Frameline48 begins: Film Queen Picks

It’s Juneteenth, which means it’s time for a block party on Castro Street, wrapping up with an outdoor screening of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero 💖

It’s also time to start making your list and checking it twice of which films you plan to see in person and which you want to stream in the Digital Screening Room. To aid you in that process, I’ve posted my reviews of over two dozen of the programs (including all but one of the shorts programs), and I will continue posting reviews as I watch more screeners in between dashing to the theaters for in-person screenings. Check back here through the week for updates.

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

• Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
• The Summer with Carmen
• Mad About the Boy
• Rookie
• Chuck Chuck Baby
• Teaches of Peaches
• Extremely Unique Dynamic
• Out
• The Queen of My Dreams
• What a Feeling

… and that’s just my “must see” films, not even my “highly recommended” choices

A few notes about the shorts programs:

• 2 of the 5 shorts I was able to pre-screen in “Homegrown Shorts” were Must See, plus 2 highly recommended
• “Fun in Shorts” was a bit disappointing this year, with 0 Must See, only 2 highly recommended, and 1 not recommended
• “Across Time & Space: Black Queer Stories” had some good shorts, but no Must See
• “Love Lies Scheming” has 1 Must See plus 4 highly recommended, but most of the best are included in the Digital Screening Room streaming combo program “Come to My Window + Love Lies”
• “Come to My Window: Date Night” has 2 Must Aee, with the other 4 highly recommended (plus one I haven’t seen yet). The short Euphoric is one of the most emotionally authentic films I have seen in years, absolutely top of my short film Must See list. Fortunately, it and two of the others are included in the Digital Screening Room streaming combo program “Come to My Window + Love Lies.” The in-person screening is already “at rush” as of June 19, so check back on the website to see if more tickets get released (up to noon the day of), show up in person up to an hour before the showtime and get in the Rush Line, or opt for the streaming compilation below.
• “Come to My Window + Love Lies”: only about half the shorts in these two in-person programs are available in the Digital Screening Room streaming encore, so Frameline combined them into a single streaming program. This is my pick for best shorts program of Frameline48.
• “Cruel Summer” streaming shorts: This is my pick for worst shorts program of Frameline48, including the only film so far this year that I gave not just 👎 but actually 💩
• “Queer Places, Spaces, & Shorts” has some good stuff. Unfortunately, the best of the program, the short “Mother” (which also appears in “Homegrown Shorts”) will not be available in the Digital Screening Room streaming encore. However, if you want to get a sense of the place, the bar Mother is at 3079 16th Street, just half a block from the Roxie. They bill it as “dyke of center, all queers welcome,” so stop by for an after-show drink.
• “Rise Up: Doc Shorts” are all good, with one Must See. Two of the shorts, about Alok and their aunt Urvashi Vaid, will also screen separately, with a live panel discussion with Alok
• “Wild Combination” streaming shorts: All of these were good, but no Must See. These are shorts that screened separately before various feature-length films in the in-person festival.