Fabulous Outfest Los Angeles

Nearly 200 LGBTQ short and feature-length films from around the world will be screened during Outfest 2017. That would be a lot of celluloid if movies were still released in non-digital formats.

Running Thursday, July 6 through Sunday, July 16 at various venues in and around Los Angeles, the annual festival will be more tremendous than ever thanks to its roster of local premieres.

Outfest began way back in 1982, as a three-day media conference on the campus of UCLA. Now, 35 years later, it is the largest LGBTQ film fest in the
world and the largest of the many film festivals that take place in L.A. each year. 40,000 attendees, filmmakers, community leaders and other bigwigs (in some cases literally, such as people actually wearing big wigs during the screening of "Suspiciously Large Woman: Bob the Drag Queen" comedy special, Monday, July 10) who participate in Outfest's plentiful screenings, panels and parties.

Caftans might actually be fashionable this year thanks to the Wednesday, July 12 debut of "The Fabulous Allan Carr." While his name may be unfamiliar to the under-40 crowd, plenty of us "more mature" gays recall the flamboyant producer of such big-screen musicals as "Grease," "Grease 2" and "Can't Stop the Music," as well as the original Broadway production of "La Cage aux Folles." Award-winning documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz (who previously made "Vito," "I Am Divine" and "Tab Hunter Confidential") crafted this loving expose of Carr, who also helmed the notorious 1989 Academy Awards ceremony before his untimely death at the age of 62.

"Growing up I was totally obsessed with the movie 'Grease,' which came out when I was nine years old," Schwarz confessed to me via email. "Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a visionary producer responsible for making all this magic happen and his name was Allan Carr."

Schwarz continued: "I was delighted to discover Robert Hofler's Allan Carr biography "Party Animals," and knew right away it had all the elements I look for when choosing a subject. A film adaptation would tie together themes of all my previous documentaries, [which are] stories of visionary mavericks who create larger than life personas to make their dreams a reality; all are stories of outsiders becoming insiders."

Carr became a multi-millionaire with "Grease," which remained the most successful live-action movie musical from 1978 until this year's "Beauty and the Beast." Sadly, he lost much of his fortune, not to mention his reputation, just two years later when he produced the uber-campy Village People biopic, "Can't Stop the Music." "The challenge with 'The Fabulous Allan Carr' was to look beyond the caricature and explore the inner life of a complicated, contradictory man," Schwarz said.

Schwarz was able to secure the on-camera participation of many of Carr's friends and collaborators, such as Bruce Vilanch, Lorna Luft, Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, Maxwell Caulfield and more. "So many people wanted to be part of this film because they loved Allan, but there were also some who wanted to make sure we saw him as a human being with his own faults and insecurities," according to Schwarz. "Everyone we spoke to helped present a portrait of a man whose mission in life was to make people happy, but happiness in his own personal life was sometimes elusive."

I found "The Fabulous Allan Carr" revelatory in addition to just plain entertaining, and can't recommend it enough. Beyond Outfest, people can follow the film on its Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on
allancarrmovie.com.

The term fabulous can also be applied to Billy Bloom, the central character of "Freak Show." Based on James St. James' acclaimed novel, "Freak Show" will serve as this year's Closing Night Gala screening on Sunday, July 16. Making the comedy-drama even more noteworthy is a rare big-screen appearance by newly-anointed Tony Award-winner Bette Midler as Billy's eccentric mother. Laverne Cox and Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine" herself, are also featured.

Billy (played by the extraordinary Alex Lawther) unexpectedly finds himself shipped off to live with his conservative father. His new high school, Ulysses S. Grant Academy, doesn't take well to Billy's larger-than-life personality and fashion sense. Just when all seems lost, he finds a friend in the school's super-cute star football player, who is secretly a budding artist. Newly empowered, Billy goes up against Breslin's bitchy Bible-thumper for the title of Homecoming Queen. "Freak Show" is a visually dazzling crowd-pleaser, thanks to the participation of legendary cinematographer Dante Spinotti ("Beaches," "The Mirror Has Two Faces" and "L.A. Confidential," among many other credits).

Speaking of visually dazzling, there are probably no two more gorgeous men to be found on screen during Outfest than out actor Russell Tovey (of "Looking" and "Pride" fame) and Arinze Kene ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"). They co-star in "The Pass," screening Friday, July 7, as fellow pro athletes who end up having a complicated relationship. It is a thoroughly unpredictable, ultimately bittersweet romance, and it doesn't hurt that both in-shape actors are minimally dressed throughout.

This year's festival isn't without a fabulous, gay movie musical! "Hello Again" is a polysexual song and dance saga adapted from Michael John LaChiusa's celebrated off-Broadway show. The film has its L.A. premiere Tuesday, July 11. An all-star cast including Martha Plimpton, Audra McDonald, T.R. Knight, Rumer Willis (especially good) and Cheyenne Jackson, playing an assortment of intertwined lovers who cross paths over the course of twelve decades. Tom Gustafson, who helmed the 2008 Outfest hit "Were the World Mine," directs.

Opening night Thursday, July 6, will feature the L.A. premiere of Sundance award winner "God's Own Country," a love story between a British sheep farmer and a Romanian migrant worker. Also, openly gay TV producer Bryan Fuller ("American Gods," "Hannibal" and "Pushing Daisies") will be presented with the 2017 Outfest Achievement Award.

Outfest 2017 is going to be fabulous, with hundreds of films short and long to choose from. For the full festival schedule or to purchase tickets, go to outfest.org