2015 was another good year for queer cinema from mainstream to indie from drama to documentary, and here is our pick of the very best feature films that we saw this year.
12) : “A Land Of Storms”
The beauty of this very tender movie of gay self-discovery from Hungarian filmmaker Ádám Császi is the very sensual and somewhat sad way that he rather unsentimentally deals with these boy’s experiences in this rather harsh environment. It is daringly sensuous and although this tender and touching tale is both erotically and emotional charged, for a refreshing change it avoids any temptation to develop into a cliché melodrama.
11) : ” In The Gray Scale”
Newbie Chilean filmmaker Claudio Marcone’s impressive debut allowa the whole dilemma of this boy-meets-boy romance to unfurl and blossom before neatly showing us that not everything in life is so black and white. He does so at a slow comfortable pace that makes the story resonate so perfectly as we come to appreciate how tenuous this relationship is, and that as much as we may root for a traditional happy-ever-after ending it’s hard to second guess if eventually Bruno will actually walk away from his newly found happiness.
10) : Boulevard
In one of his last movies before his untimely death Robin Williams gives a career-best performance with this quiet un-showy role as he beautifully captures the angst mixed with relief of a married man finally acknowledging to himself he is gay.
Juanma Carrillo is a Spanish independent filmmaker, producer, photographer and occasional musician whose collection of short movies are always highly intriguing, extremely sensuous, often avant-garde art pieces of art, but always immensely engaging. He seems to set out to shock and titillate his audience, and is not adverse to adding a few humorous touches, and even showing his romantic side some times.
8) : “Boy Meets Girl”
Eric Schaeffer’s refreshing and enchanting drama about three 20 year-olds looking for love in a small backwater town in Kentucky ,gently challenges us to suspend our preconceived views on gender labels and be as open to what happens as these lovelorn kids are.
7) : “Grandma”
Lily Tomlin shines as a hilarious hippy lesbian grandmother who takes her granddaughter across Los Angeles in search of the money she needs to terminate her unwanted pregnancy in this rather delightful comedy.
Mark Christopher’s new Directors Cut of his 1998 movie about the infamous original New York Club is jam-packed with all the excitement and drama that went on behind the scenes at the very birth of the disco era.
5) : “The Danish Girl”
Eddie Redmayne gives a stunning Oscar-worthy performance as Einar Wegener, based on the true story of one of the very first sex-changes operations in the World.
4) : Guidance
This rather wonderful oddball comedy is the work of Canadian filmmaker Pat Mills who wrote, directed and starred in it. He has a remarkable delightful droll sense of humor that is quite black, totally politically incorrect but never ever mean.
3) : “Nasty Baby”
Chilean queer filmmaker Sebastián Silva stars in his first US based movie and plays a hot-headed artist who with his gay lover wants to become a parent with the help of a goofy girlfriend but things go very badly wrong and nothing turns out like you would expect it too in this deliciously wonderful black comedy.
2) : “Tangerine”
Ever since filmmaker Sean Baker showed this high-voltage movie of his (shot entirely on IPhones) at Sundance, there has been a sensational buzz about the performances of his two lead transgendered newbie actors Kiki Kitana Rodriquez and Mya Taylor. Baker credits the actors for drawing on their own personal experiences that gave such a authenticity and vitality to all their unstoppable bad-mouthing which is such a sheer delight to watch and listen too.
Todd Haynes’s six feature film is near perfection in every tiny detail : from Phyllis Nagy’s script of this beautiful Patricia Highsmith love story, to the superb career-best performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. If Haynes doesn’t finally get an Oscar for this, then there is no justice.
P.S. Up next the Best LGBT Documentaries of 2015.
Labels: 2016, culture, LGBT movies
