Review: John Early cooks up a marvelous melodrama with “Maddie’s Secret”

by Cláudio Alves 

Women on screen are more interesting than men. This is a truth universally acknowledged by actressexuals everywhere, and, by the looks of it, John Early is an actressexual like no other. For his feature directorial debut, the openly queer comedian-turned-actor-turned-maverick-filmmaker has decided to take these passions to the next level. Rather than watch from afar, he has become one of the great actresses he’d like to see on screen. And yet, for all it plays with gender, Maddie’s Secret isn’t necessarily a trans narrative nor what one usually expects from a drag queen movie, especially one whose cast comprises so many sketch and stand-up comedians. The film’s genealogy harkens back to Old Hollywood melodrama and its queer revisionisms and reinventions by the hands of auteurs such as John Waters and Todd Haynes. Run a DNA test, and you’ll find some of Polyester in there, some Superstar, but also those moralistic “based on a true story” spectacles that filled the small screen during the TV movie heyday. 

Arriving in cinemas this week, through Magnolia Pictures, Early’s passion project is an essential Pride Month watch…

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The Baeksang Art Awards

by Nathaniel R

THE KING'S WARDEN won three prizes and is a huge hit in South Korea.

You might remember last year that we discussed that South Korea has a robust film awards calendar, with the first awards show of each year in May! I'm sharing it despite being well over a month llate because my number one film of 2025 No Other Choice took the big prize. The Baeksang Arts Awards do more than film -- they're an all around arts awards so they also honor theater and television. Eligibilty runs from April through March each year so it's a mix of late 2025 and early 2026 entertainments. As for the films some were eligible for last year's Oscar submission (No Other Choice prevailed obviously) and some are eligible to become South Korea's Oscar submission this year... though a lot of their competition has not yet opened.

The movie winners and nominations (and where you can watch them) --and a short epilogue on theater and tv -- are after the jump if you're interested...

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Very Gay Film/Very Straight Guy: "Princess Cyd"

For pride month, straight critic Ben Miller takes a look back at a gay film he otherwise would have never seen

What is the ideal world we would like to be living in when it comes to understanding and accepting sexuality? How about one of gentle understanding, filled with mutually beneficial grace? Stephen Cone's Princess Cyd might not be outwardly presenting an ideal world of magical realism, but it's one we can at least look to as a beacon of light.

For too long, the world of heteronormativity has actively attempted to suppress and silence the LGBTQ+ community. But, what would happen if not only did the straight world not interfere with queer lives, but actively attempted to cheer them on?

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Who should present Glenn Close the Oscar?

by Cláudio Alves

Glenn Close and Deborah Kerr at the 66th Academy Awards. | © AMPAS

By this point, everyone and their mother has heard about the Honorary Oscar recipients for 2026. It’s been decided by the Academy to bestow these honors on Ridley Scott, Glenn Close, and pioneering Black American animator Floyd Norman. Producers Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon will also receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with nobody getting a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for the first time since 2020. Much will be written about these artists, here and elsewhere, with plenty of time still to go until the 17th annual Governors Awards are held on November 15. However, to start things off, why not dispel some of the seriousness that comes as a package deal with such honorifics and enjoy a bit of silly speculation. Specifically, who should present Glenn Close with her long-awaited Oscar? 

Back in 1994, at the 66th Academy Awards, then five-time nominee Glenn Close had the privilege to deliver six-time nominee Deborah Kerr with the trophy she had earned since her Powell & Pressburger days. In actressexual and Oscar obsessive circles, this momentous occasion is seen with some irony, as it almost feels as if one perpetual Oscar loser passed her legacy to the next generation. Or should we call it a curse? If that’s the case, should Close keep with tradition and doom another thespian to a life without a competitive Oscar win? If that’s the case, the choice of presenter is clear…

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It's a Pride Party!: "Portrait of Jason" (1967)

by Joanna Sodeman-Taylor

Hello everybody! It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything, and I’m excited to present a bunch of queer cinema this month. I love Ben’s pieces on queer cinema, and it kicked me in the pants to start plotting my own series. The thought of only having a straight person celebrating Pride at The Film Experience of all places - we can’t have it! Ahead of whatever I’ll be reviewing this month, let’s just define “queer” along some fairly broad lines. We got films explicitly focused on queer subject matter, films with queer people in notable roles on- and/or off-screen, subtextual queens, camp queens, objects that have become ensconced in queer culture for one reason or another regardless of their sexuality, and stuff my gay friends really like!

I’ll be kicking things off with Shirley Clarke’s seminal 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason . . . .

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