Portside

For some kids rule-breaking is less a route toward self-definition than a requirement built into existence. That’s the reality recognized by a recent crop of films centered on the queer teen, a figure who until now has been cinematically marginal.

As election results came in, Blum was given the Isreal Film Festival’s achievement in film and television award. His acceptance began with criticism of Trump.“ A lot is at stake. The last two years have been hard for all of us who cherish freedom."

“Boy Erased,” adapted from Garrard Conley’s memoir of the same title, tackles the subject of conversion therapy, a technique that is a mix of religious dogma and dubious science whose cruelty and ineffectiveness are amply documented.

It is, after all, about a slice of red-state America at a time of fierce political polarization. In the wake of the 2016 election, traveling to Monrovia—a mostly white town in the vice president’s home state—was hardly an idle or random decision.

First Man is a paean to American greatness. It does include a montage of protesters demanding that the money on NASA be spent to help the poor and hungry, set to Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon”. That might have been a good title for the film.

Actress Stenberg lives up to her promise in a hard-hitting adaptation of Angie Thomas’ bestselling YA novel about a police shooting and racial strife.

Confronting Steve Bannon in a cold, empty room for the duration of an unsettling portrait, Morris presses the alt-right icon to justify the racist ideology behind the machinations that propelled Donald Trump to the White House.

Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs teamed up with lifelong friend Rafael Casal for a rhythmic, funny, earnest take on their native Oakland.

Where Hands Touch focuses so much on the idea that love can traverse any boundary that it forgets there’s no love strong enough to bridge a genocide.

Farenheit 11/9's strongest sections cede the floor to the progressive activists and insurgent political figures whom he paints as the country’s best, and perhaps last, hope for salvation.