July 2020 – Every Gay Movie

Yes or No: pure Thai lesbian cuteness

July 31, 2020 4 Comments

This film could be mistaken for a simple and harmless lesbian teen rom-com. In the West and in 2020, we are lucky to have quite a few of those. But when it premiered 10 years ago in a then quite conservative Thailand, it was the country’s first lesbian film with a butch protagonist. Knowing this, the narrative’s insistence on focusing on Kim’s tomboyishness as a barrier to her friendships and relationships makes a lot more sense. We’ll go into that more later…

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Interview: Isabel Coixet

July 26, 2020 2 Comments

I find that there are some themes I really enjoy exploring: I love creating portraits of people’s inner selves, I like to really observe people ーwhat do people do when they’re all alone? In the privacy of their bedroom or their own home? How do we live when we’re in solitude? And courage is very important: I like people who, even when everything is against them, follow the ideas they have in their head. Perhaps those are all the things my films have in common. […]

Lesbian

Elisa y Marcela: Isabel Coixet births another masterpiece

July 24, 2020 2 Comments

There are different kinds of silence in film. There is the uncomfortable, dominating silence that makes your muscles tense in morbid anticipation. Then there is the intimate silence, where a glance, a touch, a brush of skin tells everything; where words aren’t necessary to reassure both character and spectator and bring them in closer. This film gifts us both kinds of silence, and shows us the difference. Elisa y Marcela (2019) is a Spanish romantic drama film by the auteur filmmaker Isabel Coixet. […]

Lesbian

The Feels: a bit generic indie, but nice

July 17, 2020 2 Comments

Generic title, right? “The Feels”. And did it give me ‘the feels’? Well it turns out that’s a reference to orgasms, so no, but if we’re talking about other kinds of feels, then yes. At times. We’ll get to that… The Feels (2017, Jenée LaMarque) is a self-described dramedy about a lesbian couple’s bachelorette weekend. Lu drunkenly admits to her fiancée Andi in front of the whole group that she’s never had an orgasm, causing a rift between the couple. This, alongside other unexpected drama, causes tension in the group as the friends and the brides-to-be navigate their relationships. […]

Gay

I Am Jonas: overly cerebral or intelligently thought-provoking?

July 10, 2020 No Comments

I Am Jonas (Christophe Charrier, 2018) is a coming-of-age gay love story shrouded in dark mystery. Originally made for the (as the name suggests) artsy European TV network ARTE and then brought to Netflix in spring 2020, it tells the story of the eponymous Jonas and handsome troublemaker Nathan. We explore their teen romance, its subsequent murky demise and the long lasting after-effects. Watching with the original French language subtitles, the first closed caption of “musique oppressante” (no language prizes for guessing what that means) tells us we’re in for a bumpy ride. […]

Gay

Alex Strangelove: where queerness shines through

July 3, 2020 4 Comments

When I tell you that this film — which starts out seeming like your run-of-the-mill teen rom-com —is different precisely because it’s gay, you shouldn’t read that as a bad thing. The explicit gayness of Alex Strangelove inches its way into the film slowly. We follow the story of the title character Alex, played by Daniel Doheney, and his long time best friend to recently turned girlfriend Claire, played by Madeline Weinstein (no relation) […]