Tip-top acting anchors Filippo Meneghetti's seniors-in-the-closet melodrama, TWO OF US

Here's a subject you don't see tackled all that often at the movies: The fear of coming out to your family regarding your sexual preference, once you've reached the age of an elderly grandmother. 

As difficult as it can be to deal with leaving the closet as a young man or woman, almost anything we've seen in this regard utterly pales by comparison to what happens -- the events and subsequent trauma -- to our two heroines of  TWO OF US, the French film submitted this year for "Oscar" consideration as Best International Film and which, just today, has been nominated in the Best Motion Picture--Foreign Language category for this year's Golden Globe Award.

As directed (and co-written with Malysone Bovarasmy and Florence Vignon) by Filippo Meneghetti, shown at right, the film is part cautionary tale, part black comedy, part blackmail thriller, mostly love story and absolutely all melodrama -- grounded via its two fine leading performances by popular German actress, Fassbinder favorite Barbara Sukowa (as Nina, above and below, right) and Martine Chevallier of France's famed Comédie Française (as Madeleine, at left, above and below).

Early on we get a strange and lovely impressionistic dream sequence of these two women in childhood which shows us how very close they were (or at least might have been). Otherwise, there's no real history here, yet it is clear from their proximity -- they're neighbors who spend their days and their nights together -- that these two are about as connected to one another as two people can be.

The sale of Madeleine's apartment, a move to Rome, the need to explain to family members (which of course means coming of their closet), betrayal, major health issues, followed by that aforementioned blackmail follow hot upon the heels of each previous "event" until it may be a bit difficult from some in the audience to repress a snicker, if not an outright guffaw.

And yet so grounded and utterly committed are the two leading actresses (quite typical of their entire oeuvre) that we tail along obediently, if not always that happily. Two of Us works best as love story/cautionary tale. How this particular closet can become hell on earth for both parties involved -- even if Nina would have happily come clean about the couple's sexuality long ago -- is convincingly, if heavy-handedly, presented. And thanks to the melodrama and the performances, the movie does hold your attention.

Subsidiary characters such as Madeleine's daughter (played by Léa Drucker, seated, above, and below with Chevallier), son, caregiver and even the caregiver's son are all paper-thin, existing merely to move the plot machinations ever onward. 

Eventually the behavior on view become faintly absurd and then full-out ridiculous. But, hey, this is all the result of secrets and lies, and of course that closet -- particularly when one is part of a family that appears to believe: Better dead than lesbian. 

So there's coincidence aplenty, a breathless escape, a last-minute change of heart, and those two grand performances. TrustMovies' take on Two of Us is that the film's heart is definitely in the right place, even if its mind -- as has that of one of its heroine's -- seems to have gone into stroke mode. Really? This is the movie the French cultural establishment imagined might win the Oscar?

From Magnolia Pictures, in French with English subtitles, and running an acceptable 96 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, February 5, and will be available digitally pretty much everywhere, it seems. Click here to learn where and how you can view it at home, and here, should you simply want more information.

Religion as the "closet" in Jennifer Gerber's interesting gay melodrama, THE REVIVIAL

The gay closet, as it turns out, can take a number of forms with which we might not immediately associate it. One of these is religion, particularly when the gay in question happens to be a preacher of it. Such a fellow is our non-hero, Eli, who has taken over his little town's church (Baptist, I think) from his late father, who was -- from all we hear -- much more popular, offering up the fire-and-brimstone kind of sermon our country's Southern folk love to hear. Eli, who is married to a wife who is soon to be a mother, prefers a more thoughtful and, well, "progressive" kind of preaching. You can imagine how well that goes down with his congregation.

As adapted (from his own stage play) by Samuel Brett Williams, shown below, and directed with intelligent, straight-ahead force by Jennifer Gerber (shown at left: This is her first full-length work), THE REVIVAL proves to be one of the better gay-themed melodramas we've seen of late. Mr. Williams, with his intelligently withholding writing that does not allow us to understand or fully know most of these characters until the finals scenes (the execution of which Ms Gerber's restraint and skill helps mightily), has concocted a very interesting melodrama

that explores the lengths to which a man will go in using his religion to better hide his sexuality.

Most organized religions, particularly in the Southern USA, do not accept homosexuality as something natural and good, but there are all kinds of ways around this -- as so many of our Southern "preachers" and their past scandals have shown us -- from out-and-out lying and hypocrisy to burying this "sin" so deeply within that even the sinner can sometimes ignore it.

Nothing works forever, of course, and truth, as they say, will out.

When a good-looking young drifter (Zachary Booth, above) appears at church one day -- not for the sermon but for the pot-luck lunch held afterward -- our "kindly" minister (David Rysdahl, below) of course wants to help. First offering that meal and then later a temporary roof over the fellow's head, before you can say, "But I'm not gay," this new twosome is locking lips and then other parts of the anatomy.

