling and possibilities. Like his earlier film Ciao, Pit Stop is elegiac, rueful, and maybe even hopeful.

TEST

written and directed by

Chris Mason Johnson

After 2008's The New Twenty, one of the best ensemble movies of the past decade, filmmaker Johnson now turns his attention to a period piece. But of a special period: San Francisco in the mid 80s, as AIDS was ravaging a portion of society and a "test" for the infection/disease was just now becoming available. TrustMovies didn't realize, until he saw this film and then did a little research, that Mr. Johnson began his career as a ballet and modern dancer. Most of the men in this movie are dancers, as well, as the dancing we see here is pretty damned good, particularly that of the lead actor/dancer, Scott Marlowe, who creates a rather indelible character in this, his first film role. 

This is such a different kind of movie from Johnson's earlier one that I doubt most film-goers would realize that the same man directed both. Test concentrates very much on Mr. Marlowe's character, Frankie, and his growth and change as both a dancer and a gay man. The rest of the ensemble is very good -- Johnson knows how to cast and then draw fine performances all around -- but this is Marlowe's movie. The young man is indeed a fine dancer, riveting to watch when he lets go; as an actor, he also knows how to keep his character close to the vest so that we hang on each expression and word, as Frankie negotiates friendship, sex, solo work and maybe even a little "love."

At 90 minutes, Test is just long enough to work as an interesting character study; a look at a lost, fraught period in gay history; and as a paean to dance and dancers. I can't wait to see what Mr. Johnson turns his hand to next.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VAGINA WOLF?

Directed by Anna Margarita Albelo

Screenplay by Michael Urban,

from a story by Ms Albelo

Other than a funny/dirty title that can't help but be memorable, this sorry movie would seem to prove yet again that lesbians and good movie-making seldom exist in the same frame. (I know there are exceptions to this: But I'm a Cheerleader was fun back in the day, and D.E.B.S. was delightful, but these are too few, too seldom.) I can't but think that NewFest/OutFest and the FSLC must have had another of the L films on tap for us press, but the disc didn't arrive in time for the screening so this replacement was made. Or something.

It's not that Who's Afraid...  is so utterly terrible. There's a nice performance or two buried under all the cliches and tiresome talk. (Agnes Olech and Guinevere Turner turn in some good work.) But I swear there's not a single moment here that hasn't already been done ten times over and better, too. Sorry, but stringing together a bunch of retread material under a cute title is simply not enough. And the leading lady, Ms Albelo, who also directed and came up with this below-standard story, is no "find" on any front. A filmmaker who can waste the likes of Carrie Preston (see A Bag of Hammers for an idea of what Ms Preston is capable!) should hang her head in shame. 

A simple little lesbian rom-com ought not to be this difficult to make fun. Instead the movie proves something to make fun of. It is, in three little words, a vanity production. And it certainly does not belong in front of paying audiences -- at festivals like this one, or elsewhere.

But onward and sideways! As I say, you can check out the entire NewFest roster here. There will surely be at least a few films you'll want to view, including some that may not see a theatrical release here in the USA.

About NewFest 

NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences to build a community that passionately supports giving visibility and voice to a wide range of representations of the LGBT experience. We are committed to nurturing emerging LGBT and allied filmmakers. We support those artists who are willing to take risks in telling the stories that fully reflect the diversity and complexity of our lives. And with our newly formed partnership with Outfest, we will become the first national LGBT media arts organization – extending our reach to an even wider audience. For more information, visit NewFest.org.

About Outfest
Founded by UCLA students in 1982, Outfest is the leading organization that promotes equality by creating, sharing and protecting LGBT stories on the screen. Outfest builds community by connecting diverse populations to discover, discuss and celebrate stories of LGBT lives. For over three decades, Outfest has showcased thousands of films from around the world to audiences of nearly a million, educated and mentored hundreds of emerging filmmakers and protected more than 20,000 LGBT films and videos. For more information, visit outfest.org.

About the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of the moving image. Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, LatinBeat, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, Rendez-vous With French Cinema, and Spanish Cinema Now. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious "Chaplin Award." The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year round programs and the New York City film community.