Feeling invisible in her bland marriage, Emma moves in with her son, Elliot, who lives in a downtown L.A. loft. Elliot, a young chef, is facing foreclosure on his lackluster Chinese restaurant–and he’s gay. Emma’s disapproval has made strangers of mother and son, but the two need each other now more than ever, as Emma explores her newfound freedom–with the encouragement of a saucy new friend–and Elliot confronts his fears of intimacy. Words may fail them, but they find a common language through food. This auspicious directorial debut from David Au offers a fresh take on life, love and food in the heart of Los Angeles. This deliciously emotional and redemptive story is supported by an endearing cast led by Sharon Omi, Teddy Chen Culver, Nicole Sullivan and a cameo from Star Trek legend George Takei. Description courtesy of Los Angeles Film Festival.

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If you’ve ever found yourself on the outside looking in, then you are probably familiar with the coping strategy of acquiring the identity of a movie character in order to gain legibility within the situation. The central character of Jenni Olson’s mesmerizing essay film is a gender dysphoric, Midwestern tomboy who is drawn to borrowing masculine personas from Hollywood characters as a mode of understanding how to deal with being drawn to unavailable women. A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.

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