Stars: 4/5 ⭐️So, if I was a 90s kid I would buy a Buzz action figure, but now as a 2000s kid, I can see that the character Sox will be the action figure sold most, probably in plushie form as well, because he was the lovable side kick character, who was like super useful during the mission. But of fully explain, Lightyear is about Buzz Lightyear, obviously, who's played by Chris Evans, who accidentally gets his whole ship, that looks like a turnip, stuck on a planet, and from there, Buzz is the test pilot for the new fuel cell that will be used for hyper speed to get the mission home. However, every attempt he does, it takes him 4 minutes, but for everyone else four years. His best friend, Alisha, played by Uzo Aduba, stays on the ground, and builds a life for herself, with her wife, then has a kid, and then has a grandkid, that Buzz only gets to take a peek at, because he keeps doing this hyper-speed jumps, and it seems like maybe 15+ times, because sadly, the penultimate time he comes back from trying, Alisha has sadly passed on, but then, his robot coping kitten, Sox, played by Peter Sohn, the one who probably will be super popular with the kids, because he was genuinely funny, figured out the proper fuel needed to make the hyperspace crystal, and then Buzz does it, and finally achieves hyper speed. Here's the problem, when he gets back, it's now been 22 years, not 4, and in comes Zurg, played by James Brolin, who's captured pretty much everyone at the base, keeping them hostage there, but then Buzz meets up with Izzy, played by Keke Palmer, Mo, played by Taika Waititi, and Darby played by Dale Soules, who decide to all team to destroy the Zurg ship, and save everyone, and finally get home, although it's been 100+ years, so do you really think that people will still feel like anyone is coming back from that mission? I doubt. But anyways, Zurg is trying to kill them all, except Buzz, he wants to kidnap Buzz instead, and being this hulking massive machine, he towers over these people, and can easily harm them. But the group of four, plus Sox have a lot of tricks up their sleeve, but then here's where the twist comes in. Buzz is captured with the crystal to take everyone home, and we learn... Zurg is Buzz. Is that confusing, very much so, and the whole thing is, a Buzz from a different timeline, I think, did the jump to hyperspace, but when he returned, he was treated like a villain since he broke protocol, then he shot himself into space so fast, that he went centuries into the future, where he found the Zurg ship, then he decided to go back in time, to get the hyper-speed crystal from a younger Buzz, Chris Evan's Buzz, and then hop back to earlier in time before they even diverted to go onto this planet, which got them stuck in the first place. So... the whole villain twist was majorly confusing, because, yes, this is about space, but now we're introducing time travel and multiple dimensions? Or at least alternate timelines, and I had just finished the third season of the Umbrella Academy, so I'm well versed in time travel stuff, and Lightyear, was like, no, not going to explain it! But anyway, yeah, obviously Buzz and his team save the day, but then, going back to Alisha, Buzz realizes that he doesn't need to go home because he is already home. He believes that he failed everyone, but he didn't and Alisha still had a great life. She met her wife and had a kid, and great friends, and a grandkid as well, she was happy, and she was fulfilled, which sucks that they kinda did do a bury the gays trope, but at least it was by natural causes, and she wasn't taken from her wife. Also, which I really liked, was the ending the four characters salute a gold statue of her, which I thought was great, showing that she wasn't some toss-away thing of representation, but she was actually important to the story, which she for sure was. So, was Lightyear the best new Pixar movie? No... cause there are plenty better ones, like the Incredibles duology, but this movie will be some great family or friend fun, and especially with friends, you can discuss the weird things in the movie, like the multiple timelines thing, and come up with your theories.
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Stars: 3/5 ⭐️So, this would have worked better as a TV show, I think, because there could have been a real mystery aspect to this movie because as it is, it's not that amazing, but the concept of the movie is pretty cool. It follows Jeff, played by Miles Teller, as he tries to survive this compound that he's in, where Steve, played by Chris Hemsworth, is putting all these drugs in him because they're at this testing compound place, where all these ex-convicts, are test subjects in these drug trials, that has a sinister twist to it. And right off the bat, we learn that Jeff made a grave mistake that got him here, which was that he drove drunk, and killed two people when he crashed into a tree, and then it exploded, so right off the bat, it feels like we're watching these people have their second chances at life, and do some good with them, by helping with this drug trial. Also, one of the other main characters is