Take the conventions of the American teen movie, transpose them to Los Angeles’s freaky fringes, anchor them in an unapologetic vision of sexual fluidity and top it all off with heavy doses of Gen X disillusionment, gonzo violence and hallucinogenic surrealism, and you’ll end up with something like these audacious transgressions from New Queer Cinema renegade Gregg Araki.
Gleefully mixing slacker irony with raw sincerity, Godardian cool with punk scuzz, the savagely subversive, hormone-fueled films that make up Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy pushed 1990s indie cinema into bold new aesthetic realms, while giving blistering expression to adolescent rage and libidinal desire.
A delirious mix of punk nihilism and deadpan irony, the first film in Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy puts an audaciously queer spin on Jean-Luc Godard’s classic Masculin feminin. Across fifteen jagged episodes, Totally F***ed Up plunges headlong into the lives of a group of queer, disaffected Los Angeles teenagers who form a kind of makeshift family as they navigate desire and heartbreak, societal and familial rejection and the alienation of growing up gay in an era of relentless moralizing. Both a defiantly raw anthem of outsider-hood and a furious reckoning with all-American homophobia, Araki’s answer to the 1980s teen comedy captures youthful angst with an immediacy that still bruises.
Gregg Araki takes a road trip to hell in this wild, meth-and-fast-food-fueled joyride through the margins of a menacing American wasteland. When they inadvertently link up with a dangerously alluring drifter (Johnathon Schaech), a chilled-out Cali bro (James Duval) and his spiky, foulmouthed girlfriend (Rose McGowan) find themselves on an increasingly violent, kinky and darkly comic journey in which erotic tensions rise along with the body count. Working with a significant budget for the first time, Araki employs boldly stylized lighting and art direction to create a heightened sense of unreality in a shocking, shoegaze-soundtracked chronicle of young lives careening toward oblivion.
You can practically smell the pheromones wafting off this kaleidoscopic odyssey, which finds director Gregg Araki crossing soap-operatic elements with blasts of science fiction, indie-kid cool and shiny pop-art subversion. On the day when the world is foretold to end, a group of terminally horny, disillusioned, zonked-out teens in Los Angeles see their lives explode in a glitter bomb of sex, death and alien invasion. Bisexual lust, vaporizing Valley girls, sinister televangelists, nipple-ring S&M, murder by Campbell’s-soup can – Araki folds it all into an anarchic orgy that brings his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy to an explosively caustic close.
“GRABS YOU BY THE HEART AND DOESN’T LET GO” – The Observer
“AN ENORMOUSLY SATISFYING AND AFFECTING EXPERIENCE” – The Guardian
“A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF LOVE” – Total Film
“HEARTFELT AND UNFORGETTABLE” – The Hollywood Reporter
“A SUBLIME MASTERPIECE” – The Wrap
A metaphysical exploration of queer love and loneliness, familial grief and healing, All of Us Strangers is a delicate but audacious chamber drama confirms director Andrew Haigh‘s gift for bringing complicated emotions to the screen.
Isolated in a seemingly empty new high-rise, London screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) finds his solitary existence upended when he begins a passionate romance with the impulsive Harry (Paul Mescal), then reconnects with his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) in a reunion that pushes beyond the limits of time and space.
Putting a deeply personal imprint on a novel by Japanese writer Taichi Yamada, Haigh reaches cosmic heights while never losing sight of the story’s achingly human heart.
This new special edition Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection includes amazing special features – a conversation between director Andrew Haigh and author and critic Michael Koresky, an interview with cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay, behind-the-scenes documentaries and featurettes, an essay by film critic Guy Lodge and more.
Watch the trailer for All of Us Strangers below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film is available on Blu-ray starting this week at TLAgay.
Nathan Stewart-Jarret delivers an extraordinary performance in the new gay revenge thriller Femme, playing a celebrated London drag artist named Jules.
One night after a show, Jules steps out to get some cigarettes and ends up in a violent clash with a homophobic stranger played by the equally electrifying George MacKay.
