Movies
SPRING ARTS 2017: movies — Festivals, series and a ‘Beast’ remake
Live-action Disney reboot features gays galore


Out actor Luke Evans as Gaston in ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ a live-action remake of the Disney classic. (Photo courtesy Walt Disney Studios)
The biggest and queerest release of the 2017 spring movie season is Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast.” Based on the classic 1991 animated movie, this version uses CGI to bring the enchanted objects to captivating life. Dan Stevens (“Downtown Abbey”) and Emma Watson (all those Harry Potter movies) play the title couple; Emma Thompson sings the title song.
Besides a substantial LGBT fanbase, the new release has a significant gay pedigree. The late Howard Ashman (“Little Shop of Horrors”) wrote the lyrics for the songs in the animated movie. (Alan Menken composed the score and Tim Rice wrote the additional lyrics.) The film is helmed by Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls” and “Gods and Monsters”), who’s openly gay as are actors Luke Evans as Gaston and Ian McKellen as Cogsworth.
No word yet on a D.C. screening, but “The Freedom to Marry,” a documentary from Eddie Rosenstein that features Evan Wolfson (long-time marriage activist) and attorney Mary Bonauto is in theaters now in New York and slated to open next weekend in Los Angeles. Details at freedomtomarrymovie.com.
Also on the marriage front is “Love v. Kentucky,” released in February and streaming now on Amazon, iTunes and others. It’s billed as an “intimate account of how two Kentucky attorneys with no background in vivil rights navigate their passionate opponenets and wrangle their reluctant allies” to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alex Schuman directs. Details at lovevkentucky.com.
The D.C. Shorts Film Festival & Screenplay Competition returns in September, but the team has two events coming up this spring. In March, the MENTORS Series will offer workshops for filmmakers. In April, the D.C. Shorts LAUGHS program will pair local comedians with funny films from past festivals. One of the funniest matches will be between Matty Litwack and “The Bench Project: Lost and Found,” a film with a delightful gay twist. Details pending. Check back later at laughs.dcshorts.com for details.
This spring, Reel Affirmations offers an exciting slate of films through XTRA, its monthly LGBT Film Series. Friday, March 24 offers the newly released “BWOY” and the 20th anniversary screening of “Watermelon Woman.” Directed by Sundance sensation John G. Young and starring Anthony Rapp, “BWOY” tells the story of a man rebuilding his life after the death of his son. In “Watermelon Woman,” writer/director/star Cheryl Dunye creates a fascinating fictional documentary about the (nonexistent) history of African-American women on film.
On Friday, April 21, XTRA tells the story of Ugandan transgender activist Cleopatra Kambugu in “The Pearl of Africa.” “The First Girl I Loved” (Friday, May 12) is a remarkable lesbian coming-of-age story that won the “Best of Next!” Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. And on Friday, June 16, the screening room turns into a ballroom for “Kiki,” the new documentary described as a sequel to “Paris Is Burning” that captures the youth-led expansion of New York City’s ballroom scene.
In addition, Reel Affirmations will host the Reel Trans Film Festival on Saturday, May 20 at the Studio Theatre. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy will be on hand to discuss a documentary about her revolutionary life.
Several other regional film festivals will also bloom this spring. While they haven’t announced their 2017 schedules as of press time, they have all been included rich LGBT fare in recent years. The Annapolis Film Festival runs March 30-April 2 and the Washington Jewish Film Festival runs from May 17-28.
Filmfest D.C. runs April 20-30 and will include “Play the Devil,” a thrilling coming-of-age story set in Trinidad. Organizers promise more information soon.
Legendary filmmaker and Baltimore native John Waters, recently presented with the Timeless Star Dorian Award by the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, is staying mum about the film he will be hosting for the 2017 Maryland Film Festival which runs in Baltimore May 3-7. He and a slate of exciting films will be on hand to welcome guests to the revitalized SNF Parkway Film Center (5 W. North Ave., Baltimore).
AFI Silver in downtown Silver Spring, Md., continues to present the latest indie films from around the world, along with curated explorations of classic films from Hollywood and international cinema. A highlight of their spring schedule is All About Almodóvar which runs March 4-April 27. The tribute to the legendary queer Spanish director includes a wide sampling of his films from his early anarchic films released in the heady days after the fall of Franco (“Labyrinth of Passion”) to his delicious delirious farces (“I’m So Excited”) to his more recent melodramas (“Volver”).
