The Tops of Tribeca

As with this
year’s Shelter, gay surfers ride the waves of
sexual awakening in the Australia-set
Newcastle. First time feature director Dan
Castle (once of gay film distribution company, Jour De Fete)
peppers Miramax-like drama -- family conflict! coming of
age! a past tragedy that taints the present! - with
more pulchritudinous young male nudity than Mel
Roberts could fever dream. A young man’s sexual
awakening also informed writer/director Christopher
Weekes’ ensemble piece, Bitter &
Twisted. And queer supporting characters appeared in
foreign titles 57,000 Miles, and Whatever Lola Wants.

Tom
Kalin’s eagerly awaited Savage Grace, in which
Julianne Moore one-ups Pink Flamingos’
Dawn Davenport in expressing love for her son,
screened. But one of the year’s most under-the-radar
titles in regard to queer content or read was Swedish
import, Let the Right One In. Winner of the
festival’s Founders Award for Best Narrative
Feature, director Tomas Alfredson’s arthouse horror
flick imagines a love story between preteen Oskar, a
little bullied boy, and Eli, a little girl who is not
only a vampire, but likely not even a girl. The film (and
John Ajvide Lindqvist’s source novel) alludes
to the possibility Eli is actually male, and when Eli
informs Oskar of this detail, it makes no difference
to the lovestruck boy (according to hearsay, the possibility
of casting a boy as Eli was bandied about by the
filmmakers). That’s progress for you!