"Brotherhood" -- A nand of neo-Nazis, navigating sexuality
New York Times, August 9, 2010
Nicolo Donato’s melodrama "Brotherhood" digs into the collective psyche of a Danish neo-Nazi group whose brightest recruit and biggest potential star, Lars, is a semi-closeted gay man with masculinity issues.

"The Kids Are All Right" -- Meet the Sperm Donor: Modern Family Ties
New York Times, July 9, 2010
I’m tempted to start this review by falling back on a tried-and-true movie critic formulation and saying something like "Lisa Cholodenko’s ‘Kids Are All Right’ is the best comedy about an American family since ..." Since what? Precedents and grounds for comparison seem to be lacking, so I may have to let the superlative stand unqualified for now. There is undeniable novelty to a movie about a lesbian couple whose two teenage children were conceived with the help of an anonymous sperm donor.

"8: The Mormon Proposition" -- Marching in the war on gay marriage
New York Times, June 18, 2010
Reed Cowan’s polemical film "8: The Mormon Proposition" examines the successful campaign against gay marriage in California that was heavily financed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is implacably opposed to homosexuality. The highly emotional documentary is narrated by Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter for "Milk," who, like Mr. Cowan, is gay and grew up in a Mormon household.

June 28, 1969: Turning Point in Gay Rights History
June 16, 2010, New York Times, June 16, 2010
"The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage." So declared Mike Wallace in authoritative voice-of-God tones in "The Homosexuals," a tawdry, sensationalist 1966 "CBS Reports," excerpted in Kate Davis and David Heilbroner’s valuable film, "Stonewall Uprising." Funny how yesterday’s conventional wisdom can become today’s embarrassment.

Review: "Sex and the City 2" -- Operation Desert Togs
New York Times, May 27, 2010
The first "Sex and The City" movie, which came out two years ago, qualifies as a comedy both because it is somewhat funny and because, according to a more classical definition, it ends, after some reversals and delays, with a wedding. The sequel — which should have borrowed a subtitle from another picture opening this week and called itself "Sex and the City: The Sands of Time" — begins with a wedding and never seems to end.

La Mission: Father-son conflict on streets of San Francisco
New York Times, May 8, 2010
"La Mission" was clearly a labor of love for the Bratt brothers: Peter wrote and directed it, Benjamin is the star, and both took a producer’s credit. Unfortunately, this care is lavished on an overwrought, predictable story of an angry ethnic father who discovers that his son is gay.

'Eyes Wide Open' -- Passion and identity crisis in a pious community
New York Times, January 8, 2008
"Eyes Wide Open," the quiet and confident feature debut of the Israeli director Haim Tabakman, explores the conflict between sexual desire and religious obligation. The film tells the story of Aaron, who runs a butcher shop and who is proud to be recognized in his community a righteous man. However Aaron’s world is jeopardized when he begins a sexual relationship with a man he hires to work in his shop.

Review: 'A Single Man'
Los Angles Times, December 11, 2009
We're always looking for those performances that truly define an actor, where we can sit back and simply watch the talent soar. For Colin Firth, "A Single Man" is that film. Until now probably best known for his work in the "Bridget Jones" films -- the stuffy, sensitive suitor forever in the shadow of Hugh Grant's roguish charmer -- his portrayal of George, the gay single man that he imbues with amazing grace, should change all that.

"Hannah Free" -- Even at Death’s Door, a Lesbian Couple Still Find Peace Elusive
New York Times, December 12, 2009
In "Hannah Free," a clanking, sudsy tear-jerker about longtime lesbian lovers languishing in the same Michigan nursing home in the 1990s, Sharon Gless plays Hannah, a cantankerous resident prevented by the staff from visiting her partner, Rachel, who lies in a coma after a stroke.

"Bruno" -- Teutonic fashion plate flaunts his umlauts
New York Times, July 10, 2009
It should be noted that Sascha. Baron Cohen remains a brilliant slapstick artist and a master of voices — Brüno’s mock-German and scrambled American idioms are in some ways even more crazily spot-on than Borat’s gibberish — and a performer of no small discipline and physical courage. He is able to stay in character even, for example, when a naked woman is flogging him with a belt. But in spite of Mr. Baron Cohen skills and keen low-comic instincts, "Brüno" is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes.

"Humpday" -- Putting a bromance to an erotic test
New York Times, July 10, 2009
To guys everywhere: "Humpday" has your number. With X-ray vision, this serious indie comedy sees through its male characters’ macho pretensions to contemplate the underlying forces hard-wired into men’s psyches in a homophobic culture. Think of it as a Judd Apatow or Kevin Smith buddy film turned inside out.

