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Outfest Tonight: Encore of “An Ordinary Couple,” “Grown Up Movie Star” and Go-Go Reject short!
There’s a lot going on tonight at The 28th Los Annual Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. I’m planning on taking in two films at Sunset 5: BearCity at 7 p.m. followed by a program of eclectic shorts grouped together under the title From Uranus to Titicaca.
There’s also a Screenwriting Lab Reading at 7:15 p.m. in DGA 2 followed by a collection of shorts group as Queerer Than Fiction: Documentary Shorts. One of the shorts stars George Takei!
I can recommend to you some of the movies that I have already seen: At 5 p.m. at Sunset 5 is the wonderful documentary An Ordinary Couple.
It’s the story of LA couple Orin Kennedy and Bernardo Puccio who decide to commemorate their more than 30-year relationship by erecting a marble monument to themselves at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
“It’s no fun to do it afterward,” Orin says in the film. “We won’t be there!”
Once it is constructed, they invite their friends (including the fabulous actress Ruta Lee) to a “living funeral.” Watching this pair together is very entertaining with Puccio a real larger-than-life character who left New York for Los Angeles “with 13 pieces of unmatched luggage and a poodle.”
The use of photos of their younger selves from the 70s and 80s really adds to the experience.
It’s enough to make you believe in love again!
At 7 p.m. in DGA 1 is the screening of Grown Up Movie Star, a drama that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and features a breakout performance by actress Tatiana Maslany.
She plays a teenager who didn’t exactly win the lottery in the parent department: her drug-addled mom has run off to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. She is left with her closeted father [Shawn Doyle], a former pro hockey who is having an affair with the high school gym teacher.
The movie, written and directed by Adriana Maggs, is worth seeing for Maslany who won the Sundance Special Jury Prize for breakout performance.
Well deserved!
And finally, the adorable short film Go-Go Reject screens as part of the From Uranus to Titicaca program of shorts that I missed over the weekend. Thank goodness for this encore showing at 9:45 p.m. at sunset 5.
I’ve seen Go-Go but none of the other flicks. It stars Heath Daniels [he also wrote and directed] as a cute guy who wants to be a go-go dancer but is told he’s not buff enough: “We already have enough dancers and from what I can tell, they all have better bodies than you so I’m gonna have to pass. This isn’t Flashdance.”
Another one tells him: “You’re an emaciated, tapeworm infected midget! Come back and see me when you’ve been to the gym.”
But he is undeterred, finally manages to get a tryout at a club and exclaims: “This is my chance to be Jennifer Beals!”
For more information and tickets, go to Outfest.org.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Ulmer says:
Greg, while you’re mentioning George Takei’s short: George actually did some voice work in the recent Futurama episode “Proposition Infinity,” reprising the role of his own future head-in-a-jar. The episode was a hoot, taking on the ugly topic of Proposition 8 and turning it into satire gold.
For anyone who missed it: http://tvshack.cc/tv/Futurama/season_6/episode_4/
Mary Montouri says:
The director and producer did a fantastic job with this documentary! I laughed one minute and was moved to tears in the next. An Ordinary Couple is a wonderful documentary and was most entertaining! What a great couple!!!
Mary Montouri
Boston
Theresa says:
I am very excited about seeing the documentary with Orin and Bernardo. They sound like a very interesting couple. God bless them!
Carol Bain says:
Greg, Ordinary Couple was in fact wonderful documentary. They are
an amazing loving couple. The film was filled with real life and love.
Leslee says:
One small correction:
The fabulous short film Go Go Reject was indeed written by the star, Heath Daniels. But it was directed by Michael J. Saul.
It’s a wonderful film, and I’m glad you thought so, too.
George Vreeland Hill says:
Orin and Bernardo are an amazing couple.
This film about their life together, is just as amazing.
It is a true love story of two people who stuck together for decades no matter what.
They met at a time when gays were harassed by police and others, but through the years, Orin and Bernardo became just another couple and people loved them.
I recommend the film with two thumbs up!
George Vreeland Hill