The male, released from marriage bondage, in Angus MacLachlan's GOODBYE TO ALL THAT

Paul Schneider, as anyone knows who has followed the 15-year career of this immensely appealing actor, can handle a surprising variety of roles -- from the somewhat overly fond best friend of the hero in Bright Star to the subtle character-driven comedy of Lars and the Real Girl to his couple of-seasons role on Parks and Recreation. Now, here is Schneider in a terrifically appealing leading-man perfor-mance in the "rebound" rom-com, GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, in which he plays a newly "released" husband, whose wife informs him -- via her therapist -- that their marriage is suddenly "off."

That scene with the therapist (played by the always delightful Celia Weston, below) is very funny and tart, and if this movie, written and directed (his first time at the latter) by Angus MacLachlan (shown at left), were as continuously good as that particular scene, this would  be one hell of a film. As it is, it's still pretty good: always interesting, often quite funny, and with a lovely cast of characters brought to life by a fine array of actors. Schneider excels in the lead role -- bringing all of his ability to charm us, even as he appears a hunky dolt -- and he is surrounded by a cast of smart and attractive actresses who each bring something fun and unusual to the table, or as is often the case in this film, to the bed (or the hallway, chair or some other nearby vehicle for some nice sex).

Mr. Schneider (below, left) alone would be reason enough to give the movie a try, but here his co-stars include a  raft of interesting actresses, leading off with Melanie Lynskey (below, right) who play his soon-to-be estranged wife. Between them stands the lovely Anna Camp (from Forgetting the Girl and True Blood) who plays a young woman Schneider meets at church, who dearly wants some raucous sex but feels terribly god-guilty afterwards.

Also on hand are Heather Graham (below, right), as the corporate woman par excellence; Ashley Hinshaw (shown at bottom, right) as a lady who wants only sex and no other connection (this confuses our hero mightily); and Heather Lawless, as an old friend from his campfire days, who, due to a reunion, resurfaces.

The young lady who matters most, however, is Edie, the Schneider character's young daughter, for whom our hero desperately tries to create a safe new home. As played by a young actress (Audrey Scott, below, right) who looks and acts just a bit too old for the role, Edie is sweet and endearing, if not always entirely believable.

The same could be pretty much said about this movie itself. It's enjoyable, well-acted, often amusing and sometimes even moving. But it trades a little too often and too tidily on sex as a way to get us -- and our hero -- through the (not so) dark night of the (somewhat shallow) soul.

Goodbye to All That, from IFC Films and running a swift 86 minutes, opens this Wednesday, December 17, in New York City at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles on Wednesday December 24, at the delightful little Arena Cinema. Perhaps elsewhere, too.  In any case, it will simultaneously be available via VOD in most major markets.

Fresh on streaming (while hitting DVD Tuesday): the Entin brothers' classy GEOGRAPHY CLUB

Having covered this smart and enjoyable GLBT movie twice already, I'll just mention that it's now playing on Netflix streaming, simultaneous with its DVD release that hits the street tomorrow, March 25. When I first saw GEOGRAPHY CLUB, based on the popular Brett Hartinger young adult novel, and directed by Gary Entin and adapted by his brother, Edmund, I was struck at how roundly mainstream it seemed -- as well as how almost "big-budget" it appeared, as though producer Michael Huffington had spared no expense. It still looks good, and seems every bit as enjoyable upon a second viewing. If you have not yet seen the film at least once, here's your chance to discover just how far gay mainstream has come over the past few years.

With GEOGRAPHY CLUB, from the Entin twins, the GLBT movie goes grandly Hollywood glossy

It may take until the close of this 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-cum-melodram. Yup. GEOGRAPHY CLUB -- a glossy, smart, sweet little high school movie -- gets just about everything right and entertains like crazy while doing it. A product of the Entin twins (Gary, who directed, and Edmund, who wrote the screenplay, based on the popular 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 surprisingly like a lovely, glossy Hollywood product that -- hey -- just happens to be GLBT-themed.

Of course, the question then arises: Is this what we need? While the answer is most likely: We need a lot of things, this is certainly one form of "equality" that should help make a difference for mainstream audiences. These young and talented twins (shown above, with writer Edmund on the left and director Gary at right), have somehow managed to juggle themes, characters and actors expertly and corral some terrific technical talent, too. The result is a beautifully inclusive movie that tackles the subject of the high school "outsider" and makes it seem fresh and appealing all over again.

The outsiders here includes guys, gals, gays and lesbians that come in cultures/colors of Asian, Hispanic, Black and White. Best of all, the movie offers in addition a violinist (or is he a violist? It's been a few months since I've seen this movie) who must be gay because he's, well, arty and odd. He's actually straight, but he wants and needs to be included in this group -- which makes it all the more wonderfully diverse. The kids are differentiated and performed with a light touch, and the movie moves along at a fast enough trot that there's little time to get picky.

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 main story connects two closeted high-schools boys (Cameron Deane Stewart, above, left, and Justin Deeley, at right, the latter playing a popular 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 (do school even teach geography any longer?). 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, all right, but it is also a little sad in the manner in which it addresses the reality of "the other." Identity, acceptance and especially self-acceptance are all given a good workout here. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't tie the whole shebang up into one neat package. We can't have everything we want, it seems. But we can work toward and then settle for a better situation. Geography Club is going to make a lot of moviegoers -- kids in particular -- very, very happy.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running a sleek 83 minutes, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, November 15, in New York (at the Cinema Villlage), Toronto (at the Carlton Cinema), Tempe (at the Harkins' Valley Art), and Stroudsberg (at the Sherman Living Room theater) and elsewhere soon. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. SImultaneously, by the way, any outliers from the above locations, should be able to see the film via VOD.  (The film will not be available on DVD until March 2014.)

