movie gourmet

Frameline goes international again

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Photo caption: Marion Barbeau in DRONE. Courtesy of Frameline and StudioCanal.

Frameline, the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, opens tomorrow, June 18 and runs through June 28. The program includes 150 films from 40 countries, including 42 world, North American and US premieres. As always, it’s a very rich slate of films.

I’ve selected five international films to highlight. Let’s begin with two Must See directorial debuts from France and Italy.

Drone: Émilie (Marion Barbeau) is stalked through Paris by a mysterious drone, in a thriller that explores issues of privacy and the male gaze. A magnificent 4-minute opening sequence, introduces us to the vulnerability caused by the voyeur drone. Émilie is funding her architecture studies by working as a cam girl, a situation where she is physically detached from and in control of her male customers. But there is no detachment or control whenever the paranoia-inducing drone suddenly appears. There are exhilarating set pieces in a parking garage, a motorcycle chase and an abandoned factory, as writer-director Simon Bouisson and cinematographer Ludovic Zulli keep their drone camera in pursuit of the story’s stalker drone. In his first theatrical feature, Bouisson keeps the tension pounding, all the way to the ingenious ending. Must See.

Manfredi Marini (right) in Giovanni Tortorici’s DICIANNOVE. Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories and Frameline.

Diciannove: The title is Italian for nIneteen, the age of Leonardo (Manfredi Marini), who is leaving his Palermo home for the first time to begin college in London. Ever restless, he is eager to embark on his life journey, but doesn’t know where to head, and, being nineteen, he won’t listen to anyone else. In mere days, Leonardo pivots from business courses in London to the study of Italian literature at a university in Siena. Nineteen is an age that most of us sample experiences, but Leonardo is an introvert, sometimes bratty, who refuses to socialize, and we wonder if he will ever forge relationships or act on his sexual urges. Diciannove is that highly original coming-of-age film in which even what Leonardo chooses NOT to do is interesting, and we can’t predict what could make his spirit soar at the end. Diciannove is the debut feature for writer-director Giovanni Tortorici, a protege of Luca Guadagnino, who produced the film. Tortorici and cinematographer Massimiliano Kuveiller (who has also worked with Guadagnino) maintain visual interest by throwing everything at the screen – disco scenes with an operatic score, slow motion, animated dreams and every kind of fancy cut. Diciannove is the singular and imaginative calling card of a new auteur; see it at Frameline before its US arthouse release later this year. Must See.

Bruce Pintos in KEEP COMING BACK. Courtesy of Frameline.

And here are three more highlights from Frameline’s menu of international cinema – from Uruguay, Croatia and Taiwan:

  • Keep Coming Back: In his first feature, director Sergio de León sends up the conventions of the underdog drama with deadpan drollery. In rural Uruguay, 18-year-old Emilio’s mother dies, leaving with a pile of debts and a collection of pigeons. The only way he can keep the family house is to win the great pigeon race. Staggered by grief, confounded by financial stress and with his hormones raging toward a sexual awakening, Emilio (Bruce Pintos) plunges ahead earnestly. Absurd hilarity ensues, including a very funny I’m sorry about your mom and the robust retelling of the story of Winkie, the historical hero pigeon. US Premiere.
  • Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day: Croatia’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Award for Best International Feature, this is an aspirational film with an epic sweep, passionate sex and profound tragedy, all the way to unexpected redemption. This searing critique of the Tito regime pits a man of principle and ideas against the repression of the small-minded. The heroic bravery that helps overthrow Nazi puppets is revealed to be no match for the homophobia and mindless adherence to the party line of post-war apparatchiks. Frameline hosts the International Premiere.
  • Silent Sparks: In this Taiwanese neo-noir, small time hood Pua is released from prison and checks in with the swaggering, exuberant local crime lord. The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji, who happens to be Pua’s former cell-mate. But when Pua and Mi-Ji meet again, the encounter is a study in social awkwardness. Pua just wants to start earning money and working his way up in the syndicate, but Mi-Ji is surprisingly unhelpful. What explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate. Promising first feature for writer-director Ping Chu.

You can buy tickets for these films and peruse the entire program at Frameline. Here’s the trailer for Drone.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Paul Reubens in PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF. Courtesy of HBO Max

This Week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the French coming-of-age drama Bonjour Tristesse and a tribute to the groundbreaking French comedy La Cage au Folles, coming up on TCM. Plus a preview of the upcoming Frameline film festival and a fond reflection on La cage aux folles.

REMEMBRANCES

Mara Corday in THE BLACK SCORPION

60s pinup queen Mara Corday starred in a series of monster movies: The Giant Claw, The Black Scorpion (both among my Least Convincing Movie Monsters) and Tarantula. Corday concluded her career in several Clint Eastwood movies, most memorably in Sudden Impact as the waitress hostage rescued by Clint with “Go ahead, make my day.”

Clint Eastwood and Mara Corday in SUDDEN IMPACT

Frederick Forsyth’s early days as a spy and a journalist gave him fodder for his potboiler novels, many of which were adapted into movies like The Odessa File, The Dogs of War and, perhaps my favorite thriller, The Day of the Jackal.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

George C. Scott (right) with Michael Sarrazin and Slim Pickins in THE FLIM-FLAM MAN
George C. Scott (right) with Michael Sarrazin and Slim Pickins in THE FLIM-FLAM MAN

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies resurrects the great, great comedic performance by George C. Scott as the con man Mordecai Jones in The Flim-Flam Man (1967).  Mark Twain would have loved this movie.

And set your VCRs for TCM’s June 20 airing of the rarely-broadcast Argentine neo-noir Nine Queens. Nine Queens has a great con artist plot, kind of midway between House of Games and The Sting. And it stars one of my favorite actors, Ricardo Darin, the Argentine Joe Mantegna. Sadly, the writer-director Fabián Bielinsky died at 47, right after his masterpiece The Aura, ending a very promising career.

Ricardo Duran and Gaston Pauls in NINE QUEENS.

BONJOUR TRISTESSE: not the life lesson she was expecting

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Photo caption: Claes Bang and Chloe Sevigny in in BONJOUR TRISTESSE. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

In the coming-of-age drama Bonjour Tristesse, Cécile (Lily McInerny) is on the cusp of adulthood and enjoying a languid summer holiday in a villa on the French Riviera (Bonjour Tristesse was shot in Cassis). She is accompanying her father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his girlfriend Elsa (Nailia Harzoune), who allow her to sneak off for make-out sessions on the beach with the young guy in the neighboring villa.

Cécile has a comfortable and playful relationship with Raymond, a charming lightweight. To his face, she describes him as often reckless and selfish, which he doesn’t dispute.  At one point, Raymond offer, “I don’t know why luck is so easily dismissed. I’ve always found it dependable.” Raymond’s attractive girlfriend Elsa is also fun-loving, with a healthy libido and unfounded self-confidence.

Cécile’s mother died when she was a young child. So, when Cécile’s mother’s best friend Anne (Chloe Sevigny) shows up at the villa for visit, Cécile wants to learn about her mom. What were her parents like back in the day? Anne has also forged impressive achievements as a designer and is reserved and guarded, with a serious demeanor. The adults that Cécile is used to, Raymond and Elsa, are shallow and hedonistic, so Anne is a fascinating contrast.

Claes Bang, Lily McInerny and Chloe Sevigny in in BONJOUR TRISTESSE. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

Just as Cécile is glomming on to Anne as a model, Anne does something which upends the household. Soon, Cécile is learning life lessons that she didn’t sign up for. This is a character-driven story, and Cécile is forming her own persona as Raymong and Anne reveal who they are, down deep.

Bonjour Tristesse is the directorial debut for Durga Chew-Bose, who adapted the Francois Sagan novel.

