Aug 24, 2007  |  By: GREG MARZULLO  | COMMENTS     

It’s time to get over that miraculous movie season of 2005 — the year of the holy queer triumvirate, “Capote,” “Transamerica” and, of course, “Brokeback Mountain.” Gay moviegoers aren’t likely to see larger gay films sweeping the multiplexes or the Academy Awards for a while, but that doesn’t mean the cinematic landscape is bereft of any queer mention. This fall brings a minimal crop, and once again, the indie films take home the prize.

First in the lineup is “Across the Universe” (Sept. 14), directed by stage-and-screen visionary Julie Taymor (“Titus” and “Frida”). In the film, two young American lovers (Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess) explore romance and life set against the social turmoil of the ’60s. The real kicker is that most of the movie is sung, and the production numbers are retooled Beatles hits. Sure, it sounds kooky, but Taymor is no lightweight when it comes to filmmaking. If anyone can make this work, she can. Plus, there’s a lesbian cheerleader (T.V. Carpio) who declares her love to a fellow cheer girl by singing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

For those who prefer their lesbian icons in the closet, Jodie Foster stars in “The Brave One” (Sept. 14), directed by Neil Jordan who headed up gay favorite “The Crying Game” and the wanly received gay flick “Breakfast on Pluto.” Foster plays a radio host who goes berserk with a gun after being horribly beaten in Central Park. Despite Foster’s politics, her performances have always been ferocious and luminously honest, so this character sounds like she’s in the right hands.

While “gay Paris” has earned that moniker for a host of reasons, the City of Light’s beautiful cemetery Pere-Lachaise is not the first queer association on the list. However, the resting ground of Oscar Wilde, countless gay icons (including Maria Callas and Edith Piaf) and a grave with two presumably naked men holding hands should be a spot on every gay tourist’s Parisian highlights. The film “Forever” is a look at the famed cemetery and the relationship people have with those interred there, whether the visitors knew the dead or not. While there’s nothing overtly gay about the film, the descriptions about it drip with the possibility of a few queer moments.

GAY MEN LOVE their queens, and there’s been very few iconic diva characters in the last 10 years that can top Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in 1998’s “Elizabeth.” Well, get ready to bow graciously again to the remarkable actress as she dons the ruffled collar once more in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” (Oct. 12) a look at the monarch’s middle years, including her interactions with explorer bad boy Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). The costumes alone should cause swooning among the gays-in-waiting.

“Fat Girls” (Oct. 19) follows a different kind of queen: the high school drama gay. Set in a small Texas town, drama club kid Rodney (Ash Christian, who also wrote and directed the film) and his Rubenesque best friend Sabrina (Ashley Fink) are just trying to make it through high school alive, but pretty soon, with some help from a sympathetic drama teacher (the wonderful Jonathan Caouette who created the indie hit “Tarnation”), things start looking up. “Fat Girls” has won a number of top prizes at gay film festivals in North America.

Smaller and evocative films dominate October, including Eytan Fox’s “The Bubble” (Oct. 26). The gay Israeli director created popular gay films “Walk on Water” (2004) and “Yossi & Jagger” (2002), and “The Bubble” similarly chronicles the lives of gays living in Israel. However, this film’s lovers are a star-crossed Israeli and Palestinian, who try to break through the oppressive weight of cultural expectations both sexual and political. The story is sure to generate debate, as all the transcendent love-conquers-all values get a rough treatment by the film’s ending.

Last fall saw “Jesus Camp,” a chilling look at fundamentalist Christians’ indoctrination (read: brainwashing) of children, and this autumn, “For the Bible Tells Me So” should hit a similar, but more gay-specific, note. Director Daniel G. Karslake dives into the contentious arena of Judeo-Christian rhetoric and gay identity. With interviews from a wide range of political and religious figures, including Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, the film promises to be a revealing exploration of the tempestuous relationship between gay people and a homophobic religious history.

THERE IS A DEARTH OF GAY movies in November, unless you count the beefcake and horribly inaccurate ...