BFI FLARE OPENING NIGHT GALA - I AM MICHAEL

I AM MICHAEL is a provocative screening choice for a festival that celebrates the LGBT community. This is because it doesn't tell a coming out story, but a going in story, based on the true-life case of Michael Glatze.  Michael (James Franco) was a seemingly happy gay rights activist and journalist living in San Francisco with his partner Bennett (Zachary Quinto).  But something about the death of his mother, his increasing panic attacks, and belief that opening himself up to religion had helped calm him, led him to renounce his homosexuality in order to be reunited with his mother in the afterlife.  He trained as a preacher, married a woman he met at bible camp (Emma Roberts) and continues in his new identity to this day.

Random DVD Round-Up 6 - KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS

KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS is an earnest but dull attempt at a family comedy around a young kid's Bar Mitzvah. Unfortunately for him, his dad (Jeremy Piven) is a top LA talent agent and is set on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a swanky party to make up for the low-rent party he had as a kid. All those resentments are brought to the surface when the kid invites his grandfather (Garry Marshall) to the ceremony, prompting family upsets and a syrupy reconciliation. It's an entirely soupy and superficial enterprise and never explores the grim reality of "keeping up" with the neighbours as in the tragicomic brilliance of SIXTY SIX.

KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS was released in 2006 and is available on DVD.