A gift for gay pride month: Daniel Karslake & Nancy Kennedy's superlative documentary, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO

Tackling the little-seen subject (among several here) of a "good" and highly religious couple who end up placing their religion and their idea of "god" above that of the welfare of their child, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO -- anyone whose religious life included heavy study of the Bible's new testament will immediately know where those words come from (for those who don't, this is explained near the finale) -- offers up an extremely cogent and moving study of family relations when that family includes children who are on the GLBT spectrum.

As directed and co-written by Daniel Karslake (shown at right) and co-written and edited by Nancy Kennedy (below), the documentary covers four very different families -- different not only in their choice of religion but in how they respond to the needs of their children.

While they do the best they can, the results are very different, and the choice of these four families by the filmmakers proves to be both inspired and inspiring -- and in one case almost unbearably moving.

In two cases, the child in question is merely gay, in the other two he/she is transgendered. That TrustMovies uses the word "merely"  above makes further plain to him how far the GLBT movement has come during his lifetime, as well as making clear the still enormous difference (and continuing struggle) between being accepted as gay, lesbian or bisexual and being so as a transgendered human. The move does not beat this idea to death, but it does make certain that the viewer is aware and appreciative of it.

The film begins by introducing us to the Robertsons, Linda and Rob, first as young marrieds (above) who are deeply involved in their Evangelical Christian church, and later as a family with four fine children, one of whom, Ryan, lets them know during his early teen years, that he is gay.

We soon meet the Porchers (above) and the McBrides (below), both of whose offspring eventually becomes transgendered. The stories told here are as much about the effects and reactions of this "otherness" on the parents as on the kids themselves. Which is as it should be, since it is the parents who exert the most control over their children and can force the situation into something they may regret for life.

Since most viewers will not be familiar with the gay and trans children shown here, or for that matter with their parents (I was not, at least), the filmmakers wisely lay out the stories in a smart narrative form. What we learn about these families -- in one case, as with the Baez-Febos family, shown below, and the major event that their child becomes a part of -- consistently surprises us and often pulls us up short. We get a lot more than the merely "expected" here. The purpose of this documentary may be to change the viewpoint of as many people as possible, but the manner in which it does this is exemplary: it never raises its voice but still consistently draws us in.

The filmmakers clearly knew how to gain the trust of their subjects, and they in no way betray that trust. They also know how to film professionally; their movie is a pleasure to view. Consequently, we're immersed into all these lives (that's the Porchers' son Elliot, below),

but especially into the lives of that couple we first met, the Robertsons (shown below as their older selves). Their story, of a family so torn between fundamentalist religion and love for their son that they make decisions -- like conversion therapy -- that will impact everything, forever.

We've already seen a number of films, both docs and narratives, dealing with the impact of this conversion therapy on the kids who went through it. It's a rare one, however, that gives us the parental viewpoint -- and does it so thoroughly and so well. While what the Robertsons have to answer for may be a terrible burden, what they are doing with this burden proves a wondrous thing.

This month will see a ton of GLBT offerings released for the yearly Gay Pride time. If any one of these is better -- more important, inclusive and hugely moving -- than For They Know Not What They Do, I shall be surprised. (Among the advocates -- for the open and kindly type of religion offered by certain figures such as Jesus of Nazareth -- interviewed in the film are, above, Bishop Gene Robinson and, below, Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis.)

From First Run Features and running a succinct 92 minutes, the documentary hits virtual theaters this Friday, June 12. Click here and scroll down to visit the various theaters nationwide and to learn how you can view the film. 

NOTE: This film wil appear on DVD, iTunes 

and Amazon VOD September 15, 2020

Branden Blinn's REMARKABLE SHADES OF GAY opens theatrically at New York's Cinema Village

The second movie attempting to ride the marketing coattails of 50 Shades of Grey (the first was the faith-based film Old Fashioned), REMARKABLE SHADES OF GAY -- a new "omnibus" movie offering nine short tales of gay and bi-sexual life from a filmmaker named Branden Blinn (aka William Branden Blinn), who directs each episode, often writes or co-writes it, and occasionally edits, and usually helps produce, as well -- takes us back to an earlier era of gay movies but does it using all the accouterments of modern filmmaking. These would include actors who can handle dialog well and moment-to-moment truth, the use of decent video equipment coupled to a sensibility that harks back to television sitcoms of an earlier day.

