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‘Fire Island’ star Patrick McDonald dishes on housemates

Bartender and island resident is key figure on latest gay reality serial

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Patrick McDonald interview, gay news, Washington Blade

Patrick McDonald, third from left, with his housemates on ā€˜Fire Island.ā€™ (Photo courtesy Logo)

In the age of reality TV, the formula for a reality show has been fine tuned to a science. Logoā€™s ā€œFire Island,ā€ executive produced by Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa, has the messy drama, alcohol and drunken hookups wrapped up into a cast of six gay men sharing a rental house for the summer on Fire Island Pines.

Khasan is a dancer living in New York City who is in a long-distance relationship with his Los Angeles-based boyfriend, Jason. Khasan isnā€™t too upset about the situation since he has his Venezuelan best friend, Jorge, to keep his mind occupied. He and Jorge sleep in the same bed, cuddle and do other PDA-couple activities together, but insist they donā€™t have sex.

Brandon, described as the ā€œcrazy little one,ā€ is a 21-year-old who indulges in taking naked photographs for a hobby and is excited to meet guys on Fire Island. Cheyenne is a model with thousands of Instagram followers who starts his Fire Island journey ready to party but finds himself in an unexpected relationship. Justin is a bear with a passion for art. He admits to having body image issues and insists on group activities like family dinners in a motherly display of affection for the rest of the guys.

Enter Patrick, a bartender and Fire Island resident originally from Georgia, with a penchant for walking around with no shirt carrying his little dog, Bodhi. Fueled by alcohol and cameras, fights abound with Patrick frequently in the center. For every gathering, Patrick seems to appear with a new gaggle of gay buddies to introduce to his housemates. While some housemates enjoy meeting new friends, like Brandon who finds himself in a fling with one of Patrickā€™s guests, Jorge and Cheyenne feel the need for some house rules.

Patrick spoke with the Blade about criticism the show has faced for being a negative portrayal of the gay community, why he always found himself in the middle of drama and what the house was like when the cameras turned off. ā€œFire Islandā€ airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Logo.

WASHINGTON BLADE: What was your motivation for joining the show?

PATRICK McDONALD: A beautiful mansion on the ocean surrounded by a bunch of beautiful boys wasnā€™t that hard of a sell. Just meeting new people and having a new experience was really the main motivation. Then to know that Kelly (Ripa) and Mark (Consuelos) were behind it, I knew that it would be a quality production.

BLADE: You were the only cast member that lived on Fire Island during all of filming. Everyone else would go back to the city during the week. Did that affect your dynamic with the others?

McDONALD: Yeah, I would say it definitely did to some extent. During the weekends there were times when I would go and have to work sometimes. I donā€™t think that it affected it in a good or bad way. Just some events I had to miss because I was working out here. The really cool thing about working here is I was working on a lot of the really big parties and events that we went to out here. Itā€™s kind of cool to prep for those things because you know somebody is going to be coming out to the island for the first time and this is going to be their first party out here. You get to be involved with giving them that experience. Itā€™s a really neat perspective to have of the island.

BLADE: Youā€™ve already had your fair share of conflict, especially when it comes to inviting people over to the house. Why were you so adamant about having an open-door policy?

McDONALD: I donā€™t know what youā€™re talking about, what conflict? No, I mean, I donā€™t think it was necessarily that I was adamant about the open-door policy. I was more adamant about not judging anybody before they came into the house. One of my favorite things about Fire Island is that people come out here and let their walls down. You can meet lots of different people that are in different social circles, that you wouldnā€™t necessarily hang out with in the city. So, I was just really wanting the other guys to get that authentic Fire Island experience and clearly some of them had different opinions on that coming in. I think youā€™ll see it evolve it throughout the season.

BLADE: During those confrontation scenes was there ever a time you felt people were playing it up for the cameras?

McDONALD: Absolutely not. There were some passionate personalities in there. It took me by surprise, honestly. That first barbecue when Jorge got upset with me, I mean, my first impression of this guy was the same as yaā€™llā€™s, like this guy has a masterā€™s in partying. I thought he would be right there with me. And Cheyenne really too. Thatā€™s the funny thing. I thought that Cheyenne and Jorge would be the people that I connected with the most and had a good, fun, wild time with and they ended up being the first two to want to shut the party down.

