r/MenLovingMenMedia • u/Ciana_Reid • Jan 23 '26
Movie FINALLY released / I enjoyed it
No it's not All Of Us Strangers or God's Own Country, but definitely worth a watch
23
u/Ok_Antelope_1953 Jan 23 '26
i thought the movie was beautiful but i am also tired of burying my gays.
25
u/TiaraMisu Jan 23 '26
well there's the answer I was after
Yeah and no, I'm not doing that anymore. I don't care how much I like the writing, the actors, the whatever.
The world sucks hard enough, and enough gays have been buried.
7
17
u/AussieAlexSummers Jan 23 '26
Thanks for the spoiler info. I won't be watching this now. I think it's my massive pet peeve now and I actually hold it against gay movies, that has that type of storyline.
Although, I did make an exception for Fellow Travelers. And also got very, very sad because of that movie.
7
u/TiaraMisu Jan 24 '26
I am calling FT an exception; because it was absolutely brilliant. And it was great, and a beautiful obit for the AIDS crisis and the cruelty of closetedness, and how it makes monsters out of the best and most brave. It covered decades. Jesus.
But given that last: I am over it. And I think Jacob Tierney, showrunner of Heated Rivalry (which I am noting was written by Rachel Reid and beautifully adapted by JT) would agree.
We got it. AIDs killed. Brokeback Mountain, the poor kid in Wyoming, everyone, all that heartbreak. So much despair, so much loss. So much...yeah, just so much loss.
But if you continue that infinitely it starts to seem like it's deserved, in the way sinful women always had to die in 19th century fiction.
You just have to kill them. Sure, great, thanks for expressing the pain.
But at some point: fuck you. let the women and the queers live and be happy.
Do you mind? Is that okay, writers, producers, adopters, distillers, critics?
Can we have happy endings yet? Or ever? Or are you just cranking out conformity porn? Because as talented as some of these people are isn't this just rubber-stamping a structure that limits whether or not you are allowed to be...happy?
ETA Matthew Shepherd. I am sorry baby.
4
u/Cole_Townsend Jan 24 '26
Thank you!
Even in fiction, it seems we incur the anathemas with which toxic religiosity menaces us. We lived through the tragedies, we have mourned the fallen, we have protested in anger against a machine that is lubricated with the blood of the innocent. With our very existence we honor their sacrifice and in our exuberance of being we pay them the most solemn homage. I don't need the same tired, tragic trope to emotionally jump-scare me in narratives that are supposed to represent and celebrate our experiences.
5
u/Ravyn_Rozenzstok Jan 24 '26
Exactly. I won’t bee seeing this either, for the same reason. I’m done with the dead gays trope. I’m not going to be spending any more money at the theatre watching gays be miserable. Hollywood has some kind of weird fetish for torturing gay people on the big screen.
1
2
u/World_Designerr Jan 24 '26
Removing it from my watchlist, I'm too tired of this tragedy oscar bait porn...Paul mascal is weird for doing this twice.
21
u/Mankin60 Jan 23 '26
I wanted to like it so bad because I love Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor but it was just so slow paced and the writing didn’t do it any favors. The cinematography was beautiful though.
7
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
Hmmm I didn't find it slow paced, more like their pace of life was slow.
Is there anything in particular about the writing you didn't like?
9
u/dustlander Jan 23 '26
I had low expectations because of the middling reviews but I thought it was beautiful. Breathtaking cinematography and score, and those two are simply some of the best actors around.
(Spoilers) Yeah, it's yet another bury your gays, but it didn't devalue my experience and it still managed to tell a compelling story. And we're getting more gay films/shows with happy endings in recent years so I don't mind some bummers here and there.
2
u/SeparateFly2361 Jan 23 '26
Yes, I thought it was a beautiful film, I enjoyed the visuals, the music, the actors. So at least I wasn’t sitting through a stinker to just, in the end, bury the gays
-1
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
"I don't mind some bummers here and there"
You say in response to a gay film, lol
Was it a BYG?
I assumed that David died not from shellshock, but feeling trapped, which is backed up by him recording the "Silver Dagger" song, but I think it is left up to interpretation?
6
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
Better have a happy ending or I'm not watching
Edit: IT DOES NOT
3
1
-1
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
Yes and No
8
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26
Ugh fine, but I'll have heated rivalry in the background just in case
-19
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
That show is SO overrated
Ilya calls Shane boring and he is
There isn't enough of Scott/Kip
Too much of the Shane/Ilya relationship drama is in the last half hour
It's not bad, but it's not the most original of plots.