Mr. Blinn, pictured at left, loves happy endings, whatever the particular tale might cover -- from parenting and dying to the closet, threesomes and seducing would-be straight men. (Collectively, these tales would seem to indicate that there is hardly a straight man around who isn't champing at the bit for some good, hot cock. File under: happy endings at any cost.) So, don't come here hankering for real life. But if you're in the mood for feel-good fun featuring a whole lot of hunky guys (everyone in nearly every episode is good looking) involved in inventive but unbelievable situations, here's your movie. Despite its title, expect no bondage in the film, although, unlike 50 Shades...,  this one does features occasional full-frontal, and Mr. Blinn's final episode even takes in a couple of budding erections. So, yes, you'll probably want to stay through the end. Herewith, a short run-down on what to expect in each episode:

Thirteen or So Minutes involves two young men who claim to have been straight and who've suddenly enjoyed male-on-male sex for the first time. One wants to embrace this, the other, not so much. A little tsuris and a lot of talk ensues....

Chased introduces us to two (yes, presumably straight) friends who, as they leave a bar, get into a argument with another group of guys and must hightail it on the run. This evidently sets their testosterone to raging, and later they must come to terms with the consequences of their sudden -- and extremely unbelievable -- amour....

Never or Now offers a kind of gay homage to a certain famous scene from Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, as an old and dying man in a rest home/hospital, as soon as his wife leaves for a few hours, picks up the phone and hires a hustler to visit him. Cue loads of kindness, tinkly sentimental music, and your oh-so-typical hustler who doesn't even demand his money. Sweet -- and, gosh, such uber-realism!

Triple Standard tackles guys and sports, via a gay couple, one of whom refuses to come out of the closet and, further, gets overly macho and nasty when another male dares to joke about his sexual preference. So what's his poor lover to do. You'll find out. Hint: Things just might be OK....

Without a Mom offers up a gay couple who've raised a strapping and straight hunk of a son who is suddenly having girlfriend problems. Gosh, one of the dads wonders, maybe he shoulda had a mom instead? In a movie like this one? Don't bet on it.

Life lesson after life lesson -- gay variety -- is taught us during the course of this film, and many of these lessons seem to have to do with men who profess zero interest is sex with another male -- and then suddenly come around to seeing the light. So it is in Toeing the Line, in which, during the course of coffee in a local hangout, one hot guy comes on to another by letting it drop that, yes, he a has a very big dick. Size matters, and before you can say Show Me, Please, we're off and running. This one's nicely acted but features utterly improbable behavior taking place in a public coffee shop.

A la Carte takes on a threesome -- husband. wife and the twinkie whom hubby has brought home to screw them both. Age and intergenerational sex matter here more than size, but doncha know that everything gets resolved in lightning speed and to everyone's satisfaction.

Size matters again in Truth or Dare, as two boy/girl couples decide to play the titular game one evening. But funny how girl-on-girl action just doesn't seem to raise the collective temperature the way that boy-on-boy stuff suddenly does. This one may make you laugh, at least.

Mr. Blinn saves his hottest visuals for the closing story, in which ageism and infidelity rear their heads -- and have absolutely no negative effect whatsoever. The filmmaker's rose-colored glasses simply refuse to lose their hue, no matter what, and there is nothing life can throw at these participants that can't be managed with a good long kiss and some hot sex. If only. But I have to say that Blinn, shown below with a couple of his actors, makes it all seem like lots of fun. If you're in the right mood, you might be seduced, too.

Remarkable Shades of Gay -- self-distributed and running two hours and six minutes -- began its theatrical premiere yesterday, February 27, in New York City at the Cinema Village. But you can bet it'll be available eventually on DVD and to stream.

Jay Arnold's WHAT HAPPENS NEXT details -- and well -- the later-in-life "coming out" experience

In its quiet, easy-going and quite charming manner, writer/director/ producer Jay Arnold's film from 2011, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, shows us a successful businessman, single and suddenly forced into retirement (don't worry: he's been bought out and so can live quite well) who now finds enough time on his hands to finally consider who he might be, sexually speaking, and discover in earnest his attraction to men. Now, this is a rom-com, gay version, so don't expect enormous depth and exploration. What makes What Happens Next more unusual than you'll first imagine is the relationship between the two men at the core of the movie. In it, the younger fellow -- who's long "out" and happy with his life -- must slowly lead his older paramour through the shoals of this new "learning experience" without moving too fast and frightening him off. This is something that gay movies almost never give us, and it turns out to be useful, funny, moving and quite, quite dear.

