Author Archive: Sawyer Lahr
Mark Deklin Plays Gay on GCB
Receiving my call one afternoon, Mark Deklin pulls over to the side of the road in his car to park. I commented that he was working on the fly, and he said that’s LA for you. Deklin is the only male series regular on GCB (Good Christian Belles) and playing the gay ex-husband of Cricket [...]
Making the Boys
For the full review, visit our sister site Go Over the Rainbow. Celebrated playwright and television writer, Mart Crowley survives to tell his artistic struggle leading up to the making of his best known work, The Boys in the Band, produced for the stage by Richard Barr (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) and directed by [...]
Urbanized
Stringing together insights from architects, urban planners, progressive mayors, academics, and social workers, director Gary Hustwit captures the essence of each city he visits with his camera crew in tow. 300 hours of footage later, the producer behind Helvetica and Objectified as well as notable music documentaries (I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), has [...]
Modern Family: Season 2
Full of more than just gags and pratfalls, Emmy Award-Winning, Outstanding Comedy Series, Modern Family: Season 2, is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. This year, its unsurprising five Emmys have proven the show is a Prime-time television mainstay. Julie Bowen as Claire and Ty Burrell as Phil took the cake as outstanding supporting actor [...]
The Debt
Adapted from the 2007 Israeli film of the same Ha-Hov, The Debt is an espionage thriller that feels unconsciously based on the real-life Mossad espionage story about bringing Nazi war criminal, Karl Adolf, Eichmann to trial. Much like unequivocally evil “surgeon of Birkenau” in The Debt, many Third-Reich doctors performed “scientific” experiments on Jewish women [...]
Gay producer Theodore James
Sawyer J Lahr interviewed openly gay documentary producer of the HBO Documentary Superheroes. Theodore James (I Owe USA, Wordplay, Square Roots: The Story of Sponge Bob) answered some tough questions about being an openly gay documentary producer who makes movies for everybody. Why make I Owe USA, Wordplay, and Superheroes instead of say a coming [...]
Superheroes
When everyone is hero, no one is, which is why the self-proclaimed real-life superheroes in director Michael Barnett’s debut feature documentary are vigilant do-gooders in costume. Director Michael Barnett follows theses ten average people, inspired by their favorite comic heroes/heroines, who go out at dark to find evil, but wind up acting as EMT, philanthropist, [...]
Adua and Her Friends
In May, RaroVideo premiered Antonio Pietrangeli’s Adua and Her Friends on DVD, starring then world famous Oscar-winning actress Simone Signoret (Room at the Top, 1959). Following the Merlin law of 1959 in Italy that put bordellos out of business and left women unemployed, Adua (Signoret), leads a pack of former prostitutes trying to make good [...]
Patty Hearst
Patty Hearst feels like a movie made in the seventies when it is set, but its self-awareness grounds it in 1988 based the real life kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974, played tirelessly by Natasha Richardson. Writer Nicholas Kazan and director Paul Schrader capture an essence of social unrest, which defined the late 60s and [...]
Christopher and His Kind
A straight adaptation of any material into fiction film is never useful or fanciful because movies must be made from the stuff of dreams. Adapting author Christopher Isherwood’s memoir is like trying to remake Cabaret (1972) with Rene Zellweger, which was rumored to be in the works in 2005. While autobiographical adaptations can be refreshing, [...]
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