EYES WIDE OPEN (Opens Today: Feb 5th in NYC)
indieWIRE.com’s Michael Koresky on Haim Tabakman’s EYES WIDE OPEN:
“It’s so tempting to treat “Eyes Wide Open” as the preposterous melodrama that it easily could have been, but Tabakman manages to make a well composed, unemphatic, and fleet-footed drama out of the overheated material. A more restrained portrait of unconsummated desire might have been both more authentic and compelling, but a less titillating film would have attracted little attention.”
Read the full review HERE.
QSundance: Contracorriente (Undertow) Nabs Audience Award
Breaking News from The Sundance Film Festival:
The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic was presented to CONTRACORRIENTE (UNDERTOW) written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Leõn, an unusual ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside in which a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions.
The film was acquired earlier in the week by by Wolfe. Read more details or watch the trailer at Sundance.org!
QSundance: Focus Grabs Lesbian BROKEBACK
The big news at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City today: Variety reports that Focus Features (the folks who brought us BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and MILK) are closing a $4-5 million dollar acquisition deal today for the new Lisa Cholodenko film, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT. Regular QMovieBlog readers will recall news of the film in our November 2010 LGBT Movie Preview. The film stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as lesbian moms whose teenage kids (played by Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska) decide they want to meet their sperm donor, Mark Ruffalo.
And we just have to share a snippet from Peter Knegt’s absolutely raving review on indieWIRE.com:
Such authentic examinations of a same-sex family don’t come around too often, and “The Kids Are All Right” has mainstream accessibility to boot. It’s this accessibility (much more present than in Cholodenko’s previous efforts—1998’s “High Art” and 2002’s “Laurel Canyon”) that should allow for the film to have no trouble finding a distributor. Whispers of a major deal came immediately after the credits rolled, and could very well go down today. But wherever “Kids” ends up, audiences should prepare for something truly special: One of the most endearing and genuine cinematic portraits of a contemporary American family, and one that just so happens to be reared by a same-sex couple.
Read the rest at indieWIRE.
Tony Kushner on Obama & LGBT Rights
The fabulous playwright and activist Tony Kushner (Angels in America) weighs in on Obama’s commitment to LGBT rights in this articulate and moving interview with VideoNation.
Wolfe prez Talks to “Industry Buzz” about LGBT film
“Our most popular movies are romantic comedies and thrillers, just like in the mainstream,” says Wolfe president Maria Lynn in this weekend’s San Francisco Chronicle Industry Buzz column. Speaking from the Sundance Film Festival on her annual acquisitions run, Lynn pointed to two Wolfe releases: the upcoming PORNOGRAPHY: A THRILLER and last year’s popular hit WERE THE WORLD MINE as examples of how trends in the LGBT film world mirror the mainstream. Read more here.
QSundance: Queer Lounge Overview of LGBT Films
The 2010 Sundance Film Festival is happening as we speak — now thru January 31st in Park City, Utah.
The folks at the Queer Lounge put together this helpful Summary of LGBT Festival Films showing at Sundance and other Park City film festivals. The list includes numerous features, documentaries and short films including the new Allen Ginsberg bio-pic HOWL, pictured above.
Alison Reid (director, THE BABY FORMULA)
“It’s hard to narrow down a favorite. Do I really have to choose? I grew up watching PERSONAL BEST over and over and over. BOYS DON’T CRY is definitely on my list – so moving and real. Does FRIED GREEN TOMATOES count? I loved it too. A great example of just how much can be communicated non-verbally. BOUND was a great ride and I got also got a big kick out of FRENCH TWIST. In the doc world FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO blew me away. I saw it at Sundance and couldn’t get it out of my head.”
You’re gonna love Alison’s new movie, THE BABY FORMULA — it’s a funny and heartwarming comedy drama about a lesbian couple who decide to become pregnant using sperm made from one another’s stem cells. THE BABY FORMULA is coming to fine retailers everywhere on March 9th but you can reserve your advance copy now at Wolfe.
QSundance — 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION
8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION director Reed Cowan introduced the World Premiere of his documentary about Prop 8 and the Mormon Church this week at the Sundance Film Festival saying:
“Really, my personal reason – aside from giving [the people in the film] a voice – is the fact that I was a kid in Roosevelt, Utah, who knew what it was like to be called a ‘faggot’ every day,” he said. “I knew what it was like to go to church and hear that word in the hall. I knew what it was like to want to kill myself for what I silently fought my whole damn life… And, really, the root of it all was that my church taught that I was a monster for who I was authentically.”
via Queers, Tears and Cheers: Prop 8 Doc Rallies Sundance Audience – indieWIRE.
Pictured above: Pro Prop 8 protesters outside the Sundance premiere of 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION