Frameline, San Francisco's LGBT film festival, begins its 43rd event beginning June 20, 2019.
As the oldest LGBT festival, Frameline certainly isn't showing its age.
While it would be impossible to catch every film prior to the festival beginning (but I did try), here's a sampling of some of the noteworthy narrative features playing at Frameline. There may be other equally impressive titles not mentioned here but I either didn't have time or access to screen them. But I will update this blog should I have new information to report.
"The Garden Left Behind" is the best picture of the many I've seen in preparing for the festival. Well written, acted and directed, this movie is not only real and heartbreaking, but it's very topical. Tina (a breakout performance by Carlie Guevara) is a pre-op trans woman earning money driving a cab. As she goes to schedule the operation, complications (not limited to her being an undocumented citizen) arise. Besides the lead's bravura performance, the entire cast makes for a great ensemble under Flavio Alves' direction (and from a screenplay he co-wrote). It also deals with violence against trans people, which unfortunately is in today's headlines every day.
"Benjamin" is quite the quirky little film due to its title character. Asperger or just millennial, Benjamin is trying to follow-up with his ultra-successful first film and isn't sure if he's sophomore effort will live up to its audience expectations. To complicate matters, while he's trying to finish his film, he finds a love interest in the lead singer of a band. Sweet and endearing, this movie is a must-see, especially thanks to the drool performance of Colin Morgan and his spot on delivery of dynamic dialog.
"Before You Know It" takes quirky to a new extreme. The Gurner sisters take their love for theatre home. Literally. They live about a theatre with their once-famous dad (Mandy Patinkin). While they struggle to makes ends meet with their artsy, non-attended shows, they learn they have a famous soap opera mother (an over-the-top Judith Light). The chemistry between the sisters seems real as the director (Hannah Pearl Utt) and writer (Jen Tullock) play the sisters and likely are real life friends. I do wish, while it's a tiny topic, they fleshed out Utt's lesbian character a tad more with more of her sexuality included on screen. Sure it's a story about the family and being lesbian isn't even part of the plot. But if you're five minutes late to the movie, you wouldn't even know she was a lesbian.
Quirky seems to be a theme here as "Cubby" can be described as just that. Director/writer/star Mark Blane makes it clear from the beginning that this is based upon his life as his character's name is Mark Nabel which is awfully close to his own. This is a fish out of water story - but he doesn't know it! A young Midwestern man decides to move to New York and his playful, innocent outlook is as simple-minded as the children he babysitting.
