Alden Peters' COMING OUT: Leaving the closet, even as you're filming it for posterity

When TrustMovies first heard that COMING OUT, the new GLBT documentary from first-time filmmaker Alden Peters, was all about his "coming out" process as a gay man, and that he had simultaneously filmed the whole thing, my mind and heart sank a bit. It is all too easy to imagine how stupid and sappy something like this could be. The opportunities for narcissism, not to mention the difficulty of finding "truth" as you are filming everyone around you -- while remaining, of course, the center of attention -- seemed awfully obvious to me. And I couldn't help wondering why it didn't also seem so to the filmmaker. Well, maybe he's just very young.

Turns out he is very young -- but also rather charming and bright. All of the above, and lots more, seems to have occurred to Mr. Peters (shown above and below) before, during and probably long after his shoot -- in which, yes, he does come out to family, friends and now to the world at large. The experience of seeing/hearing this happen and what it means to Peters and those around him -- for this viewer, anyway -- proved a surprisingly enjoyable, thoughtful, funny and occasionally moving one.

The person to whom Alden initially spills the beans is his older brother, who claims not to have had a clue that his younger bro was gay, even though as a child Alden dressed up like one of the Spice Girls and filmed the whole thing! Other family members at least seem to have considered this possibility. His mom (above, left) asks him one humdinger of a question on camera, while Dad (below, left, and on poster, top, right), who seems a typically gruff and non-verbal example of American manhood, turns out to be pretty damn fine about it all.

The filmed conversation with his group of best friends is particularly buoyant and telling, opening up the subject of how Alden himself feels about being gay. This proves to be a rather dark grab bag of ideas and feelings,  A good-looking kid who, from certain angles, could pass for a very young Tom Cruise, Peters has already experienced gay sex a number of times, but has kept this, along with so much else, closeted. As he has discovered so far, there just doesn't seem to be a good role model for him to follow. Or maybe it's is just that there are so many different role models to choose from that he find this confusing. Many gays, young and old, may find themselves identifying with these feelings.

As the movie lengthens (it's lasts only 70 minutes), we meet other gays who have or are in the process of coming-out -- the beautiful transgender girl Janet Mock, a young black kid named Eric who comes out online to his dad, along with a sociologist, a journalist and a psychologist, all of whom add some thoughtful insight to the proceedings. Finally, though, we're left with Alden, who, while he is now "out," is still faced with a lot more living -- and decision-making -- to do. If we thought this documentary was going to be merely a silly, sappy endeavor, it turns out to be -- in the words of our favorite current TV character, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (a show you really must see, if you haven't already: it's streamable via Netflix) -- "a lot more nuanced than that."

Coming Out, from Wolfe Video, arrives on DVD and VOD this coming Tuesday, October 4 -- for purchase and/or rental.

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Alden Peters, American independent cinema, COMING OUT, coming-of-age movies, GLBT documentaries, the closet,

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In DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, Sydney Freeland explores life in today's American-Indian town

Hard to believe, but it's been 27 years since the last really good movie -- Smoke Signals -- about modern-day American Indians hit the screen. DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, the new film from first-time/full-length filmmaker Sydney Freeland, is not in that league -- it doesn't possess the poetry: visual from director Chris Eyre, verbal from screen-writer Sherman Alexie -- but it is still a movie worth seeing. More "modern," due to its inclusion of a transgendered character, as well as an adopted Indian raised by "whites," and of course the usual alcohol-problemed guy, the movie touches some of the new "bases" while remaining a relatively honest look a society ever in transition and trying to hold on to what's best about its past.

Ms Freeland, pictured at left, works in a realistic mode, while allowing a little leeway for the usual Indian "visions" thing. But she also lets her characters -- a couple of them, anyway -- appreciate the irony and humor of some of their "spirit" endeavors. And her New Mexico scenery is, as expected, often a pleasure to view.

As a screenwriter, Freeland's plot and dialog tend toward the plain and believable, despite maybe a coincidence or two too many; as director, she has surrounded herself with a professional crew, while keeping things moving along at a good clip and drawing decent performances from her mostly adept cast.