Lizzy, played by Jurnee Smollett, but she doesn't do that much in the movie, and that's why it could have been a show because then I feel she could have gotten more to do, and been more a part of the mystery, which I'll get into later. But anyway, with the drugs, there are ones that make you hungry, horny, scared, joyful, and scared out of your mind, and the whole thing is about if we can somehow artificially create and sustain emotions. But let's get to the twist because it didn't feel like a twist at all, as it was revealed quite early on, and it almost felt obvious, if that makes sense because this is a psychological movie, so like there would obviously be twists. But the twist is that Chris Hemsworth's character is an owner of a Big Pharma company, that sells all these artificial emotion vial things, and they're all named after letters and numbers on a bingo card, which did feel shocking, but that I think was just because it was quite absurd, and that's what I think the movie needed more of, just pure absurdism because that would have matched with the whole tone of the film. So, these convicts, live in this very nice island prison, where they have free reign to pretty much do whatever they want to do, where they have nice food, nice places to live, no guards, and just being able to hang out with their other inmate friends, and we only see two official people working at this place, Steve, and his assistant/second in command Mark, who helps with putting the vials in the people, because they're all in this thing called a MobiPak, which is attached to the convicts' backs, I'm assuming surgically, because the stuff in the vials just goes right into their body. This is also based on a short story from The New York Times, which was published over a decade ago, however, I thought it was a series of stories and not just one short story, but anyway, I still feel that it could be better as a show because I feel mysteries never really work in the movie because we never get enough information about everything to formulate a proper guess, except I will say, Knives Out, but that was more of a comedy thriller than a mystery movie, but my point still stands, we don't know enough about the world to first off guess at any mysteries that aren't quickly revealed, as well as not have enough time to get emotionally invested into the characters, so we can cheer them on when they start solving the mystery. Which isn't really solved in a normal sense, as the mystery doesn't need solving, like in a matter of minutes, there's a point where we don't know everything that's going on, and then we do understand everything that's going on, and it feels almost disingenuous to the film. However, in all, I think it was a good concept, just not a good enough concept to keep my attention, although it would have worked better as a series, limited or otherwise because then we could have even understood more about the drugs and what happens to people on all sensory levels when they take them. Stars: 4/5 ⭐️So... this movie was quite long, but it felt so short. Clocking in at 2 hours and 12 minutes, the Doctor Strange sequel follows Steven Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, as he travels into the multiverse with the help of America Chavez, played by Xochitl Gomez, a girl with multiverse hopping abilities. And as you may know, I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once, and there was a debate about which one was better, and it wasn't Doctor Strange. I won't really spoil the plot, as the trailers are quite misleading, but my biggest gripe with the movie is the multiverse aspect of the movie. It's not madness, it's mid. There's the explanation of how the multiverse works as well, which didn't feel fleshed out either, and how it can connect to our other multiverse selves when we dream we see their reality kinda felt a bit unimaginative. Also, America's powers aren't really explained in how she got them, which kinda annoyed me if she's like Strange where she learned them, or like Wanda, where she inherited them, however, since America did seem like a normal human, even though coming from a different universe, she has two mothers, so... again, how did she get her powers? And with the different multiverses, we only explore three of them really, we have 616 which is the MCU, there is 81 something, which is the one that Strange, and America are thrown into, where we get all our multiverse cameos, which they were a bit subpar, and then another one, where a Strange in the multiverse had created an incursion, which is where two universes smash into each other, killing everyone really on that universe. Also, for a movie about magic, magicians, and witches, I kinda expected more magic to be used, like for me, I wanted to see the use of the mirror dimension again, or how Strange can multiply himself. But here are some good things about this movie, cause I'm kinda ragging on it. Wanda is written so well in this movie, where it's a combo of the writing and Elizabeth Olsen's acting that just make Wanda gripping to watch on screen. The VFX of the movie was top-notch as well, where everything was so cool to look at because