Julius, who devours comic books and vampire stories, has a lively imagination. Julius meets Arnold Cautious, who lives in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town and introduces himself as a degenerated, strawberry juice-drinking vampire. Julius and Cautious become friends. Together they try to make the Lucky Stone, the recipe for which is in Cautious' grandmother's secret recipe book. Julius wants to give the stone to his estranged parents so they can rediscover their common happiness. Julius and Arnold's laboratory attempts to make the Lucky Stone falter badly time and time again, but they stubbornly pursue their quest for happiness.
I first saw Dear Evan Hansen on the Broadway stage. Apparently, I was so blown away by the magic of theater that I didn’t pick up on the questionable dynamics. The story's clumsy handling in the movie brought those issues to light.
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
Perhaps the most amazing and groundbreaking quality about The Birdcage is how removed it is from both illness and insensitivity. Whereas films preceding it were often somber stories about the tribulations of being gay in a conservatively straight world, Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May expose the fallacies of conservatism as traditional values are thrown into a more open-minded space. They don’t care how far the community has fallen so much as how high they can rebuild themselves.
The plot lags, the moral lessons are misguided, but are those fluffy little donut creatures adorable? Yes. Yes, they are.
Bigg County Restorations is a zany new pilot from comedians Joe Bell and Mikaela Watkins. In a spot-on parody of History Channel shows like American Restoration and Pawn Stars, Paul Bigg (John Jezior) works to restore kitschy decor for celebrities while his good-for-nothing adult children, Britney (Mikaela Watkins) and Junior (Joe Bell) go on wacky adventures while slacking off on the menial tasks they’ve been assigned. In the pilot, Britney and Mikaela’s day goes off the rails pretty fast.
Elio could be seen as fantastic piece of representation, showing lonely children who feel ostracized that they are not alone. That is, unless you look behind the curtain.
