Movie blog

Set in a small coastal, Massachusetts town named Capeside, Dawson’s Creek tells the story of four teenagers as they struggle through adolescence. This is particularly true for 15-year-olds Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), an introspective dreamer and Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), a precocious tomboy unaware of her beauty. Best friends since childhood, they are about to enter that confusing time in life where nothing is the way it was and nothing is as it seems.

Swirling in controversy after its 1978 release and notable as Britain’s first commercial gay film, director Ron Peck’s intimate drama follows the struggles of a homosexual London schoolteacher forced to keep his personal life in the closet. Living as a model educator by day, Jim (Ken Robertson) cruises the club scene by night hoping to find someone to fill the emptiness. The supporting cast includes Tony Westrope and Maureen Dolan.

In London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, attracting some of the city’s scrappiest tough guys and its more established underworld types, all of whom are looking to get rich quick. While the city’s seasoned criminals vie for the cash, an unexpected player - a drugged out rock ‘n’ roller presumed to be dead but very much alive - has a multi-million dollar prize fall into his hands.

Rachel and Heck, long time friends and lovers, finally tie the knot, and during the celebration, Rachel starts a friendship with their florist, Luce. And while Rachel originally intended to match her new friend, Luce, up with her husband’s friend, Cooper, she soon finds out that Luce is a lesbian. During the course of their friendship, Rachel starts to question her own sexuality. And though she comes to realize she may have feelings for her new friend, Rachel must decide who she will ultimately find the most happiness with: Heck, her new husband who is also adored by her family, or Luce, who has turned her life and everything she thought she new about love upside down.

Convinced that art school will put him on the path to fame, Jerome (Minghella) must come to terms with his anemic talent, as he watches the girl of his dreams fall in love with another student. Then, strangely, he’s arrested as a suspected murderer — only to discover that crime might actually pay.

‘Moisés Kaufman’ (qv) and members of New York’s Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of ‘Matthew Shepard (I)’ (qv). This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd’s visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of “Angels in America” a year after Shephard’s death.