Romance, the closet, China! Raymond Yeung's happy/sad gay love story FRONT COVER opens

What happens when an ace stylist (gay, of course:"All the good ones are," he explains early on) for a major fashion magazine in New York City gets the job of styling a shoot involving a red-hot and very popular Chinese actor who's just a little bit uncomfortable around homosexuals? Given that the movie under consideration is a gay film, you can probably choose among several typical scenarios and come pretty close to correct.

What makes FRONT COVER charming and entertaining, however, is its combination of decent dialog, good performances, deft direction and an insistence, where the home stretch is concerned, on believability over feel-good.

The writer/director here is one, Raymond Yeung, aka Ray Yeung (shown at left), a Hong Kong-based filmmaker with a few earlier films to his credit. His latest explores Asian identity and sexual identity, both East and West versions -- in China (via that popular leading-man actor) and here in the USA (from the POV of our fashion stylist). Neither one, it turns out, is all that comfortable behind the mask that he has created for himself. All of which proves nothing much new, but the way Mr. Yeung handles his tale is appropriate, often fun, and finally surprisingly moving.

In some ways the movie is quite a typical gay film. Our hero, Ryan (Jake Choi, on poster, top) is surrounded by stereotypical characters, from his diva boss at the fashion mag (Sonia Villani, above) to his BFF (played by Jennifer Neala Page, below). Both actresses do what they can with limited and rather obvious material, but fortunately the movie concentrates most of its mind and heart on its two leading men.

These are played by Mr. Choi, as the Asian-American stylist who only has sex with white guys, and James Chen (below) as Ning, the hot young Chinese actor, who is himself constricted by his "image" and constantly surrounded by female hangers-on.

After a rocky start, the two men begin to warm up to each other and an interesting bond is formed. Yeung's style -- via both dialog and visuals -- is mostly graceful and loose, which makes it easy for us to willingly tag along. And the performances of Chen and Choi are lovely, too: funny and smart, with both men uptight in different ways for different reasons.

Ryan's parents (Ming Lee and Elizabeth Sung, above) get into the picture, and while their behavior may seem typical to Asians, for us Americans, they appear just different enough to raise the interest level a notch or two. And if the ensuing relationship between the young men seems initially a little too easy, wait a bit.

Plenty of drama and good/bad possibilities are provided when a photo, above, is surreptitiously taken and released to the media. The outcome may divide audiences between those who demand their feel-good fix and those who prefer some reality with their romance. For me, the finale proved not merely bittersweet but downright sad, lifting the movie out of typical gay rom-com fluff and into something richer and deeper -- out of which a dose of genuine character might even be built.

Front Cover -- from Strand Releasing and running 87 minutes -- is worth a watch. After screening at various GLBT festivals, it opens theatrically this Friday, August 5, in New York City at City Cinema's Village East Cinema, and the following Friday, August 12, in Los Angeles at the the Sundance Sunset Cinema. To see other currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and then click on Screenings on the task bar midway down the page.

FUTURO BEACH: Karim Aïnouz's gay love story and family drama, complete with waves and sand

FUTURO BEACH (Praia do Futuro) is something of a rarity in the gay movie genre: a genuine art film concerned with more than the usual problems of coming out, finding a partner, gay parenting and the like. Instead, it is heavily involved in place, feeling, motion and connection. From Brazil and starring one of the countries most popular actors, Wagner Moura (the Elite Squad films, Elysium), along with German actor Clemens Schick, and, in  the role of the Moura character's brother, Ayrton, newcomer Sávio Ygor Ramos (as the child version) and Jesuíta Barbosa (as the adult). That's it, concerning any important cast members. This is basically a four-hander film -- in fact, more a three-hander, since Ayrton appears first as a child and then as a young man.