BLADE: At the time of filming you didnā€™t realize that your crush Brandon was going away to visit another guy instead of his family. How do you feel about that situation playing out for so many people to see?

McDONALD: That was definitely a surprising moment watching the show. I knew that had happened but I didnā€™t know that would be included. I donā€™t think he realized he was being filmed at the time. Honestly, itā€™s not the most fun thing to have that broadcast out. But it was also a good experience for me to go through that. Everybody gets broken up with or something happens when theyā€™re seeing somebody that doesnā€™t feel really good. It was a vulnerable moment for me and I feel good about it now.

BLADE: Was there anyone in the cast who had a different personality when the cameras were off?

McDONALD: Everybody is pretty authentic on the show. One of the main reasons me and Cheyenne butt heads is because weā€™re both really opinionated. I sort of felt like I had seen Cheyenne have these fun parties and we had been having a good time together off camera, and it was confusing to me to see him be so reserved. But at that time, I didnā€™t know that he had a boyfriend that he was dating so that made a little more sense then. But, at first, I had that feeling a little bit about Cheyenne.

BLADE: Whatā€™s your take on Jorge and Khasanā€™s close relationship?

McDONALD: Girl, it wears me out and Iā€™m not even involved with it. Jorge and Khasan are very, very, very close. Theyā€™re like family. Itā€™s an interesting situation. I think that Jason (Khasanā€™s boyfriend) is a really good sport. I think Jason is the perfect guy for Khasan too because heā€™s really understanding. They have a great relationship on their own. It would probably be a lot for me if I was trying to date somebody and their best friend was around all the time, hanging all over them. But maybe thatā€™s why Iā€™m single.

BLADE: The show has received some criticism that it portrays the gay community as shallow and vapid with all the partying and hookups. How do you feel about that?

McDONALD: I would say a lot of people like to say, ā€œOh these guys donā€™t represent our community.ā€ Well, six gay men are never going to represent the entire gay community. I think weā€™re all really different and we all bring to the table something diverse. I would say that the people who call it shallow havenā€™t been watching the show. Thereā€™s a lot of really in-depth moments that these guys reveal. A lot of personal, private, painful moments that I think would be really good for the gay community to see. Young, gay kids that are out in the middle of nowhere in some town hearing somebody talk about being suicidal and going through depression and talking that out to another gay friend. I think it will be really important and positive for the community. And you know what? Gay people do party a lot. They do that kind of stuff. I think the depiction of the community is extremely accurate.

BLADE: In a recent episode you introduce your housemates to an older couple who talk about how gay culture has changed. That was a poignant moment.

McDONALD: Absolutely. We have both sides of it. Yes, we go to these events and have a good time. But at the end of the day, cameras or not, we were six, gay men living in a house together all summer. Issues come up. The adversaries that are facing our community are the thread that ties the six of us together. That was such a fun day and a reminder of how this island is a pivotal place in the gay communityā€™s history. It was really neat to spend time with them and hear firsthand how in the ā€˜70s they were coming here and feeling free to hold their hands. It reminds you not to take that stuff for granted when youā€™re out here. The show has a lot of that and even more coming up. Iā€™m excited for people to see that.

BLADE: The show was filmed last summer. Are you still in touch with your housemates?

McDONALD: Absolutely, weā€™re all in a group chat. We talk constantly throughout the day. Thatā€™s been the coolest part of this experience. I have five new brothers, really. Weā€™ve become so close and gone through so much together during the show and after the show. Thereā€™s definitely some conflicts in those relationships, none of them are perfect. But Iā€™m so glad I met those guys and I know that weā€™ll be friends for the rest of our lives.

BLADE: Howā€™s Bodhi doing?Ā 

McDONALD: Bodhi is fantastic. Heā€™s currently on a press tour of his own. I think heā€™s doing ā€œThe Viewā€ next week.

BLADE: Whatā€™s next for you?

