![]() Having a gay actor play Adam might have lent a queer perspective clearly missing in the script. ![]() Language is ideal for lockdown filming, because it's just two characters with their virtual screens. ![]() Not for one minute will you buy Duplass as gay aside from having a husband, you'd never suspect he was gay.Īn unexpected tragedy brings the two closer as they reveal more about their personal lives, going beyond Spanish tutorials, though Carino isn't forthcoming about the bruises on her face. Mark Duplass portrays middle-aged Adam, whose rich husband gives him a gift of online Spanish language lessons taught by Costa Rican tutor Carino (Natalie Morales). Language Lessons is a mixed bag, as it's another example of a straight actor writing himself a plum gay role and deciding to act in it, similar to Viggo Mortensen's recent Falling. Adam's father wants him to have an operation to become female, even willing to move to another town to avoid scandal. The sympathetic physician does tests and finds he is a true hermaphrodite with a womb and testes, though chromosomally he is a male. His family, including his Christian pastor father, knew he was intersex at birth. Fourteen-year-old Adam is an outcast at a Filipino school, called a faggot by schoolmates, resulting in fights, until a new student, Angel, a 24-year-old sex worker, returning to high school, befriends him. Metamorphosis is an important film because it deals with a topic, an intersex coming-of-age, almost never addressed on screen. Sascha is damaged with a complicated past and whether she will allow herself to be loved, becomes the focus of this naturalistic and hopeful movie, that is a real find, even in its disturbing moments. What director Henrika Kull accomplishes so skillfully is paralleling the real lovemaking between Sascha and Maria with the tedious mechanical friction demanded by their occupation. Katharina Behrens and Adam Hoya in 'Bliss' It's not as great as Weekend, but a worthy successor. The vibrant chemistry between the two actors and the exciting cosmopolitan Berlin make this film a standout. Even though society is much more accepting of Johannes/Harry than the Weekend couple, the same issues of internalized homophobia and gay stereotypes still emerge. Johannes has an open relationship with his boyfriend, while Harry prefers noncommittal hookups, never sleeping with the same guy twice. The clock is ticking as the two men, a younger generation than the two guys in Weekend, discuss major life questions such as monogamy, love, religion, and the meaning of life. The next day Johannes will give Harry a tour of the city before his flight later that evening. White German dancer Johannes meets visiting Black British doctor/tourist Harry in a Berlin nightclub they're instantly attracted to each other. Our sense of priority, whether it be work, friends, extracurricular activities, and especially spending more time with those we love, has been altered.įrameline Executive Director James Woolley's welcome message in this year's program guide notes how the pandemic underscores "the fragility and the value of our connections with one another," so it may not be surprising that many of this year's features reveal that connections with home and family -even if not beneficial- still exert a huge influence on our queer identities and the people we become as we mature.Īlexandros Koutsoulis and Matthew James Morrison and 'Boy Meets Boy'īoy Meets Boy seems to be a copycat of Weekend, which -at least for LGBTQ audiences- has set the mold for two strangers rendezvousing for a one-night stand but wind up talking, dreaming, confessing, and perhaps changing each other. In the past year of lockdown when we were all chained to our homes, Frameline45 seems to mirror the reassessment of our lives. Many of the characters in this year's movies are struggling to find meaning either through returning to their homes and biological families, attempting to make sense of their lives now, or revitalizing themselves by discovering something they've been missing but didn't recognize its absence until now. Whether consciously or not, the theme of Frameline45, in its programming of narrative films, is traditional values, mainly home and family.
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