In the midst of one film festival, I have managed to stumble across another virtual film festival! Well, similar to Tribeca, this queer film fest is also doing a hybrid of in person and at home screenings, which works out just fine for me! While I only picked out a handful of films from this event, they were ones that were on my radar from other foreign screenings earlier this year. I’m so glad I got the chance to participate!
Firebird – Forbidden romance is a tale as old as time, but gay soldiers in a 1977 Soviet Union air force training base leads to all sorts of other complications. Young private Sergey and fighter pilot Roman’s love is passionate and dreamy, but the risk of getting found out is almost too much. When Sergey is done fulfilling his duty to the air force he decides to study drama in Moscow. Years later, Roman is stationed out there for some time, but he has married one of Sergey’s best friends and has a kid. At first Sergey relents Roman’s attempts to reconnect, but eventually their love for each other wins out. Again though, the Soviets anti-gay views and actions force them apart once more. Sadly, circumstance is enough to extinguish their flame, but the whole journey was emotionally worth watching in my mind. This was a really beautiful film, and I hope it gets the same amount of revere that God’s Own Country did several years ago.
Language Lessons – This movie was really hyped about at the Berlin International Film Festival and South by Southwest, so I was really pumped I was able to watch it here! Unfortunately, it just never connected with me. Filmed during the pandemic, it makes sense that Adam is gifted virtual Spanish lessons from his husband (100 lessons to be exact). Most of the dialogue is in Spanish with no subtitles, so they were really testing my retention from the one year I took 15 years ago! Now, context clues helped me out with most of what was going on, and as the film took more dramatic turns, it became more about the friendship between Adam and his teacher Cariño. His husband is killed in a tragic accident and she seems to be dealing with a slew of personal problems in her Costa Rican home. Some of their interactions are silly, but most are them trying to be their for the other. I didn’t mind at all the fact that this was shot like a Zoom call, but it just never really got that interesting for me. Even with Mark Duplass and Natalie Morales as the leads! Still, another strong directing effort from Morales, although I’d tell you to go watch Plan B instead.
Jump, Darling – Ugh, this final film made me both happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because it was good, but sad because it’s one of Cloris Leachman’s final film roles. What a legend! Anyways, she plays the grandmother to Russell, a drag queen who’s sort of lost his way in the world and can’t really make a decision about what he wants to do with it. Thus, he moves in with his no-holds-barred grandmother. She happens to be dealing with her own issues, given that she’s being pressured into moving to a nursing home when she really just doesn’t want to. I’m sure there are some out there that can’t relate to that struggle, but as a young person dealing with a grandma with some signs of dementia, the conversation that’s bound to come is going to be such a difficult one. This movie’s moment of realness definitely cemented its place in my heart. Also, who doesn’t love to see a kid connect with their grandparent! That’s heartwarming stuff regardless of the context. This film might not be for everyone, but I found myself really drawn to these characters’ struggles. What a great little fest I managed to stumble upon!