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June is Pride Month, the month that was established to promote LGBT rights and celebrate that same community. This year marks the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 1969, which most agree was the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. Like a lot of people, my first image of a LGBT person is either in a film or on a television show. For many, that's changing as more and more LGBT people are open and proud, but, there are still those that were only exposed to the LGBT community through the media. I was a military brat. My dad would rent VCR tapes from Blockbuster Video stores and record them, so that we could watch them over and over. He built up a library of hundreds upon hundreds of movies, which I would watch incessantly. It was only on the rare occasion that my dad would get a film that had any gay characters or gay references. There would also be some things on television that had gay characters or gay references, but it wasn't until I graduated from

This is the feature debut of writer-director Mike Mosallam. It's an adaptation of his 2015 short film of the same name, which was about a young gay Muslim living in Los Angeles. The short focuses on his relationship with a handsome and charming, white man who questions if being gay and Muslim are mutually exclusive. It's a minor question though. A more major question is the white man dealing with the loss and actual death of his previous long-term boyfriend. The Muslim then cooks for the white man during Ramadan in the time period that a Muslim is allowed to eat and it's seemingly the start of a new relationship. For this feature, instead of one night, we see this relationship play out over the course of the entire month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the holy month where Muslims fast or abstain from food, drink and impure thoughts and activities, which specifically means sexual thoughts and activities. Muslims must abstain from sunrise to sunset but are allowed to eat and drink ag

Writer-director James Sweeney seems like he's most influenced by television, with shows such as Gilmore Girls  top of his brain. One can definitely feel the influence of that series by Amy Sherman-Palladino. First, that influence is with how this film looks. The aspect ratio is 4:3, which is the aspect ratio for television, the ratio that Gilmore Girls had when it began in 2000. Second, that influence is obvious with how Sweeney's dialogue is structured and delivered. Sherman-Palladino was known for her dialogue being rapid-fire, snappy and full of pop culture references. Of course, Sherman-Palladino took her cues from the screwball comedy films from the 1930's and 40's, as well as onward. Screwball comedies in particular were known for how they satirized traditional love stories, occasionally challenging gender roles. Sweeney has seemingly picked up on that aspect, as his film is one that challenges sexual identity. His film in fact could be a part of this idea of &qu

This film is based on the Scooby-Doo franchise, which started as a cartoon in 1969 and has endured for over 50 years in pop culture. In a lot of ways, this film, directed by Tony Cervone, a veteran in animation since the 90's, references or brings in a lot from those past 50 years. Ironically, this film doesn't feel like it has enough history or any weight or gravity to it to make it feel any more real or substantive than the original 1969 cartoon. That would be fine, if the film wasn't trying to be about the history, the weight or gravity of the relationship between what are the two main characters. As a mainstream, animated film, that's mostly aimed at children, it's almost obligated to be about friendship or family, as most of these mainstream, animated films are. If a film wants to be about friendship or family, that's fine, but it has to put in the work to build and develop those relationships. Pixar's films typically do that work. Pixar in fact has a f

Geoff Johns started working for DC Comics in the late 90's and the first comic book he created was Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. (1999), which was based on ideas from the 1940's but introduced the character of Stargirl. The character began appearing in several animated series and animated features. Her first appearance in live-action form was in 2010 on the TV series Smallville . The episode was called "Absolute Justice," and Johns wrote it with Glen Winter directing it. Stargirl appeared in the series Legends of Tomorrow in 2016, but she appeared in an episode that wasn't written by Johns, so the version depicted bore little resemblance. In 2020, Legends of Tomorrow hinted at this series, but only as a quick glimpse. Yet, the true preview was a decade ago in that episode of Smallville . That 2010 slice of television involved a man who had the power to control and create ice getting revenge on the Justice Society of America or JSA, killing them off one by one. A young

From 1997 to 1998, a camera crew was given all-access to the Chicago Bulls, the NBA team that had won five championships, thanks to the work from basketball star and who most people agreed was the best NBA player alive, Michael Jordan. It was announced that the 1997-98 season would be the final season for head coach, Phil Jackson, with the Bulls. Jackson nicknamed that season, "The Last Dance." That season would also be the final year that Jordan would play with the Bulls as well. As a result, the camera crew was sent and it captured hundreds of hours of footage, both on the court and off, with some candid stuff inside the locker room. However, an agreement was made that this footage could only be used with Jordan's permission and for nearly 20 years, Jordan did not give his permission. This series though never really explains or explores why. It's reminiscent of the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace  (2019) , which was originally filmed back in 1972, but didn

I reviewed the first season of Homecoming (2018) and it was one of the best TV shows of that year. I was saddened when it was mostly ignored by the Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as at other award shows. This series was the first stab at television for movie-star, Julia Roberts, and she was absolutely fantastic. When it was announced that there was going to be a second season, but Roberts wouldn't be in it, I was again saddened because Roberts was in large part why the first season was so superb. However, I was intrigued because it was also announced that Janelle Monáe would be taking over as lead actress. It's been several years now since she's identified as being a part of the LGBTQ community, which she reinforced during her performance at this year's Academy Awards when she she said she's a queer artist. I wasn't sure if she would be playing a queer character in the series, but it's revealed in the second episode that she is indeed playing a queer chara

This documentary basically takes what I do in print and turns into a visual conversation. It's film criticism where a marginalized community gets to speak about the films and TV shows that have or are supposed to represent that particular marginalized community. What's great is that the conversations are honest and aren't sugar-coated. People speak the truth about how Hollywood in particular has portrayed them. Specifically, this is about how Hollywood has portrayed the transgender community. It's a very comprehensive criticism where transgender people go through 100 years of Hollywood films and TV shows and deconstruct it all. Long story short, most of the depictions that are cited here are problematic and have been more hurtful to the transgender community, as they've been helpful or just simply accurate. One of the first criticisms is how Hollywood made jokes about transgender people or constantly make trans-people the butt of jokes. It was always humor at the ex

This film was the official submission from Bolivia to the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature. It was written and directed by Rodrigo Bellott. This is the second time Bellott has represented Bolivia in this regard. His film Sexual Dependency  (2004) was submitted to the 76th Academy Awards. Bellott's films didn't get the Oscar nomination either time. It's interesting though because this film reminds me of another that did get nominated at this year's Oscars, that of Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory  (2019) . It's not simply because both films are in Spanish. Certain plotlines and themes from Almodovar's film echo in Bellott's. Namely, both are about a gay artist looking back on his life, as he's at the same time using his art to reckon with or pay homage to someone he loved where there is a blurring of the line between art-imitating-life or art-versus-reality. Oscar Martínez ( Wild Tales ) stars as Jorge, the father to a young gay man

Paris Is Burning (1991) introduced most people to "Ball culture" or what's called "ballroom." It's underground events in cities like New York where Black or Latino people in the LGBTQ community gather to do fashion, runway modeling, dancing and lip-syncing. Often, they do so in groups, known as Houses. Those houses are led by people referred to as "mother" or "father" despite having no biological relation. It's all about people from the LGBTQ community coming together for makeshift families. Usually, there is a Master of Ceremonies or MC who announces the categories or themes that the houses have to follow. There's also a panel of judges who decides which house has the best modeling or dancing and then gives the house that wins a trophy or prize. Another film about Ball culture wouldn't pop up for another 20 years when Sheldon Larry's Leave It on the Floor (2012) was released. Yes, Madonna did a lot to popularize Ball c