French writer/director Jérôme Reybaud’s feature debut that premiered at the Venice Film Festival during their Critics Week is an intriguing and extremely compelling love affair that stars France’s rather glorious countryside in this very unusual road movie. It is the story of two lovers, the younger one Pierre Thomas (a very convincing Pascal Cervo) who suddenly ups and mysterious leaves Paul (Arthur Igual) and their very comfortable life in Paris in the middle of night. He undertakes this unexplained odyssey driving into the heart of the country in his Alfa -Romeo guided solely by the Grindr app which he is using to pick up men so that he can have some meaningless sexual hookups. Within a day he is followed by Paul in a rental car who uses the same app to try and catch up with his fleeing lover.
Throughout the four days he is on the road Pierre Thomas has a some odd random encounters with people he encounters. There is the second rate singer (Fabienne Babe) he gives a lift to when her car breaks down on the way to another rather sad gig at a Seniors Assisted Living Home; the thief (Laetita Dosch) who he catches robbing him red-handed yet he allows to negotiate what she can keep ; his ex-English teacher (Nathalie Richard) who moved to the countryside to marry but now widowed and runs a bookstore. There is also a young handsome man (Mathieu Chevé) desperate to leave his small country town and after he has sex with Pierre Thomas pleads with him to be taken back to Paris ; and the ‘straight” traveling salesman (Bertrand Nadler) so eager to test drive Pierre Thomas’s Alfa Romeo that he almost agrees to make out with him too.
The connecting factor to them all is an overwhelming sense of unshakeable loneliness which seems to a motive for his eagerness to keep on with his meandering pointless even though it in turn, only makes him even more isolated. The one time he seeks some sort of advice/support is when he pulls the car over to the side of the road and phones his actress godmother (a wonderful cameo from the legendary (Liliane Montevecchi) whose rather dramatic take on life sounds like it has been lifted from some role that she has played on the stage.
All the time Paul is edging closer, en route he is having some odd encounters of his own, and as time passes it is far from obvious if when the two lovers meet up with each other, will they be able to resolve whatever the problem is that started this flight in the first place.
There are parts of the movie that provoke memories of Alain Guiraudie’s award winning Stranger By The Lake, but that might be more to do with fact that they both share a theme of anonymous sex. However even though Four Days in France runs for a hefty 137 minutes, consists of a series of unsatisfactory brief relationships and lacks a destination in every sense of the word, it is still a beguiling movie with somewhat surprising resonance. It was an exceptionally brave choice for Reybaud to make for his debut feature, but it was one that paid off handsomely in the end.
CMT and iHeartRadio host Cody Alan has come out as gay, via an Instagram post on Thursday.
In an open and heartfelt message, Alan wrote, “there is something I want to share with you. You see, I’m gay. This is not a choice I made, but something I’ve known about myself my whole life.”
Alan spoke with People Magazine about his struggle to finally come out publicly, doing so at the age of 44.
“Though my TV or my radio persona was always that of a happy guy, there was this underlying ache inside of me for years, so I decided either I was gonna do something about it, or I was gonna live with this layer of misery underneath that happy face on the TV,” he said.
“Once I realized it was okay to accept the truth, that it wasn’t my choice, it was a lot easier to start figuring out where to go with my life next,” he continued. “I’ve wanted to share this part of my life, but I now have gotten to the point where it just feels right, and I’m at peace with where I am enough to be able to express it.”
“I struggled with my sexuality starting at a very young age,” he said. “I remember having distinct feelings early in my life. I knew this about myself, and I had a really hard time dealing with it. I was so ashamed of who I was.”
Alan got married at the age of 24 and started a family. He has two children, now 18 and 14, with his ex-wife.
“I felt like getting married was what I was supposed to do. It’s what everyone wanted me to do, and I felt, somehow, like maybe that’s what would make me straight — and obviously that’s not how it works! But I dreamed of that family, which I now have.”
He expressed what he was feeling and going through to his wife ten years ago, and they decided that they couldn’t allow the marriage to continue.
“Everyone needs to give 100 percent of their heart for a true, committed relationship,” Alan said. “But ultimately, my ex and I knew there was no way that could ever happen.”