Mr. Arnold has cast his film with more of an eye toward quality and believability than the usual gay hunk quotient. This goes a long way in making his movie as much fun and moment-to-moment real that we sometimes get in gay-themed cinema. Jon Lindstrom (above, left) as Paul, the early-retirement businessman, and Chris Murrah (above, right, and at bottom, right) as Andy, the relatively young kid he meets dog-walking in the park, are both very fine actors with the kind of attentiveness to each other's performance that makes for scene after scene that rings truthful, funny and touching. As the relationship develops and we get to our first "bedroom" scene, instead of some would-be hot sex, we get a kiss that is so fraught and tender and amazing that it's all we need to make us melt in the hands of the filmmaking team and the actors.

As Paul's ever-controlling sister, Elise, Wendie Malick does her usual, and does it very well, and there are some nice supporting performances, too. But it is the relationship between Paul and Andy that is the heart of the movie: how it develops, why it is important for both men, and how Andy must lead Paul into a better understanding of himself -- all this is captured with a genuineness that is rare for the genre.

What Happens Next -- running 100 minutes -- is available now on Netflix streaming and elsewhere. It's worth a watch.

Super Gay -- and pretty damned funny, too: Darren Stein and George Northy's G.B.F.

OK: You need to suspend  your disbelief just a tad to get fully in the swing of GBF (or Gay Best Friend), the new comedy treat from writer George Northy and director Darren Stein. The movie posits that in a certain modern day high school, nary a gay boy has "come out." Given the stigma attached to homosex-uality still rampant in schools, despite all the ground-breaking progress made by the adult world, this part of the film is no big stretch. But when the three reigning divas of the female student body decide that what they need most to be truly au courant is a GBF, it sort of beggars belief that most of the school wouldn't immediately know who is probably gay and would then immediately ferret these people out in order to please their popular divas.

Once the movie gets going, however (this takes about three minutes), it is so consistently funny and charming, naughty and sweet that I should think it'll win over a surprisingly large audience, if that audience will just give it the opportunity to work its magic. As directed by Mr. Stein (shown at left) and written by Mr. Northy, what separates GBF from the more typical gay-themed comedies is its delicious sauciness -- a quality that many of these movies try for but miss due to lack of real wit. (Instead they rely mostly on the recycling of cliché.) GBF has wit aplenty in everything from dialog & situa-tions to its smart, humane idea about what it actually means to be gay.

It also has a remarkably good young actor -- Michael J. Willett (above, center) -- in the leading role of Tanner, who brings such genuine sweetness and charm (plus a slightly goofy quality) to the proceedings that he'll win you over in a heartbeat. Mr. Willett never "plays" gay; he simply exists quite comfortably (or not so) in his skin and lets situation, coupled with character, create behavior. And so he comes off as just about perfect in this pivotal role.

Willett is surrounded with a bevy of talented support, all of whom the director and writer have managed to coax onto the same page in terms of tone and style. Included are Tanner's best friend Brent (Paul Iacono, above left, with Megan Mullally, who plays his way-too-supportive mom). Much more the campy queen who goes for glitter in a very big way, Brent is everything Tanner isn't, so the two make an interesting complement to each other's character and behavior.

The movie's funniest and most surprising gift, however, is its treatment of the three divas competing for their GBF's attention. These begin as whopping but funny clichés that slowly broaden and deepen into confused, relatively real (for movie comedy) and even funnier people. Each is impressive in her own way, beginning with Xosha Roquemore (above, right), as Caprice, the black drama queen diva.

White, blond and bimbo-esque, Sasha Pieterse -- as Fawcett (above, right) -- wears tresses that call to mind her namesake. She makes a wonderfully self-involved and irony-free character, who suddenly surprises us and Tanner with a little depth.

Finally, we have Ashley (or 'Shley, played by Andrea Bowen, shown at right), the "good girl" Mormon who discovers all sorts of new adventures via her GBF. 'Shley's would-be Mormon boyfriend, Topher (Taylor Frey) is even more willing to try new things. The scene in which he describes what he can expect from his upcoming life as a Mormon is one of the movie's comic high points.

Other than which diva our boy will finally choose to support, the plot also hinges on the upcoming prom -- who will attend, and with whom, and who will become its king and queen. The pacing here is swift, the length (92 minutes) just right, and the final what-have-we-learned monolog from our hero is spectacularly good: witty, smart, surprising and wonderfully inclusive.

Comparison has been made between this movie and Clueless, a connection that seems to me rather apt: I haven't had this much goofy fun at a teen movie in a long while. What with the recent release of Geography Club and now this little gem, I'd say GLBT films are growing both more fun and more creatively mainstream.