In her screenplay, Freeland gives us three main characters, the (somewhat) bad-boy-with-a-firewater-problem Luther (Jeremiah Bitsui, above), transgendered Felixia (newcomer Carmen Moore, below),

and the adoptee struggling with identity issues (MorningStar Angeline, below). All three characters are connected in ways that will not become apparent for some time. Fortunately, their connection does not insist on some clever plot surprise; it's just part of typical small-scale reservation life.

The film begins with the statement that this town is more likely a place to leave than a place to live. Two of our three characters are trying to get out, while the other is being prevented from getting in. What the moviemaker appears to be telling them -- and us, of course -- is that they ought to try to find some way to bring their life and location together.

To that end we meet some of the subsidiary characters: the kindly grandparents (one of whom is shown, above left), the problemed parents of two of our kids, and the far-too-into-the-drug-and-booze-culture friends of the three. Yet no one and nothing is held up as villainous and evil. We can understand and sympathize with the whole batch we meet here.

Finally, if things come together a little too easily, at least Ms Freeland does not tie up every loose end and smooth over all the rough patches. The finale -- which involves a young girl running (Magdelena Begay, below)-- reminded me of the ending in the current and quite exceptional Oscar nominee, Timbuktu. Except that here, the running is something positive and wonderful. It lifts our spirits -- as does, despite its flaws and pretty much in its entirety, Drunktown's Finest.

From Indion Entertainment the movie, running 92 minutes, opens this Friday in New York City at the Quad Cinema. Elsewhere? No idea, but as the film is a product of Sundance, with Robert Redford credited as an executive producer, one would imagine the film might open at one of the several Sundance Cinemas.

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Amer-Indian life, American independent cinema, coming-of-age movies, DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, reservation life today, Sundance, Sydney Freeland,

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Hélier Cisterne's VANDAL: a smart, sneaky little French film makes its DVD and streaming debut

The story of a troubled teen born of a French mom and an Arab-heritage dad, VANDAL is the work of budding French filmmaker, Hélier Cisterne, and is one of those many small films from abroad that so easily get lost in our current thicket of too-many-movies, too-little-time. This is all the more reason to be grateful to First Run Features (FRF), which is at least giving the film a DVD release. (I'm afraid it would not make many waves, were it to receive a more expensive theatrical opening.)

M. Cisterne, show at left, begins his film with his main character, Chérif, driving around in a stolen car and screaming at the top of his lungs, his face a mirror of frustration that is at last experiencing a kind of release. We cut to a scene in a judge's office, in which we learn that Chérif (played believably by Zinedine Benchenine, shown below, in his screen debut), is a multi-repeat offender, who must now either be sent to reform school or leave his mom's care to go live with an aunt, uncle and cousin in another city, also near where his father lives. A no-brainer for all concerned, the boy is soon ensconced with that other family, the son of whom (very nice job by Emile Berling) looks like a kind of goody-goody nerd type but secretly lives a double life as a member of a gang of graffiti artists.

There a terrific little scene in which young M. Berling (shown below, and son of that fine actor Charles Berling), is asked by Chérif if he has ever been caught. The cousin quietly puts on his glasses, changes his entire demeanor, seemingly from the inside out, and asks with utter surprise, "Pardon me?"

In his new environment, Chérif must deal with his not ungracious but disciplinarian uncle (played by that always interesting actor and filmmaker Jean-Marc Barr, below) and his kindly aunt, Christine (Brigitte Sy, shown in the penultimate photo).

The boy quickly reunites with his dad (Ramzy Bedia, below, left), who soon hooks his son up with a part-time construction job.

While at school, Chérif finds himself growing close to a smart, attractive girl in his class (Chloé Lecerf, below, right), who is wiser by far than this troubled kid.

All of this is brought to a bubble by the graffiti artists, and the fellow they all worship and envy, a guy named Vandal, whose work is everywhere, though the artist himself never seem to get caught.

