Impeachment: American Crime Story “Exiles” Episode 1 (airs Tuesday, September 7) – Pictured: (L to R) Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky. CR: Tina Thorpe / FX
Whatever your entertainment needs, we’ve got you (and hopefully your mind) back with Queerty’s weekly ‘Culture Club’ column featuring some of the highlights from new releases, streaming shows, classics to. review and what to drink while you watch.
The fairy tale: Cinderella
The iconic fairy tale gets a Top 40 reboot this week, with queer and postmodern feminist twists. Writer / Director Kay Cannon — hereinafter referred to as the Writer of Perfect-reinvents Cinderella as Ella (Camilla Cabello), an aspiring fashion designer who has her eyes riveted on her own boutique. His rigid stepmother (Idina Menzel) won’t hear about it; forcing Ella to confine herself to the family basement and consider a proposal from a man she doesn’t like. When rebellious Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) falls in love with Ella, she dreams of rubbing shoulders with the elite at a royal ball. Can her fairy godmother (Billy Porter) make her dreams come true?
Right now, no one reading this column will know the story of Cinderella or her inevitable happy ending. Maybe that’s why director Cannon chooses to focus on transforming everyone. except Ella: She’s more of an agent of change than a traditional protagonist. As such, the side storylines go beyond that of Ella and the Prince. Far more interesting are the marital issues of the King and Queen (Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver), the fluidity of the Fairy Godmother gender, and the trauma of the stepmother. Cabello fulfills his first lead role well, although Menzel almost outright steals the film. Tony’s winner portrays the stepmom as an intelligent and frustrated woman who, like her stepdaughter, has had her big dreams shattered by her sex. The lush costumes and production design make the film a visual feast, and despite the loss of momentum in the second act, Cinderella bounces back in his third for a fun conclusion. The film is a must-read for Menzel and Porter fans, as well as anyone who needs a title to share with teens and teens.
Aired on Amazon Prime Video on September 3.
The Bonkers: Q-Force
Sean Hayes and Wanda Sykes star in this new adult animated series that combines the principle of charlie’s angels and Adult Swim humor with a great deluge of queerness. Q-Force follows a gang of queer and misfit secret agents led by Agent Mary (Hayes), a man determined to prove his own abilities and those of his team to the American Intelligence Agency. Partnering with a lesbian genius engineer named Deb (Sykes), a disguise drag master named Twink (Matt Rogers), desperate hacker Stat (Patti Harrison), and ultra-right lummox Buck (David Harbor), the team will proposes to overturn an international criminal plan involving the kidnapping of gay men.
Once upon a time in the LGBTQ world, we had our own vernacular, our own language of metaphors and terms that only other queers could truly understand. Q-Force returns to that tradition, with results we found hilarious. Besides, we’re not sure creator Gabe Liedman even cares about pleasing straight audiences: this show has enough credentials to lube up, flirt with, Jackée Harry, the bears, lesbian dog rescues, Debra Winger, the circuit parties, life in Los Angeles, and Eurovision that we spent half of the running time wondering which wacky direction the show would try next. Q-Force does not fear the sexual either, offering a multitude of scenes of nudity and love animated in full forehead. This is, in many ways, what so many other series and movies have tried to accomplish for so long: a story so proudly queer, so absolutely shameless about her sexuality and gender that it throbs with sheer scandal. . Much like a drag show, some viewers may find Q-Force a little too high. For us, this is an exercise in LGBTQ love and a very fun adventure to boot.
Aired on Netflix September 2.
The Intrigue: American Crime Story – Impeachment
Season 3 of the popular Ryan Murphy series arrives on FX this week, tackling its most ambitious subject yet. Accused follows the impeachment of President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen) in 1998, based on his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein). Yes The People c. OJ Simpson dealt with media and celebrity machinations within the justice system, and The assassination of Gianni Versace played like a tragic opera, Accused combines elements of both. Here, right-wing slums, media whores and a pathetic woman exploit Lewinsky and Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford) in the name of influence. The result is, in short, captivating.
