Love, Simon (2018)

Director: Greg Berlanti

Stars: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel...

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Country: USA

Summary: Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends and all of his classmates: he's gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.

As I'm thinking about all the movies I've seen in the past years in order to review them all by memory, I thought this movie was a couple years older, like 2017 but now I see it's from 2018... Guess it didn't leave that much of an impression on me then, huh.

I am one of the people who read the book first. And I read it so long ago that I barely even remember anything about it except for the characters' fascination with Oreo cookies (if I remember correctly, that was a thing right?). I am not a big fan of YA literature. I used to like it a lot before when I was younger, but I guess I just outgrew it. The story was cute and it's always so nice to see a positive LGBT movie, focusing on happy endings etc. So it's great that exactly this kind of movie was picked up by a major Hollywood studio. It's one of the most popular LGBT movies now. So many people have heard about this and I think a lot of the kids will really love this movie as it brings hope to a lot of them and it makes people feel good after watching, it has that heartwarming feel to it.

Still, I have to say that I felt it (both the book and the movie) to be a bit too sugarcoated for my taste. I know, I know, I'm hard to please. I don't like sad and tragic LGBT movies that deal with real problems and now I also say this is sugarcoated, but listen - this is not exactly a criticism per se. A lot of people like these kind of movies, including me too, but I don't know for some reason I just couldn't identify with this film. I consider myself a Millennial and I think I'm a bit more old-school about movies, music and aesthetic. Somehow I feel that mostly Gen Z kids will identify with this movie and its aesthetic more - from the fashion, relationship between characters, the way of life. Maybe it's just typical Hollywood aesthetic. In that case I wasn't used to Hollywood aesthetic being applied to LGBT movies.

Anyhow, it's not bad. It's a cute movie, but it was so hyped that I might have expected something more. I've seen better gay movies than this one. Still, I definitely support positive films like this and I hope more gay movies get promoted to the big market for more people to know about them.

Giant Little Ones (2018)

Director: Keith Behrman

Stars: Josh Wiggins, Darren Mann, Taylor Hickson...

Genre: Drama

Country: Canada

Summary: Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.

Two best friends get drunk on a party and spend a night together in bed. We don't really see what's happening as it's all under the blankets, but something definitely happened as one of them runs out of the room angrily and the other one tries to stop him. From that moment on, I believe I'm not the only one who thought Franky was the gay one because he was the one who tried to calm down the situation as if he did something wrong. But, there's a plot twist in the film and I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who might be interesting in watching this.

After the thing between them happened, they start getting more and more distant, their families also start growing distant and then bullying kicks in. There's a violent bashing scene where Franky is the victim so that was pretty difficult to watch as well as the previous bullying, cold-shoulders and distancing from a person that was his best friend until then. That's one of the reasons it was so difficult. It wasn't anybody who was behind those things, it was his until-then best friend. It's sad to see how much people can change as a result of their (auto)homophobia.

I liked the character of Mouse. I think she (or he? I've read that people characterize her as a transgender character. She's not very feminine nor she tries to be, but I still considered her to be a female) was the only fun character.
Even though she's not as fun, I also liked the character of Natasha because she showed a generous amount of empathy towards other people despite having to go through horrible things herself.

Another interesting aspect of the movie is that Franky's father is also gay and divorced. The mother and father are still sorting things out and the mother is still coping with it as we can see in the movie. Franky and his father don't have much of a relationship, but later on in the movie that changes. We can see his father being there for him and that was a nice moment in the movie.

After all of this, I still can't say I liked the movie. It was too bleak for me. All of the characters (except for Mouse) were sad and struggling in their own way. It wasn't too enjoyable to watch, especially the bashing scene which was sort of a culmination of events.

Posledice (2018)

English title: Consequences

Director: Darko Stante

Stars: Matej Zemljic, Timon Sturbej, Gasper Markun...

Genre: Drama

Country: Slovenia

Summary: After being sent to a youth detention centre, 18-year-old Andrej has to fight for his place within the group of inmates while getting closer to Zeljko, their informal leader, and struggling to keep his repressed secret in the dark.

I was so looking forward to this movie. Since I saw the pictures I thought how great it's going to be and visually speaking, it is - I think the production is good, scenes have a certain aesthetic to it, actors performed good and they were also handsome, but it's fair to say I did not like the movie at all. I was also very interested because this was a movie from Slovenia. I always look forward to seeing new movies from smaller countries in foreign languages or movies that are not so popular or more indie. I think it's always a bold move for a smaller country to produce a gay-themed movie. To be the first to make a statement like that is not easy.

So, why didn't I like this movie? For a couple of reasons. First of all, it's too depressive. It shows problematic youth behavior. Young people drinking, using drugs, fighting in gangs, bullying each other... By the time I got to the end of the movie, I was expecting for a certain point to be made. What's the point of showing all those negative things in life if you don't have an idea how to make it better or give hope to your viewers? Otherwise, it just makes people lose hope and get depressed in the long run after watching a couple of movies like this one. LGBT individuals are often discriminated against and as such they need some positive outlook on life because most of the time all they hear and all they see - it's all negative, like in this movie. So people start thinking "life is really horrible", but it's not. Life can also be beautiful. This movie is not a representation of life. It's a representation of institutions not doing their damn job.