Now, if this part of the tale were all that's on offer, we could yawn and say been there/done that. We also meet and spend time with some interesting subsidiary characters, too, such as Trevor (nice job by Raymond McAnally, below), the good-'ol-boy pal who consistently tries to get Eli to preach what the congregation wants. Trevor is , in fact, raising money for a big "revival" style meeting at the church -- which Eli is dead set against.

Eli's put-upon wife -- a low-key but very smart performance from Lucy Faust, below -- comes into her own during the course of the film, as well. It is her character of whom we learn perhaps the most about by film's end.

There is even one member of the congregation -- played with off-key charm by Stephen Ellis, below -- who is desperately in love with his first cousin. While this situation might initially seem merely a bit of comic relief, it serves a deeper purpose in showing us how poor (uncaring, really) a minister our anti-hero actually is.

By the time the "gay love" situation has worked itself out -- and not probably in either of the ways you will expect -- several other situations and characters have come heavily and surprisingly into play. The Revival is a much stronger and more forceful piece of gay-themed film-making than TrustMovies expected. Take a chance on it.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running just 85 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, January 19, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. The DVD will be released the following week on Tuesday, January 23.

Alden Peters' COMING OUT: Leaving the closet, even as you're filming it for posterity

When TrustMovies first heard that COMING OUT, the new GLBT documentary from first-time filmmaker Alden Peters, was all about his "coming out" process as a gay man, and that he had simultaneously filmed the whole thing, my mind and heart sank a bit. It is all too easy to imagine how stupid and sappy something like this could be. The opportunities for narcissism, not to mention the difficulty of finding "truth" as you are filming everyone around you -- while remaining, of course, the center of attention -- seemed awfully obvious to me. And I couldn't help wondering why it didn't also seem so to the filmmaker. Well, maybe he's just very young.

Turns out he is very young -- but also rather charming and bright. All of the above, and lots more, seems to have occurred to Mr. Peters (shown above and below) before, during and probably long after his shoot -- in which, yes, he does come out to family, friends and now to the world at large. The experience of seeing/hearing this happen and what it means to Peters and those around him -- for this viewer, anyway -- proved a surprisingly enjoyable, thoughtful, funny and occasionally moving one.

The person to whom Alden initially spills the beans is his older brother, who claims not to have had a clue that his younger bro was gay, even though as a child Alden dressed up like one of the Spice Girls and filmed the whole thing! Other family members at least seem to have considered this possibility. His mom (above, left) asks him one humdinger of a question on camera, while Dad (below, left, and on poster, top, right), who seems a typically gruff and non-verbal example of American manhood, turns out to be pretty damn fine about it all.

The filmed conversation with his group of best friends is particularly buoyant and telling, opening up the subject of how Alden himself feels about being gay. This proves to be a rather dark grab bag of ideas and feelings,  A good-looking kid who, from certain angles, could pass for a very young Tom Cruise, Peters has already experienced gay sex a number of times, but has kept this, along with so much else, closeted. As he has discovered so far, there just doesn't seem to be a good role model for him to follow. Or maybe it's is just that there are so many different role models to choose from that he find this confusing. Many gays, young and old, may find themselves identifying with these feelings.

As the movie lengthens (it's lasts only 70 minutes), we meet other gays who have or are in the process of coming-out -- the beautiful transgender girl Janet Mock, a young black kid named Eric who comes out online to his dad, along with a sociologist, a journalist and a psychologist, all of whom add some thoughtful insight to the proceedings. Finally, though, we're left with Alden, who, while he is now "out," is still faced with a lot more living -- and decision-making -- to do. If we thought this documentary was going to be merely a silly, sappy endeavor, it turns out to be -- in the words of our favorite current TV character, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (a show you really must see, if you haven't already: it's streamable via Netflix) -- "a lot more nuanced than that."

Coming Out, from Wolfe Video, arrives on DVD and VOD this coming Tuesday, October 4 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Jeffrey Schwarz & Allan Glaser's TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL: an engrosssing, enriching, informative look at the lives--real and manufactured--of a 1950s Hollywood star

Back in the mid-20th-century, who didn't have a crush on Tab Hunter? That uber-adorable blond boy of German ancestry, whose gorgeous face and sveltely muscular body set the screen ablaze from his first big role (opposite Linda Darnell), almost immediately became the nationwide idol of teenage girls (and boys with certain proclivities), going on to make a couple dozen film and/or TV appearances over a ten-year period that would ensure his entry into the Hollywood pantheon. Critics may have come late, if at all, to his actual acting ability, but nobody, I suspect, could gainsay the guy's ability to turn heads, hearts and libidos his way. Now comes a new documentary, TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, that not only tells the actor's story -- damned well, too -- but might easily stand in for a textbook case of how the Hollywood dream factory created then sold those dreams to a more-than-willing public. The film is also one of the best documentaries made thus far about the career and lives -- real and manufactured -- of a Hollywood "star."

