Film-Forward

GLBT

Lilting

Written and Directed by Hong Khaou Produced by Dominic Buchanan Released by Strand Releasing English and Mandarin with English subtitles UK. 91 min. Not rated With Ben Whishaw, Cheng Pei Pei, Andrew Leung, Naomi Christie and Peter Bowles The story here is simple enough, but the telling is artful. Ben Whishaw plays Richard, a young […]

Pride

Directed by Matthew Warchus Written by Stephen Beresford Produced by David Livingstone Released by CBS Films UK. 120 min. Rated R With Bill Nighy, Imelda Stanton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, George MacKay, Joseph Gilgun, Andrew Scott, Ben Schnetzer, Faye Marsay, Liz White, Menna Trussler, Lisa Palfrey, Freddie Fox, and Jessica Gunning With each passing year, […]

Love Is Strange

Directed by Ira Sachs Written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias Produced by Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Jayne Baron Sherman, Lars Knudsen and Sachs Released by Sony Pictures Classics USA. 98 min. Rated R With John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Darren Burrows, Charlie Tahan, Cheyenne Jackson, Manny Perez and Eric Tabach In last year’s […]

The Dog

Produced and Directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren Directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren Released by Drafthouse Films USA. 110 min. Not rated In August 1972, John Wojtowicz robbed a bank in Brooklyn, taking hostages and enduring a 13-hour standoff with the police. The unsuccessful heist granted Wojtowicz 15 minutes of fame, which […]

Mr. Turner/Saint Laurent | Cannes Biopics

In the awards competition at the Cannes Film Festival, two films rejuvenated the often clunky genre of the biopic. Mike Leigh, whose films have won many honors here, offered something of a departure from his previous output. Mr. Turner, appropriately his most picturesque film yet, explores the later years of pre-Impressionistic, pre-rebel chic painter J.M.W. […]

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear

Written and Directed by Denis Côté Produced by Sylvain Corbeil Released by KimStim French with English subtitles Canada. 95 min. Not rated With Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin,  Marie Brassard, and Georges Molnar The reimagined feminist fairy tale is widespread in Hollywood, evident this past month by the success of Maleficent. Vic + Flo […]

Test

Written and Directed by Chris Mason Johnson Produced by Johnson and Chris Martin Released by Variance Films USA. 89 min. Not rated With Scott Marlowe, Matthew Risch, Kristoffer Cusick, Katherine Wells, Damon Sperber, and Kevin Clarke In this appealing indie, the story of Frankie (Scott Marlowe), a young gay man in 1985 San Francisco, is […]

The New Black

Directed by Yoruba Riche Written by Ms. Richen and Erin Casper Produced by Richen and Yvonne Welbon USA. 75 min. Not rated The New Black film poses the question, are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues the new black? Is the struggle for marriage equality the forefront of civil rights in America today? The […]

BFI London Film Festival 2014

Claire Stewart’s second year at the London Film Festival helm set sail with the European premiere of Paul Greengrass’s Captain Philips and ended with the world premiere of John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks, both beamed simultaneously by satellite to 30 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland. At the closing press conference, Tom […]