Horses are good company -- The Witcher

The Secret Life of Bees, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

I liked this: lots of women, lots of Black characters, beautiful cinematography. The first few minutes are emotionally rough, though, and it needs content warnings.

Lily is a 14-year-old white kid living in the Jim Crow-era South. Her father is abusive, and her mother is dead. When the hired woman, Rosaleen, gets beat up and arrested in front of Lily, she plans a rescue and escape. Rosaleen and Lily make their way to a safe haven, a pink house where three Black women are living independently and making honey.

Content notes: suicide, child abuse, racist abuse, gun violence, kidnapping

Starring: Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Dakota Fanning. I got this out from the library.

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Free Fall / Freier Fall, German with English Subtitles. Hulu.

A beautifully shot, quiet movie about two cops who fall in love. The main conflict is that Marc has a pregnant girlfriend, and he thinks he's straight, all while having an affair with his male co-worker Kay. The two actors have great chemistry and the sex scenes are really good. There are lots of longing glances and forbidden trysts. This is a low-dialog movie where much is shown rather than spoken.

The last 15 minutes were unnecessary, and could have been cut out; they were just slow angsty scenes where Marc realizes he's fucked up his life, and it went on too long. So, it's not a happy ending. There was a crowd-funding campaign for a sequel, but who knows if that will ever happen.

Content notes: lots of smoking, drug use, cheating, sex that is under-discussed and probably does not involve condoms.

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Fast Girls. A British sports movie that I got out from the library. This is family-friendly and heart-warming, just a nice movie starring lots of Black women. Shania is poor, Black, basically an orphan, has a hot temper, and she's extremely talented at sprinting. She gets recruited to run relay, where her rivalry with rich-girl Lisa flares up. They have some strong Harry/Draco energy, but of course the movie has an unnecessary hetero relationship with an awkward white dude, extremely in the vein of Bend it Like Beckham.

The main problem with this is that the sound mixing is TERRIBLe, and there were no subtitles on the library DVD. The British accents and the background noise made certain parts impossible to hear.

Content notes: drinking

Portrait of a Lady on Fire - 2019 - on Hulu in US
French with English subtitles

Wow! This film is incredible. Marianne, an artist hired to paint a portrait, arrives at a wind-blown island. Her subject is Héloïse, a young woman soon to be married; the portrait is for her betrothed. Héloïse is resistant to marriage, and thus will not sit for a portrait. Thus Marianne pretends to be a walking companion, and studies her subject covertly, until she can finish the painting.

There are just 4 main characters, all of them women; men hardly speak in the film. There is little dialog: this film is very visual, with long shots of womens' faces. The camera holds us in the scene, makes us wait, encourages us to look with Marianne's eyes.

Spoilers below the cut....


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Trying to catch up and log all the things I've seen lately! The TLDR of this post is I recommend watching "Weird City", episode 1, on YouTube and I anti-rec "LOEV" on Netflix.

Concussion (not the Will Smith film) - Netflix.

A lesbian housewife, Abby, gets a concussion and begins to realize that she can't stand her life. Her wife doesn't want to have sex with her, she's fed up with her kids, etc. So, she hires a couple of sex workers. Then she decides to become a sex worker and she sees clients in a studio apartment that she is renovating.

I haven't seen a movie with this premise before, and I enjoyed the parts where she was seeing clients, mostly because she was really enjoying the work. Abby wants to have hook-ups but in a way she can control. A way that has rules and parameters. There are only 2 men in this film and I don't think they talk to each other!

This is a slow movie, especially in the beginning, and badly lit. The ending is ambiguous. The culture that Abby is a part of consists of wealthy white suburbanites (perhaps in Connecticut or New Jersey), and the people around her are pretty insufferable. They are bored and all they can think of to do with their time is to exercise constantly and re-decorate their houses.

I enjoyed the novelty of this story. At times it was frustrating that Abby did such a bad job communicating with her wife.

Content notes: none that I can think of.

LOEV - Netflix.

In Mumbai, two old friends, Sahil and Jai, reconnect and go on vacation for a weekend. I was digging this story due to the beautiful landscapes and what seemed to be a developing romance. I especially enjoyed watching Sahil (Dhruv Ganesh), who is fine-boned with big eyes and a lovely singing voice.

