NewFest Film Festival: Day 9

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.

As I mentioned yesterday, we're getting down to the wire and it's a bit of a race to get in a few more screenings before the end of the festival which explains why I ended up seeing four full-length films plus a webseries. Apologies in advance for the slightly shorter reviews.

DRY WIND (dir. Daniel Nolasco)

This movie is for everyone who yearned for the Tom of Finland aesthetics which they didn't get from that 2017 Tom of Finland movie. It's hot, a little disturbing, and a lot sexy. The neon-tinged look and feel of the film perfectly complement the often sensual, sometimes haunting images of gay fantasia brought to life here. Its decision to center the film on a regular factory worker whose spectrum of emotions (lust, ecstacy, longing, jealousy, fear, regret) we latch on to is quite well-done. But while the movie's style speaks for itself, DRY WIND comes up short trying to wrap it all up at the end. Technically it ends in a sort of a happy ending, but the journey to get there is muddier than expected.

GOSSAMER FOLDS (dir. Lisa Donato)

Beautifully told with a couple of breakthrough performances and a kicker of an ending, this film is so full of heart, it's impossible not to love. When precocious, dictionary-loving 10-year-old Tate is relocated by his parents to the suburbs, he starts an unlikely friendship with next-door neighbor and bigger-than-life Gossamer who is confident in the decisions she has made and in the dreams she wants to achieve. Jackson Robert Scott and Alexandra Grey, as Tate and Gossamer respectively, absolutely crackle on the screen as they both grapple, apart and together, a world that is increasingly hostile to what they imagine their life should be. GOSSAMER FOLDS is an excellent addition to the well-worn "unlikely friendship from two different worlds" film genre like this year's acclaimed Driveways. I cried at the end.

THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON (dir. Ali LeRoi)

I'm a big fan of time-loop films and often intrigue to see how filmmakers put their own twist on this category of movies. In THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON, writer Stanley Kalu mines the tragic reality of Black people experiencing police brutality as we see the titular character of Tunde, played by the excellent Steven Silver, die over and over again by cops only to wake up anew to repeat the day. It's not an easy watch and the repetition doesn't make it any easier. In fact, as Tunde repeats his day, things don't repeat in the same manner as in many time-loop situations. A handful of things are generally constant like him coming out to his parents, spending time with his closeted jock boyfriend, and dealing with his best friend, but they all never progress exactly the same each time. That's where the movie falls apart a bit as the time-loop aspect isn't given enough structure and logic for it to have narrative weight or cohesion especially by the film's choice for how it ends. Still, I admire it for doing something different and doing so it with such a tricky, but timely and powerful subject matter.

KELET (dir. Susani Mahadura)

Kelet is a Somali-born trans woman who now lives in Finland trying to make it as a model. Through her own words and reflections of her life and her choices, we get an intimate glimpse into the amazing strength she has to come out as trans, cut ties with non-supportive family, move to a new country, and gain more traction as model. This inviting documentary is disarming in the quiet vulnerability and searing honesty of its subject matter. Looking forward for the rest of her journey.

DINETTE (dir. Shaina Feinberg)

This is a webseries about a group of women connected by a local restaurant where they hang out as a safe space and the trials and laughs they go through to hold on to it for as long as they can. The characters are delightful and most of the dialogue are just hysterical, but even at less than an hour total, this 6-episode series weirdly feels like it didn't have enough story to tell. If there's a new season, I hope they work on the plotting a bit more, because the cast is aces.

I likely won't be able to see anything tomorrow, but after that there's two more days. Already freaking out about which final movies to see!