McDONALD: Recently, Iā€™ve been writing and working on a country album. Youā€™ll see later in the season I perform some of my original country music. Itā€™s something that was a goal of mine. It just got me really amped up and excited about it. And just gearing up for the summer again, getting back out to the island and seeing what adventures we can go on this summer.

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A writer finds his voice through sex work in ā€˜Sebastianā€™

An engaging, sexy, and thought-provoking ride

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Ruaridh Mollica in ā€˜Sebastian.ā€™ (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

When Finnish-British filmmaker Mikko MƤkelƤā€™s film ā€œSebastianā€ premiered at the 2024 Sundance Festival, he told Variety he wanted his movie to provide a ā€œfrank and honest portrayal of queer sexuality.ā€ Thatā€™s surely enough to lure queer audiences ā€“ particularly gay male audiences, thanks to its gay male protagonist ā€“ with the promise of steamy onscreen sex, and his movie, now available on VOD platforms after a limited theatrical release, certainly delivers on it.Ā 

That, however, is only half (perhaps less) of what itā€™s all about, because, like its title character, it lives in two worlds at once.

In fact, ā€œSebastianā€ isnā€™t even his real name. Heā€™s actually Max (Ruaridh Mollica), an aspiring writer who works a ā€œsurvival jobā€ at a literary magazine while working on his first novel ā€“ a ā€œpseudo-memoirā€ chronicling a gay sex workerā€™s encounters with various clients. Itā€™s not exactly ā€œpseudo,ā€ though; the experiences he writes about are real, gained by advertising himself on a website for gay escorts to obtain ā€œresearchā€ for his book. The results are getting him noticed, and a publisher (Leanne Best) is interested in the completed manuscript ā€“ but he finds his focus being pulled away from his ā€œrealā€ life and deeper into the anonymous thrill of exploring his own sexuality in the safety of an assumed identity.

Itā€™s not just his work thatā€™s affected; among the other things that begin to suffer from his growing obsession are his relationships: with his co-worker and bestie, fellow aspiring writer Amna (Hiftu Quasem); with his conservative mother back in Edinburgh, who already disapproves of his lifestyle in faraway, hedonistic London; and to a much older client (Jonathan Hyde) with whom ā€œSebastianā€ has developed an unexpected emotional attachment. Most of all, itā€™s his own sense of identity that is caught in the conflict, as he tries to keep both sides of his double life together while preventing his whole world from falling apart.

Itā€™s a story with a lot of irons on the fire ā€“ a quality it seems to share with the novel its protagonist is writing, much to the irritation of his would-be publisher. What begins as the saga of a fledgling male escort ā€“ we first meet Max during his first booking as ā€œSebastian,ā€ after all, suggesting almost from the start that it is this persona that is our true protagonist ā€“ soon shifts into that of an ambitious-but-frustrated young author attempting to fuel his creativity through lived experience, laced with the ongoing thread of his own sexual awakening and self-acceptance. It even makes overtures toward an unexpected (and unorthodox) love story, before venturing down a darker path to become something of a cautionary tale, a warning against the dangers of leading a compartmentalized existence and allowing the gratification of oneā€™s personal appetites to overshadow all the other facets of our lives. Along the way, it throws in some commentary about the tense dynamic between creative expression and commercialism in the arts, not to mention the reinforcement of stigma and negative attitudes around sex workers ā€“ and sex in general ā€“ through the perceptions and representations created by social traditions and popular culture.

This latter perspective might be the key to what is really at the heart of ā€œSebastianā€ all along, toward which MƤkelƤā€™s screenplay hints with a description of Maxā€™s work-in-progress as being about ā€œthe shame of being ashamed.ā€ From the beginning, it is his own fear of being found out that becomes his greatest obstacle; far more than his reluctance to cross lines heā€™s been raised to respect, itā€™s the dread of having his reputation and his prospects shattered that causes him to waver in his path ā€“ and that feeling is not unfounded, which is in itself a telling indicator that the power of social judgment is a very real force when it comes to living our authentic lives. Indeed, his personal taboos are quick to fall away as he pursues his undercover ā€œresearchā€, but the guilt he feels about being caught in a social position perceived as ā€œbeneathā€ his own is something he cannot shrug off so easily. With so many generations of religious and societal dogma behind them, such imperatives are hard to ignore.

