Drag Race RuCap: "Grand Finale"

CLÁUDIO ALVES: It’s over. RuPaul’s Drag Race has finished its fifteenth season, crowning one of its best winners yet while putting on a show full of musical interludes, political messaging, and gorgeous gowns. Though the excitement of lipsync tournaments à la season 9 is somewhat missed, the queens seem happy with a repeat of the season 14 format, where each finalist presents a solo number before Ru picks a top two to lipsync for the crown. Anyway, that’s a matter for later. First, dear Nick, tell me your general thoughts on the finale...

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Reader's Choice: Don't let 'Dick' run your life!

Each weekend Nathaniel is looking at a movie that you, the readers, chose the previous week.

Arlene: What's the deal with that Watergate thing. Do you know anything about it?
President Nixon: No, no. No no no. Absolutely nothing. I don't know a thing. No way, Jose.

Dear readers, I struggled with finding time for Dick this week. I recall mostly loving Dick in the late 90s/early 00s even though the quality of it definitely varies. But you demanded I spend some time with Dick so I finally did this weekend. It turns out it's especially delightful in the morning.

Everything you've just read is jokey but true (literally and figuratively) and if you found it annoying, then Andrew Fleming's Dick (1999) is probably not the movie for you...

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Drag Race RuCap: “Wigloose: The Rusical!”

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Praise be the 90-minute episode, the Rusical team, the queens of season 15, and the politically prescient writers who saw the current anti-drag policies coming a year in advance. Praise be to everyone! “Wigloose” is the episode of the year so far, which is saying something when you consider the utter mediocrity of its LSFYL. Then again, nobody should’ve had to fight for their lives this week. Even more than in the original “Daytona Winds,” the queens delivered excellence across the board. Sure, some did better than others, and the runway could break ties, but the talent is so evident it’s hard to keep euphoria at bay. And yet, after last year’s non-elimination-palooza, I can see why the producers and Ru herself might want to keep things tight. I’m sad, but I get it. 

NICK TAYLOR: Praise be to the singers who actually interpreted all of those songs, too. I think the sheer brilliance of last week’s tooth-and-nail LSFYL and the performances in this week’s Rusical should (and, in a prior season, absolutely would) have prevented anyone from going home. Lord knows Marcia probably would’ve won this episode. Heaven Bacon was tailor-made for her...

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SXSW: Fighting for ALS Care in "No Ordinary Campaign"

by Abe Friedtanzer

There are many diseases and medical conditions that may be known by name to a large percentage of the public without there being any true understanding of what they are. One of the most prominent is ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease with an unpromising life expectancy for those diagnosed. As the stirring new documentary No Ordinary Campaign explores, there is much that can be done to combat ALS, but there are important changes required within the system to help offer hope to those who are currently facing a death sentence.

At the center of No Ordinary Campaign is Brian Wallach, who met his wife Sandra while working on President Barack Obama’s campaign and was diagnosed with ALS at age thirty-seven...

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Interview: 'Mars One' director on Brazilian politics, representation, and hope

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Gabriel Martins' Oscar submission Mars One tells the story of a working class Brazilian family on the brink of the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. The family is composed of a father working at a high-rise, a mother dealing with trauma, a daughter on the verge of coming out to her family, and a young boy who dreams of going to Mars. The film is a beautifully restrained examination of contemporary Brazil through the lens of class, race, and gender.

Mars One is Brazil's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In our interview, writer/director Gabriel Martins discusses the development of his film coinciding with the rise of Bolsonaro's divisive politics, how the long-gestating journey of the film helped him shape the final output, and how recent developments in Brazilian cinema have given him hope...

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