Penance: Here's a round-up of some good lesbian-themed movies, as an apology for last Saturday's post....

OK: I over-reacted, as I knew I was doing at the time, but my annoyance at a tiresome movie got the better of me, and my typing fingers took on a life of their own. In my post this past Saturday on the upcoming NewFest of LBGT movies, I mentioned that one of the films in this fest "would seem to prove yet again that lesbians and good movie-making seldom exist in the same frame." Of course this is not true. Puccini for Beginners (above) immediately counteracts that statement, as does Bound (below). So I went back a decade or three (one of these is now nearly 50 years old) to find a bunch of lesbian-themed films I'd enjoyed. Here's a quick list of 35 of them, each worthwhile (to some extent and/or for one reason or another), not all of them made by lesbian directors -- though that, I think should not matter so much. You'll no doubt have a bunch more of your own choices to add here, so feel free to let me know their names....

Aimee & Jaguar

All Over Me

Better than Chocolate

Les Biches

Bound 

But I'm a Cheerleader

Circumstance

Claire of the Moon

Daughters of Darkness

D.E.B.S.

Desert Hearts

Fine Dead Girls

Fingersmith (TV series)

Fire

French Twist

Go Fish

Heavenly Creatures

High Art

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

Imagine Me & You

The Kids Are All Right

The Killing of Sister George

Kissing Jessica Stein

Lianna

Lost and Delirious

My Mother Likes Women

My Summer of Love

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (TV series)

Personal Best

Puccini for Beginners

Salmonberries

Shelter Me

Show Me Love

Water Lilies

The World Unseen

NSA, meet MI5! In CLOSED CIRCUIT, John Crowley offers a timely & unsettling thriller

You want timely? You couldn't ask for a movie more attuned to what the western world seems ever engaged in: Spying on its own citizens. CLOSED CIRCUIT -- the tight yet expansive British thriller directed by John Crowley and written by Steven Knight -- hits the proverbial nail smack on the head, and the explosion that follows is as much about the uninten-ded results of this spying as it is of the spying itself. Though it will put Americans who follow the important news immediately in mind of what the NSA is up to, being British, the film instead follows the exploits of MI5 and its minions who fancy themselves doing good work that must be done to protect their country, even as they blackmail, betray and murder innocents. Ah, but it's all in a day's work!

Mr. Crowley, shown at right, certainly has a versatile resume (Intermission, Boy A, Is Anybody There?), in which each film proves richer than its genre might initially indicate. This is true once again with Closed Circuit, a thriller that indeed has some thrills but offers as much food for thought as it does action, chase scenes and death. It's a "distanced" movie -- from the explosion that sets the off the plot to the relationships that hold that plot together (and then tears it apart). Packed with as solid a British cast as you could corral (with an Australian, an American, a German and a Slovak thrown in for good measure), the movie speeds from incident to incident, with the connections between them often left out so that we must fill in the blanks as the film quickly progresses. And, indeed, it does move fast.

After that initial explosion, there's a a terrorist plot of some sort in which the actual terrorist (Denis Moschitto, above) is quickly caught and must be defended, a funeral for a dead lawyer, his replacement, a Special Advocate to help with the defense, conspiracy, investigation and... well, lots more. Surprise is as important to this film as it was to last week's cracked comedy The World's End, so you'll get no more info on plot development here.

Rather, let's talk about the exceptional cast, led by Eric Bana, above, as the replacement lawyer, and Rebecca Hall (below), as that Special Advocate. The two have a history, it turns out, which is both a help and a hindrance to them.

Bana's friend and mentor, played by Ciarán Hinds (below, left) is on hand,

as is Jim Broadbent (below) as the very business-like-but-close-to-the-vest Attorney General.

On the distaff side, we have Julia Stiles, below, as a suspicious-for-good-reason reporter for The New York Times,

while MI5, the dears, are represented by Riz Ahmed, below,

and Anne-Marie Duff, below, whose straight-ahead, brook-no-deviation stance has consequences for all -- including its supposed friends and co-workers.