Netflix streaming tip: Visit THE HAIRDRESSER--Doris Dörrie's delightful, encompassing film

There was a time, if you can remember back as far as I, that the words German and comedy were rarely used in adjacent fashion. Not post-WWII, at least. Fortunately this has changed, thanks to filmmakers as diverse as Rolf Thiele, Fassbinder (whose films were often funny, in addition to much else), Dani Levy (who's Swiss but works in Germany) and Doris Dörrie, who directs and often writes movies of a feminist, rom-com, celebrating-the-other nature. A few years back, Dörrie gave us the lovely, moving Cherry Blossoms, and now she is back with a very different kettle of fish.

In THE HAIRDRESSER, Ms Dörrie (shown at left), along with screenwriter Laila Stieler, tells the tale of an exceedingly plump divorced mom, Kathi, who makes her living via comb & scissors (she'll have nothing to do with the word stylist: "I'm a hairdresser," she insists). As played by Gabriela Maria Schmeide (below, left), Kathi is beautifully but insistently upbeat. Her innate charm and ability to "rise above it," not to mention her beauty, inner and outer, put us firmly on her side (She's got a lovely face and, well, ample body, that she displays without a trace of shame, which goes a long way toward winning us immediately over.)  This is all to the good because, at the moment and in just about every way, her life is going none too well.

Her daughter (Nastascha Lawiszus, above, right) is estranged and would rather be living with her dad; her possible new employer finds her too fat to be considered for an upscale salon; her stop-gap job doing hair at a home for seniors (below) ends badly;

and when she's desperate enough to consider helping with human trafficking to earn enough dough to open her own establishment, she gets involved with a band of Vietnamese refugees, the leader of which (a very charming Kim Ill-Young, below, right) finds her a little too physically attractive.

All this is handled in a most sprightly manner, and the movie veritably zips along. Ms Schmeide holds it all together by virtue of her charisma and personality. And while it is clear that the character here is too fat to be healthy, the movie offers this up clearly, by virtue of Kathi's having been diagnosed with MS.

Still, it's her perseverance that conquers, and I suspect she'll conquer you, too. The Hairdresser, running 106 minutes, is available now via Netflix streaming (and maybe elsewhere).

THE ENGLISH TEACHER: Ms Moore shines (again!) in Craig Zisk's high-school hosing

How comfortable it is to settle into an old-fashioned (except maybe for some of the sex), funny, charming and well-written/directed/
acted movie that hits all the bases and arrives safe at home plate -- on a bunt. This is the situation in which we find ourselves in Craig Zisk's very enjoyable but rather predictable new film, THE ENGLISH TEACHER. And I do not mean that as anything but a compliment, although it's a mild one about a mild little movie. And yet. This is a film that seems to know exactly what it wants to accomplish and does just that, entertaining us quite well in the process. If it breaks no new ground, so be it. As one of my several mothers used to tell me, when I was given to complaint, "For goodness sake, Jimmy, just sit back and appreciate what's in front of you!"

And that, dear readers, is exactly what I'd suggest of you. What you'll find in front of you, first and foremost, is another fine performance from Julianne Moore, above, fresh off her triumph in What Maisie Knew. Here she plays an uptight teacher of high-school English, who has mostly found her pleasure in life from the great books she is so good at teaching to her classes. When a talented ex-pupil of hers returns to town, with an unproduced play he's written in hand, event piles upon event until comedy and melodrama collide and a lot of (expected) change occurs.

Mr Zisk, shown at right, hails from television, where he has directed everything from Felicity to Scrubs, Weeds to Smash. He clearly knows how to juggle and burnish the themes provided by his screenwriters (Dan Chariton and Stacy Chariton) -- repression, creativity, trust and betrayal -- into something appealing. The plot is not, shall we say, shockingly original, but it does have a few surprises up its sleeve. Let's just leave it at that so that any spoilers remain at bay. What the movie also has -- in spades -- is an excellent cast, with each member used by the director for all s/he is worth.

Greg Kinnear (above, right), again playing a doctor (and looking every bit as fine and fit as he did thirteen years ago in Nurse Betty) provides the older heart-throb, while Michael Angarano (below, left) plays the younger version, as that playwright who is both more and less than he may seem. Mr. Angarano should be seen here and in last month's The Brass Teapot, if only to get a whiff of this young man's versatility.

Nathan Lane (below) is everything you'd expect as the school's drama teacher, proving once again that he can spin the most clichéd material into -- if not gold -- at least gold leaf.

Also in the cast and quite good are Broadway stars Jessica Hecht and Norbert Leo Butz as, respectively, the school's Principal and Vice Principal, and Lily Collins (below) as the student who lands the lead in the play that creates the rumpus.

Technical credits look for the most part like standard, acceptable network television, but a special mention must be made of the delicious narration offered by Fiona Shaw, whom we never see but only hear. This is perhaps the screenwriter's finest creation, and Ms Shaw delivers each succulent line with verve and snap. In the final scene, in fact, she suddenly becomes such a character that you may well leave this movie remembering her most of all.

The English Teacher, via Cinedigm and Tribeca Film and running a just-about-perfect 93-minute length, is currently playing in the L.A. area (at Sundance Sunset Cinemas and the Laemmle Playhouse 7) and will open here in Manhattan this Friday, May 31 (at the Village East Cinema). Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.