The "Verzaubert" Film Fest, or, as it is called, the "15. International Queer Film Festival", is over now.

As always, the movie selection on the weekend was less than arresting, but "Verzaubert" more than made up for that with the movies they showed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I watched ( Third Man Out: A Donald Strachey Mystery ) and ( Ethan Mao ) on Monday, ( Everyone ) and ( Adam & Steve ) yesterday, and ( Hate Crime ) today.

"Third Man Out" was quite good, plus it had a ton of eye candy in form of Chad Allen and Sebastian Spence ("Cade Foster" from First Wave), and is the reason I ordered the first book in the series by Stevenson.

"Everyone" felt like a showcase of "Who's the most fucked-up person in this (extended) family? Hey, wait, don't you all raise your hand here!" and left me cold. "Ethan Mao" was surprisingly okay for its subject matter (I had feared the worst) and ended in a dream-like sequence fitting for a fairy tale, plus the New York Times was right - the main leads were painfully cute.

With "Adam & Steve" it took a while until I stopped cringing and started laughing instead. During movies I often (make that usually) groan, roll my eyes and wish myself far away while others laugh themselves silly because other people's funny isn't my funny, but the movie soon stopped dwelling on the guys' horrible 80s hair and the cocaine/baby laxative combination, and turned into... I don't know. Fun with a musical-like interlude, I guess. Sweet.

"Hate Crime" was the undisputed highlight and the festival's one movie I will certainly buy as soon as it's out on DVD. Superb acting, professional cutting and directing, this felt like a movie made for mainstream cinema. Cleverly superimposed scenes from past and present, an unanticipated plot twist, a heart-breaking story and the surprising dedication by its makers to not compromise the movie's story by softening up the ending worked together to raise "Hate Crime" out of the general ordinariness you usually encounter during "Verzaubert". Wow.