Perhaps the most chilling scene of the year involves Mr. Ahmed quietly, professionally taking care of business -- murder -- while destroying a family in the process.

Simply to keep abreast of things, you'll have to pay close attention at all times. The British justice system -- as you may have found watching the French one in action, via Spiral -- is different enough from our own to make for some confounding issues. This is nothing that you can't surmount by keeping your eyes on the screen and your mind alert. (You might also refer to the film's web site info on the British legal system by clicking here.)

The kick to Closed Circuit hits you during the film but also after the movie ends. The idea of the all-powerful, secret government is by now -- thanks to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many other whistle-blowers -- a fact we understand as present and continuing. Despite Barak Obama's promise of transparency, then lying through his teeth about the activities of the NSA, the movie is probably as much on the mark about America's secret government as it is about the British. Same shit, classier accent.

What whistle-blowers can expect, as we see here, is at best a stand-off -- after which and for how long they will remain safe is very much up for grabs.

Closed Circuit, from Focus Features and running a swift 96 minutes, opens Wednesday, August 28, nationwide. Click here, then enter your zip code and choice of movie ticket provider, to find a theater near you.

NewFest (the NY LGBT film fest) tix on sale now; here's the line-up--plus four reviews

NewFest -- yes the film festival that, although devoted to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered themes, is clearly afraid to give itself a name that might somehow/barely/just-a-tad indicate what kind of a movie fest it is -- recently announced its 2013 (also its 25th anniversary) lineup, press previewed four examples of this year's films, and put its tickets on sale to the general public. Now, if they could just do something about that dreadful name, NewFest, which says absolutely nothing and should ensure that whoever came up with this useless moniker gets a five-year crash course in George Orwell's Newspeak.  

The festival, which exists in partnership with Outfest (now there's a name that at least says something: Why didn't they simply call this one Outfest East) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, opens in a little under two weeks, runs from September 6 through September 11, features the works of filmmakers from James Franco (above is a shot from his and Travis Mathews' Interior. Leather Bar. and Malgoska Szumowska (Elles) to Chris Mason Johnson (The New Twenty) and David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) and will screen fifteen narrative features, four documentaries, and thirty-one shorts -- plus some other special events. In addition, this year's fest has found films from the USA, China, Cuba, France, Germany, Israel/Palestine and Poland.

The opening night attraction is Stacie Passon's Concussion (above); closing night's devoted to Mr. Johnson's new film, Test (see review below), while screenings and panels will be taking place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater and at the nearby JCC. You can peruse the entire NewFest schedule -- and order tickets while you're at it -- by clicking here, scrolling down and then clicking on whatever garners your interest. (Other than the official press screenings already caught, I'm going to try my best to see France's gift to the fest, You and the Night (below).

Of the four films screened for the press, three are very worthwhile, though the fourth was so poor on just about every level that it is difficult to believe it would be included in any festival, let alone shown to the press as an example of what NewFest has to offer. Here they are, in alphabetical order -- which also turns out to be their order of preference, so far as I'm concerned....

GEOGRAPHY CLUB 

directed by Gary Entin

screenplay by 

Edmund Entin 

It may take until the close of the 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-melo-dram. Yup. This glossy, smart, sweet little high school movie gets just about everything right and entertains like crazy while doing it. The product of the Entin twins (Gary, who directed) and Edmund, who wrote the screenplay (based on the 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 like a lovely, glossy Hollywood product that just happens to be GLBT-themed. 

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 story connects two closeted high-schools boys, one of them an important 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. 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 but a little sad, too, and thankfully doesn't tie it all up into a neat package. We can't have everything we want, it seems. But we can settle for a better situation. Geography Club is going to make a lot of moviegoers, kids in particular, very happy.

