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      Better Than Besties: Why Gay Holiday Films Matter

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyReporter’s NotebookBetter Than Besties: Why Gay Holiday Films MatterThis season’s movies with queer characters may be a largely chaste affair, but their comforting formulas also tell L.G.B.T.Q. viewers that they are seen.Heath (Juan Pablo Di Pace), left, and Wyatt (Peter Porte) get romantic in “Dashing in December,” on the Paramount Network. Credit…Paramount NetworkDec. 18, 2020, 12:59 p.m. ETI gasped so loudly, it sounded like Judy Garland had shown up at my Christmas party.It happened during “Dashing in December,” a new holiday film on the Paramount Network about two men who fall in love on a ranch. I involuntarily inhaled as Wyatt, a stuffy venture capitalist, locked lips with Heath, the sweetheart ranch hand. Watching it made me feel like Santa put me at the top of his nice list.I’m gay. I kiss men. Never at a ranch, once at a Denny’s. But there was something so surprisingly renegade about the movie’s smooch. Leading men just don’t kiss each other in the conservative fraternity of holiday TV movies.They do now. As I recently reported, this year there are six new holiday-themed films with gay and lesbian leading characters, including “Happiest Season” (Hulu), “The Christmas House” (Hallmark Channel) and “The Christmas Setup” (Lifetime). In this chaste genre, that’s a milestone.Nia Fairweather thinks so, too. She plays an Afro-Latina woman of fluid sexuality in the new indie “A New York Christmas Wedding,” now on Netflix.“There’s a list — a list — where there never was a list,” Fairweather said. “That lets us know this year has been different.”This change is significant for me, a holiday movie fan whose biggest gay Christmas memory is George Michael gazing lovingly at Andrew Ridgeley on the cover of the Wham! album “Last Christmas.” But as I reported the article, I wondered if I was overstating the arrival of a New Queer Christmas Cinema. Will we look back on horrible 2020 — as I think we will — as the year that finally gayed up Christmas movies?I called up holiday movie aficionados to ask: Is this a big deal?Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis in “Happiest Season” on Hulu.Credit…Hulu, via Associated Press“This is a big deal,” replied Joanna Wilson, the author of several books about Christmastime entertainment. “Queer people have been bosses and co-workers and siblings of the main characters. Being the central romance is very exciting and comes not a moment too soon.”Blake Lee, who stars with his husband, Ben Lewis, in “The Christmas Setup,” framed it as an answer to a chaotic 2020.“We are four years into a presidency that has attacked the L.G.B.T.Q. community and projected hate,” Lee said. “I feel like these writers with these stories were like, now’s the time.”What holiday films provide — nostalgia, predictable formulas and an escape from real-world adversities like Covid-19, bankruptcy, bigotry — can be especially comforting to queer people, said Michael Varrati, the screenwriter of several holiday films, including the new “Christmas With a Crown.”“Movie Christmas is a lot different than real Christmas,” Varrati said. “Not everybody has a great relationship with their family or has pristine memories of yesteryear.” In holiday movies, he added, queer people “get to live in the Christmas they always wanted or didn’t get to have.”Jake Helgren told me he wrote and directed “Dashing in December” as an Americana romance and a “love letter to the ending” he wanted in “Brokeback Mountain.” Lawrence Humphreys, the film’s production designer, said the set was a teary mess as he and other crew members, straight and gay, watched the leading men kiss.