In Damon Cardasis' mini-musical SATURDAY CHURCH, a gay cross-dressing teen blooms

TrustMovies must admit that he has never been overly taken with the idea or action of cross-dressing, neither by gays, straights, men or women. Yet he thoroughly enjoyed, back in 1976, seeing an Eve Merriam/Tommy Tune musical off-Broadway called The Club. And now, four decades later, comes along what I'd call a mini-movie-musical all about a gay male teenager who can't seem to help himself from trying on his mom's pretty shoes, which of course leads to something more. Entitled SATURDAY CHURCH and featuring maybe half a dozen musical numbers sung and danced by a hugely talented cast and written and directed by a first-time/full-length filmmaker, Damon Cardasis, this is a small, sweet, beautiful and often stunning piece of work.

Granted, the little movie (it lasts but 83 minutes) is a complete fantasy about finding fulfillment, love, friendship and family despite -- no, more because of -- who and what you are. Yet, given that, it is handled with such care and caring, such imagination and daring, and a genuine understanding of what a movie musical -- song, dance, color, atmosphere -- can do that it succeeds in taking us to that realm where, yes, anything can happen.

Mr. Cardasis, shown at right, creates a kind of alternate universe via his musical numbers, in which fantasy overtakes reality, trumping it via song and movement (dance is utterly vital to one number here, set in a homeless shelter) and allowing us to revel in what "could be" rather than what "is." Saturday Church may be an "if only" movie, but it is one that, within its tiny time-frame and universe, utterly works.

It also boasts some talented and good-looking actors giving their all here. Its star, Luka Kain (above), playing a character called Ulysses, is so beautiful of face and voice that you will fall in love immediately, I suspect, just as does the young fellow (Marquis Rodriguez, below, left) who guides and mentors our boy in his new environment.

Each of the cross-dressing "voguers" (below, center and right) who befriend Ulysses at the "Saturday Church" he discovers are brought to fine life, as well. Each is given character, quirks and history so that they live and breathe fully enough to make us care for them.

Ditto the family of our hero, whose military-man father has just died as the film begins, and so his loving but over-worked mom must bring in Aunt Rose (Regina Taylor) to watch Ulysses and his little brother after school while mom works the night shift.

The movie manages to indict the Black church quietly but appropriately for refusing to include all god's creatures into its flock. The history of Black culture and the Black churches in terms of  their treatment of the GLBT community has been dismal indeed, and that is brought to life via Aunt Rose and her attitude.

The musical numbers are small scale, highly impressionistic, and often break the fourth wall to address us overtly. They're handled with style and skill and beautifully sung. The final number, sung by mother to her son, is different however. It's direct and dead-on, and is, in fact, what every child wants to hear from his/her mom or dad but so rarely does. If its lyrics borrow (maybe unknowingly) from the classic Come Rain or Come Shine, it is still quite lovely and moving.

The weakness of Saturday Church -- it's so utterly feel-good and positive -- is so linked to its great strength that I suspect you will either embrace this movie or reject it out of hand. I'm for the embracing, as it took me places I have not been for a very long time, and in fact, thought I might never go again.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films, the movie opens this Friday, January 12, in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinelounge, and in New York City at the Village East Cinema, and nationwide on all digital platforms and via VOD. 

A parenting/parentage problem brought to life in Anna Muylaert's smart DON'T CALL ME SON

The last time we heard from Anna Muylaert was just last year with her Oscar-submitted for Best Foreign Language Film, The Second Mother, a wonderfully complicated movie in which ironies abound and everything from class and economics to pride and parenting are involved. Ms Muylaert's latest endeavor, DON'T CALL ME SON (Mãe Só Há Uma), is a lot less complicated, while sporting a half-hour shorter running time, too. This does not mean that the movie is any less rich or deep, however. In fact, in just 77 minutes (plus credits), this writer/ director (shown below) manages to believably probe a very fraught situation.

What happens here is that an adolescent son and his slightly younger sister are yanked away from their mother who, it turns out, stole them when they were both babies. Via DNA matches, both kids are reunited with their birth families (or, in the case of the daughter, what's left of that family), whom they neither know nor care to know, while the only mother they have known is tossed into jail.