The film, co-written (with Felipe Bragança) and directed by Karim Aïnouz (shown at right and best known for Madame Satã), does a lot of things well. The homosexuality here is simply a given: no excuses, no explana-tions. While we get a taste of homophobia (particularly from the brother, but this is more about anger at being left and forgotten), the sex scenes are terrifically handled -- as hot and as believable as you could want. (There is some full-frontal, as well, but nothing approaching hard-core). Visually, the film is often quietly stunning -- with fine widescreen cinema-tography (by Ali Olay Gözkaya) and a lovely sense of space and depth.

What is missing most, however, is enough content to fill the 106-minute running time. Filmmaker Aïnouz is evidently a man of few words, or at least this is what he parcels out to his characters. While this allows for less clunky exposition, it finally makes the movie seem more shallow than I suspect it actually is. The key relationship between Donato (Moura, above, center) and Konrad (Schick, below) comes about due to the sudden drowning of Konrad's best friend and perhaps lover. As grief can sometimes do, it tosses the two men (Donato was the lifeguard who tried to save the drowned friend) into an near-immediate frenzy of sex, and from there into further intimacy.

When Konrad returns to his native Germany, Donato comes to visit, and when Konrad wants something permanent, Donato must face separation from his Brazilian family. All good, so far. But when Donato feigns (or maybe fully feels) his inability to separate, Konrad calls him a coward.

Turns out, the guy is indeed a coward. When the scene shifts, so does the time frame and we're maybe ten years ahead. Aryton (Barbosa, above) is now a young man who has come to Germany to find his brother. Over this huge time period there has been little or no contract by Donato with his family. This is hard enough to believe in itself, given what we've seen previously, and because the filmmaker favors little dialog, we get no specifics about how or why. All of which proves quite a lack.

For all the visual display and occasional poetic verbalizing of feeling (particularly in the film's final moments) we have simply not been given enough detail upon which all this angst can properly hang. (There is a wonderful fight-vs-feeling scene, below, between the brothers when they initially reunite.) Finally, Futuro Beach, as beautiful and "felt" as it is, remains something of skeletal movie, waiting for the filmmaker to fill in a few more of those blank spaces.

From Strand Releasing, the movie opens this Friday, February 27, in New York City at the IFC Center, and in a few more cities over the weeks to come. To see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and then click on SCREENINGS.

DVDebut looks at gays in Poland: Tomasz Woszczynski's FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS

The last time we visited gay Poland -- Małgośka Szumowska's In the Name Of -- we were struck by how backward seemed this country in terms of public acceptance of everything from homosexuals to Jews. Another Polish movie from the same year (2013) drives home this point once again, in even fiercer terms. FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS, written and directed by Tomasz Woszczynski, initially seems more like the recent German film about the lawful but societally-frowned-upon love that grows between two young policemen, Free Fall. It is soon apparent, however, that Floating Skyscrapers is less grounded in strong story, physical and emotional detail and characterization than was its German counterpart.

This lack does not destroy the movie, but with a 99-minute running time, it leaves at least some of us in the audience expecting and wishing for more. The filmmaker, whom I believe is pictured at left, offers up some nice visual compositions, as well as some good-looking guys and probably about as hot an example of man-on-man sex as Poland will allows these days. But, as usual, the sense of overall society and its mores seems at least a decade or two behind the times, when compared with western Europe or parts of the USA.

The story? This has to do with a very good swimmer, Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk, above), currently being groomed as a champion, and his foray into same-sex wonder. He is not, the movie makes clear from pretty early on, a novice in this endeavor. As shown in the scene on the poster at top, he is easily commandeered from the showers into the men's room of the gym, by a fellow athlete who invites him into a stall and services the willing Kuba with a quick blow job. The recipient does not, however -- and he makes this very clear -- like to kiss or fondle.

Not until he meets Michal, at least. This brunette pretty boy, played by Bartosz Gelner (above, left), is as drawn to Kuba as Kuba is to him, though it seems to take an eternity for something physical/sexual to occur. Various women hang around these guys. Kuba, who lives with his complaining mother (whom he is shown bathing, below), also has a long-time girlfriend, while our first view of Michal positions him with a female companion, as well. But it's really the male-to-male attraction that counts.

