In honor of gay pride celebrations going on around the country this week, the retro reviewers pour into If These Walls could Talk 2, which stars Ellen DeGeneres, Sharon Stone, Chloë Sevigny, and Michelle Williams.

Everyone liked the film and its examination of the progress queer women have made in the last 50 years. The three different story lines range from the early ‘60s, the swinging ‘70s, and the early 2000s.

Make sure to check back next week when the reviewers pack up for a special beach review of Blue Crush – a movie with enough lesbian subtext (and girls in bikinis) to qualify it as retro-reviewable.

I’ve often thought that there’s a Ph.D. thesis to be written on the overarching effect of the internet on the gay and lesbian community. On the one hand, there’s the fact that the net potentially exposes the gay user to homophobic hate groups spewing more bile than (hopefully) he or she encounters in the real world on the average day. On the other hand, there are communities like ... well, like AfterEllen.com, which mean that you no longer have to live in a big city or be a bar bunny to gain some sort of feeling of belonging to a lesbian community.

And then there’s the phenomenon of the lesbian (or lesbianish) fan video. Fed up with searching for nonexistent out lesbian characters in TV and film, some people just get hold of a film editing program and create their own story lines and emphases out of the raw material provided by the networks.

Which means if I want to see a video that focuses on the subtexty bits between, say, Serena and Blair on Gossip Girl, then it doesn’t take me very long to find one:

And a well-made one at that. Admittedly, there’s a bit more of Blair rolling around with various interchangeable boys than I need to see, but I think this video does a great job of capturing the fact that the most powerful emotional relationship on the show is really between the two girls. Which makes a nice change after all the shows — from Starsky and Hutch to Nip/Tuck — focused on male pairs who secretly seem to need each other more than they really need the inconsequential women who pass between them.

Then there’s this video centered on Andie (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda (Meryl Streep) from The Devil Wears Prada: … continue reading

There's busy, and then there's really busy. And then there's Michelle Williams busy.

Williams has four movies scheduled for release next year. Four? She's so busy, her dance card is even filling up with 2009 releases. The latest casting announcement is that Williams is attached to Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley, and written by Laeta Kalogridis. Kalogridis is adapting the Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) novel. Those names alone promise that many in the industry will keep an eye on the film throughout production and release.

Critics have always considered Michelle Williams to be a solid screen presence, but fully breaking out of the cute teen mold and into a no-I'm-not-just-cute-I-can-actually-act career path is tough. But she is simply acting her way, one movie at a time, into a wonderful film career. … continue reading

Earlier this week, the linster blogged about the Mad Money of Katie Holmes, and now fellow Dawson's Creek alum Michelle Williams is getting her own headlines. Williams will star in Mammoth, the first English-language feature by Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Together).

The Swedish director describes Williams as relaying "intelligence, poise and presence in every character she plays," and I wholeheartedly agree. I'm happy to see her making news for something besides her recent split with Heath Ledger, and not only because it gives me a chance to post pictures of her looking ridiculously adorable — though that is a decided bonus.

No, the main reason I'm happy about this news is that I admire both director and star. I've been watching Williams' career ever since Dick, If These Walls Could Talk 2 and Me Without You proved that she was headed for life after Capeside (I was a devoted if slightly embarrassed Creek fan, but really, not for the acting chops). … continue reading