In the movie we have guards responsible for keeping order in the detention centre, but you can actually see the guards being scared of the young guys because of their violent behaviour. If you can't put up with that kind of job, it's not for you. You should either own up to it or find a different one. Also, there's no sense of community in the centre. If only there was a real friendly person with whom the guys could form a friendly relationship, I think there would be less problems. The boys in the detention centre are sad because nobody gives a damn about them. They were just put there because nobody wanted them and they can sense that the people responsible for them are not genuinely interested, but are doing it just because it's their job.

And that is also probably not the real representation of all the institutions. Some are probably like that, but I honestly hope not all of them are like that? There must be some institutions that do their job well and correct people's behaviour because if not, then that's the real issue here. It's not about life at all. Life can be pretty good actually and not many movies promote that idea.

Also, I don't think the gay flirting thing between the guys in the gang is realistic. I just don't see it happening. Maybe there could be some secret affairs in the gang, but they sure won't be flirting in parties in front of all the other people. I'm close to the age of the guys in the movie so I know how the youth acts. So that was juts unrealistic. Of course, it was sad how Andrej doesn't see that Zeljko is using him and the ending with the poor animal was just horrible.

All in all, I am disappointed in this. It's hard for me to even describe this as a gay movie. It's a drama about detention centres and similar institutions failing to their job well, ignoring the young people who need help. The fact that there is a gay theme involved is actually secondary and could be easily replaced with anything else so long as the criticism stays on the institutions.

Genèse (2018)

English title: Genesis

Director: Philippe Lesage

Stars: Noée Abita, Paul Ahmarani, Marc Beaupré...

Genre: Drama


Country: Canada


Summary: Three teenagers are shaken up by their first loves in the turmoil of their youth. At a time when others are conforming, they stand their ground and assert their right to love and be free.

When I started watching this movie, I didn't expect three different stories that aren't connected to each other. Maybe they are connected by a theme or an idea that they're sharing, but it's actually three short movies in one, not a one whole movie for those of you still wondering.

So, what is this about? As the summary says, it's about three young people (one of them literally a child) searching for love and acceptance. Each of them is going through different things. First story is of a guy coming to terms with his sexuality. The second story is about a girl that, after her boyfriend said he wanted more free space to maybe experiment with other people, felt hurt by that and wanted to distance herself from him as she didn't feel the same amount of security in their relationship anymore. At least that's how I interpreted it. She dumps the boyfriend and goes out into the world trying to find what she needs, only to return to him after getting hurt even worse and disappointed at how it went for her with other people. The third story I didn't even try to follow as it was completely not interesting to me. As for what I've seen, it's about a young boy falling in love with a girl for the first time in a summer camp.

So, there's that. The first story was the most interesting to me by its theme since it corresponds to this blog. But it's nothing special. There's no romance, nothing happens. The main character is very brave so he confessed to his crush in front of the whole class (though I wonder if that was necessary) and it went well. No bullying, bashing or other horrible things so that was definitely positive. But we can slowly see how the people are starting to distance themselves from him because of his confession. And then the movie ends. Just like that. They all do. We have no idea what happens to the characters after what they go through, there's no sense of closure. It may annoy some viewers, but it's certainly not the first movie to do this and some of you may be even used to that kind of endings by now.

The second story was okay even though there's no gay theme present. I already said everything you need to know about it. What I need to add is that this second movie has a rape scene in it. It's of course unpleasant and certainly didn't make me like the movie more.

Other than all of this, I think the soundtrack was interesting and I recognized a song I like in there.

So, there you go. If I knew all of this before, I probably wouldn't watch the movie as it's not what I'm looking for currently. I like my movies to be more concentrated on romance. Based on the pictures, it looked like this movie had the potential for that, but it was a different concept than what I had in mind.

Fin de siglo (2019)

English title: End of the Century

Director: Lucio Castro 

Stars: Juan Barberini, Ramon Pujol, Mía Maestro

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: Argentina

Summary: Two men meet in Barcelona and after spending a day together they realize that they have already met twenty years ago.

This was a weird movie. It starts with Ocho (the main character) traveling alone, sightseeing, touring the city, going to a beach... On a beach he encounters a guy and they have some eye-contact, are interested in each other, but nothing happens. Ocho returns back to his apartment and goes out on his balcony only to find the guy from the beach strolling by his apartment. He invites him up and they have sex. It happens so casually. I keep wondering how far away from that kind of interaction I am in my own life, to invite someone to my apartment just like that and be so relaxed with a stranger... That's strange to me.

