Philadelphia Weekly

Philly's a movie town. In addition the 30 bazillion flicks shown at the popular Philadelphia Film Festival, each year hundreds of movies are screened through smaller, independent festivals. For the last 14 years the city has played host to the 12-day Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. This year's festival kicks off this week, so we've prepared a handy guide to what you should (and in some cases, shouldn't) be seeing this week.

Affinity

Sapphic period novelist Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith) graduates from TV to film with this breathless take on her 1999 novel. Reeling from her father's death, upper class closet case Anna Madelay takes a job as a "lady visitor" to a dank Victorian-era women's prison. There she succumbs to Zoe Tapper, a (possibly) wrongfully accused occultist into s�ances and flower-delivering spirits. The actors, Tapper especially, huff and puff, giving themselves over completely to the nonsense. If the silly twist ending affects at all it's due to them. B- (Matt Prigge) Fri., July 11, 7:15pm and Sat., July 12, 2:15pm. Wilma Theater.

Antarctica

This Israeli film begins with quarter-screen panels of a callous man taking home one-night stands and having graphic sex. This drags on interminably, implying the man--who cries in his shower--may be our protagonist. Instead, he bafflingly disappears as we focus instead on his fuck buddies. There's Danny, a young, expressionless dancer; Omer, a bespectacled librarian; Ronen, a celebrity journalist; Mickey, a queen who works in a clothing store; and a token lesbian couple, who struggle not with hot sex (unfortunately) but with emotions. Trying for Short Cuts, Antarctica feels more like high-rent porn with stylistic pretentions that make your teeth hurt. By the time the aliens-come-to-earth subplot flowers into a major development, you're wishing you were watching low-rent porn instead. D (Liz Spikol) Sat., July 12, 9:30pm. Wilma Theater. Mon., July 14, 5pm. Prince Music Theater.

The Art of Being Straight

Jesse Rosen writes, directs and stars in The Art of Being Straight, a story that feels autobiographical, though this fact is never explicitly stated. Recent college grad Jon moves to a new city and quickly discovers that he might possibly maybe kinda could be almost gay. The ambiguity of his sexuality is exploited to the point of exhaustion, which wouldn't be so bad except that the details of Jon's life are far too exaggerated and haphazard for any believable dramatic effect. Jon is merely a caricature of a man confused about his sexuality. (Jake Beckerman) D Mon., July 14, 7:15pm. Wilma Theater. Fri., July 18, 5pm. Arts Bank.

Bangkok Love Story

Dubbed the Thai Brokeback Mountain, Poj Arnon's bloody action-romance could be more accurately described as a classic John Woo in which the homoerotic tension actually gets consummated. After refusing to plug a police informant, a brooding, lonely, Le Samoura�-style assassin winds up in hiding with his would-be victim. There's a bathing scene and then, wouldn't ya know it, some hanky panky. Soon even the informant's jilted future bride is wielding a pistol and one over-the-top plot twist after another. Any movie that combines gory gunplay and characters named Cloud and Fog at least has ingenuity in its corner, but it's seriously possible Bangkok Love Story just isn't ridiculous enough. (M.P.) C+ Sun., July 13, 7pm. Prince Music Theater. Wed., July 16, 5pm. Wilma Theater.

Burn the Bridges

Nineteen-year-old Helena (Irene Azuela) and her younger brother Sebastian (�ngel On�simo Nevares) live in a crumbling stone manse in northern Mexico with their dying mother. Caretaker Helena never leaves the house and has a disturbingly predatory interest in shy Sebastian, with his long curly hair and wet eyes. Sebastian is in awe of her, and seems to derive some sensual pleasure when he watches her sing along to their mother's old records. Trapped in the house with death in the air, the two cling to each other--until Sebastian is drawn to Juan, a scholarship student at his Catholic school. His sexuality awakened, the bond with Helena frays. Francisco Franco's beautiful film features exquisite camerawork and color palettes, and heartbreaking acting by Azuela, who is a stubborn force of nature. A (L.S.)Mon., July 14, 7:15pm and Fri., July 18, 5pm. Prince Music Theater.

Call Me Troy

Biographical documentaries, especially those about celebrated leaders, often fail to embed stark revolutionary figures in the context necessary to engage viewers who aren't already members of the Greek chorus of praise. Call Me Troy, a film that profiles Los Angeles Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the first church specifically catering to gay and lesbians, succeeds because it tempers an insightful and intimate profile with sometimes startling archival footage and informative supplementry perspectives. The film chronicles Perry's odyssey from a deep in-the-closet young married minister with a wife and children in Tallahassee through his disorienting realization of his homosexuality and subsequent ascent into political activism. Perry's a judicious lens through which to trace the history of gay civil rights, from the first Christopher Street West parade through the politics of gay marriage as well as personal struggles such as his early relationship mistakes unsuccessfully parroting traditional heterosexual dynamics with male lovers. B+ (Tara Murtha) Sun., July 13, 5pm. Prince Music Theater.

Clandestinos

Most prison breaks take months of planning, are carefully handled with men you can trust, and follow through swiftly, without a single detail overlooked. Not in Clandestinos; where if you ever get arrested, pray that they take you to this big house. Xabi, Joel and an obnoxious tagalong named Driss practically walk out of jail. It's hard to believe that not a single prison guard carried a gun, nightstick, knife, boomerang, a rock, or even a water balloon to stop potential escapes. Clandestinos clocks in at about 75 minutes, and the stakes in the film are set so low, that you wonder why you even cared in the first place. D (Jake Beckerman) Tues., July 15, 5pm. Prince Music Theater. Sun., July 20, 7pm. Prince Music Theater.

La Le�n

Boasting the most striking modern B&W cinematography since Control, Santiago Otheguy's succinct feature is a moody and low-key little number, bathing its lonely protagonist in so much darkness he's literally in hiding. Set along the waters of northern Argentina's Parana Delta, La Le�n showcases the world of a gay boatman who gets it on with a stranger early on but spends the rest of the film wandering around in isolation among bigots and xenophobes. Otheguy eventually drags the film in a more conventional direction, but the mood is almost impossible to shake off. B (M.P.) Fri., July 11, 5pm, Prince Music Theater.

SoleJourney

It's a documentary about the gays and lesbians who stand up to America's top homophobe, James Dobson--self-confessed dog-beater and founder of the rabidly anti-gay pressure group Focus on the Family. Can you believe in 2008 we're still making documentaries about the need for equality? Can you believe we still need to? That said, this is a peculiarly American story. Nowhere else in the industrialized world do those who believe in social justice have to spend so much of their time arguing with idiots who cherrypick quotes from Bronze Age religious texts. Less gutwrenching than last year's For the Bible Tells Me So, SoleJourney covers some of the same ground, but concentrates less on the theological absurdity of religious homophobia, and more on the tactics used to fight it. Go gays. Beat Dobson. B (S.W.) Sat., July 12, 2:45 pm. Black Box at the Prince Music Theater.