Best Years

Best Years (episodes 1 through 6), dir. Jordan Hidalgo, 2024 USA, 50 min. total 👍

Saturday, June 22, 2024, 1:00 PM, Vogue Theatre • World premiere

(screened with ILY, BYE, which also screens in “Fun in Shorts (2024)”)

also available (separately) in the Digital Screening Room streaming encore

Best Years

Troy (Josh Bonzie, pictured) recently moved to Brooklyn with his friend Pat and his then-boyfriend Chance, but Troy and Chance broke up, and haven’t yet post-processed the breakup to see if they might reconcile. Troy is working as a busboy/‌dishwasher and otherwise moping about the house listening to Enya and making Mickey Mouse pancakes in his underwear. Pat is trying to get a job with the mayor’s re-election campaign. Billie, another tenant in the building who sometimes acts as a proxy for the landlord, buttonholes Troy into helping two new tenants move in, one of whom, Abel, catches Troy’s fancy (shown here is the moment Troy meets Abel). Troy and Abel begin getting to know one another, complicating the “will they or won’t they” reunion with Chance.

Some of the characters, especially the neighbor Billie, are basically non-stop irritating, only rarely to comedic effect. I just don’t find seeing irritating people bickering to be very funny. Also, the first two episodes mostly establish Troy, Pat, Chance, and Billie; they did little to hook the audience, and we don’t even see Abel until episode 3. The series improves from that point forward, with less obnoxo-bickering and more actual characterization. It’s worth sitting through the first two episodes (although I wouldn’t begrude you a bit of fast-forwarding) to get to the better material later in the series. Highly recommended.

• IMDb [director] • TMDB • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram:@Jordan23_Films • Facebook • preview • other •

Queer as Folk (2022)

Queer as Folk (2022), dir. Stephen Dunn, 2022, USA, 105m. 💝 must see

Friday, June 17, 2022, 6:15pm Castro

The Boys of Manchester are back in a third incarnation. The original 1999 series was set in Manchester, England; the American version also premiered in 1999, set in Pittsburgh (though filmed in Toronto). The 2022 version is set in New Orleans, with a vastly expanded take on “queer.” The characters are more diverse in nearly every aspect: race, gender identity, sexual identity, disabilities, and more.

There are some aspects of the original UK and the first US version that carry over: Mingus is clearly “the new Justin,” but with far more of a foundation than just “the new twink on the block.” Ruthie and Shar are “the new Mel and Lindsay,” but with changes that are far more than just skin deep. And of course, the nightclub at the center of the action has to be called Babylon. But there are also new characters with no parallel in the first two casts, like Julian, played by the wonderful Ryan O’Connell (Special), and the action diverges almost immediately from the previous plot points.

The originals were amazing for their time, but the new version breathes new life into the franchise and expands its horizons and hopefully its fan base. The writing is outstanding, with laughs and serious emotions spun together in an enchanting tale. Highly recommended, Must See.  

 

• IMDb page • Trailer • watch on peacock •

A League of Their Own (2022 series)

A League of Their Own, dir.

Jamie Babbit, 2022, USA, 90 minutes 💝 must see

Thu June 16, 2022, 6:30pm, Castro Theatre

Amazon Prime has a new series (premieres on Amazon Prime on August 12) based on the 1992 classic film about women playing profes­sional base­ball during World War II. Thirty years ago, the movie mostly played for laughs, leaving the lesbian undercur­rents mostly below the surface, but the reboot puts them (and the blatant racism of the day) front and center. Given that surviving participants of the real-life All-American Girls League say that a substantial majority — possibly as high as 80 to 90% — of the players were lesbian, it's an overdue recognition of something that is often whitewashed (along with the racism).

The main characters are actors, of course, but many of the players in the game sequences are real professional-caliber baseball players — except, of course, that in 2022 there is no women’s professional baseball league. (There are also actually fewer lesbian bars in the United States than in the 1940s!)

This series is obviously a must-see for lesbian sports enthusiasts, but I think most audiences will find it engaging; at turns funny, heartwarming, and cathartic; and on the whole a true gem of a television series, definitely binge-worthy.