After talking for a bit, they exchange numbers, hug and it's all pretty cute. Later they go out together and start talking about their lives. Ocho is recently single and enjoying his alone time traveling the world... Maybe it's supposed to portray a sense of freedom and liberation, but to me it just seemed very lonely and isolating, very common for a figure of a 21st century man, I would say. Javi (the other guy) is in an open marriage as he says, the couple even adopted a baby. And then we find an interesting information: they already met before some 20 years ago. The thing I kept thinking after they showed how they met: how could anyone possibly forget an encounter like that? Javi remember Ocho, but Ocho doesn't remember Javi. I wasn't buying it.

Then in the end we have an alternate timeline showing us Ocho and Javi as a couple having a baby. I have no idea what was that supposed to mean. Is it really an alternate universe, like a fairy tale ending of them and what they could have achieved together? Or is it actually connected to other two timelines present... The thing that popped into my mind was: maybe it was them all along. Maybe they became a couple, married and eventually their relationship got boring so they wanted to reinvent their meeting and initiate new sparks so they split up for a while and then met again at the very place they first met and role played some new lives they could've lead so that they could fall in love again? I know it probably sounds stupid, but it just popped into my mind as I watched the movie and I wanted to write it down.

I didn't expect this movie to be so complex. The different (and possibly alternate) timelines were pretty confusing.

Moonlight (2016)

Director: Barry Jenkins

 

Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes...

Genre: Drama

Country: USA

Summary: A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.

I've finally watched this movie. I guess you've probably heard of it by now and most of you probably watched it. Rotten Tomatoes puts it on 1st place in their list of 200 Best LGBT Movies of All Time. I disagree with Rotten Tomatoes. My list is a little bit different, but I still think this was a good movie. Tough one, but good. And when I say tough, boy do I mean it! First 80% of the movie gave me such anxiety. A little boy and then a teenager growing up in harsh environment - poverty, his mum doing drugs and neglecting him, other boys bullying him, being gay... The film is divided in three parts: first is the childhood, then the teenage years and the adulthood. From early on in his life he found a friend that later became a crush. His crush betrayed him and treat him sooo badly at one point that the main character's whole life just slid downwards from that point onward.

Chiron eventually became an adult, toughened up and tried to forget about his earlier life, but then unexpectedly he receives a call from his childhood crush who, in my own interpretation, only half-heartedly apologizes to him and wants to meet up. I had such a bad feeling about it as I was expecting Chiron, being a fool in love, to be taken advantage of again and that some tragedy is going to happen, but the movie actually has a somewhat happy ending, if you can call it like that.

I know for certain that I would never forgive Kevin for what he did (that's probably my Mars conjunct Pluto in Scorpio talking). Seriously, if that's love - I don't need that sh*t! I think the strong part of this movie is the subtle nuances that we, as audience, can notice in Chiron - that, even though he's physically sooo different in his adulthood than he was in his childhood, psychologically he hasn't changed a bit. He's still such a vulnerable, sensitive person and life is still tough for most of them. I wish we had seen Juan and his girlfriend meeting with Chiron after all those years as they've helped young Chiron when he needed a place to stay and such things. That would also be a great closure, but this happy ending we got is still better than nothing.

Al óleo (2019)

English title: Oil on Canvas

Director: Pablo Lavado

Stars: Sarah Benavente, Chico García, Juan Antonio Hidalgo...

Genres: Drama

Country: Spain

Summary: María, a young student of Fine Arts, decides to spend a weekend with Julio, her partner, in the house of her parents' town. Once there, the young woman will have to face a reality already forgotten. The solid mentality of her family means that practically nothing has changed in the life of his brother Hugo and his father, Arturo.

IMDb classified this movie as a comedy. I don't know about you, but I didn't laugh that much. Apart from that one scene where the trio was coming home drunk after a night out, talking, laughing... Yeah, that was cute, but it's still not a comedy as far as I'm concerned. The character of María was a distraction to me. She had some nice remarks about feminism, but other than that nothing special about her. It's obviously not something I was looking for as I'm interested in m/m romance and a big part of the movie features her in the spotlight. Her boyfriend, though, that's more like it. One sexy hunk right there :D

As you can see from the summary, María comes home to spend a weekend with her family, but there are some quarrels between her and her father mostly because of generational differences and different mentality. I was curious to see whether or not her father would show some homosexual tendencies toward one of the other guys in the movie because there were certain parts where he was just lingering around, showering or looking at himself in the mirror and I thought that's indicative of something, but I was wrong as that didn't happen. Oops. Just my dirty mind again.

The only gay part about this movie is a hint of a forbidden/secret romance between two cousins. One of them is in a relationship with a woman and is expecting a child. There's nothing explicit about it though, apart from some hidden glances and some kissing in the pool at the very end of the movie. This whole romance aspect between them is not very highlighted so I wouldn't call this movie a romance. It's more of a slice-of-life of certain people living their lives in modern-day Spain.

I don't know what else to say about this one. It wasn't anything special. It has cute and handsome actors, nice visuals and a certain lazy summer day atmosphere. If you like that kind of movies, go for it, but for me personally it was too mild and slow-paced so it didn't leave that much of an impression.