“We knew what we created was something beautiful,” said Humphreys, who has worked on several Christmas films. “It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever been a part of and the one I’m most proud of.”L.G.B.T.Q. holiday entertainment has roots in the days when the word “queer” landed with a punch to the face. Performers surreptitiously conveyed stereotypical gayness — through winks, camp, sass, frippery — that was evident to in-the-know audiences but sailed over others’ heads. Liberace’s television show featured a Christmas episode in 1954. Paul Lynde starred in “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a 1977 ABC special. That same year, “All in the Family” ran groundbreaking Christmastime episodes about the murder of Edith Bunker’s friend Beverly LaSalle, who refers to herself as a transvestite. (She was played by Lori Shannon, the drag stage name of Don McLean.)L.G.B.T.Q. characters are now regulars on holiday-themed TV. But until this year, queer leads in holiday movies were few, relegated to low-budget indies like “Too Cool for Christmas” (2004), which was also released in a straight version, and “Make the Yuletide Gay” (2009). Supporting queer characters were mostly on the sidelines and white. That changed this year, as actors of color took on leading roles, including Fairweather, who is Afro-Caribbean, and Juan Pablo Di Pace, the Latino actor who plays Heath in “Dashing in December.” Transgender characters and actors are still rare, though.Ben Lewis, left, and Blake Lee in “The Christmas Setup” on Lifetime.Credit…Albert Camicioli/LifetimeSo is sex. Couples of all orientations rarely get heavier than a kiss in mainstream holiday fare. “Dashing in December” is a little more sexually adventurous, and by adventurous I mean a scene in which Wyatt, in just underwear, encounters a wet Heath in a towel. By the chaste standards of holiday rom-coms, “Dashing in December” is “Cruising.”And yet — it’s not. What you won’t see in these new films are activists, leathermen, butches or foul-mouthed drag queens. That’s not the Lifetime or Hallmark brand, so that’s no shock. But that’s what happens with assimilation. If gay people want straight people to believe our love deserves a holiday movie, don’t be surprised when straight people expect that movie to look like theirs.To counter the new gay sweetness, I binged renegade holiday movies about queer people who are raunchy, vulgar, camp, deranged. Or as BenDeLaCreme, the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star, put it: “the beautiful, bizarre things that queer people exposed themselves to when they had to search harder.” BenDeLaCreme is doing her part with a saucy new holiday special on Hulu with the “Drag Race” Season 5 winner Jinkx Monsoon.Whatever the opposite of “The Christmas House” is, I watched it. There was “Naked City: A Killer Christmas” (1998), a Peter Bogdanovich film that used the fear of an Andrew Cunanan-style gay serial killer in service of a lurid thriller. On Amazon, the ensemble dramedy “Some of My Best Friends Are …” (1971) was set on Christmas Eve at a bustling Greenwich Village gay bar, featuring moving performances from Rue McClanahan and Candy Darling. (This paper called it “a very sad gay movie.”)The value in these films — as grim and mirthless as they may seem — is that they paved the way for “Happiest Season.” They are historical benchmarks showing that L.G.B.T.Q. performers and creators made Christmas entertainment because — surprise! — they loved Christmas, despite the Scrooges who said they didn’t belong there.My binge ended with “Letters to Satan Claus,” a new horror satire on Syfy about a girl who misspells her letter to St. Nick and instead summons the Angel of Death. Featuring a same-sex subplot, a trans actor (Xavier Lopez) and a nonbinary Santa creature, it’s Christmas counterprogramming at its queerest.Yet Mike Zara, who wrote the film, seemed perfectly Hallmark as he talked about what inspired the story.“It’s about finding joy through tragedy and darkness,” he said. “That sounds corny, but I wanted to talk about all the scars we carry with us. We can embrace them but also not live in that darkness forever.”Sounds like a New Year’s resolution to me.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tom Cruise Taking a Break From Filming After Angry Rant on 'Mission: Impossible 7' Set

