Fall 2005 film
previews

September

Capote (United Artists): Truman Capote (the brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman) develops an intense bond with the accused killer at the heart of his true-crime book In Cold Blood. Catherine Keener is a standout as a very funny, very gay Harper Lee of To Kill a Mockingbird fame. (Sept. 30)

Cote d'Azur (Strand): Previewed in the print edition. (Sept. 9)

Flightplan (Touchstone/Imagine): Jodie Foster plays a widowed mom taking her daughter from Berlin to New York. In mid flight the child disappears, and everyone insists to the increasingly panicked Foster that the little girl was never aboard. (Sept. 23)

Forty Shades of Blue (Vitagraph): Out filmmaker Ira Sachs (The Delta) returns to his hometown of Memphis for this drama about a music producer (award-worthy Rip Torn), his young Russian wife, and his estranged adult son. (Sept. 28 NYC; nationally Oct.)

HellBent (Here): West Hollywood's annual carnival is always scary (Is my headdress slipping off?), but out writer-director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts makes it really terrifying in this queer horror flick. (Sept. 16)

October

Before the Fall (Picture This): In a Nazi academy in 1942, Friedrich (Max Riemelt) is unmoved by Hitler but desperate to escape his poor background. Boxing is his ticket, and Friedrich makes the most of it until he bonds with "sensitive" poet Albrecht, who can't remain silent in the face of atrocities. (Oct. 7 NYC)

Domino (New Line): Keira Knightley turns it on as the real-life Domino Harvey, a Ford model turned badass bounty hunter. Another tough chick to watch for this fall: dome-headed Natalie Portman as a freedom fighter in V for Vendetta. (Oct. 14)

Dorian Blues (TLA): Writer-director Tennyson Bardwell spins a sweet tale of a boy (Michael McMillian) who worries that he's gay and turns to his jock older brother for help. (Oct. 14 NYC)

The Dying Gaul (Strand): In Craig Lucas's directorial debut, Hollywood wants to buy Peter Sarsgaard's wrenching, personal screenplay about the death of his lover from AIDS. But could Sarsgaard change the lover from a man to a woman? Campbell Scott is the exec who sleeps with Sarsgaard while ignoring his wife, Patricia Clarkson. (Oct. 28)

Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque (Leisure Time): The cofounder of the Cinematheque Francaise, one of the world's first film archives, Langlois was probably at least bisexual. This documentary shows the vital role he played in saving classic films and turning Paris into a movie lovers' paradise. (Oct. 25 NYC)

The Last Day (Strand): Gorgeous Gaspard Ulliel (A Very Long Engagement) plays 19-year-old Simon, who picks up a girl on the train. They share a bed, but it never occurs to him to make a move. Things grow tense when Simon introduces the girl to his best pal, the handsome lighthouse attendant. (Fall)

Separate Lies (Fox Searchlight): Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) dissects the upper class with this drama about a husband (Tom Wilkinson) torn between protecting his wife (Emily Watson) and exposing what he imagines is her affair with Rupert Everett. (Oct. 7)

Strangers With Candy (Warner Independent): Jerri Blank, 46-year-old ex-con and former addict, decides to finish high school in this prequel to the cult TV series. The cast includes Stephen Colbert of The Daily Show, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Allison Janney, and, of course, Amy Sedaris as Jerri. (Oct. 21 NYC, L.A.)

Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family (ThinkFilm): Just your typical boy-meets-boy-meets-girl documentary. One boy is Sam, who says he's the son of a Mafia hit man. The other boy is Steven, who gets an offer he can't refuse (or doesn't want to) when Sam suggests bringing a girl into the mix. Enter Samantha and, eventually, a baby that changes everything. (Oct.)

Unveiled (Wolfe): Director Angelina Maccarone tells the beautiful, utterly original story of a lesbian (Jasmin Tabatabai) fleeing Iran because of persecution. She takes on the identity of a male refugee and gets into Germany disguised as a man--where she works at a sauerkraut factory and draws the attention of another woman. (Oct.)

November

Breakfast on Pluto (Sony Pictures Classics): "It Boy" Cillian Murphy jumps from Batman Begins and Red-Eye into an evening gown to tell the story of an orphan who travels from Ireland to London to become a fabulous transvestite cabaret star. Directed by Neil Jordan from the Patrick McCabe novel. (Nov. 18)

The Family Stone (20th Century Fox): Dermot Mulroney brings home girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker, and everyone in the family hates her. Tyrone Giordano as Mulroney's gay and deaf brother is naturally the exception, since gay people have great taste. (Nov. 4)

Gay Sex in the '70s (Lovett Productions): This documentary by director Joseph Lovett is an ode to the sexual Prague Spring that lasted from the Stonewall riots in 1969 until the first case of AIDS in 1981. Filled with footage that details the explosion of empowerment and queer sexuality, Gay Sex in the '70s is a captivating time capsule of an era that may never return. (Nov. 4 NYC, S.F.)

Rent (Sony): Almost 10 years after it debuted on Broadway, this Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical hits the big screen. Most of the original cast is here, including Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin, and Taye Diggs, along with the new-to-Rent Rosario Dawson and Wonderfalls' Tracie Thoms. (Nov. 11)

Summer Storm (Here): Previewed in the print edition. (Nov. 4)

December

Brokeback Mountain (Focus): First, people were worried director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) might downplay the romance between cowboys Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Then stories leaked out that the love scenes were so physical that it might be "too" gay. In any event, queer audiences can't wait to see this adaptation of the memorable short story by Pulitzer Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx. (Dec. 9 NYC, L.A., S.F.)

Loggerheads (Strand): A handsome drifter (Kip Pardue) comes to town to protect the loggerhead turtle but ends up protecting the local hotel manager even more. Meanwhile Bonnie Hunt arrives to track down the boy she gave up for adoption, and Tess Harper has to decide whether to stand by her preacher husband or her son. (Late 2005)

Memoirs of a Geisha (Sony): Gay director Rob Marshall follows his smash Chicago update with this lavish adaptation of the best-selling novel about a geisha who flourished in the early 1900s. Ziyi Zhang, Li Gong, Michelle Yeoh, and Ken Watanabe head the stellar cast. (Dec. 9)

The Producers (Universal): Nathan Lane brings his Tony-winning Max Bialystock to the big screen, with Matthew Broderick, writer Mel Brooks, and director Susan Stroman along for the ride. (Dec. 21)

Stryker (Strand): Queer Canadian director Noam Gonick (Hey, Happy!) stirs up controversy like his idols Bruce La Bruce and Guy Maddin with this look at gang warfare on the streets of Winnipeg. Things get messy when the onetime-male stripper head of the Asian Bomb Squad falls for the girlfriend of the lesbian leader of their sworn enemy, the Indian Posse. (Dec. 2 NYC)

A Year Without Love (Strand): This Teddy Award winner charts the journey of a man living with AIDS and scared of dying. He cruises the nightlife of Buenos Aires and falls into the world of S&M and leather. (Late 2005)

--Michael Giltz