A special evening for dedicated Almodóvar fans will be the double bill of “Matador” (1986) and “Law of Desire” (1987) on Tuesday, March 21. Both films feature outstanding performances by a young Antonio Banderas and Almodóvar muse Carmen Maura.
For the whole family, AFI offer series on the Muppets (March 4-April 23) and the Marx Brothers (March 24-April 20). There’s also a centennial tribute to actor Kirk Douglas who founded a Hollywood dynasty while helping to break the Hollywood Blacklist in the 1950s.
Also at the AFI, “Little Men,” the moving story about a budding bromance between two Brooklyn teens by openly gay director Ira Sachs (“Keep the Lights On”), will screen March 6-9. Also look for the director’s cut of the dystopic “Blade Runner” (March 31-April 2), John Hurt and Richard Burton in “1984” (April 20) and Angela Lansbury’s terrifying performance in “The Manchurian Candidate” (April 23 and 26). Lighter fare includes the steamy “Ramen Western” “Tampopo” (April 2) and Mel Brooks’ comic masterpiece “Blazing Saddles” from April 7-9.
One of the few studio releases with queer content this spring is “Raw” which opens on Friday, March 24. Some audience members at Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival fled the theater during the screening, but others hailed the first feature film by French director Julie Ducournau for its confidence and decadent style. The plot centers on a college freshman (Garance Marillier) whose life changes when a bizarre hazing ritual awakens sexual and culinary appetites in the former vegetarian.
On Friday, April 7, Landmark E Street Cinema is host to bad boy French director François Ozon. In a departure for the openly gay director, “Frantz” offers a somber tale about the aftermath of World War I set in the quiet German countryside and shot in black and white.
From April 21-23, Dan Savage’s HUMP! Film Festival comes to the Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.). HUMP! is a celebration of sexual expression that includes an amazingly diverse array of short amateur porn videos.
Some mainstream releases of note include:
• “The Last Word” (March 10) with Shirley MacLaine as a retired businesswoman who hires Amanda Seyfried to write her life story.
• “T2 Trainspotting” (March 24), reunites the original stars in a sequel to the classic 1996 movie.
• “Song to Song” (March 24) stars Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman’s as two entangled couples in Terence Malick’s tale of seduction and betrayal set against the backdrop of Austin’s contemporary music scene.
• “Unforgettable” (April 21) stars Katherine Heigl in a dramatic turn as Tessa Connover, a woman who becomes obsessed with her ex-husband’s new wife (Rosario Dawson).
Just in time for Mother’s Day, the cinematic mother-daughter team of Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn romp their way through “Snatched” (May 12). The comedy is scripted by Katie Dippold, who wrote last year’s “Ghostbusters” remake, and features lesbian comic Wanda Sykes.

Goldie Hawn, left, makes a welcome return to the big screen with ’SNATCHED,’ with Amy Schumer. It’s her first major role since 2002. (Photo courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.)
And on the superhero front, there are some major entrances and exits coming this spring. On Friday, March 3, longtime LGBT ally Hugh Jackman steps away from the Wolverine franchise in “Logan.” On Friday, June 2, Gal Gadot grabs the golden lasso for her first solo feature film as “Wonder Woman.” And on a lighter note, Groot and the gang return in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” on May 5.
And for those who don’t have regular access to theaters that screen LGBT-affirming works or if you just want to someone else to curate a series for you, check out Frameline, a San Francisco-based media arts non-profit that releases LGBT-affirming films monthly on its YouTube channel. Search “Frameline” on YouTube to find out more. About 50 films hosted over the last five years are available for viewing there.
The fifth annual D.C. Web Fest is Saturday, April 1 from 4-11 p.m. featuring web series, online short films, apps and online games.
Movies
Jacob Elordi rides high in ‘On Swift Horses’
Sony Pictures’ promotions avoid referencing queer sexuality of main characters

You might not know it from the publicity campaign, but the latest big-screen project for breakout “Euphoria” actor and sex symbol Jacob Elordi is 100% a gay love story.
