More LGBT+ relationships that aren’t the entire fucking plot of the movie. I wish relationships would develop around the plot narrative like we see heteronormative romances portrayed in action/thriller/etc movies. Right now we only really have movies where the entire fucking plot revolves around how gay someone is and their struggle with being gay and AcCePtInG tHeMsElVeS. It’s becoming trope-y and stale.
I just want to be pleasantly surprised someone’s LGBT+ in a movie and have the plot move on without fanfare like it would for a straight romance.
Problem is:
- You make a movie that is specifically LGBTQ themed where plot is about the characters queerness, and MFS on twitter complain.
- You have a character that just happens to be queer and does not affect the plot at all, and MFS on twitter will complain (Like Lightyear, or Strange World) and they will even lie and say that the movie has hardcore anal gay sex scenes or something.
You cant win with MFS because they just dont want to see queer people in media.
I am queer and I dont care if the series or movies is all about the queerness or if someone in the movie just happens to be queer. I want the story to be good.
Schitt’s Creek manages this really well, though it is a TV show and has the time to do it.
I really liked Billy Eichner’s character in Parks and Rec for this. I don’t even think they mentioned him being gay directly other than his character mentioning a boyfriend or going on a date and use male pronouns or something like that. It was just a matter of fact that the was gay. There was no reveal, no plot about it, it didn’t affect the story. He was just a worker in the department that happened to also be gay.
It probably also helped that Billy Eichner is actually gay, and he was probably able to use his perspective to guide the directors and such to what he would want to see in a gay character on a sitcom rather than what the directors think the gay viewers want. Which is what I think is normally happening when a character being gay is a huge plot point. I think it comes from a good place. But I think to normalize being gay, being gay has to be portrayed as normal.
Animation does have a few good examples of this, Kipo comes to mind
I liked Sulu meeting his husband and kid in the last Star Trek movie. Not in the dialogue, not central to the plot. Just a sailor getting to spend some time with his family.
I’ve never really thought about it until now whether George Takei even responded to that scene. It turns out he did, and he was against it. Original Sulu wasn’t gay. I liked Simon Peggs answer to that also - Gene pushed us with as much diversity as he could, but a gay character was a step too far for the 1960’s.
Dialogue and movement in films and shows is so damn well rehearsed that I can never truly get immersed. Real conversations are awkward. We stutter. We fumble words. We forget people’s names, or what we were just talking about. Never for dramatic reasons. Just because we’re human. Script writers are hyper focused on fitting as much wit and humor as they can jam in there. I think some authors of books fall into the same trap. A 16 year old character somehow has the wit and wisdom of someone twice their age. I want more scenes made with genuine stumbling embarrassing awkwardness.
You know those moments where later people learn that the actor improvised the line? Or the movements? Best one I ever saw was Heath Ledger’s Joker failing to blow up the hospital.
[ He turns around. Well shit. Looks back at the device and mashes the button a few more times. Hospital finally blows up and he gets startled. ]
THAT’S THE SHIT. Give me more of that. Let me see the characters fuck up. Get uncomfortable. Make genuinely minor mistakes. Give me flaws. Give me something that isn’t witty. I’m tired of getting bashed over the head with polished scripts.
Animated movies tend to do this better to be fair. Lots to appreciate from the recent animated Spiderman movies for example.
Hah that’s why I love Adventure Time
Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese director that likes to film actors when they are rehearsing scenes and then sometimes edits in those cuts as they feel more natural, he mostly does Japanese films but he did do an American gangster film called Brother, check it out
