By Gary M. Kramer–
Looking back at the LGBTQ films I reviewed this year, there were several highlights. Here is a rundown, in alphabetical order, of ten of my favorite queer films that screened in 2024.
All Shall Be Well is a poignant, touching drama by out gay writer/director Ray Yeung. Set in Hong Kong, the film has lesbian couple Pat Wu (Lin-Lin Li) and Angie Wang (Patra Au) celebrating the mid-Autumn festival with Pat’s extended family. After Pat unexpectedly dies, Angie is bereft. However, because Pat had no will, her family assumes control over the funeral arrangements—and Pat’s estate. All Shall Be Well lets viewers feel such empathy for Angie, and Patra Au delivers a beautifully calibrated performance. She is silent and stoic; her grief and loneliness as well as her pain and memories are all palpable. Yeung’s absorbing film may be modest and understated, but it is also quietly powerful.
I am still snickering at Drive-Away Dolls, the fabulously queer comic thriller directed by Ethan Coen, who cowrote it with his wife, Tricia Cooke. Two lesbians, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), are headed to Tallahassee unaware that a briefcase (along with another questionable box) is in the trunk of their car. As the women are pursued, sex, mayhem, and comedy ensue. Drive-Away Dolls is tremendous fun with jokes flying as fast and as furiously as fists and bullets.
The vibrant trans narco musical Emilia Pérez is an operatic story of love, violence, and the power of women. A propulsive audacious experience, director Jacques Audiard’s film has Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana), a lawyer in Mexico City, hired by the drug kingpin Manitas Del Monte (trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón in a dual role), to help him get gender reassignment surgery. Four years later, Manitas, now Emilia Pérez, wants Rita to help her get her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and kids back. It’s a risky prospect because Jessi and their children are unaware of Emilia’s identity. Moreover, both Jessi and Emilia Pérez develop romantic feelings for other people. As a battle between Emilia and Jessi ensues, with Rita caught in the middle, Emilia Pérez builds to its explosive finale. The musical numbers, which include one about vaginoplasty, are fabulous and Saldana is sensational. While it may not be for all tastes, Emilia Pérez is just like its title character: unique, bold, and uncompromising. Audiard’s film is sensational in every regard.
Extremely Unique Dynamic, cowritten and codirected (with Katherine Dudas) by stars Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung, is a shaggy, amusing meta-movie about Ryan (Xu, who grew up around Oakland/Fremont) and Daniel (out gay Ivan Leung), best friends in Los Angeles who will soon be separated as Ryan is moving to Edmonton, Canada. The fun film chronicles the buddies’ last weekend together. Rather than hang out, get high, and have fun, the straight Ryan coaxes the closeted Daniel into making a movie together, and a meta one at that. Ryan and Daniel will play Gregg and Tim who will play Jake and Jasper in the film within the film within the film. Things get, well, confusing, but this scrappy indie is as appealing as its leads.
Out gay filmmaker Goran Stolevski’s warm and engaging “hangout” film Housekeeping for Beginners, set in Macedonia, has Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a lesbian, forming a makeshift family by marrying the gay Toni (Vladimir Tintor) in order to care for and raise her late lover’s children. Stolevski’s film deals with serious issues involving queer people and ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe, but he films it all with a light touch that immerses viewers in the lives of the characters.
In How to Have Sex, Mia McKenna-Bruce gave such an indelible performance as a teenager on a holiday trip to lose her virginity that one might have thought the film was a documentary. Immersing viewers into a very uncomfortable world, out writer/director Molly Manning Walker created a movie that is riveting, disturbing, and unforgettable. She deftly captures the wild parties and debauchery, leaving viewers with a contact hangover. McKenna-Bruce is a knockout as Tara, a teen who processes several painful emotional moments over the course of what should have been a good time.
In the Summers is a knockout feature debut by the queer writer/director Alessandra Lacorazza. Set entirely in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the film chronicles two sisters, Eva (Luciana Elisa Quinonez as a tween, Allison Salinas as a teen, and Sasha Calle as a young adult) and the queer Violeta (Dreya Castillo/Kimaya Thais/Lio Mehiel), as they visit their father, Vincente (René Pérez Joglar, aka Residente), four times over an approximately ten-year period. What makes In the Summers so moving, however, is all that goes unsaid. This finely observed drama builds to a quietly powerful final sequence that may just prompt tears.
Luther: Never Too Much is director Dawn Porter’s enjoyable documentary about the late singer, songwriter, and producer extraordinaire, Luther Vandross. Told through anecdotes by his friends and fellow musicians, as well as archival clips and concert footage, the film traces his life from being a “Motown child,” worshipping singers like Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick—with whom he would later work—to appearing on Sesame Street, singing backup, and collaborating with David Bowie and Bette Midler, and even working and singing commercial jingles. But it is his solo career where his incredible talent and ambition are fully realized, even though he was pigeonholed as an R&B musician and never quite achieved the crossover success he deserved and desired. Luther does address some of the singer’s troubles, including his ongoing struggles with his weight, his fear about the stigma of coming out, and a car accident in 1986 where his passenger was killed. Although the film is hagiographic, Luther’s lush voice and music still generate goosebumps. Although Vandross was not crazy about being called “Doctor Love” because his songs were so seductive, it is hard not to feel all the love and respect the musicians, friends, and fans still have for him in this cinematic valentine.
Queer, Luca Guadagnino’s sensual film, adapted from William S. Burrough’s novel, is a dark, and at times surreal, drama about Lee (Daniel Craig) craving sex and drugs. This richly colored film is full of textures—from the fabulous 1950s period clothes to strange, hallucinatory images, such as a snake eating its own tail. But it is Craig’s stunning performance that makes Queer so rapturous. The actor throws himself into the role with abandon, hungrily pursuing his desires. In what may be the film’s greatest scene, Lee prepares to inject himself with heroin and just sits waiting for the drugs to take effect. It’s shot in real time and Craig’s demeanor reflects both his anticipation and release. While not for all tastes, Queer enthralls as it maintains a hypnotic pull on viewers.
The excellent character study Sebastian has Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a writer, secretly working as Sebastian, an escort. He is performing sex work as research for a novel he hopes to publish. Of course, his side hustle (no pun intended) distracts from his freelance work for a magazine, and it is only a matter of time before his two worlds collide. Sebastian depicts how Max handles the personal and professional conflicts he faces. Is he being self-destructive and feeling shame about living a double life? As he gets more involved with one particular client, is Max getting too deep into his work? Mollica’s highwire performance blurs the lines—he is sexy and confident one minute, and full of anxiety the next. Sebastian may not add anything new to the sex worker narrative, but the film remains captivating because Mollica exudes charisma, and makes viewers care about Max, even when he is at his worst.
© 2024 Gary M. Kramer
Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” He teaches Short Attention Span Cinema at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and is the moderator for Cinema Salon, a weekly film discussion group. Follow him on Twitter/X @garymkramer
Film
Published on December 19, 2024
Recent Comments