Alright, perhaps that’s not entirely accurate. “On Swift Horses” – adapted from the novel by Shannon Pufahl and directed by Daniel Minahan from a screenplay by Bryce Kass – actually splits its focus between two characters, the other of which is played by “Normal People” star Daisy Edgar-Jones; but since that story arc is centered around her own journey toward lesbian self-acceptance, it’s unequivocally a “Queer Movie” anyway.
Set in 1950s America, at the end of the Korean War, it’s an unmistakably allegorical saga that stems from the marriage between Muriel (Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter), a newly discharged serviceman with dreams of building a new life in California. His plans for the future include his brother Julius (Elordi), a fellow war vet whose restlessly adventurous spirit sparks a kindred connection and friendship with his sister-in-law despite a nebulously strained dynamic with Lee. Though the newlyweds follow through with the plan, Julius opts out in favor of the thrill of a hustler’s life in Las Vegas, where his skills as a card shark gain him employment in a casino. Nevertheless, he and Muriel maintain their friendship through correspondence, as he meets and falls in love with co-worker Henry (Diego Calva) and struggles to embrace the sexual identity he has long kept secret. Meanwhile, Muriel embarks on a secret life of her own, amassing a secret fortune by gambling on horse races and exploring a parallel path of self-acceptance with her boldly butch new neighbor, Sandra (Sasha Calle), as Lee clings obliviously to his dreams of building a suburban family life in the golden era of all-American post-war prosperity.
Leisurely, pensive, and deeply infused with a sense of impossible yearning, it’s the kind of movie that might easily, on the surface, be viewed as a nostalgia-tinged romantic triangle – albeit one with a distinctively queer twist. While it certainly functions on that level, one can’t help but be aware of a larger scope, a metaphoric conceit in which its three central characters serve as representatives of three conflicting experiences of the mid-century “American Dream” that still looms large in our national identity. With steadfast, good-hearted Lee as an anchor, sold on a vision of creating a better life for himself and his family than the one he grew up with, and the divergent threads of unfulfilled longing that thwart his fantasy with their irresistible pull on the wife and brother with whom he hoped to share it, it becomes a clear commentary on the bitter reality behind a past that doesn’t quite gel with the rose-colored memories still fetishized in the imagination of so many Americans.
Fortunately, it counterbalances that candidly expressed disharmony with an empathetic perspective in which none of its characters is framed as an antagonist; rather, each of them are presented in a way with which we can readily identify, each following a still-unsatisfied longing that draws them all inexorably apart despite the bonds – tenuous but emotionally genuine – they have formed with each other. To put it in a more politically-centered way, the staunch-but-naive conformity of Lee, in all his patriarchal tunnel vision, does not make him a villainous oppressor any more than the repressed queerness of Muriel and Julius make them idealized champions of freedom; all of them are simply following an inner call, and each can be forgiven – if not entirely excused – for the missteps they take in response to it
That’s not to say that Minahan’s movie doesn’t play into a tried-and-true formula; there’s a kind of “stock character” familiarity around those in the orbit of the three main players, leading to an inevitably trope-ish feel to their involvement – despite the finely layered performances of Calva and Calle, which elevate their roles as lovers to the film’s two queer explorers and allow them both to contribute their own emotional textures – and occasionally pulls the movie into the territory of melodrama.
Yet that larger-than-life treatment, far from cheapening “On Swift Horses,” is a big part of its stylish appeal. Unapologetically lush in its gloriously photographed recreation of saturated 1950s cinema (courtesy of Director of Photography Luc Montpellier), it takes us willingly into its dream landscape of mid-century America – be it through the golden suburbs of still-uncrowded Southern California or the neon-lit flash of high-rolling Las Vegas, or even the macabre (but historically accurate) depiction of nuclear-age thrill-seekers convening for a party in the Nevada desert to watch an atom bomb detonate just a few short miles away. It’s a world remembered by most of us now only through the memories and artifacts of a former generation, rendered with an artful blend of romance and irony, and inhabited by people in whom we can see ourselves reflected while marveling at their beauty and charisma.
As lovely as the movie is to look at, and as effective as it is in evoking the mix of idealism and disillusionment that defines the America of our grandparents for many of us at the start of the second quarter of the 21st century, it’s that last factor that gives Minahan’s film the true “Hollywood” touch. His camera lovingly embraces the beauty of his stars. Edgar-Jones burns with an intelligence and self-determination that underscores the feminist struggle of the era, and the director makes sure to capture the journey she charts with full commitment; Poulter, who could have come off as something of a dumb brute, is allowed to emphasize the character’s nobility over his emotional cluelessness; Calle is a fiery presence, and Minahan lets her burn in a way that feels radical even today; Calva is both alluring and compelling, providing an unexpected depth of emotion that the film embraces as a chord of hope.