He began coming out to his close friends and family, and was met with support.
“You realize very quickly that people are very loving and accepting and supportive. And you feel like it’s good for you to share that most sincere truth about you.”
Alan is now in a relationship with an occupational therapist, named Michael Smith.
“He’s an amazing person — incredibly strong and confident and loving — and he’s really helped me face these battles,” Alan said. “He’s already battled so much of what I’ve been or am going through, so his strength has boosted my own confidence.”
As for why he felt it important to come out to the fans, the South Carolina native said he wants to be a change maker.
“I would like to be a voice that can speak to people who are facing challenges that we all face, for struggles that we all come across, because we’re all going through something. To be able to say: There is life, and you can find it, and take steps to improve yourself based on what you know,” he said. “If I could be someone who’s vocal about facing struggles and overcoming them, I’d like to be.”
“Even if it’s just one person that hears it and says, ‘I like country music and maybe I’m not so different after all.’ There’s some person out there who’s loving country music and thinks they don’t fit in, and that’s not true: You do fit in here, and there’s a place for people who are different.
For those who enjoy a mix of romance with their mysteries (or is it the other way around?), here are ten of my favorite lesbian sleuths. One characteristic that these series have in common is mature protagonists, although some of the first books begin when they are young. From P.I, FBI, police women, and reporters to a translator and a coffee shop owner, all these lesbians have become friends who I want to follow in future books.
Barbara Wilson’s Cassandra Reilly series are much more sleuthing than romancing, and the twists and turns between schemes and mistaken genders add to the laugh-out-loud humor. Each one is part travelogue as lesbian translator Cass travels the world and maneuvers between old and new girlfriends in her attempt to help friends. Co-founder of Seal Press, Wilson changed her name to Barbara Sjoholm in 2000. These endearing books were published between 1993 and 2000.
Gaudi Afternoon
Trouble in Transylvania
The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman: and Other Adventures with Cassandra Reilly
The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists
Elizabeth Sims’ protagonist Lillian Byrd is a reporter based in Detroit who is continually involved in huge mistakes of her own making. While Byrd fails to keep any long-term relationships, her love liaisons follow her as she frequently finds herself in a mess while summersaulting through funny, suspenseful, and sometimes gritty adventures. Plots in these page-turners are unpredictable, and the quirky well-developed characters go in unexpected directions. Sims is working on her fifth book, Left Field, featuring women’s softball.
Holy Hell
Damn Straight
Lucky Stiff
Easy Street
Erica Abbott partners Internal Affairs investigator CJ St. Clair, both personally and professionally, with Captain Alex Ryan. As a blond, gorgeous southern femme, CJ is a striking contrast to her dark, handsome love interest. No matter how many times this description has been used, Abbott manages to escape the predictable with very different voices and charm for each of them. Set in Colfax, Colorado, the Alex & CJ series, uses fast-paced plotting, sometimes exaggerated, as the two lesbians battle near-death disasters in shootouts while rushing to uncover a mysterious evil presence that could permanently separate the two of them.
Fragmentary Blue
Certain Dark Things
Acquainted with the Night
Jessie Chandler’s caper mystery series features Minnesota coffee shop owner Shay O’Hanlon who not only gets her friends out of trouble but also saves her badge-wearing lover, JT Bordeaux. The plots feature classic character types and the reversal of the protagonist getting her cop girlfriend out of trouble. Frothy and bubbly, this series is the lightest of the ten.
Bingo Barge Murder
Hide and Snake Murder
Pickle in the Middle Murder
Chip Off the Ice Block Murder
Lori Lake’sGun series begins with police patrol officer Dez Reilly saving Jaylynn Savage and her housemate Sara from rape and ends with the two stumbling through fire to finally be together. In between, the two struggle with personal and professional issues to be together as reserved Dez slowly drops her walls to let in love. With excellent pacing and foreshadowing, the strings of the plots and characters comfortably flow to completion in both the exciting police work and the characters’ development. Lake’s flawed characters are honest and believable, and the relationship is sweet as Jay believes that Dez is the same woman who has been protecting her since she was a child battling bad dreams. The fifth in the series, Gunpoint is projected for this winter.
