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He’s ill-equipped to be a parent, with Alysia almost drowning in a pool, exposed to rampant drug use, and climbing into bed with her father’s naked lovers. Yet he instills in her independence, though as she grows older she really just wants a normal childhood and resents her father’s narcissistic deficiencies and absence during critical life transitions such as when she gets her period.

Alysia is played wonderfully by two actresses, eight-year-old Nessa Dougherty and teen Emilia Jones. Kudos for the long overdue return of the marvelous Geena Davis as Alysia’s grandmother not too thrilled with Steve’s parenting.

The film is sure to bring back joyful and sad nostalgic memories for older San Franciscan audiences, reminding us there are also many straight survivors of HIV as there are queer ones.

Nearly 40 years after his death, enough time has passed so we can get a more rounded inci- sive portrait of actor Rock Hudson’s impact in the new HBO documentary, “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed,” rather than as just an AIDS martyr. Using archival footage and interviews with friends and colleagues, the film covers the breadth of Hudson’s professional span from leading man romantic star (best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in “Giant”) to character actor at the end. Despite being gay, the doc is unequivocal that had Hudson come out, his career would have been destroyed. Hudson was a reluctant AIDS activist, only revealing he had the then terminal illness when the media circled their wagons around him, though he embraced the role in his final days, leading to enhanced public awareness about the disease.

From the beginning when he was mentored professionally and personally (via the male casting couch) by his gay Svengali agent/manager

Henry Willson, Hudson really had little choice throughout his career and paid an emotional price for remaining in the closet. This winning documentary also implies not much has changed in Hollywood for romantic leading actors, who to this day, are still too scared to come out as gay.

In their press release, Frameline mentions that one of the messages popping up in several films this year are messy queers behaving badly. Two films so far embody this paradox, one semi-successful, the other not. “Cora Bora” features a poly bisexual singer/musician whose life and career is in freefall, played by queer comedy personality Megan Stalter (“Hacks”) in a bold bid for star status. A failure in Portland, she heads for LA in a bid to rejuvenate her fledgling club career.

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