Behind the Candelabra: Liberace's (Not-So) Secret Life

In the 1970s, Liberace was a household name, an entertaining pianist whose shows were characterized by flamboyant extravagance. His costumes were bejeweled, fur-laden curiosities, and he indulged in amusing banter with his audiences as he offered up both classical compositions and modern crowd-pleasers. As Behind the Candelabra begins, Scott Thorson (played by Matt Damon) is at his first Liberace concert and is astonished at the enthusiasm of the audience of mostly middle-aged and elderly couples. "How can they like something this gay?" he wonders to his friend. His friend replies, "Oh they don't know he's gay." And that's probably the most shocking fact about Liberace's career.

It isn't easy being a gay celebrity even in 2013, but in the 60s or 70s, it was simply impossible. So it is little wonder that Liberace maintained cover stories, complete with fake engagements to appropriate women. The undercover nature of gay culture in this period might also explain why the wider audience just never suspected that he was gay - anyone watching YouTube clips of his performances nowadays would immediately suspect the truth, but back then, most people had no concept of what homosexuality even was. As a result, Liberace could get away with writing an autobiography detailing love affairs with women, and successfully suing a London tabloid for libel when they hinted at his sexual orientation.

However, as the title suggests, Behind the Candelabra isn't about Liberace's public persona but his private life. Based on the memoirs of Scott Thorson, it follows Thorson's 5-year relationship with Liberace. Thorson was only a teenager when he met Liberace (who was 40 years older than him), but their attraction was instantaneous and he soon moved in with "Lee" and embarked on a decadent life that quickly spiraled out of control. Their relationship was bizarre and twisted - at one point Thorson was persuaded to get plastic surgery to look more like Liberace, who even considered adopting Thorson as his son. The movie depicts an elaborate world, filled with insecure people who are hiding from the world but also from themselves.

Behind the Candelabra was deemed "too gay" for financing from major movie studios, which is why it was only released on HBO in the United States. However, I don't think it would have worked on the big screen anyway. The movie has an interesting story to tell about an extremely larger-than-life personality but it never ceases to feel like a TV movie. It is over-the-top yet strangely conventional because you can instantly predict where this train-wreck of a relationship is headed. The performances by Matt Damon and Michael Douglas (who plays Liberace with all the quirks yet never as a caricature) are fantastic, but I never fully forgot who the actors were. The whole story is so concerned with people pretending to be something they're not that you cannot lose yourself in these characters and forget all the crazy hairstyles, make-up, and gaudy glitz.

Behind the Candelabra is worth a viewing just to get a sense of the times and marvel at Liberace's popularity and ability to manipulate the media and his audiences. The movie captures a different era, and one can only hope that things have gotten a little better for entertainers who just want to live their lives without judgement. 

Arrested Development: The Bluths are Back!

Memorial Day Weekend is supposed to signal the arrival of summer. People flock outdoors en masse to frolic on the beach and get a tan. However, for fans of Arrested Development, this was a weekend to stay indoors, log on to Netflix, and watch 15 brand new episodes of this brilliant show, which had been resurrected from the dead. It was like Easter for TV lovers.

Some brief history for the uninitiated: Arrested Development ran on Fox from 2003 to 2006 for 53 episodes before being unceremoniously cancelled (like all great TV that has the misfortune of being on Fox). The show suffered from poor ratings, but was a critical darling that already had a cult following. That following only grew after cancellation and the show has lived on through DVD sales and online streaming. There were constant rumors of an Arrested Development movie that were shot down in rapid succession, but last year, creator Mitchell Hurwitz announced that he had finally wrangled the enormous cast together and they had a plan. He was going to make a brand new 15-episode season of the show, to be followed by a movie that would wrap everything up once and for all. Which brings us to May 26th, 2013, when all 15 episodes were released on Netflix and the long wait was over.

The show tells the story of various members of the Bluth family, a highly dysfunctional and bizarre group of people. It has been seven years since we last saw them, but the new season kicks off effortlessly, catching us up with what these characters have been up to since the events of the last episode and launching into brand new schemes and intrigues that are as confusing and hysterical as only the Bluths could make them. There's a big government project to build a wall along the border of the US and Mexico, political shenanigans between Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli) and Herbert Love (a Herman Cain-esque figure played by Terry Crews), George-Michael's internet start-up, and of course, Michael's attempts to make a movie about his family, which will undoubtedly lead to the actual Arrested Development movie.

