An Accomplished Quartet

Strand Releasing’s 1994 “Boys Life,” a trilogy of short films dealing with a young gay man’s coming of age, was so popular that Strand has assembled a quartet for the equally accomplished and entertaining “Boys Life 2,” which opens a regular run Friday at the Sunset 5.

What’s significant about this group of films is that the filmmakers depict most of their gay characters as mainly indistinguishable in demeanor and appearance from their straight friends, which brings a refreshing breath of reality to their stories.

Opening the program is Nickolas Perry’s wise and amusing “Must Be the Music,” in which a young man (Milo Ventimiglia), who has only recently come to terms with his sexuality, goes out on the town with pals and encounters the man of his dreams at a disco. There are complications that unfold with wry humor.

Tom De Cerchio’s “Nunzio’s Second Cousin,” which is funny and knowing, is a gratifying revenge vignette in which a bunch of would-be gay-bashers make the mistake of wielding a bat at a tough, burly guy (Vincent D’Onofrio) who happens to be a gay Chicago cop. Both of these deft vignettes, the second of which features Eileen Brennan as the cop’s mother, are expertly paced with clever twists.

Mark Christopher’s “Alkali, Iowa,” depicts an American heartland virtually identical to that of “Field of Dreams” in which a husky young farmer (J.D. Cerna) probes into his family’s past--part of his coming to terms with his own sexuality. Mary Beth Hurt plays the farmer’s mother.

The collection’s standout, as it has been in previous programs of short films, is Peggy Rajski’s Oscar-winning “Trevor,” which confronts with a jaunty affection the horrors of puberty for many gay males and boasts a flawless performance by Brett Barsky in the title role.

If there is a complaint to be made of this fine collection it is that, at a 74-minute running time, it could easily have included another film. Information: (213) 848-3500.

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LACMA’s imaginative and comprehensive “Coming to America: Dreams and Reality” series continues Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the museum’s Bing Theater with a wonderful double feature, Joan Micklin Silver’s “Hester Street” (1974) and the silent “Hungry Hearts” (1922).

“Hester Street” is a wry, tender tale of a young immigrant bride (Carol Kane) adjusting to an already “Americanized” bridegroom (Steven Keats) set in a beautifully evoked turn-of-the-century Lower East Side.

With the 1922 silent “Hungry Hearts,” producer Samuel Goldwyn and director E. Mason Hopper had the advantage of telling a story set on the same streets only 12 years earlier. Unfolding within the form of the typically emotionally extravagant silent melodrama, “Hungry Hearts” is nonetheless unsparing in its depiction of the harshness of the timeless immigrant struggle simply to survive. Its key indictment is of the reprehensible exploitation of tenants by slumlords, a condition with which far too many families are familiar even today.

“Hungry Hearts” is adapted from the writings of Anzia Yezierska, who is said to be the first writer to bring stories of American Jewish women to a mainstream audience. The film, an account of a Russian Jewish family newly arrived in America, is rich in realistic details, especially in regard to the family’s grown daughter (Helen Ferguson), who labors mightily to earn enough money to buy American clothes so she can get “an American job” and “be somebody.” Information: (213) 857-6010.

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In 1991, Kate Kline May launched what became a highly successful performing arts project in her children’s own Berkeley elementary school, the racially diverse Malcolm X. Serving as producer-writer, she enlisted Oscar-winning San Francisco documentarians Allie Light and Irving Saraf to help her create the beguiling 48-minute “Shakespeare’s Children” (Sunset 5, Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. starting this weekend).

It was filmed over a 10-week period during which we watch some exceptionally bright and appealing youngsters rehearse “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” under the direction of some gifted teachers. The project inspires self-confidence in the students while encouraging them to think about the differences and contrasts between their own lives and those of Shakespeare’s characters. “Shakespeare’s Children” is well-nigh irresistible. Information: (213) 848-3500.