The Lost Language of Cranes

The Lost Language of Cranes
Netflix | Amazon
Overall Rating: 4/10
Meets Expectations: -2
Apparent Rating: 2/10

Somewhere there are people who intended this to be a good movie with an involving story and coherent allusions and great acting. Those people are probably ashamed of what this movie became. It isn’t quite that bad, but there was all this intellectual stuff about children who are raised without parental influence end up speaking their own languages (the “lost language of cranes” is about a toddler who modeled his communication off building cranes because he didn’t interact with people.) But there is no clear association between this lost language and how a gay man learns to find his way in the world.

The production values on this DVD are terrible. It looks like someone ported the VHS to DVD. The subtitles are mediocre and necessary because it manages to sound even more foreign than the English setting would imply.

Anyone considering viewing this movie should be aware that there is brief but full view male frontal nudity. There is no real sex, very little physical interaction at all, but at one point a man gets out of bed and walks toward the camera with everything showing.

The beginning of the movie seems to be about the relationship between Philip and Eliott. But the movie’s summary says it’s about Philip and his father. It also seems like it’s about Eliott and his roommate who is the sociologist. And it seems like it’s about Philip’s father and mother. And about Philip and his new love after Eliott deserts him. There is no clear thread connecting these stories what-so-ever.

Philip’s mother is one of those disgusting cows who thinks everything is about her house while she’s having an affair and her husband is leaving her for another man. But the way it’s shown, we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because everyone else is progressing and she’s been left behind. I do agree that the ability for people to openly express their sexual preferences is progress, but I do not agree that being homosexual is better than being heterosexual, so that cannot be thought to be progress inherently.

We are also supposed to feel sorry for Philip’s father because he’s been a closeted homosexual for more than 20 years. Mostly though it seems like something he’s brought on himself by dishonesty. No one forced him to marry a woman and ruin her life too.

I don’t know where Eliott fit into things, except he was a gay man raised by two gay men and still managed to destroy his relationship with Philip. And Eliott’s roommate, the sociologist woman, suddenly bags her whole thesis near the end of the movie for no apparent reason except the movie is ending and she wants to be able to go out with Philip and his new love.

For the people writing the screenplay, please to be remembering not to put the plot and characters in the blender and taking out chunks at random. This movie was not worth watching, but throughout there were glimmers of movies which might have been fabulous.

Bear Cub

Bear Cub
Netflix | Amazon
Overall Rating: 5/10
Meets Expectations: -1
Apparent Rating: 4/10

Bear Cub is a Spanish film (in Spanish with average English subtitles) about a boy who goes to stay with his uncle while his mother goes off to India. The uncle is gay, fairly promiscuous, and determined not to expose the kid to that.

The beginning of the film has some comedic elements where attempts to hide reality occur and people make temporary adjustments.

The kid’s mother then winds up staying in India. (The reasoning makes her seem like the world’s lousiest parent ever.) While this is occurring the boy’s paternal grandmother shows up to play the wicked witch.

Some more stuff happens, but it’s all the kinds of things we’ve seen before. People who don’t talk to each other and let the evil person control choices because of their own embarrassment.

What was supposed to make this novel is that the gay uncle isn’t one of those pink and purple fanfare kinds of gay men. Maybe if you were living in Spain that would be new. But I have seen at least a dozen of those, French, German, Canadian, English, American. We’re also supposed to be impressed that the gay uncle turns out to be a decent parent. But honestly, in comparison? The mother has the IQ of a glass of water.

I had expected more and better. If you didn’t have those expectations, I think the movie was decent or so.

Violet’s Visit

Violet’s Visit
Netflix | Amazon
Overall Rating: 6/10
Meets Expectations: +0
Apparent Rating: 6/10

The story is about a 15 year old Australian girl who comes in from a small town to meet her father. Her father is gay and living in Sydney. He didn’t know he had a child. There are some plot events crammed into the story, but the largest part of it is character development.

Unfortunately the character development is where this movie falls short. Violet wavers between being a royal bitch and a regular kid. She alternates between being extraordinarily mature for her age and complete naiveté. It just seems unlikely that anyone would want a child who cuts the sexy bits out of art books and attaches them to her posters and then runs away because a gay man she thought she was “dating” turns out to have another lover. There is a scene where the father says he’s treated his boyfriend badly, but we didn’t see that at all. If anything it was the opposite, the boyfriend treated the father badly first by insisting that the daughter be taken in and kept, then by walking out because the girl was staying.

This movie does not have subtitles. I understand that Australians speak English, but I find it very difficult to understand and subtitles would have helped me to parse some of the conversations where several people are talking simultaneously. Generally a DVD should have subtitles. This was a low-production values movie, it was shot like the after-school specials from the 1970s, giving it a kitschy sort of vibe which is really rather high in the ew! factor when we see the girl pasting cut-outs from explicit magazines onto posters of Brad Pitt and other famous male pin-ups. This could not be shown on television in the US without some editing, but the amount of actual sex in it was appropriate for children. No one did much of anything beyond kissing and hugging. Sure, it was two guys, but it wasn’t graphic.

I enjoy the sort of “fish out of water” and “coming of age” stories, but this movie did not manage those very well. I did not feel anything for Violet. I didn’t see that her instant welcome was anything other than miraculous for her. We just didn’t see anything which might indicate that this shouldn’t be easy for them. All the conflict was manufactured so they could have a story instead of there being a story inherently.