everything was so unique from each other. There are some Wanda mothering scenes, which I always loved in WandaVision, and I will say, you don't need to watch WandaVision, to understand this movie, but it would be mighty helpful if you did because then you'll have background explanation on certain things that aren't fully explained in the show. And although Strange is the main character, Wanda, America, and Christine, played by Rachel McAdams, are very important characters throughout this movie, and seem to be paving the way to have more female-fronted MCU media, especially since Elizabeth Olsen just signed to do a Wanda trilogy, and Xochitl I doubt is going anywhere, and will probably be joining the Young Avengers if the MCU goes that route. But, in all, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is only a movie you must see if you keep up with the MCU, although, looking at future projects, there weren't that many ripples that I could see play out coming from this movie, but then again Kevin Feige has found a way to connect them all. Stars: 3.5/5 ⭐️So, this movie was semi-problematic and sad. I wanted to cover a rom-com movie for the end of Pride, to leave us on a high note, but that's not the case for this movie. Although there is a romance between an up-and-coming stylist, Ryan, played by Jake Choi, and an up-and-coming actor, Ning, played by James Chen, who has come from China to America to promote his new movie, this movie is still sad. It deals with the two men and how they grow close as friends, as Ryan styles Ning for all these big photoshoots and interviews he has with the American press, but there is a bit of animosity because Ning doesn't exactly like gay men. But that's because he's also gay, but he's in the closet and has been conditioned to be shamed for who he is, as well as knowing that if he did come out, his career would be ruined. Which, I wish that plot point was brought up more because that's more like a global entertainment issue, where there are so many actors in Hollywood who are not open with their sexuality, because they know that it will hurt their chances of getting more roles, since it seems Hollywood doesn't believe that a gay actor can play a straight character, but the reverse of that is allowed to happen all the time. But, back to the movie, it's really sad, and I'll spoil the ending, Ryan has to tell the Chinese and American press that he and Ning are not together, but the way he does it feels a bit powerful because he talks about his sexuality, and how Ning still respects him, and still is his friend, despite it. And, that's the sad ending, but the film showing how they get together is okay because they do have a good repartee, and they're both likable people, except Ryan has this thing, where he's a "potato queen," which means that he is an Asian man who only dates white men, and wants to only date white men, which... sounds a bit racist, like cause I thought he was going to say something about a race preference, or something like that. But, then later in the movie, after Ning and Ryan hang out with Ryan's parents and grandmother, and how Ryan's parents tell Ning that they are so happy that the two are together because Ryan's parents want Ryan to be with a Chinese man, Ning and Ryan go to a gay club. And after drinking, and dancing with each other, they have sex, with Ryan saying that Ning is the first Asian man that he has been with, and then we learn since they're naked physically and emotionally, that Ning has been covertly having sex with multiple men for many years now, to the point that his girlfriend knows that he's gay, or seems she knows that he's gay. And then we get to the end, which I already talked about, as a Chinese tabloid got a photo of Ryan and Ning together while they were hanging out with Ryan's family, and Ning's world comes crashing down almost until Ryan saves him. So, in all, the movie isn't horrible, because it does touch on some good topics, with the most prominent being sexuality and the entertainment and fashion industry, but through all the trials and tribulations that the two men go through together, I would think that they would get together in the end. Hopeful music even played in the background of the final shot, which I didn't understand, because it was sad, Ryan and Ning just had to leave each other, but Ning said how sometimes we must sacrifice something for the sake of our dreams, which I thought was the perfect philosophical ending to the movie because they both do get their dreams in the end, even if they don't get each other. Stars: 5/5 ⭐️So this movie is a great exploration of friendship for sure. All taking place in one day, it follows Sin-Dee, played by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, who is fresh out of prison, and is on a quest with her friend Alexandra, played by Mya Taylor, as they go track down Sin-Dee's pimp/boyfriend, first going to get the girl that the pimp, Chester, played by James Ransone, is cheating on Sin-Dee with. So, this movie's budget was 100k, but they put that to good use, where the thing that they were lacking is proper lighting, but the way that the film is shot, it