But then towards the end of the film, one of the friends rapes the other. This is unexpected and gross and the consequences are not dealt with. In retrospect this colors the whole film. The young men teasing each other and goading each other into doing things ("I insist you play the guitar", etc)-- makes it seem like they don't take consent seriously.

Sadly Dhruv Ganesh died shortly after this film was made, and was only in 5 films.

This is an anti-rec, sadly, though I enjoyed the first part of the movie.

Weird City - YouTube

This is a anthology-type show (think Black Mirror, but comedy) where the setting is a near-future city. The rich people live above the line, the poor below.

Episode 1, "The One"

Fan favorite Dylan O'Brien plays Stu, a young man looking for love. He signs up for a service that is supposed to match him with his One True soulmate. The person who shows up at the door is Burt, played by Ed O'Neill (Modern Family). Both men are taken aback-- both were expecting their soul mate to be a woman-- but decide to go get some food. They find out they have a lot in common, and they fall in love.

This was a breath of fresh air after the somewhat dreary gay movies I've been watching. Absurd, funny, and warm, this tale is about finding love in unexpected places. It packs a lot into just 30 minutes. LeVar Burton has a small role. Co-written by Jordan Peele.

Highly recommended! No content notes.

Those People - Netflix

This film focuses on a sort of love triangle between Charlie, a young painter, his best friend Sebastian, and his new love interest Tim. Charlie has loved Sebastian for years, but nothing has ever happened between them. He meets Tim, a somewhat older man, and tries to navigate this new relationship. Very much in the same vein as "Queer as Folk" season one-- Charlie even looks like Michael, the nerdy gay center of QaF. So, it's familiar territory in that regard.

It's relatable to have trouble sorting out your feelings about friends vs. lovers, and experiencing torn loyalties. However, Charlie and Sebastian are trust-fund Manhattan elites, which... I had trouble caring, though I did get past my anti-rich-people prejudice. The film had its moments. I loved Haaz Sleiman as Tim, a Lebanese concert pianist (you may know him from Season 1 of Nurse Jackie). He's magnetic and beautiful. Jason Ralph, who is on "The Magicians" plays Sebastian, who is at a crisis point in his life. I loved the scene between Sebastian and his father. I liked that the main character is Jewish and his boyfriend is Lebanese.

These nods to diversity, though, are undercut by a Halloween scene, in which a side character goes to the bar wearing a feather headdress. Gross.

This was kind of a meh movie for me, partly because I have little patience for love triangle-type stories. The Michael/Brian dynamic on Queer as Folk was never my favorite part of that show.

Content notes: suicide, drinking

Alex Strangelove - on Netflix

This is a cute teen comedy about a boy who is trying to be straight and must eventually accept that he's not. Alex loves his girlfriend, and she wants to have sex. He's trying to work up to doing so. Meanwhile, he meets Elliot, an out gay guy, at a party. The acting and production values are good, and there are some genuinely funny and moving moments. The actor who plays Elliot is also in the YouTube series The Gay and Wondrous life of Caleb Gallo.

This is a teen sex comedy, and has some crude language and embarrassing scenes. I was uncomfortable with the character Dell, who seems to be the sort of person who crosses boundaries and doesn't care. In particular, Dell and his friends use some transmisic language, of the sort that centers identity around penises or lack thereof. He also makes a statement about girls having "ultimate power" over him.

Overall I enjoyed this! Content notes for drug use and vomiting.

The Meg

If you want a silly shark movie with Jason Statham, this is for you. I enjoyed the heck out of it, particularly because there are multiple women who get to do science and cool shit, and they all live to tell about it.

Content notes: human and animal deaths.

Melissa McCarthy and Richard Grant are so great in this rather literary movie that can be summed up with the popular phrase, "Be gay, do crimes."

McCarthy plays queer author Lee Israel, an writer of biographies whose career is faltering. She has no money, her cat is sick, and her agent won't return her calls. Isreal is a unrepentant alcoholic, and at a bar she befrieds Jack Hock, an aging gay man who shares her acerbic sense of humor and love of pranks. They are an absolute delight to watch.

