What a rare opportunity. I remember when I joined GALECA this year, the LGBTQ+ critics organization, I mentioned that I rarely get to touch on representation in film from the gay perspective, because there is such a deficit in accessibility for blind and low vision movie watchers. I get lucky from time to time, and we have a character in a film worth mentioning, or an out actor, or even an LGBTQ film. In June, i specifically targeted certain films that also had audio description for pride month. but this?
This is a queer rodeo movie. That is what it is. Straight characters are in the minority here. This is a film that doesn’t just have a gay best friend, or a gay lead dealing with life, but the whole movie revolves around the culture. Unfortunately, as wonderfully proud as this film is, I’m just not a fan of rodeos. Gay or straight. So I was trying to pull myself in, and find myself enraptured in this subject matter. I did like this Luke Gilford movie, but he was at a slight disadvantage. He couldn’t just make me happy with representation, he also had to get me at least interested enough in rodeo culture to be invested in these characters. Now, as someone who grew up in the Ozarks, and one of the reasons everything from my sense of representation to what culture even looks like to me is altered, is that I also found the redneck cowboys, and everything they did as not fun. So I avoided that life of walking around in cowboy boots. I can watch a western or two from time to time, or occasionally a show like Yellowstone, but too much of this takes me back sometimes to a group of people I intentionally moved away from.
That’s not to say that this story about people finding and carving out their own version of that life for themselves isn’t affecting, and that Charlie Plummer’s performance isn’t great. Both things are true. What I loved the most were the scenes between Plummer, as our leading young male, and his younger brother. There’s this kindness and sensitivity there, almost unsullied. It doesn’t necessarily come to the conclusion that his little brother will turn out to be on the rainbow scale, but it shows that someone has thrown out the masculinity meter by which too many kids are unfairly judged. Instead, we get a kid who is thoughtful, kind, and has this genuine bond with his brother.
I’m supposed to love the rodeo stuff, but I loved this dynamic even more. It did feel like their mother was underutilized, but she’s present. This isn’t a movie full of strife in the family, like our hero has to go on his journey as an escape, but he chooses the journey, even though staying put is just as appealing. his mom may not be a perfect beacon of acceptance, but she’s not spitting venom either, and the dynamic with the little brother stole the movie for me.
The audio description for this is also well done, doing a really great job of describing the rodeo sequences. When we finally get to the National Anthem part, I was thinking “you’d better finish this”, since you can’t name it National Anthem and then cut the song short. But, we got the whole thing, and it sounded fantastic.
So, why do i bother to tell you this? Why am i not traditionally breaking this movie down, and the relationships, the trans representation, and how this unique queer story brought me life? The point here is that, a movie can be about something you don’t relate to, or even want to relate to, but often a subplot of a film can sneak up on you. I didn’t want or need a rodeo film this year, gay, straight, or otherwise. But, the nuances in the family dynamic, separate from the rodeo really were touching to me. it made me think about all the films before where something stood out to me, but it wasn’t the main plot. An example would be that the core story of Dear John didn’t work for me, but the relationship between Channing Tatum and a very underrated Richard Jenkins did. i didn’t care whaat he did with Amanda Seyfried, but I did enjoy how he and his father interacted.
Part of me is inspired also by the existence of queer rodeo. For me, seeing the people who in my life represented that culture completely turned me off to it. I think the same can often be said about church for so many LGBTQ+ individuals. Often, our experiences early in life affect how we relate, or even could begin to relate to things that bring any of those memories back.
National Anthem may not have been the LGBTQ film I was look for this year, but it was the one I was given, and I found my own happy place within a story about creating a space for you to have your own happy place. Perhaps not the typical experience, but I don’t think I’m the only one who loved that part of the film either.
Final Grade: B+