After premiering at Toronto, Bonjour Tristesse became a NYT Critic’s Pick on its theatrical run. Bonjour Tristesse releases digitally this Friday on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES: groundbreaking, humane and funny

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Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

On June 13, Turner Classic Movies will present the groundbreaking French comedy La Cage Aux Folles – a daring film in 1978, when few were thinking publicly about same-sex marriage. A gay guy runs a nightclub on the Riviera, and his partner is the star drag queen. The nightclub owner’s beloved son wants him to meet the parents of his intended.  But the bride-to-be’s father is a conservative politician who practices the most severe and judgmental version of Roman Catholicism, so father and son decide to conceal aspects of dad’s lifestyle. Madcap comedy ensues, and La Cage proves that broad farce can be heartfelt. Michel Serrault is unforgettable as Albin/Zaza – one of the all-time great comic performances. (La Cage was tepidly remade in 1996 as The Birdcage with Robin Williams, but you want to see the French original.)

I’m currently watching my way through the program of this year’s Frameline LGBTQ film fest, which I just previewed. I don’t think you can overestimate the cultural impact of La Cage Aux Folles, which charmed straight audiences into relating to sympathetic portrayals of LGBTQ people.

Get ready for Frameline

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Photo caption: Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow in Sophie Hyde’s JIMPA, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Mark De Blok. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Frameline, the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, opens June 18 and runs through June 28. The 49th(!) Frameline brings us festival award-winners from Sundance to the Berlinale, with 150 films from 40 countries, including 42 world, North American and US premieres.

Films will screen at the Herbst Theatre and the ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater, as well as familiar arthouses like the Roxie, the Vogue, the New Parkway and, this year for the first time, the Rafael. Select films will be streamable after the in-person fest; (I’ll have more about that when I learn which films will be available online).

Here are some Frameline49 highlights:

  • The fest opens with John Lithgow and Olivia Colman starring in the Sundance indie Jimpa, about the Amsterdam reunion of a multigenerational queer Australian family. The HIV-positive patriarch (Lithgow) is visited by his daughter (Colman) and her non-binary child (Aud Mason-Hyde). Described as “funny and heartfelt”.
  • The closing night film is the dramedy Twinless. Two guys meet at a support group for people who have lost their twin – straight Roman (Dylan O-Brien) and gay Dennis (James Sweeney) – and form an unlikely connection. O’Brien won the best acting award at Sundance and the film, written and directed by Sweeney, won the best drama award. See it now, before its September release.
  • The program includes a whopping 25 documentary features. Given the strength of the docs in past Framelines (Loving Highsmith, Making Montgomery Clift), this looks like a rich slate of docs.

Some of the screenings are already selling fast and, although Frameline may add some screenings, it would be wise to get your tickets now. You can peruse the program and get passes and tickets at Frameline.

As in my Frameline coverage last year, I’ll be focusing on international cinema, especially directorial debuts. The Frameline programmers have a gift for finding the promising first films of new directors. In recent years, Frameline has presented Marion Desseigne-Ravel’s French coming-of-age story Besties, Marius Olteanu‘s innovative Romanian drama Monsters.(sic), Leon Le’s groundbreaking Vietnamese romance Song Lang, and Arantxa Echevarria’s Spanish sexual awakening tale Carmen y Lola. Last year, Frameline hosted the North American premiere of the third feature by Brazilian auteur Juliana Rojas, Cidade; Campo.

In this year’s program, I’ve already found some gems from Croatia and Taiwan – and a wowzer from France. Just before the fest opens, I’ll be coming back with specific recommendations.

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney in James Sweeney’s TWINLESS. Photo by Greg Cotten. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Tao Zhao in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES: Photo courtesy of Janus Films.

This Week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the superb documentary Pee-Wee Herman as Himself, the disappointing comedy Friendship and a rant about West Anderson, the director of The Phoenician Scheme.

The best movie of 2025 so far is Jia Zhangke’s sweeping Chinese drama Caught by the Tides, with its stunning performance by Tao Zhao. Seek it out while it’s still in theaters.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Roger Livesey in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

On June 11, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today.

Why I’m skipping THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

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Photo caption: Benedict Cumberbatch in THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME. Courtesy of Focus Features.

You’re gonna have to look elsewhere for a review of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, because I’ m gonna skip it. As I wrote about Anderson’s Asteroid City, he keeps making remarkably clever movies without an emotional core.