Writer / showrunner Sarah Burgess does something unexpected with the premise: the protagonist here isn’t Clinton or Lewinsky, but rather Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson), Lewinsky’s “friend” whose recorded conversations sparked the scandal. In a transformation worthy of Lon Cheney, an unrecognizable Paulson plays Tripp as a woman obsessed with her own glory. his tripp chooses become a villain, destroying everyone around her to satisfy her own need for importance. It’s a scary performance. Clive Owen looks more like the old one Double dare host Marc Summers as Bill Clinton; although when speaking, Clinton’s charisma shines through. Ashford and Feldstein both portray Jones and Lewinsky as gentle, needy women. Ashford’s Jones doesn’t seem to realize how much everyone around her is exploiting her. Lewinsky of Feldstien is smarter, but still too naive to recognize the perilous situation she has created.
Like all of Ryan Murphy’s productions, Accused has a rich, star-studded supporting cast. Here two supporting players stand out: Billy Eichner as a gay and right-wing gossip dealer Matt Drudge and Cobie Smulders as the creepy Ann Coulter lookalike. Like Tripp, Drudge and Coulter are both obsessed with their own self-glorification, the series suggests, to satisfy a thirst for power and meaning. It seems to come from both a deep self-hatred and a transparent hatred on the part of everyone around them. Even Drudge and Coulter’s closest allies hate them… which seems reasonable.
Accused will undoubtedly get people talking about the elements of sex, gender, politics, fame and obsession that fueled the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. It will also rekindle the chatter about blue dresses, witch hunts, right-wing conspiracies, the definition of “is” and phone sex – all nostalgic, but not in a way we appreciate. The show itself, on the other hand, demands the treatment of frenzy. It’s a thrilling, clever, provocative drama, and best of all and worse, an all-American story.
Season premiere September 7 on FX.
The Howler: Only the murders in the building
Comic book lions Steve Martin and Martin Short team up with Selena Gomez for this hilarious mystery about real drug addicts in an amateur murder investigation. Co-created by Martin and gay writer John Hoffman (Looking, Grace & Frankie) Murders laughs at the strange obsession of American podcasts with real crime. When a man dies under mysterious circumstances in their luxury New York building, an unemployed TV actor (Martin), a disgraced theater manager (Short), and a mysterious young woman team up to solve the mystery … and are starting their own podcast on this.
Short and Martin are, unequivocally, comic book geniuses and formidable actors. Martin also possesses a remarkable ability as a writer, finding humor and absurdity in insightful everyday observations. Both luminaries have their talents to the fore here, and we also report with pleasure that Gomez manages to defend himself against these two big hitters. We don’t want to reveal too much here, like any mystery, Only the murders in the building plays best in a vacuum, with audiences having little to no prior knowledge of its twists and turns. We’ll add, however, that the series also includes a top-tier cast that includes Jackie Hoffman, Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, and Sting (yes, really). It’s a delightful game that captures both the fun of Agatha Christine-type thrillers and the kinky ridicule of a society that uses real-life murder as entertainment.
New episodes air on Hulu every Tuesday.
The Soapy: Days of Our Lives – Beyond Salem
Fans of daytime soap should take note of this new miniseries arriving this week on Peacock. Beyond Salem catches up Days of our lives cast members old and new, with the people of Salem blown to the winds from around the world. Their unifying quality: a peacock (cough) statue containing five rare gems stolen by a resident of Salem years ago. As the gems begin to surface around the world, residents draw closer to each other amid a web of organized crime and international intrigue.
Oh, and a lot of scary, sexy twists and turns ensue. It is Days of our lives after all.
Queer fans of the series – in case they need more conviction – should welcome the return of “powerful couple” Sonny and Will (now played by Zachary Atticus Tinker and Chandler Massey). The so-called first gay couple of the day has, since leaving the Days actors, have taken up residence in Phoenix after getting married a second time. Sonny suspects Will has eyes for another man, but will his suspicions lead to another divorce or a threesome? Drag queen Jackie Cox also has a recurring role in the season five episodes, as well as gay favs Lisa Rinna and Jackée Harry (see above). It’s a fun, silly, and sexy way to reconnect with a revolutionary gay couple … and enjoy all the soapy ridiculousness of it all.
Aired on Peacock September 7.
The Jam: Tony & the Kiki “Extra Express”
Queer punk rockers Tony & the Kiki are releasing a new single this week, a powerful folk-blues track about being queer and fabulous. Lead …