Gun Shy
Under the Gun
Have Gun We’ll Travel
Jump the Gun
Lynn Ames’ Kate and Jay series covers several years between the time that TV reporter Katherine Kyle and news magazine writer Jamison “Jay” Parker first find each other in college only to lose and find each other through career changes and dangerous political conspiracies. The problem-solving within the power structure including politicians, espionage, and secret paramilitary organizations depicts the abilities of strong female role models. Especially notable are the excellent sense of setting, especially from the outdoor activities, and the fresh characterizations delineated through their behaviors. Each book brings in new characters to supplement the existing ones.
The Price of Fame
The Cost of Commitment
The Value of Valor
M. Aguilar’s Shana Niguel series features a private investigator and one-time FBI Agent who solves crimes with uninvited nudges (intuitions) and revelations. Complicated plotting leaves no loose ends as Niguel encounters rancher Kate Wolf, the women she learns to love. The humor of the series is complemented by captivating characters including her cohorts, madcap friend Guadalupe and supportive Aunt Grace as they move into different settings.
Chloe’s Heart
Double legacy
Circle Game
Loves you, Loves Me knot
E. Bradshaw’s FBI Special Agent Rainey Bell takes a leave from her job as a behavioral analyst after she is almost killed by a close friend from her childhood who turns out to be a serial killer. Her new job is her father’s bail bond business with Mackie, her dad’s best friend, as partner and Ernie as office manager. The three very different personalities spark the plotting, and Katie, the widow of Bell’s attacker and Rainey’s love interest, adds to the mix. Through Rainey’s family relationships and her relationship with Katie, the psychologically damaged protagonist slowly recovers from past evil despite her current job’s danger. Bradshaw’s plotting comes from an early fascination with true crime novels followed by an interest in the science of people who profile serial killers.
Rainey Days
Rainey Nights
Rainey Season
Colde and Rainey
Rose Beecham, Jennifer Fulton’s pseudonym, has fashioned a tough, take-charge FBI agent, Jude Devine, who lives and works in the emptiness and desolation of the Four Corners area of southeastern Utah. Posing as a sheriff’s deputy who investigates white supremacists, she is accompanied by her naive side-kick Tully, her wise Native American friend Eddie, and her on-and-mostly-off again lover Dr. Mercy Westmoreland. The author skillfully captures the bareness and desolation of the area and provides an insightful look at cults and extreme groups who band together in this unwelcoming country.
Grave Silence
Sleep of Reason
A Place of Exile
Sonje Jones’ Detective series involves Cornelia Osgood (Oz to her friends), a hard-boiled P.I. who jumps into one fine mess after the other chasing bad guys and women until she gets caught by her best friend, Abby O’Leary. Misunderstanding and trust issues separate them, and the plotting moves back and forth between Oz’s attempts to solve crimes and regain her girlfriend. In the opinionated, tough tone of Oz’s first-person narrative, she overrides and manipulates everyone around her.
“I’m honored and grateful,” author Jake Biondi said about his Boystown book series being included in the BookLikes.com “Best of 2016” book list. With an average customer rating of five stars, the “I’m honored and grateful,” author Jake Biondi said about his “I’m honored and grateful,” author Jake Biondi said about his Boystown book series being included in the BookLikes.com “Best of 2016” book list. With an average customer rating of five stars, the Boystown series continues to receive the highest possible rating on Amazon.com as well.
“I must say that this series just gets better and better,” wrote Marco Manganiello, founder of BookLikes.com. “I have been glued to my Kindle all week. Jake Biondi can’t write the next book fast enough.”
The Boystown series currently contains six books, the most recent of which was released Dec. 12, 2016. “It’s finally here and I couldn’t be more excited,” Biondi said of Boystown Season Six. “The fans’ wait is over and they can now discover what happened to their favorite Boystown characters whose lives were hanging in the balance at the end of the fifth book.”
