Yes No Maybe So: "Mary & George"

by Nick Taylor

Hello you disgusting Royalists. As the final season of The Crown makes its way onto Netflix at a dignified pace, I can guess what some of you will be thinking as you watch it. “God, I hate having to look between the TV for  highly pedigreed British drama and my phone for high-quality artworks of men having sex. Who will finally, FINALLY give me both options at the same time!?!?” 

Worry not, dear reader, for a happy medium has slotted itself between these two pillars of your psychologically wrought Eiffel Tower. Mary & George, a miniseries based on the true story of Countess Mary Villiers molding her son George to suck and fuck his way to the graces of King James I of England, comes to Starz sometime in 2024. Created by playwright D.C. Moore and directed by Oliver Hermanus, the first trailer dropped earlier today, and we here at The Film Experience decided to give it the proper once-over it clearly deserves...

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I wish I liked "Bottoms"

by Cláudio Alves

It could be a matter of bad taste or intransigence on my part, or the rare contrarian streak rearing its ugly head. Whatever the case or cause, it seems like there's always one major queer film per year I end up despising while the rest of the world falls over itself in praise. Last year, Bros was the foremost example, and I found myself at odds with people whose perspective I respect. In 2023, the honor falls on Bottoms, Emma Seligman's studio-backed follow-up to Shiva Baby's indie success, a sophomore feature that hits the proverbial slump right on. And yet, I feel like I should have loved it. At the very least, I wish I did…

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Contemporary Costume Watch: "Passages"

by Cláudio Alves

Like it happens every year, as the awards season dawns, I complain that voters should pay more attention to contemporary narratives when recognizing design achievements. In 2023, their reluctance will be especially aggravating since there's such a deep well of costuming excellence within modern contexts. Take Khadija Zeggaï in Passages, for example. 

Ira Sachs' latest feature finds Franz Rogowski playing a Paris-based German director entangled in a bisexual love triangle of his own making. As Tomas, the actor is a sartorial tease whether he's in mesh or ratty green knits, while Ben Whishaw is more modest as his artist husband, Martin. Finally, Adèle Exarchopoulos is Agathe, a teacher who dresses like a young Bardot at the height of the Nouvelle Vague - all tight fits, high hems, and lingerie as outerwear. Across the board, fashion defies heteronormative tenets, everything is unisex and sexy to the nth degree. Clothes articulate tricky character dynamics while offering editorial-worthy queer spectacle…

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Colman Domingo could make Oscar history

by Cláudio Alves

Rustin is now in theaters, enjoying a limited qualifying release before it hits Netflix on November 17th. With this biopic on civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, Colman Domingo may earn his first Oscar nomination, in the Best Actor category. His hopes seem amply justified when you look over the production's premise and early reviews. It looks like a project calibrated to appeal to the Academy's taste, finely tuned for the campaign trail. After all, it's telling a real-life story full of inspirational details and a sense of great social importance, directed by George C. Wolfe from a screenplay coauthored by Dustin Lance Black.

That last name is especially interesting for it recalls Milk's triumph in 2008 and contextualizes Domingo's Oscar as a chance to make history…

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Doc Corner: 'No Ordinary Man'

By Glenn Dunks

In No Ordinary Man, a groundbreaking biography emerges out of the tragic throes of history. Populated almost exclusively by the voices and experiences of transgender individuals, this riveting and decidedly trans-positive documentary from co-directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt has the power and the depth to deserve a place in the queer canon (if such a thing exists). It dismantles the very politics of disclosure, and tells its story of self-discovery with empathy and tenderness while utilising film craft in a way that offers genuine inclusive insight.

It tells the story of Billy Tipton, an acclaimed jazz musician, husband and father who, upon his death, was discovered to have been assigned female at birth. At first mocked on the daytime talk show and tabloid entertainment circuit as a ‘unimaginable’ fraud who deceived his family and society for personal gain (women had little access to the jazz scene), No Ordinary Man charts how Tipton’s story was just one of many in a society that was woefully ill-prepared for the complexities of human behaviour. And how Tipton inspired a generation to live authentically.

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