AdamAdam has the right to exist—but I do not think it is a good or successful film. Adam has the right to exist—but I would have preferred a few other, better trans-related works of literature chosen to be adapted by major independent film producer James Schamus. Adam has the right to exist—but it is not a film I would implore people to see. In fact, I might even encourage people to skip it. Not out of protest or the symbolism that is ascribed to power in purchasing a movie ticket in support of Lgbtq-related films, but because I do not think this film is worth rallying around or against. As a film, it should and ought to be treated equally like the idealized notion of purchasing a movie ticket: seeing something worth seeing. Adam is not worthless or easily disposable as a whole enterprise, although I...
- 9/11/2019
- MUBI
In “Adam,” a teenager pretends to be trans, and his journey provides a bittersweet gateway to the young man’s sexual awakening. Naturally that arc leads to a whole lot of questions, some of which the movie controls better than others. Some have argued that the very premise of “Adam” yields troubling transphobic implications, going so far as to launch a boycott of the movie well in advance of its release, and those allegations deserve serious attention. But the abject dismissal of the movie on the basis of its premise alone negates the actual mechanics of a narrative that hovers inside a cis male gaze, and charts a path toward its redemption.
“Adam” certainly stimulates a complex dialogue about the biases of its anti-hero and his twisted act of deception. But the thorny representational issue surrounding “Adam” belie its sweet, amiable tone, and there’s much to be appreciated about...
“Adam” certainly stimulates a complex dialogue about the biases of its anti-hero and his twisted act of deception. But the thorny representational issue surrounding “Adam” belie its sweet, amiable tone, and there’s much to be appreciated about...
- 8/14/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
“Adam,” the directorial debut of Rhys Ernst, a producer on Amazon’s “Transparent,” has a lot of first-film problems. It’s overly ambitious, it has too many characters, and it tries to do too much. But there is also a lot here that feels fresh and original, particularly in the first half, which takes in a lot of new territory — both thematic and geographic — with a pleasing light touch.
Most films set in Manhattan don’t capture the flavor and intensity of the city, but “Adam” is an exception. In spite of any budgetary limitations he may have had, Ernst makes sure that this coming-of-age story is alive with specific places and references that fix it in the year 2006.
That’s when 18-year-old virgin Adam (Nicholas Alexander) goes to visit his sister Casey, who lives communal-style in Manhattan, where she goes to school. The posters on the walls of their...
Most films set in Manhattan don’t capture the flavor and intensity of the city, but “Adam” is an exception. In spite of any budgetary limitations he may have had, Ernst makes sure that this coming-of-age story is alive with specific places and references that fix it in the year 2006.
That’s when 18-year-old virgin Adam (Nicholas Alexander) goes to visit his sister Casey, who lives communal-style in Manhattan, where she goes to school. The posters on the walls of their...
- 8/13/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
Adam, named for the first “man,” is a virgin. Awkward, shy, and socially ostracized in his small town, the 17-year-old strikes gold when he’s invited to spend the summer living with his queer older sister in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Finding himself the outsider in an eclectic group of people who run the gamut of the Lgbtq+ alphabet, Adam unwittingly stumbles into a misguided deception when a pretty girl assumes he is trans — and he doesn’t correct her.
Just your typical coming of age story, right?
That’s the premise of “Adam,” the feature filmmaking debut of Rhys Ernst, a queer transgender man whose credits include producing “Transparent” and creating the docu-series “We’ve Been Around.” Backed by powerhouse indie producers James Schamus (“Brokeback Mountain”) and Howard Gertler (“How to Survive a Plague”), the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to warm reviews and is set...
Just your typical coming of age story, right?
That’s the premise of “Adam,” the feature filmmaking debut of Rhys Ernst, a queer transgender man whose credits include producing “Transparent” and creating the docu-series “We’ve Been Around.” Backed by powerhouse indie producers James Schamus (“Brokeback Mountain”) and Howard Gertler (“How to Survive a Plague”), the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to warm reviews and is set...
- 8/7/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
The massive success of Jill Soloway’s “Transparent” offered a foot in the door for many trans actors, writers, and directors to get a first legitimate credit in Hollywood. Episode director Silas Howard directed Octavia Spencer in “A Kid Like Jake”; writer Our Lady J is a writer and producer on “Pose”; and actress Trace Lysette’s star is about to reach new heights when she appears opposite Jennifer Lopez in “Hustlers.”
Now, we can add Rhys Ernst to the list of trans Hollywood elite to come out of the school of Soloway. A visual artist and filmmaker, Ernst makes his feature filmmaking debut with “Adam,” a Ya romantic-comedy with an unusual twist.