Months later, out of drag, Jules recognizes his foe in a gay sauna. His inexplicable attraction to the repressed brute soon presents the opportunity for a slow and methodical revenge.
With a constant undercurrent of danger, Jules’s pursuit of humiliation and the outing of his assailant turns soon becomes a thrilling, morally ambiguous study of power and deception.
Sexually charged, riddled with tension and featuring two unforgettably daring performances from both lead actors (who shared the “Best Joint Lead Performance” prize at the British Independent Film Awards) Femme offers a daring modern queer take on the classic film noir genre.
Watch the trailer for Femme below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film is currently available on Blu-ray at TLAgay.
Wanted by all but truly known by none, hustler and actor Karl Forest was France’s first gay porn superstar – but who was he really? American filmmaker Wallace Potts sought to answer that question with the truly stunning 1979 docu-fantasy portrait Le Beau Mec.
Mixing candid interviews with Forest and rare footage of his live show (choreographed by none other than Rudolf Nureyev) and highly stylized recreations of his past exploits courtesy of acclaimed cinematographers Francois About (Equation to an Unknown) and Academy Award winner Nestor Almendros (Days of Heaven), Le Beau Mec is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of gay self-creation.
Long available only through murky VHS transfers, this beloved classic of gay erotica has been newly restored in 4K from its original 16mm film elements.
In the special features included in this amazing new collector’s edition, cinematographer François About talks about Le Beau Mec with historian Hervé Joseph Lebrun. There’s also an interview with Tommy Potts, brother of filmmaker Wallace Potts, along with print materials, photo galleries, trailers and more.
Check out the artwork for the new edition of Le Beau Mec below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray at TLAgay starting November 12th.
From Mauro Carvalho (who co-directed the films About Us and Cousins with collaborator Thiago Cazado), the provocative new gay thriller The Senator follows the tension that ensues from a dangerous illicit relationship.
Renan is the secret gay lover of conservative Brazilian Senator Arthur Alencar, whose popularity has risen while preaching about the importance of traditional family values on television.
Already conflicted, Renan’s predicament intensifies when he starts falling in love with Victor, a journalist determined to expose the senator’s hypocritical life.
While Renan grapples with the dilemma of following his feelings or remaining loyal to the senator, Victor delves deeper into the investigation. Tension escalates as Victor approaches the uncomfortable truth putting Renan in a position of definitive choice.
Watch the trailer for The Senator below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film will be available on DVD and VOD at TLAgay starting September 24th.
“SOULFUL AND OBSERVANT. A GRIPPING WONDER” – Los Angeles Times
“PROVOCATIVE, EXPLICIT AND ULTIMATELY TENDER” – IndieWire
“AN INTRIGUING EXPLORATION OF SEX, IDENTITY, RESTRAINT AND ABANDON” – Screen Daily
“PIERCING… SEXY… WITH A STIRRING FINISH THAT WON’T BE EASILY FORGOTTEN” – Screen Rant
“A FASCINATING SEXUAL JOURNEY ABOUT ACCEPTING ALL FACETS OF OURSELVES” – The Mercury News
“THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED AND HOTTEST QUEER FILM OF THE YEAR” – Brazilian Press
In the acclaimed queer drama Sebastian, we follow Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform.
Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories, and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach. As Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of a delicately balanced double-life, he must reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a writer’s tool in the quest for the ultimate sense of first-hand authenticity – or whether something more is at stake.
From Finnish-British writer/director Mikko Mäkelä, Sebastian is a thoughtful and deeply provocative drama about one man who uses both his body and his mind to find his place in the world.
Watch the trailer for Sebastian below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film will be available on DVD starting October 1st at TLAgay.
A charming, sun-splashed gay friendship comedy from director Zacharias Mavroeidis, The Summer with Carmen is set at a nude beach near Athens. There, best friends Demosthenes (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) and Nikitas (Andreas Labropoulos) begin to brainstorm ideas for a screenplay based on the colorful events of a previous summer.
Nikitas, who fancies himself the next Xavier Dolan, and Demos, who dreams of a Hemsworth brother playing him, take their memories and blends their intersecting narratives – as memory collides with fantasy and art rubs up against truth.