A situation like this one is unfair to everyone involved but must somehow be handled as best as it can, and in Ms Muylaert's hands it becomes an opportunity to make us think and feel and even smile -- if not outright laugh at times -- without ever getting near anything "fake." (The line, "He looks like my dad," has seldom seemed so moving.) This would be accomplishment enough, but the filmmaker also tosses a few more bombshells into her mix.

The young man (played by newcomer Naomie Nero, at right, above, and center, below) -- originally named Felipe but known as Pierre for most of his life -- is one of those raging hormone adolescents who plays in a rock band, is an androgynous cross-dresser, and has sex with both boys and girls. The family he comes into is of a completely different economic and cultural class than he is used to. And the two mothers -- birth and thieving -- are played by the same actress. TrustMovies would never have realized this, had he not referred to the press information, post-viewing. In any case, that actress -- Daniela Nefussi (at left, above and below) -- is superb: hugely different and completely believable in both roles.

Via adeptly chosen scenes, we view and understand the feelings of everybody toward the situation at hand and how it evolves: the birth mom and dad; that family's younger brother who, of course, views this new addition as the supreme interloper onto his former secure territory; even the social workers involved in the case. The movie also brings up questions that are not so easily answered regarding identity and one's place in the family and the world. This is difficult enough for those of us living what we might call "normal" lives. Seen here, it seems initially maybe insurmountable.

Then the filmmaker gives us just one moment of sweet rapprochement that is simple, smart and rings absolutely true. Ms Muylaert, as they say, has done it again. Don't Call Me Son -- from Zeitgeist Films, in Portuguese with English subtitles and running 82 minutes -- opens today, Wednesday, November 2, in its U.S. theatrical premier at New York City's Film Forum. It opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal next Friday, November 11, and will hit at least another ten cities over the weeks to come. (In South Florida it opens at Miami's Tower Theater on November 18.) Click here then scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

The Daniels' -- Kwan & Scheinert -- SWISS ARMY MAN: great title, problematic movie

If you value originality above all else, SWISS ARMY MAN, might just be your cup of poop, piss or regurgitated liquids. Yes, it's gross, all right, and I suspect it wins hands-down the current movie record for the near-constant use of farting. But at least, unlike so many of those would-be comedies meant for the eight-year-old minds of stunted adults, the farts here are, yep, original. They're also amazing and usually amusing -- used as they are for bizarre plot devices, visual effects and finally as an all-encompassing symbol of what civilized society deems crass.

Beginning with its spot-on title -- yes, one of our two "heroes" is very much like that famous uber-functional knife with which many of us grew up: packed with so many pull-outs it seemed an all-purpose life-saver -- the movie is clever and shocking but also very astute psychologically and cinematically. As written and directed by a pair of first-time/full-length filmmakers -- Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert -- who bill themselves as "Daniels" (as in "a film by Daniels"), Swiss Army Man was said to be the strangest movie ever to screen at Sundance. Now that we've seen it, TrustMovies feels it's safe to say that it may also be the strangest ever to screen in a mainstream movie house. (Those are the filmmakers, above, with Mr. Kwan shown center, Mr. Scheinert, center, right, flanked by stars Paul Dano, right, Daniel Radcliffe center, left, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, left.)

The story here, as you may have by now heard, involves a young man named Hank (Mr. Dano) somehow stranded on an island in the middle of the sea who, having given up on any rescue, is about to "off" himself when he notices a body (Mr. Radcliff's) that seems to have washed up onshore. From there, perhaps the most bizarre of buddy movies begins to unfold.

Where and how the tale maneuvers is so strange and unsettling; funny, sad and unnerving; occasionally believable but more often the stuff of fantasy that you will find yourself trying to figure out just what the filmmaker' intentions really are. Is this a tale of desperation so severe and encompassing that the desperate man will of course invent/imagine whatever he must in order to survive? Sure looks that way.

But as the movie moves forward, there seems to be more at stake here. What kind of a fellow is our Hank? And is Manny (the name Hank gives to that washed-up body) entirely a whole-cloth creation of Hank's? What transpires includes everything from sex education to cross-dressing to the appearance of some very large and obstinate hard-ons from Manny, brought on by an old girlie magazine and a photo of Ms Winstead that occasionally appears on a cell phone.

How all this is possible on an island in the middle of the sea is one of the question that arise, as our buddies grow closer, while managing to avoid anything sexual between them. (Although an apology of sorts, using that old stand-by "I was really drunk last night!", does surface along the way.)

