FILM
Queer Standouts — In Translation
The best in 2019 LGBTQ fi lm came from outside the US
BY GARY M. KRAMER
There were some outstanding
queer fi lms in 2019,
but most of them required
subtitles for Englishspeaking
audiences. American
cinema offered a few notable LGBTQ
fi lms, such as the hilarious
“Booksmart” (which sadly “underperformed”
at the box offi ce). There
was also the entertaining “Rocketman,”
which did not quite hit the
heights of last year’s queer musical
biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
(Both “Booksmart” and “Rocketman”
had their queer sex scenes
and gay content edited out on Delta
fl ights, which created a kerfuffl e.)
But the best American queer fi lms
this year were documentaries —
most of which drew small (in one
case, miniscule) but appreciative
audiences.
But by and large, the best LGBTQ
fi lms came from afar: Latin
America, Europe, and Africa. Here
is a look back on the best queer
fi lms from 2019.
Best Feature Debut: “ End of the
Century ”
Out gay writer/ director Lucio
Castro’s wistful, seductive bromance
was arguably the year’s
best queer fi lm. A hookup between
lonely, horny Ocho (Juan Barberini)
and the irresistible Javi (out actor
Ramon Pujol) becomes a timejumping,
mind-bending drama
about the nature of love and desire.
This fi lm is at once hypnotic,
romantic, and magical.
Best Film No One Saw: “5B”
Paul Haggis and Dan Krauss’
compassionate documentary,
named for the fi rst AIDS ward in
San Francisco, made less than
$73,000 in its entire 23-week theatrical
run. This life-affi rming
fi lm about the doctors, nurses,
and patients who recount their
fears, tragedies, and occasional
triumphs during the height of the
AIDS epidemic, is both powerful
and extremely moving. It needs to
be seen.
Juan Barberini and Ramon Pujol in Lucio Castro’s “End of the Century.”
Best Screen Newcomer: Félix
Maritaud in “Sauvage/ Wild”
As Léo, an attractive 22-year-old
gay sex worker in writer/ director
Camille Vidal-Naquet’s blistering
drama “Sauvage/ Wild,” Maritaud
gives the year’s breakout performance.
He uses his sexy, often-naked
body to express Léo’s despair
and inchoate desires. As Léo sleeps
in the streets, encounters a couple
wielding a massive butt plug, or
unexpectedly hugs a doctor, he is
vulnerable, hard, and sympathetic.
Maritaud is magnetic swaggering
through the Parisian streets
or plying his trade. He is comfortable
in his skin and makes viewers
swoon.
Best Mindfuck: “ Diamantino ”
The incredibly inventive Portuguese
fi lm, from Gabriel Abrantes
and Daniel Schmidt, is batshit crazy
— but in the best possible way.
Silly and campy one minute and
making barbed political comments
about the EU the next, it plays with
gender and sexuality, genetics,
cloning, body altering, the World
Cup, and giant fl uffy puppies. The
adorable and dumb title character
(Carloto Cotta) is a soccer player
who loses his mojo. He adopts
Aisha (Cleo Tavares), a lesbian
Portuguese secret service agent
working undercover as a male African
refugee orphan named Rahim
in order to investigate Diamantino.
There’s more — much more — as
CINEMA GUILD
the fi lm transforms into a bizarre
but tender romance.
Best Documentary: “Where’s My
Roy Cohn”
For some, this vivid documentary
will be a hate-watch. But give
Matt Tyrnauer’s detailed and layered
fi lm a look. It unpacks Cohn,
who never admitted he was gay or
that he had contracted AIDS. Yes,
the fi lm generates righteous anger
as it presents Cohn’s many misdeeds
and addresses his relationship
with the current president.
It is also smart and satisfying
throughout.
Best Lesbian Film: A tie between
the romantic “Portrait of a Lady on
Fire” and the comic “Booksmart”
Out director Céline Sciamma’s
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is a
stunning, elegant, slow-burn romantic
drama set in the 1700s in
France. Marianne (Noémie Merlant)
is hired to paint Héloïse (out
actress Adèle Haenel) without the
latter’s knowledge. The two slowly
fall in love, and when the two women
fi nally kiss it is electrifying.
Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart” is a
whip-smart comedy about two
overachievers trying to make up
for all the partying they missed in
high school. Molly (Beanie Feldstein)
is the valedictorian who corrects
graffi ti on the bathroom wall.
Her bestie is Amy (Kaitlyn Dever),
a lesbian who has never kissed a
girl. The fi lm succeeds because it
is consistently knowing and funny
and never mean-spirited. And
Amy’s sex scene is downright hilarious.
Best Controversial Film: “ Rafi ki ”
Wanuri Kahiu’s marvelous queer
romance from Kenya was banned
in its native country for “promoting
lesbianism.” (The ban was eventually
lifted.) “Rafi ki” depicts the relationship
that develops between
the tomboy Kena (Samantha Mugatsia)
and the sexy Ziki (Sheila
Munyiva), two young women whose
fathers are political rivals. It is a vibrant
and touching romance.
Best Trans Film: “Adam”
Director Rhys Ernst’s shrewd
romantic comedy-drama has the
title character (Nicholas Alexander),
a cisgender, heterosexual,
and virginal 18-year-old male attracted
to Gillian (Bobbi Salvör
Menuez), a lesbian. Adam does not
initially correct Gillian when she
assumes that he is transgender.
As their relationship blossoms,
however, Adam struggles with his
deception. If “Adam” sounds like
an insensitive comedy, out lesbian
writer Ariel Schrag, adapting her
own novel, is quite clever in how
she addresses issues of gender and
sexuality, even for a savvy genderqueer
audience. This fi lm is much
better than its sounds.
Best Gay Film: “ Pain and Glory ”
Out gay fi lmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s
elegiac autofi ction is an
exceptional fi lm buoyed by Antonio
Banderas’ fantastic performance
as Salvador, a fi lmmaker with
writer’s block and physical pain.
Almodóvar uses color brilliantly to
convey emotion, but there is also
tremendous passion in scenes such
as Salvador’s kiss with his ex-lover,
Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), or
from Salvador’s childhood attraction
to a hunky illiterate builder,
Eduardo (César Vicente). This is a
great fi lm about how pain can create
great art.
December 19, 2019 - January 1, 2 28 020 | GayCityNews.com
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