feels like the improper lighting is purposeful, with all these very aestheticy shots, and cool camera movements, where it will curve, and move around characters, drop behind characters, caught up to, and pass characters, making the film feel fast-paced, which the music also helps with that as well because a good amount of it that is like EDM. Also, throughout this movie, Alexandra has a goal as well, she's trying to get to a bar by 7 to perform some Christmas songs since I should say that the movie takes place on is Christmas Eve, which I can tell you, this did not feel like a Christmas movie, but I don't think it was supposed to, as it was a movie about the friendship between Sin-Dee and Alexandra for sure. Also what's great is the two women bounce off each other, and they're both funny in their own aspects of Sin-Dee being a little crazier and extraverted, while Alexandra is like the cautious friend, and she'll be blunt, and tell it like it is, especially when it comes to Sin-Dee. And the two really feel like they're friends as well, which helped me immerse myself into the story. They also discuss issues of prostitution, like how that business is conducted, and how unprotected these women are when it comes to these situations, where they have to play by rules that are made up in an instant. But, thankfully, this movie doesn't end with either of the women dying, but actually on a happy note, showing how strong their friendship is, where they care for and love each other, even when they might not like each other, because there's a twist reveal at the end, but still, the women stick together, which I loved. And as I talked about in my last review, seeing films about queer friendship is great, and this movie can be added to the list because the main focus is on the two women, and how much they care for each other, having a complex, but loving dynamic, and hopefully down the line, more people see this movie, since it's a definitional hidden gem. And, I actually have one last point, what I found crazy about this movie, is that this movie is written and directed by a straight white man, which I'm not saying people can't tell stories where characters unlike them, and in this case, very much unlike them, as Sin-Dee and Alexandra are both transgender women of color, who are both prostitutes, so very different experiences, but Sean really honored the characters, which I hope, although sadly this movie came out 7 years ago, still I hope for more transgender leading characters, although you could make the argument that Pose might have been greenlit because of Tangerine, or because Ryan Murphy was the creator or both. But, back to the film, it's a great film about friendship, where at the end you will probably know who are you of the two women, either a Sin-Dee or an Alexandra. Stars: 5/5 ⭐️So, this is a good film, like, a really, really good film. Following Ellie Chu, played by Leah Lewis, she embarks on writing letters to a girl she likes, Aster, played by Alexxis Lemire, pretending to be Paul, played by Daniel Diemer, even though Paul is doing the emotions of the letters, as he likes Aster, and wants to be with her, Ellie just cleans it up, and makes it good, and understands what love really means through writing said letters to Aster. And although that sounds like Ellie and Paul are tricking Aster, well, they are, but it's revealed later that Aster always had a sneaking suspicion since Paul wasn't good with words, Ellie is, since she writes like everyone's essays, and the two have been hanging out a lot ever since she got the first letter from Paul. However, that doesn't absolve Ellie, which was good to show that what Ellie did was wrong, even though she felt that it was the only way to communicate to a girl she loved, because since this is set in a small town, Squahamesh, which is supposed to be in Washington, religion, and especially Catholicism is brought up, but the way that it is done is actually a good deconstruction on how stupid people make the views of Catholicism to be about being gay. There is a whole speech at the end as well between the two women, about how Aster kinda wishes that she were different or in a different place, because, the guy that she is with right now, it's obvious that she's only doing it out of family obligation, since the guy is rich, and her family is really poor. But, as well as being a semi-love story between the two women, what takes center stage is the friendship between Paul and Ellie, which is enjoyable to see how they rub off on each other as friends, and how they help each other grow as a person, and just be happier, since both Paul and Ellie are not in great places, and not happy with themselves at the beginning of the movie. There is even a whole plot line about how Paul works with his family at like a deli, I think, and he wants to change up how they make the sausage, to the recipe that he came up with, that, with the help of Ellie, he gets out into the world. We learn, I think, even though it seems unclear, but it makes sense, that Ellie has been writing to food critics about Paul's food, which he mentions at the beginning of the movie, about how he's