Stage: In a really good place

Glamrou: Drag Mother
with Amrou Al-Kadhi
Soho Theatre, London •  20-25.Jan.25 ★★★★

More performance art than a stand-up drag show, this one-hour piece comes directly from Amrou Al-Kadhi's soul, revealing a perceptive, funny and strongly engaging way of looking at the world. It's framed as a battle between Amrou and his sardonic Iraqi mother, who continually takes over the show and speaks to the audience to debunk Amrou's wildly imaginative stories about his life. So the show has a lot to say about the immigrant experience, how it feels to both be queer and to have a queer son, and the strength that comes from getting into drag and putting on a show.

Oozing glittery star power, Glamrou takes the stage with earnest showbiz gratitude, addressing the small Soho Theatre audience as "Wembley" and launching into a moody rendition of Bad Romance, accompanied by two musicians. Glamrou's full-diva attitude is hilarious as she speaks about her boyhood in Baghdad during the British invasion, growing up with an Islamist mother. Then mother takes over, telling the true story of Amrou's wealthy upbringing in Knightsbridge. She also points out the irony that in a Muslim family, Amrou is a man who can do whatever he wants, but he chooses to dress as a woman.

Intriguingly, elements of Amrou and his mother bleed into each other, discovering deeper connections and raising some surprisingly provocative issues. Amrou speaks about his big break as an actor in Spielberg's Munich (2005), then being typecast as a terrorist. This is echoed on a big screen as movie clips and childhood photos are projected alongside some fascinating memorabilia that explores his created backstory, as he felt pushed by teachers to live up to expectations. This intimately address nuanced issues connected to his ethnicity, religion and sexuality.

The juxtaposition of Amrou's fantasist storytelling with his mother's earthier honesty is often unnervingly clever, creating a show that's smart and very silly, but never frivolous. Even a series of musical numbers are performed with shades of personality and attitude, creating moods and feelings the audience doesn't expect. As Amrou continually says, "At 34, I'm in a really good place," but he always feels the flames around him. Indeed, his complex inner life sits alongside both struggles and triumphs. And of course this is something all of us can identify with.

For more, GLAMROU >

21.Jan.25

BFI Flare: Be yourself tonight

One of my favourite festivals each year, the 38th edition of the British Film Institute's Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival kicked off last night with the European premiere of Layla. Over the next 10 days, BFI Southbank is transformed into a lively space with a range of events, club nights and conversations alongside screenings of some of the most diverse movies on earth. Many of these films are impossible to see anywhere else, so I always look forward to discoveries. And it's also fun to reconnect with the gang of "Flare Friends" who gather annually to celebrate this important aspect of the industry. Here's the first collection of highlights, with my usual Critical Week report down below...

Layla
dir-scr Amrou Al-Kadhi; with Bilal Hasna, Louis Greatorex 24/UK ****
With wonderfully loose authenticity, this breezy British drama hones in on the often contradictory nature of being human. Writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi refreshingly resists creating characters who are easy to pigeon-hole, and the situations don't resolve themselves in the tidy ways we have grown to expect on-screen. Instead, the film has some strong things to say about how our self-image is a key factor in our work and relationships. And even more importantly, it's a relentlessly charming movie.

The Summer With Carmen
dir Zacharias Mavroeidis; with Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Andreas Labropoulos 23/Gr ****
An astutely written and directed meta comedy about the nature of filmmaking, this Greek film playfully pokes fun at both itself and low-budget queer movies. Multiple layers of narrative feed together inventively to explore family relationships, friendships, romance, lust and even pet ownership for a group of 30-something guys. And as it knowingly grapples with issues of loyalty and masculinity, the film is warm, funny and very sexy... FULL REVIEW >

Silver Haze
dir-scr Sacha Polak; with Vicky Knight, Esme Creed-Miles 23/UK **.
Beautifully shot like an artful fly-on-the-wall doc and played with remarkable authenticity by a fresh cast, this film is watchable as an observant slice of life. Writer-director Sacha Polak captures the rhythms of British working class situations with plenty of energy, although the plot is so slim that this could have been an effective 20-minute short. There's also a problem with the naturalistic dialog, which is difficult to hear... FULL REVIEW >

Calls From Moscow
dir Luis Alejandro Yero; with Dariel Diaz, Daryl Acuna 23/Cub ****
Shot fly-on-the-wall style, this sharply well-made film follows the lives of four young Cuban men who are living in limbo in wintry Moscow. They have travelled there with hopes of bettering life for themselves and their families back home by hopefully moving into the European Union. But they're stuck here without documents, and being queer in Russia isn't easy. Filmmaker Luis Alejandro Yero takes an unusually artful approach, revealing inner feelings  through overheard conversations, music and silence.

Chasing Chasing Amy
dir Sav Rodgers; with Sav Rodgers, Kevin Smith 23/US ***.
Kevin Smith's 1997 comedy Chasing Amy stars Ben Affleck as a comic writer who falls in love with a lesbian played by Joey Lauren Adams. It's been considered problematic for its gender politics, but filmmaker Sav Rodgers found it inspiring because of its honest depiction of openly queer people. So he made this documentary both to say thank you and to understand why the movie generated so much controversy... FULL REVIEW >

Full reviews will be linked on Shadows' BFI FLARE PAGE >

For festival information, BFI FLARE >

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C R I T I C A L  W E E K

Outside the festival, I also watched Sydney Sweeney as a nun in the delightfully gruesome and camp horror thriller Immaculate; Bill Skarsgard in the mayhem-packed hyperviolent action comedy Boy Kills World; Cate Blanchett as a nun in the gorgeous, powerfully involving Aussie drama The New Boy; Caleb Landry Jones in Luc Besson's enjoyably bonkers but somewhat empty thriller Dogman; Emile Hirsch in the rather messy a psychological thriller State of Consciousness; and the complex, delightful queer romance Glitter & Doom. Live on-stage, there was the gifted New York City Ballet at Sadler's Wells, pointed drama Blue at Seven Dials Playhouse, and Company Wayne McGregor's fascinating Autobiography at Sadler's Wells.

Coming up this week are the blockbuster sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Australian drama Limbo, Irish drama Baltimore. On stage at Sadler's Wells, there's UniVerse, a second Wayne McGregor show, as well as the medieval re-enactment performance Assembly Hall.