• IMDb page • Trailer • available on Amazon Prime beginning August 12 •

A Luv Tale (the series)

A Luv Tale (the series), dir. Kay Oyegun, 2018, USA, 77m 💖
Thursday, June 27, 6:45 pm, Castro Theatre

A Luv Tale (the series)
creator Sidra Smith front center

In 1999, filmmaker Sidra Smith presented a 45-minute featurette called A Luv Tale, a story about a lesbian and a straight woman who are getting out of bad relation­ships. Nearly 20 years later, she returned to the idea, expanding it to a miniseries about four black lesbians in Harlem with their family, friends, and love lives interwoven with plenty of unexpected crossovers. There is intrigue, but all with a definite sense of class, with homes that most people in New York City would kill for, sort of a black Harlem verson of The L Word. These are proudly stories of black queer women, by black queer women, for everyone but especially for black queer women.

I go to Frameline to see stories about people I identify with, but also to see stories from and about people with very different life experiences, with a particular emphasis on queer women of color. A Luv Tale: The Series is funny, with plenty of laughs, and you should see it for that reason alone, but it is also important in terms of representation in front of and behind the camera. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb (2018 series) (1999 feature film) • YouTube channel • 1999 feature on Amazon • (distribution deal pending for the new series)

Paper Boys

Paper Boys, episodes 1 and 2, dir. Curtis Casella, 2015/2016 USA, 92 minutes 👏
Saturday, June 16, 1:30 p.m. Victoria • WORLD PREMIERE

Paper Boys

Daren (pictured) lives in San Francisco, where he and his fiancée Rebecca are planning an engagement party. Cole, Daren’s best friend, flies out from New York for the party, but also secretly to move to San Francisco, having lined up a couple of job interviews but no actual job nor a place to live. Cole bumps into an ex, Max, complicating the scene. Of course, there are several other complications to the plot, but I won’t give you any spoilers, except to say that Cole has a sketch pad that turns out to have magic superpowers.

The characters are interesting and complex, and the magic sketch pad certainly opens up interesting plot possibilities, of which we see a small sample in the first two episodes. The series is engaging and funny, well worth seeing, although I confess I’m not exactly in a hurry to add yet another pay site to my entertainment sources. Highly recommended.

• IMDB • official website • watch episodes 1 – 4 on Dekkoo (pay site) • YouTube channel (includes episode 1 and trailers for others) • Facebook & Tumblr: @PaperBoysTheSeries • Twitter: @_PaperBoys_ (note the underscores!) •

Unboxed

Unboxed, dir. Sam Matthews, 2018 Australia, 41 minutes 👏
played as part of the “Transblack & Unboxed” episodics program
Saturday, June 16, 11:00 a.m. Roxie
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Unboxed: Bailee-Rose

Filmmaker Sam Matthews traveled around Australia to chat with six gender-diverse artists (Bailee-Rose [pictured], Beau, Jacquie, Bleck, Teddy, and Stephanie) about their lives and their work, samples of which you can see on the official website. The theme of the art works is “unboxed,” in the sense of “thinking out­side the box,” or however each artist chose to interpret it. The artists and the art works are all pretty interesting and engaging. Well worth seeing, highly recommended.

Frameline 42 attendees will recognize Bleck from the festival trailer, specifically the part where a box of water un-pours itself over them.

• IMDb • official website (includes art works and a trailer video) • watch the series (link may not work outside Australia)

Transblack

Transblack, dir. Charmaine Ingram, 2018 Australia, 40 minutes 💖
played as part of the episodics program “Transblack & Unboxed”
Saturday, June 16, 11:00 a.m. Roxie
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Transblack

From Australia and “the other ABC” (Australian Broacasting Corporation) comes this documentary mini-series profiling four people, each of whom identifies as a transgender per­son of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island heritage. We meet Max, Nastasia, Jeremy (pictured), and Sammy, who tell their stories of finding their places in indigenous society and in the trans community. Each one is a compelling portrait and a look into a culture that even most Australians know little about. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb • official website (with links to watch each of the four episodes) • promo (Vimeo) •

Brown Girls (episodes 1 through 7)

Brown Girls, dir. Sam Bailey, 2017 USA, 7 episodes, total runtime 72 minutes 💖
part of Frameline’s new Episodics category
Sunday, June 18, 9:30 p.m., Elmwood Theatre in Berkeley
Tuesday, June 20, 7:00 p.m. Roxie Theatre

Brown Girls

So far, I’ve only seen Episode 4, which is in the “Fun in Girls Shorts” program this year, but on the strength of that snippet I have no hesitation in giving the whole series a MUST SEE. Okay, if you absolutely can’t make it to either festival screening, you can watch the whole series on vimeo, but this series should be especially fun to share with a full house. I’m schlepping to the East Bay for the screening on Sunday.

• watch on vimeo •