The movie, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, packs a number of rising stars in its ranks. Margaret Qualley, who will next appear in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” costars in the film,...
Now, we can add Rhys Ernst to the list of trans Hollywood elite to come out of the school of Soloway. A visual artist and filmmaker, Ernst makes his feature filmmaking debut with “Adam,” a Ya romantic-comedy with an unusual twist.
The movie, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, packs a number of rising stars in its ranks. Margaret Qualley, who will next appear in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” costars in the film,...
- 7/22/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Wolfe Releasing has taken U.S. rights to director Rhys Ernst’s coming-of-age comedy Adam starring Nicholas Alexander (I Love You Phillip Morris), Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Leo Sheng, Chloë Levine (The Oa) and Margaret Qualley.
In the film, awkward teen Adam (Alexander) spends his last high school summer in New York City with his big sister, Casey (Qualley), who throws herself into the city’s lesbian and trans activist scene. When Casey’s friend Gillian (Menuez) mistakes Adam for a transgender man at a party, he must keep up a charade to win over the girl of his dreams. Adam and those around him experience love, friendship and hard truths during the Summer of 2006.
The film made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released theatrically this summer. Adam also features performances...
In the film, awkward teen Adam (Alexander) spends his last high school summer in New York City with his big sister, Casey (Qualley), who throws herself into the city’s lesbian and trans activist scene. When Casey’s friend Gillian (Menuez) mistakes Adam for a transgender man at a party, he must keep up a charade to win over the girl of his dreams. Adam and those around him experience love, friendship and hard truths during the Summer of 2006.
The film made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released theatrically this summer. Adam also features performances...
- 5/19/2019
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Set in the summer of 2006, Rhys Ernst’s feature directorial debut, “Adam,” takes a story with some familiar themes — coming of age, understanding one’s sexuality, falling in love for the first time — and twists them into some interesting new shapes. Based on Ariel Schrag’s novel of the same name, the film also finds new ways to explore ideas in serious need of freshening, like the “trans deception trope” that Ernst was eager to buck. The film follows the eponymous Adam (Nicholas Alexander), a cisgender teenage boy who joins his cool older sister in New York City during one pivotal summer. His sibling his heavily involved in the Lgbt scene, and when Adam is mistaken for a young trans guy, he goes with it — especially because it allows him to spend more time with a young lesbian who might not be so inclined if she knew his actual status.
- 2/5/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
There’s a specific kind of warm, crowd-pleasing aesthetic–often in the coming-of-age subgenre–that seems to find a home among the Sundance programming more so than any other festival. A few years ago, Sean Baker’s Tangerine heralded a major breakthrough for transgender representation in cinema and broke this mold in formally compelling ways. For better or worse, Adam has now arrived to fit more in the aforementioned lighthearted, simplistic, but ultimately empathetic dramedy conceit.
Directed by Rhys Ernst and written by Ariel Schrag (based on her own 2014 novel), the film follows Adam (Nicholas Alexander), a sheltered high schooler who spends the summer of 2006 with his sister Casey (Margaret Qualley), who is immersed in Brooklyn’s Lgbtq+ community. As they jump around from queer bars to The L Word viewing parties to marriage equality rallies to S&M clubs, Adam’s understanding of sexual identity gets expanded, particularly so when...
Directed by Rhys Ernst and written by Ariel Schrag (based on her own 2014 novel), the film follows Adam (Nicholas Alexander), a sheltered high schooler who spends the summer of 2006 with his sister Casey (Margaret Qualley), who is immersed in Brooklyn’s Lgbtq+ community. As they jump around from queer bars to The L Word viewing parties to marriage equality rallies to S&M clubs, Adam’s understanding of sexual identity gets expanded, particularly so when...
- 1/26/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Classic comedy of errors ingredients like mistaken identity, gender reversal and an unintended deception that takes on a life of its own get dropped into an early-2000s Brooklyn queer hipster community in Adam. Directed by Transparent producer Rhys Ernst and adapted by Ariel Schrag from her provocative Ya novel, the film flirts knowingly with cultural insensitivity by focusing on a straight male teenager using gender subterfuge to make romantic progress with a Titian-haired lesbian goddess. But he's called out on his creepy cluelessness just in time. It also helps that he's played by Nicholas Alexander in a performance of such ...
- 1/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Classic comedy of errors ingredients like mistaken identity, gender reversal and an unintended deception that takes on a life of its own get dropped into an early-2000s Brooklyn queer hipster community in Adam. Directed by Transparent producer Rhys Ernst and adapted by Ariel Schrag from her provocative Ya novel, the film flirts knowingly with cultural insensitivity by focusing on a straight male teenager using gender subterfuge to make romantic progress with a Titian-haired lesbian goddess. But he's called out on his creepy cluelessness just in time. It also helps that he's played by Nicholas Alexander in a performance of such ...