I should note that GBF has an "R" rating -- necessary, I suppose for its many sexual references. But I hope parents won't hold this against it and will let their under-age kids attend -- and maybe even go with them. The oldsters might learn something. (That's Natasha Lyonne and Horatio Sanz, above, as school counselor and principal.)

From Vertical Entertainment, GBF opens theatrically tomorrow in L.A. at the Sundance Sunset Cinema (Q&As with director Darren Stein and writer George Northy in person Friday 1/17 & Saturday 1/18 for the 8pm shows) and in Chicago at the Facets Cinématèque. The following Friday, January 24, the film opens here in NYC at the Quad Cinema (Q&A's Friday, 1/24 - after the 6:45 PM with Actor Paul Iacono and Moderator Rich Juzwiak from Gawker.com., and Saturday, 1/25 - after the 6:45 PM show with Actor Paul Iacono and Moderator Adam Baran from Queer|Art|Film), as well as in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and maybe elsewhere. (Shown above are Jonathan Silverman and Rebecca Gayheart, who play Tanner's smart parents.)

For those outside these opening locations (or who prefer the couch), GBF will simultaneously be available on VOD and iTunes. Or, just wait three weeks and you can own or rent the DVD of GBF, also from Vertical Entertainment, which hits the streets on Tuesday, February 11.

CHELY WRIGHT: WISH ME AWAY--Bobbie Birleffi & Beverly Kopf's new doc tracks the coming-out of a country-music star. Yikes!

The new documentary, CHELY WRIGHT: WISH ME AWAY -- about a famous country music star who, after years of success, including a couple of hit songs, one of which soared to number one on the charts -- is fascinating for a bunch of reasons. It offers the fullest view I've yet seen of what publicly admitting yourself to be gay is like for a celebrity, and in doing so tackles not just the public persona involved, but the private person, that scared little girl with a need to be loved underneath all the "personal appearances," the PR, the glitz and the ever-present fans. The better-known you are, the more difficult coming-out has to be.

And Ms Wright (above) -- near the top of her game as a beautiful, young country music performer -- would seem to have an awfully lot at risk, should she lose her fan base and the approval of the country western powers-that-be.

The film's co-directors,  Bobbie Birleffi (above, right) and Beverly Kopf (above, left), yank us into things by letting us see some of the private video diaries kept by Chely (the Ch in her name is pronoun-ced as Shelly, rather than as the ch in chocolate). These videos, one moment from which is shown below, are full of her doubts and fears, as well as her hopes, and they make a rather startling contrast to the public performer we see elsewhere in the film.

From these diaries, and from the usual talking heads -- which include everyone from close family members (interestingly enough, mom is not among these) to prominent figures in the music business, and even Chely's pastor, who has some of the more interesting, even surprising, things to tell her (and us), we get a rounded feel for the public performer and private woman, as well as for the milieu in which she labors.

The performer makes it clear that she's for god and country (above) -- she's in country music territory, after all -- and she also lets us in on how badly she feels about her inability, when she was still closeted, to be honest and open with some of the males in her life, one of which is shown below. (TrustMovies must admit at this point that he knows little about country music or its performers; if he did, he'd probably be able to identify the guy below.)

The film is full of succinct, often funny nuggets: her dad tells us that the family always knew Chely would be a performer because, as a little girl, "she used to sit on the can and sing Loretta Lynn songs." From an early age, this girl knew, not only that she was "different," but what that difference meant. One of the saddest moments comes when she tells us, "I made a deal with god: 'I won't act on this, and that will give you time to take it away'." Good luck.

The filmmakers take us up to and through the media circus that results when Chely finally does the deed, and we learn the outcome of all this -- so far, at least -- both personally and professionally. Birleffi and Kopf had access to Ms Wright for three years, and they watched and filmed her struggle. It was time well spent. The resulting 96-minute movie (cut down from a longer two-hour version that evidently played some festivals) should prove time equally well-spent for viewers of this remarkable history.

I'd like to say that Chely Wright; Wish Me Away might result in more celebrities coming out of the closet. But because the film is done with such honesty, showing the pain, the struggle and the not-always-so-fabulous results, I am not at all sure. You put your career on the line when you make a move (and a movie) like this, and when your primary audience is composed mainly of today's fundamentalist Christians, who have not even a nodding acquaintance with the actual teachings of their supposed prophet, what can you expect?  As one of the music men who understands this audience all too well puts it: "There's nobody quite as mean as someone who's being mean for Jesus."

The movie opens this Friday, June 1, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, with further openings across the country in the weeks to follow -- just in time for, you guessed it, those ubiquitous Gay Pride parades. Click the link ahead to view the complete listing of scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters.