Drama 2024 Archives - Page 4 of 7

Gondola

In the mountains of west Georgia, a rural community relies on a pair of cable cars that connect two sides of a steep valley. Iva returns to her home village following the death of a relative and takes up a job operating one of the cable car gondolas. She forms a long distance friendship with Nina, the operator of the other gondola. In time, those aerial meetings turn to naughty flirting between the two young women and then deepen into love.
This strange romance is wordless, but has a very unique and original cinematic vision from writer/director Veit Helmer. It is a delightful piece, very visually pleasing, full of fun and charming cinematic ideas. 82 minutes with no dialogue but with a lot of love for the art of cinema as well as its two wonderful heroines. In “Gondola” love truly floats between heaven and earth, and it is simply a film of pure fun.

In association with the Embassy of Germany

National Anthem

21yo Dylan is a day laborer and a farm hand who works hard to support his family and be a father figure to his younger brother. Dylan is trying to keep on an appearance of stability but there’s something missing in his life. When he gets a temporary job on a communal queer ranch he feels that for the first time he belongs. He finds friends and falls in love. Sky (trans actress Eve Lindley) is a rodeo performer and the partner of the macho ranch owner Pepe. The two are happy to share their bodies with Dylan, but maybe it won’t be enough.
Charlie Plummer shines as the lead with a very natural, quiet and confident performance. Cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi re-imagines the coming-of-age movie against the stunning backdrop of New Mexico. Director Luke Gilford’s debut film is a hallelujah song to the ultimate queer American dream showcasing the real-life International Gay Rodeo Association.

Sad Jokes

Like in his debut film “Bones and Names”, director Fabian Stumm manages in his new film to delicately and with very intelligent humor describe modern family structures and all the absurd complexities that life can provide.
Joseph and Sonya share a lifelong friendship and raise a child together. While Joseph, a film director, is busy with his next cinematic project, Sonya suffers from mental illness and struggles with hospitalization. Joseph must juggle between his everyday chores, his artistic aspirations and trying to hook up with a nude model.
Fabian Stumm wrote a wonderful and contemporary script about the turbulence of life and unexpected challenges that might grind you down. “Sad Jokes” is a quietly comic film that manages to touch on complex issues and do that in a smart and entertaining manner.
The film includes guest stars Knut Berger (“Walk on Water”) as the nude model and esteemed German actor/director Sebastian Schipper as himself.

Additional screening: Haifa Cinematheque, 3.11, 20:15

In association with the Embassy of Germany

Winter Boy

Christophe Honoré’s (“Dans Paris”, “Love Songs”, “Man at Bath”) new film is an autobiography, and for the first time brings the director’s story to the big screen.

Lucas (Paul Kircher) is going to a boarding school, far from the small town where his parents live, and has a boyfriend, a fellow student. Lucas has endless joie de vivre and he can’t wait to graduate and join Quentin (Vincent Lacoste), his older brother, in Paris. A sudden tragedy turns Luca’s world upside down and everything he took for granted is suddenly taken from him. Lucas is filled with sadness and despair, lost in his own pain. His mother Isabelle (Juliette Binoche, in a very moving role) doesn’t really know how to help her youngest son. Lucas joins his older brother in Paris, but Quentin is not emotionally available to support his young sibling, and so 17 years old Lucas has to find his own path, looking for solace in the cold wintery Paris, through dating apps and problematic sexual encounters.
Paul Kircher is perfect as Lucas, a blunt young man who cannot express, contain or release the enormous pain he’s carrying. His scenes with Juliette Binoche create intense and heartfelt complexity.
“Winter boy” gives us an intimate glimpse into the world of a teenager on the cusp of adulthood and the journey of that boy to try and find his way back to hope.

All of Us Strangers

One night, in an almost empty apartment tower in current London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a random meeting with a curious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), a meeting that brings life to his daily routine. When a relationship starts to develop between them, Adam is drawn to the memories of his past and finds himself returning to the working-class town where he grew up in and his childhood home where his parents lived. To his immense surprise, his long deceased parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), still live in the house and look exactly as they did 30 years ago.

Directed by Andrew Haigh (“45 years”, “Weekend”).