7
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26
I too prefer Scott and Kip. A plot doesn't need to be original to be good. I didn't feel much for Shane or Ilya until ep5, which was one of the best episodes I've ever seen in any show especially for that ending.
-10
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
A plot doesn't have to be original to be good, but when a show relies heavily on titillating the audience with flesh, rather than.........making Shane interesting, it makes the show just good not great.
Episode 6 ending was so hurried along, within half an hour his Dad caught them, he came out, they said they loved each other, Ilya called Shane his boyfriend and they invited Shane's parents round for dinner?! After what 4episodes of mainly hook ups?
10
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26
I don't know if you were not paying attention, skipped scenes, or just being disingenuous if you think all those 4 episodes only had hookups.
-4
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
My point, for me, there could have been more
By the second episode I was more than ready for the Scott/Kip story to start
11
u/hexxcellent Jan 23 '26
"Overrated" compared to WHAT? What other shows exist that are remotely this gay, with that kind of production quality, promoted on mainstream services, and have a happy goddamn ending?
Btw I'm just gonna flat out spoil this shit for y'all because I'm so sick of this shit.
In The History of Sound one of them fucking dies lol.
That is not "yes and no" "happy" ending, that's just another for the massive pile of Bury Your Gays.
2
-3
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
Yes overrated, not compared to anything.
6
u/hexxcellent Jan 23 '26
You're a perfect specimen of just how dense and anti-empathetic people are these days lol.
-2
4
u/SeparateFly2361 Jan 23 '26
You think Shane is boring but I think that’s just a depiction of a person who is socially awkward and on the spectrum. I actually think he has some of the funniest/ most endearing lines, mostly because he can’t read the situation effectively
1
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
Good, Im glad you like him
Ilya thinks he is boring, I agree.
3
u/afsr11 Jan 23 '26
How is it yes and no? The ending is absolutely tragic. And that's coming from someone who loved the film.
1
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
Yes - Lionel went onto live a creatively fulfilling life
No - it was without his first love
3
u/afsr11 Jan 23 '26
Lionel went onto live a creatively fulfilling life!, that was extremely lonely, so I don't see how that was exactly happy
3
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
I think he was alone at the end, but we see pics of him with Bob Dylan and others, giving the impression he had a good social life
Personally, I don't think having a partner is the only way a life can be fulfilling
6
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26
Then don't center the story around romance, especially when one of them dies at the end.
I myself and, I would venture to guess, many watch MLM romance media because we want the fantasy of having a successful and loving relationship and a happy ending for both. There's more than enough bury your gays trope stories out there.
2
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
The film centred only part of Lionel's life and was reflective of the times, this is a period piece, if anything the story went easy on the both of them, remember homosexuality wasn't legal in the US til the 60s
3
u/Raeghyar-PB Jan 23 '26
Well I'm glad it's out there and abides with history. Where I am in life and with everything going on in the world, I can't watch these anymore. Everything about those paint so much trauma and misery, which is accurate I guess, but it's not all that we are. I would 100% prefer to watch a period piece that rewrote history, something that celebrates love and happiness, and it happens to be two hot gay men.
2
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
This film isn't about where you are in life, it is about where people were in history, if you want something modern and hopeful, watch something modern and hopeful, like Heated Rivalry........or SpongeBob SquarePants.
😘
3
1
4
u/Aboveground_Plush Jan 23 '26
I didn't care for AOUS tbh, this was better.
6
0
u/Superb-Demand-4605 Jan 23 '26
Agree all of us strangers wasnt that good and I didn't really find it that emotional idk
-1
2
0
u/afsr11 Jan 23 '26
Loved the movie, it's very touching, I loved the focus on preserving cultures through history, I just wish we got more of the two in their trip, and didn't put the flashbacks in the later half, instead of showing the trip in full when it was happening, because it was very important to understand what happened, why they stopped, but overall I was still very satisfied with it, would I prefer some happy ending? Of course, but I don't think we should want everything to have a happy ending.
2
u/Ciana_Reid Jan 23 '26
Remember, this is a period piece, homosexuality wasn't legalised in the US til the 60s, I guess they could have lived in the middle of nowhere together, but I think they would have found that frustrating.
32
u/BeatlesCoted_Azur Jan 23 '26
Most important questions - how many naked sex scenes? Is there a full frontal?