tried to get the word out. They bounce off of each other and stand up for each other, but they have their falling apart moment, but they do get back together as friends in the end, which I really like. Although I would have loved to see Ellie and Aster get together, it makes sense why they shouldn't since Ellie did trick Aster, even if she knew, but I'm very happy that the friendship then was the center stage event of the movie, because exploring friendships with queer people, in relation to other queer people, as well as straight people I think is very important to show that queer people are complex individuals, who have inner lives that can ripple into our friendships, and vise versa. Stars: 4.5/5 ⭐️This had more twists and turns than the windiest road ever. Like, my jaw was on the floor with all the surprises in this movie, but also, which I think I should firstly say, how disgusting this movie can get, in terms of violence, and also if you don't like bugs or bodily functions this movie is not for you. So The Perfection is about Charlotte, played by Allison Williams, who was this once-promising cello player at this place, Backoff Academy, but then had to leave at a young age, to take care of her mother, and when she was leaving, she bumped into, without realizing it, the now new prodigy, Elizabeth, played by Logan Browning. Also, let me say, this is a queer movie, since the two lead women are obviously gay, and multiple times they do hook up, to the point where we do exactly see them naked while they have sex, which I actually heard the women made sure there were limited people on set, and in the editing bay for those scenes, which I think is really cool, and thoughtful of their wants and needs. So for a good amount of time, you don't exactly know what will happen during the movie, but the thing is, you already get this creeped-out nature from Allison Williams' performance, where you can tell her mind is working on something, and we just need to wait, to see how it plays out. But then it gets weird, as Charlotte goes to Shanghai to see her old teachers from Backoff, and meet Elizabeth, they see a man puking his guts out, and people say they think he caught a disease from Hunan, where Elizabeth was just at, to recruit more students, but Charlotte tells her that she's fine, and then the two have sex, and then starts Elizabeth's two weeks off, which doesn't start great, because she wakes up with a massive hangover, so Charlotte gives her some ibuprofen, but later, while they're on a bus, Elizabeth doesn't feel so good, and she takes more ibuprofen, but still doesn't feel good. She starts barfing and crapping herself, and this is the trigger warning for people who don't like bugs, I've going to give you a second to leave..... okay, so her puke is filled with maggots, and it's nasty, and she also barfs again, and spiders come from that, which the CGI, in my opinion, wasn't great, but whatever. So something's wrong with Elizabeth, and she thinks she caught the disease that the guy had since, again, she was in Hunan, so who knows. And it's only amplified when bugs are in Elizabeth's arm, so Charlotte puts out a butcher's knife and tells her that Elizabeth knows what she has to do. And so Elizabeth chops off her own arm. So crazy, right. It gets crazier though, as it then rewinds everything we saw up to the first taking of the ibuprofen, and we learn that it's actually Charlotte's dead mother's pills, which cause hallucinations, amplified by alcohol, so not good that Elizabeth took a bunch, and we see how Charlotte manipulated Elizabeth into thinking there were bugs in her arms, and in her body, which is crazy. So, after Elizabeth comes to after chopping off her own arm, she goes back to Backoff, where she's kicked out, because she doesn't serve a purpose anymore, and she's destroyed, so she decides to go pay Charlotte a visit. Elizabeth takes Charlotte to Backoff, where Charlotte almost gets sexually assaulted, but then it turns out there's another twist, the women are working together to destroy Backoff because these three men are sexually assaulting all these young women, who seem to be young as like 12 or something, which is truly horrifying to think about. So, in all, this movie is really twisty, but it does explain all its twists, except for one, where it shows Charlotte getting electrocuted through shock therapy, and it never explains who's doing that if it was part of some brainwashing, or debrainwashing, which I think would have helped to see how far they go to brainwash, or how much debrainwashing her needed. Stars: 4/5 ⭐️So, this movie was pretty good, until it took a sharp turn at the end of the second act, where it made one of the characters unlikeable, and he's the main character. So it follows Ned, played by Fionn O'Shea, a kid at an all-boys, prep school, or at least I think it's a prep school, where he's the only gay guy there, which sure, whatever, but then new guy Conor, played by Nicholas Galitzine transfers to the school, and now Ned has a new roommate, and a new friend. So, at this school, Wood Hill College, rugby is like the best thing since sliced bread for these people, which