With a fresh, metatextual perspective on storytelling, this ‘film within a film’ shifts timelines while delivering a funny and poignant look at gay relationships, friendships, intimacy and pet ownership.
Watch the trailer for The Summer with Carmen below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film will be available on DVD at TLAgay starting October 15th.
The People’s Joker, a revolutionary DIY parody film and hilarious reimagining of the classic autobiographical coming-of-age story, follows an unconfident, closeted trans girl as she moves to Gotham City to make it big as a comedian by joining the cast of UCB Live – a government-sanctioned late night sketch show in a world where comedy has been outlawed.
As mainstream success eludes our heroine, leading her to unite with a ragtag team of rejects, misfits and a certain love interest named Mister J, “Joker the Harlequin” is born again as a confident (and psychotic) joker on a collision course with the city’s fascist caped crusader.
Vats of feminizing chemicals, sexy cartoon interludes, scarecrow psychiatrists, CGI Lorne Michaels and psychedelic gender dysphoria all play supporting roles. Comedy world veterans like Scott Aukerman, Tim Heidecker, Maria Bamford, Robert Wuhl and Bob Odenkirk also pop up in supporting roles.
Helmed by writer, director, editor and star Vera Drew, using her own life experiences as a basis for the film, The People’s Joker is a film that we’re thrilled has managed to see the light of day. Though it premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, planned subsequent screenings of the film were canceled due to “rights issues.” According to the filmmaker, “a media conglomerate” sent her “an angry letter (misreported as a ‘cease and desist’) pressuring to not screen” shortly before the premiere.
Despite it’s troubled journey to audiences (and it’s liberal use of certain well-known intellectual property), The People’s Joker offers up a deliriously funny and deeply twisted personal journey that’s as much documentary as it is parody.
Watch the trailer for The People’s Joker below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray starting August 13th.
In the queer coming-of-age comedy The Exploding Boy, misanthropic teenager Alex Silver (Parris Bates) dreams of becoming the next Jim Henson. Unfortunately, his overbearing father (Bradley Thomas Stephens) is constantly berating and belittling him for his unique pursuits.
School, where Alex finds himself bullied and ostracized, is no better. Everything changes, however, when he meets Julius (Daniel Q. Taylor), a charismatic transfer student. With upbeat optimism, Julius slowly teaches Alex how to become a better version of himself… and an endearing romance soon develops.
Watch the trailer for The Exploding Boy below and click here to pre-order your copy. The film is available now on-demand and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray at TLAgay starting August 20th.
Originally released in 1996, the sensual gay classic Lilies tells an emotionally intense, suspense-laden tale of love, betrayal and revenge in which one man’s past comes back to haunt him.
Set in a Quebec prison in 1952, the film follows local bishop Jean Bilodeau (Marcel Sabourin), who has been brought to the prison to hear the confession of Simon Doucet (Aubert Pallascio), a dying inmate. But Doucet, in fact, has a very different revelation for Bilodeau: he has enlisted his fellow inmates to stage a play set in 1912, when Bilodeau and Doucet were childhood friends.
For the majority of the film, we watch as the play is presented by the inmates. What we see is a recreation of events from forty years earlier, when Bilodeau and Doucet (played as young men by Matthew Ferguson and Jason Cadieux) were both coming to terms with their homosexuality and found themselves locked in a love triangle with another boy, the beautiful Vallier (Danny Gilmore).
Described by director John Greyson as an homage to both Jean Genet and Federico Fellini, Lilies screened at numerous festivals during the mid-90s, including Sundance, and received major critical acclaim. It was nominated for 14 Genie Awards (Canada’s version of the Oscars), winning four of them, including Best Picture.
Long unavailable on home media, this fascinating gay classic has been recently restored in 4K for a special edition new Blu-ray release from Strand Releasing. This brand-new collector’s item also includes a new interview with the director about the film and its restoration.
Watch the trailer for Lilies below and click here to pre-order your copy. The new Blu-ray will be available starting July 23rd at TLAgay.
