On screen: spring 2008 movie preview


 

By Gregg Shapiro
Contributing writer

As of this writing, there are a few films in theaters with an LGBT angle. “Paranoid Park,” for instance, was directed by gay filmmaker Gus Van Sant (currently at work on his Harvey Milk biopic) and “Married Life” is from gay director Ira Sachs.

Still others are opening throughout the coming months, including “Then She Found Me,” starring and directed by Helen Hunt and co-starring gay icon Bette Midler. Also due is “The Hammer,” which reunites gay director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (“Kissing Jessica Stein” and the unnecessarily maligned “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde”) with “Stein” actress Heather Juergensen.

Gay filmmaker Jonah Markowitz’s “Shelter,” which played at “Reeling,” Chicago’s LGBT film fest in the fall, gets a theatrical release April 4. Kar Wai Wong, director of the gay Chinese film “Happy Together,” directs singer Norah Jones in her acting debut “My Blueberry Nights,” opening the same day.

She’s a mom, but we’re not sure if Jodie Foster is a lesbian mom. She has said that she’s thrilled at the prospect of having made a movie, “Nim’s Island,” (with Abigail Breslin), that her children can see on the big screen, which also opens April 4.

Tori Spelling cemented her gay following nearly 10 years ago when she appeared in the movie “Trick.” Spelling is back as the titular betrothed in “Kiss The Bride,” a comedy from gay moviemaker C. Jay Cox. His first film since his acclaimed drama “Latter Days” opens on April 18. Out actor Neil Patrick Harris reprises his role in “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” which opens in theaters April 25.

Opening May 9, Harmony Korine’s “Mister Lonely,” which features a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) and a Marilyn Monroe look-alike (Samantha Morton), sounds like one of the queerest offerings of the season. Michael Patrick King is the gay director at the helm of the big-screen adaptation of “Sex and the City,” starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and out actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as gay actor/comedian Mario Cantone, due to hit screens May 30.