Reviews

Films are like visiting a city. Mainstream movies cover the big attraction: Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedra, and Musée du Louvre. Indie films take you through the back streets and occasionally you get a tour of the underbelly of a city. "Nasty Baby" by filmmaker Sebastián Silva takes you on a back ally tour of the character of ordinary people. We all like to think we know what we will do in hypothetical situations. The truth is often we don't. This movie starts off pleasant enough with likable, real character; but from the start there is a slow burn that is building towards some unwanted destination. This movie takes you around the big attractions of a city and delivers you via the characters in places you would never expect to visit or would want to go. Check out "Nasty Baby" if you get a chance.

Love, identity, sense of self, God, religion, sin, gay, ex-gay, authenticity, confusion: all of these things and more are brought to the screen in the movie "I Am Michael" chronicling the often painful and true story of gay activist turned ex-gay poster boy Michael Glatze. The story is nuanced and the performances by James Franco and Zachary Quinton are sincere. Regardless of what your agenda is on this flash point topic, it is a movie that can be enjoyed for its story and how the world can pull at us from all directions. The fact that we are not pulled apart is a triumph in of itself and thus is the story of Michael.