New on DVD: “The Night Listener”
Following the fabulous literary scandal of the mythical JT Leroy  and the now infamous televised battle between Oprah and James Frey, the adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s “The Night Listener” on the big screen is surprisingly relevant yet oddly less compelling.
  “The Night Listener” stars Robin Williams as Maupin’s alter ego Gabriel Noone, a gifted storyteller who hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, “Noone at Night.” As the film begins, Gabriel is at loose ends. His relationship with hot long-term boyfriend Jess (Bobby Cannavale) is failing and poor Gabriel has simply run out of stories.
  Then a publisher friend, Ashe (Joe Morton), turns up, most opportunely. Ashe has in his possession a very special manuscript, one written by 14 year-old Pete Logand (Rory Culkin), in which the boy chronicles the shocking sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic parents. As so often happens in stories such as this, the boy has become a huge fan of Gabriel’s radio show, now that he’s safely living with a foster mother.  Ashe gives the manuscript to Gabriel who responds immediately to the boy’s plight, filling the void in his own life with Pete’s gallant battle with his various AIDS-afflicted infections.
  What follows is a budding, if unlikely, friendship between Gabriel and the boy. The ever chivalrous Gabriel goes so far as to buy the under-age boy a Playboy. Only the boy is safely squirreled away in the bowels of northern Wisconsin and they can communicate only by phone and letter – the film presumably set pre-Internet. Then one day Jess talks to the boy and expresses skepticism, to Gabriel, about how much the boy sounds like foster mother Donna (Toni Collette, in a unpleasantly twitchy performance).
  Gabriel is initially outraged Jess could make such a claim but the seed of doubt has been sown. Gabriel soon becomes obsessed with proving that Pete is in fact real. Yet in the process, Gabriel’s doubts actually lead Ashe to pull Pete’s book from publication.
  From its intriguing premise, “The Night Listener” now morphs into a rather limp, tedious thriller. Quixotic in his need to “make things right,” Gabriel goes on a quest to find Pete, his motivation a veritable minefield of doubt, guilt and neediness. Gabriel boards a plane and heads off to Wisconsin. He finds Pete’s small-town home and eventually Gabriel even finds Donna who, by the way, is blind. Yikes. In Toni Collette’s hands, Donna is an extraordinary bundle of ticks and neuroses but sufficiently convincing so that all in the small-town believes her saga implicitly, although someone there would have had to see her “son’ at some point, surely.
  And that’s pretty much the movie, other than some simplistic psycho-babble about how similar Gabriel and Donna are and, of course, the final, startling resolution which Glenn wouldn’t dream of revealing here. 

Buy it, rent it or forget it…
Definitely worth a rental, “The Night Listener” is well made and Robin Williams is often affecting as Maupin’s cinematic stand-in and therefore a “must-have” for all real Robin Williams fans. Also fine in supporting roles are the usually reliable Sandra Oh as Gabriel’s favorite gal pal and Rory Culkin (geez, how many Calkins are there??) as the possibly imaginary Pete. Yet it is hard not to see “The Night Listener” as a lost opportunity to explore the reciprocal rather than similar impulses that drive Donna and Gabriel. Instead Maupin and director Patrick Stettner chose a more commercial, less successful direction. 

 Just the facts…
“The Night Listener” has a running time of 81 minutes and is in English.
“The Night Listener”  is available now on DVD with a SRP of $29.99.

DVD includes an in-depth “The Night Listener Revealed” plus one rather bizarre deleted scene. The book Armistead Maupin initially wrote about was “A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story” by Anthony Godby Johnson which was published in 1993 but is now out-of-print.

Reviewed May 25, 2006

The "stupid boy" of "Garçon Stupide" is Lo•c (Pierre Chatagny), a lanky, adorably doe-eyed young man who spends his days inspecting chocolate bars at a factory in his small Swiss home town of Bulle. By night he comes alive, albeit via the internet where he is clearly no stranger to online gay sexual encounters.
  As the film begins, Lo•c has set out on just such an encounter, with a man named Lionel Ð presumably the cinematic stand-in for director Lionel Baier. Unlike the encounters the blissfully promiscuous Lo•c usually sets up, Lionel wants to talk, wants to get to know the young man rather than merely settle for a few moments of physical yet ultimately impersonal intimacy.
  Lionel Baier the director, as well as Lionel the unseen voice in this encounter, both seem to be suggesting that the real and far more interesting story here isn't actually about sex but that of the coming-of-age of this beautiful and engaging young man. Perhaps not all will agree but that is "Garçon Stupide" is a neat little nutshell.
  From here we get an intimate peek at Lo•c's life, learning that he is really rather sweet and surprisingly shy Ð at least when  sex isn't involved. While Lo•c may not be "stupid" as the film's title would suggest, his education is horribly lacking. When confronted with something he doesn't know, Lo•c turns to a dictionary, whether to try to discover the meaning  Impressionism or even to learn who Adolf Hitler was. His one and seemingly only friend is a young woman named Marie (Natacha Koutchoumov), a student who works as a receptionist for a natural history museum. She is Lo•c's bedrock of support and friendship, the person to whom he shares all of  his adventures and whose Lausanne apartment he occasionally crashes at when he misses the last train home.
  That Marie might be in love with him is not something Lo•c would even consider.
  Much like Lo•c's life, the film meanders along, punctuated with sexual encounters, which while unexpectedly explicit are anything but erotic. Disturbingly, Baier juxtaposes these encounters with images of primates from the museum. And there are more encounters with Lionel, who seems to relish his role as a mentor.
  Unlike life, which can meander along interminably, director Baier is savvy enough in this debut effort to force Lo•c to  finally question the nature of his existence. Jealousy takes hold of Lo•c as he learns that Marie is beginning to spend time with another man, a potential boyfriend.  Lo•c is incapable of being happy that Marie has possibly found someone but merely sees Marie's relationship in terms of how it will effect him, "She'll stop taking care of me."
  Tragedy strikes and Lo•c tries to replace Marie with an obsession for a charismatic footballer, Rui (Rui Pedro Alves). All too soon Lo•c's obsession turns to stalking Rui, first at games and eventually closer to home. Surprisingly, Rui invites Lo•c in for coffee and a tentative relationship develops between them.