“Being included in Marco Manganiello’s list of the best books of 2016 is a phenomenal honor and a great way to end a year that has been very good for Boystown.” Not only did 2016 see the release of two new books in the Boystown series, but it also continued the series’ trend of five-star reviews on Amazon.com.
“Jake Biondi is one of the most masterful writers of fiction of our time,” said Roger Ward in his review of the Boystown series. “The saga is told masterfully through several subplots which include unforeseen twists and turns that will leave the reader stunned and speechless.”
The Boystown book covers feature a group of models known as the “Boystown boys.” Created by designer/photographer James Franklin, each book cover showcases several of the famous models. Sean Zevran appears on the cover of Boystown Season Six. “The Boystown series adds life to a genre of literature that has been waning over the last few years,” said Zevran. “I see the potential for much more to come and I’m honored to be one of the faces of the series. Jake Biondi, myself, and the rest of the Boystown team have developed a phenomenal partnership and are planning to go very far with it!”
The introduction of the Boystown series’ first transgender character also occurred in 2016. Musician and YouTube sensation Skylar Kergil, who appears in the sixth book, said, “Jake Biondi’s inclusion of a trans masculine character, Ethan, puts this book on a ground-breaking level. The inclusion of alternative gender identities and diverse bodies allows us, the readers, to also explore our own thoughts about these sweeping, universal issues we all experience: love, identity, and passion.”
Biondi added, “I regularly receive notes from fans who connect with the characters and want to know what the future holds for them. The broad appeal of the Boystown series is incredible. Boystown has a really diverse audience and an equally diverse cast of characters.”
Xfinity has launched a new range of content for LGBT viewers.
Named the Xfinity LGBT Film & TV Collection the content will be a community-driven library of over 800+ titles featuring LGBT characters and storylines, with new content incorporated weekly.
Launching the service, Friday Jean-Claire Fitschen, executive director, Multicultural Services at Xfinity said, “We are proud the collection provides a home for some of the community’s most important and unique stories. Our customers can easily access the Xfinity LGBT Film & TV Collection both On Demand and at www.Xfinity.com/LGBT. X1 users can also search and discover the entire catalog by simply speaking “LGBT” into the X1 voice remote.”
“The Xfinity LGBT Film & TV Collection includes Love Stories, Coming Out Stories, Inspirational Stories, Documentaries, International and Award Winners and while not strictly LGBTQ, we also have the always-enjoyable Cult Classics,” continued Fitschen. “There is much more to enjoy, for example, the Strong Women collection was added at the request of our customers and has rapidly become one of our top performing categories.
“Growing up with friends and family who lived the majority of their lives in the closet afraid to come out, telling these stories means a tremendous amount to me personally. For years, I witnessed those closest to me unable to work and live in the world in their true, authentic selves, much less turn on the television or go to the movies and find positive representations of LGBT people on the screen. The availability of diverse stories with LGBT representation has fostered deeper understanding within my own family of the experiences and events that have shaped our lives.”
Asia Kate Dillon has become one of the first non-binary gender identifying actors to be cast on mainstream TV. Dillon has been cast on Showtime’s Billions as Taylor, an intern at Axe Capital, in one of the first non-binary gender roles ever to be broadcast. Dillon uses the singular they pronoun for non-binary gender identification.
In addition to Billions, they can be seen playing Brandy Epps in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.
“As someone who is non-binary gender identifying, I feel a particular responsibility to portray members of my community on stage and on screen, not only as fully fleshed-out characters who are integral to the plot, but as characters whose gender identity is just one of many parts that make up the whole person,” Dillon told The Huffington Post.
Born and raised in Ithaca, New York, Dillon studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City, graduating from the Studio Program. They then returned to Ithaca to complete the Meisner training program at The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca (Dillon began during their junior year of high school at age sixteen, the youngest student ever admitted to the class). As an active alumni Dillon not only acted with the theater company, but also served as a teaching assistant and stage manager.
In 2011 Dillon took on the titular role of Rachel Corrie in My Name is Rachel Corrie. This role required Dillon to memorize over thirty monologues and play over seven alternate characters over the course of the one person show, which received rave reviews calling Dillon “absolutely magnetic.”
