Stonewall (1995) -
Frederick Weller had a mighty fine backside in and out of those jeans as Matty and that may have been one of the reasons I liked this film, even though I wouldn't exactly call it high budget.
Okay, so it wasn't brilliant in many respects and I seem to be one of the only people that doesn't really appreciate the whole drag thing, so I didn't connect with the other leading characters as such, although, as a gay man, I obviously understood a lot of their feelings of being an outsider and their persecution, to a much lesser extent.
The musical interludes reminded me of 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert' (1994) which was a drag film that I loved, so I did enjoy that element to this film.
I also felt that there were similarities to the film 'Tangerine' (2015), which I hated for its crass brashness, but this one balanced that a lot better.
It was a story about being different and about being victimised for it, whilst also very sadly being based on real events. There have been many films made about the way minorities have been treated throughout time and many made since this one's release, so watching it in 2023 it didn't stand out as anything new, but I could see its relevance as a leader for those others that followed.
It also intertwined a cute romance, which helped to drive the story along, whilst also maintaining a political edge, in a similar, but milder, way to 'The Normal Heart' (2014).
I did feel that it was a shame that the producers made it look like it was the LGBTQ+ community that started the riot, as from my recollection that wasn't the case and it was more about the police brutality. Even in a film about us, we seem to show ourselves up, because it didn't come across as the community having had enough, but just getting agro one day instead.
Other than that I felt that the film was a victim of its time, because the graphic content of violence and sex would have been far more prominent if this was made later, so I'm interested to see the 2015 version, because I really did like the potential that this one had and what it was trying to achieve.
711.11/1000.
Frederick Weller had a mighty fine backside in and out of those jeans as Matty and that may have been one of the reasons I liked this film, even though I wouldn't exactly call it high budget.
Okay, so it wasn't brilliant in many respects and I seem to be one of the only people that doesn't really appreciate the whole drag thing, so I didn't connect with the other leading characters as such, although, as a gay man, I obviously understood a lot of their feelings of being an outsider and their persecution, to a much lesser extent.
The musical interludes reminded me of 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert' (1994) which was a drag film that I loved, so I did enjoy that element to this film.
I also felt that there were similarities to the film 'Tangerine' (2015), which I hated for its crass brashness, but this one balanced that a lot better.
It was a story about being different and about being victimised for it, whilst also very sadly being based on real events. There have been many films made about the way minorities have been treated throughout time and many made since this one's release, so watching it in 2023 it didn't stand out as anything new, but I could see its relevance as a leader for those others that followed.
It also intertwined a cute romance, which helped to drive the story along, whilst also maintaining a political edge, in a similar, but milder, way to 'The Normal Heart' (2014).
I did feel that it was a shame that the producers made it look like it was the LGBTQ+ community that started the riot, as from my recollection that wasn't the case and it was more about the police brutality. Even in a film about us, we seem to show ourselves up, because it didn't come across as the community having had enough, but just getting agro one day instead.
Other than that I felt that the film was a victim of its time, because the graphic content of violence and sex would have been far more prominent if this was made later, so I'm interested to see the 2015 version, because I really did like the potential that this one had and what it was trying to achieve.
711.11/1000.