Out on DVD for April 3rd

Here are a few of the gay-friendly DVD releases that hit shelves today. "Hit shelves"... isn't that phrase a bit forceful? How about "caress shelves"? "Cuddle shelves"?

3 Needles
While a bit of a meandering muddle, Thom Fitzgerald's earnest and deeply troubling exploration of the global AIDS crisis (told in three stories in three countries) still has an undeniable impact. Perhaps most curious is that the openly bisexual director chose to tell the story of the virus entirely outside of the gay community or "gay experience". Featuring Chloe Sevigny, Olympia Dukakis, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Stockard Channing, and Shawn Ashmore (X-Men). Read our interview with Fitzgerald and Liu for more.

All That Jazz
Bob Fosse wasn't gay (in fact, quite the contrary), but come on -- it's All That Jazz. Roy Scheider ("We're gonna need a bigger boat...") plays Fosse (who directed his own life story -- I bet that was a fun set!), a drug-abusing, womanizing dancer who became one of the most influential forces in the history of musical theater. Jessica Lange and Ann Reinking co-star.

(READ ON for more DVD releases for this week, and some spiffy trailers, too!)

Sun Kissed
Patrick McGuinn's desert-set experimental gay love story boasts male nudity, a dreamlike quality, and music by The Sea and Cake. Haven't seen it, but reviews seem to suggest that if you're willing to turn off your frontal lobe for 90 minutes, you could do worse, eye-candy wise -- and may even get something more out of it.

Volver
Some guys just get better with age -- that's certainly the case for gay Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, whose latest mystery melodrama, Volver, was one of last year's best films. Penelope Cruz reminds us why she appeared on the map in the first place with her luminous performance (she should really do more films in her native tongue -- she's a different actress altogether) and Almodovar's hand has never been more assured. If Hitchcock had an heir apparent, it would be this man, whose deliberate hand, macabre humor, and mastery of storytelling have been honed to perfection by decades of thoughtful, boundary-pushing filmmaking. Effortless, beautiful, and -- despite being one of his "least gay" movies -- not to be missed.