PIT STOP

directed by Yen Tan

written by Tan 

and David Lowery

A gay art film? Yes, indeed -- and a pretty good one, too. The pace is slow, but the feelings, the emotions -- loneliness, need, and fear of connection -- are almost tactile. They will carry you along during this 80-minute depiction of Texan-brand desire amongst gays, straights and maybe bi-sexuals. The sexuality is a little slippery here, more like life and less like movies. Tan's film looks at two men, both tall, rangy and bearded; one pale-skinned, the other somewhat dark. Both have significant others who have not worked out. The lighter man (Bill Heck, below, left) has a ex-wife (current indie queen Amy Seimetz, below, right) and daughter, in both of whose lives he still plays a major part.

The darker man (Marcus DeAnda, below, left) is in the process of breaking up with a younger man and finding it tough. Characters connect, have sex (or don't), talk, wonder, think and stare out into the distance. Yet the dialog, when we get it, is solid and thoughtful, and the performances are very real. 

The loneliness of life in these parts, for these people, comes across as strongly as does their desire, and the film's finale is rich with feeling and possibilities. Like his earlier film Ciao, Pit Stop is elegiac, rueful, and maybe even hopeful.

TEST

written and directed by

Chris Mason Johnson

After 2008's The New Twenty, one of the best ensemble movies of the past decade, filmmaker Johnson now turns his attention to a period piece. But of a special period: San Francisco in the mid 80s, as AIDS was ravaging a portion of society and a "test" for the infection/disease was just now becoming available. TrustMovies didn't realize, until he saw this film and then did a little research, that Mr. Johnson began his career as a ballet and modern dancer. Most of the men in this movie are dancers, as well, as the dancing we see here is pretty damned good, particularly that of the lead actor/dancer, Scott Marlowe, who creates a rather indelible character in this, his first film role. 

This is such a different kind of movie from Johnson's earlier one that I doubt most film-goers would realize that the same man directed both. Test concentrates very much on Mr. Marlowe's character, Frankie, and his growth and change as both a dancer and a gay man. The rest of the ensemble is very good -- Johnson knows how to cast and then draw fine performances all around -- but this is Marlowe's movie. The young man is indeed a fine dancer, riveting to watch when he lets go; as an actor, he also knows how to keep his character close to the vest so that we hang on each expression and word, as Frankie negotiates friendship, sex, solo work and maybe even a little "love."

At 90 minutes, Test is just long enough to work as an interesting character study; a look at a lost, fraught period in gay history; and as a paean to dance and dancers. I can't wait to see what Mr. Johnson turns his hand to next.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VAGINA WOLF?

Directed by Anna Margarita Albelo

Screenplay by Michael Urban,

from a story by Ms Albelo

Other than a funny/dirty title that can't help but be memorable, this sorry movie would seem to prove yet again that lesbians and good movie-making seldom exist in the same frame. (I know there are exceptions to this: But I'm a Cheerleader was fun back in the day, and D.E.B.S. was delightful, but these are too few, too seldom.) I can't but think that NewFest/OutFest and the FSLC must have had another of the L films on tap for us press, but the disc didn't arrive in time for the screening so this replacement was made. Or something.

It's not that Who's Afraid...  is so utterly terrible. There's a nice performance or two buried under all the cliches and tiresome talk. (Agnes Olech and Guinevere Turner turn in some good work.) But I swear there's not a single moment here that hasn't already been done ten times over and better, too. Sorry, but stringing together a bunch of retread material under a cute title is simply not enough. And the leading lady, Ms Albelo, who also directed and came up with this below-standard story, is no "find" on any front. A filmmaker who can waste the likes of Carrie Preston (see A Bag of Hammers for an idea of what Ms Preston is capable!) should hang her head in shame. 

A simple little lesbian rom-com ought not to be this difficult to make fun. Instead the movie proves something to make fun of. It is, in three little words, a vanity production. And it certainly does not belong in front of paying audiences -- at festivals like this one, or elsewhere.