The creation of producer Allan Glaser (shown at left) -- the actual identity of whom becomes apparent toward the end of the documentary, at which point it couldn't seem more pleasing and appropriate -- and director Jeffrey Schwarz (below, right), the film should prove catnip to Hunter's many fans, most of whom are now senior citizens. Beyond this, however, the movie may very well capture the somewhat younger audience who knows Hunter from his later work with John Waters, Paul Bartel and Divine (Polyester and Lust in the Dust).

Mr. Schwarz's fine work (he both directed and edited the documentary) weaves together Hunter's career with his life, his family (an older and much-looked-up-to brother, a mother with mental problems and an absentee dad), and the necessity of remaining in the closet due to his homosexuality -- which was not only a Hollywood career-breaker but illegal and grounds for imprisonment back in the 1950s. Schwarz allows Hunter to tell his own story, abetted by a terrific library of archival photos, clips from various films and Hollywood "news" footage from that era.

Mr. Hunter (above in his "dreamboat" days, below in his current life) appears to be a pretty "private" guy, almost as much now as in his heyday when he had so much to hide. Still, at the film's beginning, he promises to give up the goods, and by and large he does just that. (The movie's title, by the way, is a nasty nod to the nastiest magazine of its day, Confidential, that delighted in opening up scandals -- often sexual in nature, with homosexual best of all, of course -- that could and often did destroy an actor's career.)

When the magazine "outed" Hunter, the advice of one of his mentors, Warner Bros.' Jack Warner, proved smart and helpful to the young actor. As did that of some of his co-stars and leading ladies -- from Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds to Venetia Stevenson and Etchika Choureau -- all of whom seemed to have liked and cared quite a bit about this rising star.

Ms. Stevenson, in fact, tells us that she didn't at all mind being seen dating Hunter and likewise dating Anthony Perkins (shown in background, above), thus acting as a "beard" to cover up the affair between the two (yes!). The Perkins connection proves one of the film's most interesting aspects, as it sheds a lot of light on the gay dating habits of that day, as well as on the character of the also-very-private Mr. Perkins, whose affair with Hunter seemed to cool, due to a certain television and then movie property called Fear Strikes Out.

Hunter's lead-role appearance in the TV version, and Perkins' follow-up in the movie makes for some very interesting fodder for ideas about ambition and betrayal in Hollywood. Hunter's work in television and even in legitimate theater also proves salient, interesting and even sometimes amusing, as shown here.

Some of us may have forgotten just how successful was Hunter as a recording artist -- something else the film makes sure we understand. Warner Bros Records, in fact, was created because Hunter's number one pop song was recorded for Dot Records (only because Warners did not yet have its own record label!).

The documentary is full of fascinating stuff like this, and its 90 minutes seem to fly by. By the finale, you'll have grown to admire and appreciate Mr. Hunter (as well as his producer, Mr. Glaser, and director Schwarz), feeling, I suspect, that there is great deal more to the man and his work than first met the eye. Though what met that eye was -- still is -- rather extraordinary.

Tab Hunter Confidential, from Automat Pictures and The Film Collaborative, while continuing at New York City's Village East Cinema, opens today, Friday, October 23, in other cities, and hits Los Angeles at Landmark's NuArt next Friday, October 30. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed.

On Blu-ray/DVD: Soesbe/Montiel's BOULEVARD --one of Robin Williams' final, if not finest, roles

TrustMovies has been a big fan of filmmaker Dito Montiel ever since his Guide to Recognizing Your Saints appeared. After some hit-and-miss work over the years (most of which I've enjoyed), he is back again, directing Robin Williams in one of his final roles in BOULEVARD, from a screenplay by Douglas Soesbe. The movie proves a serious attempt to explore the life of a quiet, closeted, married-for-years-to-a-good-woman, gay man about to experience something that will lead to big change.

So far, so good. And Williams, who just about never gave a bad performance unless he was forced into it, is once again in fine form as a man who has kept a deep and important part of himself a secret from not just the rest of the world but from himself. What's missing -- and I hate to say it since Montiel (pictured at right) made his mark with an uber-stylish independent movie -- is the kind of style that might elevate this film above the level of a well-intentioned try at consciousness-raising on both sides of the camera.

Boulevard is a quiet film which in itself is nothing bad. But it is quiet in so many ways -- from a script featuring dialog that is true-to-life but also bland enough to have us in sleep mode to direction that accentuates the script's limitations by refusing to goose any scene out of exactly what we expect -- that the movie finally has barely come to life before it's over.

None of this is the fault of the actors, who to a man and woman stay in keeping with the quiet tone. In addition to Williams the fine cast includes Kathy Baker (above, right) as his put-upon wife, Roberto Aguire (below, left) as the young man who throws the monkey wrench into his life, and Bob Odenkirk as his funny best friend. They help make this movie, which you'll very much wish were better than it is, a passable viewing.

Boulevard, from Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz Digital hits the street this coming Tuesday, September 1, available on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD -- for rental and/or purchase.