Fall preview: Films
The fall film season is unusually promising for LGBTQ filmgoers. Here are at least two dozen reasons for making moviegoing a regular habit from now until Christmas.
Freeheld Laurel Hester probably never imagined that her wish to leave her government pension, earned as an openly lesbian police officer, to her female lover would result in a landmark 21st-century civil rights case. The story opens with an eloquent declaration of love and a desire to nest by a couple (Julianne Moore and Ellen Page) who discover that their dreams can be blocked by a cadre of small-minded male judges. "If you could have anything, what would it be?" "A house, a dog, a woman I love who loves me." The proceedings, from director Peter Sollett with a screenplay by Ron Nyswaner, are enlivened by a rare non-comic turn from Steve Carell as the couple's feisty Jewish (with his own issues) attorney. (October)
The Danish Girl "Do me a small favor?" In novelist David Ebershoff's 2002 modern masterpiece, a wife's offhand request for her husband, Einar, to try on a pair of woman's shoes leads to a life-altering transformation for her spouse. Einar takes on the drag identity of Lily, and the couple embark on a tour of European Jazz Era hot-spots. In the highly anticipated film version, Oscar-winning English star Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) is reportedly breathtaking as the cross-dressing diva Lily Elbe. With a career spanning his mother-slaying turn opposite Julianne Moore in Savage Grace to an insolent teen painter's helper on Broadway opposite Alfred Molina, the freckle-faced redhead has said that during his sojourn at elite British schools (Eton, Cambridge), he was continually razzed for looking like his mother. (December)
Stonewall Openly gay newcomer Jonny Beachamp is getting advance raves for his bravado turn as a homeless queer-boy runaway who turns up on a fateful night at the world's most famous LGBTQ drinking hole. German-born filmmaker Roland Emmerich's fictional retelling of the tumultuous night that gave birth to a modern gay identity has already proved controversial before it's been widely viewed, due to allegations that it downplays or slights the role of some of the groups that make up our Lavender Nation. (September)
Crimson Peak Mexican-born fantasist Guillermo del Toro's big breakout hit was a chilling tale set in a Spanish Civil War-era orphanage. The Devil's Backbone frightened audiences and a cast of teen-boy orphans with the specter of a ghostly boy who nightly roamed the corridors seeking revenge for dark transgressions. In Crimson Peak, the ghost story is domesticated, with the haunted home shared by three young adults: Mia Wasikowska as a young married woman, and siblings Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain. Reports are that the film's authentic period costumes and lavish sets make it a must-see fall film. (October)
Sicario French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who wowed us with the 2013 high-voltage child-kidnapping melodrama Prisoners, returns with another top-flight cast (Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro) in a drug-cartel-themed thriller. An FBI agent (Blunt) is enmeshed in the testosterone-fueled world of murderous drug lords and American cowboy lawmen.
The Intern In a film season that's producing a slight uptick in women directors, Nancy Meyers delivers a platonic office comedy where Anne Hathaway strikes up an unlikely cubicle bond with Robert De Niro's retiree. De Niro's older guy becomes an unusually agile human asset in a two-character vehicle set dab-smack in the middle of a very hip Brooklyn.