Yet, thereā€™s yet another aspect of ā€œSebastianā€ to discuss, that, while it is self-evident in the very premise of MƤkelƤā€™s movie, might be easy to overlook in the midst of all these other themes. A story about someone pretending to be someone else is inherently about deception, and Max, regardless of his motives, is a deceiver. He deceives his clients to obtain the material for his writing, and he deceives his employers and his publisher about where he gets it; he deceives the people closest to him, he deceives potential romantic partners ā€“ but more than anyone else, he deceives himself.

Itā€™s only by becoming honest with oneself, of course, that one can truly find a way to reconcile the opposing sides of our own nature, and that is the challenge ā€œSebastianā€ sets up for its protagonist, no matter which name he is going by in the moment. Whether or not he meets it is something we wonā€™t spoil, but weā€™ll go as far as saying that a breakthrough comes only when Max is forced by circumstance to follow his instincts and ā€œget honestā€ with someone ā€“ though we wonā€™t tell you who.

In the end, ā€œSebastianā€ satisfies as a character study, and as a journey of self-acceptance, largely thanks to a charismatic, layered, thoroughly authentic performance from Mollica, a Scots-Italian actor of tremendous range who convincingly captures both sides of Maxā€™s persona and transcends them to create a character that incorporates each into a relatable ā€“ if not always entirely likable ā€“ whole. MƤkelƤā€™s steady, clear-eyed direction helps, as does the equally dignified and vulnerable performance from veteran character actor Hyde, whose chemistry with Mollica is as surprising as the relationship they portray in the film.

Even so, ā€œSebastianā€ suffers from the many balls it attempts to keep in the air. Though it aims for sex-positive messaging and an empathetic view of sex work, it often devolves into the kind of dramatic tropes that perpetuate an opposite view, sending mixed messages about whether itā€™s trying to diffuse old stereotypes or simply reinvent them for a modern age of ā€œdigital hustlers.ā€ Further, in its effort to offer an unfiltered presentation of queer sexuality, it spends perhaps a bit more screen time than necessary showing it to us as explicitly as possible while omitting all but a glimpse of full-frontal nudity, but just enough to conjure the word ā€œgratuitous.ā€

Donā€™t get us wrong, though; MƤkelƤā€™s movie ā€“ only his second feature film effort to date ā€“ is an engaging, sexy, and ultimately thought-provoking ride, even if its tangled ambitions sometimes get the better of its narrative thrust, and it comes with our recommendation.

Itā€™s just that, one of these days, weā€™d really like to see a movie where sex work is honestly portrayed as a job, just like any other ā€“ but I guess weā€™ll have to wait until society is ready for it before we get that one.

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A rising filmmaker triumphs with sassy and sublime ā€˜Anoraā€™

Itā€™s the best film of the year so far

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Mark Eydelshteyn and Sean Baker in ā€˜Anora.ā€™ (Image courtesy of NEON)

When filmmaker Sean Baker chose to shoot an entire feature film ā€“ ā€œTangerineā€ (2015) ā€“ using only iPhones, he caught the attention of film enthusiasts and turned it into his breakthrough. For LGBTQ audiences, however, what felt much more groundbreaking was that Baker had made a film about trans sex workers on the ā€œmean streetsā€ of Hollywood, cast real trans women to play them, and depicted them with as much humanity as the cis/het protagonists in any mainstream movie.

It really wasnā€™t much of a bold leap for Baker, who had from the beginning centered his movies around people from marginalized, largely stigmatized or disregarded communities. A story about transgender sex workers was a logical next step, and the years since have seen him continue in the same vein; he has publicly advocated for decriminalization and respect for sex workers and repeatedly offered up compassionate treatment of their stories in his work ā€“ such as 2017ā€™s ā€œThe Florida Project,ā€ arguably his most visible success so far.

In his latest film ā€“ ā€œAnora,ā€ now in limited release after a premiere at Cannes 2024 and a win of the festivalā€™s prestigious Palm dā€™Or prize ā€“ that undercurrent in his creative identity may have manifested its most fully realized bloom.

