More movies

Monday night I went with the ever delightful Jase to see a couple more films at NewFest. We saw 29th and Gay and Mormor's Visit. I really liked Mormor's Visit, a sweet little film by Casper Andreas, about a gay man in NYC who is surprised by a visit from his little Swedish grandmother (the film is in English and Swedish), who has run away from her nursing home. This was a really lovely movie dealing with family and the desire for the freedom to be who you are. I really liked this and am interested to see what Andreas' next film will be like (Slutty Summer which opens at Cinema Village this weekend). Plus, Andreas is kind of a cutie . . .

29th and Gay was pretty good. It could have been a lot better with a little more money in the budget, but with luck this film will be well-received enough to ensure that the director's next work will be better funded. I thought the story was pretty good, a gay man dealing with turning 30 and living a life that is nothing like what he expected. The film was written by and starred James Vasquez (his character's name was James Sanchez); Carrie Preston directed.

This film suffered from some of the things you'd expect from a low budget film. Some of the acting was pretty uneven, there were problems in some places with lighting and sound, the editing was a little rough. I'm willing to cut some slack; it turns out that much of the film had to be reshot after a computer crash destroyed a lot of the footage (they talked about this in the Q&A section)

I also had problems with the story . . . some of it was a little too grounded in sitcom rather than life; I had the feeling that I'd seen a lot of it before and every plot "twist" was telegraphed way in advance. Plus I always have a problem with movies where the plain schlubby guy (with no offense intended to Mr. Vasquez) ends up with the really hot guy (in this case played by a really cute fella called Mike Doyle). I have yet to see that happen in real life . . . wait, that's not quite true. I have yet to see that happen in real life where money or some other kind of renumeration wasn't involved.

The roles of James' best friends were played by Nicole Marcks (as Roxy Hymen, gal pal and sounding board for James) and David McBean (as the super-arch Brandon Bouvier). I thought they were both terrific. I read in McBean's bio that he played Chicklet in a production of Psycho Beach Party. After seeing him in this show, I wish I could have seen him as Chicklet. I bet he was hilarious.

Anyway, this was a cute film and frankly a hell of a lot better than most of the dreck that falls under the catagory of 'gay cinema'. If it gets a broader release or comes to a festival near you, I'd suggest checking it out.

So in other news, I was watching Law & Order last night and saw a guy that I knew from grad school (well, I was in grad school; he was an undergrad at the time). It was odd. I'm getting used to seeing people I know on Law & Order . . . I mean every New York actor has been on the show at least once. But this was kind of unexpected. I was pretty amazed that I recognized him after ten years.

Let's see . . . what else? I'm catching up on Six Feet Under episodes. Um . . . I went to a charity event the other day at a Chelsea gallery (good swag: mostly CDs and such). I noticed Andres Serrano at the event; he's a big supporter of the charity. I was really blown away getting to see him. I think he's an amazing artist (his portraits are stunning). After that event, I went to another one at Crobar. Not the kind of place someone like me tends to go (as I understand, it's normally equal parts Paris Hilton ilk, poseurs and Jersey guidos). It was a beautiful club; large and open like Webster Hall, but tastefully decorated. Really nice.

Anyway, that's my life right now. I'm gearing up for my move next week . . . or rather ignoring my move next week until the last possible moment. I've got some theater in my future: Altar Boyz with Frank tonight, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Sweet Charity in a couple of weeks. Should be some good stuff.