Amid all of the films of 2005, the one that seemed to get overlooked more than any other was The Dying Gaul. Admittedly, it’s a strange film (arguably all the more reason to see it), but given its kickass cast, it’s amazing it seemed to get past virtually everyone’s radar.

The film is written by Craig Lucas, noted screenwriter behind the controversial AIDS feature Longtime Companion (1990), the play-turned-film Prelude to a Kiss (1992) and Reckless (1995), the surreal fable that star Mia Farrow still calls one of her very best films. In Gaul, Peter Sarsgaard plays a struggling gay screenwriter doing his best to hock his work. Campbell Scott, playing unscrupulous perfectly, is a sleazebag producer who wants to buy Sarsgaard’s latest film, but insists on turning the gay couple at its centre into a straight couple. Sarsgaard’s deal with the devil ends up having some nasty results.

Lucas, of course, was the longtime collaborator (and lover) of Norman René, the filmmaker who died of AIDS in 1996. This film is Lucas’s screenplay-length rant, an obvious diatribe against Hollywood for all its ongoing hypocrisy. Bitterness, of course, can make for some brilliantly caustic writing, and anyone interested in the machinations of the studio system (or online sex chat rooms) will find this film both amusing and engaging.

In slightly more vanilla DVD territory, the fourth season of Bewitched has just been released. In this season (now in colour!), Endora’s outfits got even more garish, and Samantha’s screaming-fag uncle (Paul Lynde) made several more memorable appearances. —Matthew Hays