Dillon returned to New York City and was chosen from nearly one thousand actors to participate in a Workshop at The Flea Theater in Manhattan of fifty new plays by Tony and Academy award nominated and winning playwrights and directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar. This was followed by a featured role as Lucifer in The Mysteries, also directed by Iskandar. Following The Mysteries, Dillon traveled to Washington, D.C. to perform in The Tempest at The Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Don’t be fooled by the deceptive title of this movie which implies it is just another teenage romp, as Craig Boreham’s feature film debut, is one of the most powerful edgy LGBT dramas to come out of Australia for some years. It’s hard not to compare it with Ana Kokkinos’s 1998 award-winning break-out hit ‘Head On‘, not just because of its gritty storyline but the fact that it also centered in a immigrant Greek/Australian family.
Miklós (Miles Szanto) is a very frustrated and confused 17 year old. He is secretly in love with his best friend Dan (Daniel Webber), and perpetually as horny as hell, and even spies on his elder brother Tomi (Nadim Kobeissi) masturbating. When he is caught, Tomi flees the house in anger with Miklós in hot pursuit, which ends in a tragic car accident.
His parents blame Miklós for the death of their favorite son, and Tomi’s heavily pregnant girlfriend Annuska (Shari Sebbens) seeing Miklós floundering, wants him to replace Tomi in her life. Then to make matters even more complicated and depressing for him, Dan starts dating a new girlfriend. Miklós bitterly resents the fact that she has usurped him in Dan’s affections, and may now in fact put the boys long-held plan to leave town in a long trip together in jeopardy.
After a particularly bad fight with his parents Miklós is picked up by a couple of bad eggs who lure him back to their apartment for some drugs and internet sex. He stops just in time, but ends up back at the apartment again on another occasion when matters get worse at home. This time he participates.
When Miklós finally comes to terms with his sexuality and gets angry enough to confront Dan about his feelings, it results in a brutal scene which like a lot of the story has an inevitability about it, but is nethertheless still quite shocking to witness.
This portrayal of a frightened teenager feeling responsible for his sibling’s death and for his parents own unhappiness and scared out of his wits of losing his one close friend makes for a compelling powerful drama. His struggle with his identity is very real indeed, and faced with what he conceived as potential obstacles, it is often a fine line whether he will overcome them and survive or not.
Santos gives a pitch-perfect performance with an impassioned intensity as the anguished Miklós that helps set this movie apart from most in this genre. Even with the predictability of most of the story line, he still added a freshness and a constant element of surprise in his portrayal that showed a remarkable maturity in one so young.
Writer/director Boreham cut his teeth on a whole string of very well received LGBT short films which obviously proved good groundwork as it resulted in this exceptional emotionally-charged feature which is sure to be a big hit for audiences everywhere.
The 2017 Screen Actors Guild of America Award nominations announced today are filled with plenty out performers and LGBTI characters.
The acclaimed drama Moonlight continued its awards season splash by getting a nod in the coveted Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture category which is SAG’s equivalent of best picture.
Cast members Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali were nominated in supporting acting categories.
Jim Parsons got one of his two SAG nominations as part of the cast of Hidden Figures which competes against the casts of Moonlight, Captain Fanastic, Fences, and Manchester by the Sea.
The rest of the LGBTI attention is in the television categories.
Lily Tomlin, who will already be presented with SAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award on 29 January, has been nominated for lead actress in a comedy for her Netflix series Grace & Frankie.
Her co-star Jane Fonda is also nominated in the category as is Orange is the New Black star Uzo Aduba who plays the lesbian character of Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren.
Bisexual actress Sarah Paulson will compete in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series category for her role as Marcia Clark in American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson.
In the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series category, out actor Tituss Burgess is nominated for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
His competition includes Jeffrey Tambor who is once again nominated for his performance as transgender female Maura Pfefferman in Transparent.
The other out nominees are peppered throughout the ensemble acting categories.
