ABOVE: You'll want the hard copy.
BELOW: Keep reading for Bautista vs. Pacquaio, a gay Housewives drama and more ...
ABOVE: You'll want the hard copy.
BELOW: Keep reading for Bautista vs. Pacquaio, a gay Housewives drama and more ...
ABOVE: Denzel, one of the more talented Mantiques of the Day.
ABOVE: I'm thankful for peeks.
ABOVE: What a beauty. Been 18 years since he died already!
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ABOVE: For Halloween, I'm going as Lockie Brownlie's treasure trail.
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In our personality-saturated society, documentaries have an increasingly heavy lift. After all, we all already volunteer our own self-documentaries on a daily basis via social media. What is there left to learn about public figures in an age of TMI?
Enter the documentaries Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It and Mayor Pete, films attempting to unpack a trailblazing star of stage and screen and a trailblazing political dynamo.
Puttin' on the ritz (Image via American Masters)
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, directed by Mariem Pérez Riera, offers an intimate peek at Moreno's life as she anticipates her 90th birthday, including a generous sampling of her incredible career across multiple platforms. But in spite of appearing in such classics as Singin' in the Rain (1952), The King and I (1956) and West Side Story (1961), she struggled against being cast as natives, her skin darkened and imaginary accents summoned to placate white audiences. After her Oscar, Moreno was not offered meaty movie parts, so expanded into theater and TV. Though she took parts in other media simply to keep working, the move helped her secure a coveted EGOT.
The film competently explores the racial injustice over which Moreno triumphed — perhaps those irked at her recent lack of outrage over In the Heights casting controversy will learn why pragmatism inhabits the same space as a sense of outrage in Moreno's world — but excels in airing Moreno's previously unvoiced remembrances of being sexually exploited, including being raped by her own agent. To hear her, in her own words, recall keeping him as her agent after the assault simply because he was helping her is gripping.
ABOVE: I'm a *little* bitter that Andrew is the best-looking person I actually know — and has only gotten better.
BELOW: Keep reading for Chic Full Gay, the nicest thighs you've ever seen and more ...