"The Art of Being Straight" -- A Sexual Orientation Orientation
New York Times, June 5, 2009
Professional and sexual identities are up for grabs in "The Art of Being Straight," an unpretentious dramedy of post-college confusion. The movie is emphatic in its insistence that orientation, like career, sometimes needs figuring out.

"Outrage" -- A documentary about closeted Republicans
MetroWeekly.com, April 30, 2009
Director Kirby Dick, who last covered the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, tackles a seedier topic in his latest documentary, "Outrage" -- the hypocrisy of likely gay officials who vote against the GLBT community. Outrage examines a series of sensational stories from a psychological and sociological perspective in an attempt to make sense of men who vote against their very self-interests. Yet in doing so, Outrage manages to make sex scandals academic and dull.

"Antarctica" -- A raunchy gay fantasia from Tel Aviv
Salon.com, December 2. 2008
Simultaneously seductive and irritating, raunchy and precious, Israeli filmmaker Yair Hochner's "Antarctica" reinvents the city of Tel Aviv as an erotic pleasure dome for gay men -- and as a folkie coffeehouse that never closes for their lesbian sisters.

"Milk" -- His time. Our story.
San Francisco Chronicle, November 25, 2008
With "Milk," a great San Francisco story becomes a great American story. Director Gus Van Sant uses the account of one of the country's first openly gay public officials, who was assassinated in 1978, to invest the gay rights movement with mythic grandeur, as a successor to all the heroic social protest movements in American history. Van Sant's point of view may be a matter of politics, outside the scope of a review, but his success in putting over his point of view is a question of art. Sean Penn disappears into Harvey Milk, shown as the leader of an epic, historic struggle for civil rights - and a completely liberated man.

"I Can't Think Straight" -- Love beyond boundaries
New York Times, November 22, 2008
Plugging the same two actresses into different Sapphic scenarios may be a valid filmmaking strategy but it can be an extremely boring one. When we last saw Sheetal Sheth and Lisa Ray (in New York and Los Angeles, that was just two weeks ago) they were playing would-be lovers in "The World Unseen." Now they’re back to continue making eyes at each other in "I Can’t Think Straight," yet another weightless confection from the writer and director Shamim Sarif.

"Were the World Mine" -- Puck’s love potion, splashed across town
New York Times, November 21, 2008
What teenager hasn’t fantasized about wielding magic to transform an indifferent object of desire into a besotted lover? In "Were the World Mine," an indie alternative to Disney’s "High School Musical" franchise, Timothy (Tanner Cohen), a persecuted gay student at a private boys’ school outside Chicago, acquires such magic while rehearsing the role of Puck in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream."

"The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror" -- Campy chills
New York Times, November , 2008
There’s one thing the heroes of "The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror" share with their straight counterparts in similar tossed-off horror cheapies: They’re so catty, obnoxious and generally unpleasant, you can’t wait for them to start getting hacked to bits.

"Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom" -- Gay wedding bells
New York Times, November , 2008
The television series "Noah’s Arc," which began on the Logo network in 2005, has yielded, "Sex and the City" style, its own feature: an agreeable melodrama unlikely to reach an audience beyond that of the show, which concerns the lives of prosperous gay black men in Los Angeles.

"Filth and Wisdom" -- Madonna’s directorial debut
New York Times, October 17, 2008
Pop go the dialectics in "Filth and Wisdom," a tale of bumping and grinding your way to happiness from the hardest-working hard body in show business, that precision sex-and-beat machine turned first-time movie director known as Madonna.

"Tru Loved" -- A high school student with a beard
New York Times, October 17, 2008
Tru has two mommies — one black, one white, both lesbians — and they’re all living happily ever after. Or were, at least, until they left San Francisco. Transplanted to a conservative suburb in Southern California, Tru is suddenly confronted with a local phenomenon as unfamiliar as year-round sunshine: homophobia in her high school.

"Breakfast with Scot" -- Gay-themed family film a little too cute
Reuters, October 10, 2008
In "Breakfast With Scot" Sports lawyer Sam and his lover Eric, a former pro-hockey player-turned-sportscaster, are living a comfortable if closeted life that is interrupted by the arrival of Scot, the 11-year-old son of Sam's irresponsible brother who refuses to take responsibility for the boy even after the mother dies. Unlike his straitlaced new guardians, Scot, despite his young age, is flamboyantly gay, happily comfortable wearing makeup and a feather boa, declaring his love for Broadway musicals, and not being shy about kissing other boys.

