Mamma Mia!

FLICK If you can't find the time or money to go to a Greek island, let Mamma Mia! take you to that happy place. That's the setting for the movie musical about a young woman, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried from TV's "Big Love"), about to be married and who has sent wedding invitations to three men who just might be her father. The film adaptation of the hit stage show is really a prop to on which to hang a string of pop songs by the Swedish group ABBA and is the real reason to go.
With the set up so light there should be no expectation for character depth. Meryl Streep acknowledges this with her whimsical portrayal of Donna, Sophie's mother and owner of the hotel were the guests and friends meet and prepare for the happy occasion. As a denim overall-wearing leftover from the free-love era Donna is not interested in knowing which of three men fathered her daughter. She is self-sufficient even though Donna could use the occasional help of a man's hand to help with the beachside hotel repairs. But she's come a long way without one and Streep conveys all of this with her loose and unrestrained performance.
As Donna's best friends showing up for the big day, Julie Walters, with her spiky haircut and thick glasses resembling Velma from Scooby-Doo and Christine Baranski adding a dash of class leaving you wanting more, they show that you can combine work with having lots of fun. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard play the possible dads and, particularly Brosnan, shouldn't expect a singing carreer from this jolly holiday.
The choreography is mostly uninspired but the editing and energy keeps things moving and it's hard not to find your toes tapping. You don't have to be the first in line but if you don't take a ch-chance chance you could be facing your Waterloo, in which case send out an S.O.S. My Score: 7.5 out of 10.

14th Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

After the first weekend of screenings at the 2008 Philadelphia International Film Festival, I'm off to a decent start but having watched the opening night film, Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!, things can only get better. Gay Sequel revisits the same over-the-top comedy path as 2006's Another Gay Movie but goes down in flames faster and gets dirtier than the original. Only Jonah Blechman and Scott Thompson bravely return for the second outing, and help from RuPaul, Perez Hilton and Lady Bunny is not enough to lift this sinking mess out of the quicksand. Summer lovin' in Ft. Lauderdale will never be the same. My Score: 4.5 out of 10

La León, a somber film about a lone gay man who lives and works in the Argentine jungle is beautifully photographed in black and white and made me want to know more about the background and the sheltered people who live there. There is no gay culture here but there is homophobia. Though only 85 minutes long, the film takes its time and will pay off for those willing to devote their attention (unlike the two men sitting behind me who huffed and puffed and verbally blew out how impatient they were with the pacing – after five minutes.) My Score: 7.5

Based on the novel by lesbian author Sarah Waters, ("Tipping the Velvet") Affinity is an involving though uneven costume drama that ultimately satisfies. When an upper-class woman, Margaret (Anna Madeley), volunteers as a "Lady Visitor" at a nearby prison, she meets and falls in love with one of its inmates, Selena (the appropriately enchanting Zoe Tapper). As the story unfolds it's easy to get wrapped up in the desire for the women to meet outside of the prison and get swept up in the haunting and unexplainable mysterious happenings never expecting the approaching twist. With Logo as a distributor, it's likely to show up on the gay cable channel. My Score: 7.5

On hand for the Q&A after his film Mulligans was actor-screenwriter-producer Charlie David, who is as charming as he is hot. David stars as the college student who spends a summer with his best friend's family only to spark the interest of the BF's father. Comparisons to The Graduate are a stretch – no one is really seducing anyone and there is no alternate love interest to fall back on. The set-up is fine but as it tries to dig deeper into the ramifications of the tryst portions play out as expected and motivations are never explored as deeply as they should. Thea Gill ("Queer as Folk") plays the cheated-on wife who becomes more understanding than you could ever hope for. It all left me wanting more. If Afternoon Specials and movies of the week are your thing, then this might work for you. My Score: 6

Though there are multiple stories told in a lighthearted, non-linear style Spinnin' never is out of control. This Spanish delight is one of most enjoyable films I've seen in a while. Taking place in 1995 and focusing more on the characters rather than plot, there are many issues raised, such as love, marriage, parenting, HIV/AIDS, which affect both gays and straights equally. With the appearance of working with a low budget, this independent film benefits from the freedom of doing more with less and ultimately projects an infectious optimism that takes you to that happy place. My Score: 8.5

I was really skeptical about going to a movie where the little old ladies are being killed by a real estate agent so he could buy up the property, clean up the neighborhood and turn it into a hip gayborhood. But Boystown had a lot more laughs than expected and a lovable bear couple at its center trying to overcome mother-in-law problems. Boystown isn't just for cubs… My Score: 7.5

You don't have to go over the rainbow to find love because it just might be in your own backyard. This is a theme found in the Israeli film Antarctica, which has its characters searching high and low on the Internet and abroad hoping to make a match. And though their paths crisscross the web ultimately becomes untangled. Likable characters, good acting and smart directing choices combine to make this a comedy-drama that won't leave you out in the cold. My Score: 9

Xanadu and The 39 Steps

THEATER A current trend on Broadway is to turn movies into theater productions. This more likely is meant to fill seats from familiarity than taking a chance on an original idea. But some can succeed by using a familiar film as its basis when its creative forces burst through that fourth wall and think outside the box. Mel Brooks stuck gold when he turned his film The Producers into a smash hit musical though is less successful with the current critical failure of Young Frankenstein. (Actually it's really going for the hard sell with the title The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein and isn't reporting its weekly box office grosses. And the NY Times reported that “Disney’s The Little Mermaid which also received some scathing reviews, is holding up fairly well…") But two film-to-stage shows currently playing that hit a bull's eye are the musical Xanadu and the comedy Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps.