But it is Elordi who emerges to truly light up the screen. Handsome, charismatic, and palpably self-confident, he’s an actor who frankly needs to do little more than walk into the scene to grab our attention – but here he is given, perhaps for the first time, the chance to reveal an even greater depth of sensitivity and truth, making his Julius into the film’s beating heart and undisputed star. It’s an authenticity he brings into his much-touted love scenes with Calva, lighting up a chemistry that is ultimately as joyously queer-affirming as they are steamy.
Which is why Sony Pictures’ promotions for the film – which avoid directly referencing the sexuality of its two main characters, instead hinting at “secret desires” and implying a romantic connection between Elordi and Edgar-Jones – feels not just like a miscalculation, but a slap in the face. Though it’s an eloquent, quietly insightful look back at American cultural history, it incorporates those observations into a wistful, bittersweet, but somehow impossibly hopeful story that emphasizes the validity of queer love.
That’s something to be celebrated, not buried – which makes “On Swift Horses” a sure bet for your must-see movie list.
Movies
Infectious ‘Egghead & Twinkie’ celebrates love and allyship
Lesbian teen takes journey to self-acceptance with straight BFF

If you’ve ever wondered why so many queer movies are are coming-of-age stories, it might be that you were lucky enough to go through the transition into young adulthood without having to worry about your sexual alignment or gender identity being acceptable to your family or your friends or the world at large – and if that’s the case, we are truly happy for you. That’s the way it should be for everyone.
Unfortunately, it’s not. For many millions of queer kids, growing up is still an experience fraught with fear, shame, and very real peril, and this was true even before the current era of government-sanctioned homophobia and bigotry. It’s never been easy to become who you are when you’re surrounded by a family or community that refuses to accept who you are. It’s as near a “universal” queer experience as one can imagine in a demographic as diverse as ours, and it reinvents itself with each new generation – so there will always be an appeal for queer audiences in stories which express that often painful odyssey in a way that makes us feel “seen.”
That’s why “Egghead & Twinkie” – a 2023 film fest fave only now getting a VOD release (on April 29) – is such a welcome and refreshing addition to the genre. A passion project from Asian American filmmaker Sarah Kambe Holland, who expanded it into a feature from a “proof-of-concept” short she made in 2019, it brings a Gen Z perspective, which makes it as unique and contemporary as it is recognizable and relatable.
Set in suburban Florida, Holland’s movie centers on the relationship of its two title characters. “Egghead” (Louis Tomeo) and “Twinkie” (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa), childhood friends with a deep bond from growing up across the street from each other, face a crossroads as the cute-but-nerdy Egghead prepares to depart for college, leaving behind Twinkie – an Asian-American adoptee raised by socially conservative white parents who is one year his junior – just as she is beginning to come to terms with her long-hidden lesbian identity. Planning to connect with her social media crush (Ayden Lee) at a nightclub event in Texas, she enlists Egghead to accompany her as she “runs away” from her restrictive parents into the arms of a girlfriend she has never actually met in person, at a bar she’s too young to get into. Needless to say, it’s not a great plan – especially since the straight Egghead has long-hidden feelings of his own for his BFF – but it leads to a shared adventure in which they each must redefine both their feelings and their commitment toward each other, while staying one step ahead of her frantic family and dealing with the mishaps inherent in taking an impromptu cross-country road trip in a car you stole from your father.
There’s a youthful verve to the whole affair, punctuated with the inevitable irony that comes from watching it unfold through the eyes of age and experience – something that younger viewers may appreciate less than its spirit of boldness and (admittedly comedic) rebellion – and embellished with a visual aesthetic that reflects both Holland’s background as a YouTube “content creator” and the lead characters’ shared love of comics and animé; but what gives the film that extra “oomph” and makes it feel more significant than many of the other youth-oriented queer entertainments of recent years is not so much about the style of its storytelling as it is the nature of the relationship at its core.