Anderson is undeniably an auteur, whose films are highly imaginative. The finest film actors love working with him, and studios will finance his films. Yet, I have very strongly ambivalent feelings about his work. I’ve loved his Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom and pretty much scorned his other movies. After The Grand Budapest Hotel, I refused to even see The French Dispatch, and I only saw Asteroid City because it was extremely convenient for me.

I have friends who enjoy Wes Anderson movies, and I can understand why.  His films are breezy and a relief from all that is stupid in the culture. His backgrounds are filled with Easter Egg witticisms which are fun to scan for, and it’s fun to count off the movie stars (hey, that’s Matt Dillon!). He takes the viewer into worlds that only he can imagine.

The Phoenician Scheme is especially tempting because it’s filled with many of my favorite actors: Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Alex Jennings and Michael Cera, whom the trailer indicates is stealing the movie. Another of my favorite actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, gets to wear a gloriously silly beard that makes Emperor Maximilian’s look like five o’clock shadow. Benicio del Toro, Bryan Cranston, Steve Park, Rupert Friend and Mathieu Amalric round out the crazy impressive cast.

But I’ve come to realize that Anderson often makes very clever movies whose characters don’t engage me. I really, really cared about Max Fischer in Rushmore and and Sam in Moonrise Kingdom. I never cared what happened to Steve Zissou or any of the fucking Tenenbaums. All wit and no heart doesn’t do it for me.

PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF: a man hidden in his own invention

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Photo caption: Paul Reubens in PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF. Courtesy of HBP Max.

The delightfully wacky character Pee-Wee Herman sprang on the scene, seemingly from nowhere, sweetly celebrating his own weirdness. Pee-Wee was the creation of actor Paul Reubens. Reubens, of course, had a life before Pee-Wee, and he had a very private personal life distinct from his invented persona. Sadly, Reubens lost his privacy in, not one, but two career-killing tabloid scandals.

HBO Max is airing the bio-doc Pee-Wee as Himself, from the acclaimed Silicon Valley native, New York-based documentarian Matt Wolf. Wolf has an uncanny gift for finding compelling stories that everyone else has overlooked: Teenage, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, Spaceship Earth and Rustin. Here, Wolf reveals three stories, each in itself worthy of a documentary.

The first is Paul Reubens’ origin story – his childhood, his self-confidence as an avant garde art student and his comfort in an out gay lifestyle. Reubens was failing as an actor, and his overweening drive to be successful as an actor led him to leave his partner and go back in the closet.

The second is Pee-Wee’s creation story – how Reubens joined the famed The Groundlings improv group, working with the likes of Laraine Newman, Phil Hartman and Elvira, and originated several characters, one of which was Pee-Wee. Amazingly, Reubens, as Pee-Wee, was a winning contestant on The Gong Show and even The Dating Game. When Reubens failed to be selected for Saturday Night Live, he determined to produce his own TV show – and the sui generis Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was born. Another helluva story.

Finally, we come to the tabloid scandal, an unexpected comeback and then a second scandal. As Reubens himself ruefully notes, by the time he realized the privacy tradeoffs that come with fame, “the ink had dried on my pact with the devil”. 

Wolf had elicited permission from Reubens to make a film about Reubens’ life, and secured 40 hours of on-camera interview footage. But the mercurial Reubens, highly ambivalent to sharing his personal story, kept pulling the plug on the project. In the interviews, Reubens often brings up that ambivalence and repeatedly jerks Wolf’s chain. When Reubens fell ill, Wolf was in a race against mortality to get Reubens back on board. Fortunately, Wolf succeeded.

We also hear from Reubens’ sister and his longtime personal assistant, along with old pals like Laraine Newman, Elvira and Natasha Lyonne. We see an archival interview of Phil Hartman, reflecting on what he saw as a betrayal by Reubens.

I’m not sure that I’ve seen another biodoc where the subject himself, so wounded and humbled, stiffens his dignity to reflect on his own brilliance and his suffering from both injustices and his own mistakes. Pee-Wee as Himself runs three hours and twenty-five minutes and is airing on two parts on HBO Max.