They include Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) and Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black) for comedy ensemble and Westworld’s Evan Rachel Wood in the category of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
Three 14-year-old girls who are inseparable best friends are always mercilessly picked on by all the bullies at their school. Considered outsiders by their classmates, Kim (Tuva Jagell0), Momo (Louise Nyvall) and Bella (Wilma Holm) the girls very much keep to themselves. One day Bella finds a very strange looking seed that she plants to discover that it grows into a flower overnight. Completely shocked, the rather curious girls randomly decided to taste the plants sap thinking it may posses some magical qualities. They are right, and after a trance like sequence, they wake up to find out they are now boys complete with male genitals (‘it looks like a baby bird‘ says a startled Bella).
Emboldened they end up hanging out unrecognized with their classmates and are not only are they asked to join a football match, but are also invited to a party. They wake up next morning to find that their bodies are back to being female, but what has changed is their perspective on how they interact with others at school. Both Bella and Momo like the novelty of experiencing their lives as boys and want to try again, as does Kim but she becomes much serious about the whole transformation, believing that as she is much happier as a boy, that this is her real identity.
As her male counterpart, Kim (Emrik Öhlander) quickly forms a very close connection with small-time thief Tony (Mandus Berg) as he introduces ‘him’ to his life in the margins robbing a store and taking a joy-ride in the car. Kim develops a serious crush on Tony, and although it is not reciprocated it is obvious that Tony has feelings for ‘him’ too even though he does not want to acknowledge them. At the same time Moma professes her love for Kim and declares that she will either be a boy or girl whichever makes Kim happiest. That completely confuses Kim, and puts their friendship at risk.
This rather good Swedish movie written and directed by Alexandra-Theresa Keining based on an award-winning novel by Jessica Schiefauer puts a new slant on the whole body-transfer genre with its gendergueer aspect that adds an intriguing dimension to the story. A tad over-long at 106 min, it is nevertheless a compelling and somewhat gritty tale that includes some of the aspects that troubled teens have to deal today, such as sexual consent and even suicide. Highly recommended.
Jehri Jones is a most remarkably resilient women. The outwardly cheery disposition of this 74 year-old-transgender Mississippi native is because she is quick to dismiss the struggle of her journey to establish and accept her own identity which didn’t start until she was in her 40’s, and was not completed until she could finally afford the gender alignment surgery when she was in her 60’s. She was estranged from her four sons when their very religious mother banned Jehri from their lives the moment she started her transitioning.
Now that her ex-spouse has died, Jehri has persuaded two of the adult sons to move in to her double-wide trailer home, and they are all making a concerted effort to re-establish their relationships. Her rather dour sons clearly lack Jehri’s joie de vivre, but when 37 year old Brad finally comes out as gay, he starts to sheds the anger and resentment of Jehri having the confidence and resolve that he lacks. Trevor his sibling leads a very restricted home-bound life as he suffered some sort of brain damage at birth, but he is at least better off than his fraternal twin Trent who is schizophrenic and lives in an institution.
Jehri’s fourth son Wade has two teenage children who usually hang out with Jehri after school whilst he is still at work. He professes his reluctance to share with them the fact that their Grandmother was once their Grandfather, but when he does eventually broach the subject, his kids accept the news with alacrity and are not fazed at all.
As part of her ongoing battle to get people in this poor and very conservative Bible Belt Country to accept her for who she is, Jehri insists on attending services in her strict Baptist church. When she does face rejection like at the funeral service of her late sister, Jehri shows the vulnerable side that she normally works so hard at suppressing.
This charismatic woman loves to dress with flair in a youthful style that shows off her slender figure which both belies her age and makes her stand out in the crowd. What is also very noticeable is that the family, who never seem to have a dull moment, may have limited financial means but they keep their trailer home and their yard immaculately and with a real sense of pride.
What strikes you most however in this compelling new documentary from Moby Longinotto, is the way that this very disjointed group strive to be as open and as honest as their abilities will allow in order for them to become a real family at last. They soon got over using different pronouns when they talked about their father, and it seems likely that they will somehow manage the rest of the changes together soon.
Jehri’s view on life is so uplifting and completely positive that it is a sheer joy, and something of a refreshing change, to watch her story being told so effectively and with the real compassion that it so deserves.