As often occurs in small European movies, events happen, but nothing proves either defining nor a deal-breaker. Mom (Marina Foïs, above) comes to visit, with Chérif's little brother in tow. Bits and pieces of character are revealed and add to our understanding, while never completing the puzzle.

We leave Vandal at a single, troubling point in our hero's life, just as we entered it at an earlier one. We've met a bunch of interesting characters, all of whom seem more good than bad, more positive than negative, and we hope that Chérif somehow finds his way through the maze of growing up and into some kind of autonomy that works (and is legal).

The movie, in French with English subtitles, runs a short 84 minutes and will be available on DVD -- and probably via a number of streaming sources, too -- this Tuesday, February 10. 

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coming-of-age movies, extended-family films, French cinema, graffiti artists at work, Hélier Cisterne, VANDAL,

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GIRLHOOD: Céline Sciamma's splendid look at a French girl at an important crossroad in her life

By this time we expect very good things from French filmmaker Céline Sciamma: the good Water Lilies, the better Tomboy, and now her best, GIRLHOOD (Bande de filles). This latest tale -- of a high-school beauty named Marieme (who will soon enough be going by the alias of Vic, for victory) and her family and friends -- is filled with life, surprise and the kind of on-screen reality that is difficult to fake. This comes, I think, from a genuine and deep understanding of its protagonists. From first frame to last, the movie barrels ahead and takes you with it.

Ms Sciamma, shown at right, is simply terrific at capturing the moment without making it seem overly fraught. Time and again her usual cinematographer, Crystel Fournier, catches those on-the-fly happenings that count for something at the time and in retrospect keep us thoughtfully musing, while her editor Julien Lacheray pieces it all together for maximum effect and enjoyment. It is as writer and director, however, that the filmmaker really shines. Her conception-- noticeably lacking in either sentimentality or gloss -- is nothing less that bringing to us the life of her heroine in such real and complete form -- good, bad and most often in between -- that we can only follow along and finally marvel at how complete the movie seems, even as it leaves us and Marieme up in the air -- but aware!

The filmmaker has found one of the most beautiful, alive and glowing young performers I have seen in a long while to play her lead. Karidja Touré (above and below) is a real "find," someone whom we will surely see again and again -- unless this young woman opts for some other career and life. Ms Touré, working from Sciamma's script, is able to let us enter her character so fully that we understand her thought processes, her needs and desires, her joys and disappointments.

The film opens with a football game, the likes of which you have probably never witnessed, and then moves to a family scene that ends with a nasty thwack! When, soon enough, our heroine learns that she cannot progress to the kind of schooling she wants, a "girl group" beckons, and almost on a dare, she joins it. These girls are sassy and then some, and Marieme must prove her bona fides to fit in.

Yet as we more fully understand these other girls, they too become rounded characters so that, though Marieme is always front and center, we know and care for all of them. The men and boys we meet are something else. Sciamma's interest lies more with the females, but she gives the males, at least partially, their due. Marieme's brother is a bully, but he is the man of the family and expects obeisance from his crew. Her boyfriend is kinder, gentler, though he, too, must somehow fit into the macho mold. The film's interesting sex scene objectifies the male for a change; later we see a little lesbianism sprouting from good, French immigrant soil.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is how Marieme herself learns the value of the use of force and what it can achieve within the society she must inhabit. But Sciamma also shows us the girl's need to both conquer and protect. And when, at last, she is faced with some important and meaningful choices, we can understand how she so easily feels that those choices are too limited. They may not be, after all, and to the film's great credit, Marieme and we begin finally to understand this.

As often as I poo-poo the idea of making yet another movie sequel, this film and its wonderful lead character almost demand one. I'd line up to see it, and I'll bet, after watching Girlhood, you would, too.

The movie -- from Strand Releasing, in French with English subtitles, and running 112 minutes, opens this Friday, January 30, in New York City at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. In the Los Angeles area, look for it at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena on February 6, and then elsewhere across the country in the weeks to come.