- 1/25/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance has always been pretty gay. Whether the festival was supporting queer filmmakers to lead the indie film boom of the ’90s, ushering in the dawn of the New Queer Cinema, or unofficially partnering with OutFest to share programmers and titles, Park City has always been fertile ground in which Lgbtq cinema can thrive. This year brings fewer solely queer offerings than previous years, but the program still has plenty to look forward to.
This year’s program marks the first in Kim Yutani’s new role as director of programming. Formerly a senior programmer for the festival, Yutani began her career at OutFest, where she lived and breathed queer films in her roles as artistic director and director of programming. Yutani reports to festival director John Cooper, another out and gay power player in independent film.
When Sundance released its first round of programming, it boasted that 40 percent, or...
This year’s program marks the first in Kim Yutani’s new role as director of programming. Formerly a senior programmer for the festival, Yutani began her career at OutFest, where she lived and breathed queer films in her roles as artistic director and director of programming. Yutani reports to festival director John Cooper, another out and gay power player in independent film.
When Sundance released its first round of programming, it boasted that 40 percent, or...
- 1/23/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Last year’s Next section offerings gave us Madeline’s Madeline, Night Comes On, Search and We the Animals. This year we have Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Premature (see pic above), Tayarisha Poe’s Selah and the Spades and Alistair Banks Griffin’s The Wolf Hour. Easily our favorite section at the fest, here are the ten titles:
Adam / U.S.A. — Awkward teenager Adam arrives to spend his final high school summer with his older sister, who has thrown herself into New York City’s lesbian and trans activist scene. Over the summer, Adam and those around him experience love, friendship, and attendant hard truths in this coming-of-age comedy.…...
Adam / U.S.A. — Awkward teenager Adam arrives to spend his final high school summer with his older sister, who has thrown herself into New York City’s lesbian and trans activist scene. Over the summer, Adam and those around him experience love, friendship, and attendant hard truths in this coming-of-age comedy.…...
- 11/28/2018
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
A project that once had Desiree Akhavan attached to direct, Adam would land in the lap of “This Is Me” and “Transparent” producer-director Rhys Ernst somewhere in 2017. Ernst who has been, forgive the pun, trans-parent in his own life (read his remarkable story here) would be returning to Park City — as his 2012 short shot on 16mm The Thing was an official selection. Adapted from Ariel Schrag’s comic novel which NYTimes describes as “a bewildered teen-ager suddenly immersed in New York’s post-collegiate lesbian and queer hipster scene,” production would have taken place sometime last year. Established indie it personality Margaret Qualley is joined by potential breakout star Nicholas Alexander.…...
- 11/20/2018
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.
For the vast majority of female filmmakers, the second-film slump is real. Getting that first movie made might sound like the biggest challenge for any fledgling filmmaker, but for so many women in the industry, turning first film buzz into new opportunities is an uphill battle that few can win. For “Appropriate Behavior” filmmaker and star Desiree Akhavan, the realization that her status as a festival darling wasn’t going to automatically translate into a huge Hollywood career came hard. Good thing she didn’t really want that anyway.
“Because I had only made one feature and I was a woman, I didn’t have the best opportunities,” Akhavan told IndieWire. “It’s crazy when I think of men who premiere a first film at Sundance and then get offered franchises. That was not happening to me,...
For the vast majority of female filmmakers, the second-film slump is real. Getting that first movie made might sound like the biggest challenge for any fledgling filmmaker, but for so many women in the industry, turning first film buzz into new opportunities is an uphill battle that few can win. For “Appropriate Behavior” filmmaker and star Desiree Akhavan, the realization that her status as a festival darling wasn’t going to automatically translate into a huge Hollywood career came hard. Good thing she didn’t really want that anyway.
“Because I had only made one feature and I was a woman, I didn’t have the best opportunities,” Akhavan told IndieWire. “It’s crazy when I think of men who premiere a first film at Sundance and then get offered franchises. That was not happening to me,...
- 10/27/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Appropriate Behavior director Desiree Akhavan has been tapped to helm Adam, the film based on the novel by Ariel Schrag, who also adapted the screenplay. Howard Gertler will produce with Symbolic Exchange's James Schamus and Joe Pirro serves as executive producer. Production is expected to begin in late Spring of next year. Set in 2006 Brooklyn, the coming-of- age comedy tells the story of an awkward teenager who goes to spend his final summer of high school…...