Though “Egghead & Twinkie” is unequivocally a queer coming-of-age movie – which certainly deals with its teen lesbian protagonist’s journey to self-acceptance and includes an unexpected but irresistible connection with a fellow queer Asian American teen (Asahi Hirano) she meets along the way – it is ultimately a film less about queer identity than it is about friendship. While it allows ample opportunity for Twinkie to refine her values and learn from the mistakes of her rebellious quest for self-acceptance, it never loses sight of the fact that her long-term relationship with Egghead is one of mutual support and unconditional love. More than a romance, this YA-ish story of love beyond sexuality is a tale of true allyship, in which the unconditional understanding between friends – between fellow living beings – becomes more important than the romantic fantasies usually highlighted within more naive conceptions of queer existence. It’s a love story, to be sure, but the love it lifts up is the kind which ultimately has little to do with questions of sexual identity; instead, it’s the kind that transcends biology and sexuality to express something arguably more essential – the genuine emotional bond between two kindred souls that grows from shared experience and mutual acceptance. It’s that rarest of movies which celebrates the value of platonic love, and ultimately reinforces the connections of our shared humanity as being just as significant as those forged through our sexual makeup. It’s a love story between friends, not a romance between strangers, and the fact that its platonic protagonists are able to find the value of their connection beyond juvenile assumptions and impulses makes it arguably a more mature and insightful experience than even the most idealistically rendered young-love fantasy could ever hope to be.
Of course, its success in achieving that goal hinges on the chemistry between its two young stars, and both Jie-A-Fa and Tomeo capture that alchemical magic with natural ease; both performers originated their roles in the short that inspired the feature, and the familiarity of their dynamic together goes a long way toward making it work. Additionally, the performances of both Hirano and Lee – indeed, even of Kelley Mauro and J. Scott Browning as Twinkie’s clueless but ultimately loving adoptive parents – avoid the kind of judgement and clichéd convention that might otherwise make them predictable stock caricatures.
In the end, though, it’s the hopeful, humanistic vision of Holland – who also wrote the screenplay – that informs “Egghead & Twinkie” and helps it resonate beyond the typical. In crafting a queer coming-of-age story that has less to do with sexual wiring than the need for the grounding, life-affirming power of unconditional love, she has managed to craft a vibrant, hopeful, and heartfelt testament to the power of real humanity to overcome and transcend the prejudices and boundaries imposed by a social order that hinges on conformity over individual fulfillment.
That’s not just a queer issue, it’s a human issue – which is why this sweet, charming, and genuinely funny teen “non-romcom” captures us so willingly and so completely.
Movies
Heartfelt ‘Wedding Banquet’ remake a romcom worth seeing
Mishaps, crossed wires, conflicts are all part of the fun

Creating a worthy remake can be a tricky proposition, especially when the movie being remade is a beloved classic – but that doesn’t mean it’s an impossible one.
Consider Andrew Ahn’s new version of 1993’s “The Wedding Banquet,” a film that put future “Brokeback Mountain” director Ang Lee on the proverbial map in America, which opens in theaters this weekend after a debut at Sundance earlier this year. The original, an American/Taiwanese production which became a surprise hit in the U.S., broke ground with its story — a culture-clash comedy of manners about a queer romantic triangle attempting to stage a sham wedding, it was quickly embraced by LGBTQ audiences thrilled to see representation on the big screen – and positive representation, at that – in an era when it was even scarcer than it is today. To undertake a remake of such a film is a bold move, to say the least.
Yet gay Korean American writer/director Ahn (“Spa Night,” “Fire Island”) has built his blossoming career on films about queer relationships among Asian American characters, with as much (or more) emphasis on family, both biological and chosen, as on romantic partnership; It seems natural, perhaps, for him to reinterpret this influential classic through his own lens, and he’s already proven himself as a filmmaker whose strengths line up perfectly with the material.
Even so, Ahn hedges his bets, perhaps, by collaborating on the new screenplay with James Schamus, who also co-wrote the original (along with Lee and Neil Peng), and the result is a movie that – although it recrafts the original romcom for a newer age and reconfigures its central relationships a bit to “up the ante” on its complications – stays relatively faithful to the broad strokes of its plot.