As shown here, Polish life in all its forms -- family, sports, friendship, even love -- seems dreary, circumspect and hugely limiting. Not much is desired because so little is available. Our two protagonists, in fact, have literally nowhere to go to give vent to their physical needs, as both live with family and can't afford their own apartment. Glumness abounds.

Still, despite the societal stigma and probably because of the lack of privacy, their first major sexual encounter takes place in a public parking garage. What follows this is downbeat, nasty and depressing, though probably not, unfortunately, unrealistic.

The film's odd name comes from a conversation between Michal and his father, as the son recalls a strange and allusive childhood memory. It's poetic but rather pointless to the overall movie -- except its ability to provide a strange title.

While I clearly was not crazy for this film, it has stuck with me -- mostly as a warning about its home country, as well as an appreciation of the beauty of face and figure that resides there. Floating Skyscrapers -- initially from Canteen Outlaws but now available by TLA Releasing, can be viewed either via sale or streaming rental.   

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's BRIDEGROOM is both love story and cautionary tale for gay times

BRIDEGROOM begins with a four-story fall by a fellow who, had he lived a bit longer most likely would have become a bridegroom -- of another bridegroom, in a gay marriage that, from most of what we can ascertain from this very moving and provocative documentary, was "made in heaven," as the saying goes. The young man's name, not coincidentally, was Tom Bridegroom, and on the tombstone with which his fundamentalist Christian family has provided him in death, the word Bridegroom appears so large across the top that it seems to have a definite Christian connotation, as perhaps some kind of "bridegroom of Christ." Except that said family has refused to even acknowledge its son's homosexuality or allow his partner of several years to attend the funeral of his companion.

As directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (shown at left, and yes, she's the famous TV series-producer and friend of Bill & Hillary Clinton), the documen-tary tells the tale of Tom and his lover and companion Shane Bitney Crone, their histories, both growing up and then together -- once they had met, fallen in love and finally shared living quarters. The first half of the film is the strongest, as we get to know these two young men as they grew up in quite different situations: one a golden boy, the other more and more an outcast. By the time they finally meet, you're bound to feel they were, if not made for each other, then remarkably compatible -- something like salt and pepper or maybe cinnamon and sugar.

The film begins with Tom' accidental fall from a roof as he is photographing a mutual friend, then backtracks to the boys growing up, moving to California (Tom from Indiana, Shane from Montana) and finally tracking their life together, as first Shane and then Tom comes out to their respective families. Those families' reactions could hardly be more different, and the final half hour of the film becomes the kind of cautionary tale gays fear most: having no legal rights to anything to do with or about your partner, should something like death or traumatic injury occur.

The two young men come across as models of a stable, caring, loving relationship. Maybe just a tad too much so. When we finally learn that, on the morning of the day that Tom died, the guys had an argument, this comes as both a surprise and a relief. Up to now, what we've seen has been all too perfect. It would have helped matters had the filmmaker and any of the many friends interviewed come up with a negative or two, maybe a problem that had to be worked out, just to make these fellows a bit more plausible.

I don't doubt that Shane and Tom made up a rather extraordinary couple, but what we see here is a tad too close to love-story hagiography. Even the subject of that argument is never mentioned, only the fact that it happened and was settled and they were back to lovey-dovey by the time of the fall. Of course, death is indeed the great purifier: Parents who were nightmares in life suddenly become worth crying over; and spouses are often no different. When a relationship was a good as this one seems to have been, little wonder Shane (below) is still working on coming to terms with his loss.

Ms Bloodworth-Thomason uses her subjects and their interviews well, cobbling together a picture of society's outsiders as very much worth knowing. Because Tom is gone, Shane get most of the action footage, though both boys/men and their families seemed to have kept pretty good photographic records. There is, however, a little too much reliance on Tom's handsome face (below), which is used so much that it finally becomes something like filler.