- 11/29/2016
- Deadline
Each month Boris Kachka will offer nonfiction and fiction book recommendations, and you should read as many of them as possible because they are all worth it. 1. The Fever, by Megan Abbott (Little Brown, June 17)The writer of stylish mysteries returns to the teen-noir milieu of her last novel, Dare Me, with a story loosely based on a recent case of mass hysterical illness in upstate New York. The new novel subtly evokes the creepy atmospherics of Twin Peaks or the more recent (and apropos) Top of the Lake.2. Adam, by Ariel Schrag (Mariner, June 10)The lesbian graphic memoirist, a successor to Alison Bechdel, breaks out with a novel somewhat conventional in form — California boy crashes with sister in Bushwick, comes of age, and falls in love — but completely radical in capturing the gender blur of 2014 gay New York. Adam, you see, is repeatedly mistaken for trans, and decides to...
- 6/6/2014
- by Boris Kachka
- Vulture
(In honor of Banned Books Week (September 30-October 6, 2012) we are reprinting this list from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and will be reprinting lots of stuff from them over the coming week to highlight their efforts. Donate now! —Cm)
Banned Books Week is upon us, and it’s telling that the event is more relevant than ever in its 30th year. Given their visual nature and the rampantly held misconception that comic books are for children, comics are among the most challenged and banned books in libraries and schools. Let’s take a look at some frequently challenged and banned comics…
Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna
• Location of key challenge: A middle-school library in Millard, Nebraska
• Reason challenged: Sexual overtones
The parent of a 6-year-old who checked out the book filed a complaint and took the story to the media...
Banned Books Week is upon us, and it’s telling that the event is more relevant than ever in its 30th year. Given their visual nature and the rampantly held misconception that comic books are for children, comics are among the most challenged and banned books in libraries and schools. Let’s take a look at some frequently challenged and banned comics…
Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna
• Location of key challenge: A middle-school library in Millard, Nebraska
• Reason challenged: Sexual overtones
The parent of a 6-year-old who checked out the book filed a complaint and took the story to the media...
- 9/30/2012
- by Betsy Gomez
- Comicmix.com
The producers behind great queer-themed films like Boys Don't Cry and Hedwig and the Angry Inch are working with lesbian comic artist Ariel Schrag on the movie adaptation of her book, Potential. Killer Films (which is home to out producer Christine Vachon) are working with Ariel (who also used to write for The L Word) to create the film version of the 2000 comic/graphic novel, which chronicled her life as an out lesbian in the eleventh grade.
Queer writer and Sister Spit creator Michelle Tea posted an interview with Ariel on the Sfmoma blog today, giving us some insight into what's going on with the production of Potential. Ariel told Tea, "It’s moving along! We just got a great new producer, Jamin O’Brien. Rose Troche is directing and she’s amazing. I love working with her. We’re hoping to shoot this spring."
With so many lesbians at the helm,...
Queer writer and Sister Spit creator Michelle Tea posted an interview with Ariel on the Sfmoma blog today, giving us some insight into what's going on with the production of Potential. Ariel told Tea, "It’s moving along! We just got a great new producer, Jamin O’Brien. Rose Troche is directing and she’s amazing. I love working with her. We’re hoping to shoot this spring."
With so many lesbians at the helm,...
- 11/11/2009
- by Trish Bendix
- AfterEllen.com
Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag
By Ariel Schrag
Touchstone, April 2009, $16
One of the nice things about reviewing for ComicMix is that people send you things that I would otherwise not consider reading or watching. Such is the case with Likewise, an autobiographical graphic novel by Ariel Schrag. She began illustrating tales of her life while a ninth grader and had previous published Awkward and Definition and Potential, the latter having been nominated for an Eisner Award, and is currently being developed into a major motion picture with Schrag herself handling the screenplay. Her writing about her growing up an active lesbian also led her to be a writer on the third and fourth seasons of Showtime’s The L Word.
Likewise, a 360-page work is dedicated entirely to her turbulent senior year in high school. It definitely felt like I was coming in on the middle...
By Ariel Schrag
Touchstone, April 2009, $16
One of the nice things about reviewing for ComicMix is that people send you things that I would otherwise not consider reading or watching. Such is the case with Likewise, an autobiographical graphic novel by Ariel Schrag. She began illustrating tales of her life while a ninth grader and had previous published Awkward and Definition and Potential, the latter having been nominated for an Eisner Award, and is currently being developed into a major motion picture with Schrag herself handling the screenplay. Her writing about her growing up an active lesbian also led her to be a writer on the third and fourth seasons of Showtime’s The L Word.
Likewise, a 360-page work is dedicated entirely to her turbulent senior year in high school. It definitely felt like I was coming in on the middle...
- 8/20/2009
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
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