Above all else, it's the relationship between these two young men that matters most, except that the relationship is completely one-sided and serves mainly to build what we finally learn about Hank's character -- who he actually is and what has really happened. To this end, Mr. Dano proves yet again to be the sort of remarkable young actor who can handle whatever role comes his way. (And this may be the strangest and most difficult he'll ever have.)

For his part, Mr. Radcliffe seems bent on doing all in his power to counteract his Harry Potter image, and he's doing a fine job of it. From diverse Broadway roles to the most oddball movies (and they don't get more oddball than this), he is stretching himself and proving quite adept at the stretch. If here, he must play the "best pal" role as it has never been played before, he gives it his all -- which is more than enough.

In the home stretch, however, it must be said that the movie does fall apart (and then falls apart all over again). Things have been withheld from us that make all the difference, and while this might be perfectly OK for some movies, here it rather wrecks things. I cannot elaborate because that would result in a major spoiler. Suffice it to say that, of all things, the Daniels appear to want to offer up something as mainstream as "feel-good" -- after all they've done to work around that usual bill of fare. So Swiss Army Man becomes a movie by two very smart guys who don't quite know when to stop and consequently get a little too close to what you might call "smarty pants."

Their movie, distributed by A24 and running 95 minutes, opened in New York and Los Angeles over the past weekend, and hits a lot of other cities this week. On Friday, July 1, it opens here South Florida all over the place -- from Regal's Shadowood, Cypress Creek and Sawgrass to AMC's Aventura and Sunset Place, Muvico's Broward and Parisian, Delray's Frank Theaters Cinebowl, Fort Lauderdale's Classic Gateway, Coconut Grove's Cinepolis USA, and Miami's O Cinema Wynwood. Elsewhere? Absolutely. Click here and all the theaters near you should pop right up....

The photo of the actors and filmmakers, 

second from top, is by Jeff Vespa, 

courtesy of Getty Images.

Feminism and transgender, Albanian style, in Laura Bispuri's quiet marvel, SWORN VIRGIN

That great film actress Alba Rohrwacher, whom TrustMovies has long referred to as Italy's answer to Meryl Streep, gives yet another of her versatile, bone-deep performances in the new Italian/Albanian movie SWORN VIRGIN. Adapted (from the novel by Elvira Dones) and directed by Laura Bispuri, whose first full-length film this is, the movie gives Ms Rohrwacher a particularly unusual role, that of Mark, aka Hana, a very masculine-looking young woman (or is this a very feminine-looking young man?) -- whom we first meet as s/he is being taught to herd goats atop a somewhat wild mountain range in Albania.

From the very next scene of the film, however, it is clear that something is quite wrong here. Our hero/heroine is unhappy, confused, and soon s/he is leaving this place, below, only to end up in a surprise visit to what would seem to be the home of a relative in Italy. Ms Bispuri, shown at left, alternates between scenes that take place in the present and past, so that slowly we come to understand what has happened to this young woman. This has to do with a particularly Albanian tradition of how to handle women who want the kind of freedom automatically handed to their male counterparts.

We've recently seen a fine French film -- Oscar nominee, Mustang -- that showed us something on this order involving Turkey and its fundamentalist ideas regarding women. And if you've seen certain films that take place in Albania and deal with subjects such as the Albanian idea of revenge --say, The Forgiveness of Blood -- you will quickly understand how, uh... backward these ideas can seem.

To go into much detail here would spoil the growing surprise, as well as the understanding we slowly come to experience of what is going on here -- not to mention ruining some of the fine work by Bispuri and Rohrwacher that helps us come to terms with it all. I don't think I've ever seen Ms Rohrwacher give such a self-effacing performance as here.

Mark/Hana is a character who is not allowed to see or be him/herself. So little wonder s/he cannot let any another person see inside, either. There are times that the actress is so quiet and "enclosed" that you'll want to crane your neck around the screen to try to get closer to her face in order to know her emotions and thoughts a little better.

So real and so committed to that reality is the actress that she holds us at every step along this strange journey. This involves her "sister," played beautifully by Flonja Kodheli; her helpful brother-in-law (Luan Jaha, above, left); and her niece (a lovely performance from newcomer Emily Ferratello, shown at right, three photos below).

