NewFest Film Festival: Day 4

This is me reviewing the films I've seen at this year's NewFest LGBTQ Film Festival. Click here for my other reviews of the festival.
 

ALICE JÚNIOR (dir. Gil Baroni)

A classic fish out of water high school tale with a queer twist, this Brazilian film starring the way-too-cool Anne Celestino in the titular role is a little too scattered for my taste, but worth a watch nonetheless. The setup is interesting enough: a fierce, teenage, out and proud trans social media influencer is forced to move to a small town and attend a Catholic school. And while Celestino is pitch perfect, the rest of the movie feels all over the place from the underdeveloped side characters to the strange B-plot of whatever her dad was doing to the seemingly rushed resolution in the third act. The on-screen graphics also verged on being too distracting by the end. In spite of that, ALICE JÚNIOR is a movie I'm glad exists because the character of Alice is immediately iconic and a necessary role model. Shout out to the poster of Tangerine in Alice's room. Respect.

COWBOYS (dir. Anna Kerrigan)

I won't bury the lede here... Steve Zahn did that. I'm thoroughly impressed he had this role in him! Zahn plays father of Joe, a young child who realizes that dressing up in cowboy gear is much more natural to him than wearing dresses and bows. Zahn's character goes through A LOT in this movie and the ease of which he's able to access all the different emotions and succeed in conveying them is a master class. Newcomer Sasha Knight is wonderful as Joe especially with small gestures revealing their inner turmoil and longing. The incredible actresses Jillian Bell, who plays Joe's mom, and Ann Dowd round out the excellent cast. There are some slight pacing issues and some emotional beats which do not get fully developed, but in the grand scheme of things, COWBOYS is a sensitive film about parents and what it means to love their child as they are.

Only two films? What's happening to me? Let's see how many I can watch tomorrow. Don't forget to follow me on Letterboxd if you want.