Finding ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes’

Elizabeth Taylor lived the word “ally.” Along with other towering 20th-century women like Judy Garland, Taylor was a friend to the LGBTQ+ community, and in the 1980s she became a fierce advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS. She’s also one of the most well-documented actresses who ever lived, so you might think there’s nothing left to learn. But “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” from documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein (Hillary, American Teen) dives deeply into Taylor’s personal archives and over 70 hours of previously unheard audio interviews, turning her into the film’s guide and narrator as she talks about her career, her marriages and everything else. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, the film will drop on HBO and Max in August.

A Supremes ‘All-You-Can-Eat’ buffet
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, from queer writer-director Tina Mabry, is not a film about the legendary girl group, Motown or Diana Ross. Instead, the upcoming Hulu/Searchlight Pictures project — based on Edward Kelsey Moore’s novel of the same name with a script co-written by Cee Marcellus — centers the joy of women’s friendships. Starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba, it’s the story of three lifelong friends who call themselves “The Supremes,” and who find their relationships tested and life directions examined (presumably at the titular diner). There are some men on the menu, too, with co-stars Mekhi Phifer, Julian McMahon, Russell Hornsby and Vondie Curtis-Hall adding support, but the main course here is going to be the surprising twists and turns of women’s lives. Look for it on Hulu to wind up summer on Aug. 23.

Ellen and Einbinder prep stand-up specials
Two queer comedians, two specials, the first for one, the stated last for the other. Ellen DeGeneres, after the end of her daytime talk show, and following up her 2018 Netflix stand-up special, Relatable, will return to the streaming platform sometime later this year with an as-yet-unnamed special that she says will be her last. She’s a lesbian media pioneer and a comedy legend, so it’s queer law that we watch. And to bait us more, she says she’ll talk about “it” — the controversy over an allegedly toxic workplace culture on her show — and everything else. Not to be missed. Meanwhile, Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go, the first-ever stand-up special from the career-ascendant bisexual Hacks star, recorded last month in Los Angeles, is taking its first bow at June’s Tribeca Film Festival before streaming on Max later this year. Call it passing the queer torch. We can’t wait.

Gregg Araki to direct Olivia Wilde in ‘I Want Your Sex’
Don’t let the title confuse you. It’s not a George Michael biopic. Instead, New Queer Cinema icon Gregg Araki (The Living End, Mysterious Skin) has something on-brand up his sleeve: Olivia Wilde as a sexual Svengali. I Want Your Sex, co-written by Araki and Karley Sciortino (Slutever, Now Apocalypse) follows provocative artist Erika (Wilde) and her protégé, a young man named Elliot, as she turns him into her sexual muse. What follows, as per the official plot synopsis, is a complicated world of limit-smashing domination, desire, obsession and murder. In other words, the ’90s erotic thriller is back, and we couldn’t be happier for the genre to trend all over again. Besides Wilde, the film has yet to lock down a complete cast, but it’s a certainty that sexy roster will show up when shooting begins this summer in Los Angeles.

Romeo San Vicente is ready for all indecent proposals.