FRIENDSHIP: the loser isn’t lovable

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Photo caption Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in FRIENDSHIP. Courtesy of A24.

The disappointing comedy Friendship has a promising premise: what happens when a very uncool guy is invited into friendship by a very cool guy.

Craig (Tim Robinson) is socially tone deaf and has a gift for turning every situation into a gaffe. He meets his new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd), who brims with savoir faire and has the cheeky grin of, say, Paul Rudd. Paul invites Craig along on a mischievous adventure and over for beers with Austin’s bro friends. In fact, Austin seems to live inside a guy-fantasy beer commercial. Craig has been a stick in the mud but is now intoxicated by the possibilities of being a popular kid.

Of course, Craig, devoid of charm and emotional intelligence, just can’t keep up, and his clumsiness – and his insistence on doubling down on his gaffes – sabotage his social aspirations. When he tries to hang with Austin’s friends, a social disaster results. When he tris to impress his wife Tami (an excellent Kate Mara) by duplicating his adventure with Austin, it’s a real disaster, not just a social one.

The situation is grist for a very smart story. Every one of us has felt socially inadequate or left out at some point. Every one of us has done something dorky in public. So the audience is ready to identify with a movie character who is suffering from embarrassment and lack of social confidence.

The problem here is that Craig isn’t a well-meaning, lovable loser that we can root for. As created by writer-director Andrew DeYoung and played by Tim Robinson, he’s a jerk. And the screenplay misses the easy opportunities to explore the male fantasy of the perfect buddy.

There some LOL moments in Friendship, the best being when Tami reports on what occurred when she was stuck in a municipal sewer. And it develops that even Austin is hiding an uncool secret.

After a while, we stop cringing for Craig, because we no longer care about him. Friendship is a swing-and-a-miss.

Movies to See Right Now

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Tao Zhao in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES: Photo courtesy of Janus Films.

This Week on The Movie Gourmet – a review of Jia Zhangke’s sweeping Chinese drama Caught by the Tides, with its stunning performance by Tao Zhao; it’s the best movie of 2025 so far. I also have a new review of The Friend. Coming soon – an updated review of the superb biodoc Pee-Wee Herman as Himself and a new review of the new comedy in theaters, Friendship. But, first, three remembrances.

REMEMBRANCES

Joe Don Baker in CHARLEY VARRICK.

Joe Don Baker, with his imposing physicality and country demeanor was the perfect Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, a little indie that became a mega hit. No one would be surprised that Baker hailed from a small town near Waco, but I didn’t know that he studied at the Actor’s Studio. His best work was in Charley Varrick, The Outfit, George Wallace and Mud.

Belgian actress Emelie Dequenne was a force of nature in her debut, as an alienated young woman in Rosetta, the 1999 film that mad the Dardennes brothers famous auteurs. For that performance, Dequenne won the Best Actress at Cannes, and she won a Cesar in 2020.

George Wendt played the beloved Norm! in 269 episodes of Cheers and appeared in well over 150 titles, mostly on television. But his carrer began with small roles in good movies: A Wedding, Bronco Billy and The Bodyguard.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Kirk Douglas in THE VIKINGS

On May 31, Turner Classic Movies brings us a testosterone injection. Here’s one of my favorite manly adventure sagas, The Vikings from 1958; a one-eyed Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis bare their chests over Janet Leigh and swill mead with full-bearded Ernest Borgnine – it’s rip-roaring and silly and just a whole lot of fun.

And, on June 4, TCM airs one of the most fun of films noir, The Big Steal, which rematched Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer after their iconic noir Out of the Past. This time, Mitchum and Greer careen around Mexico, being chased by William Bendix. The Big Steal was only the third of the 36 feature films directed by the grievously underrated Don Siegel. Siegel became a master of crime movies (and was the primary filmmaking mentor to Clint Eastwood). I particularly love Siegel’s 1973 neo-noir Charley Varrick, the guilty pleasure Two Mules for Sister Sara and John Wayne’s goodbye: The Shootist. Anyway, The Big Steal is delightful.

Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum in THE BIG STEAL.