Though only 79 minutes long (with a few of these devoted to a fast scroll of the thousands of Kickstarter contributors to the film), the final fifteen minutes seem extended beyond what is necessary. This is too bad because the documentary's first half is particularly strong, while its second half becomes, without undue drum beating, a case study in what can happen when there is no law in place to protect gay marriage. As one of the quotes on the poster above proclaims, this film just might have "the power to change hearts and minds."

Bridegroom -- in theaters only last month -- has arrived on Netflix streaming in very speedy fashion.and is definitely worth a watch. (It'll be out on DVD November 19.)

Note: the photo above of Ms Bloodworth-Thomason 

is by Craig Barritt, courtesy of Getty Images.

DVDebut today! From Israel, Michael Mayer's OUT IN THE DARK is maybe the best gay melodrama of the millennium

What's it like to be a gay Muslim in Palestine today? As much as I hate the current Israeli occupation of what were Palestinian territories won over in wartime (though one could easily remark that the entire state of Israel was once part of Palestine), watching the disgusting treatment of gay Palestinians by their own people (includ-ing their immedi-ate families) is just about enough to turn one's feelings com-pletely around. The very smart and often thrilling -- tamping up both one's adrenalin and testosterone -- new melodrama, OUT IN THE DARK, from first-time, full-length filmmaker Michael Mayer (shown below) is so well-directed and -acted that it will hold you in thrall from first frame to last. Best of all, it's a crackerjack, dark melodrama that, for the most part, manages to avoid being melodramatic.

The film is also well-written enough to carry you along, though the screen-play is indeed the weak link. Situationally, screenwriter Mayer and his co-writer Yael Shafrir have packed a little too much into the life of one of their protagonists, the Palestinian, Nimr Mashrawi (played by the excellent first-time screen actor Nicholas Jacob, below). Being gay, Muslim and living in the occupied Arab section is enough to get one beaten and even killed, as we see happen  to one of Nimr's friends. Having as well a big brother involved in gun-running and anti-Israeli terrorism makes the young man's life a living hell, as he is soon wrenched between the Israeli security forces and the Arab world's and his own family's crazy fanaticism.

While this makes for very good melodrama leading to a thrilling, pulsating finish, you can't help but realize that the set-up is just a little too neat. Still, so fine are the performances (by all), along with the pacing and technical aspects, that you'll not complain.

The only bit of safety and security in Nimr's life comes from the handsome Israeli fellow, a young lawyer named Roy, whom Nimr meets at a gay bar during one of his infrequent and illegal trips across the border into Israel. Played by a more seasoned actor, Michael Aloni (above and below)...

...who resembles a much-better-looking Anthony Weiner, this character has his own problems -- a mother (Cheli Goldenberg, below, right) who'd prefer he pick an Israeli dick to play around with, and a criminal bigwig client who has promised him a favor (another too-slick bit of plotting) -- but he soon find himself in thrall to his sweet Palestinian.

One of the strengths of the movie is that it allows us to view its protago-nists in various areas of their life: Roy at work and with his family, Nimr with his family and in his role as a budding psychology student working with and for Palestinian social services. From the scene we see in which Nimr helps resolve -- and very humanely -- a situation concerning a men-tally ill mom and her family, it is clear that he'll make a fine counselor.

All this helps round and broaden a film that could easily stick only to its love story and chase/thriller aspects and still be worth seeing. Mostly, though, as it encompasses its theme of justice for Arab gays -- which has rarely been presented more powerfully -- it will leave you ferociously angry at the waste and horror that fanatical religion and backward culture can wreak upon innocents trying to live and love in this world of ours.

Out in the Dark -- from Breaking Glass Pictures and running a near-perfectly-timed 96 minutes -- hits American streets today on DVD, and soon or eventually, I hope, on various streaming formats.