The title character, who goes by the more American-sounding ā€œAniā€ (Mikey Madison), is an in-demand erotic dancer at a popular Brooklyn club, and sheā€™s the walking definition of a seasoned ā€œpro.ā€ Even so, when Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) ā€“ a wealthy Russian oligarchā€™s son in America on a student visa ā€“ shows up at the club, she finds herself in uncharted territory. Smitten, he whisks her into a world of endless parties and unthinkable wealth ā€“ and when he impetuously proposes to her during an impromptu trip to Las Vegas, she embraces the chance for a ā€œCinderella storyā€ and accepts.

Their wedded bliss proves short-lived when the tabloid gossip reaches Ivanā€™s parents in Russia. No sooner has the couple returned to Brooklyn than a trio of family ā€œoperativesā€ (Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov) stages a clumsy home invasion to take control of the situation, with orders from the top to have the marriage annulled immediately. The young groom, fearing his father will pull the plug on his free-wheeling American lifestyle and force him to return to Russia, flees the scene ā€“ leaving Ani to fend for herself, and ultimately leading her into an unlikely (and volatile) alliance with her supposed ā€œkidnappersā€ as they attempt to track him down in the wilds of Brooklyn.

According to press notes, ā€œAnoraā€ began as an effort by Baker to produce a vehicle for Karagulian, a respected indie actor of Russian-Armenian heritage who has appeared in every one of his movies to date. He developed the story with the idea of the ā€œhome invasionā€ sequence as a centerpiece that transforms the narrative from edgy romance to character-driven ā€œchaseā€ adventure ā€“ and after casting Madison (previously best known for her regular role in TVā€™s ā€œBetter Thingsā€) as Ani, decided to craft the story around her emotional journey. 

It was a fortuitous choice, supplemented by the filmmakerā€™s talent for making all his characters ā€“ even the antagonists ā€“ into relatable figures with whom we cannot help but empathize. No one is presented as a one-dimensional menace, but rather just another struggling human caught up in thankless circumstances and trying to rise to the occasion; this is hardly a surprising approach from Baker, oft-praised for the humanism reflected in his work, but in ā€œAnora,ā€ that egalitarian perspective makes for a dynamic that both heightens and undercuts the inherent tension. While the threat of violence may hover over the filmā€™s second half like a patiently circling vulture, we recognize that none of the involved players desires such an outcome, and their resultant ineffectiveness adds a winning layer of comedic irony. It also helps his movie to deepen as it goes, and by the time he brings ā€œAnoraā€ home, it has transcended the genres from which it samples to leave us with a bittersweet satisfaction that feels infinitely more authentic than the ā€œPretty Womanā€ fantasy toward which it hints in the beginning.

It would be an affront to reveal much about how things play out, except to say that its final scene delivers a profoundly resonant impact which we understand without having to hear a word of dialogue; itā€™s the payoff earned by two hours of flawless performances from a cast palpably attuned to each other, guided by a cinematic master whose gift for bringing out the best in his collaborators has helped to make him one of the most unequivocally acclaimed American filmmakers of our era.

As seamless a group effort as it is, Madisonā€™s Ani ā€“ fierce, determined, and unwilling to give up any agency over her life ā€“ is the lynch-pin, so much a force to be reckoned with that we somehow never doubt she will come out on top of this harrowing crisis, yet at the same time navigates around a layer of vulnerability that reminds us just how much like the rest of us she is. While neither she nor any of the filmā€™s characters is queer, there is something about her ā€“ her refusal to be defined or stigmatized for who she is, perhaps, or her outsider status in a culture where conformity to traditional rules and class hierarchies is the prime directive ā€“ which makes her feel like ā€œone of us,ā€ an outcast thumbing her nose at those who would dismiss or decry her over how she lives her life. Itā€™s a tour-de-force performance, and ā€œAnoraā€ hinges on its power.