The movie Xanadu is notoriously regarded as bad but the new Tony-nominated stage musical is a 90-minute laugh fest. Set in Venice Beach, CA in 1980, a Greek muse, Kira (Tony nominee Kerry Butler) descends from Mt Olympus to inspire sidewalk artist, Sonny (Cheyenne Jackson), and help him open the first roller disco. With its tongue planted firmly in cheek, Xanadu flaunts the styles of the day (like short denim cut-offs, leg warmers, and roller skates), ups the camp quotient and has Butler using an exaggerated Australian accent that pokes fun at her movie counterpart, Olivia Newton-John.

The pop-rock music incorporates the song "Suddenly" from the film plus Newton-John's singles "Magic" and "Have You Never Been Mellow?" Scenery chewers Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman (as Medusa and Aphrodite respectively) perform duets on Electric Light Orchestra's "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic" with cackles so unforgettable you'll be cracking up for weeks. Though the set seems scaled-down for a Broadway production it only puts more focus on a cast that appears to relish every fun-loving onstage moment.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps gets a makeover that would most likely humor the master of suspense by turning it into a comedy. Four actors imaginatively take on what seems to be 100 different roles and sometimes change characters in the blink of an eye. This spoof maintains the plot of an international spy ring out to kill Richard Hannay (Charles Edwards), and playfully keeps stage show "mentalist" Mr. Memory, but heightens the drama to turn it on its end.

The quick costume changes and voice alterations right in front of you are amazing to watch and at some point become almost invisible from the fluidity and ease of the actors. The suspense here is to see how the cast will handle the next illusion. The sparse set can take on multiple locations as when it morphs from the interior of a speeding train to its roof with the use of a few trunks. And how often do you see shadow puppets pop up in a production? (Be sure to look for Sir Alfred!) Edwards stated in a Playbill interview that he doesn't mimic the film's lead, Robert Donat, but rather respectfully "conjure(s) up the spirit of the movie… and that style of acting". With a dozen or so references to other Hitchcock films this 2007 Olivier award-winning import easily deserved its Tony nomination for Best Play.

As these two shows prove, no matter how successful or poorly executed the source movie material, spoofing it is a fresher approach when appealing to today's sensibilities rather than literal translation. And live theater may just be the best medium to view them.

Love Songs

FLICK There are many references to well-known French films in Christophe Honoré's L'Chansons d'Amour (Love Songs) but the tone of this romantic musical feels fresh and original. For those fearful of characters bursting into song, the transitions here are smooth, natural and effortless, reminiscent of the film Once, which is due to Honoré's direction. When the characters are outdoors, the scenes look as if they're happening in the midst of an average day. Nothing ever feels staged.
Lovers Julie and Ismaël (Ludivine Sagnier and Louis Garrel) have added a third, Alice (Clotilde Hesme), to their relationship. That this is more for Julie's delight than Ismaël's perhaps signals the overload, figuratively and literally, on her heart. Julie's mother (Brigitte Roüan) is fascinated with this arrangement and Julie's older sister Jeanne (Chiara Mastroianni) eventually develops a crush on Ismaël that may be an involuntary reaction to a tragedy. Though the girl-boy-girl relationship is presented in a way that's believable and works, the later moments with Ismaël and the young Erwann (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, who gave another fine performace in In the Arms of My Enemy screened at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival) has the emotional resonance that we've been waiting for.
The overall story is sketchy and it's this simplicity that lends more weight to the songs. Singer/songwriter Alex Beaupain, who previously worked with Honoré on the films 17 Times Cécile Cassard and Dans Paris targets the emotions of the characters and hits a bull's eye when choosing the words to explain their connections and interlocking moments alternately with meaning and a lighthearted rhyme scheme. His music is never intrusive and eases its way into the scene as if it were meant to be there.
With the looks of a silent screen matinee idol, Garrel easily and appropriately expresses an array of emotions that vary from light and charming to mournful to playful clown. And shows a comfortable ease of loving a man as well as a woman. When Erwann gives off a stalker-ish vibe, Ismaël realizes that he's being offered a love that he's missing. He satisfies them both by telling him: "love me less but love me a long time." This is a film I'll love, and enjoy re-watching, for a long time. My Score: 8.5 out of 10.