makes sense, since there are a lot of high schools in America that are really proud of their sports teams, but the thing is, Ned doesn't really like rugby, and Conor is a new player on the team, playing the out-half position, which I could not tell you what that means. But since Ned doesn't like rugby, and he's the only out gay kid, he's bullied by literally everyone, until he befriends Conor, and people back off a bit, because Conor at his old school got into lots of fights, which is then later revealed to be because he would beat up the kids who found out that he was gay. Which, following on that point, Ned and Conor never officially get together as a couple, which I'm kinda iffy on because I do love a good movie about friendship, but it seems like they were set up to be romantic partners, so I wish there was a bit of clarification about the status of their relationship. And back to the rugby point, there's a whole thing about if Conor will fit on the team after he comes out as gay, and I know this movie came out about five years ago, but still, it felt very flat, and not complex, as gay athletes on teams is a complex issue in terms of their safety, which wasn't the focus of the conversation, it was that the coach didn't like him now because he was gay. To again follow on that point, the coach just seemed homophobic for no reason, like he hated a teacher who was gay, and insinuated that the teacher has sex with Conor, which is horrifying, to say the least, but it's never explained or explored, and the way it's wrapped up is that Conor forgives the coach for treating him poorly, which happened even before Conor was out with his sexuality. But, now let me get to what I was saying at the beginning. Ned is the character I'm referencing, which causes in the sense the downfall of Conor, as at a cheer practice where all the boys have to sing a song, Ned, not liking rugby, doesn't and then he gets a microphone and tells everyone that Conor is gay, because he's pissed off that Conor isn't out or something. And then when he tries to apologize to Conor, he acts as if it's no big deal. But, let me again change the subject, as this movie, despite its flaws, is a good movie for queer people. There is good representation, the plot is entertaining, and the topics and themes brought out are well done. It brings to light as well homophobia in sports, even if a little flat, but still a topic worth discussing. And in general, it's a gay movie, and a movie that doesn't totally depict gay men as horrible people is a step in the right direction, even if it's not that big of a step. But for me, in all, it's just that we need more movies where characters don't out each other, and I kinda want movies that aren't the nerd x jock anymore, as even though those are entertaining, there are so many more avenues that we can explore! Stars: 4/5 ⭐️This is a gem of a movie mashing together dude bro and coming out themes into one movie. So, 4th Man Out is about Adam, played by Evan Todd, after he comes out to his friends, Chris, played by Parker Young, Nick, played by Chord Overstreet, and Ortu, played by Jon Gabrus, and how the four of the friends cope with the change in their friendship, since the friend group is slightly homophobic, and it comes to their attention when they say stuff around a gay man. But, what I loved about this movie is it is about friendship, and not about Adam finding love, although that's a plot line in the film, just not centered. Also, this movie is super funny, with some great gut-busting moments, from funny one-liners, to physical gags that happen in the movie. The movie also does a great job of showing how close the friends are with each other, where they destroy others' property to get their friends' dates, or just how they talk to each other, where you can tell that these characters have essentially existed before the start of this movie. The movie also does a good job of setting something up, that might break up the friendship of the four, and it goes through with it, but thankfully the friends don't break up. Also, as the movie progresses, the straight friends more or less quickly adjust to knowing that Adam is gay, where there's a whole scene where they try to help him set up dating profiles so that he can find a man, and when he does, they get super happy for him, where they ask him a series a question to pretty much vetting the guy for their friend. There is also the exploration of gay dating in a small town in your 20s, which I thought was equal parts funny, and inciteful. Escpaiully because, they hit the nail on the head with one scene, where a girl gets Adam and Chris to go on a double date with her and her gay best friend, and she says, why can't her gay best friend, and Adam be together? They're both gay. And Adam says, personality, is why, because Adam and the gay best friend are nothing aline, and I'm so happy that a movie finally touched on that because it shows that if you're gay, you're not just going to date someone because you're gay, you actually want to like them. However, there was still a scene where the main character was semi-outed to his family, as a neighbor thinks