Vera Drew (“The People’s Joker”)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
5. “Familiar Touch” (dir. Sarah Friedland; film pictured above)
This was so beautiful. My grandfather had dementia, and this was one of the most humanistic and real things I’ve ever seen to tackle it. Wept healing tears from start to finish. Gorgeous and stunning performance from Kathleen Chalfant. Crave and am in awe of this kind of cinema. Can’t wait to see what Sarah does next.
4. “The Serpent’s Skin” (dir. Alice Maio MacKay)
So gay, toxic, witchy, cunty, and cute. The lesbian “Buffy” story arc meets Gregg Araki and Kevin Smith. Alice’s best film to date.
3. “October Crow” (dir. Jack Haven)
The feel-good, heartwarming BDSM buddy comedy of the year. Just a slice of DIY heaven. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something this raw/unscripted/low-budget that is also just so fuckin’ … sweet. Like earnestly sweet. Nor have I ever seen kink and sex work portrayed so wholesomely. I am sorry to use that word, but I just can’t think of any other. It just removes any darkness or perversion from it, which only makes it feel more real and genuine in its portrayal of both. Like IDK man. Some of the sweetest/wholesome connections I — and so many people I know — have had with others have been in the context of kink or roleplay dynamics, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that genuinely portrayed in a movie.
And gosh…Alexandra McVicker and Peter Nolan Smith…ugh. I could have watched hours of them together on screen. Just so much chemistry. Cinematic alchemy, man. So much more than an odd couple pairing. Just soulmates. Their dynamic feels so tender yet scummy and also…safe? I don’t know.
It really took me back to the summer I worked with David Liebe Hart on “I Love David.” I was like 29, just starting hormones, so stoked to finally be directing something, trying to wrangle this crazy beautiful artist/spiritual giant, helping him remember to take care of himself, having him take care of me…he was the first one I came out to. This old man that I theoretically should have never been friends/collaborators with, but was always destined to. There’s something so special about the connections between a young artist and an old one. It’s like a cosmic and holy thing, and maybe I was projecting, but I just felt that watching James and “Bella” take care of each other in this movie.
Jack Haven is just a phenomenal artist, and I’ve been a fan for such a long time, and it was so cool to watch them completely unchained and letting this come together with pure intuition. This whole thing sprung from the fact that a.) Jack was neighbors with Peter, a poet/ex-bouncer who said, “You need to make a movie about me” and also had a fatal health condition, and b.) Alexandria moved to NYC. This is what art can be: pure inspiration guided by friendship and care. The film feels unscripted and loose, but in a way that only makes it feel truer and more sincerely impactful. It just feels like these glimpses into real life that you wouldn’t get from something more “polished.” The fact that this screening was preceded by Deja Spears’ docushort only added to that vibe.
Altogether, it just felt like two hours of home movies from another dimension. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie shot on iPhone since “Tangerine,” and it’s kind of fucking gorgeous to look at. The color. The frame rate. Not enough people are shooting cinema on their phones.
2. “Castration Movie Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds” (dir. Louise Weard)
Caught this movie while visiting NYC for a few days to work on prep for my next movie, so I’ve gotten 12 hours of sleep in three days, and words are pointless for art this good. Louise is building a masterpiece, and I am just so in awe of her. I was so nervous about what this one would be. From what Louise described to me in the lead-up to watching it, I worried this installment would lack the heart, relatability, and heart of the first, and this worry was quickly assuaged about 30 minutes into the five-hour epic.
At its core, this is a movie about how hard it is to get housing and emotional security as a trans woman, that feeling of “what now” when you reach a certain point in your transition, and how much ketamine and a lack of empathy are killing our fucking community. And yet with every inch of its heavy tone and more challenging pace, this one was funnier than part one. It was also scarier. It’s a horror movie.
You really feel the tagline of “a trans woman in trouble” during every frame of this film. The dread you feel is knowing that we’re watching a very real story about how queer “community” is useless in a town polluted by patriarchy, white supremacy, and sex trafficking. About how sometimes, in order to get closer to authenticity, we need to strip away the identity that’s there. About how often we eat our own…it’s no mistake (nor small miracle) that in a movie also about our hyper-online/quick-to-moralize-and-ostracize community… that the most humanized characters in this are played by stars Betsey Brown and Peter Vack…that one of the most cruel and downright frightening trans characters in this (played by the brilliant Alex McVicker) is the one I felt the most for when the psychotic cult finally combusted…that the MOST “trans movie™️” arc this film has is basically “what if ‘After Hours’ was about a detransitioner convincing a tgirl that she’s a boy.”
It’d be a sin not to bring this up: Lex Walton and her performance in this is a fucking work of art. The journey in this is soul-wrenching. The gift she gave us (and herself) when she made this film with Louise is holy. Watching Circle go through what they go through was absolutely what I needed right now. The release of those tears during the haircut scene… ugh I got chills just typing that. Just the gorgeous heart of this movie. It’s OK for us to want more. It’s OK if you know there’s a better way to live. Every human deserves secure housing and love and support. It’s OK to know that you deserve more. You probably do. We all do. But without empathy and surrender to giving-before-receiving you’ll probably never get it. And if you do, it won’t last, and you’ll end up in a cave filled with cum and hot dogs.
1. “Camp” (dir. Avalon Fast)
To call Avalon Fast’s newest film “dreamy” would be an understatement. This movie feels like a smear of time and space in a way that so few movies do. And for a film this seeped in vibes, it’s a total and complete structural palindrome or something. Like an absolute and cohesive container of witchy sexy sisterhood druggie holy hell.
I’m hesitant to put many words to the question before so many get to see this — all I’ll say is it captures grief, growing, and the grief of growing so beautifully and sincerely. A movie that feels like summer ending and autumn beginning, losing so many people and gaining so many more, and soaking in the light of God by absolutely succumbing to the fire of the Devil.
It is no exaggeration that this has some of the most gorgeous cinematography I’ve seen in a movie in fucking years. DP Eily Sprungman is clearly working with some sort of fucking dark magic on this one. Adored all of the performances in this, but the phenomenal standouts: Zola Grimmer, Lea Rose Sebastianis (I mean, maybe my favorite actor doing stuff right now, tbh), Ella Reece, and Aidan Laudersmith. The FX were so pretty and restrained… like there’s such a magic to how *not* over the top it is, while feeling hyper real. Like truly aspirational. Going to be ripping this movie off in my next one lol. The world is a better place with Avalon Fast making movies. Just a brilliant and true soul putting real magic into her art. See this as soon as you can.
Other Favorite Performances of the Year
– Gil Gex in “Ebony & Ivory”
– Marlon Wayans and Julia Fox in “Him”
– Jennifer Lawrence in “Die My Love”
– Josh Fadem in “Every Heavy Thing”
