F/F Films I watched in February and also Deadpool, in Brief
calvinahobbes and I decided to watch Fried Green Tomatoes the first week in February and then I kind of watched a bunch more films that feature queer women - I go through phases with media. (It's a thing.) I started writing this post after watching Jenny's Wedding and not really having the reaction I was expecting.
I also saw Deadpool opening weekend here, and I do not think I have ever been made so happy by a cartoon boner in my life; boners for everyone is pretty unambiguous. I feel it might actually be less ambiguous than a scene containing something along the lines of "Hello, my name is Wade Wilson and I am pansexual," because I feel like there is a strong desire within certain subsets of the comic book community to erase that sexuality, and that while someone might go "Ha, ha, what a funny word, 'pansexual', what a kidder, that Deadpool," that is basically the audience who's gonna get the message about his sexuality in the film's ending. So: yay, cartoon hammering home the queerness, and yay representation. ♥ The film lived up to expectations for me, going beyond in some ways, and was enjoyable if not a favourite.
The F/F films I watched in February were kind of hit or miss.
Fried Green Tomatoes 1991, USA (English) - "A housewife who is unhappy with her life befriends an old lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know."
I liked this film. It is about women being there for women and friendship and this epic sweeping love story between Ruth and Idgie, which is a bit subtext-y. That bit made me sad. Everything else was pretty happy-making and the other notes I have on it are pretty small. I feel like it falls into the same sort of place as The First Wives' Club, which is a pretty good place to fall, only Fried Green Tomatoes kind of made me cry a lot. I had a lot of feelings.
Jenny's Wedding 2015, USA (English) - "Jenny Farrell has led an openly gay life - except with her conventional family. When she finally decides to start a family and marry the woman they thought was just her roommate, the small, safe world the Farrells inhabited changes forever. They are left with a simple and difficult choice - either change with it or drown."
Jenny's sister was the most interesting part of this film; she figures out that she's unhappy and then figures out how to change that. The other half of this film is about Jenny deciding to come out of the closet by announcing her engagement to the woman she lives with and her parents reacting badly. I did not particularly like Katherine Heigl or Alexis Bledel in this in spite of having liked them in other things. I am not convinced that they should have been getting married and want to know what they are doing living in that apartment with that tiny tiny table when they clearly had space for a larger one. Why. Why would you do that to yourself? People in the film said that they were happy together but I personally remain unconvinced. So, yeah, would not particularly recommend this.
I Can't Think Straight 2008, UK (English) - "A 2008 romance film adapted from a same name novel about a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Tala, who is preparing for an elaborate wedding. A turn of events causes her to have an affair and subsequently fall in love with another woman, Leyla, a British Indian."
I liked this a lot. The pacing was really great and Tala and Leyla spend a lot of time looking at each other and it's just like hello. It is very satisfyingly gay is what I am saying. I liked their friends and family and the side gay dudes in Tala's life who are very much on the side. The minor characters are pretty satisfyingly fleshed out; people have personalities that take up space, which I found enjoyable. I like Leyla a lot, she's like, yep, definitely a lesbian and then goes for it and does what's going to make her happy. It's nice. I liked this movie. There is a dance party at the end (A+).
The Perfect Family 2011, USA (English) - "A devoutly Catholic wife and mother has been nominated for one of the church's top awards. She then goes about trying to prove she has the 'perfect' family, refusing to accept them for who they are."
I watched this because of the tumblr gifs of Emily Deschanel and Angelique Cabral in this film. Deschanel has second billing and plays the daughter; her mother, Eileen, is the main character and is trying to live her life in line with the pope's Catholicism. Her son has separated from his wife and her daughter is marrying a woman and expecting their first child. It's similar to Jenny's Wedding in a lot of ways; I feel like it essentially tells the same story, only successfully. The film is about Eileen reconciling her faith and her family and everyone gets a happy ending.
The Baby Formula 2008, Canada (English) - "Two adventurous women in love are desperate to have their own biological child. They take a chance on an experimental scientific process and make sperm from their own stem cells. Pregnant with humor and unexpected twists, their journey ultimately confirms that all life is a gift and all families are crazy."
Of course this film is Canadian. It's so Canadian, sometimes in slightly painful ways. It's a faux documentary. There are some ethical things in this that make me deeply uncomfortable, agh. Fandom-style warnings would be dubcon, unethical use of genetic material, suicide, there's also alcoholism and drug use and I feel like I am forgetting stuff. This film made me happy, though? I think that's mostly down to there being a special place in my heart for not-so-great Canadian things. There's a lot of gay in this film and there's a happy ending. If you are going to watch it lower your expectations right down, though - it's a fair bit like shitty reality TV in places.
Bessie 2015, USA (English) - "The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s."
I loved this. It is a biopic about a bisexual musician rather than a f/f film, but it's a biopic about a bisexual musician. Bessie Smith, at least in the movie, gets a hopeful ending. Bessie is queer in this - she's not monogamous and we see her with both men and women. Her girlfriend is my favourite of her partners and we see them playing around in bed and having emotionally fraught pillow talk and the film doesn't treat her girlfriend as less than any of her other partners even if I personally feel that Bessie doesn't have her priorities straight there - Bessie tries to have everything and it doesn't really work out for her. So, there is good f/f content but that's not the focus of the film - that's Bessie's rise in the roaring twenties, and the music and costumes are both so pretty and race is a solid focus in this. A+ period piece; I got everything I wanted out of it, except an f/f ending.
Vic + Flo ont vu un ours 2013, Canada (French) - "Vic + [Flo] Saw a Bear is a darkly mysterious tale of [two lesbian] ex-cons, Victoria and Florence, trying to make a new life in the backwoods of Quebec. Seeking peace and [quiet], the [couple slowly] begin to feel under siege[...]"
*eyeroll* Vic + Flo are older, and they're assholes. Victoria is anti-social, insecure, controlling, and we see her hit Florence when she's in a wheelchair. Florence is bisexual and cheating on Victoria. They move in with Victoria's uncle, neglect his care, and take his money. They die. I'm not a really big fan of the people are assholes school of cinema or the dead queers narrative, so I didn't like this.
Show Me Love 1998, Sweden/Denmark (Swedish) - "Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin."
They are teenagers! Teenagers. They are hormonal and throw stuff around and there are intermediaries when someone has a crush and awful opening conversational gambits. Agnes is mean to her friend who is in a wheelchair, about being in a wheelchair and there is cutting and blood and underage drinking. So, yep, bits of this made me deeply uncomfortable (I have an embarrassment squick and they are teenagers.) but there are these moments of, like, lesbian triumph that are really fantastic. There's diary writing and throwing rocks at windows and no one dies and they get a happy ending.
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