Israel discovers that she has a talent for forging letters from famous people such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, and that she can sell these letters for hundreds of dollars each. Suddenly her bills are paid and she can afford to eat at restaurants. She eventually recruits Jack to help her.

This is a quiet movie focused on Israel's troubles and her humor and her friendship with Jack. It was so incredibly refreshing to see people on screen that looked like real people. There are multiple fat women, multiple older people, etc. Israel wears what look like second-hand lesbian styles. It's also incredibly rare to see a story like this that is about queer people but isn't about a romantic relationship or trauma. I can't even think of another one. This film is a gem. Based on a true story.

Content notes: heavy drinking, drugs, the cat eventually dies. Rated R mostly for language as far as i can tell.

Trying to catch up on logging the queer movies I've watched!

Bar Bahar, In Between, 2016. Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles in English and French.

"Three Palestinian women living in an apartment in Tel Aviv try to find a balance between traditional and modern culture."

I liked a lot of things about this independent film, which is about 3 women who are roommates and become good friends. One of them is a lesbian. One is a very independent lawyer. The newest roommate is a traditional woman who is engaged, and also a student at university. The acting is good and I was interested in their lives. Ultimately I can't recommend this film, though, because it has a fairly graphic rape scene. The ending also felt like somewhat of a downer.

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, Netflix, documentary.

This was a very warm and loving portrait of the famous gay author. I found it restful to watch.

I really enjoyed seeing the film Colette this weekend. The acting was superb, the outfits were gorgeous, and the story was interesting.

Kiera Knightley plays the famous French author. Dominic West does a great job playing Willy, her husband. Willy is complicated and largely unlikeable, a bad husband, but what is so well done here is that we see why Colette likes him: they have chemistry, he's exciting and she likes excitement, he can be funny and charming. He's a famous writer and his name is his brand. She becomes one of his ghost writers, writing semi-autobiographical books which become a huge hit. Willy takes all the credit, and does other odious things like cheating and gambling.

Colette eventually outgrows Willy. She has an affair with a woman, and later forms a long-term relationship with a trans man played by Denise Gough. I loved their relationship and this portrayal, though I wish they had cast an out trans or non-binary actor in this role.

This story wasn't really about Colette's queerness. Her queerness was just a given. She didn't struggle with it. What she struggled with, was her marriage to and her feelings for Willy. I think most of us can relate to these feelings of loving someone who is ultimately bad for you, and of learning to value yourself enough to recognize it and step away.

Sovay recommends God's Own Country in a beautifully written review:

https://sovay.dreamwidth.org/984559.html

I watched this today, via netflix. I loved it more than I can rightly say. This film speaks to me particularly; I grew up on a sheep farm, though we were hobbyists and not depending on the farm for money. And I grew up queer. The scenes with the sheep and the cows are so real. There is a technique for "dropping" a sheep that I learned from the man who came to shear our flock. (Shearing is a specialized skill.) You put your thumb in the ewe's mouth and turn her head back toward her body. She'll fall down and then you can lift her up by the front legs with her butt on the ground, so the shearer can handle her easily. I saw Johnny use this technique in the film. That is just one example of the accuracy.

There are clear parallels to Brokeback Mountain, another film about queer sheperds, but GOC is better: there is a happy ending, little homophobia, little violence. It is, as sovay says, about bodies: the human body as an animal body. The body's uses and limitations and pleasures.

Content note for animal death in the context of farming.

My plan to cheer myself up by seeing a movie last night absolutely worked. "Call Me by Your Name" was soothing, beautiful; sort of a gentle balm.

The story takes place in Northern Italy during the summer, and the camera lingers on fruit trees, open windows, green fields, and people wearing tiny shorts and open, light shirts. A great film to see in the depths of winter. The landscape felt abundant, full of light and warmth, and the people lounged around with seemingly plenty of time on their hands. They speak English, Italian, and French. They ride bikes into town and drink apricot juice.

Elio, age 17, is spending the summer reading and swimming and listening to music, and during this summer he falls in love with Oliver, 23, who is a research assistant for Elio's father and is living with the family in their fancy house. It is 1983, yet the story felt timeless, or out of time. I'm not sure what exactly it is saying, but this film is reflecting on time somehow, on having simultaneously too much and not enough.

This is not the kind of movie where spoilers matter, but just in case, here's a cut.

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