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

Battle of the Sexes

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in this recreation of the legendary 1973 tennis match that pitted Billie Jean King against Bobby Riggs.

Scripted by Academy Award winner Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (“Little Miss Sunshine”), “Battle of the Sexes” is a rousing depiction of a historical moment.

King (Stone) is a champion athlete and an outspoken feminist in her professional life, but her personal life is a struggle. Her marriage is failing. Her closeted sexuality feels like a distraction. Outraged that the National Tennis League won’t allow equal pay for men and women, King founds her own tour with Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) as manager. Riggs (Carell) is decades removed from his last championship. Facing dwindling finances and desperate to win back his ex-wife, he proposes a publicity-snaring challenge.

The film reminds us just how much blatant sexism pervaded the so-called sexual revolution. But it also shows the great strides made by trailblazers like King.

Bursting with colorful period production design and costumes, “Battle of the Sexes” is as fleet and fun as it is politically acute, and Stone and Carell make hugely enjoyable adversaries.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

Ed Wood

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton film

The acclaimed film director Tim Burton brings life to the unbelievable story of the legend of trash cult films – Edward Wood, who is considered one of the worst filmmakers ever, brilliantly portrayed by Johnny Depp.

The film follows a time period of six years where we delve into Ed Wood’s personal life and his struggles to create one of his best known films, an autobiography named “Glen or Glenda” which depicts Wood’s personal fetish for women’s clothes. The film also follows Wood’s connection with Bela Lugosi, a horror films star in the 1930’s (Martin Landau in a breathtaking performance). Lugosi was most famous for his role of Dracula, but stopped working due to drug problems, and Ed Wood was the one who helped him get into rehab and make his last film “Plan 9 from Outer Space” which is considered to this day to be one of the worst films ever made.

Based (somewhat) on a book by Rudolph Gray Jr. ” Nightmare of Ecstasy: the Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr”

A must see film! Screening of a 35 mm copy.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

The Favourite

Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

For the first time on the big screen in Israel, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”, the film that earned Jessica Chastain the Oscar for Best Leading Female.
The film is based on a documentary by the same name from the creators behind “RuPaul’s Drag Race”.

In a heartwarming performance, Jessica Chastain undergoes a full transformation and becomes Tammy Faye Bakker, an evangelist TV host that led for years an extravagant missionary talk show. A woman who built, alongside her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) an empire that is worth millions of dollars. Tammy Faye was popular with her choices of colorful outfits and extreme make-up. While she soared in the Christians circles she became a laughing stock of late night talk shows and skits such as SNL, which turned her into a popular culture icon even for those who never saw her actual show.

Director Michael Showalter (“The Big Sick”) brings to the big screen an honest and merciful portrait of a woman, far from the caricature Tammy Faye had become. From her humble start as child, through the wedding her parents didn’t approve of, to the huge success and Jim’s conviction of fraud. Even though Tammy Faye was an evangelist Christian, she supported the LGBTQ community and was one of the first conservative Republicans to interview with compassion an AIDS patient during the height of the pandemic, a move that enraged a lot of her supporters as well as the evangelists leader, rev. Jerry Falwell.

Chastain is nothing short of amazing, stepping into Tammy Faye’s shoes. She manages to create a humane and colorful personality who always shows up in full make-up- ready to give a performance of a lifetime, even if the camera isn’t rolling.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

OUT

Tom and Ajani have been a couple since they were in high school. They yearn for a life outside their small rural community in the Netherlands and the solution is Amsterdam, where the queer scene is lively and they can both live their dreams. Tom is planning to study films and become a director and Ajani discovers the nightlife, makes new friends and maybe finds a new identity. Both are destined to ask themselves for the first time who they really are and how they fit in the world, or even with one another.
In his debut film, director Dennis Alink gives us a thrilling glimpse into the world of young queer folk today who are on a journey of self discovery that is unapologetic, full of life and heartbreaking all at the same time. The film is shot in a stylish black-and-white cinematography that brings to mind classic films about coming-of-age, such as Peter Bogdanovich’ “The Last Picture Show” and Gus Van Sant’s “Mala Noche”.

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content and drug use.

Courtesy of PrideTV