We also meet a lifeguard (Lars Eidinger, above and below) at the pool in which Mark's niece practices her synchronized swimming -- which leads to one of the most interesting hand-jobs you're likely to have witnessed. Likewise our hero/heroine's first penetration scene: so fraught and unusual yet strangely liberating as any the movies have given us.

By the end of Sworn Virgin, most of our questions will have been answered, at least enough to understand who Mark/Hana really is and what s/he might hope to get from this strange and possibly welcoming new world that may now be called home.

The finale is as quiet, rich and full of wonder as all else in this fine first film. We're certain to hear from Ms Bispuri again soon, and of course we'll be getting lots more from Ms Rohrwacher -- who, in just 12 years has already accumulated some 52 acting credits. Few actresses work as often, as well, or as deeply as this one.

From Strand Releasing and running just 90 minutes, Sworn Virgin opens in New York City at the Village East Cinema this Friday, April 22. The following Friday, April 29, it will play Los Angeles at the new Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts.

François Ozon adapts Ruth Rendell in cross-dressing dram-com, THE NEW GIRLFRIEND

The first ten minutes of THE NEW GIRLFRIEND -- the latest in a long line of very interesting and mostly successful (to one degree or another) films by French auteur François Ozon -- are so witty, entertaining and compact that they give you something like the entire experience of Beaches done in delightful movie shorthand. These few minutes also features two stunningly beautiful young girls (M. Ozon, below, is very handy at discovering gorgeous young performers of either gender).

These young actresses -- Mayline Dubois and Anna Monedière -- morph into two beautiful and talented adult counterparts, Isild Le Besco (below, left) and Anaïs Demoustier (below, right). It's wonderful to see the former on screen again, while the latter is quickly garnering quite a lengthy resume of smart roles, well performed). The two play best friends since childhood, and the untimely death of one of them leaves the other, as well as the widower and his infant child, bereft. Normally, the result of all this would make for high drama or maybe middle-brow melodrama. But since the story comes from a Ruth Rendell novel adapted by Ozon, there clearly will be something different in store. And given what we know of Rendell's work, there may be some murder or crime involved.

Well, forget about that -- because Ozon himself evidently did. It's a red herring at best, and one of the critical quotes in the film's advertisement that references Hitchcock seems almost willfully wrongheaded. What we have instead is one of Rendell's journeys into the psyche of an odd and misplaced person -- this time a man whose greatest happiness comes from cross-dressing as a woman.

This does not, I should warn, have anything to do with homosexuality per se, as our gentleman still still prefers the ladies, nor does he appear to want to make any move toward transgendering. His cock, as we see in one particular scene, is still very much on active and pleasurable duty. What the film explores instead -- via its leading man Romain Duris, shown above and below, who gives another of his probing, insightful performances -- is the nature of cross-dressing: where it comes from, what it entails, and how the doer, as well as the world around him, must adapt to this new "stance."

All this is interesting -- alternately fun and unsettling -- for a time. Yet the movie begins to drag, as the back-and-forth situations and banter between David and his female side Virginia (M. Duris) and his late wife's best friend (Ms Demoustier) goes hot then cold, then hot again.

The performances are fine, as far as they are allowed to go, but because we also become a bit involved with the late woman's parents (Aurore Clément, above, right, plays her mom) and Demoustier's hubby (the gorgeous Raphaël Personnaz, shown below, and somewhat wasted in this role), we never get to spend the time necessary to probe David/Virginia deeply enough.

Still, the movie is never dull, even if coincidence plays a bit too large a role in all of it. And Ozon's explorations into the lives of the "other" and the perhaps thin line that separates what's normal from what's not -- here particularly noteworthy in a drag night club in which a thoughtful and poignant song is sung -- nearly always prove worth experiencing.

If this is one of the writer/director's lesser and more obvious efforts (for my taste In the House is by far his most mature and exceptional movie), it's still worth a viewing, especially for fans of this singular auteur.

The New Girlfriend -- from Cohen Media Group, in French with English subtitles, and running 108 minutes -- opens this Friday, September 18, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema , the Bow Tie Chelsea, and the Landmark Sunshine Cinema; in Los Angeles at The Landmark; and in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Seattle -- with a limited national rollout across the country in the weeks to come. Click here and scroll down to see currently scheduled dates, cities & theaters.

Update: Cohen Media Group will release the Blu-ray 

and DVD of The New Girlfriend on January 26, 2016