Each episode focuses on one member of the family over a period of time, so it is only when you watch the season as a whole that you fully understand what was going on in every episode. For example, the first episode ends with Michael finding an ostrich running amok in his mother's penthouse. How did that ostrich get there? You're going to have to wait till Lindsay's episodes to find out. Arrested Development was always a self-referential show filled with inside jokes and meta-commentary, and this narrative structure is the perfect way to build up the jokes and get fans to re-watch episodes to fit all the pieces together. There are several guest stars designed to delight the fans and recall some of the show's most iconic weirdos. And of course, the omniscient narrator (voiced by Ron Howard) has plenty of surprises and snarky insight up his sleeve.

The fourth season of Arrested Development is an utter joy and the show hasn't missed a beat since its cancellation in 2006. The narrative structure doesn't allow all of the cast to interact and play off each other as much as I would like, but the sheer complexity and density of comic genius in every episode is awe-inspiring. I don't know if the next step is a movie or whether Netflix will commission more seasons, but either way, I'm in. This season has proved that the show still has incredible stories to tell, and I don't want to wait another seven years for more. 

Star Trek Into Darkness: The Enterprise Heads into Warp Drive

Director J.J. Abrams has been frank about the fact that he was not a Star Trek fan until he had to start working on the movie. As a result, 2009's Star Trek reboot served as a tremendous cinematic experience for both Trekkies and the uninitiated. I was enormously entertained despite never having seen a single episode of the original Star Trek series. Now Abrams has gathered the crew of the USS Enterprise together again for Star Trek Into Darkness, a sequel that is just as engaging and enjoyable as its predecessor.

The movie's opening sequence is action-packed, funny, and fantastical. The actors form a crew that seems genuinely fond of each other both onscreen and off. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who play Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock, are expert at letting emotions flicker across their faces (a particular challenge for Quinto who has to play the half-human half-Vulcan Spock who prizes logic over emotion). Their relationship serves as the emotional core of the film, more so than Spock's relationship with Lieutenant Uhura (Zoe Saldana).

The movie's villain is John Harrison, a rogue Starfleet agent who is responsible for various terrorist attacks and needs to be captured or killed. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, he is an awesome adversary for our heroes, possessed of superhuman strength, superior intellect, and the ability to deliver a menacing monologue that makes your blood curdle. There's a big revelation about his identity, which drives the rest of the movie forward and will delight Trekkies and/or people with only a cursory knowledge of Trek villainy. The movie also allows for some surprisingly relevant political discussion about the ethics of warfare and how terrorists should be treated. However, this is a summer blockbuster, so the moralizing is kept to a minimum and the audience is treated to incredible space sequences, twists and surprises, hilarious banter, and a rollicking good story.

As with any Hollywood movie, particularly of the sci-fi persuasion, there isn't a lot for the women to do. Uhura gets to take part in some action while mooning around as Spock's frustrated girlfriend, but Alice Eve, who plays Dr. Carol Marcus, a new Science Officer aboard the ship, has woefully little to contribute apart from stripping down to her skivvies. This is particularly galling coming from J.J. Abrams who brought female characters to such prominence on his TV shows. One can only hope that when the franchise continues, Uhura and Marcus have more scenes together and actually give this series a chance to pass the Bechdel test.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a fantastic movie for movie lovers, particularly those who love sci-fi. In his desire to not alienate non-Trekkies, Abrams may have made these characters slightly too Hollywood (particularly Spock, who many complain is much too emotional). It's the age-old dilemma of adapting something with a strong fan following - if you're faithful to the source material (e.g. like The Hobbit), the regular moviegoers complain, but if you're not strictly faithful, the fans get upset. However, the moviemakers have done a fine job of including allusions and inside jokes that will speak to Trekkies. I caught a few things but I'm sure most of the references flew right over my head. The special effects are top-notch, and this is actually a decent film to watch in 3D (I'll admit to jumping out of my seat at certain points when things came flying into the screen). The great storytelling and genuinely close-knit cast will keep the Star Trek franchise alive and well in coming years, and I look forward to following their adventures into the final frontier. 

The Place Beyond the Pines: An Intimate Epic

Trailers for The Place Beyond the Pines didn't give much away, and I had no idea what to expect from this movie. I suspected it would be a languid character study in the vein of Blue Valentine, writer-director Derek Cianfrance's last movie, but instead, it's something more.

The movie begins as the story of Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), an itinerant stuntman who rides his motorcycle in the Cage of Death at various state fairs. When he is in New York, he reconnects with an ex-lover Romina (Eva Mendes), and is shocked to learn that he is the father of her son. He decides to stay in town and provide for his child instead of being an absentee parent like his own father. Romina is in a relationship with someone else and is not keen on this idea, but Luke persists. He starts working for an auto repair shop owner, Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), but he's frustrated with the low pay. At this point, Robin reveals that he used to be a bank robber. He thinks Luke has the necessary skill set to rob a bank and make a quick getaway on his bike, so they partner up and successfully conduct a crime spree. However, Luke and Robin have a falling out and Luke decides to rob a bank himself. Things go wrong and he is pursued by a police officer. That officer is a new cop, Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), and it is at this point that the movie really gets going.

