Welcome back to the mainstream, gay cinema!

With Milk scoring an astonishing 8 Oscar nominations, gay cinema has returned to the mainstream in a very big way. Milk’s nominations include Best Picture, Best Director (for the openly-gay Gus Van Sant) and Best Actor (for Sean Penn). Sean has just nabbed the Screen Actor’s Guild award for playing the gay American politician Harvey Milk, which probably means he stands a good chance at the Oscars.

The last time the Oscars recognized a gay film with as many as 8 nominations was 3 years ago. The film was – you guessed it – BrokebackMountain .And although Heath Ledger was not named Best Actor, the statuette did go to another actor playing a gay role – Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.

Speaking of Phillip, the excellent thespian returns to the screen this week as a priest accused of molesting a boy in Doubt. Once again, he’s received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor – even though he is not considered a frontrunner. The film is written and directed by the gay-friendly John Patrick Shanley, who is nominated for his script.

If all this gayness isn’t enough for you, the Fann Wong-Christopher Lee romantic comedy The Wedding Game (which opened last Friday) also features a (faux-)gay character played by Taiwanese actor Chen Jian Zhou aka Hei Ren. Most of director Ekachai Uekrongtham’s films like Pleasure Factory and Beautiful Boxer have featured gay characters, so we’ll not entirely surprised.

If we may say so, gay is fashionable at the movies once again. Let’s hope it stays that way in the year of the Ox. Happy viewing!

Doubt

Doubt is not an easy film to watch. But it is the only new film to watch this week.

Nominated for 5 Oscars, the story is set in a Catholic school in 1964 New York. The school principal (Meryl Streep) is a no-nonsense nun who doesn’t tolerate even the smallest transgressions among her students and staff. In contrast, the school priest (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a warm and jovial man who takes a more “progressive” view of Christianity.

The two, unsurprisingly, do not like each other. But things take a dive into hell when a new nun (Amy Adams) suspects Phillip of molesting a lonely altar boy (Joseph Foster). She reports this to Meryl, who is convinced that Phillip is guilty. He, however, insists otherwise.

Soon, the dispute extends beyond the issue of Phillip’s conduct to include male versus female superiority, conservative versus progressive religious values, suspicion versus proof, and gay versus straight sexuality.

Written and directed by the gay-friendly John Patrick Shanley (he’s not gay but has strongly supported the community), Doubt is a tightly-written and superbly-directed drama with powerhouse performances by two of LGBT community’s favorite actors.

Meryl Streep, whose onscreen personas have inspired generations of gay women and men, is excellent as the harsh and puritanical nun. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who’s played gay characters in several films such as Capote, Boogie Nights and Flawless, gives an exquisitely nuanced performance – one of his best ever. We would be remiss in our duties if we didn’t also mention Viola Davis, whose role as the altar boy’s mother is heartbreaking and unforgettable.

To wit, Doubt is the sort of compelling and intelligent drama that serious movie-goers wait for every year during the Oscar season. They won’t be disappointed.

If you’re a sucker for bridal magazines, then you’ll go goo-goo ga-ga over the stunning Vera Wang wedding dresses and the Tiffany ring that Kate Hudson wears in Bride Wars. Unfortunately, they’re also among the few interesting things you could actually find in this hopelessly lame chick flick.

Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play best friends who have always dreamed of having the perfect wedding held in June at New York’s renowned Plaza hotel. When their boyfriends propose to them at approximately the same time, they rush to book their wedding dates – only to be told that there is one slot available for June.

Best friends now turn into bitchy foes screaming and pulling each other’s hair out – as if there were no other good hotels in Manhattan…

Directed by Gary Winick (Lipstick Jungle), Bride Wars trots out all the typical scenes of girls sabotaging each other at the tanning booth, the beauty salon and the dance studio, using all-too-familiar gags of ultra-fattening biscuits, chocolates, etc – you get the picture.

At different points in the movie, the characters call each other “bitchy”, “obnoxious”, “pathetic”, “crazy” “basket cases”. But we can’t help but apply the same labels at this cheap and mean-spirited movie that largely depict women as shrill, shallow shrews.

The Wedding Game opened in the cinemas last Friday to compete against Love Matters and All’s Well End’s Well for the Chinese New Year crowd. And admittedly, it’s the best among the three. That’s not to say, however, that the comedy is actually good. In fact, it’s quite limp and unfunny most of the time, relying far too much on the star wattage of its lead actors to pull the story through.

Singapore’s biggest celebrity couple Fann Wong and Christopher Lee (who are scheduled to wed soon) play Singapore’s biggest celebrity couple who are scheduled to wed soon. But what the public doesn’t know is that their romance is a sham and the two stars actually can’t stand each other. The wedding plans were simply concocted by their ambitious managers (Alice Lau and Chen Jian Zhou) to generate buzz for their stars and seal lucrative endorsement deals.

Fann and Chris move in together to convince the public and the press of their growing commitment. At first, they struggle to put up appearances. But little by little, they start to see the sweet side of each other and eventually fall in love…

The premise begins interestingly enough, but quickly becomes stale and predictable. Few of the jokes are actually funny, and the fact that Christopher takes off his shirt a lot doesn’t do much good – he’s not exactly young, after all. Fann and Christopher are so well-known in the TV industry that they’ve attracted plenty of cameos by the likes of Quan Yifeng, Zhu Houren and Cassandra See. But the thrill of star-spotting dies quickly too, and you’re back with limp gags.

As a sidenote to LGBT readers, Taiwanese cutie Chen Jian Zhou plays Chris’ manager who looks and acts totally gay. But by the end of the movie, he announces that he’s straight. What a cop-out! The Wedding Game is strictly for fans of Fann and Chris.

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19th Melbourne Queer Film Festival

My Queer Valentin

I Love you Philip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris tells the true story of a conman who find love in a Texas jail-cell. Steven Russell is a married man whose many cons and exploits eventually land him in the clink. He ends up in a jail-cell with another man whom he ends up falling madly in love with. When this man is released from prison, Steven Russell does everything he can to escape from jail and reunite with his new flame.

Stars: Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor

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7th Q! Film Festival Indonesia

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22nd Singapore International Flim Festival

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