Straight-to-DVD: Gaël Morel's bizarre but full-frontal gay melodrama, OUR PARADISE

TrustMovies has been a fan of the work of actor/writer/
director Gaël Morel since Full Speed and Three Dancing Slaves (aka Le Clan). What he has enjoyed most is the off-center quality Morel brings to his films, along with the ability to capture reality his way and make it work, tantali-zing us to bring it all together in our own minds. With his new film OUR PARADISE (Notre paradis), Morel has written and directed perhaps his most accessible movie so far in terms of a straight-on plot line that leaves few dots unconnected and little that one's own imagination might have to fill in. And, yes, this does have its drawbacks.

Surely M. Morel, shown at right, has more on his mind than this movie lets on? Perhaps. Or maybe not. What we see before us is a kind of love story between two men, one in his late 30s or early 40s, the other barely out of his teens. They connect in a manner in which the older must help the younger, so that gratitude, leavened with lust, leads to desire and eventually something approaching love. That the older man, Vassili, is played by Stéphane Rideau (below, left, and further below, right) -- a veteran of Morel's earlier work (as well as other films: Come Undone, Ozon's Sitcom, and his 1994 screen debut in Téchiné's Wild Reeds) now nearly 20 years older and still a good actor, highly attractive and sexually alluring -- makes for an easy watch.

The young man, who decides to call himself Angelo, is played by newcomer Dimitri Durdaine (above, right, and below, left), and he makes a great foil -- from  looks to acting chops -- for M. Rideau. When, in one love scene, the older man remarks on the younger's soft skin, I swear you'll imagine that you can feel that peau douce. The two make a lovely pair -- except for one thing: Vassili is a psychopath, who kills the older men with whom he has sex (sometimes without even giving these poor guys a good time).

I'm not dropping much of a spoiler here, as we see this going on from the very first scene. Angelo does not learn of Vassili's modus operandi for a little while, and when he finds out, yes, it does trouble him. He makes his amour promise not to really hurt the fellows with whom they then have threesomes, but, heck, Vassili just can't help himself (one of the results can be seen below).

M. Morel generally does not rub our noses in the blood and guts, but he lets us know pretty clearly what has happened. He also gives up plenty of sex scenes, full-frontal, in twosomes, threesomes (below and further below), and a near foursome.

So the film is indeed a turn-on, and since the performances are, to a man (and woman) quite good, this will not be a case of your watching Our Paradise simply for the sexy bits.

So, then, what's the problem? It is not with Rideau's performance, for the actor creates a character who is welcoming, warm, sexy and caring, so far as Angelo is concerned. Otherwise he's a full-blown narcissist whom you know will turn on anyone he thinks has betrayed him. Unfortunately, betrayal, in his eyes, seems mostly a matter of disagreement.

When an unusual circumstance arises -- in the form of a john who managed to survive Vassili's attack -- the lovers must get out of town. They return to a childhood haunt of the older man, where they meet up with an former friend, played by the ever-effervescent Béatrice Dalle (above and below, and as beautiful and transgressive, if a bit quieter now, as when she played Betty Blue). She lives with her mom and a young son, who takes quite a fancy to his new friends (and they to him).

A visit to Vassili's old (in fact, his first) john, with the little boy in tow and later the kid's mom, brings the movie to its not unexpected close. As I say, most everything here is straight-ahead and on-course. What's missing is both the quirky surprise and full-bodied personality that more complete characterization might provide. We may see all of their outside (and in the case, of young Durdaine, it's quite ample) but of their insides, their mindsets, their histories, we get very little.

While some of the satellites that circle around our twosome are energized and show potential, Vassili and Angelo themselves -- for all the skill of the actors and despite the bizarre, pathological situation at the movie's center -- are not explored nearly fully enough by the screenplay and so remain two-dimensional.

Our Paradise (unrated, in French with English subtitles, and running 100 minutes), from Breaking Glass Pictures' QC Cinema collection, hits the street this Tuesday, February 19, for sale or rental.  I would imagine that streaming and VOD possibilities might transpire at some point soon.