On this day: Carmen, Moonlighting, and the Star Spangled Banner

Yesterday we missed celebrating Zodiac's 10th anniversary (the shame the shame) so we'll have to be more careful moving forward. So let's jump right back into daily anniversaries to reflect on and / or celebrate...

1845 Florida becomes the 27th State. It's been a problem ever since! I was born there so I can say that but seriously, Florida, get your act together. Between alligators, hateful politicians, legalized murder under deplorable Stand Your Ground laws, it's seriously a mess. Have y'all ever seen John Sayles Sunshine State? What other good movies about Florida are there besides Moonlight of course which just won Best Picture - woohoo!  

1875 Bizet's Carmen premiered in Paris. It would go on to considerable global fame and the story would be adapted several times for cinema...

Click to read more ...

"Beauty" and the Gay Sidekick

Chris here. Anticipation for Bill Condon's live action Beauty and the Beast remake is up and down around these parts, and those feeling may have gotten a little more complicated. Speaking to Attitude magazine, Condon states that the film will feature Disney's first "exclusively gay moment" and for none other than... sidekick LeFou?

Aside from the suggestion that Condon has apparently forgotten about Disney's gayest hour, "Poor Unfortunate Souls", this bit of gay news is somewhat troubling. LaFou, played here by Josh Gad, is Gaston's dimwitted and devoted bufoon of a sidekick - and Condon elaborates that there may be feelings beyond comradeship:

LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston... He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away.

This all sounds like a cousin to the kind of gay revisionism we've seen with the likes Dumbledore and Luke Skywalker, but more like being told in advance of queerness that remains subtextual. If Disney wants to applaud itself for depicting queer attraction, LeFou is an innocuous and fairly uninvolved character to the narrative to really represent that impact. If they want to make a push for representation, wouldn't it be more meaningful or worthy of this self-congratulation if that affection was also reciprocated? I mean, Lumiere and Cogsworth are right there!

Beauty and the Beast opens in two weeks! What are your thoughts on the potential of this "exclusively gay moment"?

Review: "Table 19"

by Chris Feil

Table 19 is a solid sketch comedy concept - a quirky table of oddball, mismatched wedding guests at the bottom of the acquaintance food chain - a trifle built to go down easy with even a modest amount of charm applied. Add in a winning cast (Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, June Squibb, Tony Revolori, and Stephen Merchant) and this should be a recipe for some simple pleasures at the very least.

Forget for a moment that the film goes to great lengths to prove to us that this ensemble amounts to anything less than the Cool Table. You’re trying to tell me I wouldn’t leap at the opportunity to get weird with Kudrow and Squibb at a tacky wedding? Hmmmmm.

Click to read more ...

89th Academy Awards. That's a Wrap

Another Oscar season wraps up. It's all over but the memories and the future debates. Here is a complete guide to our coverage in case you missed any of these pieces...

• New Facts & Trivia Interesting developments
• Twist Ending & The Winners List Surreal but fascinating
• Jimmy Kimmel  How'd he do as host?
• Emma Stone ♥︎s Moonlight In the press room
• Pic / Director Split Is this the new normal? 

• Moonlight's Missing Speech What we lost in the snafu
• Oscar Packages they really biffed the craft presentations this year!
• Viola's Speech Great or too much?
• Best Oscar Tweets Fun 140 character reactions
• Oscar Stage Design They're obsessed with art deco

• Warren vs Faye Reader poll - VOTE
• Only one "Woke" at a time - Oscar = always problematic
• Faces in the Crowd  So much variety in the surprise looks
• 5 Most Handsome Men Chris, Riz, Mahershala, Ryan, Dev
• Kevin O'Connell Wins! It only took 21 nominations

• 13 Fav Photos Celebrity beauty & randomness
• Random Leftovers Screengrab thoughts
• 10 Best Gowns from our fashion guru Jose 
• Podcast The Season Finale 
• The Oscar Charts in all categories 

and yet another set to add to our imaginary doll collection

AND OSCAR WINNER INTERVIEWS

• Asghar Farhadi merging theater and film for The Salesman
• Krystof Deak preps for a big career with the little Sing
• Robert Legato putting exotic animals out of business with The Jungle Book
• Rich Moore on the global resonance of Zootopia 

UP NEXT
Don't go away! We're more creative off season when we don't have so many golden statue deadlines. Pleaes like us on Facebook, sign up for a newsletter (it'll start going out weekly in March), and consider being a patron saint so that we can keep doing this.

Coming in March, the 1963 Supporting Actress Smackdown, Michelle Pfeiffer and the costumes of Scarface, Logan and King Kong and Belle and Gaston all return to the movies (so much nostalgia at the multiplex), thoughts on Big Little Lies, Jake Gyllenhaal in Life, and the 50th anniversary of Thoroughly Modern Millie... "Rasberries!". And on April 1st, new predictions for the 2017 Oscars (yes, the 2017 Oscars. Don't get it twisted like the rest of the internet)

"Kiki" Whisks You Behind The Scenes of Harlem Drag Ball

If the words Paris Is Burning don’t automatically send your wrists flicking, legs swishing, or face twisting then please politely exit stage right to your nearest local library, pick up a copy of the seminal drag ball documentary, and then keep reading. For those of you already wrapped up in LaBeija, you’ll want to peep this trailer for the documentary Kiki – a compassionate check-in on the contemporary state of voguing that centers on a diverse community of queer performers in the Harlem ball scene. This trailer provides a glimpse of the hugely talented group practicing – nay slaying – on the Christopher Street Pier, creating a makeshift home to express their talents and personal experiences to audiences and to one another, as well as their commentary on society's discriminatory attitude towards the different identities that the citizens of the scene inhabit. Check it out below.

Having already seen this exceptional, energetic glimpse behind the velvet curtain (full disclosure: I work with an LGBT film festival which showcased the film last summer) I can attest to the inspirational dazzle and real life razzle on display. While much of the documentary focuses on the first-person perspectives within this tightknit scene, the film understands how integrally tied those expressions are to their identities; as the cast is near-exclusively populated with performers of color just getting their starts in New York City, their hot takes pronounce themselves as deeply distinct, exuberantly expressed reflections of day-to-day life for marginalized queer youth in a modern American city. Kiki hits Los Angeles and New York theaters this weekend, and can already be viewed on VOD - all easy avenues for supporting LGBT filmmakers, their stories, and their fundamental human rights.