But onward and sideways! As I say, you can check out the entire NewFest roster here. There will surely be at least a few films you'll want to view, including some that may not see a theatrical release here in the USA.

About NewFest 

NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences to build a community that passionately supports giving visibility and voice to a wide range of representations of the LGBT experience. We are committed to nurturing emerging LGBT and allied filmmakers. We support those artists who are willing to take risks in telling the stories that fully reflect the diversity and complexity of our lives. And with our newly formed partnership with Outfest, we will become the first national LGBT media arts organization – extending our reach to an even wider audience. For more information, visit NewFest.org.

About Outfest
Founded by UCLA students in 1982, Outfest is the leading organization that promotes equality by creating, sharing and protecting LGBT stories on the screen. Outfest builds community by connecting diverse populations to discover, discuss and celebrate stories of LGBT lives. For over three decades, Outfest has showcased thousands of films from around the world to audiences of nearly a million, educated and mentored hundreds of emerging filmmakers and protected more than 20,000 LGBT films and videos. For more information, visit outfest.org.

About the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of the moving image. Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, LatinBeat, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, Rendez-vous With French Cinema, and Spanish Cinema Now. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious "Chaplin Award." The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year round programs and the New York City film community.

Concussed! Sean Pamphilon's THE UNITED STATES OF FOOTBALL explores the NFL's foot-dragging non-reaction to head injuries

As someone who has never much enjoyed watching nor playing the game of football (ouch!), TrustMovies is not part of the fan base that filmmaker Sean Pamphilon is looking to reach with his new documentary, THE UNITED STATES OF FOOTBALL. He's after football lovers such as himself, a fellow who had some hopes and dreams of his own son maybe eventually becoming a player. Not any more. Early in the film, in fact, he features a quote from President Obama to the effect that if he had a son, he wouldn't want him to play football. The statement, along with the movie itself, is due mostly to the medical findings regarding the progressive degenerative disease, CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), which affects the brains of men who've suffered, over and over again, traumatic blows to the head -- the very kind received by many if not most American football players.

This film is, as you might guess, an activist documentary meant to alert viewers to a problem and then do some-thing about that problem. On this level, it works very well. Style-wise, Pamphilon (shown at right) may be all over the place, traipsing back and forth a good deal, but he make his points and gets them across in a believable and anger-provoking manner. The effects of CTE on players -- some of them shown to us here -- are depression, dementia and loss of impulse control early on, followed eventually by something like near-catatonia and death at an age sooner than it ought to come.

The film focuses on one ex-player in particular, Kyle Turley (above) -- now a musician who composed much of the music we hear in the film and a CTE activist -- his family and his fears about succumbing to this disease. We also meet another activist, one whom it is said has done the most to ring the CTE alarm bell, Sean Morey (below), another fellow who lives in fear of what he may become. There are perhaps another six to eight players we see and/or hear about, a couple of whom committed suicide once their diagnosis and/or symptoms became apparent. Yes: CTE is that appalling.

I must say that seeing these players -- all younger than I and some of whom are now reduced to empty husks -- is a shocking thing (the late Ralph Wenzel is among them), one that ought to make football fans think long and hard about the "benefits" of this very violent game. It will not, of course. We live in an increasingly fraught culture that demands and rewards violence (George Zimmerman, anyone?), and the biggest attraction of football for many men has always been its violence. The movie begins to address this issue -- it takes a quick look at a section of a regular sports broadcast that consistently dwelled on this "violence as entertainment." But then it moves quickly on.

The main villain here, according to Pamphilon and many of the players he interviews is the NFL (along with its mouthpiece Roger Goodell) -- in its refusal to face these issues squarely, even though evidence of what injuries to the brain can do has been readily available since the 1920s. Pretense, foot-dragging and the rest of the arsenal of hypocritical behavior come to the fore whenever money-making ability is challenged, and so it is here. The film's indictment of the NFL, along with many football coaches, is as scathing as it is on-the-mark, and the movie will bring tears of rage and frustration to your eyes at the immense and enduring ability of humanity to deceive itself.