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      WENN

      The main star of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie franchise is reportedly going to return to Miami for an early Christmas break following his tirade on the set.

      Dec 19, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Tom Cruise is reportedly wrapping his 2020 work commitments early following his much-publicised on-set rants.
      The superstar lost his cool recently when he spotted two assistants huddled around a monitor, watching playback, ignoring social distancing rules he had helped to introduce to try and keep the set of the forthcoming “Mission: Impossible 7” coronavirus-free.
      He launched into a furious tirade threatening to fire anyone who didn’t take the rules seriously and, according to The Sun, the 58-year-old actor will be taking a break from filming the movie for an early Christmas holiday.
      According to the publication, Friday (18Dec20) will be his final day on set for the year and, from there, he plans to take his private jet to Miami, Florida where he’ll spend some time with his son Connor.
      “It has been exhausting keeping the production on track for so long, and it’s not getting any easier – Christmas can’t come soon enough,” an insider told the outlet.

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      “Tom has decided he’s ready for a break and is now going to wind up filming for 2020 on Friday, and fly to Miami over the weekend on his private jet to spend Christmas with his son.”
      The source added, “It’s the end of a really tough year, and a bit of time out seems like a good idea for everyone as tensions have been mounting for a while.”
      During his first rant, Cruise hinted at his exhaustion, claiming he was in constant contact with studios, insurance companies and producers as the production was seen as the “gold standard” for filming amid the pandemic.
      However, according to officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the mask he’s been snapped wearing on set, featuring a carbon filter and breathing valves, may be ineffective in preventing the spread of coronavirus.
      “This type of mask may not prevent you from spreading COVID-19 to others,” they state, reported TMZ. “The hole in the material may allow your respiratory droplets to escape and reach others.”

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      Natalie Portman ‘Had to Keep Her Head Down All the Time’ as Child Actress

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      Berlin Film Festival Is Delayed. Will Cannes and Venice Follow?

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBerlin Film Festival Is Delayed. Will Cannes and Venice Follow?The postponement of the first major international movie event of 2021 raises the specter of another difficult year for the industry.The cast and crew of “There Is No Evil,” which won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019.Credit…Michele Tantussi/ReutersDec. 18, 2020, 11:54 a.m. ETThe Berlin Film Festival, which was scheduled to start Feb. 11, has been postponed because of the coronavirus, its organizers said on Friday in a news release, making it the first — but probably not the last — major cultural event of 2021 to be affected by the pandemic.With coronavirus cases soaring in Germany, the Berlinale, as the festival is known, will now occur in a digital form for movie industry professionals in March, the festival said.The festival’s competition will take place as part of the March event, and a jury in Berlin will select prize winners, the release added. Berlin’s film fans will get to watch entrants at a separate event in June, involving open-air screenings as well as presentations in movie theaters.“There is a great desire to meet face to face,” Mariette Rissenbeek, the festival’s executive director, said in a statement, but “the current situation does not allow a physical festival in February.” On Sunday, Germany announced a lockdown as coronavirus cases surged, banning most cultural activities until at least Jan. 10.The delay to the first major international movie event of 2021 is likely to cause concern that other festivals might need to be pushed back, even as Europe prepares to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine.The Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to start on May 11, just weeks after the delayed Academy Awards, on April 25. Cannes organizers intend the event to occur as scheduled, Aida Belloulid, the festival’s spokeswoman, said in an email, but are “waiting until the beginning of next year to evaluate the pandemic evolution.”“Then, if we consider May won’t be possible, we will work on new dates, from end of June to end of July,” she added. Whatever date the festival occurs, it will be “a ‘classic’ Cannes,” with a full program and stars on the Croisette, Ms. Belloulid said.Earlier this year, Cannes was postponed at the last minute because of the pandemic. The organizers ended up staging a “special” edition in October, with just a handful of films and little of the festival’s usual glamour. That event received barely any media attention.In contrast to Cannes, the Venice Film Festival has yet to make contingency plans and its organizers intend to go ahead as normal, in September. “Of course we don’t know what the situation will be,” Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, said in a telephone interview, “but we were lucky enough to go ahead with the festival this year without any problems, so next year should be even better.”This year’s Venice Film Festival featured mandatory masks and a distinct lack of blockbusters, but it was still widely seen as a success, given that it was one of the few major international cultural events to actually happen in 2020.There was no reported transmission of the coronavirus during the 11-day event, Mr. Barbera said, which suggested the measures had been a success. Some element of social distancing might still be in place in 2021, he added, but that would depend on the state of the pandemic.Mr. Barbera said any changes to the film festival calendars, following the Berlinale’s move, were unlikely to affect movie release dates. The major studios and distributors will start releasing films only when movie theaters reopen, he said.“I feel the majority of big films will wait until the fall,” he said, “so that could be a huge chance for the few festivals, like us, Toronto, New York.”The Berlin Film Festival said in its news release that it was still in talks with its sponsors, including the German government, about the budget for its new events. It said it had no choice but to delay. “The Berlinale would like to emphasize once again that the health and the well-being of all guests and employees come first in all aspects of the planning,” the news release said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Watch Chadwick Boseman in a Scene From ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAnatomy of a SceneWatch Chadwick Boseman in a Scene From ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’The director George C. Wolfe discusses a tense sequence featuring the actor and Viola Davis.George C. Wolfe narrates a sequence from his film featuring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman.CreditCredit…David Lee/NetflixDec. 18, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ETIn “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.A disagreement between musicians reaches a boiling point in this scene from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the Netflix film adaptation of August Wilson’s play.Set in 1927, the film primarily follows the blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band during a challenging recording session in a Chicago studio. One of those challenges involves the tensions that arise between Ma and her headstrong horn player, Levee (Chadwick Boseman).A conflict ignites when Levee doesn’t perform a song the way Ma requires. In this video, the director George C. Wolfe discusses how clashing personalities result in a catastrophic moment, and how he decided where a specific door, which plays a key part in the scene, would lead.Read the “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Fatale’ Review: Another Attraction of the Fatal Kind

