This year’s Sundance Film Festival offered a cornucopia of queer cinema, with the latest films by queer filmmakers. Matt Wolf attended with his documentary, “Pee-Wee as Himself,” and Ira Sachs unveiled his new film, “Peter Hujar’s Day” which stars Ben Whishaw as the famed photographer. Many of the LGBTQ+ features were available for streaming online as part of the fest. Here is a rundown of a half-dozen films that will hopefully get a release in theaters or on streaming channels later this year.
“Sally” is a celebratory documentary about Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space. A role model for breaking a glass ceiling, Ride endured incredible sexism and gendered expectations on the job and in the media — before, during and after her famous shuttle flight. As director Cristina Costantini’s informative documentary shows, she handled it all with aplomb. However, Ride did not publicly disclose her sexuality, or her decades-long relationship with her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy, until after her death. She was even reluctant to tell her sister, Bear, who was also a lesbian. “Sally” recounts Ride’s life and work, her ambitions and training at NASA, her positive impact on women in STEM, as well as her marriage to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley and her relationship with O’Shaughnessy, making points about how things are harder for women in general and queer women in particular. As a pioneering lesbian who remains an inspiration, Ride gets some overdue love and even more respect with this flattering portrait.
“GEN_” is a marvelous documentary showcasing Milanese endocrinologist Dr. Maurizio Bini, who provides a humanist, empathetic approach to his patients, many of whom are either trans or couples seeking to have children. Dr. Bini handles his trans patients with compassion and care that is inspiring; he does what is right working around the bureaucracy. He is encouraging when a client is struggling with their gender identity and reassuring with a patient who wants to suppress an erection, or one who wants to grow a beard. He makes queer youth feel at ease so they can “be in harmony with their body,” and tells a trans patient their father is “concerned, but not opposed” to their child transitioning. Dr. Bini is especially helpful with one adoptee trans patient grappling with abandonment issues. Director Gianluca Matarrese’s film gently eavesdrops on these riveting consultations, and he includes a montage of Dr. Bini’s patients’ bodies to emphasize the humanity of these trans people’s lives. This is a rewarding, life-affirming documentary.
The timely and topical documentary “Heightened Security” chronicles trans advocate and activist Chase Strangio arguing the Dec. 2024 Supreme Court case, United States v. Skrmetti, about banning gender-affirming care in Tennessee. (Strangio is the first trans person to argue in front of the country’s high court.) The film, directed by Sam Feder (“Disclosure”) shows not only how Strangio must counter transphobic thinking that instills fear and misunderstanding, but also how the media creates trans narratives about regret and detransitioning that are being used to create laws and criminalize acts. With observational footage and a plethora of smart talking heads, including actor Elliot Page, “Heightened Scrutiny” informs and engages, evoking both inspiration and justified outrage. Hopefully, it will also change minds.
“Plainclothes” is an ambitious yet muddled feature debut by writer/director Carmen Essi about Lucas (Tom Blyth), an undercover cop, who entraps gay men in public restrooms in upstate New York in 1997. When he meets Andrew (Russell Tovey) in a bathroom stall, Lucas finds himself attracted to the suspect and lets him go. As the two men discretely arrange to meet up again in the future, they begin a secret affair. Essi focuses on the uneasiness of Lucas’ situation, playing up his paranoia and includes a time-jumping narrative (cue facial hair signposting), and erratic editing to illustrate Lucas’ fractured, conflicted mindset. These pretentious cinematic devices mar a simple character study/coming-out story. Blyth is compelling as a man struggling with his same-sex attraction and scenes of Lucas and Andrew together are touching because both closeted guys feel safety when alone together. In contrast, Lucas’ exchanges with his homophobic uncle (Gabe Fazio) are heavy-handed and cringe-inducing. Essi plays up themes of surveillance and legality making only obvious points about shame and the criminalization of gay sex. The policing scenes lack tension, whereas Lucas’ concerns about being discovered by his colleagues or family are strained and overplayed. “Plainclothes” actually works best as a showcase for Tovey, who makes Andrew the most interesting character in the film. In support, Maria Dizzia adds some poignancy as Lucas’ mother.
Writer/director Gala del Sol’s stylish and quixotic debut, “Rains over Babel” takes viewers into a queer and contemporary version of Dante’s “Inferno,” where La Flaca (Sarai Rebolledo) plays games of chance with people’s lives and Dante (Felipe Aguilar Rodríguez) sends the dead into the next world. Enter a host of characters, queer and straight, including Jacob (William Hurtado), who experiences moments of stigmata, and secretly performs in drag as Andria — hoping his pastor father Don Alfonso (Jhon Narváez) won’t find out. Other storylines feature Monet (Johan Zapata), who suffers an overdose, and Timbí (José Mojica) who partners up with Uma (Celina Biurrun) to find the musician El Callegueso (Jacobo Vélez) to save his father Salai’s (John Alex Castillo) bar. “Rains over Babel” features some fabulous performance sequences, some inventive, candy-colored visuals, a talking salamander, and some queer twists that will keep viewers rapt as this magical realist fable about life, love and death unfolds.
“Where the Wind Comes From” is a standard-issue road movie about teenage Alyssa (Eya Bellagha) and her best friend Mehdi (Slim Baccar), who hope to win an art contest that will enable them to go abroad. But what distinguishes this film is that it is set in Tunisia, where both characters are oppressed by social forces as well as trapped by economic circumstance. To visualize her escape, Alyssa has some surrealistic flights of fancy, such as seeing rich people with pig heads or picturing lecherous old men in dresses. One sequence, set in a nightclub has her floating and kissing a woman, much to Mehdi’s surprise. The queer content is minimal, but Eya Bellagha and Slim Baccar are appealing as the friends encounter setbacks like car trouble, prompting Alyssa to find workable solutions to the problems she creates. This drama about Arab youth struggling for a better life is heartfelt even when it feels cliché.