"Saving Marriage" -- Fighting for same-sex marriage
Bay Area Reporter, October 9, 2008
If, despite some optimistic polls, you're a little apprehensive about the fight to save same-sex marriage in California, a superbly crafted new documentary provides some lessons on how queer folks can prevail when our rights are put to a vote. Mike Roth and John Henning's exploration of the Massachusetts marriage battle "Saving Marriage" zeros in on a titanic grass roots campaign to block an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state's Constitution.

"The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela" -- Tales of a Filipino ladyboy
New York Times, September 26, 2008
hose already attuned to the transgendered world will certainly find "The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela" to be a heartfelt, unusual take on it. The question is whether anyone else will. The answer is: Probably not. The film, by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, stars and is a half-true documentary about Raquela Rios, a Filipino ladyboy, as she calls herself: a man who dresses, acts like and feels like a woman.

"Save Me" -- Going straight to church
New York Times, September 5, 2008
"Save Me" establishes a clumsy dialectical agenda straight (so to speak) out of the gate, crosscutting between a day in the life of Mark (Chad Allen), a cocaine-addled young man with a taste for messy sex in cheap motels, and a group of hymn-singing churchgoers with affiliations to the Genesis House, a retreat devoted to converting gay men to heterosexuality. Mark, hitting rock bottom, is shuffled off to Genesis by his brother, and with a quickness made possible less by the power of Jesus than by schematic screenwriting, casts aside his old habits and cheerfully embraces shiny, happy asexuality.

"What We Do Is Secret" recalls Darby Crash
Bay Area Reporter, August 28, 2008
If you're a queer fan of the 1970s punk scene, the news you can use from the new film "What We Do Is Secret" is that the legendary gay punk rocker Darby Crash acted like most of us when we first come stumbling out of the closet. First, form a hideous crush on a straight guy, install him in some impossibly vital part of your life where he can do the maximum damage, put the moves on him, then stand back and watch helplessly as chaos descends on your once-comfortable if erotically starved existence.

"Another gay sequel: Gays Gone Wild!"
Variety, August 12, 2008
Even a sequel that makes fun of sequels can suffer the dread sophomore slump, as illustrated by "Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!" This strenuously unfunny follow-up to the uneven but often uproarious "Another Gay Movie" duly maintains the original's levels of raunch and gross-out gags, but it all feels perfunctory, with comic inspiration distinctly lacking.

'Before I Forget' -- Senior moments in a hustler petting-zoo
Bay Area Reporter, July 31, 2008
If you're sick of films that sentimentalize old age, Jacques Nolot provides an antidote in "Before I Forget." It's an eccentrically paced, warts-and-all portrait of an aging gigolo with a voracious erotic appetite, burdened by a 60-year-old body that is finally giving in to the ravages of time and a decades-long HIV infection.

"No Regret" -- Sexual identity collides with economic need
New York Times, July 25, 2008
The best thing in "No Regret" is the brothel. Down a dingy alleyway in Seoul, South Korea, the "host bar," as it is euphemistically known, is announced by a sign that suggestively promises "X Large." Inside, young men fresh from the provinces cavort with their jaded city colleagues for the delight of an all-male clientele.

"Brideshead Revisited" -- Bright young things in love and pain
New York Times, July 25, 2008
"Brideshead Revisited," Julian Jarrold’s strenuously picturesque adaptation of the novel by Evelyn Waugh, conducts a whirlwind tour of the quadrangles of Oxford and the canals of Venice, always returning to the grand country house of the title. At Brideshead, Charles Ryder, a young man with artistic ambition and no special pedigree, falls under the spell of an aristocratic Roman Catholic family, conceiving first a "romantic friendship" with the dissolute, epicene younger son, Sebastian Flyte, and then lusting, in his understated English way, after Sebastian’s sister Julia.

"XXY" -- Confronting the perils of puberty squared
New York Times, April 2, 2008
How must the world appear to someone who has been treated as an exotic clinical specimen from birth? The moody, surreal "XXY" explores the world of Alex (Inés Efron), an intersex teenager — born with both male and female sex organs — navigating the treacherous emotional and hormonal rapids of uncertain gender. The movie, directed by the Argentine filmmaker Lucía Puenzo and based on Sergio Bizzio’s short story "Cinismo," is not a clinical case study, though months of research went into its creation. It is a somber, brooding study of Alex and her parents as they face the painful crossroads when adulthood looms.