I won't offer up more details because this is a movie that unfolds slowly but relentlessly. There are some shocking twists that propel the narrative forward, including a time jump that makes this an engaging multi-generational story. You can predict some elements of the story but it is never clear how things might end, and you become increasingly invested in the lives of the families who are suffering from the choices of their sons and fathers. 

The Place Beyond the Pines offers up fantastic performances from Gosling, Mendes, and Cooper, and a plot with emotional twists and turns that keep you guessing. It takes some time to get going and requires an initial investment from the viewer, but that investment pays off handsomely in the end. 

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Yes, Let's

Davis Sedaris is hilarious. So it is no surprise that his latest essay collection, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, is yet another side-splitting series of musings and observations recounted with Sedaris' unmistakably absurd style. Frankly, the title alone gives that away.

This book features various anecdotes from Sedaris' childhood and early adulthood in Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as stories inspired by his time spent in France, Japan, and other worldly locales. As always, these stories are autobiographical but with the hyperbole dialed way up. However, this time, some of the stories feel a little more somber and reflective, particularly the ones centered around his time in North Carolina. Everything has a happy ending, but the journey to that happy ending is sometimes tinged with a frustration that I haven't really noticed before in Sedaris' stories. This is by no means the predominant tone of the stories, and they are still incredibly funny, but one gets the impression that Sedaris is reflecting on the outer world a bit more rather than just relying on his internal monologue. His thoughts on healthcare, gay marriage, and race relations make for particularly insightful and amusing reading. As does his reaction to Obama's win in the 2008 election. 

Of course, amidst the autobiographical tales are the twisted fictional monologues, where Sedaris writes in the voice of egomaniacal psychopaths who slowly reveal their insanity over the course of a few cheery pages. These sometimes make for very confusing reading because you initially think you're reading a snippet out of Sedaris' actual life and start to get horrified. According to the author's note, he wrote these pieces for high school students who need something to read aloud in their Forensics classes. I think some daring teen should take him up on this offer, though it might lead to expulsion. 

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls is a fantastic addition to any bookshelf and allows for both laughter and reflection in equal measure. It might also make you wish you could travel more (except to China). However, even if you stay put, try to look at the world around you through Sedaris-colored glasses and you will find absurdity and humor in any situation.

My Brother The Devil: Gangs Of London

Every year seems to bring a new British movie about growing up as an immigrant in England. This year, talented Welsh-Egyptian writer and director, Sally El Hosaini, gives us the award-winning My Brother The Devil, a look at two teenagers from an Egyptian family who get involved in gangs and quickly have to decide what path they want to go down for the rest of their lives.

James Floyd plays Rashid, the elder brother who is an established member of a gang and uses the money he makes from dealing drugs to incentivize his younger brother, Mohammad (Fady Elsayed) to stay in school. Rash doesn't want Mo to get involved in a gang - he sees no alternative for himself but wants to protect his little brother. Unfortunately, he can't help but drag Mo into his world, and after a particularly frightening encounter with some gang members, Mo decides he wants to join his brother's gang. At the same time, Rash has found a way out with a French-Moroccan photographer (Said Taghmaoui) who offers him a job, and he decides to leave the gang life. But of course, when Mo gets in trouble, Rash is dragged back in.

You've seen these motifs in most gangland movies. But the movie has some unexpected twists and its focus is squarely on the relationship between the two brothers. They seem close at the beginning but their relationship starts to fracture as Mo gets frustrated with Rash's paternalism and exhibits a typical teenage wish to rebel. Things take an ugly turn when he discovers a secret about Rash and the final act of the movie will have your heart leap into your mouth. The movie's title initially seems to refer to Rash, whose violent antics and swaggering bravado seem guaranteed to corrupt his younger brother. But as the movie progresses, it is clear that Mo is no angel himself, and both brothers bear responsibility for their choices and poor decisions.

Sally El Hosaini has constructed an engaging movie that is packed with action and emotion in equal measure. Certain scenes are not for the squeamish and the violence and awfulness of this kind of life is hard to take. Sadly it is a reality for many teenagers around the world, and My Brother The Devil offers an empathetic portrayal of who these kids are and why they do what they do. It isn't the easiest movie to watch but it is certainly worth a viewing.