TINY BAUBLES

Pre-Pride fun gets going with the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival this Thursday, May 14.  A great opportunity to gather your strength and inspiration for two weeks before a season of patio drinking, this year’s lineup features the familiar grimy indies and foreign delights.  European comedies at this festival tend to get written off as fluff, dismissed for their lighter tone and unassuming manner.  For those who see the majority of films at the festival, these movies represent relief:  somewhere wedged between boring documentaries about hustlers who cut themselves, a bright Spanish comedy about gay parenting like Chef’s Special (May 16, 9:30 pm, Isabel Bader)

complete with a cast straight out of the Almodovar canon, is an oasis.  Matched in tone and theme are the opening gala, Patrik Age 1,5 (May 14, 8pm, Bloor), about a gay couple who accidentally adopt a homophobic teenager, and the centerpiece gala Baby Love (May 19, 9.30 pm, Bader), about a pediatrician willing to sacrifice his relationship in order to become a father.  Patrik is the best of the three, as Baby Love isn’t sure if it’s a comedy and Chef’s Special doesn’t wrap itself up well enough, but the emphasis here is on mood—with the sun finally coming out after what feels like a winter worthy of Narnia, isn’t it the best possible solution to watch a movie that gives you the feeling of having stayed outdoors?  Also worthy of mention:  Cuong Ngo’s delicate, gorgeous The Golden Pin screens as part of Hogtown Homos (Wednesday, May 20, 7.15 pm, Bader), the excellent documentary Ask Not (Saturday, May 16, 12.30pm, ROM), hilarious black comedy Drool (Sunday, May 17, 9.45 pm, Bader) and the archival presentation of the brilliant, Oscar-winning documentary The Times Of Harvey Milk (Friday, May 22, 5.15 pm, Bader).