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Bande de filles, Céline Sciamma, coming-of-age movies, French cinema, GIRLHOOD, Karidja Touré, Women on film, women vs men,

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A Venezuelan head trip: Mariana Rondón's disturbing BAD HAIR opens at Film Forum

It's being sold as a "touching, charming, humorous" movie, and while BAD HAIR (Pelo Malo) -- the new Venezuelan film from writer/director Mariana Rondón -- at times exhibits all three of these adjectives, it is much more of an unsettling and disturbing experience than anything in the feel-good realm. It is also very believable and rich in the specifics of a Latin American culture we haven't seen much on film. The movie certainly does not seem like most of the Mexican, Argentine or Brazilian films we're viewed so far, and its story (of a barely-working-class mother of two, the elder child of which appears, even at age nine and much to his mother's consternation, to be a budding homosexual) is anything but the stuff of cutesy, feel-good fantasy.

Ms Rondón, shown near right (with her producer and very fine film editor, Marité Ugas), has given us a movie that is a near-constant and often hurtful, vicious tug-of-war between mother, Marta (Samantha Castilllo, below, right), and son, known simply as Junior (Samuel Lange, on poster above, and below, left), and the very-near incredible performan-ces she's wrenched from these two alone make the movie worth seeing. The family's life in the Caracas projects is captured with alternating sorrow and humor, as is the only other character of real importance to the film: the son's grandmother, who does not mind -- even seems to encourage -- the "gay" direction in which he is headed and keeps making noises about adopting him from mom, in return for which she'll give Marta some much needed money.

The assorted supporting characters -- from the good-looking fellow who runs a sundries stand nearby (and on whom Junior has a crush) to his classmate, whose mom does babysitting (when she's able to be paid, that is) -- help make the movie interesting and fast-paced, but the bulk of the plot and its tension is between mother and son.

The attitudes here, mom's to that of the physician she consults on behalf of her son, may be backward and a bit shocking, yet they do not seem anything but real and part of this particular Latino culture of poverty and lack of education that simply must be dealt with in some fashion. And though mom has all the power and may be abusing it, Junior often manages to give as good he gets. From mom's standpoint, after all, she is saving her sonny boy from a fate worse than death.

Gay viewers and their close friends will watch in horror, as Junior is forced into making choices that go against everything he feels and cares for (except his mom, whom he loves above all). And mom herself cannot be seen as a villain, even though she makes all the wrong choices for her son. The scene in which she coerces him to watch her copulating with the man who may give her back the job she so desperately needs (clearly in hopes that something heterosexual will rub off on the kid) is only one of the god-awful things that Marta does.

The major mother/son struggle involves Junior's hair, beautiful and curly, which he hates and wants to straighten out (his grandmother -- Nelly Ramos, below, right -- has managed to make about half of it that way in the scene above). Most viewers will agree that Junior is gorgeous with his own curly hair, and that his self-image could use some improvement. In the film's finale, that hair comes at last into its own, though perhaps not in quite the way we or Junior might expect.

So, sure, there is some humor and charm here, along the way. But Bad Hair did not win its many festival awards by being just another cute early-coming-of-age movie with a gay theme. Marketing may decree that the film be pitched as something lighter than it is, but I can't believe that Ms Rondón does not see her movie as a serious, as well as entertaining, look at a backward cultural practice. It's a memorable look, too. In  the history of cinema, you're unlikely to find many child performances as deep and desperate as that of young Master Lange's.

The movie, from Cinema Tropical and FIGa Films, opens this Wednes-day in New York City at Film Forum. Elsewhere? Yes: The film opens Dec. 5 in Miami, Chicago, and Boston; Dec. 10 in Santa Barbara; Dec. 12 in Houston. It will hit Vancouver in January. Maybe, once word-of-mouth begins, the film will garner even more openings around the country. 

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BAD HAIR, coming-of-age movies, cultural attitudes, Latin American film, Mariana Rondón, Pelo Malo, poverty, Venezuelan films,

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