Inside Out opens with A Kid Like Jake and a lady bear like Fay Slift
28 April 2018

It appears that we can state, hesitantly rather than emphatically, that spring has arrived. For cinephiles, the new season teases the arrival of the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival running Thursday, May 24 to Sunday, June 3. To whet appetites, the festival has announced the opening gala: the Sundance hit A Kid Like Jake.

The comedy/drama headlines the thinking gay man's sex symbol Jim Parsons, with Claire Danes playing his wife. The central dilemma revolves around their child, Jake played by Leo James Davis, who, due to his choices in fashion and playthings, may be trans. The central twist is that his gender choice may be exploitable instead of traumatic, the hook to getting him into an exclusive private school for gifted children. A film focussing on upper-middle class parents reacting to a trans child is suspicious, but the director Silas Howard is trans and has directed episodes of Transparent, so at the least we can expect a solid point of view amongst the popcorn baiting.

Of course the opening gala is followed by the Opening Gala Party, consistently a lavish and dramatic affair. This year there is the tantalizing prospect of a summit of divas. A Kid Like Jake's strong supporting cast - Amy Landecker, Priyanka Chopra and Ann Dowd - also includes the woman most advantageous to have your back when puzzling out sex with a fish or a trans dilemma, Octavia Spencer. Headlining the Opening Gala Party is Fay Slift who is reliably over-the-top fabulous. To be a fly on the wall if those two meet. Of course it is unpredictable as to which stars will show up for the festival and it would also be entertaining to see Slift overwhelm Parsons.

The Opening Gala Party also features a silent auction, a performance by Champagna Enemea, DJ Relentless, and surprise acts. The films that fill the rest of the festival are still cloaked in mystery but will be revealed, along with the official program and schedule, at the Inside Out 2018 Launch Party on Friday, May 4. Also a glamorous and star-studded affair, the launch party is driven by the beats of DJs Ticky Ty and Yes Yes Y'All's Sammy Rawal. Yes, it is definitely spring.