Among the most shocking scenes is the simple home-movie-like section devoted to young kids butting heads at football practice. Noel Coward one wrote jokingly in a lyric, "Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington." Has he seen this film, he'd have warned Mr. Worthington not to let his son near that football field.

The United States of Football, running a little long at 101 minutes, opens today in Los Angeles (at The Landmark) and New York City (at the Quad Cinema) and elsewhere. It will hit most major cities in the weeks to come. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters -- click here and scroll down to your state....

DRINKING BUDDIES: Joe Swanberg's new best; ditto Olivia Wilde's starmaking perf

If TrustMovies hadn't already known that Joe Swanberg was the writer/director behind the new film DRINKING BUDDIES, he'd have never guessed. So focused is this film in terms of its screenplay and dialog and so attuned to that screenplay is Swanberg's tight direction that this film pretty much wipes the floor with the rest of this mumble-core movie-maker's oeuvre (some of which -- Alexander the Last and his episode from V/H/S -- TM has actually enjoyed).

Mr. Swanberg, shown at left, has often given us characters on the cusp of assuming responsibility for their lives and careers, but never before have the stakes seemed so high nor the price so steep. Nor have Swanberg and his previous casts appeared so heavily invested in the goings-on. (Too often, they -- and finally we in the audience -- have seemed most ready to take a nap.) This, more than anything else, is what gooses the movie out of the mire of mumblecore into the light of action. Holy hell: There's something important going on here!

Another first: While it can be said that all Swanberg's movies have involved a kind of character study, here at last we have characters worth studying. This seems to have energized Joe and his movie. Granted, he has his most professional and attractive cast to date, beginning with the woman who is in control of the movie (and not simply because she is one of its executive producers), Olivia Wilde.

Ms Wilde (above, left) has long been one of our most beautiful young actresses (those catlike eyes set into a face of such planes -- not to mention the alabaster skin -- all put me in mind of a young Gene Tierney) who only occasionally gets an opportunity, as in last year's Butter, to really surprise us. Drinking Buddies offers another of those surprises, as Wilde's character, Kate, a smart woman with an important job at the local brewery (home to several of the film's characters), who initially appears to have it all, slowly unveils herself as someone who has almost nothing -- except a too-strong craving for alcohol.

This role, which becomes less and less attractive as the movie rolls along, was a brave on for Ms Wilde to take on, but she does it more than justice, creating as full-bodied a character as we've seen all year. If small, independent movies were regularly viewed by Academy members, this performance would certainly be considered "Oscar" material.

Surrounding Wilde are several fine actors, including Jake Johnson (above, left) as Luke, her best friend at work, a fellow with whom she shares a rapport that is striking and quite wonderful. The pair seems made for each other -- except that Luke already has a sweet girlfriend named Jill (Anna Kendrick, above, right), and, in fact, Kate, too, has a significant other (Ron Livingston, two photos below). For awhile at least. Also on tap is Jason Sudeikis as the brewery's owner.

Swanberg's sense of pacing, along with his ability to tell a story, have grown exponentially. This movie remains as off-the-cuff and full of what sounds like spontaneous dialog as do the rest of his films, yet here our minds do not wander. There's too much at stake, and thanks to the smart accretion of detail and the fine performances from the entire cast, we care very much about these people, especially Kate, Luke and Jill.

Beer figures into the movie prominently, and each day, after brewery closing, our happy family of workers heads out to the local pub for some more carousing. Swanberg doesn't hit us with the wagging finger, but what with James Ponsoldt's evils-of-drink movie also currently making the rounds, American independent cinema may have a lesson or two to teach us.

Drinking Buddies, released via Magnolia Pictures and running 90 minutes, opens tomorrow, Friday, August 23, at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York City and Landmark's Century Centre Cinema in Chicago. The following week it hits another ten cities, and then spreads out in a nationwide limited release over the following couple of months. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters.