Conann’s life is both dreamlike and nightmarish, followed by Rainer, she is seen through it from childhood to adulthood, from slave to queen.
Tag Archives: Arthouse
Geographies of Public Sex [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]
Playing at the LA&M Film Fetish Forum Saturday, March 16th at 7pm EST; It Will Be Co-Presented by Henry Hanson of Full Spectrum Features.
“Geographies of Public Sex” is a series of eight short films curated by Henry Hanson, most of which revolve around the Gay experience and accounts of the gay lifestyle. It’s a mixed bag, admittedly, but an interesting gallery of shorts, nevertheless. 2021’s “Trade Center” from Adam Baran is the best of the bunch; it’s a fascinating documentary about cruising in the seventies and eighties, and the amount of sites in New York City where men could have sex with one another any time of the day.
Suncoast (2024)
Now Streaming on Hulu.
Laura Chinn’s “Suncoast” feels like it comes from a very deep and personal place. It’s a movie about loss, and grief, and trying to find a way to live again when a big piece of you has been taken out of your life. Suffice to say “Suncoast” is one of the first great films of 2024 and an excellent drama I’d place right alongside gems like “Ladybird” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Chinn manages to evoke so many core emotions about coming to terms with death and how tough it can be to move and move forward after happiness has disappeared. How do you begin? Where do you begin? And most of all, when can you begin?
May December (2023)
Director Todd Haynes’ dissection of the groomer and predator relationship really is a movie that deserved so much more notice in 2023. Haynes’ approach to tackling a real criminal case notorious in the nineties is a fascinating platform to stage a complex drama and darkly comic film about stunted growth and Hollywood exploitation. Haynes’ film peels away at so many layers and how relationships tend to be somewhat glorified and sensationalized, especially in the realm of what occurs in “May December.” For those involved in this kind of dynamic, the whole interplay between the partners is somewhat spur of the moment, but the long-term effects amount to much more psychological baggage that the movie only skims the surface on.
Saltburn (2023)
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Barry Keoghan presented such a heartbreaking and nuanced performance in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” it’s pretty excellent to see how much he’s snuck up on movie fans over the years. “Saltburn” is that movie that he might be known for, for a long time because while that might seem like a slight, it’s astonishing how good he is here. Keoghan is wonderful at playing the chameleonic Oliver Quick. Keoghan portrays such a layered and complex protagonist whose shades of morality are often at odds with what the audience is allowed to perceive.
Full Time (2023)
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Éric Gravel’s drama is a movie filled with so much tension and suspense, yet it’s a movie that has no actual villain. There’s no criminal or abusive spouse or corrupt officer. All there is is time that constantly seems to be working against our protagonist Julie. In a world where being a single parent becomes tougher and tougher, Gravel has offered audiences easily the most universally relatable drama in a very long time. Despite its setting, “Full Time” is wonderful often emotionally exhaustive exploration of a single parent, Julie, who is tasked with trying to keep her world above water. This becomes even harder as she’s tasked with caring for two children, both of whom are demanding of her constant attention.
A Thousand and One (2023)
In as much as it is a film about a mother and her son, “A Thousand and One” is also a movie about the rising tide of gentrification in New York City. This adds a layer of absolute tension between Inez and her son Terry because as they’ve hidden out for years within their city, now it’s grown and pushed them out so much that they’ve officially run out of places to set up their lives in. So much of the movies around New York in the modern age have been about the looming specter of gentrification and we witness it in real time, the idea of the old New York becomes more and more just a relic of a bygone era.