Adam, Chris, Nick, and Ortu are a group of gay lovers, or something to that degree, and she's like subtly trying to convert them by getting them conversion camp pamphlets with cookies, or bringing the priest to do last rites for Adam. However, when Adam comes out to his parents, it's cathartic and better than the Love Simon scene, where it feels real, and not just Jennifer Gardner talking through the screen to a bunch of gay kids. And I think it might be more relatable as well to a wider audience because from what the internet has said, the Jennifer scene was the catharsis that gay kids never got, while this scene might be more relatable, maybe even to the point of people having parallel experiences to Adam, when he talks to his mom about his sexuality. Critics have kinda demolished this movie, with the general sentiment being that it's unoriginal, but I don't think that's true at all. It might be unoriginal in terms of bro movies, but in terms of coming out movies, I disagree, as there are not many, and none I can think of, movies about coming out that focus on friend circles, focusing on a support group, instead of finding the perfect someone. Which I think is what is needed more, because coming out is not solely about finding someone, despite how movies portray it, but it's about being confident and happy with who you are, with a group of people surrounding you, who love you. Which is what this movie is about. Stars: 4.5/5 ⭐️There is only one thing in this film that I didn't like, but besides that, this film was fantastic, and thee movie for pride month. As the title suggests, Fire Island, is about a group of friends, Noah, played by Joel Kim Booster, who also wrote this film, Howie, played by Bowen Yang, Keegan, played by Tomas Matos, Luke played by Matt Rogers, Max, played by Torian Miller, and Erin, played by Margaret Cho, who's like their mother figure. It also follows three men the group meets, Dex, played by Zane Phillips, Will, played by Conrad Ricamora, and Charlie, played by James Scully. So this is a retelling/adaptation/taken inspiration from Pride and Prejudice, and I've never seen it, but from analysis videos about the movie with Kira Knightly, Fire Island more or less takes elements from it, while still standing on its own. And, it's also super gay, obviously, but what it does differently than other movies, is that it doesn't shame any of the characters for how different they are from each other. Some are more feminine, others are casual sex partakers, and others are non-monogamous, which I really liked how the film put those things out there, without any judgment, and hopefully, people can take notes from this. And the things that weren't specifically done by the main characters, for example, there were a good amount of orgies in this movie, but there wasn't judgment in the movie, and it was presented as a more or less everyday thing, which may or may not be true on Fire Island. There is only one thing that is presented with judgment, and that's because it should because it's revealed that a character likes to record men that he likes to have sex with, and then post them on a website, so pretty much he likes to make un consensual porn, which is horrific, but I thought it was good that it was brought up because it was able to show, just because someone likes to have lots of sex, that doesn't warrant their sexual experience to be put online, no matter how much they like sex. Which that seems to be the ideology of some people, of "oh, it would have ended up there one day with your slutty habits," which again, this movie presented causal sex in a nonjudgmental way, which I really liked. Also, the enemies-to-lovers trope employed in this film was well done, because there was no dumb thing that pulled them apart near the end for them to come back together, but instead, it was just love growing from hate, which felt more real to healthy adult relationships. However, there was a traditional love story thing, where it's mutual interest from the beginning to then get pulled apart, then get back together, and that is what I didn't like. Especially because what pulled the two characters apart was that one of them was still hung up, and indulging in their exes things, kinda blowing off the other person, and then he gives a speech at the end, and I thought there would be a twist, where the man who was blown off would tell him off, but sadly that didn't happen. Especially since we already got other happy gay couples in the movie, so not every character needed to be in a happy couple at the end, but I'm not entirely complaining, since the bar for gay characters and their happiness seems to be in hell. There is one thing that makes me sad about this movie though, and that there are not more of them, because there are obviously great queer stories out there, but they're not getting financed, so hopefully Fire Island is another movie that makes people realize that there is a market for movies written by, about, and for queer people. |
AuthorRyan Jones is an aspiring screenwriting, and an environmental enthusiast and activist. Archives
February 2022
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