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Fatale’ Review: Another Attraction of the Fatal KindHilary Swank plays a police detective who seduces Michael Ealy into a very tangled web.Michael Ealy and Hilary Swank in “Fatale.”Credit…LionsgateDec. 18, 2020, 9:00 a.m. ETFataleDirected by Deon TaylorThrillerRFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.For someone as successful as he is — a sports agent who built his own company from the ground up — Derrick (Michael Ealy) is a tense fellow. He brings his furrowed brow with him on a trip from L.A. to Vegas, taking a break from, among other things, his troubled marriage.After a pal confiscates Derrick’s wedding ring, he’s at the bar tentatively chatting up the alluring Val (Hilary Swank). One thing leads to, well, sex. The next morning he’s taken aback that she’s locked his cellphone in her room safe, but stimulated when she tells him how to get the combination code out of her.[embedded content]Back home, he and wife Tracy have a rapprochement. Their tender makeup is interrupted by a violent home invasion. The injured Derrick is again taken aback on meeting the detective investigating the case: One Valerie Quinlan, “Val” to her friends.Directed by Deon Taylor from a script by David Loughery, “Fatale” knows what you’re thinking by this point, and it obliges by including some direct hat tips to “Fatal Attraction,” among them a kitchen counter sex scene. But Val, who’s also embroiled in a nasty custody conflict with an ex, has a lot more than bunny-boiling in store for Derrick.While this latter-day noir never builds up the froth of lurid delirium that brings genre pictures into a headier dimension, it’s got enough juice to hold your attention. Swank, who is also one of the movie’s producers, does good work here, keeping Val credible even as she enacts jaw-dropping evils.The film eventually shows the influence of another famous thriller to handy effect. Though finally this is just a movie about a man who takes a too-long time to discover the Voice Memos app on his phone.FataleRated R for all of that “Fatal Attraction”-type content. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bumps on the Road From Broadway to Hollywood

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storycritic’s notebookBumps on the Road From Broadway to HollywoodNot for decades have so many plays and musicals been turned into movies. But even in the best of the new crop, a lot gets lost in translation.David Byrne, center, with musicians and dancers in Spike Lee’s filmed version of the critically acclaimed Broadway show “American Utopia.”Credit…David Lee/HBODec. 18, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETA moment I barely noticed in the 2019 Broadway production of David Byrne’s “American Utopia” jumped out at me with new resonance in Spike Lee’s film of the show for HBO.That was when Byrne, in his introduction to the song “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” described hearing it performed by students at the Detroit School of Arts. Without altering a word or note, the high schoolers had turned the number, which in Byrne’s original version comes off as an anxious monologue about being inundated by otherness, into a joyful choral invitation.“I kind of liked their version better,” Byrne says, apparently amazed by the material’s mutability: The song was the same yet had “a completely different meaning.”I knew what he meant; after all, I was watching an even more elaborate translation, in which a concert staged like a Broadway musical was turned into a live-capture television film for cable. And though Lee’s slick and exuberant adaptation includes plenty of shots of the audience at the Hudson Theater bopping to the beat and dancing in the aisles, it was now, like “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” the same yet totally different.Theater lovers are getting familiar with that feeling. These days, it seems like everybody’s coming to our house — and walking off with the furniture. Not for decades have we seen so many Broadway shows, whether musicals (“Hamilton,” “The Prom”) or plays (“What the Constitution Means to Me,” “The Boys in the Band,” “Outside Mullingar,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) or unclassifiable offerings like “American Utopia,” taken up by Hollywood, squeezed through the camera lens and turned into film.The squeeze is certainly subtler now than it used to be. Lyrics are seldom butchered to avoid offense as they once were; I expect that Steven Spielberg’s version of “West Side Story,” scheduled for release in Dec. 2021, will restore Stephen Sondheim’s original rhyme for “buck,” which had to be altered for the 1961 film.Nor are innumerable songs dumped like dead plants from fire escapes anymore. (The 1966 movie version of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” dropped at least half of Sondheim’s 14 numbers.) Musicals — and, in a way, plays too — are now being filmed because of their music, not in spite of it. More

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      Mads Mikkelsen Has This One Wish After Taking Over Johnny Depp's Role in 'Fantastic Beasts 3'

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      The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor has been asked to step down as supervillain Gellert Grindelwald after he lost a libel trial against The Sun’s publishers over a story that labeled him as ‘wife beater’.