Buy it, Rent it or Forget it...  
In many ways, "Garçon Stupide," is simply a coming-of-age film, although rather more sexually frank than most Glenn has seen. Often the film is frustratingly confusing, as plot developments are inexplicably dropped. Yet in newcomer Pierre Chatagny, Lo•c is an undeniably appealing if somewhat infuriating protagonist, totally self-absorbed and yet capable of seeing much of the world with a sense of wonder that is quite magical.

Just the facts:
"Garçon Stupide" runs approximately 94 minutes and is in French with English subtitles. "Garçon Stupide" is available now and has a SRP: $29.95

DVD Review:
Chicken Tikka Masala
Before there was "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding," there was a charming little gay film called "Wedding Banquet," made by then relatively unknown filmmaker Ang Lee. Name sound familiar? Thought so. Before there was "Brokeback," Lee offered this delightful comedy which focused on a young gay man willing to go to the extreme of getting married to placate his traditional Chinese family.  Many years and certainly, many "Wedding" films later, there comes another enjoyable little film, "Chicken Tikka Masala." 
  Jimi (Chris Bisson) lives with very cute boyfriend Jack (Peter Ash), Jack's drunken, slattern sister Vanessa ( Sally Bankes) and her chubby but lovable daughter, Hannah. Exceptionally dysfunctional perhaps, but this very curious little extended family appears to be quite happy content.
  Or at least they seem to be until the arrival of Jimi's aunt and uncle for a visit. At a family gathering, Jimi and pretty Simran (Jinder Mahal) are seen chatting together. Immediately the family decides that they would be a perfect couple. Before you can say "Chicken Tikka Masala," Jimi finds himself the very surprised guest at his own engagement party. Arranged marriages are certainly common in Indian households and who wouldn't want to marry the drop-dead gorgeous Simran who appears to be quite amiable to proposition. 
  What's poor Jimi to do? He loves his adorable family and doesn't want to hurt or disappoint them by telling them he's gay. He also loves his adorable boyfriend Jack..
  Even Glenn clued-in pretty early on that by the end of the film, all that was wrong in the world of "Chicken Tikka Masala" would happily (not to mention, humorously) made right. Sadly, the screenplay by 18 year-old Roopesh Parekh offers very few surprises and little depth. In the hopes of keeping the film light, Parekh steers clear of alienating practically anyone. Jimi's family seems so gosh darn nice that Jimi comes off as increasingly churlish in how he refuses to be honest  ("Just tell them" screamed Glenn). Nor does he treat Jack any better. Perhaps concerned with offending conservative audiences, Jack and Jimi's relationship is subdued to the extreme.
  What saves "Chicken Tikka Masala" are enjoyable performances from the appealing cast. Glenn is hard pressed not to describe just about everyone in the film as adorable. Chris Bisson and Peter Ash are both such engaging and attractive young  actors that Glenn found it impossible not to root for the requisite, happily-ever-after ending. Katy Clayton's Hannah is the sort of delightfully worldly-wise youngster last seen on cheesy 1960s sitcoms. And then there is Zohra Segal's wonderful, scene-stealing grandmother. Adorable, adorable, adorable. Every last one of them.
  Okay, not quite all of them. Sally Bankes who plays the large er, well… hearted Vanessa can't possibly be described as adorable. Oh, no. Big, crude and invariably either drunk or nursing a monster of a hangover, Bankes' Vanessa is certainly a welcome breath of fresh air in a film too often teetering on a niceness-overdose.

Buy it, Rent it or Forget it...  
Director Harmage Singh Kalirai keeps the film on a snappy pace and the lively soundtrack, too, is a definite plus. While lacking the polish of "Touch of Pink" or the aforementioned "Wedding Banquet," "Chicken Tikka Masala" is a fun little movie whose heart is most assuredly in the right place. A perfect date night movie.

Just the facts…
"Chicken Tikka Masala" runs approx. 92 minutes and is in English.
"Chicken Tikka Masala" is available now at an SRP: $19.95
The adorable Peter Ash can also be found on BBC America's naughty, "Footballers' Wives."   Limited DVD extras