Sheā€™s supported by a universally superb ensemble. Special mention goes to Eydelshteyn, whose Ivan has an irresistible charm that helps us believe Aniā€™s decision to trust him and keeps us from judging him too harshly for his inevitable callowness; Karagulian and Tovmasyan, as the chief and second banana (respectively) of the hapless henchmen who attempt to intimidate the young newlyweds into submission, both embody decidedly ordinary men trying to stay in control despite being hopelessly out of their depth, a source for both much-needed humor and unexpected empathy; but itā€™s Borisovā€s Igor who becomes the filmā€™ most compelling figure ā€“ the ā€œmuscleā€ of the home invasion crew whose outward thuggishness hides a much more thoughtful approach to life than anyone around him might be capable of seeing, and who establishes himself in the third act as the filmā€™s grounding emotional force.

Of course, Bakerā€™s knack for creating a ā€œwild rideā€ of a film (populated by people we probably wouldnā€™t want to hang out with in real life) plays a big part in making this one a sexy (often explicitly) and entertaining movie as well as a deeply engaging, challenging piece of cinema, and the gritty, ā€˜70s-evocative cinematography from Drew Daniels only heightens the experience. Itā€™s one of those rare films that, even though it is crafted with excellence from every contributor, somehow manages still to be greater than the sum of its parts. 

Itā€™s our pick for the best film of the year so far, and while it might be too soon for us to proclaim ā€œAnoraā€ as Sean Bakerā€™s masterpiece, itā€™s certainly tempting to do so.

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ā€˜Beauty, beauty, look at you!ā€: 50 years of ā€˜Female Troubleā€™

Celebrating John Watersā€™s lovably grotesque black comedy

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The iconic Divine (right) in ā€˜Female Trouble.ā€™ (Image courtesy of Warner Brothers)

Itā€™s funny ā€“ and by funny, we mean ironic ā€“ how things that were once on the fringes of our culture, experienced by few and appreciated by even fewer, become respectable after theyā€™ve been around for half a century or more. The Blade herself can probably attest to that.

Cheap, self-deprecating one-liners aside, thereā€™s something to celebrate about the ability to survive and thrive for decades despite being mostly ignored by the mainstream ā€œtastemakersā€ of our society ā€“ which is why, in honor of the 50th anniversary of its release, we canā€™t help but take an appreciative look back at John Watersā€™s arguable masterpiece, ā€œFemale Trouble,ā€ which debuted in movie theaters on Oct. 11, 1974 and was promptly dismissed and forgotten by most of American society. 

Waters had already made his breakthrough with 1972ā€™s ā€œPink Flamingos,ā€ which more or less helped the ā€œMidnight Movieā€ become a counterculture touchstone of the seventies and eighties while making his star (and muse) Glenn Milstead ā€“ aka Divine ā€“ into an underground sensation. Naturally, expectations for this follow-up were high among his already growing cult following, who were hungry for more of his gleefully transgressive anarchy. But while it certainly delivered what they craved, it would have been hard for any movie to surpass the sensation caused by the latter, which had already broken perhaps the ultimate onscreen taboo by ending with a scene of Divineā€™s character eating a freshly deposited dollop of dog feces. Though ā€œFemale Troubleā€ offered plenty of its own hilariously shocking (and occasionally revolting) thrills, it had no standout ā€œWTFā€ moment of its own to ā€œtopā€ that one. Subsequently, the curious mainstream, who were never going to be Waters fans anyway, lost interest.

For his true audience, however, it was anything but a let-down. After all, it featured most of the same outrageous cast members and doubled down on the ferociously radical camp that had made ā€œFlamingosā€ notorious even among the ā€œstraightā€ (as in ā€œsquareā€) crowd; and while it maintained the bargain basement ā€œguerillaā€ style the director had perfected throughout his early years of DIY filmmaking in Baltimore, it nevertheless displayed a savvy for cinematic craft that allowed Waters to both subvert and pay homage to the old-school Hollywood movies his (mostly) queer fans had grown up loving ā€“ and making fun of ā€“ just like him. It was quickly embraced, joining ā€œFlamingosā€ on art house double bills across the U.S. and helping the Waters cult to grow until he finally won the favor of the masses with his more socially palatable ā€œHairsprayā€ in 1988.