      Dec 18, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Mads Mikkelsen wishes he had Johnny Depp on speed dial, because it would make his research about “Fantastic Beasts” supervillain Gellert Grindelwald much easier.
      The Danish star has taken over from Depp in the film franchise after the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star was asked to step down after losing a libel trial against The Sun’s publishers over a story, in which he was described as a “wife beater”, and now Mads is playing catch-up on the role.
      “I’ve met him (Depp) once,” Mikkelsen tells AP Entertainment. “I wish I had his phone number, but unfortunately that’s not the case.”
      “There’s nothing else I can do, to be honest. The only approach I can have is connect the bridge between what he did and what I’m gonna do and then we’ll see what lands. There has to be a bridge between what Johnny did and what I’m going to do. And at the same time, I also have to make it my own.”

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      Regarding Depp’s exit from the third film in the “Fantastic Beasts” series, Mikkelsen says, “It’s also a shocker that it came after what happened, which is just super sad… These are sad circumstances.”
      Depp himself has addressed his exit from the “Fantastic Beasts” series through a letter he posted on Instagram. “In light of recent events, I would like to make the following short statement. Firstly, I’d like to thank everybody who has gifted me with their support and loyalty,” he said in his November 6 statement.
      “I have been humbled and moved by your many messages of love and concern, particularly over the last few days,” the ex-husband of Amber Heard continued. “I wish to let you know that I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros. from my role as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and I have respected and agreed to that request.”

      The “Fantastic Beasts 3” is scheduled for release in July 2022.

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      Justin Timberlake Fights for LGBTQ Boy in First ‘Palmer’ Trailer

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      Justin Timberlake Fights for LGBTQ Boy in First 'Palmer' Trailer

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      [embedded content]

      The ‘Trolls World Tour’ star plays an ex-convict who adjusts to life outside prison when he unexpectedly forms a bond with a young boy, who suffers bullying from his peers.

      Dec 18, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Justin Timberlake returns to acting in the first trailer for upcoming film “Palmer”. Released on Thursday, December 17, the promo video gives an emotional look at the touching story of an unlikely relationship between an ex-convict and an LGBTQ kid.
      The “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” singer portrays Eddie Palmer, a former high school football star whose professional career was shattered after he was imprisoned. Returning home after serving 12 years in prison, Eddie finds himself struggling to adjust to his new life while working as a janitor.
      When he’s forced to babysit Sam (Ryder Allen), a young boy abandoned by his mother, Eddie forms an unlikely bond with the gender non-conforming child. Eddie teaches Sam to defend himself from his peers, who often bully him because he’s different.
      While caring for Sam, Eddie also meets and starts a relationship with Maggie Hayes (Alisha Wainwright), a teacher. As Eddie faces judgment from those around him for raising the kid, his past threatens to ruin his new life and family.

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      But as the official logline for the movie puts it, “Family is who you make it,” Eddie isn’t going to give up his new family that easily. “The truth is I haven’t felt like I was good at anything…until Sam,” he says in voiceover in the trailer. In another scene taking place in what looks like a courtroom, he promises, “I will not abandon that boy.”
      The trailer is set to “Redemption”, a new original single from Nathaniel Rateliff.
      Directed by Fisher Stevens from a screenplay by Cheryl Guerriero, “Palmer” also stars June Squibb as Vivian Palmer, Juno Temple as Sam’s mother Shelly, Jesse C. Boyd as Coles, J.D. Evermore as Principal Forbes, Lance E. Nichols as Sibs and Jay Florsheim as a football referee.
      The drama film is set to be released on Apple TV+ starting January 29, 2021.

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      Tom Cruise Secretly Takes Romance With ‘Mission: Impossible VII’ Co-Star Hayley Atwell Off Set?

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