Mississippi Grid The writing/directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, creators of the 2006 Ryan Gosling drug-addicted teacher drama Half Nelson, return with a riverboat gambling tale. Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn are two dudes astride the mighty Mississippi with bad luck at the shipboard gambling tables. (September)
Sleeping with Other People Leslye Headland revives the classic romantic-triangle comedy, with Alison Brie as a single woman caught between a boring if successful doctor (Adam Scott) and the guy who gives her the chills (Jason Sudeikis). (September)
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Dylan O'Brien, the 23-year-old star of MTV's hit series Teen Wolf, takes on the lead in the second part of a three-part film treatment of the sci-fi novel The Maze Runner. O'Brien co-stars with Patricia Clarkson and Kaya Scodelario in a film whose first installment topped $340 million in world box-office. (September)
Black Mass Former heartthrob Johnny Depp pulls a radical physical makeover for his take on Boston star hoodlum James "Whitey" Bulger. (September)
The Perfect Guy Director David M. Rosenthal offers a romantic thriller where Sanaa Lathan is a lobbyist caught between two guys, Michael Elay and Morris Chestnut. A high-powered African American cast aces a compelling American political drama. (September)
Everest Iceland-born director Baltasar Kormakur would appear an excellent choice to lead a top-flight cast (Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke) in a fictional reenactment of the tragic 1996 climb when eight climbers died assaulting this most famous mountain peak. (September)
The Walk The nimble indie actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt does yeoman work demonstrating the thrills experienced by brave Frenchman Philippe Petit on a chilly morning in 1974 when he walked across a tightrope stretched between the twin towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center. The actor says a part of his motivation for this unusual reenactment (directed by Robert Zemeckis) was to recall a happier time when the towers were a beloved landmark. (September)
The Visit We haven't heard from M. Night Shyamalan in a while, and the Indian-born filmmaker has reserved a special treat for his fans. The Visit involves two kids spending time at their grandparents' house, a stopover that becomes memorable for reasons we will leave to your imagination. (September)
Suffragette Oscar nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep, head a timely drama about the pioneers who risked everything to gain equality for women in early-20th-century Britain. The story centers on Maud (Mulligan), juggling the roles of working wife and mother, whose life is up-ended when she is recruited to join Britain's growing suffragette movement. Led by feminist fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst (Streep), Maud joins the cause alongside a cross-section of women from every sector of British society. When a brutal police response forces Maud and company underground they play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a government whose leaders are shocked as the women's civil disobedience escalates, igniting debate and protests across the nation. Directed by Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) from a script by Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady). (October)
About Ray features a trio of top female leads (Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon and Elle Fanning) in a drama that's likely to really stir the gender-transitioning pot. UK helmer Gaby Dellal directs Nikole Beckwith's script. Fanning plays NYC teen Ray, who's just come out as a lesbian to his female family and plans to up the stakes by transitioning from female to male. Watts is the mother coming to terms with raising her only daughter as a son. Sarandon is Watts' character's mom, a music-world figure who shares a brownstone with a longtime lesbian spouse. (September)
The New Girlfriend French bad-boy director Francois Ozon, who's upset critical apple carts even in trendsetting French precincts with such outre classics as Criminal Lovers, here confronts the gender wars. Claire (breakout star Anais Demoustier) thinks she's being kind when she attempts to comfort the newly widowed hubby of her best friend. But to her surprise, hubby David (Romain Duris) reveals himself to be a secret crossdresser. Ozon tests the limits of those who thought themselves incapable of being shocked. (September)
Rosenwald Featuring chats with Civil Rights-era notables Maya Angelou, Julian Bond, Rep. John Lewis, Clarence Page and NPR reporter Cokie Roberts, this history doc traces the life of Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, whose charitable donations helped create a network of schools for poor African American kids in the early 20th century. Rosenwald's gifts are estimated to have aided the education of over 660,000 black students. (September)
Spectre The latest chapter in the Daniel Craig era of the James Bond franchise provides a co-starring platform to openly queer actor Ben Whishaw, along with hottie newcomer Andrew Scott. (November)
James White This 2015 Sundance entry features a feckless 20-something (Christopher Abbott) trying to care for his sick mom (Cynthia Nixon) with the aide of his gay best friend (Scott Mescudi). (October)
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution promises to reveal just how much human rights were at risk during the rollercoaster upheavals of the 1960s into the 70s. (October)
Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon A freewheeling look at one of the country's scary funny publications. (October)
Tab Hunter Confidential The surviving longtime pretty-boy cheesecake star is featured in a bio-doc that lays bare how the closet affected the lives of film stars. (November)