In this iteration, the New York setting is transposed to Seattle, and the plot revolves around not just one queer romance, but two: Chris and Min (Bowen Yang and Han Gi-Chan), a stalled grad student and his South Korean boyfriend, and their lesbian friends-and-landladies Lee and Angela (Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran), who are struggling to become parents through expensive IVF treatments. Min, an artist whose temporary visa is about to expire, wants to stay with Chris and build a life in America, but his grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) – currently running the vast family business empire to which he is heir – wants him to come home and claim his place in the organization. A wedding to Chris would secure him the green card he needs to defy his grandmother’s demands, but it would also mean outing himself as gay and potentially being cut off from his inheritance. As a solution, he offers to pay for Lee and Angela’s fertilization procedure in exchange for a “green card wedding” with the latter, ensuring that he can remain in the U.S. while also remaining in the closet to his family.
Of course it’s an idea as bad as it sounds, but despite some reticence, the couples agree to the plan; but when Grandmother decides to come to America and meet the bride in person, the four of them must attempt to pull off a masquerade that escalates far beyond their expectations after she insists on putting on a traditional – and elaborate – Korean wedding worthy of her grandson’s exalted status, all while wrestling with the ambivalence and doubts that begin to encroach on their relationships as the scheme begins to fray at the edges.
Those who’ve seen the original already know that things don’t play out exactly as planned – and anyone who hasn’t won’t be surprised when it doesn’t, anyway. We already told you it was a bad idea.
That, of course, is the charm of the romcom, a genre in which mishaps, crossed wires and conflicts are all part of the fun, and in any case it gives Ahn’s film the opportunity to explore – as Lee did with the original – the more serious and relatable challenges of reconciling our queerness with the deeply ingrained traditions of our cultural backgrounds; he does so with gentle wit and an equal measure of respect, but he’s not above getting laughs by pointing up the sheer absurdity that sometimes goes along with the process. Neither does he hesitate to delve into the messiness of queer relationships, even (and perhaps especially) with lifelong friends, or the deep insecurities and self-criticisms which get in the way of sorting them out.
To these ends, “Wedding Banquet” relies heavily on its cast, who embrace and clearly relish the chance to flesh out these characters. Yang brings his inevitable “SNL” star power to the table but downplays the wackiness in favor of a more nuanced tone, and Gi-Chan shines as his pragmatically idealistic partner; Gladstone’s intelligence and authenticity is a grounding force, while Tran counterpoints her with an eminently likable turn as her spunky-but-anxious misfit of a girlfriend – and the resonance they each bring to the prospect of motherhood highlights the longing for family and legacy that so many queer couples carry as they build their lives together.
It’s not all about the couples, though. Veteran Chinese American actress Joan Chen (“Tai Pan,” “Twin Peaks”) is a scene stealer as Angela’s hyper-supportive mom, whose participation in her daughter’s “lavender wedding” requires her to go against her deepest instincts as a proud ally, and Bobo Le provides a further connection to the theme of family with a charming performance as Yang’s tomboy-ish little sister. The anchoring performance, however, comes from acclaimed Korean star Yuh-jong, whose shrewd, savvy, and staunch portrayal of Gi-Chan’s power-player grandma adds a much-needed dose of level-headed wisdom into the midst of the whirlwind.
In the end, Ahn’s update of Lee’s classic comedy scores big points for honoring the original’s message of acceptance and embracing the notion of reimagining our traditional ideas about family structure to meet the needs of an ever-changing world; it also succeeds in maintaining a heartfelt sense of empathy for each of its characters, all of whom appeal to us precisely because of their imperfections and their hangups. None of them are perfect, but all of them are perfectly human, which goes a long way toward making Ahn’s remake feel like more than just the slickly-made feel-good romcom it resembles.
And yet, given the screwball potential and the endless possibilities for farcical developments in the convoluted deception attempted by its sets of lovers, Ahn’s “Wedding Banquet” could have been funnier. Leaning into an idealized and sentimental perspective as it gracefully brings its characters’ lives into place, it occasionally feels a bit “precious,” too “Hollywood” to be believed.
Again, however, this is part of the charm of the romcom: if generations of straight audiences have gotten the chance to buy into idealized big screen fantasies about life and love, then why shouldn’t we enjoy the same privilege?
With that in mind, “The Wedding Banquet” makes for a perfect opportunity to entertain and validate ourselves – and even if it doesn’t tickle your funny bone, it’s a generous enough feast for your queer soul that it deserves you to see it.
Just make sure you bring somebody special to share your popcorn with.
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