Fifty years later, there is little doubt that ā€œFemale Troubleā€ has displaced ā€œFlamingosā€ as Watersā€™s quintessential work. Riding high on the heels of the latter, the director had both a bolstered self-confidence and an assured audience awaiting his next movie, and he outdid himself by creating an ambitious and breathtakingly grotesque black comedy that frequently feels like weā€™re watching an actual crime being committed on film. Ostensibly framed as a ā€œcautionary taleā€ of ā€œjuvenile delinquency,ā€ it follows the life story of Dawn Davenport (Divine), who abandons social conformity once and for all when her parents fail to give her the black cha-cha heeled shoes she wanted for Christmas. Running away from home, she quickly becomes an unwed mother, leading her to a life of crime as she tries to support her unruly and ungrateful daughter Taffy (Hilary Taylor, later Waters stalwart Mink Stole). Things seem to turn around when she is accepted as a client at the exclusive ā€œLe Lipstiqueā€ beauty salon, where owners Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochery and Mary Vivian Pearce) take a particular interest in her, and she marries star hairdresser Gater (Michael Potter) despite the objections of his doting Aunt Ida (Edith Massey), who wants him to ā€œturn Nellyā€ and avoid the ā€œsick and boring lifeā€ of a heterosexual.  

From there, Watersā€™s absurdly melodramatic saga enters the realm of pure lunacy. Dawnā€™s marriage inevitably fails, and she falls under the influence of the Dashers, who use her as an experiment to prove their theory that ā€œCrime equals Beautyā€ and get her hooked on shooting up liquid eyeliner; Gater leaves for Detroit to pursue a career in the ā€œauto in-DUS-tryā€, and his doting Aunt Ida (Edith Massey) disfigures Dawnā€™s face by dousing it with acid; Taffy goes on a quest to find her deadbeat dad and ends up stabbing him to death before joining the Hare Krishna movement; and things culminate in a murderous nightclub performance by the now-thoroughly deranged Dawn, which earns her a date with the electric chair for the filmā€™s literally ā€œshockingā€ finale.

It would be easy to rhapsodize over the many now-iconic highlights of ā€œFemale Troubleā€ ā€“ some of our favorites are its hilarious early scenes of Dawnā€™s life as a high school delinquent, the Christmas morning rampage in which she destroys her parentsā€™ living room like Godzilla on a bender in Tokyo, ā€œBad Seedā€-ish Taffyā€™s torment of her mother via jump rope rhymes and car crash re-enactments on the living room furniture, Aunt Idaā€™s persistent attempts to set up Gater on a ā€œboy date,ā€ and the master stroke of double-casting Divine as the low-life mechanic who fathers Taffy and thereby allows him to literally fuck himself onscreen ā€“ but every Waters fan has a list of their own.

Likewise, we could take a scholarly approach, and point out the ā€œmethodā€ in the madness by highlighting themes or cultural commentaries that might be observed, such as the filmā€™s way of ridiculing the straight worldā€™s view of queer existence by presenting it to them in an over-the-top caricature of their own narrative tropes, or its seeming prescience in spoofing pop cultureā€™s obsession with glamour, beauty, and toxic-behavior-as-entertainment decades before the advent and domination of ā€œrealityā€ TV ā€“ but those things have been said many times already, and none of them really have anything to do with why we love it so much.

What we love is the freakishness of it. Waters revealed years after the fact that Divineā€™s ā€œlookā€ as Dawn Davenport was inspired by a photo from Diane Arbus, whose work served as a testament to the anonymous fringe figures of American culture, but it could be said that all of his characters, in this and in all his early films, might also be drawn from one of her images. Itā€™s that, perhaps, that is the key to its appeal: itā€™s a movie about ā€œfreaks,ā€ made for freaks by someone who is a freak themself. It makes us laugh at all of its excesses simply because they are funny ā€“ and the fact that the NON-freaks donā€™t ā€œget itā€ just makes them all the funnier.

As Aunt Ida says, ā€œQueers are just betterā€ ā€“ and in this case, we mean ā€œqueerā€ as in ā€œdifferent than the boring norm.ā€

In any case, queer or otherwise, celebrate your freakishness by watching ā€œFemale Troubleā€ in honor of its anniversary this weekend. Whether itā€™s your umpteenth time or your first, it will be 97 minutes you wonā€™t regret.

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