With the likes of Laurence Anyways, I Killed My Mother and Tom At The Farm, young queer director Xavier Dolan has become a favourite of film festivals and cineastes, although his movies have yet to break too far beyond that world. However, he appears to be making a few nods towards his film’s commercial prospects with It’s Only the End of the World, which for the first time in one of his movies has internationally recognised stars with Marion Cotillard, Gaspad Ulliel, Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel.
It has diluted his style though, with the movie winning two awards as Cannes. The film arrives in UK cinemas & Curzon Home Cinema on 24 February, so it’s a good time to take a look at the trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘Prodigious auteur Xavier Dolan (Mommy) comes of age with his dazzling sixth film It’s Only the End of the World, based on the play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and featuring an all-star cast of top French actors.
‘After 12 years of estrangement, a writer (Gaspard Ulliel) returns to his hometown, planning on announcing his impending death to his family. However, his mother (Nathalie Baye), tempestuous siblings (Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux) and beleaguered sister-in-law (Marion Cotillard) have their own personal grievances to air. As buried resentments threaten to surface and fits and feuds begin to unfold, all attempts at empathy are sabotaged by the family’s inability to listen and love.
‘Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, It’s Only the End of the World is a bold and stylistically daring melodrama performed with thunderous emotion. Taut, tense and packed with explosive performances shot in claustrophobic close-up, it further confirms Dolan as one of the most singular talents in world cinema.’
Incidentally his next film, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, will have an even better known cast, with Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Sarah Gadon, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Michael Gambon, Thandie Newton and Bella Thorne all starring. [Read more…]
Please Like Me has become one of those shows that’s beloved of everyone who’s seen it – but unfortunately that’s far fewer people than it ought to be. While it airs on normal TV in its native Australia, in the US it was hidden on Pivot, and when that went offline, it switched across to Hulu for its fourth season. In the UK it’s only been available through Amazon Prime Video, and even then it took it three years to get there and comparatively few have heard of it.
With the success of Moonlight, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s been an okay year for LGBT movies. However, it’s the first time in several years that only one movie with significant LGBT content has been nominated at the Oscars. That’s underlined by the fact that when GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) released the nominees for their annual awards earlier this week, only two movie were nominated for ‘Outstanding Film – Wide Release’ -(Moonlight and Star Trek Beyond).
Author Jo Nesbo has sold millions of novels, but while his works have been made into Scandinavian TV shows and movies, he’s only just now making the jump to Hollywood. It’s with an adaptation The Snowman, featuring Nesbo most popular character, detective Harry Hole.
The Warner/DC universe has been having a few difficulties, with The Flash losing its director and getting a total rewrite, Ben Affleck deciding not to helm The Batman (and some saying he’d like to stop being the Caped Crusader entirely), and rumours that Wonder Woman is a mess. However, with Justice League set for November 2017 and Aquaman heading into theatres just under a year later (The Flash is supposed to come between them, but its release date is currently up in the air), it’s full-steam-ahead on the film about Jason Momoa’s watery superhero.
It looks like Leonardo DiCaprio is hoping to do some sleuthing, as he’s teamed up with Paramount to produce and star in an adaptation of Stephan Talty’s book, The Black Hand. It could be an interesting one as it’s based on the true story of man nicknamed the ‘Italian Sherlock Holmes.’
San Francisco’s Frameline is one of the biggest and longest LGBT film festivals in the world. However, as with all such fests, while it’s great for those who can attend, it’s often difficult to get the films and their messages to other people. As a result, Frameline has launched Voices, which will launch a new film every month for free via Youtube.
Call Me By Your Name gained a lot of buzz and glowing review at Sundance, with some suggesting that Luca Guadagnino’s gay-themed movie could be a bit of a breakout hit. Now we can get our first taste, as a clipe has been released.
Although nobody has asked for a remake of Scarface, for several years Hollywood has been working on one. However, at least some talent has been involved, with Harry PaDavid Yates producing (and thinking about directing) and Pablo Larraín thinking about directing, before Antoine Fuqua signed on to helm.
Although gay-conversion therapy has been pretty much completely debunked by science, it still has its advocates and young people are still being forced to go through it, no matter what damage it does. Fair Haven focuses on a young man who’s been through that ordeal, trying to deal with his life afterwards and the competing desires of wanting to please his family and his own real feelings.